Democrat Jennifer Wexton defeats Barbara Comstock and wins the 10th district of Virginia Congress

Democrat Jennifer T. Wexton defeated Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.), Ending nearly four decades of Republican control of a key seat in northern Virginia.

Capitalizing on President Trump's unpopularity, Wexton, a senator and former prosecutor, garnered 56 percent of the vote, compared to 43 percent for Comstock, including about three-quarters of polling stations.

She won by describing the congressman as a Trump ally who was disconnected from a diverse and well educated electorate who began moving the district to the left.

"When we work together, we accomplish great things!" Said Wexton at Victory Day. "We demand a better nation, a nation where we treat each other with dignity and respect."

Voters decided to send a message about Trump, ousted from Comstock, after nearly a decade representing part of the 10th district, first as a state legislator then for two terms at the American House.

[Virginia Election Results]

"Vote for them!" Said Michele Hoehner, retired Loudoun County, captivating the mood of energetic Democrats. She voted for Wexton, Senator Tim Kaine (D) – and change, she said. "Firearms are out of control. I am tired of malice. "

She wanted to fight Trump's rhetoric and was inspired by the Walk for Our Lives on the mall, she said.

"I do not like the way he talks about people, women and race," she said of Trump. "He divided the country."

Wexton nicknamed MP "Barbara Trumpstock" and frequently shared a statistic on the FiveThirtyEight website that showed that Comstock voted with Trump 98% of the time.

In response, Comstock said that 82% of the bills tracked by the website had been passed on a bipartisan basis or with the support of at least some Democrats.

But Trump's influence on the elections was undeniable. In the preliminary results of a survey conducted by the Washington Post-Schar School of people voting in the 10th district, 57% said that Trump was one of the top two factors in their vote. This represents more than 43% of voters in all districts of the congressional battlefield, according to preliminary findings of the survey.

This represents more than 42% of voters in all districts of the congressional battlefield, according to preliminary findings of the survey.

The 10th district includes Loudoun County and parts of Fairfax and Prince William counties, as well as Clarke and Frederick counties and the city of Winchester to the west.

Once reliably red, the district has moved to the middle and left in national and national races, making it even harder for a Republican to stay afloat, with the exception of Comstock .

Gerry Last, a 59-year-old McLean System Engineer, voted for GOP Senate and GOP candidate Corey A. Stewart. But he really saw this as a vote for Trump.

"The country is finally moving in the right direction," he said. "Trump is bringing back jobs. People buy things again. I have the impression that if I want to change jobs now, there are jobs available, whereas before I had the impression of being stuck in the same position. "

Hillary Clinton won the 10-point district in the 2016 presidential race, but Comstock also won, surpassing Trump by 16 points, focusing relentlessly on local issues. By that time, Comstock had asked Trump to withdraw from the race after airing a tape touting him for fumbling women.

A year later, anti-Trump Democrats and voters dominated northern Virginia, elected Governor Ralph Northam, and overthrew all but one of the Republican state legislators who shared the same territory as Comstock.

Democrats were happy with their chances from the start. Polls showed that Trump was unpopular throughout the district and that demographics were changing in their favor, with more educated and diverse professionals coming in all the time.

National attention has earned Comstock and Wexton nearly $ 5.4 million, while Wexton has a slight lead.

External spending also flooded the district. The groups spent about $ 5.9 million on behalf of Wexton and about $ 5.5 million on behalf of Comstock, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Although public polls have shown that Comstock is behind, the Congressional Committee of the National Republican Congress has held out, bringing money to the race when others, such as the Congressional Fund for Leadership, have took a pass.

The intense interest in the race has attracted national substitutes.

On the eve of the elections, former President Barack Obama, carrying a box of donuts in his hand, made a surprise visit to Fairfax to bring together supporters of Wexton and Kaine.

In recent weeks, former Vice President Joe Biden approved Wexton and Clinton tweeted his support.

Comstock, a former GOP member who investigated the Clintons in the 1990s, invited his friends to raise funds at the highest levels of national politics, from Vice President Pence to Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.).

[Rep. Comstock’s donors: ‘A who’s who of the conservative movement in Washington’]

She also got the backing of her predecessor and former boss, Frank Wolf, from former Congressman Tom Davis and former Republican Senator John Warner, who has just as often supported Democrats these last years.

Shortly after Trump's election, the Democrats built their campaign by mobilizing the enthusiasm of the voters of 2017 to direct him to the Congress race.

In recent years, the party had struggled to find at least one viable candidate to challenge Comstock, but this year more than a dozen serious candidates have expressed interest.

Wexton won a six-member primary in his legislative record and was supported by Northam and his representatives, Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) And by the influential gun control group, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.

47-year-old McLean doctor Amit Suri voted to have Wexton make a statement about Comstock's relationship with the National Rifle Association, which has spent a lot on it over the years, approved it, and awarded it A note.

"It's appalling to see a country where kindergarten children are broke and we still can not talk about it," said Suri.

In the general election, Wexton highlighted her personal story as a deeply rooted working mother in Loudoun County, in the heart of the district.

A video combining her video leading her two boys to school as they grew up with her accomplishments in the state Senate: "Helped mothers collect child support," "targeted sex offenders," " took the firearms from domestic assailants.

Another advertisement ensured voters knew that Wexton had voted in a general assembly to expand Medicaid, a major long-term goal for Democrats.

Some Democrats who showed up in more conservative Virginia districts worried about the alienation of Trump voters and avoided mentioning the president, but his low approval rate in the 10th district of Virginia made from him a clear goal for Wexton.

[Republicans in purple districts are leaving Congress in droves. So why does Barbara Comstock want to stay?]

While Democrats believe that Comstock is too conservative for the district, some Republicans think that she is too moderate and that she has taken up the first challenge of the right.

She won with 61% of the vote and turned to general elections with the firm intention of convincing voters that she should be judged on her own record, not on Trump's and the GOP's.

Comstock, whose district includes tens of thousands of federal employees, opposed Trump's call for a pay freeze and government shutdown, and voted against Trump's repealed Bill repealing the Act on affordable care.

Her commercials described her as "Virginia's Independent Fighter" and "Virginia Independent Voice" and showed that GOP policies were stimulating the economy.

She also voiced her support for victims of sexual harassment in Capital Hill with an advertisement featuring a woman who had lost an internship because she would not meet a congressman at her home one night.

Wexton questioned Comstock's commitment to the #MeToo movement by noting his support for his long-time friend, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, over accusations by Christine Blasey Ford during his confirmation process.

The NRCC's announcements were seized during Wexton's vote for a budget that imposed massive toll increases, despite its opposition to the toll plan and accusing it of reducing charges against violent criminals. The advertisement cited two cases in which Wexton had discontinued litigation in plea bargaining.

Courtney Riddle, a 46-year-old businessman from Loudoun County, does not matter, will normally vote for Libertarian, but will join Wexton and Kaine this time. With Trump in power, she said it was time to "get things moving a bit".

"Basically," she said, "we must make a statement against our administration."

Debbie Truong and Michael Brice-Saddler contributed to this report.