Less than 24 hours following the spectacular revelation that Virginia's Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam had a medical school yearbook page featuring himself in blackface or a Ku Klux Klan hood, sources in Richmond told Newsmax the embattled governor would resign over the weekend.
Northam's expected resignation will pave the way for Lieutenant Governor and fellow Democrat Justin Fairfax to become Virginia's second-ever black governor.
Fairfax, who recently protested the honoring of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in the state Senate over which he presides, can also legally run for a full term as governor in 2021. Virginia is the only state that limits its governor to one term, but experts say the term limit law doesn't apply to governors who succeed to the office.
Northam had initially insisted he would heal any wounds caused by the yearbook picture from 1984, that it "was not the man I am today."
But Old Dominion Democrats -- as well as several Democratic presidential hopefuls -- demanded he go. The same sources told Newsmax that a personal call from Rep. Don McEachin, one of Virginia's two black Democratic congressmen, and the opposition of the General Assembly's Black Caucus, convinced Northam to go.
In 2017, then-Lieutenant Governor Northam won a heated gubernatirial race by linking Republican Ed Gillespie to white racism. A Northam TV spot showed a black man being pursued by a pickup truck bearing a Gillespie sticker.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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