President Donald Trump criticizes losing Virginia candidate Ed Gillespie

President Donald Trump tried to blame Ed Gillespie's loss in the Virginia governor's race on Gillespie's failure to sufficiently tie himself to Trump and Trumpism.

"Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for," Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday night.

Gillespie, the Republican nominee, lost the race to Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam. Trump, a Republican, never campaigned personally with Gillespie in Virginia but he used Twitter and automated phone calls to strongly back the GOP candidate, who is a former lobbyist and ex-chairman of the Republican National Committee. Gillespie adopted a number of Trump's policies, such as opposing sanctuary cities, and ran a highly negative campaign, as Trump did in 2016.

Some Virginians used the election to send an anti-Trump message. One-third of those who cast ballots said their vote in the race was meant to demonstrate opposition to Trump, twice as many as those who said it was designed to show support for Trump, according to exit polls reported by the Washington Post.

"The Trump message is a big loser in swing states and he hurts the GOP far more than helps in those states," Republican strategist and Trump critic Mike Murphy told the New York Times. "Suburban voters don't like Trump, and his antics energize Democrats. The myth of Trump electoral power will now start to melt. A wildly unpopular president is a big political problem for the GOP in swing states."

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