WISE, Va. (AP) - The two major party candidates in Virginia's closely watched race for governor made pointed attacks at each other at their final debate ahead of Election Day next month.
Republican Ed Gillespie and Democrat Ralph Northam squared off Monday at the University of Virginia at Wise in the state's far southwest. The region, hit hard by a decline in coal mining, strongly backed Donald Trump in last year's presidential election.
But the president did not come up in the debate. Instead, Gillespie accused Northam of being an absentee lieutenant governor who had neglected rural Virginia, while Northam blasted Gillespie for his past career as a Washington lobbyist who has worked only to help the rich.
