An Islamist terror attack perpetrated in New York may have just upended the campaign for Governor of Virginia.

After an Uzbek Muslim, who apparently entered the United States on a so-called “diversity visa,” ran over and killed at least eight innocent New Yorkers the Latino Victory Fund pulled their sickening ad that featured an Ed Gillespie supporter attempting to run down minority children with a pick-up truck.

New York Authorities found a note, written in English, claiming the suspect in Tuesday's truck attack in New York did it in the name of ISIS, a senior law enforcement official told CNN. The note was discovered in the truck police said was used in the attack, the source said.

The 29-year-old suspect was identified by two law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation as Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, from the central Asian nation of Uzbekistan, who came to the United States in 2010, sources told CNN.

Eight people were killed and almost a dozen others were injured when a man in a rented flatbed pickup drove down a busy bicycle path Tuesday near the World Trade Center, police said at a news conference.

Six people were declared dead at the scene and two were pronounced dead at the hospital. At least 11 others were transported to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, according to New York Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro.

The pro-Northam ad, which prominently featured a Muslim character, was slammed by conservatives, with National Review's Jim Geraghty saying, "Remember this the next time someone laments how 'divisive’ our politics have become.”

Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh predicted such tactics are beginning to "backfire and implode," while Geraghty called it reminiscent of the add portraying Paul Ryan throwing a grandmother off a cliff.

The Gillespie campaign decried this ad as “disgusting” while Gillespie’s campaign manager Chris Leavitt slammed the Latino Victory Fund’s ad saying, “This is not an attack on Ed Gillespie anymore… This is an all-out attack on the people of Virginia. This latest ad gives a clear indication of just what Ralph Northam and his national Democratic allies think of all of us, and it’s sickening.”

Gillespie denounced the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville the morning after it happened, National Review’s Geraghty noted.

Not only was the ad an outrageous attack on Ed Gillespie – a decent man without any ties to racism or any of the other smears Democrats always resort to when they are losing – it appears that the ad backfired even before the New York terror attack.

Gillespie raised $9.7 million between Oct. 1 and Oct. 26 and reports are his fundraising tripled after the Latino Vote ad dropped with the surge largely attributed to conservative outrage at the ad.

Most polls show Northam with a slight lead or in dead heat with Gillespie, Gillespie has been airing a series of hard-edged ads seeking to tie Northam to MS-13 gang violence and a sex offender who had his rights restored.

The Halloween terrorist attack in New York will undoubtedly refocus the campaign on law and order and homeland security issues – where Northam has a serious trust deficit.

The Virginia statewide election is Tuesday, November 7. We urge our CHQ readers and friends in Virginia to heed Vice President Mike Pence’s call to “dig deep.”

As yesterday’s terrorist attack in New York proves, it is not just the MAGA agenda that is on the line in this election, it is the security of all Virginians, and it is time for conservatives to stand in the gap and own the vote.

We urge you to talk to your friends, neighbors, family, church members and others in your social circle – tell them the security of their family is on the line in this election and urge them to vote for Ed Gillespie for Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia.