“I believe there is power in every child and I want every child in the commonwealth of Virginia to have the same opportunities I’ve had,” said Northam, a pediatric neurologist from the Eastern Shore who served in the Virginia Senate before becoming lieutenant governor.

Gillespie, a former political consultant and Republican National Committee chairman from Northern Virginia, said, “There’s nowhere in Virginia I won’t go because there’s no one in the commonwealth I won’t serve.”

He also said after the forum, in response to the protest, that his father came to America from Ireland to remain with his family. “Obviously, it wasn’t his choice to come to America,” Gillespie said. “In the case of the Dreamers, it wasn’t their choice, either. I think they should not be deported.”

The candidates parted on Medicaid, a federal-state program that Northam wants to expand under the Affordable Care Act and Gillespie does not, although he appeared to back away from failed proposals by Republicans in Congress to cap future federal spending on its share of the program.