Northam is a physician, a soft-spoken native of Virginia’s Eastern Shore, a graduate of Virginia Military Institute. He served eight years as a doctor in the Army, including during Operation Desert Storm, rising to the rank of major. He now has a practice in pediatric neurology in Norfolk and volunteers as a medical director for the Edmarc Hospice for Children in Portsmouth, where he cares for terminally ill children.

Despite all this or perhaps in part because of it, Gillespie released what became known as his “Kill, Rape, Oppress” television ads, the first of which shows what purports to be a hooded member of the MS-13 gang wielding a baseball bat in an abandoned building, as a narrator says:

Northam cast the deciding vote in favor of sanctuary cities that let illegal immigrants who commit crimes back on the street, increasing the threat of MS-13.

In fact, there are no sanctuary cities in Virginia.

More recently, at the end of October, Gillespie raised the stakes with an ad linking Northam to a convicted sex offender:

Last year, Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam instituted the automatic restoration of rights for violent felons and sex offenders, making it easier for them to obtain firearms and allowing them to serve on juries. One of these felons, John Bowen, had his rights restored two months after being found with one of the largest child pornography collections in Virginia’s history.

Bowen, according to The Virginia Pilot, was convicted in 2001 on one count of aggravated sexual battery and one count of “indecent liberties” with a minor. He was sentenced to a year in prison. On June 6, 2017, after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography, Bowen was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Six weeks before Bowen was sentenced, on April 27th, McAuliffe announced that he had restored voting and other rights to 156,221 Virginians who had been convicted of felonies and had completed their sentences.

In an exceptionally sharply-worded editorial, “Gillespie’s ads are poisonous to Virginia and the nation,” The Washington Post pointed out that not only does Gillespie himself support restoration of felons’ rights, but that

Technically, it is true that Mr. McAuliffe’s policy, which Mr. Northam backs, made it easier for Mr. Bowen to obtain firearms, serve on juries and vote. In fact, there were no elections in the 41-day window during which he regained his rights, and as a former felon he would have needed a judge’s approval to obtain a gun. Nor was there time for him to be summoned and serve on a jury. Mr. Gillespie, determined to inflame and distract voters, could not be bothered with such details. Once known as a pragmatist and a centrist, Mr. Gillespie increasingly has been turning in his political advertising to President Trump’s brand of divisive, scaremongering politics.

Trump did in fact endorse Gillespie via Twitter on Oct. 5:

Ralph Northam, who is running for Governor of Virginia, is fighting for the violent MS-13 killer gangs & sanctuary cities. Vote Ed Gillespie!

On Oct. 26, Trump added another dose of racially coded rhetoric:

Ed Gillespie will turn the really bad Virginia economy #’s around, and fast. Strong on crime, he might even save our great statues/heritage!

This tweet signaled to the president’s fervent loyalists that Gillespie was on board the Trump train on the gamut of hot button issues from Confederate monuments to women’s rights to immigrant rights to minority rights to criminal justice matters like felons’ rights, clemency and commutation.

For Republicans, the crucial element in restoring voting rights for felons involves African Americans, a strong Democratic constituency, not pedophiles, who are scarce. Of the beneficiaries of McAuliffe’s restoration of rights, 46 percent were African-American. Nationwide, an estimated 2.6 million African-Americans cannot vote because of criminal disenfranchisement laws.

John Feehery, a lobbyist who worked at Quinn Gillespie, wrote in an email that Trump’s support may hurt Gillespie in the suburbs around Washington, D.C., but it

helps immeasurably in the rest of the State. Thanks to Trump’s endorsement, the places that Ed most needs to get excited will get excited. So this works out well for Gillespie.

Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, was more emphatic:

Let’s put it this way: If Trump weren’t supportive of Gillespie, it would drive a stake into the heart of Gillespie’s candidacy. It’s a fine line. Gillespie needs to be acceptable enough to the Trump voters so that they’ll actually show up to vote. Few will back Northam, so just getting them excited enough to cast a ballot is enough. Gillespie’s TV ad emphasis on immigration, crime, and commutations appears to have tipped the Trump base into Gillespie’s column — assisted by Trump’s supportive tweets. They’re not running to the polls like last year, but walking gets them there too.

In a last-minute development, the Latino Victory Fund, an independent “progressive political action committee with the mission of growing Latino political power,” began airing a pro-Northam television ad Monday on Spanish-language stations (and on YouTube) entitled “American Nightmare.” It shows a burly white man behind the wheel of a heavy duty pickup truck with a Confederate flag, a Gillespie sticker and a “Don’t Tread On Me” license plate chasing Hispanic and Muslim children in a suburban neighborhood, as the announcer asks:

Is this what Donald Trump and Ed Gillespie mean by “the American dream”?

The Gillespie campaign immediately sought to turn the commercial to its advantage. On Tuesday, Gillespie told Fox News:

This attack is not just an attack on my supporters, who are good, decent, hardworking Virginians who love their neighbors, it is an attack on all Virginians.

David Turner, communications director for the Northam campaign, countered:

Ed Gillespie has spent upwards of $9 million making obvious racial appeals. Ed Gillespie has stoked fear among Hispanic immigrants. He turned on the stove and now the water is boiling over.

But, Turner added,

Ralph Northam would not have run this ad and believes Virginians deserve civility, not escalation. Dr. Northam is committed to unifying Virginians to appeal to their hopes, rather than dividing them through fear.

The ad was pulled late in the day on Oct. 31.

As the contest enters its closing days, polls suggest that Gillespie is within striking distance of Northam. Northam holds a modest 3.6 point lead in the RealClearPolitics average of the seven most recent surveys.