The Washington Post’s editorial board is backing Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam over former Rep. Tom Perriello in the closely contested Democratic primary for Virginia governor.

The Post said Northam, Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s second-in-command and a pediatric neurologist, won the endorsement because of his “experience, temperament and, especially, his chances of success in the face of likely Republican control of one or both houses of the state legislature for the foreseeable future.”

Northam has been backed by an overwhelming majority of state elected officials, including McAuliffe. He faces Perriello, who’s been endorsed by progressive stalwarts Sens. Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersThe Hill's Campaign Report: Trump faces backlash after not committing to peaceful transition of power Bernie Sanders: 'This is an election between Donald Trump and democracy' The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump stokes fears over November election outcome MORE (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth WarrenHillicon Valley: Subpoenas for Facebook, Google and Twitter on the cards | Wray rebuffs mail-in voting conspiracies | Reps. raise mass surveillance concerns On The Money: Anxious Democrats push for vote on COVID-19 aid | Pelosi, Mnuchin ready to restart talks | Weekly jobless claims increase | Senate treads close to shutdown deadline Democratic senators ask inspector general to investigate IRS use of location tracking service MORE (D-Mass.), in a June 13 primary.

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“His aw-shucks country-doctor affect notwithstanding, Mr. Northam is a shrewd politician whose decade in office — six years as a state senator, and now as lieutenant governor — has made him highly regarded in Richmond, including among Republican lawmakers, who tried to recruit him to switch parties in 2009,” the Post editorial board wrote.

“If any Democratic governor can nudge GOP majorities in his direction, it’s Mr. Northam. That matters in a state where governors, barred from running for consecutive terms, have one brief shot at getting things done."

Northam has a decade of experience in state politics, compared to Perriello, who served a short stint in Congress from 2008 and 2010.

But Perriello’s decision to jump into the race earlier this year upended the primary. Now, the race is neck and neck, according to most polls.

The race has gotten national attention, especially since it's the one of the first statewide races in the era of President Trump. Democrats are looking to this as one of the few races this year that can be an indicator for their electoral prospects ahead of the 2018 midterms.

Virginia’s Democratic primary has also been described as proxy war between the establishment and Sanders’s wing of the Democratic Party. But the Post discounted that assessment in its editorial, noting that most Virginians view that as “facile and irrelevant.”

The Post also issued an endorsement in the GOP primary for state Sen. Frank Wagner. He’s considered an underdog in the primary since Ed Gillespie, former Republican National Committee chairman, is expected to easily win.

Corey Stewart, Prince William Board of County Supervisors chairman and former state campaign chair for Trump, is also running in the Republican primary.

“Mr. Wagner is in some ways a GOP version of Mr. Northam — down-to-earth, substantive, principled and well-versed in policy and the ways of Richmond,” the editorial board wrote.

“By contrast, the putative front-runner, Ed Gillespie, a former Republican national chair and George W. Bush White House veteran who has dodged debates, is more opportunistic, proposing a pie-in-the-sky tax cut that disintegrates upon contact with reality.”