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>> i always said it was going to be close. i always said it was going to be a couple of points. the day i got in, it's been a 35-plus-year curse. whoever wins the white house, the other party wins the governor's mansion. we always knew it was going to be tough. great field team, great volunteers, spectacular. it's a great win. we're happy. now we've got a lot of work to do. >> congratulations. >> joining me one last time, cnn's chief congressional correspondent dana bash and of course chief political analyst gloria borger. dana, a remarkable victory for mcauliffe. demographically how did he do it? did he just rack up the turnout in northern virginia? or what was the strategy? >> that seems to be exactly what he did. that's why it looked as though if you looked at the numbers as the night went on it looked like cucinnelli was winning because they were looking for the democratically populated area where i am right now in northern
coming into this ballroom tonight there were so many mcauliffe supporters, staffer, aides, who were remarkably optimistic and comfortable and confident in a way that even those who in the years i've been covering politics, maybe if they feel they at least pretend that they're a little bit nervous. but as the night went on they certainly got more nervous. because it was closer than we thought. and i actually caught up with terry mcauliffe himself when he was glad handing, shaking hands with supporters here and asked him about that. listen to what happened. >> how do you feel? >> great. great night. it was a great campaign. >> was it a little bit too close for comfort for you? >> i always said it was going to be close. i always said it was going to be a couple of points. the day i got, in it's been a 35-plus-year curse of whoever wins the white house, the other party wins the governor's mansion. we always knew it was going to be tough. great field team, great volunteers, spectacular. it's a great win. we're happy. now we've got a lot of work to do. >> reporter: piers, you heard
mcauliffe right after his victory speech. >> how do you feel? >> great. great night. it was a great campaign. >> was it a little bit too close for comfort for you? >> i always said it was going to be close. i always said it was going to be a couple of points. the day i got in, it's been a 35-plus-year curse. whoever wins the white house, the other party wins the governor's mansion. we always knew it was going to be tough. great field team, great volunteers, spectacular. it's a great win. we're happy. now we've got a lot of work to do. >> congratulations. >> joining me one last time, cnn's chief congressional correspondent dana bash and of course chief political analyst gloria borger. dana, a remarkable victory for mcauliffe. demographically how did he do it? did he just rack up the turnout in northern virginia? or what was the strategy? >> that seems to be exactly what he did. that's why it looked as though
party wins the governor's mansion. we always knew it was going to be tough. great field team, great volunteers, spectacular. it's a great win. we're happy. now we've got a lot of work to do. >> reporter: piers, you heard him talking about the curse here in virginia. it is true that it has been almost half a century since there has been a democrat in the white house and a democrat won the governor's mansion here in virginia. and that does certainly tell you something about the way virginia has been going over the past two presidential cycles, of course, barack obama had a surprising win in 2008 and then did it again in 2012. so virginia which had been pretty much reliably red on a national scale has been turning. the fact that terry mcauliffe has now won, it puts the commonwealth of virginia solidly in the tossup column and makes it a very important state for 2016. very interesting his very close