FALLS CHURCH, Va. Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam defeated former congressman Tom Perriello in the Virginia Democratic gubernatorial primary on Tuesday, handing a humbling loss to progressive activists who had flocked to Perriellos candidacy.

Although Perriello enjoyed greater support among millennials, liberals and residents of Southside Virginia, his campaign hopes depended on getting many of them to turn out for the first time.

Ultimately the 42-year-old Charlottesville native and former diplomat was not able to expand the electorate enough to offset Northams advantage with more consistent Democratic voters, including many black Virginians and seniors.

Its still an uphill climb for groups that are farther to the left to succeed even in a Democratic Primary, said Geoffrey Skelly, an expert in state politics at the University of Virginia. Theres a lot of excitement. But at the end of the day, there are a lot of Democratic voters that are center-left and not left.

We fell short tonight at the polls, but after being outspent by over $3 million dollars, we showed that a grassroots effort can bring hundreds of thousands of people to the polls, Perriello said in his concession speech at the State Theatre in Falls Church, Virginia. We had an amazing conversation that hadnt been had enough in this Commonwealth about rising and radical inequality, and skyrocketing debt and consumer debt.

Northam, a 57-year-old pediatric neurologist from the Hampton Roads area, will now face off against Republican gubernatorial nominee Ed Gillespie. Gillespie, a Beltway power broker and former Republican National Committee chairman, consistently led in the polls against state Sen. Frank Wagner and Corey Stewart, at-large chairman of Prince William County. He beat Stewart by a narrow margin Tuesday night.

Northam held a double-digit lead over Gillespie in a hypothetical matchup in a Washington Post poll last month.

Northam is highly favored to win both because of the relative popularity of incumbent Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe and disdain for President Donald Trump in the Old Dominion State. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defeated Trump in Virginia by 5 percentage points , and as of May, just 36 percent of Virginians approved of Trumps performance.

The Republican Governors Association immediately blasted Northam as a far-left extremist.

In choosing Ralph Northam, Virginia Democrats have anointed an extreme, far-left nominee that is hopelessly out-of-touch with Virginia voters, said RGA communications director Jon Thompson said in a statement Tuesday.

Prior to Trumps inauguration in January, the Democratic primary for governor of Virginia was not expected to be a contentious affair. As lieutenant governor since 2014, Northam secured support early on from nearly every major elected Democrat in the state, including McAuliffe and Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.

Then Perriello jumped into the race in January, betting that Trumps election had made the state ripe for a campaign focused on defending Virginia from the presidents policies. Fashioning himself a pragmatic populist, Perriello rolled out ambitious economic policies, including raising Virginias minimum wage to $15 an hour, providing universal preschool and tuition-free community college, and overturning the states right-to-work law, which makes it harder for labor unions to thrive. He also stumped against two natural gas pipelines slated to traverse the state, and refused donations from utility monopoly Dominion Power, which is building one of the pipelines.

The firm stances earned him the endorsements of leading progressives Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.); the Sanders-backed political action committee Our Revolution ; the state chapters of top labor unions like the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Communication Workers of America; and a host of environmental activism groups, including Climate Hawks Vote.