WASHINGTON • Democrats won complete control of the Virginia government for the first time in a generation on Tuesday and claimed a narrow victory in the Kentucky governor's race, as Republicans struggled in suburbs where United States President Donald Trump is increasingly unpopular.

In capturing both chambers of the legislature in Virginia, Democrats have cleared the way for Governor Ralph Northam, who was nearly driven from office earlier this year, to press for measures tightening access to guns and raising the minimum wage that have been stymied by legislative Republicans.

In Kentucky, Governor Matt Bevin, a deeply unpopular Republican, refused to concede the election to his Democratic challenger, Attorney-General Andy Beshear.

With 100 per cent of the precincts counted, Mr Beshear was ahead by 5,100 votes.

Mr Beshear presented himself as the winner, telling supporters that he expected Mr Bevin to "honour the election that was held tonight".

"Tonight, voters in Kentucky sent a message loud and clear for everyone to hear," Mr Beshear said.

"It is a message that says our elections do not have to be about right versus left, they are still about right versus wrong."

Mr Bevin asserted to supporters that "there have been more than a few irregularities", without offering specifics.

His troubles did not appear to be a drag on other Republicans, who captured every other statewide race in Kentucky - a sign that Kentucky voters were rejecting Mr Bevin and not his party.

Mr Daniel Cameron handily won the attorney-general's race, becoming the first African-American to claim the office and the first Republican to do so in more than 70 years.

In New Jersey, a state that seemed to be shifting increasingly blue each year, Republicans were on the cusp of their first legislative gain in nearly a decade.

Across the nation, a handful of candidates made history. In addition to Mr Cameron in Kentucky, Ms Ghazala Hashmi, a Democrat, was the first Muslim woman elected to the Virginia Senate, capturing a suburban Richmond district.

And in Arizona, Ms Regina Romero was headed towards victory in the Tucson mayor's race, becoming the first woman and first Latina to lead that city.

In Virginia, where Mr Northam and two other statewide Democrats were pressured to resign following a series of scandals earlier this year, the party overcame its own self-inflicted challenges by harnessing voter antipathy towards Mr Trump to win a series of seats.

For the first time since 1993, Democrats now control both chambers in the legislature and the governor's office - allowing them to redraw the state's legislative boundaries after next year's census.

Ten years after Republicans last won a statewide election there, the legislative victories cemented Virginia's evolution to becoming a reliably blue state.

On a day of state and local elections that illustrated the country's growing polarisation, red-state Republicans sought to frame their campaigns as a test of loyalty to Mr Trump while Democrats in more liberal states tied their opponents to the President.

Coming one year before the next presidential election, the races reflected the country's increasingly contentious politics and the widening rural-urban divide.

Nowhere was that more apparent than in Kentucky, where Mr Beshear ran far better than national Democrats in the state's lightly populated counties but built his advantage thanks in large part to his overwhelming strength in the state's cities and suburbs.

Mr Beshear's performance demonstrated that Mr Trump's popularity alone is insufficient for Republicans, even in one of the most conservative regions in the country.

In Virginia, the only southern state Mr Trump lost, it was Republicans who were distancing themselves from their national party and a president who has alienated the suburban voters they needed to retain control of the state legislature.

While the President stayed away from Virginia, every major Democratic presidential hopeful was welcomed with open arms to campaign with the party's candidates in a state that has not elected a statewide Republican in a decade.

NYTIMES