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Higher enthusiasm and polarization were the key features of Tuesday’s gubernatorial election in Virginia, suggesting that President Trump has energized voters on all sides.

Academic studies have found that wall-to-wall negative television advertisements can discourage voters and keep them home.

Turnout, however, was the highest in 20 years for a gubernatorial race, five percentage points and 10 percentage points higher than the last two. And voters in the urban and rural regions of the state broke more heavily along party lines than they had in the prior elections.

Looking at the state in six regions shows every one of them split by party more forcefully than four years ago, when Democrat Terry McAuliffe defeated Republican Ken Cuccinelli by 2.5 percentage points. The three relatively urban regions — Northern Virginia, Central Virginia around Richmond and the Hampton Roads — each gave Governor-elect Ralph Northam bigger vote margins than McAuliffe earned over Cuccinelli. On the flip side, Republican Ed Gillespie scored bigger wins in the three more-rural regions, Shenandoah Valley, Southside and Southwest Virginia.