Gillespie lost because the Northern Counties of VA that are essentially Suburbs of Wash. D.C. are overwhelmingly Democrat. They are filled with Government workers, Bureaucrats and Lobbyists. There just aren’t enough Conservative voters in the rest of the State to overcome their numbers.
Those northern suburbs are also filled with immigrants, lots of illegals from Central America and lots of Muslims. Immigration is also killing the GOP in Virginia, just as it did in other states.
There are plenty of conservatives that didn’t even vote in the last VA election. The GOPe puts up a MAGA candidate then they will win bigly. Gillepse was a terrible establishments RIO candidate. Quit listening to MSNBC.