Just last Friday, the discovery that Governor Ralph Northam had a racist photo on his 1984 medical school yearbook page led to calls for his resignation - and the possibility that Fairfax would rise to become the state's next leader.

The statement says, "We have each publicly called for Governor Northam to resign".

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has disappeared after saying he wanted to start an honest conversation about race.

The Washington Post reported that a woman named Kaneedreck Adams, an attorney who attended Duke with Watson, recalls Watson coming to her crying in the spring of 2000.

The statement said it was a "premeditated and aggressive" assault and that while Watson and Fairfax had been social friends, they were never involved romantically.

"Ms. Watson shared her account of the rape with friends in a series of emails and Facebook messages that are now in our possession", the statement continued. "Mr. Fairfax then used this prior assault against Ms. Watson, as he explained to her during the only encounter she had with him after the rape".

Watson's representatives declined to provide further documentation and said their client would not be talking to journalists.

But Fairfax, 39, is adamant that he will not resign, declaring that he is the victim of a smear campaign. "I haven't forgiven the president, but he's still in office, so why should they resign?"

Duke campus police have no criminal reports naming Fairfax, university spokesman Michael Schoenfeld said. That echoed the sentiments of Tyson, who said she only went public after she saw Fairfax was on the verge of being elevated to governor when it was discovered Virginia Gov.

ASSOCIATED PRESS Virginia state Sen. Tommy Norment

Northam's decision to stay in office comes despite many fellow Democrats in Virginia and beyond reiterating their calls for him to resign as recently as Friday.

Watson's allegations triggered an avalanche of calls by top officials in the Democratic Party, including presidential hopefuls Elizabeth Warren and Corey Booker, for their colleague to step down. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kirsten Gillibrand of NY and Elizabeth Warren of MA.

Smith added that Watson also hopes Fairfax will resign his elected position. It depends on how you draw the map, says Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

Northam said he has talked with Commerce Secretary Brian Ball about boosting affordable housing, fostering entrepreneurship among minorities and taking a look at whether minority-owned businesses are getting full access to state contracts.

Only Robert C. Scott, the dean of the House delegation, and Sen.

Fairfax has denied both of the sexual assault accusations against him.

In that statement, Tyson described a forceful act where Fairfax held down her head with his hand to perform oral sex on him inside the hotel room. Northam may try to appoint a Democrat, while Republicans could mount a legal challenge with the goal of having Sen. Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe tweeted that the lieutenant governor "can no longer effectively serve".

Calls for Northam's resignation quickly escalated, following revelations last weekend about Northam's 1984 blackface appearance and a racist photo on his yearbook page of two individuals - one in blackface and the other dressed in white robes of the Ku Klux Klan. But he had worn blackface once.

A third Virginia politician, the attorney general Mark Herring, has also apologized for wearing blackface in the 1980s when he was 19-years-old at a college party. CONSERVATIVE WEBSITE Fairfax briefly seemed poised to succeed Northam to become the second African-American governor in Virginia's history.