My fellow Virginians, earlier today I released a statement apologizing for behavior in my past that falls far short of the standard you set for me when you elected me to be your governor. I believe you deserve to hear directly from me. pic.twitter.com/1rSw1oxfrX

— Governor Ralph Northam (@VAGovernor73) February 2, 2019

Ralph Northam vowed on Friday night to see out his term as Virginia governor amid a storm of controversy after a photo of him in a racist costume surfaced earlier in the day.

“I accept responsibility for my past actions, and I am ready to do the hard work of regaining you trust,” Northam said in a video statement.

“I have spent the last year as your governor fighting for a Virginia that works better for all people. I am committed to continuing that fight for the remainder of my term.”

The mea culpa comes after The Virginian-Pilot obtained a copy of his 1984 medical school yearbook that shows him in a photo of a man dressed in blackface and another man dressed in Ku Klux Klan garb.

Northam has not said if he was the person dressed as a Klansman or if he was the person in the racist face paint.

The Democratic governor did, however, own up to being one of the people in the photo after the Pilot’s report on Friday.

“I am deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now,” Northam wrote in the statement.

“That photo, and the racist and offensive attitudes it represents, does not reflect that person I am today or the way I have conducted myself as a soldier, a doctor and a public servant,” Northam added in the video statement.

“I am deeply sorry.”