49-48; Biden to Virginia; and free Beloved copies
The latest in Virginia politics.
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A new poll from CNU’s Wason Center shows a one-point race
The Wason Center at Christopher Newport University released a new poll Wednesday morning showing a one-point lead (49% to 48%) for Democratic gubernatorial nominee, Terry McAuliffe, over his Republican opponent Glenn Youngkin. One percent of voters said they supported the third party candidate Princess Blanding and one percent of voters were undecided.
These latest numbers from the Wason Center coincide with several other polls showing the same results. It also represents a tightening in the race within Wason as they reported a nine-point lead for McAuliffe in August and a four-point lead at the beginning of this month.
“McAuliffe is facing strong headwinds in a state that has historically selected
governors from the party not in the White House and with a Democratic president
whose approval rating is underwater,” said Wason Center Research Director Dr.
Rebecca Bromley-Trujillo. “Republican voters also appear hungrier for a win and
increasingly see a chance to take a statewide race for the first time since 2009.”
Independent voters in this new poll broke for Youngkin 51% to 44%. Youngkin’s support within the Republican Party has also increased significantly to 97% compared to the last Wason Center poll showing 90%.
Youngkin’s support is currently driven by white voters (58% to 39%), male voters
(56% to 42%) and those from the South/Southwest region (65% to 33%).
In the race for lieutenant governor, Democratic nominee Hala Ayala had a one-point lead over her Republican opponent Winsome Sears according to the results in this poll.
Two-term Attorney General Mark Herring also holds a slim one-point lead over his Republican opponent Jason Miyares. Herring lead Miyares by six points in Wason Center’s early October poll.
The results of this poll are based on 944 interviews of registered Virginia voters who are likely general election voters, including 446 on a landline and 498 on a cell phone, conducted October 17-25. A likely general election voter is one who has voted in at least two of the last four general elections or is newly registered in the last 12 months and indicates they are enthusiastic and plan to vote (or already have) in the upcoming November 2 election. The margin of error for the whole survey is +/-3.5% at the 95% level of confidence.
Election day is less than one week away on Nov. 2.
President Biden stumps for Terry McAuliffe in Northern Virginia
President Joe Biden stumped for Virginia’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe in Northern Virginia Tuesday night. After winning the commonwealth by 10 points last year, Democrats hope that the president and other big names will help drive enough Democrats to the polls Tuesday to help McAuliffe.
“Virginia, show up like you did for Barack and me,” President Biden said to the crowd with McAuliffe sitting right behind him.
Recent polling shows a dead heat in the final week of the race to be the next governor and national Democrats are now flooding into the commonwealth to try and keep Republicans out of the Executive Mansion for a third straight term.
Nationalizing a race in Virginia a few months ago would have been a no-brainer for the Democrats, but Biden’s approval rating has dropped to 43%, making this a complicated campaign decision. Since the start of this race, however, McAuliffe has been tying his Republican opponent, Glenn Youngkin, to Donald Trump to try and inspire his base. There might not be anyone better to do that than the man who defeated Trump at the polls last year.
“I ran against Donald Trump and Terry is running against an acolyte of Donald Trump,” Biden said.
The president talked about Youngkin’s embrace of Trump and election integrity during the nomination process. “Now he doesn’t want to talk about Donald Trump anymore, well I do,” Biden continued.
Biden’s visit also comes just two weeks after Virginia Republicans pledged allegiance to a flag that was present at the Jan. 6 rally in Washington D.C. “Even after the deadly attacks on Jan. 6, Glenn Youngkin launched his campaign promoting conspiracy theories. Let me be clear, Joe Biden won the 2020 election,” McAuliffe said to the crowd on Tuesday, receiving a loud roar in response from the crowd of approximately 2,500 people.
In addition to Biden — President Barack Obama, Vice President Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison, Stacey Abrams, Dave Matthews, and Pharelll are stumping across Virginia to inspire Democrats to vote for McAuliffe.
Youngkin’s campaign has focused on hitting McAuliffe for the low enthusiasm across the Democratic Party with each of the big names who have stopped by the commonwealth recently.
“Forty-year politician Terry McAuliffe doesn’t excite the Democratic party, so he’s desperately calling in other politicians to plead for votes,” said Macaulay Porter, a spokesperson for Youngkin. “Virginians are seeing the ramifications of a Biden administration with rising costs at the gas pump and a pricey thanksgiving meal on the horizon. Glenn Youngkin is winning on his message of lowering costs and running against politics as usual, so it’s no surprise that desperation has set in for the ruling class that sees their power slipping away.”
More election links
Tight race for Virginia governor enters final week with national implications on the line
Biden lays into Trump while campaigning for Terry McAuliffe in Virginia
McAuliffe, Youngkin deadlocked one week out from Election Day poll
Terry McAuliffe and Glenn Youngkin are in a tight race for Virginia governor
GOP candidate's new ad targets iconic book. Hear what he left out
Fight over teaching ‘Beloved’ book in schools becomes hot topic in Virginia governor’s race - Washington Post
By Laura Vozzella and Gregory S. Schneider
A Pulitzer Prize-winning novel from 1987 has suddenly become the hottest topic in the Virginia governor’s race, as Republican Glenn Youngkin charged that Democrat Terry McAuliffe blocked parents from protecting their children from explicit classroom material, while McAuliffe responded by raising the specter of book-banning.
At the heart of the issue: “Beloved,” the novel by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison about a Civil War-era Black woman who kills her own 2-year-old daughter to spare her from the evils of slavery.
In response to this back and forth, Terry McAuliffe’s staff handed out copies of Beloved to press at the Biden event Tuesday night.
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