Here’s some more news today out of Virginia:
Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin are locked in a tight race for Virginia governor, with McAuliffe standing at 50 percent to 47 percent for Youngkin among likely voters in a Washington Post-Schar School poll.
Among registered voters, McAuliffe has a 49 percent to 43 percent edge over Youngkin — but neither lead is statistically significant. The smaller margin among people likely to vote, combined with a low percentage of voters who say they plan to vote early, suggests that Democrats could face an enthusiasm gap and a challenge boosting turnout to the high levels of the past four years.
“There’s an intensity deficit here for the Democrats compared to where they were … during the Trump era,” said Mark Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, which co-sponsored the poll. “This tells me it’s a toss-up election right now.”
McAuliffe, a former governor who served from 2014 to 2018, is testing the durability of Virginia’s recent status as a blue state against Youngkin, a former private equity chief with a large personal fortune and no political track record.
The poll was conducted Sept. 7 to Sept. 13 among a random sample of 907 registered Virginia voters reached by professional interviewers on cell and landline phones, including 728 likely to vote in the gubernatorial election. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus four percentage points among registered voters and 4.5 points among likely voters.
This poll was taken before last night’s debate. There are a lot of interesting points in this poll. I will have more to report over the weekend but we have a lot of work to do before now and November 2nd. Early voting in Virginia has already begun. Click here to register to vote, look up your voting info, find your polling place or ballot drop-off location.
Democracy and Health are on the ballot and we need to get ready to keep Virginia Blue. Click below to donate and get involved with McAuliffe and his fellow Virginia Democrats campaigns: