Trump, Biden, not on the ballot, but at the center of the Virginia governorship showdown

President Biden and former President Trump are not on the ballot in November in Virginia, but they are at the center of the campaign trail in one of two states to hold gubernatorial elections the following year a presidential election.

In a race between Former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin, who, according to the latest Fox News poll, are extremely competitive with just a month to go on election day, it’s no surprise that McAuliffe has repeatedly tried to link the GOP candidate for former president. Trump lost Virginia by 10 points to Biden in the presidential election last November.

But Biden’s position in the state has deteriorated, according to the Fox News poll and other surveys. The president’s low approval rating, as well as the inability of the White House and moderate and progressive Democrats in Congress to agree on the party’s massive social spending program and climate change, may also be factors keys in a tight race for governor with national implications.

FOX NEWS SURVEY: CLOSED RACE FOR THE GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA

Virginia has turned blue in the past decade, and it’s been a dozen years since Republicans won an election across the state of the Commonwealth of Nations. But he remains competitive, and the McAuliffe-Youngkin showdown is seen as a key barometer heading into next year’s midterm elections, when control of Congress will be up for grabs.

McAuliffe holds a four-point advantage of 48% to 44% over Youngkin, with 9% of Virginia voters undecided or supporting someone else, according to a Fox News poll conducted Sept. 26-29 and released Thursday.

“This benchmark survey of the Virginia governor’s race shows that it is still up for grabs,” the poll statement said. “This four percentage point margin is within the survey’s sampling error margin and both candidates are below 50 percent support.”

According to the poll, Trump remains well underwater in Virginia, with a favorable / unfavorable rating of 41 to 57 percent.

McAuliffe has attempted to link Youngkin, the former CEO of a large private equity firm that has been endorsed by Trump, to the former president in campaign ads. And he continued his press all over the field in last week’s second and final race debate, once again calling Youngkin a “budding Trump.”

TRUMP FRONT AND CENTER IN VIRGINIA, NEW JERSEY, GUBERNATORIAL SHOWDOWNS

Youngkin responded to McAuliffe’s effort to portray him as a Trump clone with a bit of humor.

“Terry, you just made the people of Las Vegas a lot of money,” Youngkin said. “There’s an over-minus tonight on how many times you’re going to say ‘Donald Trump’, and it was 10, and you just walked through it.”

Youngkin, a first-time candidate for the more moderate business wing of the GOP, courted Trump supporters to win the contested Republican nomination.

But during the debate, Youngkin disagreed with the former president when NBC News moderator Chuck Todd asked about Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged to him.” “and” fly “.

“There was no material fraud, and I think the election was clearly fair,” Youngkin replied.

Trump remains very popular with Republican voters in Virginia and across the country, and hugely influential with GOP politicians as he continues to play a kingmaker role in the party and repeatedly teases another candidacy for the party. presidential election in 2024.

When asked if he would support Trump in the next presidential election, Youngkin replied, “If he is the Republican nominee, I will support him.”

The debate took place in the northern Virginia suburb of Washington DC, the fastest growing part of the Commonwealth and an area where Democrats have dominated in recent years, thanks to the displacement of suburban GOP voters during the Trump era.

As he races to reclaim his old job – Virginia governors are barred from serving two consecutive terms – McAuliffe appears to take a page from the playbook of Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom of California, who easily kept his job in last month’s recall elections. .

Part of Newsom’s strategy was to tie the Republican candidates for replacement to the former president. Newsom’s job was made easier as conservative radio talk host Larry Elder emerged as the leader among the replacement candidates in the last two months of the recall campaign and became the face of the unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the Democratic governor in trouble. But what worked in California – a heavily bluish state – may not work as well in a battlefield like Virginia.

WILL THE SURVEY NUMBERS REPORTED BY BIDEN DROP MCAULIFFE IN ELECTIONS IN VIRGINIA?

Although more popular than Trump in Virginia, the president was treading water in the Fox News poll. Biden was at 50% approval and 49% disapproval in the survey, with his favorable / unfavorable rating stuck at 49%.

The president’s drop in numbers came in the wake of Biden’s much-criticized handling of the United States’ turbulent exit from Afghanistan. And it also happened amid an increase in COVID cases this summer among mostly unvaccinated people due to the spread of the highly infectious delta variant, as the nation struggles to fight the worst coronavirus. pandemic to have struck the world for a century. The president’s drop in approval has also been compounded by the latest wave of migrants attempting to enter the United States along the southern border with Mexico.

While McAuliffe has referred to Trump on several occasions in his two debates with Youngkin, he did not appear to mention Biden’s name in both confrontations.

The within-party battle between progressives and moderate Democrats on Capitol Hill is also a contributing factor.

In Tuesday’s debate, McAuliffe appears to be distancing himself from his national party. When asked if he supports the $ 3.5 trillion spending program that the White House and Congressional Democrats – who hold very slim majorities in the House and Senate – are trying to push through the lines of party using a parliamentary process known as reconciliation, McAuliffe said he thought the figure was “too high”.

But he urged Congress to pass the separate bipartisan $ 1,000 billion infrastructure bill. “They have to stop their little chatter up there, and it is time for them to pass it,” said the former governor.

While Youngkin has tried to keep a lot of daylight between him and Trump, he and his campaign have avoided using the president as a stick to target McAuliffe, as they attempt to woo independent voters who voted for Biden. last November.

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The Virginia contest could be the first statewide test in a swinging state of life without Trump on the ballot.

“As an off-year election in a sometimes purple state, the governor of Virginia is often seen as an early indicator of voter direction after a presidential election,” said Democratic pollster Chris Anderson, who along with GOP pollster Daron Shaw, leads the Fox News poll. . “And these poll results suggest Republicans may be more competitive in some places when Donald Trump is not on the ballot.”