Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin are locked together in Virginia’s gubernatorial contest just one week out from polling day, a survey released Monday reveals.
The numbers from the Republican polling firm Cygnal reveal McAuliffe and Youngkin tied at 48.3 percent support each among likely voters in Virginia. The poll showed Republicans leading Democrats on the generic General Assembly ballot, 48.7 percent to 47.9 percent, within its margin of error.
The poll also showed sinking ratings in Virginia for President Joe Biden, who is watching this runoff to gauge support ahead of the 2022 midterms.
Fifty percent of likely voters said they had an unfavorable view of the president, while 48 percent said they had a favorable view of him.
McAuliffe, who comes from Biden’s wing of the Democratic Party, has tied himself to the president since the beginning of the campaign. Biden will campaign with McAuliffe on Tuesday in Arlington, Va.
Monday’s polling is a repeat of numbers released last week that also revealed the pair locked together.
A Monmouth University survey showed the race dead even among registered voters — 46 percent to 46 percent, a shift from the 5 percentage-point lead McAuliffe enjoyed in Monmouth’s poll last month. Republicans also expanded their enthusiasm advantage.
The biggest swing came from independents, who now break for Youngkin, 48 percent to 39 percent, after giving McAuliffe an edge in the pollster’s September survey. McAuliffe’s advantage among women also shrunk from a 14-point lead last month to a four-point lead now.
Over the weekend former President Barack Obama tried to insert himself into the contest, urging voters to back McAuliffe while mocking Youngkin as a guileless peddler of conspiracy theories, as Breitbart News reported.
Obama accused Youngkin of portraying himself as a friendly everyman while encouraging what Obama called “lies and conspiracy theories” about allegations of voting fraud in the 2020 elections.
Former U.S. President Barack Obama campaigns for Democratic gubernatorial candidate, former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe at Virginia Commonwealth University October 23, 2021 in Richmond, Virginia. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
“Either he actually believes in the same conspiracy theories that resulted in a mob, or he doesn’t believe it but he is willing to go along with it, to say or do anything to get elected. And maybe that’s worse … because that says something about character,” Obama said.
Early voting for the election has been underway since September 17 and Election Day is November 2.
The Cygnal poll was conducted on Oct. 19-21 among 816 2021 general election voters. The poll’s margin of error is 3.43 percentage points.