WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden was expected to campaign Tuesday night in Virginia for Terry McAuliffe who is seeking a new term as governor, in a race that could be an early indicator of Democrats’ prospects in the midterm elections.
Biden will join McAuliffe in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Arlington, a reliably blue part of the state. Tuesday’s event, Biden’s second campaign event for McAuliffe, follows recent high-profile appearances by former President Barack Obama, Vice President Kamala Harris, Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison and former Georgia gubernatorial nominee and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams.
Polls show McAuliffe with a narrow lead over Republican Glenn Youngkin, a former private equity executive and a first-time candidate. The same surveys also indicate that Republicans are more motivated to vote, leaving Democrats scrambling in the final week of the campaign to turn out their base in a state Biden won in 2020 by 10 percentage points.
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McAuliffe had been encouraging members of Congress to pass Biden’s economic agenda — the bipartisan infrastructure bill, coupled with the Democrats’ social safety net bill — ahead of the Nov. 2 election, in hopes that it would energize Virginia Democrats.
But with just days left in the race, there continues to be major disagreement among moderate and progressive Democrats, particularly over key issues like paid family leave. While Biden and the Democratic leadership have insisted that a deal is close, it is unlikely that the president’s agenda will be passed before the Virginia election takes place.
Turnout for Virginia gubernatorial races historically drops off compared to presidential elections, a trend that typically disadvantages Democrats. Roughly 3.98 million Virginians participated in the 2016 presidential election, compared to 2.61 million in the 2017 gubernatorial — a 34 percent drop-off. While Ralph Northam won in 2017 by Democrat’s largest recent victory, turnout had also declined the least that year from the previous presidential election.
Biden, a longtime McAuliffe friend, has been largely removed from the Virginia governor’s race, attending only one other campaign event earlier this summer. McAuliffe rarely mentions Biden on the campaign trail, instead focusing his messaging on former President Donald Trump, whose presidency drove Democrats to the polls in record numbers. Trump has endorsed Youngkin.
Virginia, which holds off-year elections along with New Jersey, is often viewed as an early barometer of how the sitting president is doing ahead of their first midterm elections.
Democrats have a narrow majority in the House and will be forced to defend their seats as congressional districts are redrawn this cycle. If Democrats lose a single seat in the Senate in 2022, Republicans will take control of the chamber.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
