VPM Supporters for Glenn Youngkin, Republican candidate for Virginia governor, gather in Stafford County on Oct. Supporters sign his tour bus and snap photos. Youngkin, a first-time politician, delivers celebrity energy in a fleece vest and cowboy boots. But for many GOP stalwarts gathered at the Flat Rock Country Store, it's as much about the mood as much as the message. Mullis, a former police officer, likes Youngkin's backing of law enforcement. The race has tightened as Biden's approval ratings have dropped to the lowest point since he took office. Virginia's off-year elections are often seen as a proxy for national mood in a state President Biden won by 10 points. Republicans like Mullis are energized by polls showing a neck-and-neck race between Youngkin and Democrat Terry McAuliffe a week out from election day. "Thank God for somebody like him running for office." "That's how important it is to me to meet Glenn Youngkin," the 75-year-old Mullis said. The Youngkin campaign put more than $1 million behind the ad.Alan Mullis was so flattered that Republican Glenn Youngkin paid a pit stop in McKenney, Va., a town an hour south of Richmond - or as Mullis puts it, "the middle of boondocks" - that he says he delayed a chemotherapy treatment for his leukemia to see Youngkin. Though McAuliffe’s quote did not originate in the current tussle over schools, it quickly resonated. Schools have quickly climbed to the forefront of national political scraps, with right-wing media seizing on a crusade against school mask mandates and critical race theory, and major conservative pundits pushing for Republicans to focus on school board races. Other national dividing lines, such as voting rights, police reform and public health, play central roles in the McAuliffe campaign’s effort to paint Youngkin with the patina of a Trump Republican more than 75 percent of McAuliffe’s ads include an attack on or contrast drawn with his opponent.įor the Youngkin campaign, one ad is dominating the rotation: a clip from a debate in September where McAuliffe stated, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” The comment followed an argument between the two candidates over a veto McAuliffe signed as governor in 2017 of legislation that had allowed parents to opt out of allowing their children to study material deemed sexually explicit.
The McAuliffe campaign portrayed Youngkin as beholden to the conservative fringe of the Republican Party. The campaign has put the most money behind a 60-second ad that seizes on a hidden-camera video recorded by a liberal activist that showed Youngkin openly worrying about losing “independent votes” over the issue, but promising to go “on offense” to restrict access to abortion if Republicans also take the statehouse. More than 60 percent of the spending has been on ads that have at least some negative comparisons or attacks, according to AdImpact.įour of the five most expensive ads for the McAuliffe campaign have been negative, with a particular focus on abortion, an issue that rocketed to the forefront of national politics after Texas passed a new law that bans almost all abortions. Outside groups and super PACs have largely stayed on the sidelines. The two candidates have combined to spend more than $36 million on broadcast television ads at just over $18 million each, according to AdImpact, an ad tracking firm. In an expensive race with in-person campaigning still limited by the pandemic, the national issues being debated over the airwaves have set the tone.
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