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Gubernatorial candidates Terry McAuliffe (D) and Glenn Youngkin (R) are focusing on touring the commonwealth and touting the enthusiasm behind their campaigns in the final days of this race. In addition to the gubernatorial candidates, their surrogates and down-ballot candidates are also out in force speaking to voters — when allowed.
After winning the state in 2020 by 10 points, Virginia Democrats are bringing in the big names to boost turnout as poll numbers show a tie ballgame heading into the ninth inning.
President Barack Obama, recording artist Dave Matthews, former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, and DNC Chair Jaime Harrison all hit the trail across Virginia on the second-to-last weekend in this race to pump up enthusiasm in the base. President Joe Biden already campaigned for McAuliffe once earlier this year and is slated to headline an event on Tuesday. Recording artist Pharrell is also slated to appear for McAuliffe later this week.
Youngkin is also touring the state but he is typically the biggest name at each event recently drawing large crowds with no national figures to headline.
In a strategy call with Republicans across the state, Youngkin’s team advised their surrogates across Virginia that they might not be given speaking opportunities on his 50-stop bus tour this week.
“I just want to condition everybody at the front end so that you are kind of in tune with the plan and hopefully nobody is taping this and giving it to the Washington Post,” said Jeff Roe, the architect behind Youngkin’s campaign. “This is not going to be a Republican revival commonwealth tour. It’s not got pictures of all the former presidents on the side of the bus rolling down the interstate. This is a messaging tour — every stop is going to have a message assigned to it.”
Youngkin’s surrogates have made statements at times in the past during the course of his campaign that have not always aligned with the messaging from the top of the ticket. During a stop with Prince George County Republicans in August, state Sen. Frank Ruff (R) spoke ahead of Youngkin and accused Governor Ralph Northam of trying to use federal relief funds to bribe Virginia voters at the polls. Election integrity has been one of McAuliffe’s biggest attack pieces against Youngkin since the start of this race.
At a Youngkin event in Henrico earlier in the summer, state Del. John McGuire asked the crowd if they were “okay with a department of education that uses words like equity?” The crowd responded with a loud “no.”
“Depending on what that looks like will be who we will highlight and I just want to make sure that you all kind of understood because we will be assigning people to speak, and not speak,” Roe continued on the strategy call Friday. “When we, as we come into territory in your neck of the woods, everybody is gonna wanna speak and I want to make sure that everybody understands, if you’re not able to speak, it’s not because we don’t want to hear your lovely voice. It’s because we have a narrative and a message driving to the persuadable voters that we want to hear.”
Youngkin and McAuliffe both drew large crowds over the weekend at their events giving both campaigns ammunition to push the narrative that enthusiasm is behind their candidate. “Politics is about storytelling, and every campaign’s chief goal is to control the narrative about their candidate, and the election as a whole,” said Richard Meagher, a political science professor at Randolph Macon College. “So the last days of a campaign are traditionally focused on telling a story of ‘building momentum.’ This story is promoted by candidates whether they are ahead or behind in the polls. I think that campaigns hope to mobilize voters to the polls, although I don’t think there’s much evidence that there’s any effect.”
Both campaigns claimed on Saturday that 2,000 people attended their biggest event of the day, with staffers pushing videos and pictures showing large crowds from the best possible angle.
A poll released last week showed a 46-46 tie in the race, with just over a week until election day. Both candidates and their party surrogates have scheduled stops each day in different parts of the commonwealth.
“I think campaigns also promote the momentum narrative because they believe in it, or at least they want to,” Meagher said. “Studies show that even underdog candidates have some belief that they can win; otherwise why would they run? Momentum narratives help campaigns tell a winning story, but also the story even they want to hear.”
Election day is Tuesday, Nov. 2.
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