A new poll from Virginia Commonwealth University-Wilder School showed Republican nominee Donald Trump leading President Joe Biden in Virginia.
Trump leads Biden 39% to 36%. Biden's numbers in Virginia have dropped 6 points since the last VCU-Wilder poll in January.
Despite Biden trailing, Sen. Tim Kane, D-Va. leads his Republican challenger, Hung Cao, by 11 point, 49% to 38%. Gov. Glenn Youngkin also saw his approval rating drop 4 points, from 54% to 50%.
"Virginia is in play," said former Democrat Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, whose namesake school sponsored the poll, according to The Washington Post. "It is a close race. It's a turnout election in Virginia."
Wilder said Democrats should be very nervous Biden is running well behind Kaine.
"Why is there such a drop in support for Biden?" Wilder said. "I would not be the person to say that he should step down … but it's very concerning for Democrats."
Biden's approval ratings were also underwater in the poll, with only 36% approving and 58% disapproving. The president's numbers plunged 21% among Black voters from the last VCU-Wilder poll, from 67% to 46%. A full 14% of Black voters said they would vote for Trump.
""He needs to do something demonstrably in Virginia so people say, We got to have this guy. It's not a question of the lesser of two evils — no, no, tell us what it is that you are going to do," Wilder told the Post.
The poll found voters are most concerned about "rising cost of living" followed by reproductive rights and immigration.
A majority of Virginia voters, 53% said they were less likely to vote for Trump because of his felony conviction in New York.
The poll was conducted from June 24-July 3 among 809 adults in Virginia. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.8 percentage points. A third of the survey was conducted on landlines and the rest on cellphones.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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