‘Virginia is far more competitive than any of the pundits would have believed,’ he said.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said that he believes his state is “far more competitive” for Republicans and former President Donald Trump’s campaign than what pundits and analysts have said.
The former president will campaign in Salem, Virginia, on Saturday. An aggregate of polls has shown that Vice President Kamala Harris is ahead by about 5 percentage points.
“Virginia is far more competitive than any of the pundits would have believed, but I just remind everybody, Donald Trump, of course, against Joe Biden in 2020, Joe Biden won by 10 points,” Youngkin told Fox News on Wednesday evening.
Republicans in 2021, he added, “were able to win Virginia. And Virginians are ready for strength back in the White House. And that’s why this state is far more competitive than people would have thought.”
Trump’s relatively good performance in Virginia is, in part, due to his policies, Youngkin said, citing “runaway inflation, which has been a gut punch every time you go into the grocery store.”
Other than the Virginia visit, Trump is heading to Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Thursday.
Anna Kelly, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, said that Trump is “ringing his America First message and vision for hardworking families right to their front door” in Virginia and New Mexico.
But Trump’s strategy carries some risk, based on historical precedent.
After losing to Trump in 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton was criticized for going to Arizona late in the campaign instead of spending time in Wisconsin, Michigan, or Pennsylvania, states that ended up deciding that election. Although Arizona is now a battleground, it wasn’t considered particularly competitive eight years ago when it voted for Trump by a 4 percent margin.
New Mexico voters have twice rebuffed Trump at the polls, and Democrats hold every statewide elected position, all three congressional seats and majorities in the state House and Senate.
An aggregate of recent polls show that Harris is leading Trump in New Mexico by about 5 percentage points.
Virginia, which was once a battleground state, has veered toward Democrats in the past decade or so. That’s mainly due to the populous northern part of the state located adjacent to Washington.
Trump lost the state to both Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020, although Virginia elected current Republican Youngkin as governor in 2021.
However, based on his comments at a recent rally in Richmond, Trump believes he can take Virginia. “We have a real chance,” he said on Saturday.
Trump, while in Virginia, may speak about Wednesday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling leaving in place a purge of voter registrations that the state says is aimed at stopping people who are not U.S. citizens from voting. The high court granted an emergency appeal from Virginia’s Republican administration led by Youngkin.
But Susan Swecker, chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Virginia, said Trump’s scheduled visit to Salem on Saturday would only widen Harris’s lead in the state.
“Kamala Harris will win Virginia convincingly, as he knows, and any visit from“ the former president ”will only widen the margin,” Swecker said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.