Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe has increasingly focused his campaign message on tying his opponent to former President Donald Trump.
Mr. McAuliffe, who served as governor from 2014 to 2018, has put out ads, daily emails, and made speeches painting GOP nominee Glenn Youngkin as a Trump lackey.
“Glenn Youngkin is not a reasonable Republican,” Mr. McAuliffe said in a July ad. “He is a loyalist to Donald Trump.”
In the same ad, the Democrat juxtaposes himself from his opponent by touting his record in office, and his working relationship with Republicans to create jobs and spend on infrastructure and education.
But Mr. Trump apparently remains the central theme in Mr. McAuliffe‘s messaging strategy, using him as a foil to get voters to turn out and cast a ballot against the former president.
Justin Kirkland, political science professor at the University of Virginia, said Mr. McAuliffe appears to be playing on people’s dislike of Mr. Trump over his own past accomplishments.
“I would say sort of the strategy is trying to tie Youngkin to the Trump arm of the Republican Party more than it is to discuss what McAuliffe was able to do when he was governor,” Mr. Kirkland told The Washington Times.
Mr. McAuliffe was first elected in 2013, succeeding former Gov. Bob McDonnell, the last Republican to serve as governor in Virginia.
The former governor has often pointed to education spending as well as painting himself as a pro-business Democrat. But Mr. Kirkland said the time lapse may make it easier for Mr. McAuliffe to use Mr. Trump as a boogeyman rather than to tout his record.
“He‘s done some things, but it’s been a little while since anybody remembers any of his gubernatorial successes,” Mr. Kirkland said. “So he needs to figure out some way to remind people why they should vote for him. And [Mr. Trump] is kind of an easy and common tactic.”
While campaigning with President Biden in Arlington in August, Mr. McAuliffe invoked the comparison of Mr. Youngkin to Mr. Trump several times, calling his opponent an “acolyte of Donald Trump.”
The president embraced the sentiment, reminding voters of his own victory against Mr. Trump.
“Terry and I share a lot in common,” Mr. Biden said. “I ran against Donald Trump and so is Terry. And I whipped Donald Trump in Virginia and so will Terry.”
Mr. Trump‘s performed poorly in Democratic-trending Virginia in both presidential campaigns, lost the state in 2016 to Democrat Hillary Clinton by about six points and to Mr. Biden by 10 points in 2020.
In a fundraising email put out by the McAuliffe campaign on Thursday, the message warned voters that Mr. Youngkin‘s potential victory could lead to the former president becoming the 2024 GOP presidential nominee.
“Donald Trump is watching our every move because his path to becoming the 2024 Republican Presidential nominee starts with his guy Glenn Youngkin winning in Virginia,” the email reads.
In a separate email sent out Wednesday, Mr. McAuliffe attacked his opponent for embracing Mr. Trump‘s endorsement of him and even misnaming Mr. Youngkin to put him the former president’s shadow.
“Terry‘s been saying it since the beginning - the 2021 Governor’s race is about stopping Trumpism and keeping Virginia moving forward,” the email read. “If we’re going to stop Glenn Trumpkin from becoming Governor, Virginia Democrats need to come together right now.”
Mr. Trump himself has weighed in on the race, endorsing Mr. Youngkin several times as the candidate who will “make Virginia great again.”
Mr. Youngkin has welcomed the former president’s support, but appears to be positioning himself as a political outsider rather than tying himself to Mr. Trump‘s person, which remains unpopular among suburban voters.
Mr. Youngkin is a first-time candidate and private-equity manager who has funded much of his own campaign, a move Mr. Trump and other businessmen have done.
Because local politics has become largely nationalized, Mr. Kirkland said it’s typical for campaigns to invoke an unpopular figure in the opposing party to mobilize the base voters.
In this case, Mr. McAuliffe can rally voters to cast a ballot against Mr. Trump on Nov. 2.
“Trump is just such a reviled figure within the Democratic Party that that’s a really good way to motivate Democrats to show up,” Mr. Kirkland said.
The Republican’s campaign said they also had noticed their opponent’s frequent invocation of Mr. Trump.
“In his primary victory speech, Terry mentioned Trump 10 times,” said campaign spokeswoman Macaulay Porter. “What he didn’t mention was the rationale for why he’s running for governor again. We’re all wondering.”
Mr. McAuliffe‘s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
A recent poll by co/efficient found that Mr. McAuliffe and Mr. Youngkin statistically tied. The Aug. 8-9 poll found the Democrat had 47% support compared to 45% for the Republican, a 2-point gap that is less than the poll’s error margin of almost 3 percentage points.
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