Wow. The Democrat will win obviously, but any poll showing a Republican ahead in VA of all places is pretty hilarious.
Are we seriously going to keep acting like states that were ~5 points for the opposing party are unwinnable?
Meh, Republicans usually don't win statewide races in VA. It's an inelastic anti-Trump blue state where any Democrat should easily win a gubernatorial race, especially with Trump's approvals in the dumpster (and no, I am not saying that Gillespie would have had a shot had Clinton been elected - VA is a big pro-Clinton state).
I don't quite get this attitude. I think the Dem nominee wins by 2.5-5 at the end of the day (Perriello has more upside than Northam, but he could also blow it), but with Virginia's contrarian history and Republicans controlling everything federally, that's hardly a Safe D state. Really, if you want to claim that any 2X Bush state is off the table for Republicans going forward, it should be CO.
1. Clinton's VP wasn't from there
2. Trump had the best performance in rural CO relative to his national margin since
before the New Deal and still barely improved on Romney statewide.
3. The Denver area is going to be a lot more comfortable with the Bernie wing of the Dems gaining influence than Fairfax and Loudoun counties ever would be.
So really I don't get the VA and NH stuff after last year's results. Clinton was supposed to win them by 10ish.
On another note, it's interesting that Justin Fairfax is uniformly outrunning the top of the ticket for LG. That LG seat could be very important come 2021 as the state senate is up in 2019 and Democrats only need to pick up one seat to flip the chamber and block a GOP redistricting plan if they hold LG, even if Gillespie is governor.
