McAuliffe holds slim lead over Youngkin in Fox News poll

Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe (D) held a slim lead over his Republican opponent Glenn Youngkin, according to a new poll published Thursday. 

The Fox News poll of likely voters in Virginia showed McAuliffe’s support at 51 percent while Youngkin’s support was at 46 percent. Another 3 percent of voters said they were undecided. 

The survey showed that the economy was the most important concern for respondents in deciding whom to vote for in the race for governor, followed by the coronavirus and health care respectively.

Apart from the Virginia election, the survey indicated that 71 percent of respondents favored “schools requiring teachers and students to wear masks” while 66 percent favored “schools requiring teachers to be vaccinated.”

A CBS News/YouGov poll published earlier this week showed McAuliffe was leading Youngkin 50 percent to 47 percent with a margin of error of 4.1 percentage points. The same poll showed Youngkin leading McAuliffe 53 percent to 44 percent among likely independent voters. 

McAuliffe’s campaign will attempt to increase its momentum with high profile figures campaigning for the candidate.

On Tuesday, McAuliffe said that President Biden would campaign for him before Election Day, marking the first time Biden will campaign with the former governor since July. McAuliffe also said that former President Obama would join him on the campaign trail next week.

The candidate also garnered added support on Thursday with an endorsement from progressive veterans group VoteVets. 

Thursday’s poll was Fox’s first poll of likely Virginia voters. It was conducted between Sept. 26 and Sept. 29 and included 901 registered voters in the state. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.