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 and daily emails and made speeches portraying Republican 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 with 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, a 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 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. Youngkin’s campaign accused Mr. McAuliffe of using Mr. Trump to mask a lack of ideas.
“In his primary victory speech, Terry mentioned Trump 10 times,” said Macaulay Porter, Youngkin campaign spokeswoman. “What he didn’t mention was the rationale for why he’s running for governor again. We’re all wondering.”
Mr. McAuliffe’s campaign turned the theme of Mr. Trump against his opponent by using Mr. Youngkin’s own words.
“It is absolutely clear that Glenn Youngkin has made Donald Trump the primary theme of his campaign by saying Trump ’represents so much of why’ he is running,” said Renzo Olivari, a McAuliffe campaign spokesman. “Glenn has made it clear he is running for Donald Trump — showing his complete allegiance to Trump and his lies, election conspiracy theories — and it has earned him three endorsements from Trump.”
The spokesman cited Mr. McAuliffe’s plan to implement a $15 minimum wage by 2024 and expand child care access and workers’ benefits.
Mr. McAuliffe was first elected in 2013. He succeeded Gov. Bob McDonnell, the last Republican to serve as governor in Virginia.
The former governor has often pointed to education spending and has portrayed himself as a pro-business Democrat. But Mr. Kirkland said the time lapse might 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 and called his opponent an “acolyte of Donald Trump.”
The president embraced the sentiment and reminded voters of his victory over 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 performed poorly in Democratic-trending Virginia in both of his presidential races. He lost the state in 2016 to Democrat Hillary Clinton by about 6 percentage points and to Mr. Biden by 10 points last year.
A fundraising email that the McAuliffe campaign released Thursday warned voters that a victory by Mr. Youngkin could lead to a Trump candidacy in 2024.
“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 says.
In an email sent Wednesday, Mr. McAuliffe attacked his opponent for embracing Mr. Trump’s endorsement and even misnamed Mr. Youngkin to put him in 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 has said Mr. Youngkin would “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, who remains unpopular among suburban voters.
Mr. Youngkin is a first-time candidate and private equity manager who has funded much of his own campaign, which Mr. Trump and other business people have done.
Because local politics has become largely nationalized, Mr. Kirkland said, it’s typical for campaigns to invoke unpopular figures in the opposing party to mobilize the base voters.
In this case, Mr. McAuliffe can rally voters to cast ballots 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.
A poll by co/efficient found Mr. McAuliffe and Mr. Youngkin statistically tied. The Aug. 8-9 poll found the Democrat had 47% support, compared with 45% for the Republican. The 2-point gap is smaller than the poll’s error margin of almost 3 percentage points.
• Mica Soellner can be reached at msoellner@washingtontimes.com.
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