John Reid on How Virginia’s Earle-Sears Pressed in Debate, Gained in Polls

It has been a tumultuous several days in Virginia’s off-year races for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general. As the fallout from Democrat attorney general nominee Jay Jones’ violent text messages and the fallout from the one and only debate between gubernatorial candidates continue to reverberate, we see the polls continuing to turn in the Republicans’ favor.

Democrat gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger had already turned down a CNN-hosted debate, saying she wanted “local news media” to moderate any debates she had with Republican nominee Winsome Earle-Sears. She may rue that decision, because after a contentious first half of the debate in which Earle-Sears would frequently interrupt Spanberger’s filibuster-like answers, asking if the Democrat nominee was going to answer the actual questions posed, the moderators began to pick up on that.

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That led to what I think is the “McAuliffe Moment” of the debate. You’ll hear it in the beginning of this edition of “The Daily Signal Podcast” below, and I think you’ll find it interesting that it was prompted by the same tactic then-Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin used exactly four years ago to get Democrat Terry McAuliffe to admit what he really thought about parents with kids in public schools.

After last week’s debate, a Trafalgar Group poll showed that Spanberger’s former 12-point lead is now down to 2.6% (she is at 47.7% to Earle-Sears’ 45.1%, with 5.6% still undecided).

The poll also showed that incumbent Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares is ahead of Jones 48.9% to 43.1%. In the lieutenant governor’s race, Democrat Del. Ghazala Hashmi is only ahead of Republican John Reid 46.8% to 45.9%.

We caught up with Reid, the former Ronald Reagan and Gov. George Allen aide, on the way to a morning campaign stop to talk about the debate, the new polls, and where the races for Virginia’s top spots go from here.

Listen here: