The economy ranked as the top issue facing the state of Virginia as voters cast their ballots in the tough race for governor, with the coronavirus pandemic and education trailing.
In a race between Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin, 34% of Virginia voters say the economy and jobs were the most important issues facing the state. Seventeen percent name COVID-19 and 14% choose education, according to AP VoteCast, a poll of voters.
Health care (7%), climate change (7%), racism (5%), immigration (5%), abortion (5%) and law enforcement (4%) were all bottom-line issues.
Tuesday’s election is the closest and most competitive contest since President Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump last year, and is seen as a gauge of how voters are feeling ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
Here’s a snapshot of who voted and what matters to them, based on preliminary results from the AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 2,500 voters in Virginia conducted by NORC for the Associated Press at the University of Chicago .
Is Virginia’s economy growing or sinking?
Youngkin, a former private equity executive, often insisted during the campaign that Virginia’s economy was in a ditch, “but most voters disagreed. Fifty-six percent said the states’ economy was in good shape, compared to 44 percent.” The economic condition is bad. Poor.
Youngkin argued that Virginia’s record budget surplus was the result of surcharges as it campaigned on promises of substantial tax cuts.
McAuliffe countered that the surplus was due to strong economic growth under Democratic leadership and argued that Youngkins’ opposition to a conservative position on abortion rights and LGBTQ issues would hinder efforts to recruit new businesses into the Commonwealth.
As the cost of goods rises, nearly two-thirds of Virginia voters in this year’s election say their family’s financial situation is stable. This is a similar percentage to voters in previous years’ presidential races.
Another 16% say they are moving ahead financially, while about 18% say they are lagging behind.
School debate decisive for many
The school became a major focus of the gubernatorial race for Youngkin, which localized a nationwide debate after McAuliffe said during a debate that parents should not tell schools what they should teach. did.
A quarter of Virginia voters say the debate over teaching critical race theory in schools was the most important factor in their vote for governor, but a similar percentage identified the debate on handling COVID-19 in schools as the most important Of.
More voters said the public school system in Virginia is focusing more on racism in America, if not much less, at 43% to 32%. Another 24% said it was right to focus on racism.
A majority of voters say they think racism is a serious problem in America, but less than half (44%) call it very serious.
Nearly 6 in 10 Virginia voters support both the mask mandate for teachers and students in K-12 schools and the vaccine mandate for teachers.
Indecision on 2020
Nearly 6 out of 10 voters say they all know who they will support the governors race with. In the presidential race last year, three-quarters of Virginia voters said they all know who they’ll be back with, though not as many have decided in the past few days.
Nearly 3 out of 10 voters now say they took the decision during the election campaign. Roughly 1 in 10 said they are still making decisions in the past few days.
McAuliffe gets more blame for the attacks
Most voters think that at least one candidate unfairly attacked the gubernatorial campaign, but voters are more likely to say that only McAuliffe unfairly attacked Youngkin in another. 2 out of 10 voters said that the two attacked each other unfairly.
Doubts remain regarding counting of votes
Although Virginia had no major problems with its vote count in 2020, only half of Virginia voters are confident that votes in the governor’s election will be counted correctly. Another 3 out of 10 voters are somewhat convinced.
Still, voter confidence is stronger now than in previous years’ presidential election: just 25% said they were confident that the votes would be counted correctly.
majority back abortion rights
Nearly 6 in 10 Virginia voters say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 4 in 10 say it should be illegal in all or most cases.
Still, the majority of voters fall in the middle, supporting abortion in some instances, but a third of all voters say that abortion should be legal in most cases, and many say that abortion is illegal in most cases. Is. Should be.
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The AP VoteCast is a poll of American voters conducted by NORC for Fox News and The Associated Press at the University of Chicago. In Virginia, 2,524 voters were surveyed for seven days, which ended after the voting ended. Interviews were conducted in English or Spanish. The survey combines a random sample of registered voters drawn from the state voter file and self-identified registered voters selected from a non-probability online panel. The margin of sampling error for voters is estimated to be plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. Find out more about the AP Votecast method at https://www.ap.org/votecast.
Disclaimer: This post has been self-published from the agency feed without modification and has not been reviewed by an editor
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