GOP pollster Frank Luntz predicts Glenn Youngkin will likely prevail in Virginia election

(Image credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

published 2 November 2021

It's election day in America and the country can't take its eyes off Virginia, where Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin are in a neck-and-neck fight to become the next governor of the historically-blue commonwealth, CNBC reports.

The race has become somewhat of a bellwether for the national political attitude and a harbinger of what's to come in 2022 midterms, when Democrats' control of Congress is up for grabs. However, though it's of course still early, well-known Republican pollster and strategist Frank Luntz predicts there's "about an 80 percent chance" that Youngkin prevails against McAuliffe, per CNBC.

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Whatever happens, The Washington Post's Greg Sargent believes the Virginia election has highlighted the "communications imbalance" between Democrats and Republicans, in which the GOP can fire up and communicate with its base directly via right-wing media while Democrats otherwise struggle. "The Democratic Party needs to figure out ways to more actively court its base voters on a regular basis," strategist David Turner told Sargent. Read more at The Washington Post.

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Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.

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