On Tuesday, the Virginia Public Access Project published new data showing that Republicans lead 6 of the top 10 counties in early polling for the House of Delegates election.
As of Monday, the state of Virginia has cast a little over 700,000 ballots. Of those districts, six of the top ten districts are in Republican favor. Also, two districts are labeled as “competitive,” which means it’s within zero to five points in either favor. The districts are split in favorability, with each party leading by a slim margin in one county.
Earle-Sears has also seen a spike in support in the recent wake of some bad headlines for the Democratic challengers. In a new poll from Coefficent, Earle-Sears maintains a 5 point deficit to Spanberger, with still about 6% of the vote remaining undecided. Attorney General Miyares is also leading by 4 points above Jay Jones with 11% undecided.
In another poll by the Trafalgar Group, Earle-Sears is closer to Spanberger, being within the margin on error. Miayres also leads by about 5% against Jones. (RELATED: Democrats Break With Party Lines to Support Republican John Reid)
The Democratic ticket has come under fire after the Jay Jones text message incident, including bringing down Spanberger. In the debate, when asked about the text messages, Spanberger just side stepped the questions to talk about how “it’s the voters choice now.”
When confronted by Earle-Sears about the texts, Spanberger remained silent and refused to denounce Jones’ endorsement or call for him to exit the race. She also refused to publicly revoke her endorsements when asked about it on stage, when provoked about her endorsement of Jones. “The voters now have the information, and it’s up to voters to make a choice based on this information.”
Over the weekend, Spanberger announced a bus tour across Virginia with 11 stops and included an appearance from President Obama. However, that headlines was quickly swallowed up after news broke of a JMU fan telling Earle-Sears to “go back to Haiti” during a JMU football game.