“Republican Ed Gillespie has vaulted into the lead in the Virginia governor’s race even as he sought to tie his rival to Democrat-supported sanctuary city policies, possibly offering a window into GOP strategy in the 2018 midterm elections,” according to Fox News.
Gillespie recently ran an ad attempting to tie his opponent Ralph Northam’s support of sanctuary cities to the rise of the MS-13 gang in the state (“MS-13 is a menace, yet Ralph Northam voted in favor of sanctuary cities that let dangerous illegal immigrants back on the street, increasing the threat of MS-13”).
The strategy might be working. In the latest batch of polls in RealClearPolitics‘ polling average, Gillespie leads Northam by 2 points. Northam still leads Gillespie overall by 2.8 points, but that number has been shrinking in recent days. This race is proving to be anything but an easy one for Democrats.
But there might be another reason for Gillespie’s polling boost: President Trump tweeted in support of the candidate and his campaign’s positions on crime and sanctuary cities a few weeks ago.
Virginians go to the polls on November 7.
