In less than a week, Virginia voters head to the polls for a closely-watched, high-stakes election, and the economy is on the minds of many people who will cast a ballot, according to a recent poll from The Wason Center at Christopher Newport University.
The poll of 800 likely voters from Virginia showed that “the economy and inflation” was the number one answer for which issue is top-of-mind.
“Pocketbook issues are just something that a lot of voters are thinking about,” said Rebecca Bromley-Trujillo, the poll’s research director. “When you’re thinking about how much money you’re spending on groceries or on gas, it’s a common issue that people deal with in their lives.”
Inflation is not a Virginia-specific issue, but it has the attention of many voters choosing candidates who will represent them locally.
“Most voters are lumping the economy and inflation together,” Bromley-Trujillo said. “When voters mentioned the economy in other years, they’re not necessarily thinking about inflation; they may be thinking about much broader issues.”
The answers varied depending on political party, with 41% of Republicans saying the economy and inflation was their number one issue.
For Democrats, just 12% gave that answer, with many saying they care more about abortion and gun laws.
“A lot of these races are nationalized, so they’re prioritizing issues that may or may not be directly influenced by our state legislature,” Bromley-Trujillo said.
The poll has a margin of error of plus-or-minus four percentage points.
All 140 General Assembly seats are on the ballot.
With the legislature narrowly divided, both parties believe they have a path to a full statehouse majority, running through a little more than a dozen battleground districts centered in central Virginia, Hampton Roads and the outer D.C. suburbs.
If the GOP holds onto both chambers of the state legislature, then it would clear the way for Gov. Glenn Youngkin to move swiftly on what he calls his “commonsense” conservative priorities — boosting pay and funding for law enforcement, protecting parental rights in education, overhauling the mental health system, enacting additional tax cuts and greater restrictions on abortion.
While he has notched some successes on taxes and education through bipartisan support during his first two legislative sessions, a lot of his priorities have been blocked by the Democratic majority in the Senate.
Democrats claimed that total Republican control would lead to the repeal of legislation enacted in 2020 and 2021 while they ran the state government, such as measures that mandated a transition to cleaner cars and an electric generation, greatly expanded voting access and added restrictions to firearms purchases and ownership.
A lot of Democratic candidates are making abortion a top campaign issue, saying that Youngkin’s proposed ban on abortion after 15 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest or to protect the life of the mother, would harm women’s health and interfere with their bodily autonomy.
Virginia is the only state in the South that has not enacted new restrictions since the Supreme Court overturned its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling last year and stripped protections for abortion.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
