The inhabitants of the American state of Virginia voted Tuesday to elect their governor, a test having value for Joe Biden, weakened by polls at half mast and who hopes for a victory to revive the Democratic camp, a year before parliamentary elections in high risk.
Polling stations opened at 6 a.m. local in this east coast state of the United States, and the two candidates, Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin, as well as President Biden, all tweeted to encourage voters. to mobilize.
While Virginia voted widely for the Democratic president in the presidential election a year ago, the latter’s popularity has faltered since the chaotic American withdrawal from Afghanistan.
At the local level, the large lead of Terry McAuliffe, 64 years old and former governor (2014-2018) of this state neighboring the federal capital, also melted in the face of Mr. Youngkin, a 54-year-old businessman, and the polls now give them neck and neck.
“From now on, the outcome of the poll depends entirely on participation,” McAuliffe assured Monday in a message to Democratic voters, traditionally urban.
“Republicans are all set on electing their candidate, and with Donald Trump campaigning for his right-wing extremist base on the eve of the election, Glenn Youngkin is sure to have a strong turnout tomorrow,” he said. he warned.
Polling stations will close at 7 p.m., as many voters have already voted in advance.
Glenn Youngkin wants to capitalize on the popularity of the Republican billionaire with the rural electorate of this state.
He is against the compulsory wearing of a mask, the obligation of vaccination for children or for certain professions, and has invested the battlefield of school programs.
He fiercely fights the teaching of “critical race theory”, a school of thought that analyzes racism as a system rather than at the level of individual prejudices.
And he is accused by his opponent of seeking to ban from schools certain books by black authors, such as the literary classic “Beloved” by Toni Morrison, which the Republican denies.
Glenn Youngkin highlighted in a recent election spot a mother who had launched a campaign to ban this book from classrooms in her county, because certain violent passages had, according to her, caused her son to have nightmares. high school student.
Heavy goods vehicles in the countryside
But he did not endorse Mr. Trump’s most outrageous positions so as not to frighten moderate conservatives and the undecided.
A victory for Mr. Youngkin would provide Republicans with a conservative platform for the midterm elections, with the goal of regaining control of Congress.
A sign of the importance of the ballot, the heavyweights of the Democratic Party – Joe Biden, its vice president Kamala Harris, the former president Barack Obama, among others – came to Virginia to campaign for Mr. McAuliffe.
The ballot is also a test on Joe Biden’s ability to seduce the middle class, supposed to be the main beneficiary of his major investment plans – one in infrastructure, the other on a social and climate aspect – who aspire to transform America.
But these plans are blocked in Congress, which could vote on them Tuesday, at the earliest.
The president must also succeed in mobilizing African-American voters in this southern state where the slavery past is regularly the subject of hot debates.
He had been able to rely on them to gain access to the White House, but some accuse him of having lost sight of his great promises on minority access to the vote or on police reform.
Another election in the state, that of the “lieutenant governor” (deputy governor), will be historic because a woman of color will accede for the first time to this function: the democrat Hala Ayala, of Lebanese, Afro-Latin and Irish origins, or Republican Winsome Sears, an African American.
The governorship is also on the line Tuesday in New Jersey. Outgoing Democrat Phil Murphy leads the polls against moderate Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli.