Trump ticks ahead in Virginia in RCP polling average

Former President Donald Trump has inched ahead of President Joe Biden in Virginia, a state no Republican has won at the presidential level since 2004.

The RealClearPolitics polling average currently shows Trump with 43.8% support to Biden's 43.4%. The average includes five surveys from Emerson, VCU, NY Times/Siena, Fox News, and Roanoke College.

Pushing Trump over the edge appears to be the recent Emerson survey, showing him with a 2% lead. Trump led with 45% to Biden's 43% in that survey.

The former president has long insisted he can flip several Democratic bastions, including Virginia and his home state of New York. In the wake of his debate with Biden, Trump held a rally in Chesapeake in which he appeared alongside GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin and made his case to voters in the commonwealth.

“Our case to Virginia is very simple,” Trump said at the time. “We will seal the border, we will make the American Dream affordable again, but we will bring back the American Dream, something you don’t hear about anymore… Under my leadership, we had the greatest economy in the history of the world… during my term we had gasoline down to $1.87 a gallon.”

“Working with your great governor, Glenn Youngkin, we will make Virginia greater than it has ever been before,” he declared.