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Virginia Republican tries to ‘thread the needle’ on election-fraud claims By Reuters

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© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Virginia gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin speaks throughout a marketing campaign occasion in McLean, Virginia, U.S., July 14, 2021. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

By Jason Lange

CHESTERFIELD, Va. (Reuters) – At a latest Virginia rally, Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin talked up his plans to spice up the economic system and combat crime, and mentioned nothing in any respect about false claims that Democratic President Joe Biden’s election victory was the results of fraud.

However some within the crowd heard the message all the identical, moments earlier than the previous non-public fairness government’s speech, when Republican state Senator Amanda Chase instructed Youngkin supporters – offstage and with no microphone – that she was on guard in opposition to a repeat of election dishonest.

“I do know what the Democrats try to do,” she mentioned in an interview after remarks that drew cheers. “If issues occur once more like this previous 12 months, they are going to be caught,” mentioned Chase, considered one of Virginia’s main voices in assist of former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud, who final 12 months known as on him to declare martial legislation following his loss to Biden.

The dynamic illustrated the high quality line Youngkin walks on the marketing campaign path. He’s attempting to keep away from turning off die-hard supporters of Trump, a Republican, whose allegations the election was stolen from him had been rejected by dozens of courts, state election officers and members of his personal administration.

However Youngkin additionally doesn’t wish to alienate the unbiased voters who disapprove of Trump and his function in sparking the lethal Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol meant to overturn his election defeat.

The Nov. 2 contest between Youngkin and his Democratic opponent, former Governor Terry McAuliffe, is extensively seen as a bellwether of the 2022 congressional races that can decide which celebration controls Congress for the second half of Biden’s time period.

“Youngkin has the troublesome process that many mainstream Republicans have,” mentioned Jessica Taylor, an analyst on the Cook dinner Political Report, who considers the Youngkin-McAuliffe race a toss-up. “You must thread the needle very tightly right here since you can’t anger the Trump base that you simply additionally want.”

Trump has endorsed Youngkin and has warned that the vote could possibly be rigged in opposition to the Republican.

Youngkin, nonetheless, has known as Biden’s victory “certifiably honest.” He has made extra nuanced statements about election integrity, saying this month that Virginia’s voting machines have to be audited, one thing which is already carried out.

At his rally on Friday, held underneath a lined horse-riding enviornment in Chesterfield, south of the state capital, Richmond, Youngkin instructed the group: “We’d like election observers. Please volunteer to be election observers.”

He additionally instructed the rally he was grateful that Chase had talked there. “Thanks for being our associate,” he mentioned, pointing her out within the crowd. Chase, who misplaced to Youngkin within the Republican major, has been at a number of of his marketing campaign occasions.

Requested concerning the disconnect between Youngkin’s and Chase’s feedback on election fraud, Youngkin spokesperson Macaulay Porter cited McAuliffe’s ties to Democrats concerned in previous election disputes, together with former Vice President Al Gore, who misplaced the 2000 presidential election to Republican George W. Bush after the Supreme Court docket halted additional recounts, and Stacey Abrams, who disputed her 2018 defeat within the Georgia governor’s race.

‘CONSPIRACY THEORIES’

McAuliffe’s marketing campaign has seized on Youngkin’s feedback on election machine audits, working a tv advert final week that in contrast Youngkin’s place with what a voice within the spot described as Trump’s “conspiracy theories,” juxtaposed with photographs of the Jan. 6 riot.

Virginia shifted Democratic over the previous decade, thanks partly to inhabitants development in its liberal-leaning suburbs of Washington.

Biden beat Trump in Virginia by 10 proportion factors, the fourth straight election through which a Democratic presidential candidate carried the Southern state. Republicans carried Virginia in each presidential election from 1968 to 2004.

Many Youngkin supporters at his rally mentioned they had been savvy to Youngkin’s balancing act concerning Trump’s loss in 2020.

“He most likely cannot come out and say it was stolen like I can,” mentioned Tim Ashlin, 63, a retired utilities methods operator from Cumberland, Virginia. “He has received to be extra centrist.”

Some specialists fear Youngkin’s messaging – and his marketing campaign’s use of Chase – might undermine individuals’s religion in U.S. elections.

“He’s clearly attempting to have his cake and eat it too,” mentioned Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at Frequent Trigger, a voting rights watchdog group.

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