From APP President Terry Schilling’s op-ed in Newsweek:

Republican Glenn Youngkin is locked in a tight battle to become the next governor of Virginia. The last GOP candidate for governor in the commonwealth lost by nearly nine points, a year after Hillary Clinton won by five. Last year, Joe Biden carried Virginia by 10 points, while the Democratic candidate for the Senate won by 12. Tomorrow, we will find out whether Youngkin can be the first Republican to mount a successful statewide campaign for office since 2009.

He stands a good chance. Over the past few weeks, the polls have consistently shown the race well within the margin of error. As of this writing, the RealClearPolitics polling average shows Democrat Terry McAuliffe leading by a mere 1.2 points. Should the polling prove correct, or even close to correct, it would be astonishing. Whatever Youngkin has done to close a 10-point gap is worthy of attention.

Youngkin was down by a significant margin until very recently. The gap only started closing about a month ago after McAuliffe committed a political gaffe. What was the gaffe? He accidentally told the truth. Pressed by Youngkin in a debate over recent controversies in Virginia public schools, McAuliffe admitted, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” This made the stakes of the election crystal-clear.

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Read the full op-ed here.