Trump used to be kryptonite for GOP in Virginia, but not this year

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

77% : "President Trump was elected in large part to get our economy growing again.
68% : Over the summer, though, Youngkin went all in for Trump -- appearing in public with him for the first time at a rally in Chesapeake -- and has never looked back.
65% : Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin rose to national prominence in 2021 by being the first to solve that puzzle -- winning as a Republican in this blue-leaning state in the age of Trump.
61% : He's become a highly visible Republican governor by endearing himself to Trump and by offering messaging that's very popular on Fox News," Farnsworth said.
51% : "People like what Trump does until he does it to them," he said.
50% : Trump's first term ushered in four wildly successful years for Virginia Democrats, who tapped anti-MAGA sentiment to win races for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general; flipped three reliably red congressional seats; and took full control of the General Assembly for the first time in a generation.
50% : "Trump is in that 100-day honeymoon," said Jessica Taylor, Senate and governors editor for the Cook Political Report With Amy Walter.
47% : But in addition to bashing MAGA, state Democrats have launched what University of Mary Washington political scientist Stephen Farnsworth calls a much more focused, policy-driven response to Trump than Democrats in Congress have so far managed.
46% : Although there has not been much state-level polling in Virginia since Trump assumed office in January, Ken Nunnenkamp, executive director of the Republican Party of Virginia, said he has a sense that Trump's popularity has risen in Virginia.
46% : Bill Bolling, a Republican and former Virginia lieutenant governor, has been supportive of Trump in some areas but expressed concern about his tariff policies on Facebook on March 4.
41% : Some GOP strategists say they have not detected the same level of anti-Trump backlash in Virginia as in past years, noting that Trump is more popular nationally now than he was during the last two governor's races, in 2017 and 2021.
38% : "You can't really cross Trump right now," Taylor said.
37% : "Given how dependent the Northern Virginia economy is on government jobs and government spending, it could be an issue.
36% : Winsome Earle-Sears stands alongside him," her campaign posted the day after Trump delivered a starkly partisan address to Congress earlier this month.
36% : Following Trump is clearly not the path to success in Virginia.
28% : Since Trump descended that New York escalator a decade ago, he has never been broadly popular in Virginia, and Republican politicians have had to be wary of the MAGA movement for any hope of statewide success.
28% : " At the same time, Taylor thinks Earle-Sears and other Republicans are in no position to overtly buck Trump given his grip on the party's grass roots.
27% : Earle-Sears supported Trump in 2016 and traveled the country to promote his reelection in 2020, but in 2022 she said he had become a liability for the party after candidates he endorsed in congressional midterms underperformed.
25% : "If [Earle-Sears] came out wholeheartedly against some of this, then she could be at more risk of losing a primary and she would have Republicans that would abandon her and Trump could endorse against her. ...
23% : " Citing proposed constitutional referendums on protecting abortion rights, enshrining same-sex marriage and restoring the right to vote for people convicted of felonies, Farnsworth said Virginia Democrats and their presumptive gubernatorial nominee -- former congresswoman Abigail Spanberger -- have avoided the trap of running a negative campaign against Trump that hasn't always worked in the past.
22% : Trump has lost the state in all three of his presidential runs.
20% : President Trump is working hard for Americans and Virginians, doing what he said he'd do when he was elected, and Democrats seem to be having a hard time understanding that the American people like what he's doing.
20% : " Still, Taylor said, fully embracing Trump entails risk, particularly given the DOGE disruptions and job losses.
18% : Earle-Sears's relationship with Trump might prove less important among Virginians than the one she has with Youngkin, who has maintained positive ratings with voters even as his own relationship with Trump has ebbed and flowed.
17% : " That's what happened to former congressman Bob Good (Virginia), an ultraconservative who lost the GOP nomination for reelection in the fall to former state senator John McGuire (Goochland) because Good had dared to back Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) over Trump earlier in the presidential campaign.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.