Wall Street Journal (Virginia)
By Janet Hook
October 11, 2017
WASHINGTON—Former President Barack Obama will make his first campaign foray next week since leaving the White House, appearing at a rally for Democratic candidate Ralph Northam in the closely contested race for governor of Virginia.
The Obama appearance shows the high political stakes in the Northam contest against Republican Ed Gillespie, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump in a Twitter message last week even as the GOP candidate has tried to keep some distance from the president.
Mr. Obama, who carried Virginia in 2008 and 2012, is scheduled to appear in Richmond on Oct. 19 with Mr. Northam, who is now lieutenant governor.
The Nov. 7 election to choose a successor to Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe —who is limited by law to one four-year term—is one of just two gubernatorial races being held in this off year. The other is in New Jersey, where the Democratic candidate, Phil Murphy, is heavily favored to win the battle to succeed GOP Gov. Chris Christie.
The Virginia race is a closer contest, polls suggest, but Mr. Northam is favored over Mr. Gillespie, a lobbyist and former chairman of the Republican National Committee. The Real Clear Politics average of polls has Mr. Northam ahead by 6.8 percentage points. But many voters are undecided and Mr. Northam is a low-key candidate who could benefit if the former president can help boost Democratic enthusiasm and turnout. A December 2016 Quinnipiac poll found that as Mr. Obama was leaving office, 59% of Virginians approved of the job he was doing.
The Virginia race has drawn the attention of national leaders because it is considered the biggest political test of the two parties since Mr. Trump became president.
In his tweet supporting Mr. Gillespie, Mr. Trump drew attention to the candidate’s charge that Mr. Northam has supported immigration policies that fostered the rise of the MS-13 gang in Virginia. Mr. Northam has called that baseless “fearmongering.” Mr. Gillespie has played his connection to Mr. Trump cautiously, trying to avoid alienating swing voters while also courting the many Trump enthusiasts who supported Corey Stewart, the GOP rival who nearly beat Mr. Gillespie in the primary.
When asked if he would like Mr. Trump to campaign for him, Mr. Gillespie has tended to sidestep the question. “I’ll take help from anybody,” he said in one of the debates.
Mr. Northam has had his own mixed message about Mr. Trump. During his primary campaign against rival Tom Perriello, Mr. Northam called the president a “narcissistic maniac” but he has also said he would be willing to work with the president if it was in Virginia’s interest.
Since leaving office, Mr. Obama has occasionally emerged from his postpresidential private life to speak out against GOP efforts to dismantle his legacy. He lambasted Mr. Trump for his decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the Obama policy that prevented deportation of immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents. He also spoke out against Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
Mr. Obama headlined one event for the Democratic National Committee in late September and another in July for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. That new group was set up to strengthen Democrats’ hand in upcoming redistricting fights after the 2020 census, a project that Mr. Obama has said would be central to his postpresidential political mission.
The Virginia governor’s race is considered important in that mission because if Democrats lose it, Republicans will have a monopoly on state power over redistricting provided they keep their majorities in the state legislature.
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