During the past week, some voters in Virginia have been targeted with ads on Facebook, Instagram, Google, and Snapchat challenging Youngkin's pledge to the Second Amendment, Axios reports.
"While the NRA backs Donald Trump, they REFUSED to endorse Glenn Youngkin. We can't trust Glenn Youngkin on guns," one of the ads says.
The ads come from a group called Accountability Virginia PAC, which on its website doesn’t provide details about who’s behind the organization. But the group's online contribution page is obtained through ActBlue, the main Democratic fundraising platform; its bank account lies with Amalgamated Bank, a financial institution maintained by labor unions and often used by pro-Democratic political groups; and consultants at a firm that works with Democrats helped incorporate Accountability Virginia, according to Axios.
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According to public records, the group spent about $25,000 to run the ads, which have been seen at least 1 million times. The ads emerging on Snapchat seem to be targeted to users in largely agrarian and heavily Republican areas of western Virginia.
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Youngkin, a prosperous businessman, and a first-time contestant is facing off against former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe in an election that’s seen as a key barometer ahead of next year's midterm elections when the power of Congress will be determined by it. The latest polls show McAuliffe holding a very slight advantage in the contest, with five weeks to go until the election.
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Virginia, a former top-political battleground, has grown blue over the past decade, and it’s been a dozen years since Republicans won a statewide election in the commonwealth. Virginia - along with New Jersey - are the only two states that have gubernatorial races in the year after a presidential election, and thus grab outsized attention.
There's also a long-running trend of voters in the state defeating the party that controls the White House. McAuliffe briefly broke that tradition in 2013 with his election as governor. Virginia governors are barred from serving two straight terms.
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November's election in Virginia, as with this month's gubernatorial recall election in California, is deemed as an early referendum on President Biden's occupation in the White House.
But while Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom's landslide victory in the California recall contest came in a deep blue state, Virginia remains a competitive battleground. And a McAuliffe loss in November, or even razor-thin victory, will set off major alarms with Democrats trying to hold onto their congressional majorities in next year's midterms.
Following in Newsom's footsteps, McAuliffe has been highlighting Youngkin's relations with former President Trump and his objection to COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates.
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