The latest polls are showing a mixed picture in the hotly contested race for governor. Democrat Ralph Northam has a small but consistent lead against Republican Ed Gillespie in two new polls.
One poll is from the Wason Center at Christopher Newport University. It has Northam up by four points, which is within the margin of error for the first time in the tracking poll.
"If I look at the three polls that we’ve done and I project out of the two more that we’re going to do, it looks like it might be really tight race with neither Northam or Gillespie being at 50 percent, which would be a fascinating night on election night," Wason Center director Quentin Kidd explained. "Might be a long night.”
Click here to see the full Wason Center poll results
Another new poll from Roanoke College has Northam up six points, a lead that’s larger than the margin of error for that poll, which is plus or minus four points. But Harry Wilson, director of the Institute for Policy and Opinion Research at Roanoke College, says Republicans are often strong finishers.
“Ed Gillespie in 2014 closed in the last week or two against Mark Warner and almost defeated him, and almost four years ago in the gubernatorial election all the polls had Terry McAuliffe with a very comfortable margin going into the election, and we all know it was a very narrow margin in the end,” Wilson said.
Click here to see the full IPOR poll results
Only one poll, the Monmouth University poll, has Gillespie with a very narrow lead — 48 percent to 47 percent.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
