TYSONS — (WMAL) Rep. Tom Davis doesn’t like Donald Trump’s chances of winning the Northern Virginia vote on election day, but he’s somewhat more bullish on the GOP Presidential nominee’s chances in the rest of the commonwealth.
“You go into my neighborhood and somebody puts up a Trump sign, and it’s like a hate crime,” Davis said Friday during the WMAL Diner Tour at the Silver Diner in Tysons. “But you go out 30 miles, and all you see are Trump signs,” he added.
Politics near and inside the Beltway have had a blue hue for years, but Davis told WMAL that Trump has also faced a more pragmatic challenge.
“It’s a divided state. It’s about who shows up. The difficulty, I think is that Trump has been late to get organized in the state, and Hillary Clinton and her people are very, very well organized and have been working for months, ” said Davis.
The Trump campaign did announce this week it will spend $2 million dollars on TV ads in Virginia, a sign it is not giving up the fight in a state where some polls have given Clinton a 15-point lead in the race.
Davis says turnout will decide the election, and he says dissatisfaction with Trump in Northern Virginia could have an impact downticket, particularly in the 10th District Congressional race, where incumbent Republican Barbara Comstock is trying to fend off Democratic challenger LuAnn Bennett.
“[Comstock] will get just about every Republican. There’ll be a handful of people that won’t support her because she didn’t support Trump,” said Davis, who added, “It really goes to turnout. Are Republicans up here enthused about their candidate versus Democratic enthusiasm?”
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