Businessman Glenn Youngkin is the Republican nominee against the Democratic nominee, former Governor Terry McAuliffe.
Incumbent Gov. Northam is ineligible to run again because VA politics prohibit consecutive gubernatorial terms (hence why McAuliffe is pulling what he's pulling).
They've been going back and forth in toss-ups that easily favor McAuliffe (because NoVa lol), with Youngkin occasionally tightening things.
The cringiest thing I've read regarding the race a few months earlier was a VA paper that was written as if the writer was exasperated that McAuliffe wasn't on track for a landslide. They also wrote that McAuliffe calling Youngkin a yuge Trump supporter/big MAGA-type was "out there," but sound strategy because the eternal narrative is that "12 million more votes" Trump is political poison.
Youngkin is also somewhat establishment from basic eyesight. So, of course he's not talking about the man a lot there. Unlike a Larry Elder, at least an honest agreement of Trump's policies wasn't recorded for Dems to use to portray him immediately as the umpteenth coming of Blumpf.
Anyways, the media is stroking themselves over the suburbs hopefully paving the way for McAuliffe, finally showing how toxic Trump is to Republicans (despite shifting suburb demos being the reason why they no longer romp them like the '80s).
If Youngkin wins, it will a testament to how red the hypothetical 2022 Red Wave will be.