It is Sunday, November 2nd, and even in an off year, we find ourselves counting down to

Election Day. We're just two days away from the first elections since Donald Trump

retook the White House, which make these some of the most consequential off-cycle races in recent memory.

Voters are going to the polls across 29 states on Tuesday to vote for school board members,

statehouse delegates, and in two states, a governor.

One of those states is Virginia, famous for using its elections to send a loud message

across the Potomac River to Washington, D.C.

The former congresswoman, Abigail Spanberger, is the Democratic nominee running against a Republican, Winsome Earl.C. The former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger is the Democratic nominee running against

a Republican winsome Earl Sears, the current Virginia lieutenant governor. Spanberger is running about

seven points ahead of Earl Sears. That's inside the margin of error, which is 4.1 percent in the latest

polling by the Wayson Center for Civic Leadership, which has been conducting

surveys for this race for months. In the Virginia House of Delegates, all 100 seats are up for grabs.

Democrats enjoy a slim majority there. 51 to 48, one seat is vacant. These Virginia races, more

than any other this year, are shaping up to look like a referendum on second-term

Trumpian chaos because of its proximity to Washington, D.C. Virginia has been particularly

hard hit by Doja's evisceration of the Civil Service and now by the government shutdown.

321,000 federal workers live in Virginia based on a 2023 survey.

About half of them work in Virginia, the other half commute to federal jobs in Washington, D.C.

Or Maryland.

Thousands are working without pay in the 32nd day of the shutdown.

Thousands more have been fired.

For her part, Abigail Spanberger is explicitly

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