With August about to begin, longtime Virginia election watchers say that this is when “it gets real.” And with Virginia being only one of two states in the country holding elections for governor and control of its House of Delegates, national attention is beginning to focus on the commonwealth.

The Washington Examiner just published election predictions from the nonprofit State Navigate that estimate the Democrat candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general will each win by a minimum of eight percentage points and that Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the GOP nominee for governor, will lose by 11 points.

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Moreover, the organization predicts that the Democratic Party will flip seven seats in the House of Delegates away from Republicans to further strengthen its majority there.

Flipping the House to a GOP majority has been a key effort of Republican Party leadership—for one reason, to block the “up to the day of birth” abortion state constitutional amendment being proposed.

The Daily Signal sat down with one leader who is spending his time and campaign contributions on helping other candidates this year: Republican state Del. Tom Garrett of Virginia’s 56th District (Fluvanna, Louisa, and Goochland Counties). We asked him if Republicans’ fortunes have really turned that badly. He says that Earle-Sears Is actually polling higher than current Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin polled at this time in his campaign four years ago.

Listen to the interview:

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