Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is resisting intense pressure to resign due to a race-infused controversy, and a new poll shows most black people in Virginia have his back.
Fifty-eight percent of black residents said Northam should remain in office while only 37 percent said he should go, according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll.
The poll additionally shows Virginians at large are split at 47 percent apiece on Northam’s future.
Democrats in Virginia and across the country have called on Northam to resign ever since the Feb.1 publication of a photo on his 1984 medical school yearbook page showing one man dressed up in blackface and another in Ku Klux Klan garb. Northam denies he was in the photo, but did admit he wore blackface for a Michael Jackson costume in the 1980s.
In his first sit-down interview since the photo came to light, Northam insisted to the Washington Post he would commit the rest of his three years as governor to the fight for racial equality. “I will take a harder line,” Northam said. “If there are statues, if there monuments out there that provoke this type of hatred and bigotry, they need to be in museums.”
Two other top Democratic officials in Virginia are facing controversies of their own: Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, who admitted to wearing blackface at a college party in 1980, and Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, who is denying allegations of sexual assault from two women.
The recent poll found 60 percent of residents believe Herring should not resign, while 65 percent remain undecided about Fairfax. Eleven percent of Virginia adults said they have worn blackface in the past or know someone who has worn it.
The poll was conducted by phone Wednesday through Friday among 706 Virginia adults. The overall results have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points, while the margin of error for the 132 African-American respondents was plus or minus 10 points.
