The road to the presidency and the balance of the U.S. Senate both run through Virginia in 2012 while the future of the Democratic Party could take shape in neighboring Maryland in a make-or-break year for Gov. Martin O’Malley. Virginia especially will be a political battleground in 2012, crucial to President Obama’s re-election hopes. Obama in 2008 became the first Democratic presidential candidate in nearly half a century to win Virginia and he is now organizing in the state to duplicate those results.
But it’s an uphill fight as the embattled president faces declining approval ratings and Republican gains in the last three elections.
“What Virginia has done over the past few years has mirrored what the country has done,” said Kyle Kondik, a University of Virginia Center for Politics analyst. “I don’t see Virginia being some big outlier, suddenly holding on for Obama if he’s losing the rest of the country or going Republican if Obama is re-elected.
“As the country goes, Virginia will also go.”
