He hasn’t yet won the Virginia Republican Senate nomination yet, but front-running candidate Ed Gillespie is leading incumbent Sen. Mark Warner among independents and Hispanics, the first sign of a chink in the Democrat’s armor.

According to Democratic pollster PPP, Warner overall leads Gillespie 49 percent to 35 percent. But among independents, key to President Obama‘s victories in the Old Dominion, Gillespie leads 41 percent to 39 percent, and he has the edge among Hispanics, 39 percent to 34 percent.