McAuliffe led Youngkin by three percentage points at the previous Washington Post-Schar school survey conducted in mid-September.
Friday’s poll is the latest poll to show extremely competitive competition between the candidates in the closely watched Virginia election outside of the year.
McAuliffe had an advantage in polls over his GOP rival through most of the campaign, though the gap narrowed as Youngkin took advantage of hot issues, including education that spurred Republican base and fluctuating voters.
Youngkin has an 18-point advantage over McAuliffe among the self-identified independents in the probable voter model, up from eight in the September poll. This coincides with a growing proportion of respondents who say that education is their main point in choosing a governor
Other polls have even shown that Youngkin overtook the former governor ahead of next week’s election. Survey published Fox News on Thursday Youngkin led by eight percentage points, 53 percent against McAuliffe’s 45 percent, among likely voters in Virginia. According to the same poll, Youngkin led McAuliffe by one point among registered voters.
President Joe Biden defeated Virginia by 10 percentage points ahead of Donald Trump in last year’s general election. But the president’s approval rating is now below 50 percent in the Commonwealth, which is an obvious obstacle to McAuliffe’s return. Although Virginia has long been considered a purple state, Democrats have performed strongly in recent years, and Republicans have not won across the country since 2009.