FAIRFAX — National politics may have played a big part in drawing some voters in Centreville out to the Virginia gubernatorial election. 

“I’m kind of looking at the whole picture in terms of the country, not only in Virginia,” said Bradley Clark, an occupational therapist from Fairfax, as his toddler ran in circles around the entrance to the polling place at Centre Ridge Elementary School in Fairfax County. 

Clark wants his votes to help “ensure that the state continues staying Democratic” but also wants Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe to push for progressive policies on the national level. Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin, on the other hand, is “more of a pro-Trump kind of candidate.”

“I really think that’s the wrong direction for Virginia, but also for the country as a whole.” 

But these voters disagree about which direction Virginia and the country should be led in.

Larry Parthum, an Air Force analyst from Centreville, trusts Youngkin to advocate and legislate against abortion – and said he thinks that McAuliffe is “a substitute for Hilary Clinton,” given McAuliffe’s longstanding political relationship with the Clintons and other prominent Democrats.

Read the article on USA Today here.