Again worth repeating that these are preliminary, but some of the reasons McAuliffe might not be so popular is: 1) Democrats are in power and Biden isn’t popular, giving all Democrats an unappealing air; 2) McAuliffe already served as governor and feels unappealing in comparison to a newcomer with no political track record (there is a rich history of the latter being more appealing than the former); and 3) McAuliffe doesn’t poll particularly well on the issues most important to voters. But there’s always a matryoshka doll of reasons people feel the way they do about parties and politicians. The biggest doll is probably … thermostatic public opinion against the party in power.
