RUSH: There’s a shock poll out of Virginia, a Hampton University poll, that shows Ed Gillespie significantly ahead of Ralph Northam in the governor’s race of Virginia. Now, this is considered a Democrat fait accompli. I mean, The Punk, Terry McAuliffe, is the incumbent. He’s got all kinds of ways for massaging the vote there for his party. But Gillespie has pulled ahead. Now, Gillespie is an establishment Republican. Gillespie is right out of the George W. Bush machine, and yet he’s ahead.

We had a caller the other day, “What do we in Virginia do? Both of these guys are establishmentarians. They’re in the swamp. What do we do?” I said, “It’s a good question.” Let me ask you this. How is Gillespie campaigning? I was gonna say, “Is Gillespie running as a Bob Corker or a Jeff Flake?” He is running… (interruption) Well, you could say, “Trump light.” I would just say Gillespie is running as a Trumper on balance. He’s not running as a Never Trumper. He’s not running as what you would think an establishmentarian would be running as.

He’s running as a conservative — which he, by the way, happens to be. I know Gillespie. I don’t want to say that too loud. He might consider it harmful to his vote in Virginia. But he’s not running away from Trump is the point, and he’s pulled ahead in this poll, which, if he wins — and it’s a big if. We don’t know, of course, for a while. But it will prove something. Well, it’ll demonstrate something. It’ll demonstrate that establishment Republicans can win if they get on board the Trump agenda. Now, that’s only half the battle. They have to stay there once they get into office, and that’s been where the crapshoot is. We’ll see.