A new poll of Virginia voters shows President Donald Trump trailing all of his potential Democratic rivals by significant margins.

Michael Pope reports.

A new poll from the University of Mary Washington shows former Vice President Joe Biden leading Trump in Virginia by 14 points. That was the largest lead among Democrats running against the incumbent Republican president. Although, all the Democratic candidates included in the poll came out ahead.

“The way that you win Virginia statewide is you win in the suburbs, and Trump may not be the best candidate for Republicans who are trying to do that," says Stephen Farnsworth, director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the university.

He says Democrats are leading among women, minorities and young people with strong support in Northern Virginia and Tidewater. The only place where Republicans are doing well, he says, are in Southwest Virginia and the northwest area far from the Washington suburbs.

“There’s a rural Virginia that is very conservative and much more pro-Trump than other parts of Virginia," Farnsworth explains. "The problem, though, for Trump is that there aren’t as many voters in the rural part of the state as there are in the suburban parts of the state where Democrats have been making significant gains.”

The poll was conducted before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the House will launch a formal impeachment inquiry against the president, and before the disclosure that Trump may have blocked military aid to Ukraine as a way to investigate the Biden family.

This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.