joining us is dan merica in richmond, virginia. virginia was an easy win for president biden in 2020. this one based on the public polling shows to be a lot closer. how did it get to this point? >> i think this is why republicans are excited. this has been eight years of democratic control the governor's management. they're excited youngkin is closing strong and polls are tight. this is a tight race could go either way and that's why you saw candidates crisscrossing the state over the weekend. you saw youngkin in northern virginia and western virginia, much more conservative voting bloc and governor mcauliffe spent a lot of time in the tidewater region around norfolk, portsmouth and northern virginia suburbs that are vote rich he feels like he has to do well in. the last day of early vote was on saturday. 1.1 million virginians already cast their ballot. all the swings we've seen the momentum, the polls, a lot of that can be negated by the fact that 1.1 million ballots have already been banked. that means the last-minute pushes and

and dan merica, set the scene for us. >> the nervy moment for campaigns. all the work is done. there's some door knocking, but both campaigns are waiting on results to come in, and they're nervous. both campaigns see it as a tight race, they think it could go late into the night for those that plan to watch election coverage tonight. a lot is on the line here. obviously the future of virginia and also a referendum on the last 8 years of democratic control. the national implications are huge. voters are going to the polls with the biden administration in mind, and this could turn into a referendum on the first few months of the biden administration's time in office. if youngkin can win and pull this out, it could be a question how they're able to campaign in the suburbs, an area that obviously fled from republicans during the trump years. both candidates have had small events across the commonwealth, mostly in northern virginia. take a listen to what glenn youngkin said with voters this morning. >> feel pretty darn good i have to say. happy to take some questions. >> you have a

cnn's dan merica is in washington watching that race in virginia. republican projected winner, glenn youngkin, what's he doing today? >> i have just been told that he has already begun transition meetings, building out what will eventually be the youngkin administration. he's also i'm told spending time with his wife and governor ralph northam, who campaigned against youngkin, will meet to kind of go over the transition process. you can see already getting to work and that's something that young ynkin talked about on the campaign trail. he said over and over again, he would do a number of things on day one. day one will be busy, and part of the promises is on education. pledging he would make it central to his administration. he's obviously promised to ban critical race theory, something that's got a lot of attention, even though it's not taught in virginia schools. he's talked a lot about police and crime, and he's talked about cutting taxes, especially the grocery tax, something that he actually used against mcauliffe, and adds in a number of othe