President Joe Biden framed the Virginia governor’s race as a repudiation of his predecessor, tying the Republican candidate to former President Donald Trump as he campaigned for Democrat Terry McAuliffe in what’s become a tight and increasingly bitter campaign.

No Republican has won statewide office in Virginia since 2009, and Biden carried it by a comfortable 10 percentage points in 2020. Yet polls have shown McAuliffe tied with Republican former business executive Glenn Youngkin with the election a week away — and the president’s own popularity is on the decline.

In the final days of the race, both candidates are focused on turning out their base supporters, with Republicans pressing culture war issues — prompting a debate over banning books in high school classrooms — and McAuliffe, who previously served as governor from 2014 to 2018, hammering Youngkin for his ties to Trump.

Biden drove that theme home during a Tuesday night rally in Arlington, just across the Potomac River from Washington, mentioning the former president by name more frequently than Youngkin and drawing a direct line from last year’s presidential race to next Tuesday’s election.

“I ran against Donald Trump and Terry is running against an acolyte of Donald Trump,” Biden said.