Virginia Democrats have almost completely gotten over Gov. Ralph Northam’s blackface fiasco: poll

After Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam faced scandals that threatened to end his political career for good, his approval numbers appear to be making a comeback in the Old Dominion.

New Morning Consult numbers found that while Northam's image has far from completely recovered from the scandals that rocked his administration at the beginning of this year, more Virginians currently approve of him than disapprove of him. The data was drawn from a survey of 2,986 Virginia registered voters in the month of April.

Numbers from the same source earlier this year found that Northam's approval ratings took a steep, 41-point nosedive as he faced calls to resign following controversy over the discovery of a blackface photo in his 1984 medical school yearbook.

He made the situation even worse later when he referred to African slaves as "indentured servants."

Morning Consult's numbers also noted that Northam's approval has almost completely recovered with Virginia Democrats. A mere 50 percent of Democrats approved of Northam in early February, which dropped from 70 percent in January. The new data showed that that 68 percent of Democrats find him favorable now.

Last month, multiple Democratic lawmakers in the state even came forward to apologize for their previous criticism of the governor.

"Because that's what Virginia really needed as the cherry on top to this elaborate ice-cream sundae of embarrassment," National Review's Jim Geraghty wrote in response, "an apology to Northam."

Of course, the Morning Consult write-up only notes problems caused for Northam by the surfacing of the blackface photo, but prior that, the left-wing governor drew national attention and criticism for his remarks about late-term abortion.

"If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen," Northam said in a January radio appearance regarding an extreme abortion bill before the state legislature. "The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother."

Morning Consult's numbers also found that Northam is the seventh least-liked governor in the United States.