Nightly News   |  October 28, 2012

Hurricane Sandy could dampen Virginia campaigns

Virginia and its 13 critical electoral votes are in play, but now Hurricane Sandy threatens to throw the campaigns off course. Obama and Romney have canceled appearances there. NBC’s Lester Holt reports.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>> to be here in virginia all along as part of our continuing tour of battleground key states in this election. this storm did not figure into anyone's election plans b u it is adding drama in states both candidates need badly to win. with virginia and it's 13 electoral votes very much in play, the storm threatens to knock both campaigns off their game plan , the candidates have cancelled their appearances here and officials are already considering the impact of power outages possibly lasting through election day .

>> our goal right now is to make sure that no one is disenfranchised or denied their ability to vote because of the weather so we have moved up to the very top of the list, the restore ration of power for voting precincts.

>> virginia is a traditionally important prize. in 2008 , barack obama defied gravity and claimed victory here, it's now anyone's to win.

>> virginia has bounced back and forth, back and forth so when you're trying to make your original calculations as to how many electoral votes i'm going to need, virginia is always the one that i'm going to steal from the other candidate.

>> this college student worries about her prospects after graduation.

>> i know in the debate, i know another college student talked about how he's going to get a job after the election.

>> i felt like they were dancing around it.

>> the 2008 obama victory in virginia may have already -- to it's sprawling military bases, so it's growing ethnic communities especially latinos around richmond.

>> when i came in '98, i rarely run into a latino.

>> mario dawson and his family came here from el salvador and run a bakery, he's undecided but immigration tops his concerns.

>> just to become a citizen, for me, it took about 14 years.

>> both sides have deployed armies of volunteers and high profile surrogates to virginia to target the state's diverse voting groups. the buzz word for both sides here is ground game. both sides have been counting on early voting to improve their chances that could be most immediately affected by this