Obama at a campaign event in Norfolk, Va. on September 4. (Photo by Scout Tufankjian/Obama for America via Flickr)

With fewer than 50 days to go until Election Day, President Obama has opened a considerable lead over Republican challenger Mitt Romney in Virginia, which continues to be one of the most heavily contested battleground states in the presidential election. A poll by The Washington Post and ABC News found that Obama leads Romney by 8 percentage points.

Among likely voters, Obama leads Romney 52 percent to 44 percent. That gap closes marginally to 50 percent to 43 percent when all registered voters are counted, a result that shows that Romney has made little progress in Virginia in the months since he clinched the Republican Party’s nomination.

Romney has made Virginia one of his campaign’s highest priorities. His ads saturate the Washington television market reaching a large Northern Virginia audience, Gov. Bob McDonnell is a regular surrogate on the trail and Romney even used Norfolk’s naval yards as a backdrop when announcing Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate in early August.

The survey, which was conducted between September 12 and 16, found that not only is Obama making overall gains in a state he won by 6 points in 2008, he is also beating Romney on specific questions about the economy. The president’s approval ratings in Virginia are, in fact, better than the national average, the Post found.

Fifty-three percent of respondents to the Post’s poll said approve of Obama’s job performance overall, with 51 percent giving him positive marks on his handling on the economy. On the question of which candidate is better equipped fix the nation’s ongoing economic problems, Obama edged out Romney by only 47 percent to 44 percent, but when asked which candidate better understands the hardships faced by Americans, the gap was staggering—54 percent said Obama, while only 37 percent answered Romney. The poll was conducted before recent revelations by Mother Jones that Romney, at a campaign fundraiser earlier this year, said that he believes 47 percent of voters would never consider supporting him because they are dependent on the federal government for financial support.

Obama’s other significant advantage over Romney among Virginia voters comes from women, who back him 58 percent to 39 percent, according to the poll.

Additionally, the Post reported that despite Romney’s inability to gain traction there, Virginia remains one of the most hotly contested states on the map, with 11,000 commercials by campaigns and outside groups aired since April and more than 40 visits by the candidates and their spouses. Obama’s next campaign visit in the state will take him to Woodbridge on Friday, while Romney swung through Northern Virginia last week.