Republican presidential nominee John McCain and his vice-presidential running mate, Sarah Palin, will appear in Virginia Beach next Monday morning at the resort city's convention center.

That afternoon, Palin will stump in Richmond. She'll be the headliner at a rally at the Arthur Ashe Center.

The GOP ticket was last in Virginia in September. McCain and Palin appeared at a rally in Fairfax, in the vote-rich -- and increasingly Democratic -- Washington suburbs of Northern Virginia.

The scheduled visits by McCain and Palin, just announced by McCain headquarters in Arlington, come on the heels of polls showing that Virginia -- usually Republican in presidential years -- is a tossup in 2008.

--Jeff E. Schapiro