>….this is gonna backfire bigtime!
I think this falls into the, "There's no such thing as bad publicity", category.
What could happen is any uproar over the church messages spreads and introduces more people to it. Streisand effect.
All any fraudsters need to do is promote a higher name recognition/public exposure in their candidate, especially as a victim (Christian thing). They can use the increased exposure to justify any suspicious vote gain on election day, or after.
So, there may be voters who don't really know who McAuliffe is, sitting governor or not. If McAuliffe is tied in to a story that is reporting that Youngkin is trying to stop McAuliffe's name from being mentioned in churches, then McAuliffe can be programmed in to gain votes that may be accounted for as churchgoer protest votes.
Pastors will also get on board, with such things as fear-mongering about Youngkin restricting what pastors can say in their sermons.