{"id":72457,"date":"2025-08-10T13:57:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T13:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/72457\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T13:57:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T13:57:08","slug":"winsome-earle-sears-is-on-the-defensive-in-the-race-for-virginia-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/72457\/","title":{"rendered":"Winsome Earle-Sears is on the defensive in the race for Virginia governor"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOPEWELL, Va. (AP) \u2014 Against an olive drab backdrop in a barbecue joint filled with the aroma of pulled pork and the sweat of a Virginia summer, Republican Winsome Earle-Sears<\/a> told voters she was running her campaign for governor<\/a> like a military-style operation. <\/p>\n

The lieutenant governor, a former Marine, said she would protect Virginia just as she did America. The way Earle-Sears tells it, not all attacks come from soldiers.<\/p>\n

Earlier that day, she was asked on national television why Republican President Donald Trump had not endorsed her and whether she stood by her description of him as a liability back in 2022<\/a>, before his return to the Oval Office about two years later. She challenged the question as backward-looking and called the interview by CNN\u2019s Manu Raju a trap. The interview quickly unraveled into a squabble.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey ambushed me to talk about things that are so in the past, when we\u2019ve got to move forward,\u201d she told a crowd gathered at Saucy\u2019s Sit-Down Bar.B.Q, a mainstay in Hopewell.<\/p>\n

Her words in both settings, while cast in military terms, reflected a campaign on the defensive.<\/p>\n

Underfunded and lacking unity<\/p>\n

Earle-Sears, who faces Democrat Abigail Spanberger,<\/a> a former congresswoman, in November, is taking her \u201cOperation Defend & Deliver\u201d campaign across the state. The off-year election all but guarantees that Virginia will have its first female governor in a race that offers an early sense of voter sentiment before the 2026 midterms. <\/p>\n

An Earle-Sears victory also would make her the first Black woman to serve as a governor, according to the Center for American Women in Politics<\/a>. But that feels like a distant prospect at the moment. <\/p>\n

The nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project says Spanberger has raised more than $27 million<\/a> so far, with more than $15 million on hand. Nearly every Democrat in Virginia politics has pledged to support her. When Democrats Ghazala Hashmi and Jay Jones won their respective primary races for lieutenant governor and attorney general, the three nominees went on a bus tour across Virginia.<\/p>\n

Earle-Sears\u2019 ticket lacks that kind of unity, though that is not entirely of her doing. <\/p>\n

Once the Republican statewide nominees had solidified before the June primaries<\/a>, GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin asked John Reid, the candidate for lieutenant governor, to leave the ticket<\/a> after opposition research linked him to a social media account with sexually explicit photos. Reid denied the allegations and refused to step down, but a rally for the statewide ticket was canceled.<\/p>\n

After that, the three top Republican candidates did not campaign together for months. <\/p>\n

Earle-Sears\u2019 campaign, meanwhile, has had its own challenges. <\/p>\n

This summer, a pastor with little political experience stepped down from managing her campaign, and her team has failed to gain traction with big money donors. Attorney General Jason Miyares, seeking a second term, has raised nearly as much money, with roughly $2 million short of the lieutenant governor. He has more in the bank \u2014 nearly $7 million<\/a> compared with almost $5 million<\/a> for Earle-Sears.<\/p>\n

One of her biggest donors, a political action committee tied to the Republican Governors Association, gave $500,000<\/a> to her campaign in June. But by this time in August 2021, the association had donated more than $2 million<\/a> to Youngkin\u2019s campaign. <\/p>\n

Responding to written questions about the donations, a spokesperson for the association said: \u201cWinsome Earle-Sears is the only candidate in this race who will keep Virginia on the right track forged by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Under their leadership, parents\u2019 rights have been protected, Virginia\u2019s economy is growing, and communities are safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Youngkin, who is term-limited, has offered more than $21,000<\/a> in support to Earle-Sears through his political action committee between March and June.<\/p>\n

When asked in June whether he would give more, his PAC said the governor was \u201cworking to elect the entire GOP ticket and is urging all Virginians to support the commonsense team this November to keep Virginia winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tepid support from Trump<\/p>\n

Republicans went into this election facing tough sledding in swing-state Virginia. Ever since Democrat Jimmy Carter won the White House in 1976, Virginia has backed a governor from the opposite party of a first-term president in the following year. Whatever the outcome in Virginia, 2025 is a special case, given the gap between Trump\u2019s terms.<\/p>\n

Trump stopped short of an outright endorsement when asked last weekend about supporting Earle-Sears.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I would,\u201d he said. \u201cI think probably she\u2019s got a tough race. … She shouldn\u2019t have, because the candidate she\u2019s running against is not very good, but I think she\u2019s got a tough race. But I would.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many state Republicans are more forceful about standing behind their nominee.<\/p>\n

At the Hopewell gathering, Republican Dels. Mike Cherry and Scott Wyatt, who are seeking reelection, urged voters to back the lieutenant governor. In a prayer, Cherry asked God to \u201cimbue her with strength and stamina for the days that are to come in the final, waning days of this election.\u201d Wyatt encouraged voters to help Earle-Sears continue the successes of Youngkin\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

Then Earle-Sears walked onto the stage, smiling and cracking jokes. She described a political climate where Democrats and the media were hitting her with everything they\u2019ve got. She predicted that she would show them come November. <\/p>\n

\u201cHow many of you have seen or read about the polls, which say I am 10 points down?\u201d she said. \u201cDon\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not that she doesn\u2019t need more money to make that happen. <\/p>\n

\u201cAre we going to pass the offering bucket?\u201d Earle-Sears said to a chuckling crowd. \u201cOK, see, you\u2019re laughing again, and I\u2019m not laughing because that\u2019s what it\u2019s going to take for us to win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOPEWELL, Va. (AP) \u2014 Against an olive drab backdrop in a barbecue joint filled with the aroma of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[51932,23,8650,12,1070,793,51930,51935,51934,17575,51931,51933,3,111,51936,8638,3438,21,19,22,20,25,24,5148,800],"class_list":["post-72457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-abigail-spanberger","tag-america","tag-black-experience","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-general-news","tag-glenn-youngkin","tag-jason-miyares","tag-jay-jones","tag-jimmy-carter","tag-john-reid","tag-manu-raju","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-scott-wyatt","tag-u-s-democratic-party","tag-u-s-republican-party","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-virginia","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}