Republican Winsome Earle-Sears is on the defensive in Virginia's race for governor

HOPEWELL, Va. (AP) — 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 told voters she was running her campaign for governor like a military-style operation.

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

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 liability back in 2022, before his return to the Oval Office about two years later. She challenged the question as backward-looking and called the interview by CNN's Manu Raju a trap. The interview quickly unraveled into a squabble.

“They ambushed me to talk about things that are so in the past, when we’ve got to move forward,” she told a crowd gathered at Saucy’s Sit-Down Bar.B.Q, a mainstay in Hopewell.

Her words in both settings, while cast in military terms, reflected a campaign on the defensive.

Underfunded and lacking unity

Earle-Sears, who faces Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a former congresswoman, in November, is taking her “Operation Defend & Deliver” 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.

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. But that feels like a distant prospect at the moment.

The nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project says Spanberger has raised more than $27 million 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.

Earle-Sears’ ticket lacks that kind of unity, though that is not entirely of her doing.

Once the Republican statewide nominees had solidified before the June primaries, GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin asked John Reid, the candidate for lieutenant governor, to leave the ticket 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.

After that, the three top Republican candidates did not campaign together for months.

Earle-Sears' campaign, meanwhile, has had its own challenges.

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 — nearly $7 million compared with almost $5 million for Earle-Sears.

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

Responding to written questions about the donations, a spokesperson for the association said: “Winsome 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’ rights have been protected, Virginia’s economy is growing, and communities are safe.”

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

When asked in June whether he would give more, his PAC said the governor was "working to elect the entire GOP ticket and is urging all Virginians to support the commonsense team this November to keep Virginia winning.”

Tepid support from Trump

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's terms.

Trump stopped short of an outright endorsement when asked last weekend about supporting Earle-Sears.

“I mean, I would,” he said. “I think probably she’s got a tough race. ... She shouldn’t have, because the candidate she’s running against is not very good, but I think she’s got a tough race. But I would.”

Many state Republicans are more forceful about standing behind their nominee.

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 “imbue her with strength and stamina for the days that are to come in the final, waning days of this election.” Wyatt encouraged voters to help Earle-Sears continue the successes of Youngkin’s administration.

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've got. She predicted that she would show them come November.

“How many of you have seen or read about the polls, which say I am 10 points down?” she said. “Don’t believe it.”

Not that she doesn’t need more money to make that happen.

“Are we going to pass the offering bucket?” Earle-Sears said to a chuckling crowd. “OK, see, you’re laughing again, and I’m not laughing because that’s what it’s going to take for us to win.”