{"id":46577,"date":"2025-08-25T11:42:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T16:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=46577"},"modified":"2025-08-25T05:44:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T10:44:00","slug":"virginia-gop-grows-cautiously-optimistic-in-governors-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=46577","title":{"rendered":"Virginia GOP grows cautiously optimistic in governor\u2019s race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Virginia Republicans are growing cautiously optimistic about Lieutenant Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R) chances in November\u2019s gubernatorial race<\/u><\/a> after new polling released this week showed the Republican nominee closing the gap. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Roanoke College poll released earlier this week<\/u><\/a> showed former Rep. Abigail Spanberger\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D-Va.) leading Earle-Sears 46 percent to 39 percent among likely Virginia voters. Another 14 percent of voters said they were undecided, while 1 percent said they would vote for someone else. The poll marked a shift from the latest Roanoke College poll released in May, which showed Spanberger leading 43 percent to 26 percent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same poll also showed tight races in the lieutenant governor and the attorney general race. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virginia state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D) leads Republican John Reid in the race to replace Earle-Sears 38 percent to 35 percent, while former Del. Jay Jones\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D) leads incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R) 41 percent to 38 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans say alleviated concerns about the management of the lieutenant governor\u2019s campaign, coupled with a focus on cultural issues in some Northern Virginia schools, is benefitting the state\u2019s GOP ticket. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think she\u2019s got a shot,\u201d said conservative talk show host John Fredericks, who just last month was referring to Earle-Sears\u2019 scampaign as a \u201cclown car.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fredericks, who was President Trump\u2019s\u2002<\/u><\/a>2016 and 2020 Virginia campaign chair, noted that the Roanoke College poll was \u201ca game-changer.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing down seven in a poll that always skews a few points to the Democrats is a pretty good sign when you were down by 17. It means you gained 10,\u201d Fredericks said. \u201cThis is despite a brutal campaign with no management that makes any sense and no message and basically no money.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest polling average released earlier this month by The Hill\u2019s partners at Decision Desk HQ prior to the release of the most recent Roanoke College poll shows Spanberger leading Earle-Sears 45.2 percent to 36 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spanberger has also been leading Earle-Sears in the money race. According to the latest campaign finance data from the Virginia Public Access Project, Spanberger has raised $27 million since she jumped into the race in November 2023 and has more than $15 million in the bank. Earle-Sears has raised more than $11 million since launching her campaign and has more than $4 million cash on hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Virginia Republican strategist noted that Earle-Sears has had \u201csome complications\u201d but is \u201crising to the moment right now.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing better movement out of the campaign,\u201d the strategist noted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earle-Sears\u2019s campaign has recently amplified its rhetoric on the issues of transgender rights and abortion in Virginia schools. The Department of Education announced last week that the Alexandria City, Arlington County, Fairfax County, Loudoun County, and Prince William County school boards were at risk of losing their federal funding after the school boards rejected an agreement with the department on resolving investigations into transgender student policies. A number of Virginia school districts have policies in place that permit students to go into bathrooms and locker rooms correspond with their chosen gender identity.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earle-Sears stepped into the fray on Thursday evening when she spoke at the Arlington County School Board meeting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat is happening in our schools right now is just, it\u2019s dangerous, it\u2019s insane and it has to stop,\u201d Earle-Sears said. \u201cHere\u2019s the truth. There are two sexes, boys and girls, and for generations, we\u2019ve understood this \u2014 that they deserve their own sports teams, their own locker rooms, their own bathrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The meeting garnered attention after the Earle-Sears campaign posted a picture of a protester outside the meeting with a sign reading, \u201cHey Winsome, if trans can\u2019t share your bathroom, then Blacks can\u2019t share my water fountain.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spanberger and other Democrats condemned the display. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s racist, abhorrent and unacceptable,\u201d the Spanberger campaign said in a statement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans inside and outside of Virginia were quick to condemn the sign. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R) wrote in a post on X that \u201cthe hypocrisy of the liberal left is on display again,\u201d while Rep. Byron Donalds\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-Fla.), who\u2019s running for governor of Florida, wrote on the platform that \u201cTHIS is the Radical Left Democrat Party.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah, they got heckled and protested by all of those crazy people but they set themselves up in a position where the liberals went too far and now they\u2019re making hay of it online,\u201d the Virginia Republican strategist said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The focus on cultural issues, particularly in the classroom, harkens back to Youngkin\u2019s focus on parents\u2019 rights in their children\u2019s classrooms. The issue became a flashpoint in the 2021 gubernatorial race, particularly after Youngkin\u2019s opponent former Gov. Terry McAuliffe\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D) said at a debate that he did not believe parents should be telling schools what they should teach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a smart move,\u201d said Bob Holsworth, a veteran Virginia political analyst. \u201cThey go after these issues and they are then covered on Fox News and this becomes a free advertisement for the Republican ticket across Virginia.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s earned media across the state which you rarely get in a gubernatorial campaign today,\u201d he continued. \u201cNow you have people all across the state hearing what they don\u2019t like about the Democrats\u2019 culture positions and it\u2019s not simply because Sears simply shows up at the meeting.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it will still be an uphill climb for Earle-Sears. Other Virginia Republicans note there is reason to be concerned ahead of November, pointing to what they said was Earle-Sears\u2019s issues with candidate quality, money and the environment on the ground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[The] Roanoke poll was almost as close as Youngkin,\u201d said one Virginia GOP operative referring to Youngkin\u2019s standing in his election in 2021. \u201cBut [the] environment, money, [the] candidates aren\u2019t as good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the operative did not rule out other potential factors that could impact the race between now and November. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBoys in girls sports could prove to be a very animating issue? Spanberger could gaffe hard?\u201d the operative said in a text message. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holsworth warned against reading too much into the Roanoke poll, arguing it was weighted in terms of the turnout in the 2021 gubernatorial election which saw heavier GOP turnout than usual. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe that\u2019ll be the case but that\u2019s not the general feeling,\u201d Holsworth said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virginia Republicans are growing cautiously optimistic about Lieutenant Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R) chances in November\u2019s gubernatorial race after new polling released this week showed the Republican nominee closing the gap.  A Roanoke College poll released earlier this week showed former Rep. Abigail Spanberger\u2002(D-Va.) leading Earle-Sears 46 percent to 39 percent among likely Virginia voters. Another 14 percent of voters said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":46578,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1264,34469,1514],"class_list":["post-46577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-gop","tag-governors-race","tag-virginia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46577"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46579,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46577\/revisions\/46579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}