Where do Charlotte City Council candidates stand on new transportation tax?
The referendum would raise billions of dollars to overhaul the region's transportation system by expanding rail lines, addressing a backlog of road projects and improving the bus system. Critics argue the tax won't benefit all people equally and could have unintended consequences.
Eighteen candidates who face primary elections in September spoke on Aug. 2 during a forum hosted by the Black Political Caucus of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. At least five incumbents, including five new candidates said they supported the tax.
The issue hits close to home for at-large Councilwoman Dimple Ajmera. Her family relied on public transportation to travel to work, school and everything in between, she said.
'Our public transit system is broken. It is not safe. It is not reliable,' Ajmera said. 'We can't afford to have this kind of system that fails working families. Not everyone has a car in the city of Charlotte.'
The tax is estimated to raise $20 billion over the next 30 years. If passed, 40% of the new money would go toward road projects, 20% to the region's bus system and 40% to transit projects, including rail. A 27-person board of trustees will lead a newly established public transportation authority to oversee the funds.
The Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners will vote Aug. 6 on whether to place the referendum on ballots in November.
Ajmera's fellow at-large council members James 'Smuggie' Mitchell and LaWana Mayfield, District 1 councilwoman Dante Anderson and District 5 councilwoman Marjorie Molina also backed the tax.
City council will be responsible for appointing some of the trustees on the transit authority. Mayfield advocated for an interview process so council members can get a better idea of who is the right fit for the role.
Challengers who supported the tax include District 3 candidate Montravias King; District 4 candidate Wil Russell; and at-large candidates Matt Britt, Will Holley and Namrata Yadav.
Yadav said she would ensure the transportation authority has trustees who actually ride public transit and contractors that are from the communities being served by public transportation.
'Do I think it's perfect? No. But do I think this investment is required for a city, especially a city that's the 14th largest in the country? Yes, it is,' Yadav said. 'We need to act like a big city. We need this transit to go through. We need to make sure it goes through in a very accountable way.'
Only 2 Charlotte City Council candidates stand against new transportation tax
District 5 candidate J.D. Mazuera Arias was the first person to break from the pack and oppose the referendum. People in his district feel they would be left out of the plan, he said.
The Metropolitan Transit Committee in May selected a transit plan that would expand train lines across the county but leave most of east Charlotte untouched.
The plan builds the Red Line commuter rail from uptown to Lake Norman-area towns, extends the Blue Line to Carolina Place in Pineville, extends the Gold Line streetcar from the Rosa Parks Community Transit Center to Eastland, builds the Silver Line from Charlotte-Douglas International Airport to Bojangles Coliseum and includes improvements to the bus system.
Molina, the District 5 incumbent who is facing Mazuera Arias in a head-to-head campaign, supported the plan. Her district stretches nearly to Cabarrus County, which raises questions of feasibility.
'There is no way to get rail out there,' Molina said.
At-large candidate J.G. Lockhart was the only other person to oppose the 1-cent tax. The plan is not equitable for Charlotte, he said, which accounts for the overwhelming majority of Mecklenburg County residents and will therefore carry the tax burden to the benefit of neighboring towns like Pineville and Huntersville.
'We want to Band-Aid Charlotteans with a few more bus routes and microtransit. It's not gonna work,' Lockhart said. 'It is not for Charlotte. I promise you that.'
Citing displacement, candidates remain neutral on 1-cent sales tax
Six candidates stayed neutral, including District 1 candidate Charlene Henderson El, District 3 incumbent Tiawana Brown and challengers Joi Mayo and Warren Turner and District 4 incumbent Renee Perkins-Johnson. Incumbent councilwoman Victoria Watlington was the only person in a crowded pool of at-large candidates who remained neutral or undecided.
'We have always got to make sure that we are not putting in front of the community false choices,' said Watlington, who formerly served District 3 in west Charlotte, where concerns about displacement are especially strong. 'We need to make sure that we work with you to ensure that the plan that's on the table is the best plan for us, not just a good enough plan.'
Mayo said west Charlotte does need more investment in transportation infrastructure, but the threat of displacement from the 1-cent tax plan gives her pause. The Silver Line that would run down West Boulevard means that some of Charlotte's most vulnerable residents could be forced to move if the city doesn't come up with a mitigation plan, she said.
Mayo suggested the city set aside land for affordable housing and invest in workforce development initiatives to help people in the area who might be affected.
King, who is running against Mayo in District 3, said that although the plan is not perfect and will likely uproot some people, the city has 'tools in our toolbox' to address displacement. He was the first candidate to throw firm support behind the referendum Saturday.
'Our city cannot afford to do nothing,' King said.
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USA Today
37 minutes ago
- USA Today
Pro-Trump group wages campaign to purge 'subversive' federal workers
ATLANTA, Aug 7 (Reuters) - In February, federal worker Stefanie Anderson sat at her kitchen table with her husband and asked questions she never imagined having to face: Were their children safe? Should they pull them from school? Should they leave their home? A friend had sent her a link to a 'DEI Watchlist' published by the American Accountability Foundation, a right-wing group with ties to senior officials in U.S. President Donald Trump's administration. It listed Anderson's name, photo, salary and work history, and accused her and other federal employees of pushing 'radical' diversity, equity and inclusion policies in government. 'My heart dropped,' Anderson said. More: From Bibles to prayer groups: What Trump's new religion memo for federal workers means The longtime public health worker spent much of her career at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, specializing in infectious disease outbreaks. Her work included a deployment to Sierra Leone during the Ebola crisis. More recently, she supported HIV prevention programs. After her profile appeared on the site, her phone rang for a month with about 30 calls a day from unknown numbers. Anderson changed her hairstyle to avoid recognition, stayed indoors, rerouted packages from her Atlanta home and reminded her children to lock the doors and check the security cameras. As a Black woman, she said, the experience reminded her of 19th-century fugitive slave ads. 'It made me feel like a criminal on a wanted poster.' Anderson is among 175 federal employees, mostly civil servants, named on 'watchlists' posted online by the American Accountability Foundation, which wants them removed from their jobs for allegedly promoting liberal ideologies. Many are women and people of color with long careers under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Most have little or no public profile and have spent their careers in behind-the-scenes government roles. Reuters spoke with two-dozen people on the lists, all sharing their stories for the first time. Some bolstered home security or avoided going out in public. Others deleted social media accounts or scrubbed personal information from the internet. More than half wrestled with anxiety. Some described a quiet unraveling of their lives, experiencing depression, feeling a need to disappear. Through legal filings, public records and interviews with more than three dozen sources, Reuters traced AAF's evolution from a Biden-focused opposition research outfit to a sharp instrument in the Trump movement's campaign to root out perceived enemies. More: Unemployment among Black Americans can be an early sign of economic strain. It's rising AAF's target is the federal workforce. Half the people on AAF's watchlists – at least 88 – have left government or been forced onto administrative leave. Some were fired amid Trump's mass federal layoffs. Others departed over fears of termination or reassignment. At least two, worried about their safety, have fled the country. Rather than aiming at high-profile political appointees, AAF's lists focus mostly on career civil servants who execute the policy of the administration in power. AAF President Tom Jones and his backers argue that many of these employees lean liberal and could work quietly to undermine Trump's agenda, so the public deserves to know their identities. 'They want to be unaccountable bureaucrats who work in these agencies and never get seen,' he told Fox News in June 2024. 'We're gonna tell you who these people are and what they're about.' Jones did not respond to a detailed list of questions about AAF or the impact of its watchlists on the civil servants it targets, but defended its work in a statement to Reuters. "It's important that anti-Trump civil servants know someone is watching and taking names; we stand by our research and reporting, with our only regret being that more people on our lists haven't left government and handed their jobs over to patriots who will execute on the agenda the American people voted for in November." Since October, AAF has published three watchlists. The first, a 'DHS Watchlist,' named 60 federal employees as 'targets' for their work on immigration policy at the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, including nearly a dozen immigration judges. In January, AAF published two more: one identifying 'political ideologues' at the Education Department, and one featuring staff who worked on diversity initiatives at other federal agencies. Each site includes photos and personal details drawn from public records and social media, along with allegations of 'subversive,' 'divisive' or 'left-wing' transgressions such as donating to Democrats or supporting immigrant aid groups. Federal employees, however, are allowed to engage in such political activity privately under federal laws that prohibit discrimination based on political affiliation. By launching the first list ahead of the 2024 election, the group helped translate Trump's campaign pledge to 'clean out the deep state' into a database of names and faces. After the DHS list went live, one commenter on AAF's X account posted a photo of bullets. X did not respond to questions about the post. As Trump wages a self-described campaign of 'retribution,' federal workers on AAF's lists have paid a price. In Maryland, a mother at a public library with her toddler was confronted by a woman who said she recognized her from the list. 'What you're doing is disgusting,' the stranger said. In Texas, a man shattered a window of an immigration judge's home and called her a 'traitor.' In Georgia, police stationed a patrol car outside a CDC employee's home for a week after she was named for working on initiatives to expand healthcare access in low-income and minority communities. To the people targeted by AAF, its sites are engines of reputational harm and invitations to harassment. AAF, however, stops short of crossing an important line, say free-speech experts: It omits home addresses, phone numbers and other intimate identifiers associated with doxxing – the publishing of personal information online with malicious intent. By that standard, the sites remain just outside the boundaries of potential criminal violations of privacy. But legal experts say the watchlists could deter civil servants from politically sensitive work, creating a chilling effect on public service. 'What is so ominous about these sites is that they're close to the line of illegal, but not crossing the line,' said University of Virginia School of Law professor Danielle Citron, a specialist in online privacy. 'They are designed to silence and intimidate and to inspire other people to hurt' people named on the site. AAF promotes its work as part of a broader effort to defend Trump's 'America First' platform. On its websites, the group says it exposes 'the truth behind the people and groups undermining American democracy' and serves as 'a go-to resource for policy makers and their staffs.' It makes its goal clear to its targets: 'If you see yourself on this list and wish to be removed,' it says on the watchlists, 'please forward us evidence that you've resigned or been fired.' As AAF singles out federal employees for alleged political bias, the Trump administration has moved to loosen restrictions meant to keep partisanship out of government work. In April, it relaxed enforcement of the Hatch Act, a nearly century-old law designed to insulate the civil service from partisan political pressure. The change allows federal employees to openly support the sitting president while at work, wearing 'Make America Great Again' hats at their desks, for instance. AAF received $100,000 last year from the conservative Heritage Foundation to support its work, public records show. Much of its early funding and organizational backing came from groups aligned with Trump, including one run by Russell Vought, now Trump's budget director, and another headed by Stephen Miller, a senior Trump advisor. AAF's Jones was an advisor on the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, which calls for slashing the federal workforce and marginalizing 'woke culture warriors.' Heritage, Vought, Miller and the White House did not respond to questions, including inquiries about ties between administration officials and AAF or the impact of the watchlists on personnel decisions. More than 200,000 federal employees have left government service since Trump took office. The administration says roughly 154,000 accepted buyout offers, while an estimated 55,000 were fired or laid off, according to the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit that tracks federal workforce trends. Reuters could not confirm whether the watchlists influenced staffing decisions. The Justice Department and the Department of Health and Human Services said they did not. The Education and Homeland Security departments did not respond to requests for comment. 'TERRORIST' For those named by AAF, the consequences can be swift. Noelle Sharp had served as chief federal immigration judge in Houston for three years without incident. Immigration judges are employees of the Justice Department and enjoy civil-service protections. Sharp's life was upended last October when her photograph appeared on AAF's 'DHS Watchlist,' which claimed to identify 'America's most subversive immigration bureaucrats.' AAF targeted Sharp on multiple fronts. Her name was posted alongside details of her career and a pointed accusation: She 'made her bones keeping criminal aliens out of jail and away from deportation.' The group questioned her impartiality, citing her decade-long career as a private immigration attorney and her earlier work with Catholic Charities, a nonprofit that provides legal and humanitarian aid to migrants. The organization, affiliated with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has long been a target of the far right for its role in refugee resettlement and assisting migrants. AAF accused the group of facilitating 'mass migration,' a claim Catholic Charities denies. AAF also flagged a 2017 social media post in which Sharp, then a private attorney, called Trump an 'embarrassment' and an 'idiot' after he criticized NATO allies for leaving the U.S. with a disproportionate share of Europe's defense costs. Sharp said AAF falsely portrayed her as biased. When she applied with the Justice Department to become a judge, she said she underwent extensive vetting that began during Trump's first administration. Her focus, she said, was on clearing immigration backlogs and ensuring cases were handled 'efficiently, effectively and fairly.' On the day the list was published, the right-wing Gateway Pundit website ran a story amplifying the claims and casting Sharp as among a cadre of left-wing bureaucrats accused of betraying America by "sabotaging border security.' In the comments section, one reader called for Sharp and others on the list 'to hang for treason.' A week later, she said, a stranger appeared at her home, shouting and pounding on the front door until a window shattered. 'Terrorist,' the man called her. He accused her of letting criminals into the country. 'Someone should do something about you,' he yelled. Alone at home, Sharp stepped outside and tried to reason with him. 'A lot of what you read on social media isn't true,' she told him. He kicked her door and left. Sharp said she chose not to report the incident to police, fearing the man might live nearby and retaliate. She informed her supervisors. In late November, she found her car windshield smashed. This time her supervisors alerted the U.S. Marshals Service, which protects federal judges. The Marshals, she said, gave her a phone app to alert authorities in an emergency. The Marshals Service declined to comment on Sharp's case or the watchlist. Reuters was unable to determine whether any suspects were identified or what motivated them. In response to an inquiry from Reuters, the Gateway Pundit said it would remove the comment suggesting people on the watchlist should hang for treason. On February 14, Sharp was fired. Immigration judges, unlike federal judges with lifetime appointments, serve at the discretion of the attorney general and can be reassigned or dismissed, provided there is cause and due process. Sharp said she believes her inclusion on the watchlist contributed to her dismissal. 'If I hadn't been on the DHS Watchlist, I don't believe I would have lost my job,' she told Reuters. Sharp requested that AAF remove her photo from its website but said she received no response. Her profile remains on the site. Citing safety concerns because of the watchlist, she recently moved to Mexico with her husband and now works remotely as an immigration attorney. Her firing coincides with a broader purge. Since Trump took office in January, at least 106 immigration judges have been fired, reassigned or accepted buyouts, according to the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents most of them. Almost all were dismissed without cause, the union said. The Justice Department declined to comment on Sharp's firing or the broader purge of immigration judges. AAF'S BIRTH AND EVOLUTION AAF was launched in December 2020, weeks after Trump lost his re-election bid to Joe Biden. Its initial mission, as Jones said in a 2021 Fox News interview, was 'to take a big handful of sand and throw it in the gears of the Biden administration.' The group traces its roots to a network of Trump-aligned nonprofits led by the Conservative Partnership Institute, headed by former Senator Jim DeMint and Mark Meadows, who served as chief of staff in Trump's first presidency. CPI provided $335,100, more than half of AAF's first-year funding, according to tax filings. The next year, CPI provided another $210,000, and two other CPI affiliates also chipped in. The Center for Renewing America, led by Trump budget chief Vought, and America First Legal, headed by Trump adviser Miller, contributed $100,000 and $25,000, respectively. Vought, a self-described Christian nationalist, and Miller were fixtures in Trump's first White House and have reemerged as architects of his second-term agenda. At its inception, both CPI and America First Legal identified themselves in tax filings as a "direct controlling entity" of AAF. DeMint, CPI, America First Legal and the Center for Renewing America did not respond to requests for comment. Roughly a decade before AAF launched, Jones, Miller and Vought were congressional staffers aligned with DeMint and other right-wing lawmakers in an insurgency against the Republican establishment. Jones built a reputation for opposition research, said a former DeMint staffer who worked alongside him. 'Jones was one of the harder-edged guys,' the ex-colleague said. In the spring of 2021, AAF launched to target Biden administration nominees. The site, no longer active, featured profiles of nominees accompanied by disparaging and at times misleading commentary. In interviews at the time, Jones said he was inspired by the Democrats' success in undermining some of Trump's first-term nominees to top administration posts. In June 2022, as Trump prepared to run again, the Heritage Foundation named AAF a partner in Project 2025, a transition plan that called for a dramatic rollback of the federal bureaucracy, including DEI initiatives. Two years later, Heritage awarded AAF $100,000 to launch 'Project Sovereignty 2025,' a database of federal employees involved in Biden-era immigration policy. After launching his DEI Watchlist in January, Jones told Fox News, 'We're going to help the Trump administration identify the people they need to get out of these positions.' 'DANGEROUS' AAF's watchlists disproportionately feature women. Although women make up less than half of the federal workforce, they account for more than two-thirds of the 175 federal employees named across the three lists, according to a Reuters analysis. About 50% of those listed are racial and ethnic minorities, compared with 41% of the overall federal workforce. Patricia Kramer, a 43-year-old U.S. Army veteran and Hispanic employment strategist at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, said that seeing her name and photograph appear on the list in February triggered the same anxiety she felt during her 2009 deployment to Iraq, when she lived under the constant threat of being targeted by enemy soldiers. 'You don't know who you're emboldening by posting a list of people that strangers should focus their attention on,' said Kramer. 'It's dangerous.' After returning from Iraq, Kramer earned a degree in psychology, motivated by the mental health struggles she and other soldiers faced. A daughter of Mexican immigrants, she later joined the NIH, working to improve Hispanic representation in staffing and research. The DEI Watchlist labeled Kramer and 95 others on the site as 'America's Bureaucrats Most Abusing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.' The watchlist highlighted portions of Kramer's biography that described her collaboration with Hispanic communities, efforts to promote equitable hiring and her work with the Office of Refugee Resettlement during the Biden administration. The group described her record as 'shocking' and incompatible with Trump's policy goals. Kramer sees her biography as a testament to a public service career spent helping underserved communities. After being spotlighted on the site, she became hypervigilant. Kramer avoided leaving home, scanned her surroundings constantly and monitored her street for anything unusual. Her greatest fear was for her 17-year-old son. 'I was afraid that some unhinged individual would make it his duty to confront those of us on the list,' she said. And 'potentially hurt one of us or our family members.' She spent months trying to get her photo removed from the site. In February, she filed a takedown request with the site's hosting platform, Webflow, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which prohibits unauthorized online distribution of copyrighted material. Documents related to her takedown request, reviewed by Reuters, show that Webflow initially complied and removed her photo. In March, AAF submitted a counter complaint with the host, arguing that the image was an 'official government portrait,' one of the documents show. AAF also replaced her photo with an illustration of a woman in an office, accompanied by a caption: 'DEI bureaucrats are so ashamed of what they're doing that they don't want to show their faces.' Kramer contacted Webflow again to prevent her image from being reinstated. By April, a new photo – taken from Kramer's LinkedIn profile – appeared on the site. Kramer has not succeeded in having it taken down. A Webflow spokesperson declined to comment on the case but said the law allows users to reinstate content if no legal action is taken within 10 to 14 days by the complainant. To assist others on the watchlist, Kramer wrote a guide explaining how to file takedown requests. At least eight colleagues initially succeeded in removing their photos, she said. But AAF challenged those removals, arguing — as it had in Kramer's case — that the images were 'official government portraits,' according to the document reviewed by Reuters. AAF succeeded in reinstating their photos. 'The length at which they're willing to go to intimidate and scare people is just ridiculous,' Kramer said, who was terminated from her job in July. The Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the NIH and CDC, did not answer questions about Kramer or others fired after appearing on AAF watchlists. In a statement, the agency said the lists were not considered in personnel decisions, but added, 'DEI has no place at HHS in the Trump Administration.' 'We will not apologize for restoring a culture of merit, integrity and neutrality in federal service,' said spokesperson Andrew Nixon. 'I FELT LIKE I HAD TO DISAPPEAR' Shelby Guillen Dominguez, 34, says she felt a wave of fear when she saw her name on the DEI Watchlist in February. The site criticized her work as a diversity program specialist at the Department of Health and Human Services. It featured video of a university speech where she discussed expanding opportunities for students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. The site claimed, without evidence, that her remarks excluded 'certain races.' 'I didn't even mention race,' Dominguez said in an interview. 'It felt like they were framing me as an enemy of the state.' AAF shared her information on its X account, which has more than 23,000 followers, accusing her of dropping 'diversity' from her title 'in a sad attempt to keep her job.' One commenter called for her to be 'fired and investigated.' The title change, however, was part of a department-wide reorganization announced a month earlier. Dominguez deleted her social media accounts, locked her credit report and set up alerts to monitor online mentions of her name. She said she stayed indoors, sought therapy, and was prescribed medication for anxiety and depression. She had been at HHS for six months when she was placed on administrative leave in January under Trump's executive order targeting federal DEI programs. In July, she was officially terminated. 'It was always my dream to work for the federal government,' she said. 'Now it's all crumbling.' Kiana Atkins, a longtime federal employee, felt similar stress after landing on the watchlist in January. 'I couldn't sleep,' said Atkins, 46, who worked at the NIH. 'I was afraid to go out by myself.' Atkins joined the agency in 2022 after working for the Census Bureau and the U.S. Navy. Her job focused on reducing employment barriers for Black employees and mentoring students. After being named, she experienced severe anxiety and withdrew from a professional development program. She temporarily disabled her LinkedIn account and tried unsuccessfully to remove her name from AAF's site. No longer feeling safe at home alone, she said she made the difficult decision to leave the U.S. and live with family in Central America. She accepted a government buyout and moved in February. 'I did not feel safe,' she said. 'I felt like I had to disappear.' 'DO PEOPLE HATE US?' Some named on the watchlists are fighting back. Anderson, the CDC worker who altered her appearance and told her kids to lock the doors, is a member of a complaint filed in March with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, an executive branch agency that adjudicates federal employment disputes. The complaint accuses the Trump administration of violating federal workers' civil and constitutional rights by removing employees alleged to be involved in DEI work. The federal Civil Service Reform Act prohibits personnel decisions based on perceived political affiliation and is meant to protect career staff from the politicization of their work. 'You can't mistreat government workers because you assume they do not share your politics,' said Kelly Dermody, one of the attorneys representing the employees. The White House has said its directives to eliminate DEI personnel and programs across the federal government were aimed at ending what it describes as unlawful preferences in federal hiring and ensuring neutrality in government activities. The case is pending. Anderson said the watchlist distorted her work and harmed her reputation without giving her a chance to respond. AAF claimed that Anderson 'discretely (sic) updated' her LinkedIn title — from Advisor on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility to Public Health Advisor — to evade a Trump executive order and obscure her 'true duties.' Anderson said she changed her title after moving into a new role in December. The group also accused her of supporting efforts to muzzle free speech after she liked a LinkedIn post warning about the dangers of health-related misinformation. Days after her name appeared, Anderson was placed on administrative leave. The Health and Human Services Department declined to comment specifically on her case. Months later, Anderson, 50, still avoids crowds, doesn't go out after dark and flinches when the doorbell rings. She choked back tears as she recalled her 13-year-old daughter asking, 'Do people hate us?' 'I just can't believe that this is my life in 2025,' Anderson said. (Additional reporting: Kristina Cooke, Ted Hesson, David Morgan and Sarah N. Lynch. Edited by Jason Szep)
Bloomberg
39 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Trump Calls for New Census That Blocks Undocumented Migrants from Count
President Donald Trump Wednesday called on his Commerce Department to conduct a new census that excluded undocumented migrants, in a move that could reshape federal spending and elections. 'I have instructed our Department of Commerce to immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024. People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS. Thank you for your attention to this matter!,' he posted on his Truth Social Platform.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump voices support for GOP gubernatorial candidate, admits she has 'tough race'
President Donald Trump expressed support for Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears, acknowledging that she is in the middle of a "tough race" against an opponent who is "not very good." "Yeah, I would. I mean, I would," Trump told reporters when asked about endorsing Earle-Sears. "I think probably, yeah, she's got a tough race. She shouldn't, she shouldn't, because the candidate she's running against is not very good, but I think she's got a tough race." However, he did not go so far as to give Earle-Sears his "complete and total" endorsement, as he has done with some candidates. Potential Youngkin Successor Focused On Message In Tough Race To Keep Swing-state 'Red' Trump has already backed Jack Ciattarelli in New Jersey and Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio. Polling out of Virginia may explain Trump's apparent reservations. A recent Virginia Commonwealth Poll from July has Sears at 37% and Spanberger at 49%. Meanwhile, Youngkin's approval rating sits at 49%, nine points higher than Trump's numbers in the same poll. Read On The Fox News App Virginia Gubernatorial Candidate Abigail Spanberger Releases First Ad, Slams 'Political Nonsense' On Aug. 1, in a CNN interview, Earle-Sears seemingly struggled to give an answer as to why Trump had not endorsed her yet. The lieutenant governor said that she had met with the president but repeatedly refused to detail what they had spoken about. Earle-Sears, who currently serves as Virginia's lieutenant governor and is poised to become the nation's first Black female governor, is facing an uphill battle against former Rep. Abigail Spanberger. Despite serving alongside popular Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Earle-Sears is struggling to close the gap and overtake her opponent. Earle-Sears is trailing Spanberger not only in the polls but also in fundraising. While Earle-Sears has yet to release her Q2 numbers, in Q1 she raised $3.1M, whereas Spanberger raked in more than double at $6.7M. In Q2, Spanberger raised $10.7M, according to her article source: Trump voices support for GOP gubernatorial candidate, admits she has 'tough race'
