Latest news with #WinsomeEarleSears
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
GOP nominee for Virginia governor tries to distance herself from anti-abortion past
The Republican nominee for governor of Virginia has recently tried to distance herself from her long-standing, hardline anti-abortion record, declining recently to state whether she would support any restrictions on abortion access if she is elected to lead the state this fall. But her record reveals a candidate staunchly opposed to the procedure. Winsome Earle-Sears, now the state's lieutenant governor, supported a 15-week abortion ban and has previously said she wants to make abortion illegal in almost all cases. In audio obtained by the Guardian, Earle-Sears also suggested an equivalence between consenting to sex and consenting to pregnancy. Virginia is the only state in the US south without a strict abortion ban, and abortion is legal in the state through the end of the second trimester of pregnancy. The state's current Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, previously failed to build support for a 15-week abortion ban, a framework Earle-Sears endorsed. While campaigning for lieutenant governor in January 2021, before Roe v Wade was overturned and support for abortion rights rose among the US public, Earle-Sears told a reporter that she considered abortion to be 'genocide' and that she wanted to make abortion illegal in all cases unless the mother's life was at risk. But she has recently struck a different tone. In a local news interview last week, a reporter with WRIC 8News asked Earle-Sears about her past support for limiting abortion access. She replied: 'I never said limiting access.' Sears, who is Black, then referenced abortion rates among Black women and asked: 'Who doesn't want us to have babies?' When asked if she would sign a law banning abortion at 15 weeks or less, Earle-Sears said: 'We're not limiting access at all. That's not what we're saying. As a matter of fact, what we really need to do is get together and try to figure out, where is the limit?' Virginians broadly support abortion rights, with 71% saying abortion should be legal in all or most cases per a 2023 Public Religion Research Institute survey. The interview comes as some GOP strategists told Politico that Earle-Sears is struggling to make traction, citing slow fundraising and controversial comments connecting slavery to diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Her campaign wrote in a fundraising email: 'Slaves did not die in the fields so that we could call ourselves victims now in 2025.' Polling shows Earle-Sears trailing the Democratic nominee, former representative Abigail Spanberger, by nearly seven points according to polling averages. Virginia gubernatorial races often swing in the opposite direction of the presidency. Earle-Sears may be attempting to strike a softer tone on abortion in advance of the November election, but she has made hardline anti-abortion statements for years. In a little-noticed radio interview from June 2022, Earle-Sears suggested to then conservative radio host John Reid, now the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, that women consenting to sex are consenting to pregnancy. 'We need to make our choices before we're pregnant, not, you know, after,' she said, just days after the supreme court overturned Roe. 'You already made a choice.' That comment was of a piece with other past statements. In September 2021, Earle-Sears said on Newsmax that she supported a six-week abortion ban like the one that had just taken effect in Texas. Her campaign website's 'issues' page previously included an anti-abortion section where she referred to 'late-term abortion' as murder. (Abortion opponents use that term to refer to abortions later in pregnancy; in obstetrics, 'late term' refers to a pregnancy after 40 weeks.) She scrubbed the site of that section in 2021. Sign up to Headlines US Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Most recently, Earle-Sears, who is required as the state's senate president to add her signature to bills that pass the legislature, added a note to a constitutional amendment to codify abortion rights that the legislature passed in May. The Virginia Mercury reported that she wrote above her signature: 'I am morally opposed to this bill; no protection for the child.' The amendment must pass the legislature again next year before it can go to voters. The Earle-Sears campaign declined to comment on the record on her recent interview as well as the 2022 interview. Reid, the lieutenant governor nominee, has been mired in his own scandal for allegedly maintaining a social media account featuring photos of nude men. Governor Youngkin asked him to drop out of the race, but Reid, Virginia's first openly gay candidate for statewide office, has denied connection to the photos and claimed that attempts to push him constitute discrimination against his sexual orientation. Following news of the photos, Earle-Sears cancelled events with Reid. News also broke that, last year, she wrote a note on a marriage equality bill saying that she was 'morally opposed' to same-sex marriage. Politico described the relationship between the two nominees at the Republican ticket as 'frosty'.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Spanberger leads Earle-Sears in latest pair of Virginia polls
ROANOKE, Va. (WFXR) — The election that will determine Virginia's next Governor is less than six months away and two polls released Thursday provided an update on where things are trending. The latest polls from Roanoke College and Pantheon/HarrisX both show Democratic candidate Abigail Spanberger ahead of Republican nominee and current Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears. The Roanoke College poll puts Spanberger's lead at 17 points, with 28 percent of voters still undecided. But Spanberger has just four points of separation in the Pantheon/HarrisX poll. Virginia Tech political science professor Dr. Karen Hult said the discrepancy is not that shocking. 'Some of it has to do with the fact that they're very different polls in terms of how they identify people to ask questions of,' she said. But Hult and Liberty University professor of Government Aaron S. Van Allen feel differently about which margin reflects a more accurate picture. 'I was a little taken back by a 17-point spread,' said Van Allen. 'I think based on some of the data that I've seen, that may be a little bit high.' Van Allen projected a margin within the range of four-to-seven points, but Hult disagrees. New campaign finance reports show Spanberger with $7 million advantage over Sears in Va. Governor race 'I would be inclined to think at this point that the Roanoke College poll is closer to what I think may well be going on,' said Hult. The Roanoke College poll says one-in-five people do not feel like they know enough about the two candidates to make a decision yet. Meanwhile, the Pantheon/HarrisX poll identified strong partisan bases for each candidate, with 91 percent of Democrats supporting Spanberger, and 92 percent of Republicans backing Earle-Sears. Van Allen said those numbers point to the role of independent and undecided voters in determining this race. 'Those are big numbers,' he said. 'Any time that you get 90-plus percent of folks that are saying, 'I'm definitely voting for this person,' that means those voters on the fringes, or those independent voters, they're going to be the final nail in the coffin so to speak in making that decision.' Hult and Van Allen are watching voter perception of Republican leadership as well. Both of the latest polls offered different numbers, but similar conclusions, on approval ratings for President Donald Trump and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin. Roanoke College had the Governor's approval rating at the lowest mark any of their polls had showed so far, at 46 percent. Meanwhile, the President was down to 31 percent approval. The Pantheon/HarrisX poll had higher approval for both with Youngkin at 54 percent and Trump at 44 percent. But both Hult and Van Allen agree that confidence in Republican leadership has dipped, and that could impact the race for Governor. 'President Trump's approval levels have been declining nationally relatively recently,' said Hult. 'And to some extent because of the nationalization of politics, one would expect then that Governor Youngkin's would go down as well.' 'I think that voters are ultimately going to have to decide with whom are they aligning with more,' said Van Allen. 'Are they going to align Winsome Earle-Sears more so with Governor Youngkin or are they going to align her more with President Trump.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
757 Votes: The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press 2025 primary election guide
Virginia's primary elections are June 17. But early voting begins May 2. Primaries for Democrats and Republicans will be held in several races for both statewide races and local elections in Hampton Roads. The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press voter guide — 757 Votes — explains what primary races are on the ballot and who is running for office. The 2025 primary election guide contains Q&As with candidates running in contested races for statewide office like lieutenant governor and attorney general, several House of Delegates seats, and local constitutional officers like sheriffs, commonwealth's attorneys, and treasurers. Only races with contested primaries are included in the primary election guide. Information about candidates running the general election will be published at a later time. The guide will be updated throughout election season with additional reporting on races and candidates. Early voting for the Virginia general election begins Friday, May 2 and runs through Saturday, June 14. Voters can cast ballots in person at their local registrar's office or vote by mail. Click on each race to learn more about the candidates. Governor: The gubernatorial race does not have a contested primary. Democrat Abigail Spanberger and Republican Winsome Earle Sears will face off in the general election. Lieutenant Governor: This race has only a Democratic primary. The winner will face Republican nominee John Reid. Democratic primary: Alex Bastani, Ghazala Hashmi, Babur Lateef, Aaron Rouse, Victor Salgado, Levar Stoney Attorney General: This race has only a Democratic primary. The winner will face Republican incumbent Jason Miyares in the general election. Democratic primary: Jay Jones, Shannon Taylor ___ District 70 Republican primary: Hailey Dollar, Cynthia Scaturico The winner will face Democrat incumbent Shelly Simonds in the general election. District 89 Democratic primary: Blaizen Buckshot Bloom, Karen 'Kacey' Carnegie Republican primary: Mike Lamonea, Kristen Shannon District 97 Republican primary: Tim Anderson, Christina Felder The winner will face Democrat incumbent Michael Feggans in the general election. ___ Chesapeake Sheriff, Republican primary: Wallace Chadwick, David Rosado Newport News Commonwealth's Attorney, Democratic primary: Howard Gwynn, Shannon Jones Treasurer, Democratic primary: Sanu Dieng-Cooper, Derek Reason Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney, Democratic primary: John F. Butler, Ramin Fatehi
