1:03Virginia’s Republican nominee for governor, Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, makes an appearance at the 54th Annual Buena Vista Labor Day Festival on September 01, 2025, in Buena Vista, Virginia.Win Mcnamee/Getty Images
Winsome Earle-Sears is encountering considerable obstacles in her bid to become the next Republican governor of Virginia.
She is trailing in campaign donations and is behind her Democratic opponent, Representative Abigail Spanberger, in opinion polls. And the backing from an influential figure who could potentially tighten the gap in this election is conspicuously absent.
President Donald Trump has yet to officially support Earle-Sears, who currently serves as Virginia’s lieutenant governor. Despite criticizing Spanberger at an event in Virginia celebrating the U.S. Navy's 250th anniversary this past weekend, Trump made no mention of Earle-Sears, a veteran of the Marine Corps.
The relationship between Earle-Sears and Trump cooled off in 2022 after the lieutenant governor proposed it was time for the Republican Party to "move forward" beyond him and chose not to endorse his subsequent campaign for the White House.
Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, attends the 54th Annual Buena Vista Labor Day Festival on September 01, 2025 in Buena Vista, Virginia.Win Mcnamee/Getty Images
"A genuine leader recognizes when they have become a detriment. A true leader understands when it's appropriate to leave the spotlight. And the electorate has delivered that unmistakable message," Earle-Sears remarked at the time.
Subsequently, Trump undermined Earle-Sears on his social media platform, stating that he "never felt positively" towards her and characterized her as a "fake."
ABC News has contacted The White House, Earle-Sears' campaign organization, and the Virginia GOP for their perspectives.
Attorney general's race
Consequently, with Republicans facing a significant possibility of losing control of the Virginia governor's mansion, their leading executive and other figures within the administration are conspicuously absent from the campaign efforts for Earle-Sears.
However, they are not entirely disengaged from Virginia’s political landscape.
Both Trump and Vice President JD Vance have joined the chorus of Republican voices advocating for the resignation of Democratic attorney general candidate and former Virginia delegate Jay Jones, following the emergence of text messages to then-fellow Virginia delegate Carrie Coyner detailing a hypothetical scenario involving then-Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert receiving "two bullets to the head."
Jay Jones, who is running to become Virginia’s attorney general in 2025, speaks to the audience during Abigail Spanberger’s bus tour stop at Stacy C. Sherwood Community Center in Fairfax, Virginia on June 26, 2025.Maxine Wallace/The Washington Post via Getty Images
The National Review indicated that Jones also expressed a desire for Gilbert’s wife to "witness her own child’s death in her arms so that Gilbert might reconsider his political stances."
Coyner, a Republican, asserted in a message disseminated to her constituents this week and acquired by ABC that Jones initially intended to text someone else but was amenable to continuing the conversation upon realizing it was her. She reports that once she conveyed "alarm" regarding the messages, Jones "persisted in attempting to justify his initial remarks via phone and text."
Jones has issued an apology for the messages, conveying to WRIC that he "sincerely and from the depths of my heart, wish to express my contrition and my regret for what transpired and what I articulated; such language has no place in our dialogue, and I am deeply remorseful for what occurred."
In a statement provided to ABC News, Coyner further alleged that during a separate phone conversation in 2020 concerning police qualified immunity, Jones implied that the demise of a few officers might result in fewer instances of police-inflicted killings.
"During the discussion on repealing qualified immunity for law enforcement in Virginia, a legislative initiative supported by Jay Jones, I stated my belief that eliminating qualified immunity would cause officers to hesitate when making instantaneous decisions, potentially leading to fatalities for both individuals and police officers. Jay remarked that if several police officers were to die, perhaps they would reconsider and cease killing individuals. His assertions were and remain disqualifying; individuals should not have to perish to validate Jay Jones' arguments," Coyner communicated to ABC.
Jones refuted those claims in a statement to ABC: "I have never believed, nor do I currently believe, that any harm should befall law enforcement personnel, without exception."
Vance, via X, alleged that Jones was "fantasizing about the murder of his political adversaries," and Trump characterized Jones as a "radical left extremist" while offering his endorsement to Jason Miyares, Jones’ Republican counterpart.
On this matter, the White House and Earle-Sears concur — she has also urged Jones to withdraw from the race and has even produced an advertisement featuring screenshots of the aforementioned texts. Earle-Sears and Virginia Republicans are endeavoring to link this scandal to Spanberger, contending that her recent counsel on the campaign trail to "let your anger motivate you" as an impetus to resist Republicans is inflammatory.
Spanberger has not publicly called for Jones’s resignation, although she did express in a statement that she feels "disgust" towards his language and denounced violent rhetoric in politics.
Nevertheless, Earle-Sears has less than a month to leverage this controversy as momentum and edge closer to Spanberger — regardless of assistance from the White House.
Sourse: abcnews.go.com
