GOP BOOST: Earle-Sears narrows Spanberger’s lead in nail-biting Virginia gubernatorial race

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From the Washington Examiner: The Virginia gubernatorial race has tightened in the campaign’s closing stretch, with Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R-VA) trailing Democrat Abigail Spanberger by just 3 percentage points in a new survey. An A2 Insights poll conducted from Friday to Sunday puts Spanberger at 48% and Earle-Sears at 45%, the narrowest margin reported in months.

The A2 Insights result contrasts with several earlier polls this month that showed Spanberger with a larger advantage. For example, a Sept. 8-14 survey from Christopher Newport University’s Wason Center found Spanberger leading 52%-40% among likely voters, while a Sept. 9 release from Virginia Commonwealth University’s Wilder School reported a 49%-40% edge among registered voters. Taken together, the numbers suggest a competitive race with late movement toward the Republican nominee, even as most public polling still shows the Democrat ahead.

In July, the Earle-Sears campaign demoted its manager and parted ways with its political director, a shake-up that changed the trajectory of the race.

Earle-Sears’s campaign has undergone high-profile changes as Republicans seek to replicate Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R-VA) 2021 path in the suburbs. The Republican nominee has since been gaining ground at a rapid pace, making more media appearances and targeting northern Virginia school board meetings where cultural and education issues have become flashpoints. Her campaign is focusing heavily on Loudoun, Fairfax, and Prince William counties — the same battlegrounds that helped fuel Youngkin’s victory through the parents’ rights movement.

Republican: Earle-Sears, 61, is a U.S. Marine Corp veteran. She was born in Kingston, Jamaica and immigrated to the U.S. with her family when she was 6 years old. She grew up in the Bronx, New York.

Earle-Sears served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 2002 to 2004, and also served on the Virginia Board of Education. She became Virginia’s first female lieutenant governor in January 2022. Previously a Democrat, she switched to the Republican Party in 1988, and has remained with the GOP ever since.

Gov. Youngkin has endorsed Earle-Sears in her race for the governor’s seat.

Democrat: Abigail Spanberger, 45, served in the U.S. Congress from January 2019 to January 2025.

In the early 2000s, Spanberger worked as a substitute teacher at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Northern Virginia, teaching English literature. She was an operations officer for the Central Intelligence Agency from 2006-2014.

Spanberger reportedly does not support any restrictions on abortions, and has called climate change “one of the greatest and most imminent threats to our economy, our national security, and our way of life.” In February 2023, she signed a letter calling for Joe Biden to give F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.

Spanberger has objected to President Trump’s travel ban on certain Muslim countries, opposed the border wall, and has called for a pathway to legal status for illegal aliens who “abide by the laws, work and pay taxes.”

Earle-Sears has been pounding Spanberger hard over her support for transgenders and allowing biological males in girls’ restrooms.

READ MORE from the Washington Examiner.

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