Republican gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears is facing challenges in her statewide campaign, including high staff turnover and criticism from conservative media outlets accusing her of dodging interviews.
It is not uncommon for statewide campaigns to experience some hiccups, but these hiccups are typically accompanied by high points for the campaign. So far, there have been very few, if any, high points for the Earle-Sears campaign.
In the last few weeks, Earle-Sears has lost her political director and her campaign manager — sshe has reported fundraising numbers that are drastically lower than Spanberger’s — polling has shown her losing by double digits, and she still hasn’t openly embraced her running mate, Republican lieutenant governor nominee John Reid, an openly gay man, after the controversy around his alleged Tumblr that he denies was his.
Now, instead of looking within, Earle-Sears is attacking the media.
“Thank you to the liberal media for their attacks this week — you’re the reason yesterday was our largest online fundraising day to date,” Earle-Sears said in a social media post last week.
The “liberal media” that she is attacking actually includes conservative radio host John Fredericks, who compared her campaign to a clown car, making Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Mark Peake go on the record and say her campaign is not a “clown car.”
Fredericks, who was the Virginia campaign chair for Donald Trump and a strong advocate for overturning the 2020 election, says he has struggled to get Earle-Sears onto his radio show.
He responded to the statement from the Earle-Sears campaign in a statement to Virginia Scope on Monday.
“If I am the liberal media, Abigail Spanberger is a closet MAGA supporter with a bunch of red hats,” Fredericks said.
WRVA, another conservative radio show, has discussed its trouble booking Earle-Sears for media hits, and Fox News has repeatedly stated on air that it has extended multiple invitations to Earle-Sears for interviews.
One day before Earle-Sears launched her attack on the “liberal media,” Peake said the campaign would start doing more press.
“I think what you were about to see, based on what has happened this week, is a change of strategy in the campaign, which is now going to be more obvious, more out in the open, more public, more events, and much more responsive to the media,” Peake said.
Earle-Sears has a reputation for being very personable when interacting with the public, and can perform really well at campaign events. She also has a history of making mistakes in the press, however. The Youngkin campaign essentially shut her down in the final weeks of the 2021 election after she did a national interview about abortion.
During the interview, she expressed support for a Texas law that bans abortion after six weeks.
“Well, I can tell you that would be me, that I would support it,” she said during the 2021 interview with Newsmax.
After that interview, Earle-Sears largely remained out of the media spotlight for the remainder of the campaign.
More struggles in 2025
Back in March, Virginia Scope reported that her staff held a virtual information session with supporters to provide an update on her campaign, signature collection efforts, and her relationship with Trump as she seeks his endorsement.
Leaked audio obtained by Virginia Scope showed staff also criticizing her potential primary opponents, saying they “would be the last two people picked for the dodgeball team.”
During the event, members of Sears’ team stated that conversations with Trump’s team have taken place, while also noting that they believe Earle-Sears is more conservative than Trump.
Earle-Sears has faced pushback from die-hard Trump supporters since 2022, when she said she believed it was time for him to step away from politics and not run for president again.
Now, with Trump rising from the ashes after his 2020 loss and reclaiming his role as the dominant voice in the Republican Party, his endorsement carries significant weight in GOP nomination contests.
During the call, a participant asked Earle-Sears’ staff about her relationship with Trump supporters.
Cole Trower responded.
“Let’s just be clear,” Trower said. “Winsome Sears is no mealy-mouthed politician, and you tell me one policy that she disagrees with on the president, and we can have a conversation. She is ideologically right there with Trump.”
Trower said that he believes Earle-Sears is more conservative than Trump.
“And if you want to be clear, I think she’s more conservative than Donald Trump, who I love and respect greatly. But to be honest with you, I think Winsome Sears is more conservative than he is. And the reality is that in [2024], there was a lot of candidates that were looking to enter the race. One was Glenn Youngkin possibly going to run. You had Ron DeSantis. You had Tim Scott. So there was some other candidates there that some people… you know… hindsight is 2020.”
Notably, Trump, who endorsed Glenn Youngkin the day after he won he nomination in 2021, has still not endorsed Earle-Sears.
Trower was eventually let go from the Earle-Sears campaign, but rumors began circulating in the last week that he is claiming he will be returning to be in charge of the campaign. Multiple activists and operatives informed Virginia Scope that Trower told them this, but the Earle-Sears campaign denied he was being rehired.
Trower did not respond to a question from Virginia Scope.
With Earle-Sears trailing in polls by double digits, analysts are now pointing out that Republicans appear to be focusing their attention on the attorney general race, where Jason Miyares is seeking reelection to a second term.
“It’s no secret that the Winsome Earle-Sears’ gubernatorial campaign is off to a shaky start. Abigail Spanberger has a large financial advantage, one that became even more pronounced in the last fundraising cycle,” said Bob Holsworth, a political analyst. “Earle-Sears has yet to define the race with the sharpness that has been the hallmark of winning GOP contests. She has no apparent strategy to deal with Donald Trump’s upside down approval rating in Virginia. And Chris LaCivita, the RVA-based architect of Donald Trump’s winning 2024 strategy, has already labeled the Earle-Sears’ staff ‘amateur hour.’”
“Many Republicans have come to the conclusion that keeping Miyares as AG may be the GOP’s best hope for limiting the Democrats’ power if the conventional wisdom about a likely Spanberger victory holds in November,” Holsworth continued. “And if the strategy of attacking Jones becomes an effective carom shot that puts Spanberger and Democratic House of Delegates candidates on the defensive, well, that’ll just be an added benefit.”
Election Day is Nov. 4.