HENRICO — On the eve of Virginia’s down-ballot primaries, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger announced a statewide bus tour and criticized her Republican opponent, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, during a campaign rally Monday. The event, held just hours before Democrats select nominees for other statewide races, signaled her intent to steer the party clear of the internal conflicts currently dogging the Republican ticket.
Hundreds of supporters packed a hallway at the new J.R. Tucker High School, the school Spanberger attended growing up.
“Right now, our commonwealth is at a crossroads,” Spanberger told the crowd. “Families are facing rising costs, and housing and healthcare are expensive. It’s harder and harder to start a business, and parents are worried about their children’s future and the future of our public schools.”
She blamed Washington, D.C., and the Republican-controlled federal government for causing “chaos.”
“We see attacks on the federal workforce, the withdrawal of millions of federal grant dollars, threats to the healthcare of hundreds of 1000s of Virginians, and constant pressure to Virginia’s economy,” she continued.
Spanberger later took direct aim at Earle-Sears.
“What we’re seeing from the lieutenant governor in this campaign is what we’ve been seeing out of Washington – politicians who want to put an extreme agenda over action,” Spanberger said.
Spanberger is taking this message on the road with a 40-stop bus tour spanning eight days.
The tour begins in Richmond before heading to Southside, Southwest Virginia and Northern Virginia, concluding in Virginia Beach.
“We will be stopping and meeting with House of Delegates candidates across the commonwealth, and we will be hearing directly from our fellow Virginians,” Spanberger said to cheers from the crowd.
“It’s important,” she continued, “that we share our vision for Virginia with voters face to face, even if we may not always agree, because it’s not just about the policy initiatives and the policy agenda. It’s also about the approach to governing.”
“It must be very exciting for Abigail Spanberger to see those parts of Virginia for the first time,” said Peyton Vogel, press secretary for Earle-Sears. “Winsome will continue to be invested in each and every community across the commonwealth because unlike Abigail, she’s actually been to them all.”
Democratic voters will choose nominees for lieutenant governor and attorney general on Tuesday. These nominees will run their own races but will appear on the same ticket as Spanberger.
Republicans have had their ticket set for months, but controversy arose after Gov. Glenn Youngkin asked lieutenant governor nominee John Reid — the first openly gay statewide nominee in Virginia — to back out of the race. The request followed the discovery of a Tumblr account sharing reposts of naked men that used the same username as Reid’s personal Instagram account.
Reid denies the account was his, but Earle-Sears has yet to publicly campaign with him.
Reid said in an interview with WTOP that he has not spoken to Earle-Sears or Youngkin since the controversy began in late April.
“They’ve all got my cellphone, and I would love to see them,” Reid told WTOP. “I hope that eventually we’ll all be together and they’ll embrace me, because I think we have a winning message.”
Spanberger, delivering a message of unity and leadership on the final day of the party’s nomination battles, appears positioned to prevent Democrats from facing the same struggles as Republicans.
“I need your help for the next 140 days,” Spanberger told the crowd, “to ensure that people know who their candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general are, and more importantly, to ensure that we hear from Virginians across our commonwealth about the issues that are important to you and your families.”
Election day is Nov. 4.
