RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Republican winsome r sears and the Democratic Party abigail spanberger The two men are scheduled to debate their competing visions for Virginia during Thursday’s gubernatorial race. And each woman probably has the same goal. It’s about accusing the other side of supporting chaos in Washington.
Virginia is one of them. two states elect governors The November election is often seen as a bellwether for political parties across the Potomac River in preparation for next year’s midterm elections.
Washington politics is especially relevant to Virginia this year as president donald trump’s Federal workforce reductions and the current state of Congress government shutdown In a state full of federal employees and military personnel, the implications are significant.
Thursday will be the first time Spanberger and Earl Sears will debate face-to-face after months of criticizing each other from afar.
Virginia has elected leaders from both parties in recent years. In 2021, Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Democratic former Governor Terry McAuliffe. gubernatorial election. State Democratic Party makes full recovery by a narrow margin legislative control In the 2023 election.
Here’s what to note during the debate at Norfolk State University:
Trump’s Shadow Race
Trump will not be on Virginia’s ballot next month. However, the Republican president is expected to play a central role in the debate.
Mr. Spanberger often speaks of Mr. Trump and Mr. Earl Sears in the same breath. Just last week, the Spanberger campaign issued a news release claiming that Earl Sears “is not seriously considering the economic impact of President Trump’s firing of Virginia.”
But Earl Sears and other Republicans tend to be dossiers when it comes to Trump’s name. They want to reap the benefits of his popularity among Republicans without incurring the ire of Virginians who dislike him.
Earl Sears spoke favorably of the president and invited him to come to the state to campaign on her behalf. She also rejected his accusations federal workforce reductions earlier this year. Given the opportunity, she refused in a television interview to tell President Trump not to fire any more shots as part of the shutdown.
Trump has not directly endorsed Earl Sears in the campaign. He visited Virginia twice last week, but ignored Republican gubernatorial candidates.
shutdown
The standoff over the closure is likely to continue into Thursday night and beyond.
Nine days have passed since the congress. Funding extension failedAnd Democrats and Republicans are shifting the blame onto their rivals, even in state-level elections.
On Thursday, Mr. Spanberger will have a chance to paint Mr. Earl Sears as a candidate who cannot resist Mr. Trump. Democrats have already pointed out that the Republican president’s threats include: Massive gunfire It’s obviously going to have an impact on Virginia. 315,000 federal employees live.
Earl Sears will likely try to tie his Democratic opponent to a federal shutdown after Congress failed to fund the government. Democrats, who have consistently voted against short-term spending measures, say they will only vote yes if the legislative session is extended. medical subsidy It is scheduled to expire at the end of the year.
Earl Sears has repeatedly publicly urged his opponents to tell Virginia Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Democrats, to vote for the spending bill.
Culture wars vs wallets
One of the keys to a debate is what the candidates want to talk about.
I want to keep Earl Sears. transgender youth Away from high school sports and bathrooms. Spanberger would rather talk about keeping Virginia affordable.
Earl Sears ran a major campaign to strengthen laws regarding transgender girls in Virginia’s public education system, flooding the airwaves with ads highlighting the cultural divide that helped propel Trump to victory last fall.
Mr. Spanberger has primarily led on food table issues such as employment, cost of living and health care prices.
Each candidate approaches the other’s arguments, with some hesitation. Earle Sears did not criticize President Trump’s role in cutting jobs across the state, but said it was vital to her to maintain the Youngkin administration’s business success.
Although Spanberger said she supports all children, she did not specifically emphasize support for transgender children.
Questions each candidate can answer
Both candidates could be asked to defend themselves from criticism that surfaced during the campaign.
The Earl Sears campaign had to answer questions after Mr. Youngkin unsuccessfully asked Republican John Reed to do so. withdraw from the lieutenant governor election Related to social media accounts that contain explicit photos.
But Reid is not the only candidate whose Republican governor has called on him to withdraw from the race. Last week, National Review published a report revealing that 2022 Democratic attorney general candidate Jay Jones sent text messages suggesting the former Republican House speaker received “two bullets in the head.”
Republicans across the country, including Trump and Earl Sears, have called for Jones’ resignation over his violent comments. Spanberger has condemned the text messages, but has stopped short of calling for his resignation despite mounting pressure to do so. jones apologized.
This argument is made as a threat: political violence Things are escalating across the U.S. after the shooting death of a conservative activist. charlie kirk Former Minnesota Democratic House Speaker melissa hoatman And her husband.
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Olivia Diaz is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
