Virginia Republican who could become state's first woman governor shrugs off identity questions
Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears says she is not focusing on the potential historic chance of becoming her state's first female governor and is instead concentrating on her policies and message.
"People are looking, I think, past the fact of my skin color, even my gender. It means that they want to hear a message," Earle-Sears told CNN in an article published Tuesday.
"So, I'm not really focused on the historic aspect," the presumptive Republican nominee added. "It's wonderful. It's good. But what are your policies? How will your policies help my family?"
Sears, in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital published last December, shared a similar perspective, saying, "I'm not really running to make history. I'm just trying to, as I've said before, leave it better than I found it, and I want everyone to have the same opportunities I had."
Trump Not On Ballot But President Influences Tuesday's High-stakes Primary
Earle-Sears, who is running unopposed in the GOP primary for governor to succeed term-limited Gov. Glenn Youngkin, said in a May 28 X post that she stands out from other candidates because she is not a "typical" politician.
Read On The Fox News App
Her Democratic opponent, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, is also running unopposed in her primary, meaning Virginia will elect a woman governor this fall, no matter what.
Spanberger has said that she is excited about the prospect of becoming Virginia's first female governor, telling CNN in the same piece that, "What I hear from voters is we would be so excited to have you be our first woman governor." However, the article noted she's not playing up her gender on the campaign trail.
"Certainly, when I'm out campaigning and spending time across Virginia, I know it is on the mind of some Virginians," but she said if she did win, "My focus is going to be on delivering on the promises and work that I set out to do when I began my campaign."
Former Congresswoman Turned Va Gubernatorial Candidate Abigail Spanberger Accused Of Ethics Violation
Click Here For More Coverage Of Media And Culture
Kelly Dittmar, director of research for the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University, told CNN that she thinks gender is not the only factor at play for voters when they choose a candidate.
"The women themselves are very unlikely to use their gender solely as they're making history as part of their campaign strategy, because it's not something we've seen move voters in significant ways when it comes to who they're going to vote for or even voter turnout," said Dittmar.
History suggests Spanberger is the favorite in the state that's gone blue in recent presidential elections, although Earle-Sears' allies say not to count her out and point out Youngkin was an underdog in 2021.
In 11 of the past 12 Virginia gubernatorial elections, the winner has been in the opposite party of the previous year's presidential election winner. In 2021, Youngkin won in an upset over Democrat Terry McAuliffe after Joe Biden was elected president in 2020. In 2017, Democrat Ralph Northam was elected a year after Donald Trump first won the White House.Original article source: Virginia Republican who could become state's first woman governor shrugs off identity questions
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Supreme Court delivers another blow to California's imperiled emissions standards
The Supreme Court reinstated legal challenges by oil and gas companies Friday to California's strict emissions standards for motor vehicles, standards that the Trump administration is likely to halt on its own in the near future. Federal law allows California to set tighter limits on auto emissions than the national standard, and since 1990 has allowed other states to adopt California's rules, an option taken by 17 states and the District of Columbia. But fuel companies affected by the increasing use of electric vehicles contend the state's standards are too restrictive and have sued to overturn them. Lower federal courts ruled that companies had failed to show they were being harmed by the standards, and therefore lacked legal standing to sue, because electric car sales are increasing for other reasons. The Supreme Court disagreed in a 7-2 decision. 'The whole point of the regulations is to increase the number of electric vehicles in the new automobile market beyond what consumers would otherwise demand,' Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the majority opinion. 'The government generally may not target a business or industry through stringent and allegedly unlawful regulation, and then evade the resulting lawsuits by claiming that the targets of its regulation should be locked out of court.' But dissenting Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said lawyers in the case had told the court that the Environmental Protection Agency, under President Donald Trump, was about to withdraw its approval of California's waiver from nationwide standards, 'which will put an end to California's emissions program.' The EPA took that action during Trump's first administration, which was reversed under President Joe Biden. Meanwhile, legislation passed by the Republican-controlled Congress and signed by Trump would prevent California from banning sales of new gasoline-powered vehicles in 2035, a law the state has challenged in court. The Supreme Court 'is already viewed by many as being overly sympathetic to corporate interests,' and Friday's ruling 'will no doubt aid future attempts by the fuel industry to attack the Clean Air Act,' said Jackson, a Biden appointee. In a separate dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the court should have returned the case to a lower court to await the EPA's action. Kavanaugh, however, said fuel companies affected by California's current standards could seek to prove in court that they were arbitrary and unlawful. His opinion was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Elena Kagan. Liane Randolph, chair of the California Air Resources Board, said it was not a full-scale rejection of the state's emissions standards. 'This ruling does not change California's Advanced Clean Cars rulemaking, nor does it dispute what data has shown to be true: vehicle emissions are a huge source of pollution with grave health impacts, consumer adoption of zero emission vehicles continues to rise, and global auto manufacturers are committed to an electric future,' she said in a statement. But attorney Brett Skorup of the libertarian Cato Institute said the ruling was 'a welcome rebuke to judicial gatekeeping' and affirmed that 'predictable economic harms from government regulation' entitle 'injured parties (to) have their day in court.' The case is Diamond Alternative Energy v. EPA, No. 24-7.
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Vance blames California Dems for violent immigration protests and calls Sen. Alex Padilla 'Jose'
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Vice President JD Vance on Friday accused California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of encouraging violent immigration protests as he used his appearance in Los Angeles to rebut criticism from state and local officials that the Trump administration fueled the unrest by sending in federal officers. Vance also referred to U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, the state's first Latino senator, as 'Jose Padilla,' a week after the Democrat was forcibly taken to the ground by officers and handcuffed after speaking out during a Los Angeles news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on immigration raids. 'I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question,' Vance said, in an apparent reference to the altercation at Noem's event. 'I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn't a theater. And that's all it is.' 'They want to be able to go back to their far-left groups and to say, 'Look, me, I stood up against border enforcement. I stood up against Donald Trump,'' Vance added. A spokesperson for Padilla, Tess Oswald, noted in a social media post that Padilla and Vance were formerly colleagues in the Senate and said that Vance should know better. 'He should be more focused on demilitarizing our city than taking cheap shots,' Oswald said. Vance's visit to Los Angeles to tour a multiagency Federal Joint Operations Center and a mobile command center came as demonstrations calmed down in the city and a curfew was lifted this week. That followed over a week of sometimes-violent clashes between protesters and police and outbreaks of vandalism and looting that followed immigration raids across Southern California. Trump's dispatching of his top emissary to Los Angeles at a time of turmoil surrounding the Israel-Iran war and the U.S.'s future role in it signals the political importance Trump places on his hard-line immigration policies. Vance echoed the president's harsh rhetoric toward California Democrats as he sought to blame them for the protests in the city. 'Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass, by treating the city as a sanctuary city, have basically said that this is open season on federal law enforcement,' Vance said after he toured federal immigration enforcement offices. 'What happened here was a tragedy,' Vance added. 'You had people who were doing the simple job of enforcing the law and they had rioters egged on by the governor and the mayor, making it harder for them to do their job. That is disgraceful. And it is why the president has responded so forcefully.' Newsom's spokesperson Izzy Gardon said in a statement, 'The Vice President's claim is categorically false. The governor has consistently condemned violence and has made his stance clear.' In a statement on X, Newsom responded to Vance's reference to 'Jose Padilla,' saying the comment was no accident. Jose Padilla also is the name of a convicted al-Qaida terrorism plotter during President George W. Bush's administration, who was sentenced to two decades in prison. Padilla was arrested in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport during the tense months after the 9/11 attacks and accused of the 'dirty bomb' mission. It later emerged through U.S. interrogation of other al-Qaida suspects that the 'mission' was only a sketchy idea, and those claims never surfaced in the South Florida terrorism case. Responding to the outrage, Taylor Van Kirk, a spokesperson for Vance, said of the vice president: 'He must have mixed up two people who have broken the law.' Federal immigration authorities have been ramping up arrests across the country to fulfill Trump's promise of mass deportations. Todd Lyons, the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has defended his tactics against criticism that authorities are being too heavy-handed. The friction in Los Angeles began June 6, when federal agents conducted a series of immigration sweeps in the region that have continued since. Amid the protests and over the objections of state and local officials, Trump ordered the deployment of roughly 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to the second-largest U.S. city, home to 3.8 million people. Trump has said that without the military's involvement, Los Angeles 'would be a crime scene like we haven't seen in years.' Newsom has depicted the military intervention as the onset of a much broader effort by Trump to overturn political and cultural norms at the heart of the nation's democracy. Earlier Friday, Newsom urged Vance to visit victims of the deadly January wildfires while in Southern California and talk with Trump, who earlier this week suggested his feud with the governor might influence his consideration of $40 billion in federal wildfire aid for California. 'I hope we get that back on track,' Newsom wrote on X. 'We are counting on you, Mr. Vice President.' ___ Associated Press writers Julie Watson and Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles and Tran Nguyen in Sacramento contributed to this report.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Ohio Reps. Marcy Kaptur, Shontel Brown on list of suspected Minnesota shooter
(AP/WJW) — From a legislator in downtown Minneapolis to a veteran Ohio congresswoman, many lawmakers included in the suspected Minnesota gunman's list of targets have vowed not to bow down. Vance Boelter, 57, has been charged with federal murder and stalking, along with state charges, following a nearly two-day search that culminated in his capture in the woods near his home. Lawmaker killings prompt security increase in Ohio He is suspected of shooting and killing former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in their home early Saturday. He is also accused of wounding Democratic Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. The dozens of politicians included in Boelter's writings were Democrats, according to acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson. About 45 were state and federal officials in Minnesota, while elected leaders in Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin said they were also mentioned in the writings. Authorities have not provided a motive for the shootings. Manny Atwal, Boelter's lead attorney, declined to comment, saying the office just got the case. Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman's beloved dog also shot during attack, euthanized Ohio's own U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur's office said in a statement that her name was included in Boelter's writing but that it will not get in the way of her work 'to make life better for families across Northwest Ohio.' Here's what the statement said in full: Congresswoman Kaptur is exceedingly grateful to law enforcement for keeping our Great Lakes communities safe on several occasions over these past few years and for their work around the clock this weekend in Minnesota. Political extremism in America is cause for serious reflection and concern. The inclusion of Congresswoman Kaptur's name in the Minnesota suspect's writings is a matter better left for law enforcement and investigators — but it will not deter her work to make life better for families across Northwest Ohio. Uplifting those who she has the honor to serve has been her sole focus every single day she has served and nothing will deter her from doing so now. At this time out of respect to law enforcement working around the clock locally, and nationwide to keep law makers safe, we will not be providing further public comment on this matter. Additionally, U.S. Representative Shontel Brown said in a statement that her name was also recovered from the suspect's notes. She released the following statement: The politically motivated attacks targeting Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota were a horrific assault on our democracy and a heartbreaking tragedy for the families affected. My thoughts are with them—and with all who are shaken by this act of violence. I have been informed that my name appeared in evidence recovered from the suspect's notes. At the request of the U.S. Capitol Police, local law enforcement provided increased security at my home. I'm deeply grateful for their swift response and continued commitment to keeping public officials—and our communities—safe. This is a grim reminder of the growing threat public officials face—one that puts not just us, but our families, staff, and constituents at risk. I was swatted last year. Now my name is linked to another violent act. No one should feel unsafe simply for serving their community. The rise in violent rhetoric, conspiracy theories, and personal attacks is having real and dangerous consequences. Every leader—regardless of party—must speak out and stand against political violence in all its forms. On Wednesday, Brown spoke with FOX 8 News and said she is hopeful for the future. 'I am hopeful that because this incident occurred that we will be able to move forward with some standard policies and procedures on how to move forward with this without this escalating to a point where someone else's life is going to be lost,' Brown said. See more about the legislators included on the list right here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
