Ken Nunnenkamp, Republican Party of Virginia Executive Director: “That is a win for rural communities”
 
Winsome Earle-Sears: “The bill as you know now does so many great things”

VIRGINIA  – New reporting from CNN details the closing of three rural clinics in Virginia because of Donald Trump's tax law that Winsome Earle-Sears backs. In an interview with CNN, Winsome Earle-Sears outright lied when asked about the tax law, saying “there are no Virginians who are going to lose Medicaid coverage in Virginia” as 350,000 Virginians are expected to lose healthcare. Sears also said the law “does so many great things” as reports detailed how the law would force rural hospitals and health centers to close.  
 
Ken Nunnenkamp, executive director of the Virginia GOP, told CNN that the clinics closing are a “win for rural communities.”  
 
CNN: Rural health clinics are closing after Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’ raising the legislation’s political risks

• Exactly two months after President Donald Trump signed his policy megabill in a July 4 celebration at the White House, a Virginia health care company blamed the law for the closure of three rural clinics serving communities along the Blue Ridge Mountains.
• The closures, Augusta Medical Group said in its statement, were part of the company’s “ongoing response to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the resulting realities for healthcare delivery.”
• Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger recently campaigned in Buena Vista, a 6,600-person town that is losing its clinic, as she tries to improve her party’s standing with rural voters ahead of this fall’s election.
• “Rural hospitals are closing, at the end of the day. We’re seeing the tip of the iceberg here in Virginia, and it’s a sign of what’s to come,” said Marshall Cohen, a veteran Democratic strategist at the political firm KMM Strategies.
• Candice Crow, a mother of four children who have autism, heavily relies on the Bon Secours - Southampton Medical Center in Franklin, Virginia, one of the facilities on the researchers’ list. She’s been raising concerns with local media and spoke to CNN.
• “The staff there are so kind and caring. They do go above and beyond. They’re very accommodating for the special needs children and all their little medical complexities that they have,” Crow said. “Every minute counts when it comes to emergencies. This could cost someone their life, so you’re taking away their lifeline.”
• Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the GOP nominee for governor, has also proposed tapping the state’s rainy day fund to help cover additional funding.
• “We want to make sure that whatever happens with Medicaid, we have the money here to help. We have the money and the budget to help. You know, we have put money aside for rainy day,” Sears said at an event in Marion, according to a report from Cardinal News. 
• Spanberger says that rainy day fund – which outgoing GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin said last month held $4.7 billion – won’t be enough.
• “This is not a rainy day. This is a bad bill that came out of Washington,” Spanberger said on the first day of early voting in Virginia at an event in Fairfax on Friday. “They are throwing those costs on the state, and in the interim, people will fall off of their health care, so the problem is immense.”

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