VIRGINIA – New reporting from the Daily Progress details Winsome Earle-Sears’ silence on the Medicaid cuts that could be detrimental for thousands of Virginians. Sears has repeatedly declined to comment on the proposed cuts which would result in more than 200,000 Virginians losing their insurance. 

Daily Progress: Earle-Sears' Silence on Medicaid Cuts 'Speaks Volumes,' Charlottesville Dems Say

• The Trump-endorsed One Big Beautiful Bill approved by House lawmakers late last month would slash $600 billion from Medicaid and threatens to strip health insurance from hundreds of thousands of Virginia’s poorest residents — and Winsome Earle-Sears isn’t talking.
• The Republican lieutenant governor running for governor has kept mum about the GOP budget bill which has moved to the Senate for consideration.
• Her Democratic opponent, Abigail Spanberger, has denounced the bill as a threat to rural hospitals, small businesses and working families. But Earle-Sears’ campaign has declined multiple interview requests on the subject from multiple news outlets, and the campaign did not immediately respond to a Daily Progress inquiry.
• Charlottesville Mayor Juandiego Wade, who also was in attendance Thursday, called Medicaid the “bedrock” on which more than a million Virginians rely. He called on Earle-Sears to have the confidence to speak out against her own party.
• “She hasn’t called attention to how this will hurt Virginians. She hasn’t called on Republicans to stop their extreme agenda,” he said. “She can’t be trusted to lead the commonwealth.”
• Wade recounted how Earle-Sears was caught on tape saying that the thousands of federal workers in Virginia who have lost their jobs due to Trump administration budget cuts were overreacting and that losing a job isn’t a “huge, huge thing.”
• “I wonder what she thinks about someone losing their health insurance or getting hit with a big notice for a medical bill,” Wade said.
• “Abigail has made it clear she will always fight to not just protect Medicaid, but to lower costs across the board and make sure that we all have access to affordable health care,” Callsen said.
• Callsen hinted that Earle-Sears was reluctant to attack the One Big Beautiful Bill for fear of provoking the wrath of President Donald Trump ahead of November’s general election. “She’d rather play political games than fight for us. That’s not leadership,” Callsen said.
• Spanberger, meanwhile, is the sort of candidate Callsen believes would work on a solution that pulls insights from both sides of the aisle. Last year, before Spanberger left office, she was ranked the most bipartisan member of the Virginia delegation to Washington and one of the most bipartisan members of the entire House.
• “It takes a bipartisan solution,” Callsen said. “That’s what we need in a leader.”

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