NBC News: “Earle-Sears' record on social issues complicates bid [...]”
VIRGINIA – New reporting from NBC News details how Winsome Earle-Sears has a record of “staking out positions to [Glenn] Youngkin’s right,” including significantly “more conservative” positions like her support for a near-total abortion ban and opposing marriage equality.
- The de facto GOP nominee has sought to run as an extension of the current administration while staking out positions to Youngkin’s right in a blue-leaning state.
- But there has been notable daylight between Earle-Sears and Youngkin on several fronts, particularly on social issues, complicating her strategy to follow in the footsteps of her more popular governing partner.
- Most prominently, Earle-Sears has made clear she is not fully aligned with Youngkin on a pair of hot-button social issues: same-sex marriage and abortion rights.
- Last year, Youngkin signed legislation protecting marriage equality in Virginia. But Earle-Sears left a handwritten note on the bill stating she was “morally opposed” to the legislation.
- Earle-Sears doubled down on separating herself from Youngkin’s position on the issue in a recent interview, telling a local news outlet in Richmond last month that she was “fine” with civil unions but refused to say she supported same-sex marriage.
- She’s also out of step with Youngkin’s positioning on abortion rights.
- For her part, Earle-Sears has supported a ban at six weeks, or when fetal cardiac activity is detected — a point at which most women don’t even know they are pregnant — and with fewer exceptions.
- [...] she left another handwritten note on a measure passed by the Legislature earlier this year to send to voters a proposed constitutional amendment that would enshrine the state’s abortion protections.
- She has also in the past called abortion “genocide” and vowed to “do everything in my power” to end abortion in Virginia.
- But the fact that he [Youngkin] staked out middle ground on social issues has only further highlighted Earle-Sears’ more conservative positioning.
- In addition, Earle-Sears has faced criticism for her approach to the plight of federal workers in Virginia who have been affected by President Donald Trump’s moves to shrink the size of government via the Department of Government Efficiency.
- She praised those efforts earlier this year, saying she was “glad” Trump was “getting to the bottom” of alleged waste and fraud in the federal government.
- [...] she has also said she would help Trump “get the job done” on the issue. And she downplayed the federal layoffs at an event in March, saying, “The media is making it out to be a huge, huge thing — and I don’t understand why.”
- Earle-Sears’ positions stand in contrast to the relative political middle ground Youngkin has famously staked out in Virginia [...]
- Political operatives in the state from both parties told NBC News these notable departures by Earle-Sears — particularly on social issues — risk turning off large chunks of voters in the political center that she’d need to hold together Youngkin’s winning coalition from four years ago.
- Earle-Sears’ positioning on social issues and DOGE could further complicate what had already emerged as an uphill climb for Republicans to keep control of the governorship.
- Earle-Sears has already faced a torrent of criticism for running an undisciplined campaign.
- Roday, along with other Virginia GOP strategists, suggested that Earle-Sears hadn’t yet displayed the same political strengths.
- Earle-Sears has so far voiced full-throated support for Trump.
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