Cardinal News Op-Ed: “If Earle-Sears doesn’t seem to care about workers in Northern Virginia losing their jobs, would she care about workers elsewhere losing their jobs?”

VIRGINIA – A new column from the Cardinal News slams Winsome Earle-Sears for repeatedly dismissing Donald Trump’s attacks on Virginia jobs pointing to how she “infamously told a group that ‘it’s not unusual’ for someone to lose a job, so the federal cuts aren’t ‘a huge, huge thing’” and said the federal job cuts aren’t a “real issue” in a recent CNN interview. 
 
Cardinal News: Earle-Sears could learn from Reid how to talk about federal job cuts

• The Republican candidate for governor says federal job cuts are not a “real issue.”
• Throughout the campaign, Earle-Sears has had difficulty responding to these cuts. 
• In March, she infamously told a group that “it’s not unusual” for someone to lose a job, so the federal cuts aren’t “a huge, huge thing.” She said she “couldn’t understand” why they were such big news.
• Last week, in a contentious interview on CNN, Earle-Sears again seemed to dismiss the impact of these job cuts. “If this is the way you want to go, then go ahead, but I’m just not going to participate, because I want to talk about real issues,” she told the interviewer. 
• The Spanberger campaign’s response was to immediately turn Earle-Sears’ comments into an ad that is now targeted at Northern Virginia voters. This is a self-inflicted wound.
• The problem with Earle-Sears’ answer is twofold. First, it’s economically wrong. Job losses in Northern Virginia ought to be of concern statewide for the reasons I laid out; rural areas — Republican-voting areas — depend on tax revenue from Northern Virginia. 
• The bigger problem is that her reply lacks empathy. 
• Candidates alone don’t get to determine what the issues are; voters have a say, too, and I imagine for lots of people in Northern Virginia, the loss of a job is a “huge, huge thing.” 
• If Earle-Sears doesn’t seem to care about workers in Northern Virginia losing their jobs, would she care about workers elsewhere losing their jobs? Her response here is not offering any confirmation that she would.

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