NBC: “Sears has both praised Trump’s tax-and-spend law and brushed off concerns about the measure.”

VIRGINIA – New reporting from NBC details how Donald Trump’s tax bill, which is backed by Winsome Earle-Sears and deeply unpopular with Virginians, is shaping the 2025 governor’s race. 

Sears has praised the bill saying it “does so many great things” - even though it takes healthcare away from 322,000 Virginians and will force rural hospitals to close. When asked about the concerns of Virginians, Sears outright dismissed them saying “don’t panic” and failed to offer any real solution. 

NBC: How Trump's 'big beautiful bill' is shaping this year's biggest elections

• [...] in Virginia, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the GOP nominee, has dismissed concerns about program cuts, [...]. 
• The Democratic Governors Association released a memo Monday detailing its polling of Virginia and New Jersey, which showed majorities of voters in both states have “serious concerns” and slim majorities saying they would prefer governors who oppose the measure.
• A congressional analysis published by Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee estimates that in Virginia, more than 300,000 residents could lose their health care by 2034.
• Hospital associations have also warned that rural hospitals in Virginia will take a major financial hit under the law, because they rely so heavily on Medicaid dollars: People living in rural areas are far more likely to receive their health insurance through Medicaid.
• Spanberger, for her part, made criticism of Trump’s bill a central tenet of a campaign bus tour through Virginia in late June, telling voters during a stop in Fredericksburg before the measure was enacted that she’d already begun “looking at how we can make sure that, come January, as few people as possible get pushed off of Medicaid.”
• In video released by her campaign after the House passed its iteration of the bill, she warned that it would constitute a “massive attack on health care as we know it” and create “a reality where Virginians cannot afford the care they need,” warning that it would boot people off Medicaid, cause rural hospital closures, increase prescription drug costs and overrun emergency rooms.
• In Virginia, Earle-Sears has both praised Trump’s tax-and-spend law and brushed off concerns about the measure.
• At a press conference one week after the law was enacted, Earle-Sears responded to questions about its impact on rural hospitals and voters’ concerns about the law more broadly. “I would say to Virginia, don’t panic,” she said, [..].
• A week earlier — but still after the bill was enacted — Earle-Sears said during an interview on Newsmax, a conservative television network, that the bill “does so many great things” amid a broader discussion about her policy plans to create jobs in Virginia.
• And in June, prior to Trump’s bill becoming law, Earle-Sears told a crowd at an event in the rural town of Marion that the state would be able to fill in financial gaps created by cuts to Medicaid with “rainy day” state budgetary funds.

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