A campaign bus for the Winsome Earle-Sears gubernatorial campaign caught fire this afternoon en route to an event in Rockingham County.
The bus fire happened on Route 33 in Greene County at approximately 12:30 p.m. Units from Ruckersville, Dyke and Elkton responded to the fire. Crews worked for more than an hour containing and extinguishing the fire.
Earle-Sears was not on the bus at the time, according to her campaign. There were no injuries.
“While en-route to an event, our campaign bus caught fire. Everyone is safe,” Earle-Sears posted to X at 1:17 p.m. “Thank you to the first responders who got to the scene quickly – we are so grateful for you.”
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger posted to social media that she is “relieved to hear” that Earle-Sears and her team are safe.
“I’m grateful to our first responders for their quick action — and I’m thinking of the Lt. Governor and her team after this scary incident,” she wrote.
The planned event, with Republican lieutenant governor candidate John Reid, was scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds.
The description for the rally on Earle-Sears’ website reads “Join Winsome Sears and John Reid for a rally to fire up Rockingham!”
Seriously. You can’t make this stuff up.
On social media, detractors used the fire as an excuse to call her entire campaign a “dumpster fire”; others called it a last-minute stunt to gain sympathy from voters.
On the flipside, her supporters used puns to show her in a more positive light, saying it was a sign that her campaign is “on fire”; others saying that’s what happens when you “burn up the road” like she does.
A Roanoke College poll released today shows Spanberger with a 10-point lead over Earle-Sears, 51 percent to 41 percent. The same poll now shows Republican incumbent Jason Miyares leading Democrat Jay Jones in the race for attorney general.
The cause of the fire is unknown.
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Crystal Graham
