Earle-Sears backs Reid in fight with Youngkin, who wants Reid off the ballot

Republican Party governor nominee Winsome Earle-Sears is backing running mate John Reid in the increasingly odd dustup between Reid and the current MAGA governor, Glenn Youngkin.

I’m not going to vote for Earle-Sears in November or anything, but I do admire that she’s sticking up here for Reid, who is under fire from the Youngkinistas for the simple fact that Reid is an openly gay man, and how dare him, right, being openly gay?

Reid became the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor on April 21 after the frontrunner in the nomination race, Pat Herrity, a member of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, decided to drop out of the scheduled June 17 party primary, citing his recovery from heart surgery last month.

Over the weekend, Reid went public with the claim that the Youngkin team had contacted his campaign to pressure him to drop out of the November general election, and vowed not only to not drop out, but bring legal action against the governor and his PAC.

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ICYMI

• This John Reid-Glenn Youngkin fight over gay porn is worth keeping an eye on
• John Reid resists pressure to drop out of LG race over hot gay online photos
• Virginia 2025 Republican ticket set: That’s a pretty diverse group there

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It boggles the mind that this is playing out in public this way, but this is the Republican Party that we’re talking about here.

“John Reid is the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor. It is his race, and his decision alone to move forward,” said Earle-Sears, the sitting lieutenant governor, who herself was the focus of an effort by Team Trump at the 11th hour to find a White MAGA to challenge her in a June primary.

Earle-Sears is an immigrant Black woman, which, like Reid being an openly gay man, also doesn’t work in today’s anti-woke MAGA Republican Party.

She only survived the effort because the two Republicans recruited by the Trumpers to try to challenge her are utter incompetents, and couldn’t even qualify for the ballot.

Before all of this self-inflicted controversy, Earle-Sears was trailing the Democratic Party nominee for governor, Abigail Spanberger, by double-digits in the early polling in the fall race.

This can’t be helping.

“I am going to continue to make the case to the people of Virginia that Abigail Spanberger will tear down all the successes we’ve made in Virginia,” Earle-Sears said in a statement released on Tuesday. “We cannot let that happen. Our campaign is focused on results, unity and winning in November.”

The focus probably needs to be more on the slings and arrows coming from inside the house.