Republican Party gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears ducked out of a Sept. 16 debate sponsored by AARP Virginia, citing a scheduling conflict.
It takes a lot to piss off the AARP, but the folks there sure sound pissed off.
“We’re disappointed that voters won’t be able to hear the candidates’ plans to rein in the skyrocketing costs of prescription drugs, support family caregivers, and help our state’s most vulnerable people by improving the quality of nursing home care,” AARP Virginia State Director Jim Dau said in a statement released on Wednesday.
The campaign of Democratic Party nominee Abigail Spanberger has yet to issue a statement twisting the knife on this one.
That may be because the Spanberger team has been busy today touting the surprise endorsement from the Virginia Police Benevolent Association, which, in the past two state election cycles, endorsed Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin in 2021 and Ed Gillespie in 2017.
The VPBA also endorsed Earle-Sears for lieutenant governor in the 2021 cycle.
The group is backing Earle-Sears’s ticketmates, John Reid, the lieutenant governor nominee, and Jason Miyares, who is running for re-election as attorney general, in the 2025 cycle.
Ouch.
“Abigail Spanberger grew up in a law enforcement family and is a former federal law enforcement officer herself, so she understands the responsibility of putting on the badge,” said Joe Woloszyn, the president of the Virginia Police Benevolent Association.
“As a member of Congress, she repeatedly voted to increase funding for local police departments and sheriff’s offices, and she was relentless in pushing her bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act across the finish line to secure the earned benefits of thousands of Virginia’s retired police officers.
“Abigail has a deep, expert-level knowledge of the unique challenges facing Virginia’s law enforcement officers, and she is a leader who shares our goal of building trust across our communities and working towards a safer, stronger Commonwealth. The VAPBA Board of Directors is proud to publicly endorse Abigail Spanberger for governor of Virginia,” Woloszyn said.
So, that was Spanberger’s day.
Earle-Sears’s day was spent with her campaign staff having to tell reporters that she has a scheduling conflict for Sept. 16, but hey, consolation prize, she’s accepted a debate invite from CNN.
Odd that the CNN debate doesn’t have a set date quite yet.
They must just know that her schedule will be open on whatever day CNN throws out.
Earle-Sears is skipping out on a debate that was to take place at Virginia State University, an HBCU, which was supposed to host a presidential debate last year, but the whole hullabaloo over Joe Biden dropping out of the race, in favor of Kamala Harris, messed that up.
Earle-Sears, a Jamaican immigrant, has been trying to sell herself as having a chance to make inroads with Black voters, who traditionally vote overwhelmingly Democrat – which means a lot in Virginia, where Blacks make up 18.7 percent of the state’s population.
I don’t know that standing up VSU will help her there.
“The statewide People’s Debate at Virginia State University was set, and Abigail Spanberger was ready to stand on that stage. Winsome Earle-Sears walked away,” said State Sen. Lamont Bagby, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia, and chair of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus.
“This isn’t about politics, it is about showing up and respecting the communities we serve,” Bagby said.
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Chris Graham
