Earle-Sears, Spanberger trade barbs as Virginia shutdown woes worsen

At a contentious debate Thursday, the two candidates for governor offered differing views of how to handle the ongoing government shutdown. 

This week’s gubernatorial debate showcased a contrast between how Democrat Abigail Spanberger and Republican Winsome Earle-Sears approach different economic policy issues. 

One of the key issues that came up in the debate on Thursday evening was the two candidates’ responses to the ongoing federal government shutdown. 

Earle-Sears called on Spanberger to pressure Virginia’s Democratic senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, to vote to re-open the government. 

Republicans control the White House, US House, and US Senate, but they need at least seven Democratic votes to pass a spending bill in the Senate, and Republican leaders haven’t been able to put forward a bill that enough members support. Democrats won’t support spending legislation unless it addresses America’s health care crisis with an extension of Affordable Care Act health care subsidies that help lower premiums, and Republicans have refused to consider such a proposal. 

Even as she tried to cast blame on Democrats for the shutdown, Earle-Sears, a former Marine, lamented that members of the military were working without pay. 

“It is definitely hard, especially in the enlisted ranks, to work without pay,” Earle-Sears said. 

But it was Republicans on Friday who blocked a Democratic effort in the US House to make sure active-duty military members get paid during the shutdown. The move came just a day after a Virginia-based military spouse confronted House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) on C-SPAN about the urgency over military members getting paid. 

When it was her turn to answer, Spanberger recalled how she entered Congress during the longest government shutdown in history during Trump’s first administration. She criticized Earle-Sears for not standing up for Virginia’s federal workers and contractors who are suffering even more because of the shutdown after dealing with mass layoffs pushed by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. 

“It is only increasing the challenge that they are facing after months and months of the attacks from this White House under DOGE,” Spanberger said. “The entirety of that time, my opponent has made light of federal workers losing their jobs.”

When a CNN anchor in August pushed Earle-Sears to comment on the federal job cuts, she said she wanted to “talk about real issues.” Back in March, leaked comments of Earle-Sears saying she didn’t understand why the media was making a big deal about so many Virginians losing their jobs went viral. Behind the scenes, however, she has acknowledged that Trump’s federal cuts have hurt her in the polls. 

Making matters worse for Virginia, which has a substantial federal workforce, news broke on riday that the Trump administration had begun “substantial” mass layoffs across multiple agencies in the federal government, a move that Democrats criticized as cruel and illegal. 

“The mass firings Russ Vought and the Trump Administration announced today are cruel, illegal, and yet another attack on our economy,” said US Rep. Don Beyer of Northern Virginia. “This is a disaster for Virginia, intentionally inflicted by President Trump and his Republican allies. These firings are also already being fought in court.”

Regarding other economic policy issues, the debate moderators asked Spanberger and Earle-Sears about how each candidate would handle a repeal of Virginia’s car tax, something governors, including current Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, have tried to do for years without success. Local governments throughout Virginia rely on the revenue that comes from Virginia’s car tax, so any attempt to repeal it would likely need to address local budgetary shortfalls. 

Instead of explaining how she would get rid of the car tax in a way that didn’t destroy local budgets, Earle-Sears used her time to ask Spanberger about the scandal over Jay Jones’ text messages. When pressed to clarify, Earle-Sears claimed Virginia has enough money in its budget to cover the costs of the car tax. 

Spanberger, acknowledging the many failed attempts to get rid of the car tax, said she was willing to work across the aisle to get rid of the car tax, but cautioned that doing so would take planning. 

“We need to ensure that the loss of the car tax doesn’t mean loss of funding to our public schools and to our first responders,” Spanberger said as, in what would become a theme for the evening, Earle-Sears interjected.