Virginia gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears was a far-right social conservative, who crusaded against personal freedoms while using extreme and inflammatory rhetoric.
Earle-Sears fully embraced Donald Trump’s firings of federal workers and massive government cuts, even as the cuts affected Virginia workers and veterans. She tried to recast Trump’s DOGE firings as “auditing,” “looking for savings,” and getting rid of bureaucracy and downplayed the impact of Trump’s firings of Virginia’s federal workforce, including being caught in a leaked recording saying people lose jobs “all the time.”
Earle-Sears staunchly supported education policies that would divert funds from Virginia’s public schools toward private and charter schools. Earle-Sears claimed public school districts were “redlining” and contended the Brown v. Board of Education decision was not about desegregation but instead about parental choice in which citizens could send their children to a school of their choosing. Experts on Brown v. Board found that Earle-Sears’ characterization of the landmark case was inaccurate.
Earle-Sears had a record of opposing LGBTQ+ freedoms throughout her career. In 2022, Earle-Sears refused to answer if she would support a same-sex marriage ban in Virginia if Obergefell were to be overturned. During her 2021 campaign for lieutenant governor, Earle-Sears’ touted endorsements from anti-LGBTQ activists, including Don Blake of the Virginia Christian Alliance and Bishop E.W. Jackson. In a 2004 op-ed, Earle-Sears claimed that society had gone too far in “accommodating the homosexual community” and said she supported a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
Earle-Sears opposed red flag laws and called for enhanced gun rights as a way to address gun violence. After a mass shooting in Richmond in June 2023, Earle-Sears blamed the mass shooting on local officials and gang violence. Days after the Uvalde shooting in May 2022, Earle-Sears attended an NRA event and claimed mass shootings were attributed to societal “ills,” including lack of prayer in schools, “emasculated” men, abortion, mental illness, and more.
Earle-Sears Supported Firing Federal Workers
Earle-Sears Supports Defunding Public Schools
Earle-Sears Is An Anti-LGBTQ Bigot
Earle-Sears Blamed Shootings On Abortion
Earle-Sears Opposes Abortion Access