GOP’s Earle-Sears Forced Off Campaign Trail

Republican candidate for Virginia governor Winsome Earle-Sears missed campaign events on three separate days this final week before the election because Democrats called a special session of the state’s general assembly to enable redistricting next year via a constitutional amendment.

The Virginia House of Delegates gave initial approval of the amendment Wednesday, and the state Senate is expected to vote on it on Friday, which could cause Earle-Sears — who as lieutenant governor is also president of the state Senate — to miss a campaign event for a fourth day.

It’s like when then-presidential candidate Donald Trump was kept from campaigning in 2024 because Democrats tied him up in court.

Polls this month show the Democrats’ gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger ahead of Earle-Sears by between 3 and 12 percent. Spanberger received a $150,000 donation from the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC), chaired by former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder, last week, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. The state’s House Democratic Caucus also received $150,000 last week form the NDRC.

Any proposed change to the state constitution must first pass the legislature in two separate sessions before going to voters in a referendum. Democrats are rushing to hold that first vote this year, so that they can hold a second vote after a new legislative session begins. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares have called the effort to redraw the state’s U.S. House districts “unconstitutional,” arguing it to does not meet the required timing.

At a Wednesday campaign event scheduled in Charlottesville, Earle-Sears’ husband, Terence Sears, spoke on his wife’s behalf.

U.S. Rep. John McGuire, R-Va., also at the Charlottesville event, described the Democrats’ calling the special session during the last week of the campaign as “election interference.”

Hashmi Has ‘Leave of Absence’

Meanwhile, the only other candidate running for Virginia’s statewide office and currently serving in state office — State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, the Democrat running for lieutenant governor — missed the special session Tuesday in order to meet with union members.

On Tuesday, the Senate met for a special session at 9 a.m. and adjourned at 10:35 a.m. Hashmi’s X account shows she was in Roanoke, three hours’ drive from Richmond, that morning — a clock shows 11:22 a.m. in the background of a photo that was posted at 12:08 p.m. that day.

Hashmi had told WMRA that she would manage serving her taxpayer-funded role versus campaigning without conflict: “Well, it’s my responsibility to do both. So, we are doing campaign activities in between the work of the sessions. I’ll be here as needed, especially for any votes.”

Perhaps meeting with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the largest union of electrical workers in North America, with her campaign’s sign in the room, was not a campaign event. And the purpose of Tuesday’s session was mostly to fulfill the state’s constitutional requirement that bills receive three readings on three different days. Perhaps she wasn’t “needed” and it wasn’t “work?”

The scheduling conflict created by the special session does not have the same impact on Hashmi as Earle-Sears not only because Hashmi is willing to skip it, but because Hashmi’s less significant race has fewer, smaller campaign events. Hashmi’s X account coverage of her events this week show various small meetings. Hashmi’s down-ballot candidacy largely rides on the coattails of the governor’s race, and Spanberger has been free to take the NDRC’s $150,000 and run.

Hashmi holds a 44 percent to 43 percent lead over opponent John Reid, the Republican nominee for Virginia lieutenant governor, according to a recent poll by the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University. Other polls show her with more of a lead.

Reid has criticized Hashmi for not debating him, eventually creating a video using Hashmi’s previous real comments, but voiced by AI, with Reid “responding directly to his opponent’s publicly stated positions.” Reid was in turn criticized by some for using AI.

Legislative Process

The special session would also create conflicts for the smaller campaigns of the 100 House delegates up for election in their districts. The special session has continued this Monday through Thursday, with Earle-Sears present each day, and is scheduled for Friday too.

“It’s a waste of taxpayers’ money, $750,000 at least,” Sears said of the special session’s cost to the state.

Jones’ Shocking Texts, Speeding, and Community Service for His Own PAC

In the other statewide race this year, the attorney general’s race, Republican Miyares took the lead over the Democrats’ candidate Jay Jones earlier this month due to the shocking news that Jones sent texts fantasizing about the assassination of the then-state House Speaker, a Republican, and wishing death upon his children.

That news displaced another scandal reported only days before: that Jones was convicted of reckless driving at 116 mph, or 46 mph over the speed limit, in 2022.

Jones then performed 500 court-ordered hours of community service by working for his own political action committee, which is not a charitable organization, as required.

Media Research Center (MRC) analysts looked at the ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS evening, morning, and Sunday roundtable shows from October 3, the day Jones’ texts were first reported by National Review, through the morning of October 7 and found only one mention of the Jones text scandal. 

“The networks have also failed to discuss Jones’s 2022 conviction of speeding at 116 mph,” MRC reported.

Gerrymandering is Bipartisan

Virginia Democrats have a slim majority in both houses. All 100 seats of the Virginia House of Delegates are up for election on Nov. 4; all 40 seats of the Senate are up for election in 2027.

A similar Democrat-led effort to redistrict U.S. House seats is underway in California. Republican lawmakers in Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina already have approved new congressional maps. More may follow suit.

Currently the U.S. House has 219 Republican members and Democrats have 213 — with a few more seats, Democrats could take control and oppose Trump’s agenda.

Eleanor Bartow is the features editor at The Federalist. She was editor-in-chief of the American Enterprise Institute’s magazine, an editor and investigative reporter at the Daily Caller, and a reporter for Congressional Quarterly. Her articles have been published with Fox News, The New York Times, Washington Examiner, The Hill, Real Clear Policy, and others. She received a Fulbright grant in journalism. Follow her on Twitter at @elliebartow.