Norfolk, VA—Last night, Virginia gubernatorial candidates Abigail Spanberger and Winsome Earle-Sears squared off at Norfolk State University for their first and only debate of the campaign. The hour-long debate was marked by constant interruptions by Lieutenant Governor Earle-Sears and even more baffling responses to the moderator’s questions. 

“Our community deserves a governor who takes the job, the law, and the facts seriously,” said Ashleigh Crocker, Interim Executive Director of Progress Virginia. “Last night’s debate made it alarmingly clear that Winsome Earle-Sears is not that candidate. From blatant misinformation about LGBTQ+ rights and immigration law to a baffling disregard for clean energy progress in our state, Earle-Sears demonstrated a reckless indifference to both the truth and the struggles of hardworking families. Her dismissive attitude toward unemployed federal workers and her embrace of conspiracy-tinged rhetoric should raise red flags for every voter. Abigail Spanberger showed up ready to lead with facts, experience, and a vision for Virginia’s future. Earle-Sears brought interruptions, misinformation, and indifference. The contrast couldn’t be clearer.”

Here are some lowlights from the debate:

LGBTQ+ Rights

At one point in the debate, Spanberger highlighted Earle-Sears’s longstanding opposition to marriage rights for LGBTQ+ people and her belief that it was acceptable to fire workers for being gay.  “That’s not discrimination!, Earle-Sears shot back. 

Earle-Sears is very, very wrong about that. It is illegal under the Virginia Human Rights Act to fire somebody for their sexual orientation or gender identity. It is also illegal to refuse to hire somebody for their sexual orientation or gender identity. Employees are protected from being fired on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity, no matter how small the business is, regardless of whether the business is public or private. The Supreme Court has ruled that firing someone on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation is discriminatory and illegal, and the EEOC prosecutes these violations under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Sears has made her moral qualms about homosexuality very clear, but it is the obligation of a Governor to abide by and defend the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia as they are, not as a candidate might wish them to be, and Earle-Sears’s dismissal of years of law and precedent around employment nondiscrimination is deeply troubling.

Immigration and ICE Enforcement

When asked about ICE enforcement, Earle-Sears made the somewhat baffling statement that ICE had found “…communist Chinese gangs here”, and also cited “4,000 criminally illegal” residents swept up by ICE. Of the 4,264 Virginia residents arrested by ICE in the first seven months of 2025, vanishingly few had criminal records of any kind (and of course, simply being in this country illegally is a civil issue and not, by itself, a crime.) Again, the Lieutenant Governor’s apparent willingness to ignore actual federal law and assume that the law follows her own biases should be disqualifying in a gubernatorial candidate

Renewable Energy

During the debate, Earle-Sears repeatedly stated that the problem with wind and solar electricity was, in her mind, the fact that sometimes the sun goes down and sometimes the wind stops blowing. This suggests that perhaps Sears is unfamiliar with battery technology. However, a candidate who claims to be jobs- and business-focused should probably know that Virginia is pioneering utility-scale battery storage facilities all across the Commonwealth, and in fact, Dominion Power (which has given the Earle-Sears campaign close to a half-million dollars in campaign contributions) runs the first and largest utility-scale battery site in Virginia. Virginia is also a leading state for renewable energy battery manufacturing (one example of that is this company that operates right down the street from Norfolk State, the site of the debate.) 

Fired and Furloughed Federal Workers 

At the debate, Earle-Sears accused the Spanberger campaign of “cutting and pasting [her] words” to make it seem like she makes light of the plight of fired federal workers. At a campaign event on March 13, 2025, however, amidst the first round of DOGE layoffs, Earle- Sears said, “How many here [have] ever lost a job? Oh, you mean it’s not unusual? It happens to everybody all the time? OK. And the media is making it out to be this huge, huge thing. And I don’t understand why.”

Background:

• A recent poll of Virginians from Christopher Newport University has Spanberger leading Earle-Sears by ten points. 

• 52% of polled Virginia residents want a governor who will push back against Trump’s firing of federal workers.