Virginia gubernatorial candidates debate hot-button issues in sole face-off before election day

The Democratic and Republican nominees for Virginia governor debated hot-button issues like political violence and the government shutdown in their sole debate before Election Day next month.

Democrat Abigail Spanberger and Republican Winsome Earle-Sears are vying for the post being left open by GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who must step down since Virginia’s constitution bars any individual from running for a second consecutive gubernatorial term.

Earle-Sears is currently Virginia’s lieutenant governor, a position she’s held since 2022, and is running on the platform of extending Youngkin’s progress in the state’s economic development. She is a major supporter of President Trump.

Spanberger, a former lawmaker and CIA case officer, is running as a centrist Democrat, focusing on lowering living costs and ensuring health care access within the state. She represented Virginia’s 7th Congressional district from 2019-2025.

The candidates debate political violence:

Spanberger was asked repeatedly about whether she would call for Virginia Attorney General candidate Jay Jones to drop out of his race over a scandal regarding his text messages fantasizing about the death of a political opponent.

The candidate declined to specifically call for the Democratic nominee to drop out, but emphasized that she denounced the violent rhetoric.

“The voters now have the information and it’s up to voters to make a choice based on this information," she insisted. “We are all running our individual races…it is up to every person to make their own decision."

Earle-Sears was asked whether she supported Trump's kind of political speech where he said during Charlie Kirk's memorial that he does not "want the best" for his political opponents. 

The lieutenant governor responded that she would never use the kind of rhetoric that Trump used, but did not specifically condemn the rhetoric. 

"I'm a Christian before I'm a Republican, and I'm required to forgive people, and it's hard sometimes when somebody has abused you," she said. "But it's something you must do, because not to forgive is almost like, as someone said, you drink poison thinking that it's going to affect the other person. And I want to live a decent life, and I don't want to have, not have peace in my life, and so I, as I've said before, I would not say that."  

The candidates debate the federal government shutdown:

Another topic the candidates debated was the government shutdown, which is currently in its ninth day, and how they would encourage Congress and the White House to reopen the government if they were the state's leader.

"My opponent all summer long has been playing political football with federal workers, by trying to say she loves them more than anyone else," Earle-Sears said. "Well, let me tell you what love looks like. It looks like Abigail calling Senator Kaine and Warner and telling them 'go back and do your job and vote against the government shutdown' we only need eight Democratic senators to open the government."

Spanberger highlighted her history with reopening the federal government, highlighting how in 2019 she helped her colleagues go to Trump in his first term and get the government reopened. She also accused Earle-Sears of making light of the shutdown.

The candidates debate state and local issues such as transgender students and abortion:

One area that both candidates agreed on was eliminating the unpopular car tax, which Earle-Sears claimed could have been eliminated already this year but was blocked by Democrats. Spanberger claimed she would work on building a consensus on how to replace the revenue that would be lost from eliminating the tax.

When it came to issues like transgender students in bathrooms that align with their gender identity, Spanberger stated that she believed it should be up to individual schools, students and parents. 

Earle-Sears was then asked if she believed that biological male students sharing a bathroom with biological female students posed a safety risk, which she confirmed she did.

"We know that biological men are larger in strength than women," she insisted. "We understand this. This is, this is biology. If you look at football teams, you can see the difference between males and females. This is not hard."

Another topic that was debated was abortion rights. Earle-Sears stated that if elected governor, she would respect the wishes of Virginia voters, indicating that she would not use veto power to make serious changes on the topic of abortion.

Spanberger said she supported abortion access as determined by the historic Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade.

What's next:

The general election, which will elect the first female governor for the state of Virginia regardless of the winner, will be held on Nov. 4, but early voting is already underway.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.