Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger is calling out Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, her opponent in the Governor’s race, after a new report claimed millions of dollars in lost federal grants are being kept under wraps.
Documents obtained by VPM News and WAMU show the Youngkin-Sears administration had not provided state lawmakers or the public with details on hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants paused by the Trump administration.
In a press release, Spanberger said Virginia is unable to face challenges without honest and transparent information.
“The Youngkin-Sears Administration has chosen to hide the details of these federal losses for Virginia — seemingly because they believe it is politically advantageous to conceal this information with an election less than three weeks away,” Spanberger wrote.
In September, Virginia Secretary of Finance Stephen Cummings told a Senate panel that a total of $315 million across 18 grants had been paused or canceled. On Tuesday, Cummings said that figure was closer to $466 million after solar grants had been cancelled.
Spanberger called the omission insulting to Virginia taxpayers and the state’s federal workforce, which is home to more than 300,000 federal employees.
“Virginians deserve to know the full extent of how the Trump Administration is unilaterally cutting taxpayer dollars for mental health support, teacher residency programs, projects to improve the Commonwealth’s local energy generation — and other investments to support Virginians and strengthen our communities,” Spanberger said. “At the most foundational level, Virginians deserve transparency and certainty from their elected leaders.”
Spanberger said both Youngkin and Earle-Sears should immediately release the information and explain why it was concealed in the first place.
Virginia Commonwealth University political professor Alex Keena told VPM News the withheld information shows Youngkin is “sort of washing his hands of the whole thing,” while protecting GOP candidates.
“He doesn’t feel like he needs to necessarily be accountable to them anymore,” Keena said. “I think that the Governor is protecting Republican candidates. This is not good for Virginians, and obviously Republicans are the ones who will get blamed if the full scope of this comes to light.”
