Virginia gubernatorial Republican candidate Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle Sears and Democratic candidate Abigail Spanberger have released new attack ads just days before Election Day.
The Earle-Sears ad claims Spanberger would phase out cars, implement a hike in fuel costs, and cause electricity blackouts.
The 60-second ad features clips of Spanberger while in the U.S. Congress supporting former President Joe Biden’s environmental priorities. Spanberger is shown saying, “We need to transition (away from fossil fuels) and encourage renewable energy.”
The ad also takes aim at Spanberger’s support for electric vehicles, painting it as “climate nonsense,” and notes through graphics that her preferred policies would cause “economic devastation” for Virginia.
The ad closes with a familiar line: “Abigail Spanberger: Too liberal for Virginia.”
Spanberger touted her own attack ad on social media. “It’s Halloween — and there’s nothing more haunting than my opponent’s vision for the future of our Commonwealth,” she wrote.
In her Halloween-themed attack ad, a narrator intones, “It’s Halloween, and Winsome Earle-Sears’ vision for the future for Virginia is haunting.”
“Dangerous restrictions on reproductive rights,” the narrator says, beginning a list of policies Spanberger’s campaign highlights as bad for the state.
“Stripping rights away from gay Virginians,” the narrator adds before footage shifts to a news clip saying Earle-Sears is “morally opposed to same-sex marriage.”
“Harmful budget cuts to public education,” the narrator continues, showing a news clip saying Earle-Sears is supporting policies that would take money away from public education.
The narrator then calls out Earle-Sears’ support for cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which disproportionately affected Virginia’s 300,000 federal workers, resulting in a rise in the state’s unemployment rate over seven consecutive months.
The ad then pivots to the growing cost of living for Virginia families under the Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Sears administration. Lowering the cost of living has been a primary focus of Spanberger’s campaign.
Spanberger’s ad also calls attention to Earle-Sears’ support for cutting funding to health care, a DOGE focus and a component of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill. The cuts led to 300,000 Virginians losing their health care coverage, according to Spanberger.
The narrator closes out the ad by repeating that “Winsome Earle-Sears’ vision of the future of Virginia is haunting.”
Recent polls published by the New York Times show Spanberger holding a solid lead over Earle-Sears, which varies between 15-percentage-points and 4-percentage-points.
The General Election is Tuesday.
