Virginia gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears released her latest attack ad against Democratic opponent Abigail Spanberger Friday, playing a familiar culture war card that has been successful for GOP candidates in recent cycles.
The ad labelled “Nonsense vs. Commonsense” centers on Spanberger’s support for transgender rights and features a series of clips denouncing her silence over individuals assigned male at birth using female bathrooms and locker rooms.
“Abigail Spanberger? Nothing,” a narrator states.
The ad features a Friday appearance on Fox & Friends with host Brian Kilmeade, in which Earle-Sears targeted Spanberger’s stance on transgender rights, noting that if elected Governor, she would represent all constituents.
“I’m elected to represent everyone, even those who hate me,” Earle-Sears said. “I am there trying to protect everyone’s children. Democrat children, independent children, Republican children. They’re all children.”
“Abigail Spanberger’s statement is non-existent,” a narrator in the ad then states.
It goes on to discuss recent controversy around the suspension of two Loudon County Public School students, who were suspended after they voiced their concerns over a female-to-male transgender student using the boys’ locker room, while filming their reactions.
Furthermore, the ad draws comparisons between Spanberger and former U.S. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and New York Democratic U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s support for transgender girls and women in girls’ and women’s sports.
Earle-Sears then calls Spanberger a “coward.” Spanberger, she says, is “for nonsense, I am for common sense.”
Asked during the Kilmeade interview why Virginia isn’t following Trump administrative directives banning transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports and from using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity, Earle-Sears said it’s not that the state doesn’t understand.
“Virginia doesn’t have trouble understanding that our young girls ought to be safe undressing in their locker rooms, and not having biological men, a full-frontal nude, in front of them,” Earle-Sears said. “And, by the way, boys have the same right, Virginia doesn’t have any issue with that.”
Earle-Sears not every school in Virginia is noncompliant with the directives, rather just five.
“It is these five northern Virginia schools that are having some sort of issue understanding that safety means safety,” Earle-Sears said. “Education is what they’re supposed to be about, not about these other issues. Parents don’t send their children to school not being safe, they want to learn. Reading, writing, and arithmetic. This is not hard. Do your jobs.”
Earle-Sears further recounted a case where a male-to-female transgender student had sexually assaulted two young girls after gaining access to the girl’s bathroom. The first incident occurred in May 2021, the second occurred at another Virginia high school in October 2021.
“They had a biological male dressed as a girl, in the bathrooms, raped one child, didn’t tell the parents, didn’t say anything to the other parents,” Earle-Sears said. “(They) sent him on his way to reassign him to a new school, where he summarily proceeded to rape another young girl.”
While those incidents have been used as a flashpoint in the debate over transgender rights, particularly as it relates to use of bathrooms and locker rooms that align with an individual’s gender identity, the boy charged in both attacks did not identify as as female and the school board found no evidence that “he wore a skirt or kilt in an effort to gain access to the girls’ bathroom,” according to The Associated Press.
The perpetrator, who was 15 at the time of the assaults, was convicted as a juvenile for both crimes. One of the victims’ parents has filed a $30 million lawsuit against the school districts over the attack.
Also featured in Earle-Sears’ new ad is an image of Spanberger supporters holding signs saying, “Hey Winsome, if transgenders can’t share your bathroom, then Blacks can’t share my water fountain.”
“They equated bathroom opportunities with me being Black in America, and here I am second in command of the former capital of the Confederacy,” Earle-Sears told Kilmeade. “Me. The immigrant. Whom they say as Democrats they love more than anybody. Me. A Black woman who they say they love as Democrats more than anybody. This is insane”
The ad doesn’t mention that Spanberger condemned the sign, and its sentiment, calling it “racist, abhorrent and unacceptable,” according to ABC 8 News.
