After Virginia’s Republican candidate for governor, Winsome Earle-Sears, left her Democratic opponent, Abigail Spanberger, on the ropes in a debate last week, Sears came out with a devastating ad: A full minute-long clip from the debate of Spanberger staring ahead silently, unwilling to answer the moderator’s question about whether she endorses attorney general candidate Jay Jones despite his homicidal comments against Republicans.

“We’re talking about murder … have you nothing to say about that?” Sears prodded.

Abigail Spanberger’s silence says it all. pic.twitter.com/orrgAzULKK

— Winsome Earle-Sears (@winwithwinsome) October 10, 2025

Spanberger’s retort? An ad that mocks Sears for interrupting her during the debate. The ad featured an old clip of Sears shouting with a strange affect, “I am speaking!” The clip — which Spanberger has used in other ads this cycle — plays four times in one ad, even though it didn’t come from the debate.

There’s just one problem: Earle-Sears wasn’t actually making that assertion; she was mocking Democrat Kamala Harris, whom Spanberger supported. In fact, it’s a famous Harris quote, one that her supporters praised as an example of a strong feminist.

Democrats portrayed Harris telling Mike Pence, “I’m speaking,” during their 2020 vice presidential debate as the highlight of the debate. There’s even a book titled “I’m Speaking: Words of Strength and Wisdom from Kamala Harris.” She used the line again to applause last year to shut down protesters chanting at her rally.

So even as Sears rolled out ad after ad that criticized Spanberger by showing her responses when asked about policy positions, the most damaging thing Spanberger could attribute to Sears, even after four years as lieutenant governor, was something that was actually said by the Democrats’ presidential nominee, with Spanberger falsely giving the impression that it was a Sears quote.

Spanberger appears to view Harris’s famous quote as so idiotic that she has played it on a near-loop in multiple different ads, even before the debate. An earlier ad plays the clip four times.

????NEW AD: At every turn, @winwithwinsome chooses her loyalty to Trump over what’s best for Virginia. pic.twitter.com/gWUGYcGGWX

— Abigail Spanberger (@SpanbergerForVA) October 7, 2025

Stripped of its context, the clip attempts to portray Sears as a rude, angry black woman — an image Virginia Democrats have repeatedly returned to. The Powhatan County Democratic Party posted a cartoon of Sears angrily jumping up and down and shrieking, before deleting it and apologizing for “racist overtones.”

Virginia @Powhatan_Dems are extremely hateful ~
They knew it was wrong before they posted it.
Now, it’s out there forever.https://t.co/vXYtSKQjCS

— Words_of_Faith (@WordsofFaithTo1) October 12, 2025

Overt racism has been seen on the campaign trail against Earle-Sears, a U.S. Marine veteran who immigrated as a young child from Jamaica. In October, an elderly white Democratic woman held a sign that said, “Hey Winsome, if trans can’t share your bathroom, then blacks can’t share my water fountain.”

Spanberger and Lieutenant Governor candidate Ghazala Hashmi have stood by Jay Jones despite text messages in which he said of Republican former state House Speaker Todd Gilbert, “Gilbert gets two bullets to the head,” and hoped to see Gilbert’s children die to make the family “feel pain.” What angered Jones was Gilbert’s kind words about a Democrat, which Jones viewed as signifying that the Democrat was too moderate.

Related: Virginia Dems Say ‘Our Democracy’ Depends On Voting For Candidate Who Fantasized About Assassination