With less than three months until Virginia elects Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) successor, things are heating up between candidates Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R) and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D), as the Democrat maintains her lead in the polls.

Thursday, Spanberger released her first negative advertisement against Youngkin’s second-in-command. In their attack ad, the Spanberger campaign leveraged Earle-Sears’s comments last week in which she refused to answer CNN’s Manu Raju on DOGE’s federal workforce cuts, saying she would rather talk about “real issues.”

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“Really? Not a real issue that thousands of Virginians are losing their jobs?” the Spanberger ad says. A recent Virginia Business report says Virginia, as the state with the second-highest number of federal workers behind Maryland, is feeling a disproportionate effect from the nearly 290,000 federal jobs cut as a result of DOGE’s federal layoffs.

Press secretary for the Earle-Sears campaign Peyton Vogel said in a statement to the Washington Examiner responding to the advertisement, “In just thirty seconds the Spanberger campaign revealed its only path is to deceive and distract.”

“Here’s the truth: cutting waste, fraud, and abuse from federal spending helps deliver much-needed relief to Virginians who’ve suffered for years under the economic destruction of spend-crazy liberals in Washington like Abigail Spanberger,” Vogel said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “And thankfully, here at home, Governor Youngkin and Lt. Gov. Earle-Sears have actually grown the state economy with more than 250,000 available jobs. The contrast is as revealing as this twisted TV ad.” 

In the same CNN interview that the ad shows, Earle-Sears became frustrated with Raju when he asked about her past negative comments about President Donald Trump. Trump said on Sunday that he would endorse Earle-Sears in the Virginia gubernatorial race. 

“I think probably she’s got a tough race. She shouldn’t have, the candidate she’s running against is not very good, but I think she’s got a tough race,” Trump said of Earle-Sears.

The ad release comes after Earle-Sears responded to recent negative polling reports Wednesday evening during her appearance in Bristol, Virginia. The Hill reported Wednesday that an August 1 Decision Desk HQ polling average has Spanberger leading the race with an average of 45.2% of the vote, compared to Earle-Sears’s 36%. When local Bristol outlet WHJL asked about how she feels regarding her polling numbers, Earle-Sears blamed the media.

“I’m feeling very excited. Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you because the media is lying to you,” Earle-Sears said.

Earle-Sears claimed the race is within the margin of error, though she has consistently trailed Spanberger in mainstream polling throughout the race. In July, a Virginia Commonwealth University poll had Spanberger leading by 12 points. 

“It’s neck and neck. You’re hearing people tell you, and the media, that I’m ten points down. I am not. And she knows that to be true. Which is why you see they’re scrambling,” Earle-Sears said to WHJL Wednesday, referring to Spanberger and her campaign.

In a statement to the Washington Examiner, a spokesperson for the Spanberger campaign said in response to Earle-Sears’s comments that the former Virginia representative will “continue to put petty political games aside to deliver for the Commonwealth”.

TRUMP SIGNALS HE WOULD ENDORSE WINSOME EARLE-SEARS IN VIRGINIA GUBERNATORIAL RACE

“Virginians deserve a Governor who is laser-focused on addressing Virginians’ priorities — making Virginia more affordable, growing Virginia’s economy, strengthening Virginia’s schools, keeping Virginia’s communities safe, and protecting Virginians’ jobs. That is where Abigail is focused,” the Spanberger spokesperson said in the statement to the Examiner. 

RealClearPolitics currently has Spanberger up 7.5 average points in their Virginia gubernatorial election poll.