Virginia gubernatorial Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger says questions of whether biological men participating in women’s school sports should be settled on the local level.

Ms. Spanberger, a former member of Congress, has maintained a consistent lead over Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears in the gubernatorial race and has sought to keep the focus on lowering health care, energy and housing costs.

But the 46-year-old married mother of three girls has faced mounting criticism from Republicans over her reluctance to stake out a clear position on thorny transgender issues that have helped the GOP energize voters in recent elections.

Pressed to clarify where she stands on whether biological men, who identify as female, should be allowed to play in women’s sports and use their bathrooms, Ms. Spanberger told ABC 13 that for 10 years in Virginia those decisions were made on a case-by-case basis based on fairness and safety by schools, parents and coaches.

“I think that that was a system that was working,” she said. “It was one that, you know, took individual circumstances and individual communities into account.

“I think that is the process that Virginia should continue to utilize based on individual circumstances.”

Ms. Spanberger, an ex-CIA officer, didn’t clarify her stance on whether transgender individuals should be permitted to use restrooms and locker rooms that are consistent with their gender identity.

Instead, she pivoted back to her primary message, which has centered in part on how the Trump administration’s federal cuts have left thousands of Virginians out of work, harmed the state’s economy and will make it harder for rural areas to receive health care.

Ms. Earle-Sears and Republicans pounced, slamming Ms. Spanberger’s response as a world salad.

“Abigail Spanberger just went full Kamala Harris to avoid a simple yes or no question,” Ms. Earle-Sears said on X. “The answer is YES — Abigail supports men in girls’ sports, restrooms, and locker rooms.”

The Trump administration has helped keep the battle over transgender issues, and the discomfort it creates among parents, at the forefront of the governor’s race.

The Education Department recently threatened to pull federal funding for school districts in Northern Virginia, accusing them of violating Title IX by refusing to change policies that let male-born students use female bathrooms and locker rooms.

Struggling to gain ground in the polls, Ms. Earle-Sears, a former Marine, has seized on the issue, hoping to chip away at the pragmatic problem-solver image Ms. Spanberger promotes on the campaign trail.

The lieutenant governor has said the five Northern Virginia school districts — Loudoun, Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria and Prince William — that the Trump administration has targeted have been unwilling to “protect female students’ rights.”

She has highlighted how the policies have hurt female students.

She has also shone a bright light on Ms. Spanberger’s 2021 vote for the Equality Act, which said that “an individual shall not be denied access to a shared facility, including a restroom, a locker room, and a dressing room, that is in accordance with the individual’s gender identity.”

“Notwithstanding the bill’s name, there is nothing equal or normal about a law that makes girls afraid to change in their school locker rooms or threatens their physical safety every time they step onto the playing field,” Ms. Earle-Sears said in a Washington Post op-ed this month.

In an Earle-Sears campaign ad, also in September, the narrator asks: “How liberal is Abigail Spanberger?”

“She voted to allow men in girls’ sports, bathrooms and locker rooms,” the ad says. “Spanberger is for they/them, not for us.”

A little over a month from Nov. 4’s Election Day, a Christopher Newport University survey released this week found Ms. Spanberger has a 12-point lead over the Republican.

Ms. Earle-Sears will have a chance to change the trajectory of the race when the two candidates face off for their only debate on Oct. 9 at Norfolk State University.

The debate will take place weeks after the start of early voting, which began Friday.

• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.