Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears jumpstarts 2025 Republican governor’s race

Lieutenant government Governor winom Earl Sears jump starts the 2025 Republican governor's race this week uh Chris grah Augusta pre press here so winom Earl Sears the uh the lieutenant governor of Virginia elected in 2021 uh she's a republican who uh blamed Donald Trump for her party struggles in the 2022 midterms more on that in a second uh and she's now trying to let magas know that she's one of them that'll work or not Ann but she announced her candidacy for the 25 2025 GOP nomination uh for governor on Thursday uh should be a r and good time over there on that Republican side of the aisle based on the response of the Attorney General who's a republican Jason MZ who is expected to be announcing his own candidacy for the Republican nomination but after this year's uh general election is done and dusted uh Marez uh issued a statement on Earl Sears throwing her hat in the ring on Thursday saying Republicans quote need to be focused on this November's elections before even thinking about next year and that's that's fair now on the other side Abigail spanberger has announced and ramped up a pretty intense campaign for the Democratic nomination Lavar Stony the Richmond mayor uh had uh expressed an interest in running for governor has now thrown his hat in the ring for lieutenant governor so presumably abigel spanberger the Democratic congressman from the Seventh District will be the Democratic nominee unless someone emerges from the woodwork that we're not thinking about even at all um uh for 2025 so um but the Republicans are wanting to go off all in on Trump between now and November I suppose now both Miis and ear seers were swept up in the um Glen yunen wave in the 2021 State elections all of them aided by the historically inep campaign of former Democratic governor Terry mccla who stumbled and bumbled Democrats into losing a sure thing race in 2021 I tell you it was just it was it was abysmal um and they the biggest thing was allowing yunan to Define himself as a middle of the road Republic and the red vest and everything else um we've seen the a far MAA adjacent tilt since um that earned yunan and Republicans a serious rebuke from the Virginia voters in the 2023 midterm State midterms so we we do our things off year uh mid you know um odd numbered year here in Virginia uh yunan went from promising that he would take back control of the state senate and maintain control and grow a majority even bigger majority in the house to losing both uh and that's what knocked him out of whatever slim chance he had of mounting a decent campaign for the Republican nomination for president if you remember now he's he's just a a factless lame duck for the final two years of his term so congratulations on that uh Earl Sears has freshed off herself uh a truly odd public appearance at the Labor Day Parade in bav Vista used to go down to this every year um it's a parade through the the town of bunavista which you know the sign I it's been a few years since I've been down to mun Vista but the the sign greeting you into downtown says 602 home of 602 happy residents and three angry old grouches I love I love the the character of that little town um I say little 6,000 people you know where I'm from 2,000 people in from morea Virginia north of wesboro that's Buist is a city man but um anyway the parade there is always great and they give speeches of the candidates who attend um they do this every year uh and they draw some they draw some folks this year uh in addition to uh win some R seers uh I know from what I've read Glenn yunan was there certainly Tim Kane and hun the the two candidates for the US Senate this year um so earol Sears was there she marched through the parade and then at the end you they go to Quin Mory Park uh at the you know the route and uh you know gather for speeches and um Earl Sears accused Democrats in attendance for post parade in or post parade speeches um of quote telling a black woman to get off the stage and claiming that she heard one person tell her to quote go back to Jamaica you know I'm not I wasn't there you know I didn't hear this in the back and forth but it was a pretty pretty intense back and forth um to be fair which she started uh because she went through this Litany of things that she has sailed democrats for including quote removing body parts from our children and calling it Freedom you know that's that's what you got on on the Republican side these days folks and she also yelled at a person to take down that sign presumably a person was holding a sign up that said weird in some way because and she said because y'all are the ones who are weird that's obviously that that word is getting under Republican skin I think it's just hilarious and then she declared her falty to Trump she said she'll be voting for Trump in the election now that last point the Declaration of fty to Trump may be a key one for the viability of her candidacy after she blamed Trump back in 2022 like I mentioned for uh the ground loss by Republicans in those midterms usually the opposition party to the president's party uh it makes gains uh in the midterms Congressional midterms uh you know it's you know usually a pretty sizable gain it's just it's just a voter reaction to um the party in power at the president level um it's just a natural thing right so um but the the red wave that had been projected in 2022 did not materialize in a large part because uh magas took over the Republican primaries and nominated lots and lots and lots of candidates who should never be anywhere near Congress and voters uh across the board rejected those candidates uh and so Democrats almost took control of the house uh in a year in which uh they should not have come close and they held control of the Senate um so uh what Earl Sears had to say about that was the losses were quote a clue that voters want to move on and quote that a true leader knows uh when they have become a liability to the mission she was basically saying to Trump move on uh Trump as you know already does not take kindly to this kind of quote disloyalty right uh the night from the back he delivered to Fifth District Congressman Bob good should indicate that Bob good the chair of the House Freedom caucus about as maanga as you can get made the mistake of endorsing Ron DES santis in the 2024 Republican presidential race you know how that worked out uh the payback for that was uh Trump endorsed Ron de santis for the nomination uh and Maguire won by a handful of votes I think like 350 360 votes or so but go good is out as a result of uh you know not staying loyal enough um now to to be fair Trump may not be a factor in the 2025 cycle in Virginia should he lose November which is looking to be more and more realistic every day uh the value of his endorsement will wne over time whether that's in time for 2025 in Virginia or not we'll have to see there's already talk in Republican circles behind the scenes about how the party will need to rebuild itself from Trump after uh his MAA movement uh you know has its lifespan cut short uh this is where mayari might be making a good strategic move I mentioned that on the Democratic side there's already a lot of folks who maneuver spanberger at the governor level I think Stony there's other people running for the lieutenant governor nomination but Stony may be the top candidate there we're already seeing candidates announcing on the Democratic side for attorney general the Republicans have been very quiet I don't think it's because they're playing by different rules than what Democrats were playing by I think what they're waiting to do is uh you know let's see what happens here with with November 5th and uh if we have to kiss the ring some more we will if we don't have to why put ourselves on the record for that um I'll give the last word here to Earl sear I'll quote from her campaign video um in the interest of fairness even though a person who I mean what was that quote the quote about uh removing body parts from R sh and calling it Freedom you don't deserve fairness but I'll I'll be fair anyway as an immigrant mother United States Marine a business owner and now you lieutenant governor I'm living the American dream just like in the Marines we can either choose to improvise adapt and overcome or we can risk falling backwards extreme liberal politics have left some Led some states down a path of decline but here in Virginia commense conservative leadership has refueled our birth um the last year has been uh a bipartisan at best uh because your guy is a lame duck any case uh coverage of the Virginia politics scene uh certainly the 2024 elections uh is our Focus right now if you have any questions comments story tips anything else please feel free to email me at Chris austa freepress.com