Less than a month ago, virtually all polls across Virginia gave Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, a double-digit lead over the Republican lieutenant governor, Winsome Earle-Sears, in the race for governor.
With Spanberger having raised roughly $10 million to $3 million for Earle-Sears, the race to succeed lame-duck GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin appeared to be a slam-dunk for the Democrats.
No one is saying that now.
In a just-completed Roanoke College poll that pundits and pols have been discussing for days, Spanberger now leads Earle-Sears by the closest-ever margin: 46% to 37%.
The same survey shows Old Dominion State voters turning more toward Republicans in the other two statewide races.
State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, the archliberal Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, edges broadcaster John Reid (the first openly gay Republican ever nominated for state office in Virginia) by 38% to 35%. And in the race for attorney general, Roanoke showed an even closer contest with state Sen. Jay Jones, a Democrat, ahead of incumbent Republican Jason Miyares by 41% to 38%.
“This poll is encouraging,” Jim Gilmore, a former Virginia governor and onetime Republican National Committee chair, told Newsmax. “The public is beginning to become aware that our ticket is superior to the Democratic ticket. Republicans are coming home and rallying to their ticket.”
Gilmore added that he would not be surprised if the entire ticket were elected, and that “I would be very surprised if Attorney General Miyares is not reelected.”
But Gilmore and other Republicans agree Earle-Sears must have a new and hard-hitting issue with which to overcome Spanberger’s early spending advantage and the 40-year pattern of Virginians to choose a governor from the party other than that of the president at the time.
One issue that could work in the GOP hopeful’s favor may be developing just as her poll numbers are rising. In a story that made headlines this week, Loudoun County, Virginia, Public Schools suspended two boys at Stone Bridge High School because of their complaints about a female student who identifies as male and uses the boys’ locker room.
Earlier this year, the two male students were recorded on video asking why there was a girl in the boys’ locker room. The female student who identifies as male thereupon was the one who recorded the video in the locker room, a violation of district policy.
On Wednesday, the two suspended students and their families and friends hit back with a packed news conference in which they were joined by their attorneys — and Earle-Sears.
“It is time for the insanity to stop,” the Republican gubernatorial nominee told reporters. “It’s time for everyone to recognize what is settled truth. Girls are girls and boys are boys.”
Josh Hetzler, legal counsel at the Founding Freedoms Law Center who is representing the boys, said they were “moments away from filing for immediate injunctive relief in federal court to prevent one of the boys from being suspended [in the first] two weeks of school, but last night, we filed a Title IX [the 1972 law banning sex-based discrimination] appeal with LCPS [Loudoun County Public Schools], which thankfully paused the suspension for now.”
Hetzler quickly added: “If LCPS fails again to do the right thing, we will have no choice but to pursue swift legal action in the coming days.”
He also called on the Department of Justice to intervene.
How developments involving the high school students and the Loudoun County school system might unfold is unclear. What is clear is that Earle-Sears has a new issue that she has embraced.
As of Wednesday, Spanberger had yet to comment on the issue.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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