'Not going to act like everything’s hunky-dory': Intraparty feud threatens GOP in Virginia

Richmond, Virginia USA - November 10, 2023: Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle Sears

Virginia is the state of former Republican Gov. Glen Youngkin, but The National Review reports a persistent grudge between Republican candidates is tying up Virginia statewide elections for the Democrats.

Until recently, conservative talk show host and Republican lieutenant gubernatorial nominee John Reid had not spoken to GOP gubernatorial nominee, Winsome Earle-Sears for months — not since Youngkin called Reid in April to ask him to suspend his campaign over allegations that Reid reposted nude photos of men on a Tumblr account years ago. Reid refused, causing a rift between Virginia conservatives, particularly highly religious Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.

In an appeal for unity on a struggling Republican ticket, Reid called Earle-Sears in mid-June to assess how they could “get over the hump, and have everything be good, or as good as it can be.”

“I’ve tried very diligently to be positive about you and the ticket and both in public and private,” Reid said at one point on the call. “But I’m not going to lie and act like everything’s been hunky-dory. It’s been eight weeks since we’ve spoken. I’m puzzled about that. I don’t know why that is.”

But the National Review reports Earle-Sears refused to commit to burying the hatchet.

“Here’s the thing,” she said, after Reid’s repeated requests. “I didn’t appreciate that every time I turned around, there was something in the newspaper about you and me and whoever else.”

The Review reports both candidates made references to a leaked conversation from April 27, when a former top aide on Youngkin’s super PAC, Matt Moran, told Reid’s longtime partner that “getting out of the race” is “the only way to stop” the scandal from spiraling out of control. Reid pleaded with Earle-Sears to get past the April drama.

“If you’re not trying to blackmail me, then I don’t think you ever have anything to worry about,” Reid said, adding that his feud with Youngkin’s former aide “didn’t involve you.”

But Earle-Sears sounded leery of even taking the call.

“You don’t think I have any trepidation about speaking to you when you’ve had private conversations that have ended up in the newspaper?” Earle-Sears said. The Review said she dropped the call nine minutes into the conversation.

She did not respond to National Review follow-up questions, and a campaign spokesman called the story one of many “silly narratives obsessed over by political gossip traffickers.”

Silly or not, the widening rift between the GOP ticket in Virginia is just one of many issues worrying Republicans ahead of this fall’s elections, reports the Review. Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger dominates in both fundraising and polling, and Virginia Republicans are convinced the GOP ticket will either rise or fall together.

Earle-Sears won in 2021 “in large part, I think, because of Glenn Youngkin’s coattails. There are no coattails this year,” said former Republican Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling. “And so far, she has not shown the ability to put together a compelling campaign message. She has not shown the ability to raise anywhere near the kind of money that you need to run an effective statewide campaign. She has not even shown the ability to unite her own ticket.”

Read the full National Review report at this link.