By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears; Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger
The commercial echoes language Donald Trump's campaign used during the 2024 election.
Virginia’s lieutenant governor and Republican gubernatorial candidate, Winsome Earle-Sears, has doubled down on her reliance on culture-war politics with a new campaign ad that reduces transgender identity to a punchline.
In the 30-second spot, Earle-Sears accuses Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a three-term former congresswoman and former CIA officer, of being “radical” for allegedly supporting policies that let “men in girls’ locker rooms” and keep parents uninformed when children seek to change gender.
“How radical is Abigail Spanberger?” a voice says at the start of the 30-second spot. “She didn’t just vote to let men in girls’ locker rooms. She wrote the bill. Spanberger believes this man has the right to undress next to little girls, but it gets worse. If a child wants to change genders, Spanberger says the parents shouldn’t be told. That’s insane.”
The ad concludes with images of LGBTQ+ former officials from the Biden administration, including Dr. Rachel Levine, the former Assistant Secretary for Health and the first out transgender person ever confirmed by the U.S. Senate to a presidential appointment.
“Radical Abigail Spanberger is for they/them, not us,” the narrator says as the spot ends. According to a recent Christopher Newport University poll, Spanberger is leading Earle-Sears by 12 points, with 52 percent favoring the Democrat and 40 percent the Republican.
The attack comes just one day after The Advocate reported on a separate Earle-Sears commercial that weaponized similar tropes about transgender youth and parental rights. Taken together, the ads signal a calculated doubling down to make gender identity itself a defining line in the race to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who won his election in 2021 based on the false claim that critical race theory was being taught secretly in Virginia public schools to make white kids feel bad about themselves.
Earle-Sears’ latest salvo is not novel but borrowed. The rhetoric echoes President Donald Trump’s 2024 reelection campaign, which spent tens of millions of dollars flooding battleground states with anti-trans messaging. Those ads often closed with the phrase, “Kamala is for they/them, Trump is for you.”
As The Advocate documented, Trump’s ads were less about policy than about projection: playing to parental fears, invoking locker-room panic, and exaggerating the scope of gender-affirming care. Earle-Sears’ adaptation for Virginia politics repackages those same anxieties, attempting to reframe an election about the state’s future around fear of difference.
“[This is an] ad ripped from the Trump playbook: one intended to stoke fear and division, and erase LGBTQ+ students from Virginia classrooms,” Narissa Rahaman, executive director of Equality Virginia Advocates, told The Advocate in response to Earle-Sears’ first transphobic ad.
National advocates warn that these attacks not only distort reality but endanger vulnerable communities. In a statement to The Advocate, a GLAAD spokesperson urged Virginians to examine Earle-Sears’ record in full:
Related: Virginia Republican candidate for governor addresses grads at extremely anti-LGBTQ+ schools
“Voters can look beyond campaign ads to familiarize themselves with a candidate’s full record and plans, including efforts to harm LGBTQ people,” the spokesperson wrote. “Earle-Sears’ record shows a long history of targeting LGBTQ Virginians’ right to marry who they love, adopt children, and be protected from discrimination at work."
The Republican candidate has previously called homosexuality an “immoral lifestyle choice,” misgendered Virginia Sen. Danica Roem on the Senate floor, and aligned with religious institutions that reject LGBTQ+ identities.
The spokesperson noted that campaigns that attempted to smear trans people in Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Kentucky all failed.
“Nothing about targeting LGBTQ people improves anyone’s life, brings down the cost of groceries and utility bills, keeps children healthy, or protects jobs and public safety,” the spokesperson said. “Elected officials take an oath to serve all constituents, and that includes LGBTQ people. Voters deserve leaders who fight for everyone to be safe and successful.”
GLAAD polling before the 2024 election underscored that message with 94 percent of LGBTQ+ voters, 82 percent of swing voters, and three-quarters of registered voters overall agreeing that Republicans should stop fixating on restricting women’s rights and banning medical care for trans youth, and instead prioritize inflation, job creation, and health care.
Charlie Kirk DID say stoning gay people was the 'perfect law' — and these other heinous quotes