Virginia is simply weeks away from electing a brand new governor, however the authorities shutdown and a latest textual content message scandal may reshape the race.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The Virginia governor’s race is in its closing stretch. The competition within the purplish state is commonly seen as a gauge of nationwide voter sentiment in between a presidential election and the midterms. This yr, some late breaking occasions could also be reshaping the race. Here is Margaret Barthel of member station WAMU.
MARGARET BARTHEL, BYLINE: First, there’s the federal government shutdown. Virginia is house to about 320,000 federal employees. Proper now, lots of them are furloughed. The Trump administration’s cuts to the federal workforce have hit the commonwealth arduous, with an estimated 11,000 jobs eradicated, and Democrats are keen to make use of their votes to push again.
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BARTHEL: That a lot was clear at a latest city corridor assembly in northern Virginia. Marsha Peltz (ph) was there. She stated her son misplaced his federal job in a mass layoff earlier this yr. Now he is a contractor apprehensive about his paycheck once more. And that is received her feeling motivated to get out and vote.
MARSHA PELTZ: There’s not a lot I can do on a federal stage. However on a state stage, I do have some affect. So I am encouraging my neighbors, please, exit and vote. Please volunteer.
BARTHEL: That is excellent news for the Democrat within the governor’s race. She’s former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger. On the marketing campaign path, she portrays herself as a champion for affordability and a defender of federal employees. Right here she is at a debate on WAVY-TV final night time.
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ABIGAIL SPANBERGER: It is just growing the problem that they’re dealing with after months and months of the assaults from this White Home below DOGE.
BARTHEL: Stephen Farnsworth is a professor of political science on the College of Mary Washington.
STEPHEN FARNSWORTH: Once you add up all these individuals who have straight or not directly some downstream impact of federal employment, it’s a very, very damaging surroundings for Republicans.
BARTHEL: The Republican within the race is Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears. She’s supported Trump’s cuts to authorities jobs, insisting she’s helped create loads of jobs within the personal sector. As an alternative, she talks lots about transgender children in bogs and locker rooms. Right here she is final night time.
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WINSOME EARLE-SEARS: This isn’t arduous. Are you going to vary in a fitness center the place males are nude within the locker rooms? Are you going to try this, Abigail?
BARTHEL: Her message is motivating for conservative-leaning voters like Ursula Bocall (ph), a federal contractor who got here to a Mothers for Liberty occasion to listen to Earle-Sears converse.
URSULA BOCALL: It simply appears that now there’s extra of a push of the colleges to over-insert themselves in the entire form of sexuality points which might be occurring in colleges.
BARTHEL: And there is one other huge growth that will increase Earle-Sears, a scandal within the race for legal professional normal – violent and disturbing textual content messages from the Democratic candidate, Jay Jones, just lately surfaced by the Nationwide Overview. In a sequence of 3-year-old messages, Jones imagines a distressing situation the place a prime Virginia Republican is shot. He goes on to want the Republicans’ youngsters would die, too. This in hopes that he would change his coverage positions. Zack Roday is a accomplice with Ascent Media, a Republican-leaning strategic communications agency.
ZACK RODAY: It will fireplace up an entire lot of rare, most likely right-of-center to conservative voters that aren’t Republican constant voters. They might vote in presidentials. They do not vote in governors’ races.
BARTHEL: Virginia Republicans, President Trump and the Fraternal Order of Police have referred to as for Jones to drop out. Spanberger has condemned the messages however hasn’t stated he ought to depart the race, and Republicans are already operating adverts criticizing her for it. Within the meantime, early voting is in full swing within the commonwealth with practically 450,000 ballots already forged.
For NPR Information, I am Margaret Barthel in Arlington, Virginia.
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