Despite tough challenge, don’t underestimate Earle-Sears

Virginia Lt. Gov. and Republican gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears speaks at a rally on June 17, 2025. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods / Virginia Mercury)

Many signs suggest a comfortable victory this fall for Democrat Abigail Spanberger against Republican Winsome Earle-Sears in Virginia’s gubernatorial contest. Spanberger had $14.3 million in cash on hand this month compared to just $3 million for Earle-Sears, the current lieutenant governor. Spanberger, a former congresswoman, has led in early polls, including a whopping 17-point advantage in a Roanoke College survey in May. (Yeah, I know, many Virginians aren’t tuned in yet, so that barometer is shaky.)

Earle-Sears, meanwhile, is the standard-bearer for Donald Trump’s party in a state that’s voted against him three times in presidential contests. He’s tried to recklessly chop the federal workforce; some 341,000 federal workers lived here in 2023. Also, Black candidates have struggled to win statewide contests in Virginia – Earle-Sears’ own victory in 2021 notwithstanding.

No matter. Spanberger would be smart not to underestimate Earle-Sears. The latter has lost contests in the past, but she’s garnered her share of impressive victories, too. Few pundits thought she would unseat longtime Del. Billy Robinson in a Norfolk district in 2001.

I scoff at Earle-Sears’ television ad saying she’s not a “typical politician,” given she hews to the ultra-right party line on social and some economic issues. She faces a herculean challenge. Lots can change, though, between now and November. Spanberger should recognize that.

Please check to see if you’re immunized against measles, a disease that can kill. Virginia has had three confirmed cases this year, and an international traveler who landed at Dulles airport this month journeyed around the metro Washington area, The Washington Post reported.

“Measles is more than just a rash,” and up to one in five cases require hospitalization, Emily Rich, epidemiologist with the vaccine preventable disease team at the Virginia Department of Health, told me. Some people “even have fatal complications, including pneumonia and encephalitis.”

Health care officials recommend children get two doses of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine. If you’re born before 1957, you should be protected, VDH says. If you’re not sure of your status, talk to your doctor or other health care provider, Rich said. VDH has a website where you can request immunization records. As of June 12, federal officials have reported nearly 1,200 confirmed measles cases nationwide.

It would’ve helped if Trump hadn’t given the reins of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., founder of an anti-vaccine group. That was a huge middle finger to all Americans.

I get it: Virginia Beach, the commonwealth’s largest city, has a duty to keep neighborhoods livable and safe by clearing up homeless encampments. I just wish the tenor of a recent news story had discussed more about the current conditions of people who had formerly lived in those makeshift places.

The city has cleared 100 such encampments since the spring of 2024. Those actions increased after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in Grants Pass v. Johnson last June, that municipalities can enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outside in public places. The fact that homeless individuals create so many encampments suggests the magnitude of the problem – and the lack of affordable housing.

A one-day tally in January found 327 homeless people in Virginia Beach; the number is almost certainly lower than the actual total because it depends on whom the volunteers can locate that day.

Pam Shine, the city’s homeless services administrator, said through a spokesperson that about 20 people formerly in these encampments “have connected to shelter” and 10 have been housed since April 2024.

To be fair, some 138 permanent supportive housing units are designated for Virginia Beach at SupportWorks Housing complexes (formerly Virginia Supportive Housing). There are also 88 single shelter beds and 40 shelter beds for families with young children at the city’s Housing Resource Center, which opened in 2018.

The state is sending Virginians cash this week. Yes, really.

A new law means unclaimed money automatically will go to the “rightful owners,” according to axios.com. Before, you had to file a claim with the state Department of Treasury’s Unclaimed Property Division to get money from misplaced bank accounts, uncashed checks, utility deposits and more.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed the bill into law in March, requiring the state to return unclaimed funds valued at up to $5,000 owed directly to you. Find out more at vamoneysearch.gov. In fact, if you’ve lived in several places, it’s a good idea to check those individual states periodically. Trust me on this.

You can start a nationwide search at missingmoney.com, which bills itself as the “official Unclaimed Property website of the National Association of State Treasurers.”

I thought for sure Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who explicitly warned protesters beforehand at “No Kings” rallies that they’d be arrested if they broke the law on June 14, would’ve publicly condemned a motorist who, police say, drove his SUV into a crowd in Culpeper that day as a rally was ending. ’Tis a puzzlement, his silence.

One person was struck, though police reported no injuries in the Culpeper incident. Police charged a 21-year-old man in the case.

The rallies nationwide protested President Trump’s authoritarian actions while in office this term. They drowned out the obscene, costly, sparsely attended parade that Trump hosted Saturday on his 79th birthday and the Army’s 250th anniversary.

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