RGA boosts Earle-Sears with $1.5M amid Virginia Dem AG race controversy

The Republican Governors Association is doling out another $1.5 million to bolster Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the GOP nominee facing former Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger in the gubernatorial showdown at the ballot box in November.

The new funding for the RGA, the main group supporting Republicans in gubernatorial races, comes after explosive revelations in Virginia’s attorney general race that the GOP is aiming to leverage the vote.

Democratic attorney general candidate Jay Jones has acknowledged and apologized for texts he sent in 2022 in which he compared then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert to mass murderers Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot, adding that if he were shot twice, he would use both against the Republican lawmaker to shoot him in the head.

Jones has been in crisis since the texts were first reported last Friday by National Review, and a chorus of calls from Republicans are urging Jones to withdraw from the race.

VIRGINIA’S DEMOCRATIC ATTORNEY GENERAL CANCELS EVENTS AMID CONTROVERSY

Winsome Earle-Sears, Republican candidate for governor of Virginia, during a campaign event at the Volunteer Fire Department in Vienna, Virginia, U.S., Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Earle-Sears, who is behind Spanberger in all the latest public opinion polls in the race to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, is hammering his Democratic rival for not asking Jones to drop out of the race.

The Earle-Sears campaign has launched a new ad, first reported Tuesday by Fox News Digital, that aims to tie Spanberger to Jones and calls on voters to “reject the madness” and “vote Republican.”

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“It is clearer than ever that this race is not between Republicans and Democrats. It is common sense versus violence,” Peyton Vogel, spokesperson for the Earle-Sears campaign, said in a statement to Fox News. “The RGA understands what is at stake here in Virginia, and its support will help us stand strong against the wrath of Abigail Spanberger.”

The increase in RGA funding, first reported by Politico and confirmed by Fox News Digital, now matches the rival Democratic Governors Association’s (DGA) investment of approximately $5 million in Spanberger. But the RGA’s financial contribution still falls far short of the nearly $11 million the group spent four years ago to help elect Youngkin.

Abigail Spanberger, Virginia Democratic Party candidate for governor, speaks to the crowd during an event in support of her candidacy at the Eastern Henrico Recreation Center in Richmond, Virginia, April 8, 2025. (Max Posner/The Washington Post/Getty Images)

Earle-Sears and Spanberger will face off Thursday night in a debate and the controversy over Jones’ three-year-old texts is expected to be discussed.

Virginia and New Jersey are the only two states to hold gubernatorial showdowns in the year following a presidential election. These elections traditionally attract outsized attention and are seen as political barometers ahead of the following year’s midterm elections.

DGA communications director Sam Newton, asked for comment, said “Winsome Sears is running a disastrous campaign.”

Newton went on to say that “instead of desperately trying to bail out a losing campaign, the RGA should ask Donald Trump a simple question: Why does he still refuse to support or campaign with Sears?”

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Jones, who apologized for the texts, has not held a campaign event since Friday evening.

Most Virginia Democrats, including the commonwealth’s two U.S. senators, condemned Jones’ comments but stopped short of urging him to withdraw from the race.

Jay Jones, a candidate for Virginia attorney general in 2025, has been heavily criticized for a series of text messages calling for the deaths of political opponents and remarks about police officers. (Maxine Wallace/The Washington Post/Getty Images)

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, the DGA vice chair who will take over as chair next year, told Fox News Digital the text was “absolutely inappropriate.”

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“I condemn political violence in all its forms as well as the type of language that would discuss or encourage political violence,” the governor stressed in an interview in New Hampshire.

But asked about GOP calls for Jones to end his campaign, Beshear said, “I don’t know enough about that situation.”

Andrew Mark Miller of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.