‘Do your job’: Sears challenges Democrats to end lockdown, Spanberger points finger at Trump

During a particularly heated exchange during Virginia’s gubernatorial debate Thursday night, Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears challenged his opponent to deliver a clear message to the state’s two Democratic senators — “Do your job” — and vote to end the government shutdown.

Earle-Sears criticized her opponent, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, for not doing more to urge the state’s two Democratic senators, Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, to end the shutdown, which has affected hundreds of thousands of federal workers and military personnel living in Virginia.

“All summer, my opponent has been playing political football with federal workers trying to tell them that she loves them more than anyone. Well, let me tell you what love looks like. It looks like Abigail is calling Senators Kaine and Warner and saying, ‘Go back, do your job and vote against shutting down the government,'” Earle-Sears said.

“We only need eight Democratic senators, that’s all we need, and we can’t find eight. And yet we can find two in Virginia. When are you going to say publicly to Senators Kaine and Warner, ‘Go do your job and let federal workers work?'” Earle-Sears continued.

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Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and Rep. Abigail Spanberger faced off Thursday night in a gubernatorial debate. (Pool/Getty Images)

“This is how we end the closure, because right now they have to work, and especially our military, without any pay,” she said. “I am a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, and it is really difficult, especially in the military service ranks, to work without pay.”

She added, “You can do something about it. You’re the one talking about all this love. Well, show your love, keep them in their jobs.”

Spanberger, meanwhile, said: “Everyone in Virginia, the hardest hit state in shutdown as our communities suffer after months of DOGE attacks on our federal workforce, everyone in Virginia should come together and urge the President to return to negotiations.

She accused Earle-Sears of “failing to stand up for Virginia workers” as lieutenant governor, particularly during the Trump administration’s DOGE cuts.

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Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears speaks to the crowd during a rally to announce that she will seek her party’s nomination for governor of Virginia in 2025 at Chick’s Oyster Bar in Virginia Beach, Virginia, September 5, 2024. (Kristen Zeis/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

“Right now, as Virginia’s federal workforce, contract workers and communities across the Commonwealth suffer because of this government shutdown, it only increases the challenge they face after months and months of attacks from the White House under DOGE,” Spanberger said.

“All this time,” she continued, “my opponent has ridiculed federal workers’ job loss, saying it’s no big deal and everyone is losing their jobs.”

Pressed on whether she would urge Kaine and Warner to vote to end the shutdown, Spanberger said, “I would encourage everyone, our Democratic senators, our Democratic members of the House, our Republican members of the House, to work together and make an effort to come back to the table.”

In response to a question about whether she would ask President Donald Trump to work on a compromise to end the shutdown, Earle-Sears responded, “The president has already said he will.”

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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)

“But you know, before anything happens to the president, the matter is in the Senate right now. The House Republicans have voted, and it’s in the Senate. And all we need to get this to the president so the shutdown stops is eight Senate Democrats. It’s just that, eight Senate Democrats. And we can’t find any of them because they’re playing political football, as you have been, Abigail, for all this time,” she said.

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“Love is a verb. It’s a way of showing myself. It’s an action. Love is not a stop,” she continued. “When will you ask Senator Kaine and Warner to keep federal workers on the job?”