A new poll from the Trafalgar Group shows Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears closing the gap in the gubernatorial race, now trailing Democratic candidate Abigail Spanberger by just two points – within the margin of error.
The poll, released Saturday, shows Earle-Sears with 45.1 percent compared to Spanberger’s 47.7 percent, with 5.6 percent of voters undecided. The margin of error of the poll is 2.6 percent.
Two weeks ago, a poll conducted by the Trafalgar Group showed Earle-Sears trailing Spanberger by five points at the time.
Tim Anderson, a prominent Virginia Beach lawyer who is running for the Virginia House of Delegates District 97, commented on the state of the gubernatorial race during a Tuesday appearance on The John Fredericks Show.
Anderson said he believes that Earle-Sears’s straightforward approach has gained momentum, especially among those in the middle who are looking for a candidate they can trust.
He added that Earle-Sears’s authentic and sometimes unpolished demeanor resonates more strongly with independent voters than Spanberger’s more controlled political persona – both personalities, he noted, were on display during last week’s debate between the candidates.
“If you ask Independent voters who was more authentic [during the debate], I think Abigail loses that 10 out of 10 times. Winsome came across as authentic, albeit unhinged at some points and a little rude and a little rough, but she was authentic,” Anderson said.
“I think that the authenticity factor went off the roof with Winsome and I think the independents see that,” he added.
As for the broader implications of the gubernatorial race, Anderson believes that the final weeks of the campaign will be critical in determining the outcome, and predicts that Independent voters, who were key to Governor Glenn Youngkin’s victory in 2021, will once again play a pivotal role.
“The concerns that I think Virginians are really going to have in this election are…is if Virginia is going in the right direction,” he said.
Anderson further emphasized the importance of appealing to moderate voters who were key to Youngkin’s victory, noting how he doubts those voters will rally around candidates of the Democratic Party who continue to stand behind Attorney General candidate Jay Jones, who allegedly called for some police officers to be killed and wished death upon a political rival and their children.
“What matters is what do the 10 or 12 percent [of Independents] in the middle think, who put Glen into office. How do we get them? I just don’t think that the soccer moms in Northern Virginia that put Glenn Youngkin in office are going to be able to tolerate a party that is rallying around the guy that said, we want children to die in their mother’s arms,” he added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Abigail Spanberger” by Abigail Spanberger and “Winsome Earle-Sears” is by Winsome Earle-Sears.
