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Virginia leaders from both parties have condemned a racist sign aimed at Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, which was raised during a protest outside a school board meeting where she was speaking.
Earle-Sears — the Republican nominee in the state’s gubernatorial race — spoke at the Arlington County school board meeting on Thursday, which was reviewing its transgender bathroom policy. Outside the meeting, where a transgender rights rally was being held, a person displayed a racist sign directed at Earle-Sears.
The protester’s poster, which has gone viral on social media and sparked outrage from across the political spectrum, read: “Hey Winsome, if trans can’t share your bathroom, then Blacks can’t share my water fountain.”
Governor Glenn Youngkin defended Earle-Sears on X on Thursday, blasting what he labeled as the “hypocrisy of the liberal left.”
Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears was the subject of a sign condemned by Virginia leaders as offensive and inappropriate. (Winsome Earle-Sears Campaign)
“Winsome is so much bigger than this idiocy,” Youngkin added.
Attorney General Jason Miyares joined in, writing on X: “This is wrong. [Winsome Earle-Sears] — and Virginia — deserve better.”
Virginia state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, who is also the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, denounced the poster, saying it evokes the “pain of racism, segregation and Jim Crow-era ugliness.”
Winsome Sears, Republican lieutenant gubernatorial candidate for Virginia, arrives to speak during an election night event for Glenn Youngkin, Republican gubernatorial candidate for Virginia, in Chantilly, Va., on Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2021. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“These sentiments are unacceptable,” Hashmi said on X. “We each have a responsibility to move our communities to unity and to reject all forms of bigotry.”
In a post to X, Democratic attorney general candidate Jay Jones echoed the other leaders’ sentiments, calling the sign a “horrific display of racism.”
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“My parents grew up during the height of segregation in America,” Jones said. “This horrific display of racism is wrong and unacceptable. It has no place in our communities or politics, period.”
Republican lieutenant governor nominee John Reid wrote on X, “There’s no place for hate here in Virginia. This is wrong. Will [Abigail Spanberger] or [Ghazala Hashmi] condemn racist attacks like this?”
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin speaks during the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Policy Conference at the Washington Hilton on June 22, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
Sen. Minority Leader Ryan McDougle took to X to write, “The tolerant left strikes again.”
In an X post, Sen. Schuyler Van Valkenburg wrote: “Two wrongs don’t make a right. Been teaching my kids – and students – that for years. In the age of Trump it’s easy to get in the gutter. We should insist on betting the better angels of our nature.”
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Del. Mike Cherry, R-Chesterfield, said on X: “Wow. Sad.”
Earle-Sears’ opponent, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., also condemned the sign, calling it “racist, abhorrent and unacceptable,” but Earle-Sears felt that her response should have been stronger.
“A very weak response from a very weak person who we know cannot lead Virginia as governor,” Earle-Sears asserted. “She’s finally come out of hiding when she should have a long time ago come out and defended so many things that are so wrong, and she’s been absent.”