Morning Digest: Uh-oh, MAGAworld isn't happy with the Virginia GOP's candidate for governor

Their "strange and dreary campaigner" already faced an uphill battle. It just got rougher.

Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (center), GOP candidate for governor (credit: Winsome Earle-Sears campaign Facebook)

Leading Off

VA-Gov, VA-LG

After spending the last several weeks privately trashing Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, Republicans have decided to escalate things by airing their grievances about their nominee for Virginia's governorship in public.

Earle-Sears' latest travails began unfolding on Thursday, when the Virginia Scope's Brandon Jarvis tweeted that she'd filled her website's new issues page with stock photos that still included watermarks. This embarrassing but otherwise minor story caught the attention of Chris LaCivita, who co-managed Trump's 2024 campaign and remains a powerful force in Republican politics.

"Amateurs ….," LaCivita sniped in a one-word tweet that both ensured that Earle-Sears' flub would receive more attention and also spoke volumes about the disdain so many members of Trump's inner circle hold for her.

While Earle-Sears chaired a pro-Trump group called Black Americans to Re-elect the President in 2020, she infuriated the MAGA brigades after the GOP's disappointing performance in the 2022 midterms when she suggested it was time for him to step aside.

"What we saw was, even though he wasn't on the ballot, he was, because he stepped in and endorsed candidates," Earle-Sears told the Washington Post. "And yet, it turns out that those he did not endorse on the same ticket did better than the ones he did endorse. That gives you a clue that the voters want to move on. And a true leader knows when they have become a liability to the mission."

While Earle-Sears was once again an ardent Trump supporter during the 2024 campaign, Jarvis writes that Trump's network hasn't forgiven her for her momentary bout of disloyalty. LaCivita's social media offensive, he says, "implies if he is not happy with you, then Trump-world is not happy with you."

LaCivita is far from the only Republican who has it out for Earle-Sears as she seeks to replace GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

Puck's Peter Hamby wrote earlier this month that the lieutenant governor has "left a Rappahannock-sized wake of disgruntled ex-staffers behind her." One unnamed strategist characterized Earle-Sears as "[b]izarre and tone-deaf," while Hamby himself called her "a strange and dreary campaigner."

Earle-Sears has also drawn unfavorable attention for her response—or lack thereof—to a different conflict that's roiled the Virginia GOP.

Last month, Youngkin sought to pressure conservative radio host John Reid to end his campaign for lieutenant governor after learning about sexually explicit online posts shared by an account allegedly tied to Reid. Reid, who called the effort "a coup against a gay man whom they didn't want to be their nominee but didn't have the guts to run against," denied the account was his and refused to drop out of the race to replace Earle-Sears.

Morning Digest: GOP governor calls on GOP candidate for lieutenant governor to drop out

Reid successfully rallied the party's base against Youngkin, including Republicans who've otherwise expressed hostility to gay rights. Republican National Committee member Patti Lyman spoke for many when she told the Post that, while she was "completely opposed to the entire LGBT agenda," she appreciated Reid's "spine of steel that he has exhibited through this disgraceful onslaught from the governor."

But Earle-Sears, who has made her continuing opposition to same-sex marriage well-known, did her best to avoid addressing the imbroglio. The lieutenant governor skipped a pre-planned "unity rally" with fellow Republicans last month and instead threw out the first pitch at a minor league game featuring the Richmond Flying Squirrels—though Hamby observed that "the ball didn't even make it to the plate."

Earle-Sears finally ended her week of silence about Reid by saying, "It is his race and his decision alone to move forward. We all have our own race to run." Bill Bolling, a Republican who served as lieutenant governor more than a decade ago, reacted with incredulity, saying, "I'm not really sure what this statement means."

The ongoing GOP infighting comes ahead of a difficult year for the party in a state that Trump lost three times. The Trump administration's massive cuts to the federal workforce have hit Virginia especially hard, though Earle-Sears hasn't been especially sympathetic to her newly unemployed constituents.

"How many here have ever lost a job?" Earle-Sears told a March gathering in a clip first shared by Meidas Touch. "Oh, you mean it's not unusual? It happens to everybody all the time? Okay." The lieutenant governor continued, "The media is making it out to be this huge, huge thing. And I don't understand why."

Earle-Sears also finished March on the wrong side of an imposing $11 million to $4.4 million cash-on-hand deficit against Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a former congresswoman with a history of winning tough races.

It's possible the financial picture could change because Virginia, unlike most states, doesn't place limits on campaign contributions in state races. Wealthy donors, though, may be reluctant to give massive amounts of money to the "amateurs" running Earle-Sears' campaign.

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Another huge Dem flip

Senate

MN-Sen

Former state Senate Majority Leader Melisa Lopez Franzen announced Friday that she was dropping out of the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. Lopez Franzen struggled to gain traction against Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Rep. Angie Craig, who are now the only prominent Minnesota Democrats running for this open seat.

WV-Sen

West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who's occasionally been the subject of primary talk, just earned an endorsement from Donald Trump, who praised her support for "BEAUTIFUL, CLEAN COAL for ALL Americans."

Former Del. Derrick Evans, who served three months in prison for his participation in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, had announced a challenge to Capito in November, calling the senator a "RINO." Last year, Evans ran against Republican Rep. Carol Miller, who turned him aside by a 62-37 margin—a comfortable victory but also an unimpressive showing for an incumbent.

Governors

ME-Gov

Former state House Speaker Hannah Pingree has resigned from her post as a top advisor to Gov. Janet Mills, a move that the Bangor Daily News characterizes as a step toward launching a campaign for Maine's open governorship.

Pingree has been frequently mentioned as a potential Democratic candidate to succeed the term-limited Mills, though she's never addressed her intentions publicly. After announcing her decision to step down from her current job, she would only say that she's "exploring how to continue to focus on the future," according to the Portland Press Herald.

Two other notable Democrats are already running, businessman Angus King III and Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, while a third, former state Senate President Troy Jackson, has formed an exploratory committee.

Morning Digest, sponsored by Ripple on Impact: First major Democrat joins race for Maine's open governorship

The GOP field has been slower to take shape, though state Sen. James Libby just filed paperwork ahead of a possible bid. He has not, however, commented about his plans. (Libby does not appear to be related to state Rep. Laurel Libby, another potential Republican candidate.) The only notable Republican running so far is attorney Bobby Charles, a frequent guest on Fox News.

OH-Gov

Saying "I am simply not that important," Attorney General Dave Yost abandoned his doomed bid to serve as Ohio's next governor on Friday, leaving businessman Vivek Ramaswamy as the only major Republican aspirant vying to succeed term-limited Gov. Mike DeWine.

Yost was first out of the gate in announcing his intention to seek the GOP nomination soon after last year's elections, and he seemingly received a boon when a top rival, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, was tapped by DeWine to replace JD Vance in the Senate rather than run for governor himself.

However, Yost was quickly overtaken by Ramaswamy, whose higher profile and closeness to Donald Trump made him the instant frontrunner when he launched his campaign in late February. The cake was fully baked just hours later when Trump gave his backing to Ramaswamy, though the icing was applied just over a week ago when the state Republican Party endorsed Ramaswamy over DeWine's objections.

Yost, who is also termed out, tried to bail by angling for a job in the Trump administration, but he balked when he was offered the ambassadorship to Cyprus. While Yost could have spent the next four years enjoying mild Mediterranean weather and feasting on Cypriot cuisine, he instead chose to stay home and issue a statement acknowledging his impossible predicament.

"It is also apparent that a steep climb to the nomination for governor has become a vertical cliff," he wrote. "I do not wish to divide my political party or my state with a quixotic battle over the small differences between my vision and that of my opponent. I am simply not that important."

There's still a chance Ramaswamy could face a challenge from Husted's successor as lieutenant governor, Jim Tressel. However, an internal poll released by Ramaswamy's campaign last month showed him crushing Tressel 77-17 in a hypothetical matchup.