2025's Willie Horton ad

In a new television ad, Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears criticizes her opponent, Democrat Abigail Spanberger, for saying "our LGBTQ neighbors have the same legal rights as everyone else."

The ad targets Spanberger's vote for the Equality Act, federal legislation that would have prohibited "discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity." The bill passed the House in 2019 with support from all Democrats and eight Republicans, but was never approved by the Senate.

Earle-Sears' ad claims that Spanberger's support for the Equality Act means she believes Richard Cox, a convicted sex offender, "has a right to undress next to young girls." This is false.

Cox was first convicted in Virginia for exposing himself to children in 1992 and was required to register as a sex offender for life. In subsequent years, Cox was convicted of possessing child pornography, probation violations, and failure to register as a sex offender. (In all of the legal documents associated with these cases, Cox is identified as a man.)

As a sex offender, Cox is prohibited "from loitering within 100 feet of the premises of any place he knows or has reason to know is a primary, secondary, or high school." In 2024, Cox visited Washington Liberty High School and engaged in indecent exposure in front of a mother and her daughter in a swimming pool locker room. Cox has been charged with entering school property as a sex offender, indecent exposure, and other crimes.

Cox now claims to be a trans woman, but that is completely irrelevant to the current charges. Entering school property as a sex offender and indecent exposure are illegal regardless of gender identity. The ad's claim that Spanberger's vote for the Equality Act means she supports criminals like Cox would make the creators of the infamous Willie Horton ad blush.

Earle-Sears also repeatedly linked Spanberger to Cox on her Facebook page. "Registered sex offender Richard Cox—a grown man—repeatedly prowled into girls’ locker rooms and exposed himself to children. Again. And again," Earle-Sears wrote. "Abigail Spanberger voted to give him the right to be there." That is a lie.

Spanberger's views on LGBTQ rights are widely shared among the American public. A 2024 poll by PRRI found that 75% of Americans, including 62% of Republicans, "support policies that protect LGBTQ Americans from discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodation." That is the core of the Equality Act.

It is Earle-Sears' opinions on LGBTQ people that are far outside of the mainstream.

Earle-Sears’ extremist views

After being elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 2001, Earle-Sears ran unsuccessfully for Virginia’s third congressional district in 2004. During that campaign, Earle-Sears said in a candidate survey sponsored by an anti-LGBTQ advocacy group that homosexuality was an “immoral lifestyle choice” and that she did not support workplace protections for LGBTQ people. Earle-Sears’s campaign did not respond to questions from the Virginia Mercury about whether her survey answers reflect her current positions.

In a 2004 op-ed, Earle-Sears wrote that “our society has gone immeasurably beyond almost all standards in accommodating the homosexual community over the last couple of decades.” She criticized her opponent, who was also Black, for equating the civil rights movement with the fight for LGBTQ equality, saying he was “lumping together what is a civil rights movement based on race with gay marriage, which is an issue of lifestyle.”

More recently, in 2022, Earle-Sears refused to answer whether she would support reimposing a ban on same-sex marriage. “When it comes to civil unions, I’m all for that,” she said, notably stopping short of supporting same-sex marriage.

In March 2024, Virginia’s legislature passed a bill prohibiting officials in the state from denying marriage licenses based on race, gender, or sex. While Earle-Sears was constitutionally required to sign the bill as Lieutenant Governor, she added a handwritten note to her signature: “I remain morally opposed to the content of HB 174 as passed by the General Assembly.”

During her gubernatorial campaign, Earle-Sears has not moderated her stances on LGBTQ issues. She has proudly accepted endorsements from four Virginia clergymen who have described LGBTQ people as “sinful” and compared gay people to pedophiles. She also gave commencement speeches at two Christian schools that call homosexuality “sinful” and “obscene.” One of the schools, Regent University, where Earle-Sears received a master’s degree, was founded by evangelical preacher Pat Robertson, who once blamed 9/11 on “abortionists, feminists, gays, and lesbians.”

The corporate cash behind the attack ad

Earle-Sears’ campaign is bankrolled, directly and indirectly, by several major companies.

Since September 2024, when Earle-Sears launched her campaign, she has received a total of $260,000 from Dominion Energy. On April 23, Altria donated $25,000 to Earle-Sears.

Earle-Sears has also received significant support from the Republican Governors Association (RGA). On June 18, the RGA Right Direction PAC donated $500,000 to Earle-Sears’ campaign. On June 20, the RGA also released a video attacking Spanberger for her views on immigration.

The RGA has received millions from major corporations. Since September 2024, the RGA has received $2,035,000 in donations from Comcast, $350,000 from Microsoft, $325,000 from Amazon, and $305,000 from Google. Other major corporations that have made large contributions to the RGA since September 2024 include Uber ($101,000), Charter Communications ($187,500), Pfizer ($297,500), Meta ($250,000), AT&T ($280,000), Starbucks ($100,000), CVS ($250,000), DoorDash ($252,500), Deloitte ($250,000), Coca-Cola ($250,000), Chipotle ($50,000), and Nike ($25,000).