Campaign finance numbers are revealing the shape of Virginia politics heading into this year's election for governor. The latest disclosures show Democrat Abigail Spanberger has more than twice as much cash on hand heading into the fall election season.
When a racist sign appeared at an Arlington County School Board meeting, Republicans were hopeful this might be their moment to break through. Their candidate for governor, Winsome Earle-Sears, announced that the billionaire co-founder of Black Entertainment Television had donated half a million dollars to her campaign for governor. Now, the latest campaign finance numbers show Republicans are struggling.
"The Sears campaign did say that with this episode about this lady's sign in Arlington and the backlash over that, that that's helped them," says J. Miles Coleman at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. "But the proof is really in the pudding here."
The pudding is that Democrat Abigail Spanberger raised almost three times as much money and has more than twice as much cash on hand.
"Some of the whispering campaign out there, quite frankly, among Republicans is that the top of the ticket has very little chance of winning and therefore they need to put their money down ticket, focusing particularly on the attorney general’s race," says Mark Rozell, dean of the Schar School at George Mason University.
Incumbent Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares is the only statewide candidate running for reelection, and he's got almost twice as much cash on hand as his challenger, Democrat Jay Jones. However, Jones outraised Miyares in the latest round of campaign finance disclosures.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
