Winsome Earle-Sears’ campaign defends Trump administration’s cuts to Virginia federal jobs
Virginia is projected to lose tens of thousands of jobs this year, fueled by President Donald Trump’s cuts to government employment and contracting.
As President Donald Trump’s administration slashes the federal workforce and cancels government contracts, Virginia is expected to lose 32,000 total jobs in 2025, according to an analysis by the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia. Republican gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears and her campaign continue to defend the administration’s actions.
About 10% of Virginia residents are employed by the federal government, with about 320,000 working in civilian federal jobs. Many more rely on jobs funded by federal contracts and research grants. Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency has attempted to lay off tens of thousands of federal employees; Trump has ordered the Department of Education and other federal agencies dismantled; and the administration has announced large-scale workforce reductions across all agencies.
Republican strategists are warning that voter anger over these cuts could make it impossible for Earle-Sears, Virginia’s current lieutenant governor, to win the open governor’s race this November, Axios reported on June 7. “Northern Virginia is filled with people who suffered the consequences of the DOGE cuts, and it’s hard to see them being sympathetic to a Republican candidate who supports the DOGE cuts,” GOP pollster Whit Ayres told the outlet.
The Earle-Sears campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story. Campaign spokesperson Peyton Vogel told Axios: “The idea that responsible efforts to rein in spending will hurt Republicans is off-base. Voters elected a Republican majority to Congress on the promise of fiscal sanity, not business as usual in D.C., and now that majority is making good on those promises.”
In March, Earle-Sears dismissed Trump’s DOGE’s workforce cuts. In a recording released by the progressive Meidas Touch Network, the candidate asked an audience: “How many here has ever lost a job? Oh, you mean it’s not unusual? It happens to everybody all the time? OK. And the media is making it out to be this huge, huge thing. And I don’t understand why.”
“My opponent thinks thousands of Virginians being fired from their jobs isn’t a big deal. That’s not leadership,” Democratic nominee and former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger responded on X. “Virginians deserve a Governor who will always stand up for Virginia jobs, no matter who is in the White House.”
While Vogel is correct that voters outside of Virginia did elect a narrow Republican majority in Congress, the voters Earle-Sears needs to win in the commonwealth did not.. In the 2024 election, as Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris won a majority in the state, its voters reelected Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine 54.4%-45.4% and elected a House delegation of six Democratic representatives and five Republicans. Statewide, 2,274,922 voters cast their votes for a Democratic House nominee, while 2,108,450 chose a Republican.
A May Pantheon Insight/HarrisX poll for the conservative group Virginia FREE found 53% of Virginians oppose DOGE’s federal workforce cuts.
According to Axios, a recent private poll taken on behalf of a current Republican statewide candidate, whom Axios did not name, found 39% of Virginia voters have a favorable opinion of DOGE.
Arianna Nahim contributed additional reporting to this story.
