{"id":239396,"date":"2025-09-19T17:08:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T17:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/239396\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T17:08:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T17:08:20","slug":"ramaswamy-to-stump-with-earle-sears-in-virginia-as-spanberger-blasts-doge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/239396\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramaswamy to stump with Earle-Sears in Virginia as Spanberger blasts DOGE"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHESTERFIELD, Va. (AP) \u2014 With President Donald Trump<\/a> noticeably absent from Virginia\u2019s race for governor, Republican Winsome Earle-Sears<\/a> is turning to a prominent Trump ally to help energize supporters.<\/p>\n

Democrats may be more excited than Republicans to welcome the special guest.<\/p>\n

Earle-Sears will host a Friday night rally featuring Vivek Ramaswamy, a former Republican presidential candidate who is now running for Ohio governor<\/a>. But it is Ramaswamy\u2019s short-lived tenure<\/a> as co-leader of Trump\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency that has Democrats fired up in a state that was disproportionately impacted by the department\u2019s deep cuts to the federal workforce.<\/p>\n

Democratic candidate for governor, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, called on Earle-Sears to cancel the event in light of Ramaswamy\u2019s role as \u201cone of the chief architects of the DOGE effort,\u201d which, the Democrat noted, \u201chas led to thousands upon thousands of Virginians losing their jobs.\u201d <\/p>\n

Earle-Sears\u2019 team says that she\u2019s excited to welcome Ramaswamy to the event in suburban Richmond, noting that he emerged as a political powerhouse in Republican politics during the 2024 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

Perhaps no election in 2025 or 2026 will test the political impact of Trump\u2019s sweeping campaign to slash the federal workforce more than the Virginia governor\u2019s race. The DOGE fight sparked nationwide protests, dozens of lawsuits and left roughly a quarter of a million Americans without jobs. <\/p>\n

Many were in Virginia, where federal jobs account for an roughly 5% of the state\u2019s workforce<\/a>. Specifically, Virginia will lose an estimated 32,000 jobs this year because of federal government cuts, according to the University of Virginia\u2019s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service.<\/p>\n

Ramaswamy\u2019s appearance also highlights Trump\u2019s absence in the high-profile election so far. <\/p>\n

Earle-Sears is widely considered a fervent follower of Trump\u2019s MAGA movement, and yet the Republican president has not crossed the Potomac River to campaign with her, or publicly committed to doing so. Republican operatives believe the president\u2019s absence is tied to his fear of backing a candidate who may be on track to lose in November. <\/p>\n

Earle-Sears\u2019 campaign reiterated ahead of the rally that she would welcome Trump to the state to campaign on her behalf. The White House is a short drive to the northern Virginia border. <\/p>\n

Still, Democrats hope that Friday\u2019s focus will be on Ramaswamy\u2019s connection to DOGE.<\/p>\n

A mobile billboard truck highlighting the issue will circle the event and the Virginia Capitol Complex, according to the state Democratic Party. The billboard will read, \u201cWinsome Earle-Sears puts DOGE and Trump before Virginia.\u201d <\/p>\n

Earle-Sears\u2019 team noted that Ramaswamy\u2019s tenure with DOGE was incredibly brief. <\/p>\n

Indeed, while Trump initially named Ramaswamy a co-leader of the department, he left the operation after less than two months to focus on a bid for Ohio governor. Tech titan Elon Musk ultimately emerged as the face of Trump\u2019s cost-cutting operation.<\/p>\n

At the time, Anna Kelly, a spokesperson for the commission, said that Ramaswamy \u201c played a critical role<\/a> in helping us create DOGE.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201dWe thank him immensely for his contributions over the last two months and expect him to play a vital role in making America great again,\u201d she said on the day of Trump\u2019s inauguration.<\/p>\n

Ramaswamy\u2019s appearance, Spanberger said, is evidence that Earle-Sears \u201cwon\u2019t defend Virginians who are losing their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf she can\u2019t even do that now, Virginians certainly shouldn\u2019t expect her to stand up for them as governor,\u201d Spanberger said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHESTERFIELD, Va. (AP) \u2014 With President Donald Trump noticeably absent from Virginia\u2019s race for governor, Republican Winsome Earle-Sears…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":239397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[128152,26563,17420,69,90,66,2055,325,63,50,1574,1573,80,16972,89,322,67,132,68,906,90724],"class_list":{"0":"post-239396","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-abigail-spanberger","10":"tag-anna-kelly","11":"tag-department-of-government-efficiency","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-elections","14":"tag-elon-musk","15":"tag-government-and-politics","16":"tag-government-budgets","17":"tag-jobs-and-careers","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-oh-state-wire","20":"tag-ohio","21":"tag-politics","22":"tag-richmond","23":"tag-u-s-democratic-party","24":"tag-u-s-republican-party","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-unitedstates","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-virginia","29":"tag-vivek-ramaswamy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115232067082019906","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}