by Charlotte Rene Woods, Virginia Mercury
August 15, 2025

Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears dropped by an American Legion office in Midlothian on Thursday, a stop on her “Operation Defend and Deliver” campaign event series.

She and U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Westmoreland, emphasized their aim to elevate the lieutenant governor to the executive mansion next year and flip the House of Delegates to their party’s control.

Youngkin touts Va.’s $4.7 billion cash cushion, downplays Medicaid, federal workforce changes

Earle-Sears’ speech was partially a victory lap touting Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration and a projected $4.7 billion cash cushion for next year that the governor announced Thursday. It was also an echo of Youngkin’s winning 2021 campaign themes, like parental oversight concerning their children’s education and support for law enforcement.

“Parents still matter!” she said enthusiastically as the crowd of about 100 cheered. 

Earle-Sears lambasted her democratic opponent, former congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, and alleged that Spanberger “voted to defund the police and end qualified immunity.”

Spanberger — who  scolded other congressional Democrats in 2020 for using the controversial “defund the police” phrasing and said it was partially why her party lost seats in the 2022 elections — has a background working for the Central Intelligence Agency and routinely expressed support for law enforcement. She also proposed a bill in 2021 to “study proactive strategies and best practices to ensure the inclusion of community satisfaction and trust in policing performance measurement,” which was never brought up for a vote. 

When Earle-Sears noted how Spanberger received a donation from someone the Republican National Committee says is a member of the Communist Party of China, several in the audience gasped. 

“Abigail — give it back!” Earle-Sears said. 

The donor, Pin Ni, donated $50,000 to Spanberger’s campaign. Ni has also given nearly $70,000 to Republicans between the RNC and National Republican Campaign Committee in recent years, Virginia Scope reported. 

Money was another talking point during the Earle-Sears event, framed as both a celebration of Virginia’s current budget surplus and a call for more campaign cash for Earle-Sears and Republicans running in the House of Delegates. 

“I need your help,” she said. “We don’t work on assumptions.”

The candidates’ latest campaign finance reports, released in July, showed Earle-Sears raised $5.9 million from donors in the second quarter of this year and has amassed $11.6 million total since last fall. Spanberger raised $10.7 million over the second quarter and has added $27 million to her campaign coffers in total since November 2023. 

After months of silence about her running mate Republican John Reid — who was embroiled in a scandal over sexually explicit photos on a social media site and was asked to drop out of the lieutenant governor race by Youngkin — Earle-Sears acknowledged him as her would-be successor. 

As president of the state Senate, lieutenant governors are responsible to cast tie-breaking votes — an important responsibility, she stressed. 

Earle-Sears used the moment to take a jab at Reid’s opponent, Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, who she critiqued for supporting the term “birthing people” in reproductive health legislation. While not as common as cisgender women, nonbinary or transgender people with uteruses have become pregnant and use of the term is meant to be inclusive. 

Connecting legislative battles over transgender students’ access to bathrooms and sports teams to parental authority within public schools, Earle-Sears also accused members of the Democratic party of “erasing women.”

Earle-Sears wrote that she was “morally opposed” to an in-progress effort to enshrine reproductive rights like abortion, contraception and fertility treatment access in the state’s constitution when signing the legislation earlier this year.

Open letter to Earle-Sears reflects Va. voters’ shifting sentiments on reproductive health care

She also used her tie-breaking power to vote against a right-to-contraception bill that ultimately advanced due to a re-vote before facing Youngkin’s veto. Some Republicans signed onto a bipartisan letter this summer to tell Earle-Sears they would not vote for her because of their support for reproductive rights. 

Aside from rallying the crowd to support her party and taking jabs at Democrats, Earle-Sears also laid out goals she would like to achieve if elected governor. 

She said she planned to support legislation that would prevent the first $20,000 of law enforcement officers’ salaries from being taxed. 

“We need them and we don’t have enough of them,” she said. 

Reiterating an early campaign message from this past winter, Earle-Sears stressed her commitment to protecting Virginia’s right-to-work law. Right-to-work laws make it unlawful to deny employment based on union membership or refusal to join a union. Earle-Sears had supported a now-failed attempt to constitutionally enshrine the law earlier this year. 

Meanwhile, health care advocates rallied within earshot of Thursday’s campaign event, calling out Wittman’s and Earle-Sears’ support for the President Donald Trump-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act that was signed into law last month.

A crowd of about 20 protesters gathered in a cul-de-sac outside of the American Legion Thursday. Earle-Sears called their presence “a wonderful thing” and said “We must ensure that continues in America.”

“It’s always fascinating to me that we can speak our minds,” Earle-Sears told her crowd of supporters inside about the protesters outside. 

Despite inter-party disagreements, himself included, Wittman voted this summer for the reconciliation bill that contains forthcoming changes to Medicaid and hospital funding mechanisms. He framed the law that Trump signed on July 4 as a way to ensure Medicaid sticks around for the long haul. 

The changes entail additional verification processes for recipients to prove they’re meeting work or educational requirements that occupy at least 80 hours a month. Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services director Cheryl Roberts told state lawmakers this summer that the changes will be challenging for localities and the Department of Social Services to process. 

Advocates, including some gathered outside of the Earle-Sears campaign event, have cautioned that thousands of Virginians could fall through the cracks in the new re-verification process and lose their health care. 

Chris Yates, a Bellevue resident who attended the protest, said Virginia’s low-income or already-struggling populations are going to be impacted by the changes first. 

“It’s designed that way,” he said. 

But Youngkin stressed Thursday morning that Virginians’ health care wouldn’t be impacted just because of the changes, a stance echoed by Earle-Sears and Wittman later in the day. 

“Changes to Medicaid are not ‘taking coverage away from anyone,’” Youngkin said during a presentation to state lawmakers in preparation for next year’s budget process. “No Virginians are losing their Medicaid coverage.”

Virginia lawmakers, health officials brace for Medicaid changes

While the changes won’t take effect until after next year’s congressional midterms, Yates has his eye on Wittman and Earle-Sears. 

Sean Sublette, a former Richmond Times-Dispatch meteorologist and recently-announced Democratic challenger to Wittman, also attended the rally. 

Sublette said he feels like Wittman’s vote was “simply to satisfy Trump and Speaker (Mike) Johnson” and said that he’s concerned about the potential for hospitals trimming services or closing and patients having to travel further for care. 

While Wittman and Sublette each have more than a year to hit the ground for their own campaigns, the current congressman is stumping for Republicans in this year’s House and gubernatorial elections. 

Early voting is set to begin on Sep. 19, Wittman reminded the crowd, and he encouraged Republicans to vote early and tell at least 50 people they know to do the same.

With Democrats running candidates in all 100 of the House of Delegates seats this year, Wittman said “they’re all-in, we need to be all-in.” 

Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Samantha Willis for questions: info@virginiamercury.com.

The post In Chesterfield, Earle-Sears slams Spanberger, revives Youngkin’s winning campaign slogans appeared first on virginiamercury.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Right

This content primarily presents the perspective of Republican candidate Winsome Earle-Sears and her campaign, highlighting conservative priorities such as support for law enforcement, parental oversight in education, opposition to certain reproductive rights expansions, and right-to-work laws. It also includes criticism of Democratic opponents and emphasizes Republican campaign efforts. While the article includes some context and opposing viewpoints, the focus on Republican messaging and framing of issues aligns it with a center-right political bias.

by Markus Schmidt, Virginia Mercury
August 14, 2025

When  Savannah Higgins walked through the doors of the Old Dominion Job Corps Center in Monroe back in 2010, she was 19, directionless, and unsure of how to turn her ambition into reality.

Raised in northern Virginia by a single mother while her father was incarcerated for most of her childhood, Higgins had graduated high school but was stuck — “feeling stagnant,” she recalls — without the money, guidance, or stability to take her next step.

What she found at Job Corps was more than a career training program. It was housing, meals, structure, and a support network — the basics she needed to focus on learning skills and rebuilding her confidence.

“Job Corps bridged the gap between high school and the next chapters of my life,” she said. “This program doesn’t just teach trades; it saves lives by meeting people where they are, providing stability, and instilling the belief that they can succeed.”

Fifteen years later, Higgins is a licensed social worker with a doctorate, a U.S. Army veteran, and an adjunct professor at three universities. She’s also a wife and mother of two.

And now, as the U.S. Department of Labor presses forward with plans to pause operations at contractor-run Job Corps centers nationwide — including Old Dominion and Blue Ridge in Virginia — she’s worried the same lifeline that helped her could be ripped away for thousands of young people.

“Closing the doors will close doors on countless opportunities for individuals to gain the tools and resources they need to turn their lives around,” Higgins said.

On May 29, the Department of Labor (DOL) verbally notified all Job Corps contractors that operations at 99 centers across the country would end immediately “for convenience.” Written orders followed within hours, instructing operators to start dismissing students by June 2 and fully close by June 6.

The move would have displaced roughly 35,000 students nationwide — about one in five of them homeless or housing insecure — along with thousands of employees.

The DOL framed the decision as a “phased pause” to allow an “orderly transition,” citing a $140 million program deficit in 2024 and a projected $213 million deficit in 2025. An internal review, officials said, had raised concerns about safety incidents, low graduation rates and high costs.

“Job Corps was created to help young adults build a pathway to a better life,” Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in the announcement. “However, a startling number of serious incident reports and our in-depth fiscal analysis reveal the program is no longer achieving the intended outcomes students deserve.”

The department pointed to 2023 metrics showing an average graduation rate of 38.6% and an average annual cost of over $80,000 per student. Chavez-DeRemer said the administration remains committed to helping affected students connect with other education and employment opportunities.

The closures haven’t happened — yet. On June 3, a federal judge granted a Temporary Restraining Order halting the DOL’s action.

Later in June, the court issued a national preliminary injunction keeping the centers open while lawsuits proceed. More than 20 state attorneys general filed briefs supporting the challenge, arguing the closures would cause “devastating harm” to vulnerable youth and local economies. Members of Virginia’s congressional delegation are also weighing in.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Newport News, chair of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, said the abruptness of the DOL’s decision raised serious legal and ethical concerns.

“The decision was made abruptly without notice and put a lot of people kind of in a lurch,” Scott said in an interview with The Mercury shortly before he hosted a workforce community forum in his district earlier this week.

“Many people participating in Job Corps actually live on campus,” Scott said. “So when you close the campus, you really put them out on the street.”

Scott noted that Job Corps is funded by law and that the administration has a legal duty to operate it.

“These are opportunities people have been given,” he said. “To qualify for Job Corps, you have to be out of school, not working. You’re given an opportunity to develop skills for high-demand jobs. To take that away overnight makes no sense.”

Launched in 1964 as part of then-President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty campaign, the Job Corps program was created under the Economic Opportunity Act to provide free education and vocational training to disadvantaged young Americans.

Designed as a residential program modeled partly after the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s, it aimed to tackle both youth unemployment and skills shortages in the economy.

Over the decades, Job Corps has evolved to meet shifting workforce demands, adding training in fields like health care, information technology, and advanced manufacturing while maintaining its original mission of lifting young people out of poverty through hands-on skills training and supportive services.

Virginia’s three Job Corps facilities — Old Dominion in Monroe, Blue Ridge near Marion, and Flatwoods Civilian Conservation Center in Coeburn — collectively serve hundreds of students each year. Between July and April, Old Dominion and Blue Ridge enrolled 308 students.

Together, they house about 163 at a time, many of them without stable housing or family support. Each center specializes in training tied to regional job markets, from construction and manufacturing to health care and conservation work.

The pause order immediately threatened two of those facilities — Old Dominion and Blue Ridge — which fall under the contractor-run category targeted by the DOL. Flatwoods, run by the U.S. Forest Service, remains unaffected.

For rural communities like Amherst County and Smyth County, these centers are more than education hubs. They pump an average of $10 million a year into their local economies, employing about 150 people each, and contracting with dozens of local vendors. Graduates contribute millions more through their increased earning potential.

Scott said shutting down centers wouldn’t just hurt students — it would ripple through local economies.

“In the communities where they exist, you’ve got a lot of people not working who are on the way to having high-demand jobs where they can contribute to the economy,” he said. “You have employers who rely on Job Corps to fill vacancies that are otherwise hard to fill.”

U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both Virginia Democrats, blasted the administration’s move as “incredibly short-sighted.”

“For decades, the Job Corps program has transformed lives in Virginia and across the country by helping to equip young people with the skills and resources they need to succeed,” Warner said in a statement in May. “We should be investing more in opportunities that lift up our young people, strengthen our workforce, and have a tremendous economic impact in the commonwealth.”

Kaine called Job Corps “a lifeline” for at-risk youth. “Instead of working to further invest in the program, the Labor Department has made the shameful choice to give up on thousands of vulnerable young Americans,” he said.

Nationwide, Job Corps trains tens of thousands of young adults annually in more than 100 trades across 10 industries — from welding and construction to nursing and homeland security.

Over 80% of graduates find employment within six months, according to federal data.

Scott said that the pipeline is critical for Virginia industries already struggling to find qualified workers. In Hampton Roads, for example, shipbuilding and repair companies face chronic shortages. “Job Corps is very helpful in providing employees that can help in high-demand areas,” he said.

Without it, Scott warned, “you’re not just hurting the individuals. You’re hurting businesses that can’t meet their work requirements.”

The DOL’s Transparency Report, however, painted a grim picture: high per-student costs, low graduation rates, and more than 14,900 “serious incident” reports in 2023, including 372 sexual assaults, 1,764 acts of violence, and 2,702 drug use cases.

Supporters acknowledge the program isn’t perfect but say its flaws should be addressed through reform, not elimination. Warner and Kaine both said fiscal and safety concerns “need to be addressed” — but argued the answer isn’t closing doors on those who have nowhere else to go.

Scott echoed that sentiment. “If you’re going to phase out a program, you do it in a way that people aren’t harmed,” he said. “This was just an order to shut down without any consideration of the consequences.”

With the injunction in place, Job Corps centers remain open — for now. But the reprieve is temporary, and the legal battle could drag on for months.

Scott said Congress already acted to protect the program by funding it in the current appropriations bill. “That’s the law of the land,” he said. If the Trump administration wants to rescind the money, “there’s a process for that, and I can pretty much guarantee it wouldn’t pass. There’s too much bipartisan support.”

The Mercury has reached out to Republican members of Virginia’s congressional delegation — U.S. Reps. Ben Cline, John McGuire, and Morgan Griffith — for comment on the Job Corps pause but has not received a response.

Supporters point to letters signed by hundreds of lawmakers from both parties in June urging the administration to reverse course. One, led by Reps. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., described Job Corps as a program that turns “homeless youth into the welders, electricians, nurses, and mechanics of the future.”

For Higgins, the numbers and policy debates matter less than the people she knows will be left behind. She remembers arriving at Old Dominion and feeling, for the first time in years, that her life was on a track.

“You can’t expect anyone to better their situation, let alone help others, when they don’t have their basic needs met,” she said, referencing the “Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs” pyramid taught in social work.

“At the very bottom are the basic necessities to survive with self-actualization at the top where we are free to become the most complete and authentic versions of ourselves. Once you have those basic needs met, it’s a bit easier to work on other things like friendships, education, or careers.”

Higgins said the friends she made through the program remain some of her closest allies. Many, like her, have gone on to careers and families they never imagined before Job Corps.

“Without Job Corps, I might have never joined the military, pursued higher education, or found the career I have today,” she said. “The ripple effect of that loss would be felt for generations, as fewer people are given the stability, skills, and confidence to reach their full potential.”

As the legal case moves ahead, Virginia Career Works and other local partners are working with students to prepare for the possibility of disruption — finding temporary housing, arranging transportation and helping with job placement.

But for now, students at Old Dominion and Blue Ridge are still in class, still living on campus and still hoping the fight in Washington will keep their futures intact.

Scott said that hope is well-placed — but warned the threat hasn’t passed.

“The injunction is good news, but it’s temporary,” he said. “The ultimate decision will be in court, and Congress needs to keep making clear this program is here to stay.”

Higgins is holding on to that same hope, even as she fears for those still searching for the sense of purpose she once found in Monroe.

“The proposed closure of Job Corps centers would be devastating,” she said.

Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Samantha Willis for questions: info@virginiamercury.com.

The post ‘It saves lives’: Virginia Job Corps centers face uncertain future in national pause appeared first on virginiamercury.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This content presents a generally sympathetic view toward social programs aimed at disadvantaged youth, emphasizing the human and economic costs of cutting funding to the Job Corps centers. It highlights concerns raised by Democratic politicians and frames the Department of Labor’s decision as abrupt and harmful, which aligns with a center-left perspective that values social safety nets and government intervention to support vulnerable populations. However, it also includes factual information about program challenges and fiscal concerns, maintaining a balanced tone without overt partisan rhetoric.

SUMMARY: Metro Transit Police Officer Cassie Fields, with nearly a decade of service, is recognized for using her photographic memory to solve crimes. Known as a “bolo specialist,” she memorizes faces from photos and identifies suspects while patrolling. Since 2018, after a mentor introduced her to this skill, she has helped solve thousands of cases, including rape, homicide, robbery, and gun charges, sometimes assisting U.S. Marshals. Officer Fields once stopped eight suspects in one day. Despite advanced technology in the Metro system, she relies on mental images to catch criminals, emphasizing respect while enforcing the law.

A Metro transit police officer is being recognized for her hard work closing cases, using her photographic memory. News4’s Adam Tuss reports.
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