“Blame Will Be Laid at Republicans”: Threats of DOGE 2.0 & GOP Shutdown Already Hurting Winsome Sears

"Blame Will Be Laid at Republicans": Threats of DOGE 2.0 & GOP Shutdown Already Hurting Winsome Sears

The reviews are already in, and it's clear that Winsome Sears and Republicans are going to shoulder the blame from Virginia voters as the GOP shutdown continues and Donald Trump threatens to fire more Virginians.

In fact, Sears refused to tell Donald Trump not to fire more Virginians when asked directly multiple times and has a long record of backing his job-killing agenda.

Here's what Republicans, conservatives, political analysts and other reporters are saying about how Winsome Sears is already facing intense backlash:

• Conservative radio host Larry O'Connor: "If there is a government shutdown, I don't think that's good politically for Winsome Sears. It gives Abigail Spanberger a major, major issue going into Election Day."

• Arlington County GOP Chair Matthew Hurtt: "I do think that blame will be laid at Republicans' feet, no matter what. It feels like the layoffs are exclusively going to Democrats, who were going to be voting for Spanberger anyway," adding that "a prolonged government shutdown disproportionately benefits Abigail Spanberger in Northern Virginia."

• Virginia elections analyst Sam Shirazi: "Don't think average voter will link it to Dems. It could be a very scary October for Virginia GOP if DOGE 2.0 comes."

• Politico Nightly: "It's become almost impossible for Earle-Sears to turn the shutdown into a political winner …"

• Semafor reporter Dave Weigel: "The Virginia Dem messaging writes itself."

• Virginia political columnist Bob Lewis: "The timing of this crisis adds more difficulty for Earle-Sears and her ticketmates by forcing the GOP to do damage control on the fly while the shutdown worsens economic chaos through weeks of early voting."

• Chuck Todd: "I don't think, in Virginia, the federal workers are going to be blaming the Democrats."

• Former Republican Congressman Charlie Dent: "If Russ Vought at OMB engages in mass firings, then I think this can blow back hard on Republicans, and probably none more than the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Virginia. This shutdown - if there's a winner out of this, it's probably going to be Spanberger."

• Al Hunt: "Northern Virginia will be very much affected by this government shutdown, and my guess is … it's going to help Spanberger."

• Politico: "Democrats appear to be winning the argument on the shutdown."

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