Big Money vs. Winsome Earle-Sears

Joe Thomas

•   September 22, 2026

Last week, Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed was the beneficiary of a massive fundraiser at the home of media producer Jeffrey Soros, yes, George’s nephew.

While a Soros raising money for a Democrat isn’t news—Uncle George and Cousin Alex have already contributed $102.8 million to races in 2026—it’s indicative of the hypocrisy of the Left.

El-Sayed has been outspoken in his aim of “getting money out of politics” while being bankrolled by his party’s “Daddy Warbucks.” Expensive campaigns can be a barrier for many candidates, but there are substantive and constitutional fixes beyond a blatant assault on the First Amendment (as per the Supreme Court), but for our purposes today, it leads us to Virginia’s constitutional amendments on the November ballot.

To date, based on Department of Elections data analyzed by the Virginia Public Access Project, the “Vote YES” campaigns are out-funding “Vote NO” efforts $3.75 million to $467,543. That’s not a typo: 9-to-1.

The abortion amendment is leading the way with $2.8 million for “Yes,” and then there’s the efforts of Winsome Earle-Sears.

The former lieutenant governor is barnstorming the Commonwealth on a shoestring to show Virginians what these amendments actually say before all that money starts pouring into flashy TV ads and mailers that will, at best, play “fast and loose” with the reality of them.

Earle-Sears sat down with me (full mp3 below) and said that the key question voters should be asking is: “What problem are these two amendments trying to solve? What problem? Because same-sex marriage is happening in Virginia and will continue to happen abortions are happening in Virginia and will continue to happen. So what problem are they trying to solve?”

It’s rhetorical because she told me, “If you’re saying, ‘Oh, I don’t want to get involved because it’s about abortion,’ well, it’s not just this, as you said. You want to preserve your rights as a parent, right? The law right now says I as a parental right must be notified, and I must approve it. [If] these amendments pass that’s out the window because they supersede any law pertaining to that.”

She went on to point out that the doctors and nurses will be under the gun as well. If they say; “I’m not going to do that if the woman changes her mind, [they] could go to prison because there are no conscientious objections right.”

This is also former Rep. Bob Good’s point in his campaign against the amendments, in his case focused on the same-sex marriage amendment. You cannot say, “no” if someone asks you to, say, bake a cake for a gay wedding like Colorado baker Jack Phillips.

The champion of that amendment, Alexandria Democrat Sen. Adam Ebbin, was asked to state on the floor for the record that this would not be construed to punish objectors in order to win some votes from the GOP side of the aisle.

Of course, we were told we could “keep our doctor,” too.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

Joe Thomas
Joe Thomas | Virginia Correspondent
Joe Thomas is a Virginia correspondent for the Daily Signal.

Follow on X JTitMVirginia

Oneil The Woketopus book cover

Read the first chapter of The Woketopus right now for FREE

Today, even with President Trump’s victory, leftist elites have their tentacles in every aspect of our government.

The Daily Signal’s own Tyler O’Neil exposes this leftist cabal in his new book, The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.

In this book, O’Neil reveals how the Left’s NGO apparatus pursues its woke agenda, maneuvering like an octopus by circumventing Congress and entrenching its interests in the federal government.
You can read the first chapter of this new book for FREE in this eBook, The Woketopus: Chapter One using the secure link below.