Best analysis I've seen. Virginia sees a debate like no other. That's not a compliment.
Cardinal News is an independent one man shop but he does good reporting.
This was an utter embarrassment that marks the end of any pretense that we still adhere to the mythical “Virginia Way” in our civic discourse.
The biggest takeaway from the debate is that Republican Winsome Earle-Sears spent almost the entire debate interrupting Democrat Abigail Spanberger — I counted at least 30 interruptions, but it was hard to tell where one ended and another began. I also counted at least nine times when moderators had to tell Earle-Sears to stop interrupting.
There was no way for Spanberger to “win” on this question; no matter what she said, Earle-Sears was going to win this round. The question going out of the debate is what voters make of Jones’ texts, and whether that political damage is confined to his race or spreads. From a practical standpoint, Spanberger said nothing to make matters worse, which was the best the Democrats could hope for here. Now we wait to see what Jones himself has to say when he debates Attorney General Jason Miyares next Thursday.
Here’s one way: What Virginians saw in Spanberger was a disciplined candidate who never seemed ruffled. Maybe this is her natural composure, maybe this is the product of her training as a CIA case officer, maybe this was good debate prep. In any case, if Virginians wanted to know whether Spanberger would be cool under fire, they got their answer. Near as we can tell, she’d be a good crisis manager.
https://cardinalnews.org/2025/10/10/virginia-sees-a-debate-like-no-other-thats-not-a-compliment/
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