Overview

• At the Norfolk debate, Winsome Earle-Sears pressed Abigail Spanberger on school locker-room and sports policies, while Spanberger declined to say whether she would rescind Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Executive Directive 14.
• Youngkin’s directive instructs the state Board of Health to draft rules keeping bathrooms, locker rooms, and scholastic sports separated by sex assigned at birth; Earle-Sears said she would keep it in place.
• A Trafalgar survey conducted Oct. 8–10 found Spanberger at 47.7% and Earle-Sears at 45.1%, a statistical tie within the poll’s 2.9-point margin of error, while AG nominee Jay Jones trailed incumbent Jason Miyares.
• Republicans highlighted new local reporting alleging a registered sex offender accessed girls’ facilities in Arlington and pointed to the Roanoke College swimmer dispute, which drew an AG finding of reasonable cause for sex discrimination that the school disputes.
• Virginia Democrats defended Spanberger’s approach to the Jones controversy, noting she denounced the texts but is running her own race, as women’s sports advocate Lily Mullens criticized Spanberger’s debate answers and praised Earle-Sears’s stance.