Abigail Spanberger is accused of omitting her role as a trustee in financial disclosures when she was a member of Congress by her GOP opponent in the upcoming Virginia governor’s race.
Winsome Earle is running for the position of the current GOP Governor. Glenn Youngkin says that the incomplete disclosures were not an accident, but a calculated lie. According to Spanberger, the only asset included in the trust is Spanberger’s home, which doesn’t have to be revealed.
Local records show that in 2017, Spanberger, her husband, and their children updated their wills.
Spanberger did not mention it in the annual financial disclosure statement required by Congress. She was a House of Representatives member at the time of opening the trust fund. She did not disclose it either in the Virginia Economic Interest Statement she filed last month.
The Spanberger Campaign said, “Personal residences that do not generate income should not be disclosed, so Abigail did not disclose the only house of her family – because to do so would have made it public.” “Abigail filed her disclosures following House Ethics Rules, which did not require that she disclose her role as trustee of a living trust that only held her family’s home.”
Earle Sears said that Spanberger’s claims about wanting to protect her family or respecting privacy were not enough.
Peyton Vogel is Earle-Sears’ campaign press secretary. He said, “Abigail Spanberger has been caught hiding a trust with assets worth nearly a million dollars. That’s not a mistake, it is a deliberate lie. Disclosure forms don’t require anyone to put their family at risk — only honesty. Virginians cannot be trusted if Virginians lie about such a serious issue.”
The Earle-Sears Campaign also points out that the House Ethics Manual of Congress mandates that members of Congress must “declare any nongovernmental position that they currently hold that they are currently compensated for,” including the role as “trustee”.
Spanberger won the election to Congress in 2018 and was reelected in the following elections in 2020 and 2022. Spanberger did not run for reelection in 2024, but is now running to replace Youngkin after his term ends later this year.
After being elected as Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor in 2021, Earle-Sears was appointed. She has now made history by becoming the first woman elected to a Virginia statewide office.
Local news reported that the two candidates had been selected as the candidates of their respective parties for the general elections in November. Current Cook-political reporting labels the race as a toss-up.