This story was reported and written by VPM News.
Updated August 20, 2025 at 4:22 PM EDT
At a barbecue restaurant in Hopewell earlier this month, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears unveiled her new campaign theme as the Republican nominee for governor. "Operation Defend and Deliver" would defend policy wins of the past four years that she and Gov. Glenn Youngkin had made, she told the audience.
"You know what we've done in Virginia. We've given you back your tax money, $9 billion worth, and that's after we've also raised teacher pay," she said, also citing job creation and mental health funding. "We are on the job. We are doing the work."
But, when asked, her office and campaign have been unable to show what kind of role she has had in Youngkin's administration.
"I'm not going to divulge what we talk about. But remember that I'm a former legislator as well, and I understand the legislative process," she said. "We've talked about some things, and I'm just going to leave it at that. I've given him advice on certain things … we just have things that we've discussed on how to move certain things and how certain things will move."
VPM News also filed a FOIA request with the lieutenant governor's office for her schedule, a record that is required to be maintained and permanently held. In response, the office produced a largely-blank, 297-page PDF that excluded "approximately 297 records," citing the exemption covering "confidential correspondence and working papers of the Office of the Lieutenant Governor."
"We remain committed to transparency and accountability in government, but must also adhere to statutory provisions in place to safeguard information of a sensitive nature," the office wrote in the response.
The released records also did not include events that Earle-Sears' office had previously released to the public.
VPM News filed a follow-up FOIA, clarifying and broadening the request, but the Office of the Lieutenant Governor did not respond in the time period required by Virginia law: an initial five business days, with the ability to invoke a seven-day extension (which Earle-Sears' office did).
After a follow-up email, the office stood by its withholding of the records, and noted that it does not maintain records for Earle-Sears' roles as president of the state Senate or on boards and commissions.
VPM News also asked Coldspark's Mark Harris, a consultant for Earle-Sears' campaign, how the lieutenant governor had been involved in top decision making.
"I would just encourage you to talk to Gov. Youngkin. … All the times I've been on the stump with him, Gov. Youngkin's very clear about the collaborative effort between him and the lieutenant governor," Harris said. "Look, he's the governor, so he is the lead, but he has leaned on the lieutenant governor on a bunch of issues," without naming any specific issues.
In a statement sent shortly after this story was initially published, Youngkin spokesperson Peter Finocchio said Earle-Sears "is one of the Governor's closest advisors and a partner across all the Administration's efforts." He said the lieutenant governor has been "a driving force" in combating violent crime and "fighting to raise expectations and expand options for students and parents with lab schools and increased CTE training."
He also cited her involvement in pro-business policies "which have fostered a robust $125B in business investment, spurring 270K new jobs created, nearly 250K jobs open today, and 80K more in the pipeline."
The Earle-Sears campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
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