Earle-Sears campaign bus catches fire en route to event

Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R), who's running for governor, said Thursday her campaign bus caught fire while traveling to an event in the final stretch before Election Day. 

“While en-route to an event, our campaign bus caught fire. Everyone is safe,” Earle-Sears wrote in a Thursday statement on social platform X. 

“Thank you to the first responders who got to the scene quickly — we are so grateful for you,” she added.

Her Democratic opponent, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (Va.), expressed relief that no one was hurt.

“I’m relieved to hear @winwithwinsome and her team are safe after her campaign bus caught on fire this afternoon,” Spanberger wrote in a post on X.

“I’m grateful to our first responders for their quick action — and I’m thinking of the Lt. Governor and her team after this scary incident,” she continued.

Spanberger and Earle-Sears have been locked in a contentious battle for the governor's mansion, with the Democrat leading her opponent in recent polls.

The Democrat's campaign was rocked recently by revelations that the Democratic attorney general candidate, Jay Jones, had sent text messages back in 2022 suggesting he wanted to shoot Virginia's House Speaker at the time, a Republican.

Earle-Sears aggressively pressed Spanberger about the scandal at a debate earlier this month, repeatedly calling on the Democrat to urge Jones to drop out. Spanberger has not done so.

Virginia voters have until Tuesday to head to the polls, joining voters in New Jersey, New York and other states.