From tariffs to DEI, Trump shaping governor’s race [Video]

Former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, was quick to pounce when President Donald Trump imposed 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico last week in an on-again, off-again trade war that has given consumers and financial markets the jitters.

“This plan is a tax on Virginians,” Spanberger declared in a news release early on March 4, before Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress.

Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the leading Republican candidate in the election for governor this fall, said nothing. The next day, her campaign said it wouldn’t comment on the tariff issue.

The tables turned over the weekend, when the University of Virginia Board of Visitors — now dominated by Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s appointees, voted unanimously to dissolve the school’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, an issue that has been a top target for Trump since his inauguration on Jan. 20.

Youngkin and Earle-Sears celebrated the university’s reversal on policies to promote opportunities for minority students and faculty, …