Democrats accused of selective identity politics in Virginia election

Democrats have historically promoted race and identity politics in the run-up to high-profile elections, including for former President Trump. Barack Obama Disciplining Black men for not supporting former Vice President Kamala Harris for president just one year ago.

In 2025 My ruler However, race was dropped from common talking points during the campaign in Virginia, where Obama and other Democrats rallied around former Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a white woman, in her fight against Republican Gov. Winsome Earl Sears, a Jamaican immigrant and Marine veteran. Earl Sears would have become the state’s first black female governor had she been victorious on Tuesday.

Former Republican Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who is in the midst of his 2026 Senate campaign to replace outgoing Sen. Mitch McConnell, has called for identity politics to be dropped from public discourse and replaced with debates about meritocracy, noting that Democrats use racial rhetoric when it is most helpful.

Democrats “certainly pick and choose when they want to highlight a candidate’s race and use that for political gain,” Cameron said. “But the Republican Party has been consistent that we are the party of meritocracy.”

Fox News Poll: How Spanberger Won Virginia Governor

Split between Winsome Earle-Sears and Abigail Spanberger. (Getty Images; Getty Images)

Obama campaigned in the Old Dominion State to drum up support for Spanberger, the state’s first woman elected governor, nearly a year after he rebuked black male voters in Pennsylvania for not giving significant support to then-Vice President Harris’ campaign.

“We have yet to see the same kind of energy and turnout throughout our neighborhoods and communities as we saw when I was running,” Obama said of his support for Harris’ race.

“Now, I also want to say that this seems most pronounced with brothers. So, if you don’t mind — just for a moment, I have to speak to all of you and say that when you have a very clean choice: On the one hand, you have someone who grew up like you, went to college with you, and understands the struggles (and the pain and joy that comes from those experiences),” Obama said, adding that Trump “has consistently shown disregard, not just for communities.” But for you as a person – and you’re thinking about sitting out?”

Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger joins former President Barack Obama during a campaign event in Norfolk, Virginia. (Steve Helper/Associated Press)

A year later, Obama called on Virginia voters to ignore the black candidate in favor of Spanberger.

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“There is absolutely no evidence that Republican policies have made life better for you, the people of Virginia,” Obama said in his campaign speech in Virginia on Saturday. “I mean, they devoted enormous energy to trying to entrench themselves in power, punish their enemies, enrich their friends, and silence their critics. They made a big show of deporting people and targeting trans people. They never missed an opportunity to make minorities and DEI the scapegoat for every problem under the sun.”

Obama, in particular, has a long list of invocations of identity politics on the campaign trail or in public, while Democrats since his presidency have amplified the promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives from the highest levels of government to school classrooms until Trump signed executive orders banning such programs from the government.

“I would consider it a personal insult, and an insult to my heritage, if this community let its guard down and failed to activate itself in this matter.” election“You want to give me a good send-off, go vote,” Obama said in 2016 of the black community supporting the failed presidential bid of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Former President Barack Obama in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, September 7, 2022, in Washington. (Andrew Harnick/The Associated Press)

Former President Joe Biden also focused on identity politics during his long tenure in the country, including pledging that he would nominate a Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court as he vetted the merits of the nominees. Biden eventually nominated current Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court in 2022.

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“As I have studied the backgrounds and writings of the nominees, I have made no decision except one: The person I nominate will be a person of extraordinary qualifications, character, experience, and integrity — and that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the Supreme Court of the United States. It is long overdue, in my view,” Biden said before announcing Jackson’s nomination.

However, race has been left out of the 2025 gubernatorial race Virginia When Earl Sears confronted Spanberger, Cameron said Democrats “played it down” because it did not benefit their party.

“Certainly the leadership in the Democratic Party downplays the race when there’s not someone from their campaign or someone from their side in the election,” Cameron told Fox Digital in a Zoom interview on Thursday. “And that’s what I saw here, is that they dismissed it and downplayed it, and it didn’t have much significance.”

Former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said Democrats “downplayed” the race in Virginia’s 2025 governor’s race because it was not in their party’s best interest. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

He added, “I think the Democratic Party has historically focused on the identity of the candidates. That’s why I tell people we don’t need a country built on diversity, equality, and inclusion. We need a district built on merit, excellence, intelligence, and integrity. And that has to be the case… not just in the corporate space or in industry, but in politics as well. Does the candidate connect with people? Does the candidate hold the values ​​of a particular community? That should be the focus.” All in support of candidates with identity merit.

Fox News Digital reached out to Obama’s office for comment on his previous statements on race and identity politics compared to the 2025 election but did not immediately receive a response. Fox News Digital has also reached out to the Winsome-Sears campaign for any comment following the election on Thursday.

Undercover video reveals what Spanberger’s campaign organizer is really thinking: ‘What the F—‘

Spanberger’s campaign was rocked by an undercover video showing one of the campaign’s organizers lamenting a race that pitted a “white woman who was in the CIA” against a “black woman.”

Republican Virginia Governor Winsome Sears addresses the Virginia Free Leadership Luncheon in McLean, Virginia. (Clive Owen/AP Photo-File)

“CIA agent, literally, which is crazy, like yeah, they vote for the CIA agent, guys, like what—,” a Spanberger campaign organizer said in a video with an undercover journalist in September that was first reported by Fox News Digital.

She continued: “I don’t know what happened. We are in the darkest timeline.” “Our only choices are between a black woman, which we usually support, but this time she thinks we should bring back slavery, Winsome… And even then, it’s like either voting for the black woman who thinks slavery should be brought back or voting for the white woman who was in the CIA.”

Only two mandates were held in the entire country State governors elections These off-season elections are in 2025: New Jersey and Virginia. Earl Sears was the only black candidate to run for governor among the four major party candidates running in either state.

Former President Barack Obama has endorsed former Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger in the state’s 2025 gubernatorial election. (Wayne McNamee/Getty Images)

Cameron said his tenure as Kentucky’s attorney general, as well as his run for Senate, focuses on his merit and policies, while encouraging that example to be used by all future politicians.

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“I want people to focus on my values ​​when I was justice minister, for sure,” he said. “I think I won 113 of the 120 counties, and people didn’t care about my appearance. They cared about my values. And so I’m optimistic that when it comes to the future of this country, people here in Kentucky, and I think in Virginia, in a lot of places, are: Are you standing with the America First agenda? Are you focused on standing with President Trump? And that’s certainly something I’ve focused on in my Senate race here in Kentucky.”