{"id":1054873,"date":"2025-07-10T14:18:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T18:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?p=1054873"},"modified":"2025-07-10T14:18:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T18:18:12","slug":"icymi-virginia-gop-gubernatorial-candidate-winsome-earle-sears-campaign-funded-by-known-nazi-sympathizer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-virginia-gop-gubernatorial-candidate-winsome-earle-sears-campaign-funded-by-known-nazi-sympathizer\/","title":{"rendered":"ICYMI: Virginia GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Winsome Earle-Sears Campaign Funded By Known Nazi Sympathizer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"449\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1050776\" srcset=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png 1101w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png?resize=300,132 300w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png?resize=768,337 768w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png?resize=1024,449 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>In response to <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/heartlandsignal.com\/2025\/07\/09\/virginia-gop-gubernatorial-candidate-took-money-from-a-nazi-re-enactor-from-ohio\/\"><em>reporting<\/em><\/a><em> detailing Virginia gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears\u2019 campaign receiving donations tied to a known Nazi sympathizer, <\/em><strong><em>DNC Deputy Communications Director Abhi Rahman released the following statement:&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMAGA extremist Winsome Earle-Sears gladly took the money of a Nazi sympathizer to fund her losing campaign \u2014 despite once condemning that very action. The company you keep matters. Working Virginians have a choice this election \u2014 a candidate who associates with Nazis or a candidate who will spend every day fighting for working Virginians.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/heartlandsignal.com\/2025\/07\/09\/virginia-gop-gubernatorial-candidate-took-money-from-a-nazi-re-enactor-from-ohio\/\"><strong>Heartland Signal<\/strong><\/a><strong>: Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate took money from a Nazi re-enactor from Ohio<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By Richard Eberwein<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Virginia Lt. Gov. and 2025 gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears (R) received campaign donations from a known Nazi sympathizer in Ohio, despite criticizing a fellow politician for doing the same.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>According to Virginia Public Access Project,<strong> Earle-Sears has received nine $100 monthly payments to her Political Action Committee Winsome PAC from Richard Iott between August 2024 and May 2025.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>During his congressional run, The Atlantic revealed that Iott was an active member of the Wiking group, which devoted itself to re-enacting battles conducted by the 5th Panzer Division of the Nazi German army during World War II. According to the Toledo Free Press,<strong> Iott participated in several Nazi re-enactments between 2002-08 while donning a Waffen-SS uniform.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Historians told The Atlantic that the Wiking reenactors<strong> greatly sanitizes the real Waffen-SS and overlooks the group\u2019s atrocities.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Earle-Sears, <\/strong>who won the Republican primary for Virginia\u2019s 2025 gubernatorial election last month, <strong>previously criticized a fellow GOP candidate for taking money from a Nazi sympathizer while she was actively accepting money from Iott.<\/strong><strong> <\/strong>During an appearance on \u201cThe John Fredericks Show\u201d in March, Earle-Sears bashed former Republican Senate candidate Corey Stewart for his financial support from Paul Nehlen, a former congressional candidate from Wisconsin with ties to Nazi meme culture online.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u201cBut then he went ahead and bought the list of an avowed Nazi,\u201d Earle-Sears said. <strong>\u201cWhy would you do that. Why do you want money from him and why do you want money from his folks, his side?\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In response to reporting detailing Virginia gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears\u2019 campaign receiving donations tied to a known Nazi sympathizer, DNC Deputy Communications Director Abhi Rahman released the following statement:&nbsp; \u201cMAGA extremist Winsome Earle-Sears gladly took the money of a Nazi sympathizer to fund her losing campaign \u2014 despite once condemning that very action. The company [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1054873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>ICYMI: Virginia GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Winsome Earle-Sears Campaign Funded By Known Nazi Sympathizer - Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-virginia-gop-gubernatorial-candidate-winsome-earle-sears-campaign-funded-by-known-nazi-sympathizer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-10T18:18:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1101\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Adrianna Tomasello\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Adrianna Tomasello\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-virginia-gop-gubernatorial-candidate-winsome-earle-sears-campaign-funded-by-known-nazi-sympathizer\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-virginia-gop-gubernatorial-candidate-winsome-earle-sears-campaign-funded-by-known-nazi-sympathizer\/\",\"name\":\"ICYMI: Virginia GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Winsome Earle-Sears Campaign Funded By Known Nazi Sympathizer - 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