During a particularly heated exchange during Thursday night’s Virginia gubernatorial debate, Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears challenged her opponent to deliver a pointed message to the state’s two Democratic senators — “Do your job” — and vote to end the government shutdown.

Earle-Sears knocked her opponent, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, for not doing more to urge the state’s two Democratic senators, Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, to end the shutdown, which has impacted hundreds of thousands of federal workers and military service members living in Virginia.

“My opponent all summer long has been playing political football with federal workers by trying to say that she loves them more than anyone else. Well, let me tell you what love looks like. It looks like Abigail calling Senators Kaine and Warner and telling them, ‘Go back, do your job, and vote against a government shutdown,’” said Earle-Sears.

“We only need eight Democratic senators, that’s all we need, and we cannot find eight. And yet we can find two in Virginia. When are you going to publicly say to Senators Kaine and Warner, ‘Go and do your job and keep federal workers working?” Earle-Sears went on.

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“That’s the way you stop the shutdown, because right now they’re having to work, and especially our military, without any pay,” she said. “I’m a United States Marine veteran, and it is definitely hard, especially in the enlisted ranks, to work without pay.”

She added, “You can do something about that. You’re the one who’s been talking about all that love. Well, show love, keep them in their jobs.”

Spanberger, meanwhile, said, “Everyone from Virginia, the most impacted state in a time of shutdown as our communities are suffering after months of DOGE attacks on our federal workforce, everyone in Virginia should be coming together and urging the president to re-enter negotiations.”

She accused Earle-Sears of having “not stood up for Virginia workers” as lieutenant governor, especially during the Trump administration’s DOGE cuts.

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Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears speaks to the crowd during a rally held to announce she will seek her party’s nomination for Virginia governor in 2025 at Chick’s Oyster Bar in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Sept. 5, 2024.  (Kristen Zeis/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

“At this moment, when Virginia’s federal workforce and contract workers and communities across the Commonwealth are suffering because of this government shutdown, it is only increasing the challenge that they are facing after months and months of the attacks from this White House under DOGE,” said Spanberger.

“The entirety of that time,” she went on, “my opponent has made light of federal workers losing their jobs, saying it’s not a big deal and that everyone loses their jobs.”

Pressed on whether she would urge Kaine and Warner to vote to end the shutdown, Spanberger said, “I would encourage everyone, our Democratic senators, our Democratic House members, our Republican House members to work together and drive an effort to come back to the table.”

In response to whether she would ask President Donald Trump to work on a compromise to end the shutdown, Earle-Sears answered, “The president has already said that he would do that.”

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Abigail Spanberger, Virginia Democratic Party nominee for governor, addresses the crowd during an event in support of her run for office at the Eastern Henrico Recreation Center in Richmond, Virginia, on April 8, 2025. (Max Posner/The Washington Post/Getty Images)

“But you know, before anything gets to the president, it’s in the Senate right now. The House Republicans have voted, and it’s in the Senate. And all we need for it to get to the president so the shutdown stops is eight Senate Democrats. That’s just it, eight Senate Democrats. And we cannot find any because they’re playing political football, as you have been, Abigail, all this time,” she said.

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“Love is a verb. It’s a show me. It’s a doing. Love is not a shutdown,” she went on. “When are you going to ask Senator Kaine and Warner to please keep federal workers working?”

A Virginia police association said even the alleged remarks by attorney general hopeful Jay Jones crossed an unforgivable line, calling them “profoundly reckless” and “an affront to fallen officers.”

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Virginia State Police Association (VSPA) President Tim Confroy said the organization was “deeply disturbed” by the reported 2020 comment, which Jones has denied making.

Jones once allegedly suggested that if more police officers were killed, they would shoot fewer people, a former colleague in the state legislature said. Republican Del. Carrie Coyner told Virginia Scope on Monday that during a 2020 conversation about qualified immunity, she told Jones that without the legal protection, police officers would get killed.

“Well, maybe if a few of them died, that they would move on, not shooting people, not killing people,” Jones responded, according to Coyner. 

“There is no place for rhetoric that fuels hostility,” Confroy said. “If true, these words are profoundly reckless. The words dishonor every man and woman who has sworn to protect and serve the Commonwealth and undermine the foundation of mutual respect and public trust that effective law enforcement and officer safety depend upon.” 

The words dishonor every man and woman who has sworn to protect and serve the Commonwealth

— Tim Confroy, president of the Virginia State Police Association

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The association noted that 67 Virginia state troopers have died in the line of duty, saying Jones’s reported statement was “unconscionable” and “an affront to the memory of those whom we have lost.”

“There is no place for rhetoric that fuels hostility,” Confroy said.

He said that law enforcement officers, especially amid the current political climate toward law enforcement, need their elected officials to promote “meaningful advocacy that recognizes the inherent risk of public service.”

A text message from Jay Jones to Del. Carrie Coyner. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)

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Violent text scandal

The rebuke comes as Jones faces growing bipartisan backlash following the release of his private text messages in which he appeared to fantasize about violence toward political opponents. 

The embattled attorney general hopeful allegedly sent text messages suggesting he would shoot then–House Speaker Todd Gilbert “over Adolf Hitler.” 

In those messages, he also wrote that Gilbert and his wife should have to watch their “fascist” children die. At one point, Jones wrote, “Three people, two bullets. Gilbert, Hitler, and Pol Pot. Gilbert gets two bullets to the head.”

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Political fallout

Prominent Democrats and Republicans have called Jones’ comments disqualifying for someone seeking to become Virginia’s top cop.

Along with the VSPA, the Virginia Fraternal Order of Police sent a letter to Jones, asking him to bow out of the attorney general race immediately, while also condemning his 2022 text messages.

“The Virginia Fraternal Order of Police is aware of the recent text message scandal involving you, the Democrat candidate for Attorney General. While this incident may have occurred in 2022, this conduct has no place in our society or democracy, especially from an elected official who is running to be the top prosecutor in Virginia,” the FOP wrote. “The men and women of the Virginia Fraternal Order unequivocally condemn these violent text messages sent by you about a political opponent and his family.”

Jay Jones, who is running to become Virginia’s attorney general in 2025, has come under fire for a series of text messages calling for the death of political opponents and remarks about police officers.  (Maxine Wallace/The Washington Post/Getty Images)

Fox News Digital has reached out to Jones for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is targeting an illegal alien who is charged with strangling his infant sister with a power cord, leaving the baby in critical condition.

In a statement Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security announced it had lodged a detainer against Alvaro Mejia-Ayala, a 21-year-old Salvadoran national, after he was arrested for strangulation of an infant by police in Leesburg, Virginia.

According to the Leesburg Police Department, police responded to a report of an infant not breathing on the morning of Sept. 17. The department said it discovered the baby had been the victim of an assault and that Mejia-Ayala had fled on foot.

Local Fox affiliate Fox 5 reported that the infant was found unresponsive with a white charging cable around her neck.

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With the assistance of the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, the department tracked down Mejia-Ayala. He is now in custody and is being charged with strangulation.

According to DHS, the baby is in critical condition.

A spokesperson for the agency told Fox News Digital that Mejia-Ayala entered the U.S. as part of a family unit from El Salvador during the Obama administration in 2016. The spokesperson said that on Oct. 17, 2024, the Biden administration dismissed Mejia-Ayala’s immigration case, allowing him to illegally remain in the U.S. indefinitely.

DHS also said that Mejia-Ayala was previously arrested by police for reckless driving in 2024, but he was released “before ICE could even lodge a detainer.”

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents look over lists of names and their hearing times and locations inside the Federal Plaza courthouse before making arrests on June 27, 2025, in New York. (Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images)

The Virginia General District Court online database says that Mejia-Ayala pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of reckless driving in February 2024. The database also lists several other charges against Mejia-Ayala, including driving without a license in 2023 and failure to display license plates in 2024 and 2025.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin commented on the case, saying that “ICE lodged an immigration detainer to ensure this heinous criminal is not released on U.S. streets.”

“What kind of sick monster strangles a defenseless, innocent baby girl with a charging cord? This barbarism has no place in the U.S.,” said McLaughlin. “President Trump and Secretary Noem have been clear: Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States.”

In a separate message posted to X, McLaughlin wrote, “Pray for this precious baby girl. May God cover her and protect her.”

MISSING NY GIRL FOUND IN ILLINOIS AMONG ILLEGAL MIGRANTS

Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, left, and ICE agents, right. (DHS and ICE)

In another X post, Homeland Security called Mejia-Ayala a “monster” and the case an example of “PURE EVIL.”

“This criminal illegal alien STRANGLED AN INFANT with a charging cable,” DHS wrote, adding, “President Trump and @Sec_Noem will not allow this barbarism in America.”

A spokesperson for Biden declined to comment. Fox News Digital also reached out to Obama spokespeople but did not receive a response by the time of publication.