The Virginia governor’s race for the upcoming election has manipulative and untrue political advertising on both sides of the aisle. The ads targeting the democratic candidate Abigail Spanberger, portray her as a predator supporting men in women’s bathrooms. A direct quote from republican Winsome Earle-Sears, during a Fox News interview saying , “My opponent Abigail Spanburger, who voted, she didn’t just support, she voted for boys to be allowed in women’s locker rooms.”

The democrats have also been creating political attack pieces, for instance taking a clip out of a CNN segment where she declined to answer a question about President Trump’s purge of the government work force. Other political ads display Sears as an extremist far right candidate. A quote from a political ad by the democrats says that Sears is “So far right, she’s wrong for Virginia.”

A majority of the ads for this election have been targeted attack pieces by the candidates instead of policy point of view or political stances. In fact, the last ad released by Spanberger that was not an attack piece was posted three months ago. Even worse, there are no republican political ads for this upcoming election that is not an attack piece. This is a disaster because it breeds uninformed voting and a lack of education on issues.

While Spanberger is campaigning on being a moderate candidate who is open to issues, Sears is mostly campaigning on making sure trans people won’t be able to play women’s sports. While it is highly unlikely that Spanberger supports all men entering girls’ locker rooms, and it is unlikely that Sears’ only goal is to push the president’s agenda, they are repeated. Voter bases have limited information and will believe the words that they are hearing over and over again in the ads. That is why it is so important to think critically about what is being said or heard in political ads.