CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) Republicans announced plans to kickoff July with a joint campaign appearance for their November ticket of Winsome Earle-Sears, John Reid and Jason Miyares, an attempt to end the drama surrounding the trio’s apparent lack of cohesion.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin will also appear at the July 1 event in Vienna.

The GOP ticket, with Lt. Gov. Earle-Sears the nominee for governor, Reid running for lieutenant governor and Miyares seeking re-election to the attorney general post, has been set since April.

“I wish we had started running together the second the ticket was established,” Reid told Cville Right Now. “There’s nothing that I can do about that except really, really work hard and make sure that we don’t squander one minute between now and the start of voting on September 19.”

Many view the ticket as fundamentally fractured. Earle-Sears is strongly against same-sex marriage while Reid, the first openly gay Republican candidate for statewide office, supports it, though he opposes a Democrat-back constitutional amendment to enshrine it as a right in Virginia.

The divide apparently grew wider when the Richmonder, a Richmond-based news outlet, reported that GOP researchers had linked sexually-explicit online posts to Reid, prompting Youngkin to urge him to drop out of the race.

The two reportedly hadn’t spoken in months until a call last week, after the Democratic primaries.

The lack of cohesion on the Republican ticket was the source of material for jokes from their Democratic opponents during a campaign stop in Charlottesville on Tuesday.

“The three of us actually talk,” Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones said. “We actually like to be seen in public with each other.”

State senator Ghazala Hashmi, the party’s nominee to run against Reid for lieutenant governor, told the crowd at Eastwood Farm and Winery, “Everybody sees that we’re united. We’re actually talking to each other.”

Local Democrats also see the unity of their party’s ticket as an advantage.

“I can tell you from personal experience, running for statewide office is hard work,” Virginia Sen. Creigh Deeds said. “And you’ve got to be together, you’ve got to have a plan, you’ve got to have a teamwork type of approach. It’s good for my heart that we have that on the Democratic side.

“That the Republicans don’t even speak to each other is telling.”

Delegate Katrina Callsen believes the lack of cohesion on the Republican ticket is a trickle-down effect from Washington D.C.

“I think what we’re seeing in the Republican party is a result of the chaos that’s coming out of our federal government,” Callsen said. “They’re just unable to find their guiding star is what I’ve seen when I’m interacting with them. They’re all over the place on issues. Not that I want to give advice to the other side, but I hope they can coalesce around what’s really important, which is what people need and want to live happy, safe fulfilled lives, and not political in-fighting.”

Delegate Amy Laufer agreed.

“I think what you’re seeing on the Republican side is the disorganization,” Laufer said. “That’s a reflection of the Trump administration MAGA agenda which, in Virginia, is not very popular.”

But with the election still over five months away, Republicans believe events like next week’s in Vienna give their candidates ample time to change that narrative.

“The Lt. Governor has always been a non-conventional candidate, and her strategy of ‘taking it to the people’ proved successful in 2021, when she showed success by winning the nomination in a crowded field of six candidates,” Albemarle County GOP chairperson Nancy Muir told Cville Right Now. “The Republican faithful are energized and support the ticket presented to voters.”