Copyright The 19th*
Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA operative who served three terms in Congress, is projected to become Virginia’s next governor and the first woman to hold the state’s highest office, according to Decision Desk HQ. Spanberger, 46, clinched victory against Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears by promising to fight the “chaos” of President Donald Trump’s second term, to stem the rising cost of living and to take out culture war debates from conversations about improving public education. Virginia was closely watched as one of the few places with competitive contests on the calendar this year. Beyond the governor’s race, Virginians also cast ballots in closely fought elections for lieutenant governor, attorney general and control of the House of Delegates. Democrats’ performance here offers some clues about how voters are processing the first year of Trump’s term and serve as a test of how Democrats might move beyond last year’s defeats and into the 2026 midterm elections. In Spanberger, voters found a candidate who appealed to voters’ economic anxieties. She focused her attacks on the impact of Republican policies on the cost of food and health care, on businesses hit by tariffs, and on federal workers and contractors fired by the Trump administration. Republicans sought to attack Spanberger by stoking fears around immigrants and the inclusion of transgender students in schools; Spanberger used her background as a federal law enforcement official and a mom of three daughters in public school to rebuff them. In an interview with The 19th ahead of the election, Spanberger said she wanted her campaign to focus voters’ attention on the issues their families are facing and realistic solutions, and less on the cult of personality she believes has come to dominate politics in recent years, which she thinks “is detrimental in the long term.” “Let’s make it about the policies — make it about why this candidate is not what we want or what we need, or this candidate is what we want or what we need, right?” Spanberger said. “It’s not that they’re the coolest person you’ve ever met. It’s that they’re pursuing the best policies.” Republican Earle-Sears, the state’s lieutenant governor who would have also made history as the first Black woman of any party elected governor, promised voters that she would carry on with the work of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has maintained fairly high approval ratings but is term-limited. Earle-Sears made the exclusion of trans people a central theme of her campaign, spending significant time and resources telling voters she would “protect women” by keeping trans girls and women out of women-only spaces. Despite her projected defeat, Earle-Sears made history by becoming the first Black Republican woman to win the party’s nomination in a race for governor. Born in Jamaica, she would have also made history as the first Republican woman born abroad, and fourth woman born abroad ever, to lead a state as governor. While Earle-Sears had Youngkin’s backing, she never obtained Trump’s official endorsement. The president on multiple occasions urged voters to back Republican candidates ahead of Virginia’s elections, but he never stated his support for Earle-Sears specifically. Virginia is among 18 states that has never had a woman governor, and among only five states that had never elected a woman as governor or U.S. senator.
