RICHMOND, Virginia — Abigail Spanberger won the race for governor
of Virginia, flipping the governorship to Democratic control and becoming the first woman in the job in the commonwealth’s history.
Throughout her campaign, Spanberger zeroed in on affordability and lowering costs for Virginians amid the longest government shutdown in U.S. history as well as President Donald Trump’s attempts to remake the federal government. More than 1,000 Spanberger supporters gathered in Richmond for the campaign’s election night party, and the crowd erupted into cheers when a MSNBC livestream projected her the winner.
Spanberger, who was elected to the House in 2018 as part of a Democratic wave fueled by backlash to Trump, also capitalized on outrage over the administration among the Democratic base.
Her victory gives Democrats a boost ahead of the midterms — and reinforces the belief among some within the party that the strategy to regaining power consists of running moderate Democrats like her who are narrowly focused on economic issues.
Spanberger dominated fundraising and polling throughout the entire race. Her opponent, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, argued that Republican control must continue to maintain the successes of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration. Youngkin was barred by law from seeking a consecutive second term.
In the final stretch of the campaign, Earle-Sears made trans issues a centerpiece of her messaging and characterized Spanberger as being for “they/them,” echoing Trump’s political advertising in the 2024 election. Earle-Sears hammered Spangberger for not having a clear answer on whether transgender students can use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.
But those attacks failed to gain traction among voters, who consistently named the rising cost of living and the economy as their top concerns, and strategists from both parties questioned whether that approach would be enough to peel off independents.
Trump never endorsed by name Earle-Sears, who once criticized his decision to run for reelection. Republicans, pessimistic about her campaign from its start, were more focused on getting Attorney General Jason Miyares reelected. Miyares was up against Democrat Jay Jones, who was embroiled in a late-in-the-game texting scandal where he wished violence on his political rivals.
Earle-Sears criticizes what she calls “open borders” and related policies, arguing they create chaos and security risks.
Earle-Sears opposes abortions.
During her 2021 campaign for lieutenant governor, Earle-Sears stated she would support legislation similar to the Texas Heartbeat Act, which would ban abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected (i.e., as early as six weeks). On the campaign trail, she called abortion “genocide” and stated she supported making abortion illegal in all cases to include rape and incest and the only exception was if the mother’s life was at risk.
Earle-Sears was born in Kingston, Jamaica, on March 11, 1964. She immigrated to the United States at the age of six, brought by her father who had already immigrated to the U.S. She grew up in the Bronx, New York City.
Earle-Sears earned an Associates Of Arts degree from Tidewater Community College a Bachelor Of Arts in English with a minor in economics from Old Dominion University, and a Master Of Arts in organizational leadership from Regent University.