Democrat Abigail Spanberger elected governor of Virginia

Democrat Abigail Spanberger has been elected governor of Virginia, the Associated Press said Tuesday, making the centrist former congresswoman the first female governor of the southern state.

An ex-CIA and federal law enforcement officer who served three terms in the US House of Representatives after flipping a GOP-held district, Spanberger was leading the state’s Republican lieutenant governor Winsome Earle-Sears 55% to 45%, with 35% of the vote counted, according to the AP.

Virginia has grown steadily more Democratic in recent elections, and Spanberger had led Earle-Sears in the polls for most of the race. She will replace Republican governor Glenn Youngkin, who was ineligible for re-election after serving the single consecutive four-year term the state’s constitution allows.

It was the crowning achievement of what Democrats hope will be a good night across the commonwealth. They are also hoping to expand their majority in the house of delegates, which they currently control by just one seat, as Democrats move to redraw congressional maps in their favor.

In the contest for attorney general, Democratic former state delegate Jay Jones is narrowly ahead of the Republican incumbent, Jason Miyares, with 35% of ballots counted, according to the AP. That race was shaken up dramatically when a text message from Jones to another state lawmaker emerged showing the Democrat musing about a political rival receiving “two bullets to the head”.

While her election may be viewed as a sign that Democrats are regaining momentum following the disappointment of the 2024 election, Spanberger did not attend any of the “No Kings” protests against Donald Trump, and largely avoid discussing the president by name while campaigning.

“I feel like if I say it too much, it’s like Beetlejuice. He’s gonna show up,” Spanberger said in an interview with the AP.

She instead emphasized her record while in Congress of being the most bipartisan member from Virginia, and focused on how Democrats would address issues such as guaranteeing healthcare and lowering the cost of living. When she did turn to Washington, it was often to discuss how the Trump administration’s policies had disrupted livelihoods in a state that abuts the federal district and has a large population of federal workers.

“We need a governor who will support the thousands upon thousands of Virginia families whose livelihoods have been disrupted or destroyed because of Doge and now this government shutdown,” she said over the weekend during a rally with Barack Obama in Norfolk, home to the world’s largest naval base.

“We do not need someone who has said that losing a job isn’t a ‘real issue’ when we have Virginians who have dedicated themselves to service to our country who have lost their jobs because of bad policies and a reckless administration.”

Trump had endorsed Earle-Sears, the first woman of color elected to statewide office in Virginia. The lieutenant governor centered her campaign on the sorts of culture war issues that boosted the president’s candidacy in last year’s presidential election, and helped Youngkin take the governor’s mansion in 2021, less than a year into Joe Biden’s presidency.

Ultimately, it was not enough to replicate Youngkin’s success, nor overcome what has been dubbed “the Virginia curse”, where the party out of the White House has won the governor’s mansion – with a single exception – in every election since 1976.