Former Democratic Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger comfortably defeated Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears to become Virginia’s next governor on Tuesday evening, multiple outlets projected.
NBC News called the race for Spanberger just before 8:00 p.m. ET with about 30% of the vote in. At the time of the call, Spanberger had 54.3% of the vote compared with Earle-Sears’ 45.5%, according to NBC News.
Spanberger consistently led Earle-Sears in polling and fundraising throughout the race. Virtually every public survey projected Spanberger’s romp over Earle-Sears with the Democratic nominee heading into election day with a 10.2-point advantage, according to the RealClearPolitics’ average.
Republican Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, who won a major upset in 2021, was barred by Virginia law from running for a consecutive term.
Earle-Sears largely centered her campaign on criticizing Spanberger’s record on transgender issues in K-12 education. The Republican candidate also ripped Spanberger during the final stretch of the race for failing to distance herself from Jay Jones, the Democratic attorney general nominee, who sent violent text messages fantasizing about murdering a political opponent in 2o22.
Earle-Sears never received a formal endorsement from President Donald Trump despite frequently defending his record when responding to Spanberger’s attacks.
The president, however, repeatedly urged Virginia residents to vote Republican during the off-year elections.
“Why would anyone vote for New Jersey and Virginia Gubernatorial Candidates, Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, when they want transgender for everybody, men playing in women’s sports, High Crime, and the most expensive Energy prices almost anywhere in the World?” Trump wrote on the social media platform Truth Social on Sunday.
“I think the Republican candidate is very good and I think she should win because the Democrat candidate’s a disaster. So, I haven’t been too much involved in Virginia … I think the Republican candidate is excellent,” Trump told reporters on Oct. 19, while stopping short of endorsing Earle-Sears let alone mentioning her by name.
Spanberger relentlessly attacked Earle-Sears for refusing to disavow Trump and his policy agenda, particularly the administration’s cuts to the federal workforce. Virginia is home to a multitude of federal workers — especially in its D.C. suburbs — and has been disproportionately impacted by actions taken by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) during the first months of Trump’s second term.
“We need a governor who will support the thousands upon thousands of Virginia’s families whose livelihoods have been disrupted or destroyed because of DOGE and now this government shutdown,” Spanberger said during a rally on Saturday in Norfolk headlined by former President Barack Obama.
Though Spanberger largely campaigned as a centrist Democrat, several of her recent statements suggest that she could govern as a staunch progressive.
Spanberger has pledged to end Virginia law enforcement’s cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement if elected governor. She has also refused to divulge whether she will keep Youngkin’s ban on biological males accessing girls’ sports and using girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms.
The final margin between Spanberger and Earle-Sears could clarify whether Democrats are making inroads with voters who swung toward Trump in November. Former Vice President Kamala Harris won the commonwealth by just shy of six percentage points in 2024.
Virginia also voted against Trump when he appeared on the ballot in 2016 and 2020.
Spanberger was first elected to the House of Representatives during the 2018 midterm elections when Democrats won 41 seats and retook control of the lower chamber. She represented a purple district for three terms while carving out a moderate streak and frequently criticizing the Democratic Party’s left flank.
She criticized avowed socialist and Democratic New York City mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani’s far-left campaign wishlist during an interview with CNN on Friday.
“People do want us to be aspirational and dream big. They also don’t want us to lie to them,” Spanberger said.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
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