RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democrat Abigail Spanberger won the race for Virginia governor on Tuesday, defeating Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears. In doing so, she secured a decisive victory for Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections and made history as the first woman ever to lead the commonwealth.
Spanberger’s victory will break partisan control of the governor’s office as the former congresswoman and CIA case officer succeeds outgoing Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. She won with a campaign that emphasized economic issues, a strategy that could serve as a model for other Democrats in next year’s election as they seek to break the power of President Donald Trump and Republicans in Washington and gain ground in statehouses.
Throughout the campaign, Spanberger made carefully crafted economic arguments against Trump’s policies while spending significant sums on ads linking Earle-Sears to the president. She campaigned across the state, including in Republican-leaning areas. But she also emphasized her support for abortion rights in the last Southern state to pass no up-to-date restrictions or bans on the procedure, and she railed against Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, the U.S. government shutdown and its negative impact on a state with several hundred thousand federal workers.
That approach helped unite core Democratic supporters while attracting the kind of swing voters who elected Youngkin four years ago. This also continued a historic trend for Virginia: Since Jimmy Carter won the White House in 1976, Virginia has supported a governor from the opposing party of every first-term president the following year. This year is a special case given the gap between Trump’s terms.
Meanwhile, Republicans are once again grappling with the defeat of an arch-conservative from the president’s party.
Trump never campaigned for Earle-Sears, although he pledged his lukewarm support for her. Their uneasy alliance raises questions about the ideal Republican candidate for the contested general election and how the president’s wavering standing with voters could affect Republican candidates come November. The midterm elections will determine control of state budgets in dozens of states and determine whether Republicans retain their majorities in Washington in the final years of Trump’s presidency.
Earle-Sears, 61, would have become the first black woman elected governor in the United States
Spanberger balanced politics and biography
Spanberger, 46, ran on a promise to protect Virginia’s economy from the aggressive tactics of Trump’s second administration, which has cut public services, raised tariffs and pushed a reconciliation bill that curtails the state’s already delicate health care system.
Accountant Sherry Kohan, 56, who cast her vote at the Aurora Hills Library in Arlington, said she used to consider herself a Republican but hasn’t felt affiliated with any party since Trump’s first term. She said her vote for Spanberger was a vote against Trump.
Stephanie Uhl, 38, who also said she voted for Spanberger, was thinking about the federal government shutdown as she cast her vote at the library in Arlington, just across the street from Washington.
Uhl worked without pay for the Defense Department, and although she said, “I can afford it quite well,” it bothered her “that it affected so many other people.”
Spanberger’s background also played a substantial role in her victory. As a former CIA officer, she cited her credentials in public service and national security. And she presented herself as a mother of daughters educated in Virginia public schools and a Capitol Hill veteran who represented one swing district and worked on the other side.
The pitch helped the Democratic nominee withstand Earle-Sears’ attacks on cultural issues, particularly the Republican’s claim that Spanberger was an extremist on civil rights and health care for transgender people. Spanberger, who has consistently advocated for local school districts to decide whether transgender students can participate in competitive sports, described her opponent as a candidate who is more out of step with the middle of Virginia’s electorate.
Their strategy mirrored the approach Democrats used to flip control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections, midway through Trump’s first presidency. Spanberger was among several high-profile women who brought national security or military qualifications to campaigns in battleground districts. Another of those women, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, ran for Democratic governor of New Jersey on Tuesday.
Together, they were seen as examples of successful mainstream Democrats at a time when the party’s left flank was on the rise, led by Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist and the party’s candidate in Tuesday’s New York mayoral race.
In Congress, Spanberger was a peaceful workhorse
When she first came to Washington, Spanberger focused on lower-profile issues: broadband coverage in rural areas, combating drug trafficking and veterans’ services. And she quickly gained a reputation for working with colleagues across the political spectrum.
In her up-to-date role, she will face worsening economic forecasts, rising utility costs and growing unemployment – in part because of the Trump administration’s federal cuts. But it could have the advantage of a affable legislature if Democrats manage to maintain their majority in the House of Representatives. All 100 seats in that chamber were up for vote Tuesday, as were other statewide offices, including lieutenant governor and attorney general. The state Senate, also controlled by Democrats, was not involved in the vote this year. If Democrats have the so-called trifecta in Richmond, as Republicans now do in Washington, they could pass many of the policy priorities that lawmakers presented to Youngkin only for him to veto the bills.
Spanberger won despite a slow upset that threatened Virginia’s Democratic nomination. In October, news reports revealed that Jay Jones, the Democratic candidate for attorney general in 2022, sent texts suggesting that the former Republican House speaker would get “two bullets in the head.”
Republicans across the US, including Trump and Earle-Sears, called for Jones to leave. He apologized and said he was ashamed of the news, but declined to leave the race.
The controversy preoccupied Spanberger. She condemned the text messages but did not call on Jones to withdraw from the race and notably did not withdraw her endorsement.
“I have denounced political violence and political rhetoric,” Spanberger said in her only debate with Earle-Sears, “no matter who leads the charge.”
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Olivia Diaz is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Barrow reported from Atlanta. Helen Wieffering contributed from Arlington, Virginia.
