VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.—Former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) was elected the 75th Governor of Virginia on Nov. 4, defeating her Republican opponent, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.
With her win, Spanberger will become the first female governor in the state’s 400-year history, which she reflected on during a speech to supporters following her victory in the race.
“Just a few minutes ago, Adam said to our daughters, ‘Your mom’s going to be the governor of Virginia’—and I can guarantee those words have never been spoken in Virginia before,” Spanberger said, referring to her husband, to a round of applause from the crowd.
Spanberger won 54 percent of the vote in the quadrennial election held on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, which called the race at 7:59 p.m. Earle-Sears won 45 percent.
Apart from Virginia’s three major statewide offices, elections were held for all seats in the Virginia House of Delegates. Results are still pending for those races.
Spanberger, Earle-Sears Address Supporters
Spanberger, now the governor-elect, will take office on Jan. 17, 2026, the date set by the state constitution for Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s term to end.
“From the bottom of my heart, I thank you,” Spanberger told her supporters after being declared the victor. “I thank you for the trust that you have placed in me, and it is the honor of my lifetime to be elected the 75th governor [of Virginia].”
Spanberger laid out some of her top priorities as governor during the speech, saying she would “put Virginia first, full stop.”
She said those priorities include lowering health care and energy costs, “[taking] politics out of our schools,” and protecting abortion, contraception, and fertility treatment access in the state.
Spanberger also promised to “stand up for Virginia workers,” saying that the state’s federal workforce “is under attack, and the chaos coming out of Washington is killing Virginia jobs and creating economic uncertainty for tens of thousands of families, government employees, government contractors, [and] small business owners.”
Northern Virginia, which is home to the Pentagon, high-profile defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, and a litany of other agencies and private firms with ties to the federal government, has been among the hardest hit by the Trump administration’s mass layoffs.
Speaking to a crowd of dejected supporters, Earle-Sears announced that she had conceded the election to Spanberger.
“I wanted to wait until every single ballot was cast,” said Earle-Sears. “We understand that victory to the Lord looks a lot different than what we think of as victory.”
“I have to tell you, I think I’ve learned more in the loss than I ever do in a victory,” she said.
Earle-Sears said she called Spanberger and left a voicemail when the latter didn’t answer. She said she wished the governor-elect success.
“If she is successful, Virginia will be successful,” she said.
An Expected Outcome
Spanberger had been widely expected to win the election against Earle-Sears. Every major poll taken during the campaign placed her ahead, with her lead averaging 10.2 percent up to election day, according to RealClearPolitics.
In the final days of the race, Spanberger campaigned with former U.S. President Barack Obama, a popular figure in Democratic politics, even as she was comfortably ahead.
“Virginia—Abigail Spanberger cares about your freedoms, she will fight for your rights, and she will work every day to make your life a little bit better,” Obama wrote on social media.
“My #1 focus as Governor will be making life more affordable for Virginians,” Spanberger wrote on social media before election day.
“Anywhere I travel across Virginia, people are talking about affordability,” she remarked at a campaign event with Virginia’s two U.S. Senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, who served as the 69th and 70th Governors of Virginia, respectively, between 2002 and 2010.
In conversation with voters at polling precincts, The Epoch Times observed that affordability was, indeed, a top-of-mind issue for voters.
“The economy is a big deal for everyone, all over the place,” said Diane Stein, a voter in Virginia Beach who voted for Spanberger for governor but supported Republican nominees John Reid and Jason Miyares in the lieutenant governor and attorney general’s races, respectively.
Stein said she didn’t connect with the Republican candidate for governor, Earle-Sears.
“Every time she talks, I just [think] she’s very aggressive, to me. She’s not my cup of tea,” she said.
Nancy Brown, a Democratic Party volunteer handing out flyers at that polling station, agreed with that view.
“[Voters are] upset with the economy. They’re upset with what’s happening in Washington. They’re upset with the withdrawal, the SNAP benefits. They’re upset with illegal use of the military in our cities, you know, putting the military against our own citizens,” Brown said.
When asked what Spanberger should seek to do first as governor, she replied, “I would like for them to adopt a permanent solution to a woman’s right to choose,” referring to a proposed constitutional amendment in Virginia to enshrine abortion access into the Constitution of Virginia.
Major Defeat for the GOP
The result is a big setback for the Republican Party of Virginia, which four years ago won an upset victory in the gubernatorial election with Youngkin as the nominee, as well as a majority in the House.
Youngkin’s family-focused campaign theme—emphasizing parental rights in education against school boards and opposition to progressive ideologies such as critical race theory—was seen, at the time, as a new formula for Republicans to win votes in critical areas, such as northern Virginia surrounding Washington, D.C.
In this election, those areas voted overwhelmingly for Spanberger. Youngkin, who is popular in the state, was term-limited and could not immediately seek reelection. Virginia’s constitution prohibits governors from serving consecutive terms, though not for other statewide offices, hence Miyares sought reelection.
