Spanberger Pledges To 'Always Put Virginia First' As Governor

Updated at 10:35 p.m.

Democrat Abigail Spanberger made history Tuesday night by winning the Virginia governor's race over Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears. Spanberger will become the Commonwealth's first woman to serve as governor.

She pledged to serve all Virginians and focus on problems families face, such as the economy, affordable housing, predatory lending, high pharmaceutical prices, tackling energy prices and supply by making large users pay more.

"My fellow Virginians, tonight we sent a message to every corner of the Commonwealth —
a message to our neighbors and our fellow Americans across the country," Spanberger told supporters gathered in Richmond. "We sent a message to the whole world that in 2025 Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship. We chose our Commonwealth over chaos.

The governor-elect said she will focus on problem solving, not stoking division. "You chose leadership that will always put Virginia first," Spanberger said.

"Virginia, I cannot wait to get to work for you. Tonight we turned a page. We turned that page by listening to our neighbors … by laying out a clear agenda, and by leading with decency and determination," Spanberger said. "To those Virginians who did not vote for me … my intent is to serve all Virginians. That means I will listen to you, work for you and with you."

She will succeed Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who is not allowed to run for a second consecutive term. Her victory aligns with recent voting patterns in Virginia, which picks its governors the year after a presidential election and tends to elect someone of the opposite party of the president.

Spanberger, a former case officer with the CIA, flipped a U.S. House seat in Northern Virginia in 2018 and retired from Congress in 2024 to run for governor. She will be the state’s first female governor.

Also making history Tuesday is Democrat Ghazala F. Hashmi, the first woman and Muslim elected to serve as Virginia's lieutenant governor. She defeated Republican John Reid.

Hashmi is currently a state senator representing a district south of Richmond. Prior to that, she worked as a college professor in Virginia. She entered politics in 2019 by flipping a Republican-held state Senate seat and went to on to win a crowded Democratic primary for lieutenant governor in June.

She is the first Indian American and first Muslim to win statewide office in Virginia.

"Virginia has chosen leadership that lifts people up instead of tearing them down. Together, we have proven that — in Virginia — a child’s name, a family’s personal struggles, and a community’s identity are not barriers to belonging," Hashmi said according to prepared remarks. … "This moment of success is not mine alone. It belongs to every Virginian who believes that our politics must be more hopeful, more inclusive, and more focused on solving problems instead of scoring points on the backs of others’ pain."

Hashmi said she first decided to run for office in order to respond to the targeting and scapegoating of marginalized communities.

"I decided to run for public office because no one in this country should be made to feel as though they are not welcome in their own neighborhoods or in their own country," Hashmi said.

The attorney general's race was won by Democratic challenger Jay Jones, with a 5 percent lead over GOP incumbent Jason Miyares. Jones had faced calls to drop out of the race when offensive old text messages surfaced.

Patch will update this story with unofficial totals from the Virginia Department of Elections as they are released.

As of 10:40 p.m., the votes stood at: (Patch will add tallies as they become available below. Be sure to refresh this page for the latest.)

Previous updates below:

Other statewide races are the lieutenant governor matchup of Democratic state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi of Richmond and Republican talk-radio host John Reid; and the attorney general race, where Republican incumbent Jason Miyares is seeking a second term against former Democratic state Del. Jay Jones. (See results tables below for these races.)

Democrats hold a commanding lead in the race for governor and a slim lead in the lieutenant governor's contest, according to polls for both offices released in recent days.

Polls released in the last two weeks all gave Spanberger a double-digit lead in the governor's race. The newest poll, released on Sunday, Nov. 2, by The Hill/Emerson shows Spanberger with 56% of support to Earle-Sears at 44%.

• RELATED: Virginia Governor's Race Will Test Trump And Democrats Nationally — And Make History

To that end, former President Barack Obama campaigned for Spanberger on Saturday in Norfolk. Whether the former congresswoman wins or her GOP opponent Earle-Sears is the victor, Virginia will make history Tuesday by electing the Commonwealth's first woman as governor.

Obama's remarks focused on what he argued is the President Donald Trump’s “lawlessness and recklessness” and “shambolic” economic policy. Obama urged voters to “set a glorious example for the nation” by rejecting nominees loyal to a president with “autocratic impulses.”

“The stakes are now clear,” Obama told Virginians. “We don't need to speculate about the dangers to our democracy. We don't need to ask ourselves how much more coarse and mean our culture can become. Elections matter, and they matter to you.”

Polling Highlights

Spanberger leads Earle-Sears 50% to 43% in a survey by the Wason Center at Christopher Newport University released Oct. 27.

A Roanoke College poll out Oct. 27 shows Spanberger with a 10-point lead over Earle-Sears, the Virginia Mercury said.

A Washington Post-George Mason University poll released Oct. 20 gave Spanberger an edge of 54% to 42%.

In all, nine public opinion polls done for the governor's race give the Democrat an overall average of 52.1 percent support to 43.2 percent for the current lieutenant governor, said Real Clear Politics.

“Like most elections, this one will be determined by voter turnout and how independents vote,” Harry Wilson, interim director of IPOR and professor emeritus of political science at Roanoke College told the Virginia Mercury. “While Spanberger appears to have maximized her Democratic support, Earle-Sears could slightly increase her support among Republicans, and she needs to make more inroads with independents with very little time left to do so.”

During a campaign stop in Virginia over the weekend, former President Barack Obama took care not to blame voters who backed Trump in 2024 because of inflation and a turbulent economy.

Spanberger has focused her campaign on her bipartisan efforts representing a Republican-leaning Northern Virginia district in Congress, The Washington Post said.

Trump spent the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, leaving Earle-Sears to campaign for herself. He has said — without naming Earle-Sears — that he backs her Virginia bid.

Earle-Sears did not mention Trump at all as she campaigned with term-limited Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican. “We are not going back,” she said, arguing for conservative continuity in Purcellville. “There's only darkness back there. Abigail Spanberger represents the darkness.”

In multiple small-town stops, Earle-Sears promised to lower taxes, defend parents' ability to shape education policy and stave off unions and business regulations. “I'm for common sense,” she said in Northern Virginia.

Spanberger kept to her more circumspect style regarding Trump, pairing economic arguments against his policies with more opaque references to the president's moves that upend democratic norms.

“Virginia voters can and will send a message amid the recklessness and the heartlessness coming out of Washington,” she said ahead of Obama. She criticized “the political turmoil coming out of Washington right now” and introduced Obama by recalling “a time not that long ago … when we had a president … who worked to bring us together instead of tearing us apart.”

Earle-Sears has emphasized culture war issues, opposing transgender students in schools, undocumented immigrants, and diversity programs at universities and state agencies, a Washington Post story said.

Youngkin told rallygoers at the Earle-Sears event Saturday: “We cannot let this happen. We must win on Tuesday. We have to get this done on Tuesday. The consequences can be fabulous or they can be bad.”

Candidates Set To Make VA History

Some voters have already cast ballots through early voting or mail-in ballots. Early in-person voting ran through Nov. 1. The deadline to return a mail ballot is 7 p.m. on Nov. 4. Mailed ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 4 and received by noon on the Friday following the election. Completed ballots can be returned by mail or at any polling place on Election Day from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Spanberger plays down the historic nature of her campaign for Virginia governor and avoids making big, bold promises about what she will accomplish if elected. Yet some believe the moderate approach — others call it boring — that the former congresswoman and CIA case officer has taken heading into Tuesday's election holds the key to the Democratic Party's national revival, an Associated Press analysis said.

Earle-Sears has tried to paint her Democratic opponent as an out-of-touch liberal more concerned about transgender rights and immigrants who are in the United States illegally than she is about the safety of school children. That playbook worked for Trump in the last presidential election. But given the national security background of Spanberger, it is unclear whether that will work Tuesday.

Spanberger has held a financial advantage throughout the campaign, bringing in about $66 million over the course of her campaign, compared to about $35 million for Earle-Sears. The Democrat entered the final two-week stretch of the campaign with about $4.1 million remaining in the bank, compared to $1.3 million for the Republican.

Spanberger pledged to tackle rising consumer costs. On Saturday, she criticized Trump's Department of Government Efficiency and the ongoing federal shutdown — both of which have a disproportionate impact in a state with more than 300,000 federal employees, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Earle-Sears has pinned the shutdown on Spanberger, arguing the former congresswoman should use her leverage with Virginia's Democratic U.S. senators. Both have voted against the GOP's spending extension bill as Democrats demand Republicans address looming health care cuts.

The contest could offer some clues as to whether social issues carry any less weight with voters than in previous elections.

Spanberger has touted her support for abortion rights, doing so in the last Southern state not to impose new restrictions or bans in recent years. Earle-Sears did not mention her opposition to abortion rights Saturday but has said repeatedly that Spanberger is an extremist on transgender rights — attacks similar to those that Trump wielded effectively against Democrat Kamala Harris in 2024.

Other Statewide Races

Reid’s campaign got off to a rocky start when Youngkin called on him to withdraw from the race after allegations surfaced linking Reid to a social media account containing sexually explicit photos. Reid has denied any involvement with the account.

Controversy has also swirled in the race for state attorney general, where Republican incumbent Miyares seeks a second term. His challenger is former Democratic state Del. Jones, who in text messages from 2022 suggested, among other things, that a prominent Republican lawmaker get “two bullets to the head.”

Jones has apologized for the messages, but the issue has been a major topic not only in the race for attorney general but also at the top of the ticket. Earle-Sears has criticized Spanberger on the campaign trail and in television ads for not calling on Jones to withdraw from the race.

The Roanoke College poll found that 80% of likely voters have heard or read about 2022 text messages in which Jones fantasized about shooting then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert, a Republican. Among those who said they already voted for Jones, 87% said they would have supported him anyway, while 1% said they would have switched their vote to Miyares.

Lieutenant Governor Race

Hashmi led Republican John Reid 42% to 40% in polling for the lieutenant governor’s race, while Miyares holds an 8-point edge, 46% to 38%, over Jones, according to Real Clear Politics.

In the lieutenant governor’s contest, Hashmi, D-Richmond, holds a narrow 47% to 45% edge over Reid, a conservative talk-show host. The polls show 7% say they are undecided or don’t know who they will vote for, and 1% say they will vote for someone else.

The attorney general’s race remains a virtual tie. Miyares leads Jones by a single point, 46%-to-45%, the Roanoke College poll said.

The Hill/Emerson poll shows Miyares only trailing Jones by 2 percent, 51% to 49%.

Attorney General Race

The Associated Press contributed reporting.