At the Richmond Convention Center on Tuesday, supporters of Abigail Spanberger gathered to mark a turning point in Virginia’s history. By night’s end, Spanberger, a former CIA officer and three-term congresswoman, became the Commonwealth’s first woman governor. Her victory led a broader Democratic sweep across the state, wins for lieutenant governor and attorney general, and a thirteen-seat gain in the House of Delegates that solidified the party’s control.
It was a milestone centuries in the making.
Virginia had never elected a woman to its highest office, despite several notable campaigns that came close. Mary Sue Terry, the state’s attorney general in the early 1990s, became the first woman nominated by a major party when she ran for governor in 1993 but lost to George Allen. More recently, Jennifer Carroll Foy, then a delegate and now a Virginia state senator, made a strong but unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination in 2021. And in 2025, history was sealed when Spanberger faced Republican Winsome Earle-Sears in the state’s first all-woman gubernatorial race, a contest that would end with Spanberger breaking one of the last barriers in Virginia politics.
The energy inside the convention hall shifted from anxious to euphoric within an hour of the polls closing. Flags waved, chants rose, and strangers embraced united by the shared sense that something historic had just taken place. Captured in black and white by photographer Kimberly Frost, the night unfolds as a swirl of motion, light, and collective relief that will be remembered as the moment Virginia finally turned the page.
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