“We sent a message to the whole world that in 2025 Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship. We chose our Commonwealth over chaos.” — Governor-elect, Abigail Spanberger.
Cheers erupted throughout The Richmond Convention Center as Abigail Spanberger was officially declared the 75th governor of Virginia at 7:53 pm.
In a race that felt more personal than political for many Virginians, Spanberger secured a decisive win over Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, flipping Virginia’s top job back to Democrats after four years under Republican Governor and Trump acolyte Glenn Youngkin.
History was further made tonight as Spanberger becomes the first woman to lead the Commonwealth in over 400 years of representative government. “We can unite for Virginia’s future and set an example for the rest of the nation,” she told supporters at her election night rally, where she was joined by family, campaign staff, and a few thousand exuberant supporters.
Spanberger, a former CIA case officer, ran as a moderate pragmatist with a message that never deviated from her core issues: steady on affordability, focused on cost of living, along with protecting health care access after Trump’s “big beautiful bill” threatened 300,000 Virginian’s Medicaid and Affordable Care Act subsidies. But she also didn’t shy away from causes important to the progressive wing of the party, standing firm on reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ protections.
By contrast, Earle-Sears ran a hollow campaign lacking any substantive policy. She leaned hard into anti-trans panic and culture war rhetoric pulled straight from the MAGA playbook. Desperate for a Trump endorsement (that she never got), she also failed to acknowledge, and routinely dismissed, the economic trauma caused by DOGE and the impact that had on Virginia’s economy, not to mention the cruelty inflicted on tens of thousands of federal workers who are citizens of the Commonwealth.
That voter rejection of Earle-Sears’ message was already taking shape earlier in the day.
“I hope it’s a wake up call to a lot of folks,” said Mary Lawson, outside of a polling station in Churchill, after voting for Spanberger. “[They] need to get the government back up and everyone paid.” Ansel Zong shared a similar feeling of exhaustion after voting at the University Commons at VCU, saying, “Honestly I’m kinda at a loss, not just with our state, but everywhere else and how its affects today’s [political] climate.”
That backdrop of economic anxiety and over the top fear-mongering helped drive voter turnout beyond expectations. By the time polls opened today, 987,000 ballots had already been cast and the race was called after 55.2 percent of the vote was tallied for Spanberger, only 53 minutes after polls closed.
While Spanberger’s victory ultimately came down to issues of affordability and healthcare, the election was also a clear referendum on the cruelty of American politics under Trump, and a message from voters who rejected the president’s extremist MAGA agenda. Something she echoed in her acceptance speech: “We sent a message to the whole world that in 2025 Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship. We chose our Commonwealth over chaos.”
Beyond Spanberger, Democrats also won huge tonight, sweeping all the top positions in Virginia, including Ghazala Hashmi as Lieutenant Governor and Jay Jones as Attorney General, along with increasing their control of the House of Delegates from 51-64 seats.
The Democratic victory in Virginia can also be read as a signal ahead of the 2026 midterms. Part of a broader shift that includes Mikie Sherrill’s gubernatorial win in New Jersey, Zohran Mamdani’s election as mayor of New York City, and the passage of Proposition 50 in California—all decisive victories. Together, these outcomes point to one thing: MAGA isn’t just losing ground, it’s also losing voters, especially young people, independents, and swing voters, who are rejecting extremism, democratic backsliding, economic instability, and culture war politics as an inevitable part of American life.
Sofia Feliciano contributed to this report.
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