RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — As the polls closed on Tuesday across Virginia, it quickly became clear it was a night of firsts: Voters overwhelmingly elected a slate of candidates who broke race and gender barriers in contests considered among the most consequential nationally.
Republicans in Virginia also fielded a historically diverse statewide ticket that would have set records.
The results come as President Donald Trump has made his opposition to diversity initiatives a cornerstone of his platform, dismantling federal civil rights programs that sought to rectify a complicated history of racial discrimination. He has justified those moves by saying that race and gender equity programs overcorrect for past wrongs and foment anti-American sentiment — a position shared among many conservatives across the country.
Still, Virginia’s election results — in tandem with high-profile Democratic victories across the U.S. — call into question whether Trump’s staunch positions on race, gender and gender identity are resonating with voters.
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Democrat Abigail Spanberger won the Virginia governor’s race Tuesday, giving Democrats a key victory heading into the 2026 midterm elections and making history as the first woman ever to lead the Commonwealth. Her victory was decisive, with about 57% of the vote.
The race was bound to make history regardless of who came out on top: Spanberger was running against Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, marking the first time two women were the front-runners in a general election for governor.
In her acceptance speech, Spanberger recalled how her husband said to their three daughters, “Your mom is going to be the governor of Virginia.”
“And I can guarantee you those words have never been spoken in Virginia, ever before,” she said, beaming.
Spanberger said her victory meant Virginians were choosing “pragmatism over partisanship” and “leadership that will focus on problem solving and not stoking division.”
First Muslim woman elected statewide
Democrat Ghazala Hashmi defeated Republican John Reid in the race for lieutenant governor, becoming the first Indian American woman to win statewide office in Virginia. She is also the first Muslim woman to be elected statewide in the U.S.
Firsts are not new to Hashmi. She was the first Muslim woman elected to the Virginia Senate five years ago. Hashmi, a former English professor born in India, said at the time that her opposition to Trump’s Muslim ban motivated her to break into politics.
This time around, her campaign for lieutenant governor focused less on her identity and more on key issues, such as health and education. Still, some said her identity was a prominent factor in the race. Reid recently took to social media to tie Hashmi to Zohran Mamdani, the first Muslim elected mayor of New York City, despite marked differences in their platforms, nationalities and ages — a comparison critics said was Islamophobic.
Like the governor’s race, the battle for lieutenant governor would have been historic either way: Reid was the first openly gay man nominated to statewide office in Virginia, and he faced hurdles on the trail in connection to his sexuality. GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin asked him to leave the ticket after opposition research linked him to a social media account with sexually explicit photos of men. At the time, Reid said he felt betrayed.
In her victory speech, Hashmi said her candidacy reflected progress in the state and nation.
“My own journey — from a young child landing at the airport in Savannah, Georgia, to now being elected as the first Muslim woman to achieve statewide office in Virginia and in the entire country — is only possible because of the depth and breadth of opportunities made available in this country and in this commonwealth.”
Son of civil rights pioneers to be attorney general
Democrat Jay Jones defeated Republican incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares, becoming the first Black person elected as top prosecutor in the former capital of the Confederacy.
Jones, a former Virginia delegate, comes from a long line of racial-justice trailblazers — a fact he emphasized throughout his campaign and after his victory.
“My ancestors were slaves. My grandfather was a civil rights pioneer who braved Jim Crow,” Jones said Tuesday. “My mother, my uncles, my aunts endured segregation, all so that I could stand before you today.”
That said, Jones’ victory is as much a referendum on dissatisfaction with the government shutdown and Trump’s mass firings, which have hit Virginia especially hard due to its high concentration of federal workers.
Ever since Democrat Jimmy Carter won the White House in 1976, every time a new president has been elected, Virginia has voted in a governor the following year from the opposite party.
Jones’ win comes after Miyares, elected in 2021, became the first Latino to hold a Virginia statewide office.
(CNN) — Democrats’ dominance in Tuesday’s elections reset expectations ahead of next year’s midterm battle for House and Senate control, reinvigorating a party that has been in the political wilderness and leaving Republicans lamenting that the gains President Donald Trump made a year ago with key portions of the electorate all but evaporated.
“Last night, if that wasn’t a message to all Republicans, then we’ve got our head jammed in the ground,” said West Virginia GOP Sen. Jim Justice.
The list of Democratic winners spanned the party’s ideological spectrum — from Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist elected mayor of New York City, to Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill, the moderates with strong national security credentials elected governors of Virginia and New Jersey, respectively.
Their wins could rally Democrats in competitive House, Senate and governor’s races next year around a message all three made central to their campaigns, in different forms: pledges to reduce the cost of living.
But the playing field won’t be easy for Democrats. Strategists in both parties agree that control of the House will be in play, but the net effect of redistricting moves around the country — particularly if the Supreme Court decides to weaken the Voting Rights Act — could leave fewer competitive seats for Democrats. And the 2026 Senate map includes only a handful of GOP-held seats that appear to be in play and multiple seats Democrats will have to defend.
Still, Tuesday’s results may embolden Democrats to continue their strategy in the ongoing government shutdown, while igniting new debates over what kinds of candidates can win, and where.
Margie Omero, a Democratic pollster, said the elections should be viewed within the broader context of a year in which the party’s voters have packed town halls and rallies, won key races like the Wisconsin Supreme Court contest in the spring and a slew of special elections, and scored candidate recruitment victories for next year’s midterms.
“Take the whole year into account and it tells a pretty similar story, which is that Democrats are motivated and Republicans are less motivated,” Omero said.
Trump, she said, “lost popularity and he’s lost altitude on all of his top issues, like the economy and immigration.”
“Where does that leave his supporters in a midterm or off-year election?” Omero said. “What are they coming out for, if he’s less popular and his policies are less popular and his agenda’s less popular?”
Voters cast their ballots at a polling station in Arlington, Virginia, on November 4. Credit: Alex Wong / Getty Images via CNN Newsource
In addition to the wins in governor’s races and mayoral elections, and a critical victory in a statewide vote to green-light a redistricting effort to add five more seats that favor Democrats in California, the party also scored a long list of lower-profile victories on Tuesday.
They broke the GOP’s supermajority in the Mississippi state Senate. They flipped two seats on Georgia’s Public Service Commission. They defeated a voter identification ballot initiative in Maine. Their incumbent Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices prevailed in retention votes.
The results showed that many of the gains Trump had made in 2024 have evaporated. In New Jersey, Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli couldn’t match Trump’s support levels with Latino and Black voters. In Virginia, Spanberger notched the most impressive Democratic performance in recent years — besting the margins of the party’s last two presidential nominees and carrying a scandal-plagued nominee for attorney general, Jay Jones, to victory on her coattails.
For the GOP, the fallout could come in a number of forms — including altering the party’s push for redistricting to add winnable congressional seats in deep-red states, and changing how Republicans in competitive midterm races approach Trump.
“The picture is pretty clear,” said Republican pollster Whit Ayres. “It is not a muddled message.”
Ayres pointed to several lessons Republicans should take from Tuesday’s results. In Virginia and New Jersey, two states Trump lost in all three of his presidential runs, Republican gubernatorial candidates tied themselves to the president, a “losing strategy from the start,” he said.
Republicans might also be inclined to rethink their strategy on redistricting, he said.
“Given the Democratic margins yesterday, about the last thing you want to do if you want to hold on to the House is weaken Republican incumbent House members, and that’s exactly what will happen if you’re trying to carve out more Republican districts,” he said.
Trump world deflects blame
For his part, Trump and his top allies publicly downplayed the election results, with the president noting on social media that he wasn’t on the ballot. He partially blamed the ongoing federal government shutdown, telling Republican lawmakers in a closed-door session Wednesday morning that they are getting “killed” politically by the impasse, a source told CNN.
Vice President JD Vance said that “it’s idiotic to overreact to a couple of elections in blue states.” But he also warned that the GOP needs “to do better at turning out voters than we have in the past.”
“I said it in 2022, and I’ve said it repeatedly since: our coalition is ‘lower propensity’ and that means we have to do better at turning out voters than we have in the past,” Vance said Wednesday morning on X.
Vance also urged Republicans to focus on affordability. He said the Trump administration “inherited a disaster from Joe Biden and Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
Trump adviser Alex Bruesewitz called the election results a “great lesson for the Republican Party,” blaming the losing Virginia gubernatorial nominee, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, for failing to excite Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
“Your candidate needs to be able to turn out ALL FACTIONS of our party, and they do that by being MAGA all the way,” he wrote on X.
Though Tuesday’s GOP losses were wide-ranging, Republicans focused on elevating one Democratic winner: Mamdani, the 34-year-old Muslim and democratic socialist mayor-elect of New York City.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise called Mamdani “the new leader of the Democrat Party.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is “apparently a socialist now,” since Jeffries endorsed Mamdani.
Democratic ideological rifts remain
Mamdani’s victory over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New York City emboldened the left wing of the Democratic Party. Usamah Andrabi, a spokesperson for Justice Democrats, a group created to oust “corporate Democrats” and elect progressives, said Mamdani’s win marks a “turning point” for their movement and shows the importance of competitive races.
One long-simmering debate Tuesday’s results didn’t settle is the ideological battle within the Democratic Party over the way forward, with a host of competitive House and Senate primaries just months away and the 2028 presidential primary already looming large.
“Democratic primaries can and should be the battleground for the control of our party’s direction,” Andrabi said.
A supporter for independent mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo watches election night returns during a watch party for Cuomo in New York on Tuesday. Credit: Heather Khalifa / AP via CNN Newsource
However, in New Jersey and Virginia, the winning Democratic candidates are moderates with strong national security credentials. Spanberger, the Virginia governor-elect, criticized Mamdani in an interview with CNN just days before the election, suggesting his proposals aimed at reducing the cost of living will ultimately disappoint his supporters.
“We don’t need to settle,” said Omero, the Democratic pollster. “We’re able to have more moderate candidates in some places and more progressive candidates in some places. That feels like an important lesson.”
One area where Democrats appeared broadly on the same page Wednesday is the ongoing government shutdown — fueled in part by Democrats’ demand that Republicans make concessions on health care funding in order to pass a measure that would fund the government.
Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy wrote on X that it is “not a coincidence these big wins came at the exact moment when Democrats are using our power to stand for something and be strong. A huge risk to not learn that lesson.”
Election Day has brought two major victories for Democrats in Virginia’s statewide races.
Stay with WTOP on air, online and on our news app for team coverage, live results and analyses of election night in Virginia. Listen live.
Abigail Spanberger has won a historic election to become Virginia’s first female governor and led a Democratic sweep of statewide races in an pivotal election ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Down ballot, Democrat Jay Jones won the attorney general race and Democratic state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi won the lieutenant governor race.
The candidates’ wins dashed Republican hopes of maintaining power in all three top offices, currently led by Gov. Glenn Youngkin alongside Attorney General Jason Miyares and Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who both lost their campaigns.
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Spanberger, a former congresswoman, won 57.5% of the vote and Earle-Sears fell behind with 42.3%, according to The Associated Press with 97% of votes counted as of 12:50 a.m.
In the lieutenant governor race, Hashmi walked away with 55.6% of the vote, while Republican radio host John Reid fell behind with 44.1%, The Associated Press reported at 12:55 a.m. with 97% of votes counted. Hashmi will succeed Earle-Sears as the new lieutenant governor.
Jones’ victory squashed Miyares’ bid for a second term as Virginia’s top prosecutor.
The Democratic challenger prevailed over the incumbent despite controversy surrounding resurfaced text messages referencing political violence. Jones pulled ahead winning 53.1% of the vote while Miyares earned 46.5%, The Associated Press reported at 12:55 a.m. with 97% of votes counted.
The results also mark a major victory for Democrats in an election that both parties have viewed as a bellwether for the midterm elections in 2026.
Virginia’s election is also treated by analysts as a measure of voter attitudes amid a lengthy government shutdown during President Donald Trump’s second term in office.
Outside the statewide races, all 100 seats in Virginia’s House of Delegates were up for grabs Tuesday. Democrats are projected to maintain their majority in the lower chamber.
A moderate approach wins a high-stakes governor’s race
The governor’s race was called in favor of Spanberger about one hour after polls closed.
Spanberger delivered a victory speech in Richmond on Tuesday night, touching on topics such as education, abortion rights and the federal workforce.
“We sent a message to every corner of the commonwealth, a message to our neighbors and our fellow Americans across the country,” Spanberger told a crowd of supporters. “We sent a message to the whole world that in 2025, Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship. We chose our commonwealth over chaos.”
Supporters at the celebration in the state’s capital shared their excitement with WTOP’s Scott Gelman.
“This is history, the first woman governor in Virginia, and the right person to do the job,” said Monica Lucus, of Richmond. “I think it’s time for a change, and this is a burst of energy that the country needs, not just Virginia but the country.”
After losing the governor’s race, Earle-Sears said she left a voicemail for Spanberger to wish her success.
“I asked her to support policies that will unite us, that will not divide us, that will strengthen our families and keep us safe, and that if I can ever be of help doing that, I’m here,” Earle-Sears said at her campaign headquarters in Stafford County.
Spanberger had also far outraised her Republican opponent, bringing in more than $65 million compared to Earle-Sears’ $35 million, according to recent campaign finance reports shared by the Virginia Public Access Project.
Though the election guaranteed to name the state’s first woman as governor, neither candidate made the race’s historic nature a focal point of their campaigns, instead focusing on topics such as the economy.
Spanberger, a former CIA case officer and member of Congress, had said the election is about the struggles of everyday voters, including those impacted by cuts to the federal workforce or tariffs. She took a more moderate approach and avoided talking about Trump.
Earle-Sears drew attention to transgender students in public schools and reducing the cost of living. Before taking office as lieutenant governor, Earle-Sears served in the U.S. Marine Corps and in the Virginia House of Delegates during the early 2000s.
Attorney general race stirs up old texts
Jones thanked Miyares for his service as attorney general and praised his supporters.
“To the folks who stood by us every single step of the way, labor. We love you,” Jones said during a speech in Richmond. “The weight of that trust is not lost on me at all, nor is the history that led us to this moment right here. My ancestors were slaves. My grandfather was a civil rights pioneer who braved Jim Crow. My father, my mother, my uncles, my aunts endured segregation all so that I could stand here before you today.”
In the final weeks before Election Day, the attorney general race spotlighted old text messages sent by Jones that showed he fantasized about political violence toward a former colleague.
Jones has apologized for those texts, but they sparked pushback from the GOP nationwide, and Republicans called for the Democratic nominee to drop out of the race.
During the candidates’ debate, Jones attempted to refocus the race on Trump and said Miyares couldn’t push back on overreach from the White House.
Miyares had argued that Jones is unqualified and pressed him on the text messages.
But during a speech Tuesday night, he wished Jones the best and reflected on his time as attorney general.
“The attorney general’s office we inherited was weak and a soft office focused more on politics, but we made it focused on where the victims should always come first, where crime fighting was our number one priority, and public safety was the objective,” Miyares said of his time in office.
Lieutenant governor’s race makes history
Hashmi will take over the lieutenant governor position from Earle-Sears, who opted against running for reelection and instead campaigned for governor.
Hashmi is the first Indian American to win statewide office in Virginia. She will also be the country’s first Muslim woman in statewide office.
“I know that many of us feel as though the nation is in the midst of challenges that are much deeper and more intense than those we have faced before, and that it will take us generations to repair,” Hashmi told a crowd in Richmond. “But let us not forget that the challenges we endure today are not entirely new, and they can be navigated.”
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Voters cast ballots in high-stakes election in Virginia
Before being elected to the Virginia General Assembly, Hashmi was an academic administrator. She has pushed for issues such as reproductive health care, gun violence protection and the economy.
Polls had leaned in favor of Hashmi, with a slight lead of around two points over Reid in recent weeks. Both candidates are based out of the Richmond area.
Reid has also spotlighted the economy in his campaign, along with law enforcement, parental rights and immigration enforcement.
Early in his career, Reid worked as an intern for President Ronald Reagan. He has served as chief communications officer for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a veterans organization, according to his website.
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Virginia voters are deciding their next governor and several other statewide contests in Tuesday’s election. Follow this page for live election results.
Stay with WTOP on air, online and on our news app for team coverage, live results and analyses of election night in Virginia. Listen live.
Virginia voters are deciding their next governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and the makeup of the lower chamber of the state legislature in an election Tuesday that observers nationwide are watching closely to determine which political party has momentum heading into the 2026 midterms.
Polls opened Tuesday at 6 a.m. Live results below will begin updating after polls close at 7 p.m.
There’s also a slew of local races in jurisdictions across Northern Virginia that will determine town mayors, school board members, city council members and more.
Polls are open in Virginia in an election to decide the state’s next governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, House of Delegates and local offices across the commonwealth.
Polls are open in Virginia in an election to decide the state’s next governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, House of Delegates and local offices across the commonwealth.
Observers across the nation have their eyes on Tuesday’s election to determine if the results indicate momentum toward one party or the other heading into next year’s midterm elections, which will decide the balance of power in Congress.
Virginia’s race for governor has pitted the current Republican lieutenant governor, Winsome Earle-Sears, against Democratic former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger.
There’s plenty of intrigue in the commonwealth’s other statewide races, too. Democrat Ghazala Hashmi and Republican John Reid are vying to be Virginia’s next lieutenant governor in a race that’s shaping up to be the closest of the statewide contests.
And the race that’s grabbed the most headlines in recent weeks is the one for attorney general, after texts sent by Democratic nominee Jay Jones surfaced in which Jones hypothesized about shooting a political rival.
That controversy has opened the door to the possibility of a split administration, as Spanberger is favored in the governor’s race, but the controversy has propelled incumbent Attorney General and Republican Jason Miyares to a lead in many polls to retain his position.
All 100 seats in Virginia’s House of Delegates are also on the ballot, though some are not contested. Democrats have a slim 51-48 majority headed into Tuesday, with one current vacancy.
Democrats also carry a majority in the Virginia State Senate; the 40 seats in the upper chamber are on the ballot in 2027.
Before Election Day, hundreds of thousands of Virginians voted early. According to the Virginia Public Access Project, a record number of early ballots were cast for a non-presidential election in Virginia.
What to know about casting a ballot
Polls close at 7 p.m. Anyone in line to vote at that time will still be able to do so.
All voters need to provide an acceptable form of ID, sign an ID confirmation statement at the polls or vote with a provisional ballot. Those who vote a provisional ballot will have until noon on the Friday after the election to deliver a copy of their ID to their jurisdiction’s election board or sign a confirmation statement in order for their ballot to be counted.
WTOP will report results live as soon as they start coming in shortly after the polls close.
Voters hit the polls
Chelsea Lamm went to the polls early Tuesday morning and said helping others in need was top on her mind.
“Just how can we be fair and think about everybody instead of just ourselves and what our own religious beliefs are,” she said.
Voter Matthew Ziegler said he had several big topics on his mind when walking into the voting booth Tuesday.
“The general safety of the population, unnecessary taxes, the car tax, that’s been ridiculous for years to be honest, and other issues of course the economy in mind as well across the entire state,” he said.
Nader Chaaban said taxes were a big issue for him as he stepped up to vote.
“Honestly I wish that they would get rid of the car tax, that’s a killer right there,” Chaaban said. “You pay a property tax, you pay a food tax, you pay for everything and then they come back and they tax you on the car that you’ve already paid taxes on,” he said.
Voting in the historic Virginia governor’s race
Lamm said when it comes to the governor’s race, she’s made up her mind.
“I’m definitely voting Spanberger … especially as we’re seeing the government shutdown and SNAP benefits come into question for a lot of folks whether you’re voting Republican or Democrat, and so just how can I vote to take care of other people,” she said.
Ziegler said, for governor, he’s voting, “Winsome-Sears, she has a lot of great leadership qualities, confidence, she knows what she’s talking about and is concerned about all of the safety issues and especially with the economy she really stood out to me this year.”
When it comes to the government shutdown, Ziegler said he trusts Winsome-Sears to get the state through the difficult times.
“I think that will be something that she’ll definitely work on and sway to connect across the entire population of Virginia,” Ziegler said.
Chaaban said Spanberger “to a certain extent appeals to some of the things that I believe in and one of them honestly is looking at the educational system and supporting it and helping teachers, helping the school system.”
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Early voting continues through Saturday in a critical election in Virginia to determine the next governor, House of Delegates seats and a long list of local races.
Virginia voters speak out on the topics they’re most concerned about. (WTOP/Nick Iannelli)
Voters across Virginia will line up at polling places across the state Tuesday in a critical election to determine the next governor, House of Delegates seats and a long list of local races.
Political pundits will be reading the tea leaves to determine whether Democrats are gaining momentum, one year removed from their overwhelming defeat in last year’s presidential election and one year ahead of the midterms they hope to win to regain control in Congress.
The main event is the race for governor, which has pitted the current Republican lieutenant governor, Winsome Earle-Sears, against Democratic former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger. The other major statewide offices of lieutenant governor and attorney general are also up for grabs.
All 100 seats in Virginia’s House of Delegates are also on the ballot, though some are not contested. Democrats have a slim 51-48 majority headed into November, with one current vacancy.
There’s also a slew of local races across Northern Virginia and the rest of the commonwealth.
Dates at a glance
Early in-person voting: Sept. 19 through Nov. 1 (passed)
Deadline to register or update voter registration: Oct. 24 (passed)
Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 4. Voters in line by 7 p.m. will be able to cast a ballot.
All voters need to provide an acceptable form of ID or sign an ID confirmation statement at the polls or vote a provisional ballot. Those who vote a provisional ballot will have until noon on the Friday after the election to deliver a copy of their ID to their jurisdiction’s election board or sign a confirmation statement in order for their ballot to be counted.
Mail ballots must be postmarked on or before Election Day and received by noon on Nov. 7.
Voters should check in with their city of county elections office for information about drop boxes and their locations.
Who’s on the ballot?
Statewide races
Virginia is one of two states, along with New Jersey, that conducts statewide races, including its governor’s contest, in the year following a presidential election, meaning these races will draw attention from politicos across the U.S.
The top of the ticket features the closely watched governor’s race between Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and Democratic former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger.
A Roanoke College poll released in August showed Spanberger ahead of Earle-Sears. Spanberger also has a hefty fundraising advantage, having raised more than $40 million for her campaign to Earle-Sears’ nearly $17 million, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
No matter who wins the general election, Virginia is set to elect a woman as governor for the first time this fall.
For lieutenant governor, voters will decide between Democratic state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi and Republican radio host John Reid.
Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares is seeking reelection, and is facing Democratic challenger Jay Jones, an attorney and former state delegate.
House of Delegates
All 100 House of Delegates seats are up for grabs during November’s election, but not all are contested. The contested races in the D.C. area are below:
An asterisk denotes an incumbent. Locations are within district but do not provide the full scope of the voting area.
District 1, part of Arlington County
Patrick Hope, Democrat*
William “Bill” Moher III, Republican
District 2, part of Arlington County
Adele McClure, Democrat*
Wendy Sigley, Republican
District 6, Fairfax County (Great Falls, McLean)
Richard “Rip” Sullivan Jr., Democrat*
Kristin Hoffman, Republican
District 7, Fairfax County (Reston)
Karen Keys-Gamarra, Democrat*
Cassandra Aucoin, Republican
District 8, Fairfax County (Herndon, Oak Hill)
Irene Shin, Democrat*
Indira Massey, Republican
District 9, Fairfax County (Chantilly, Centreville)
Karrie Delaney, Democrat*
Nhan Huynh, Republican
District 10, Fairfax County (Centreville, Clifton, Braddock)
Dan Helmer, Democrat*
David Guill, Republican
District 11, City of Fairfax and Fairfax County (Oakton, Fair Oaks)
David Bulova, Democrat*
Adam Wise, Republican
Brandon Givens, Forward Party
District 12, Fairfax County (Tysons, Vienna, Merrifield)
Holly Seibold, Democrat*
Nelson Figueroa-Velez, Republican
District 13, Falls Church and Fairfax County (Merrifield, Seven Corners)
Marcus Simon, Democrat*
Sylwia Oleksy, Republican
Dave Crance Jr., Libertarian
District 14, Fairfax County (Annandale, Wakefield, Lincolnia)
Vivian Watts, Democrat*
Eric Johnson, Republican
District 15, Fairfax County (Burke)
Laura Jane Cohen, Democrat*
Saundra Davis, Republican
District 16, Fairfax County (Mount Vernon, Fort Hunt, Woodlawn)
Paul Krizek, Democrat*
Richard Hayden, Republican
Shelly Arnoldi, Independent
District 17, Fairfax County (Springfield, Franconia)
Mark Sickles, Democrat*
Naomi Mesfin, Republican
District 18, Fairfax County (Springfield, Newington, Lorton)
Kathy Tran, Democrat*
Edward McGovern, Republican
District 20, Manassas, Manassas Park, part of Prince William County
Michelle-Ann Lopes Maldonado, Democrat*
Christopher Stone, Republican
District 21, Prince William County (Bull Run, Gainesville)
Joshua Thomas, Democrat*
Gregory “Greg” Gorham, Republican
District 22, Prince William County (Linton Hall, Bristow, Nokesville, Buckhall)
Elizabeth Guzman, Democrat
Ian Lovejoy, Republican*
District 23, Prince William County (Dumfries, Triangle) and Stafford County (Boswell’s Corner, Aquia)
Candi King, Democrat*
James Tully, Republican
District 26, Loudoun County (Brambleton, Stone Ridge, South Riding)
JJ Singh, Democrat*
Ommair Butt, Republican
District 27, Loudoun County (Sterling, Sugarland Run, Dulles)
Atoosa Reaser, Democrat*
Junaid Khan, Republican
District 28, Loudoun County (Ashburn, Countryside)
David Reid, Democrat*
Janet Geisler, Republican
District 29, Loudoun County (Leesburg, Lansdowne)
Fernando “Marty” Martinez, Democrat*
Scott Thomas, Republican
District 30, Loudoun County (Purcellville) and Fauquier County (Marshall)
John McAuliff, Democrat
Geary Higgins, Republican*
District 61, Fauquier County (Warrenton, Bealeton) and parts of Culpeper and Rappahannock counties
Jacob “Jac” Bennington, Democrat
Michael Webert, Republican*
District 65, Parts of Stafford and Spotsylvania counties and Fredericksburg City
Joshua Cole, Democrat*
Sean Steinway, Republican
Local races
Most jurisdictions in Northern Virginia have local races of some sort, whether they are contests for mayor, county board, school board, city council or sheriff.
Check the full list of local races on the Virginia Department of Elections website. Voters can also check in with their county or city electoral board for more information on local races.
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Abigail Spanberger on the campaign trail. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
Virginia’s off-year elections have predictably lined up as a negative referendum on Donald Trump’s fractious second-term agenda. But while the Democrats’ gubernatorial candidate, the centrist congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, looks to be cruising toward a comfortable win over Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, there’s trouble two spots downballot. A scandal involving newly unearthed 2022 text messages from attorney general nominee Jay Jones has roiled his close race against incumbent Republican Jason Miyares and discomfited his ticket-mates (statewide candidates in Virginia run separately but often campaign together). While Spanberger and the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, Ghazala Hamshi, have denounced the texts, which wished terrible deaths for a Republican legislative leader and his family, they haven’t asked Jones to withdraw from the race as the GOP and its allied media have predictably demanded.
So Virginia Democrats have been thrown off-balance, and limited polling shows Jones in serious trouble. Hamshi’s race against Republican John Reid for the LG position is also very close. But Republican hopes that the scandal would derail Spanberger’s campaign don’t look to be realistic at all. For one thing, Jones’s troubles are mostly just convincing voters to skip the AG race rather than voting Republican, which mitigates the damage to his own candidacy and isolates the fallout. For another, Donald Trump is just a lodestone for the GOP that’s too difficult to throw off, as veteran Virginia political reporter Jeff Schapiro recently observed:
The ongoing federal government shutdown, triggered Oct. 1 by a partisan standoff in Congress, and preceded by a wave of DOGE-induced layoffs and retirements of government workers that, starting this past winter, fueled a steady increase in joblessness into the final months of the Virginia campaign. These spikes are most evident in Washington’s Northern Virginia suburbs but they are flaring elsewhere in the state.
Further, Trump’s tariffs are eroding by nearly 10% cargo traffic through the state’s gateway to the world, the Port of Virginia, a pillar of the coastal Virginia economy along with surrounding military bases and related federal civilian employment.
Add in unhappiness with Trump’s mass-deportation overreach among Virginia’s sizable population of immigrant citizens, and it’s clear the usual swing against the party controlling the White House (which gave the commonwealth Republican governor Glenn Youngkin four years ago) has been intensified this year. Spanberger has also run a highly disciplined campaign, fueled by a big funding advantage over Sears-Earle. So while Virginia experienced a significant swing toward the GOP in 2024 (Kamala Harris won it by just under six points; Joe Biden won it by ten in 2020), it’s still a blue state in a blue mood over a Republican presidency.
Aside from the Jones brouhaha, there’s one other late development that some Republicans think might help them: a surprise decision by Democratic legislative leaders to undertake a long-shot effort to get a constitutional amendment enacted so they can draw up a favorable congressional map prior to next year’s midterms. But since over a million Virginians have already voted early, and the gerrymandering process is extremely tentative and complex, it seems unlikely to have an impact other than on the margins.
Gubernatorial polls show no late Republican trend. The most recent publicly released survey, from Roanoke College, showed Spanberger with a ten-point lead over Earle-Sears (51 percent to 41 percent). The RealClearPolitics polling averages have the Democrat leading by 7.2 percent. The only poll indicating a really close race was a mid-October finding from the decidedly pro-GOP combine of Trafalgar and Insider Advantage, and even they gave Spanberger a three-point advantage. Jay Jones may or may not go down, but barring a shocker, Virginia will be governed by Democrats, almost certainly in a trifecta, next year.
One historical note worth mentioning: no matter who wins the race, Spanberger will be the first woman to serve as governor or senator of Virginia. That will leave Pennsylvania as the only state that has never broken the male monopoly on these positions.
As Virginia’s high-stakes election nears, Democrats have called a special legislative session to propose redrawing U.S. House districts — prompting Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin to denounce the move as a “desperate grab for power.” The redistricting effort, inspired by similar GOP actions in states like Texas, aims to bolster Democratic chances in the 2026 midterms, reigniting partisan tensions over electoral fairness and constitutional authority.
WTOP’s Alan Etter breaks down the Virginia General Assembly’s special session on Monday to potentially redraw the state’s congressional boundaries.
This article was reprinted with permission from Virginia Mercury.
With just one week before Election Day, Virginia lawmakers returned to the state Capitol Monday for a surprise special session that swiftly turned into a partisan clash over the future of the state’s congressional map — and, potentially, its balance of political power for years to come.
House Democrats, using procedural maneuvers that caught Republicans off guard, pushed through a procedural resolution crafted by House Majority Leader Charniele Herring, D-Alexandria, which, if successful, would allow the General Assembly to consider a proposed constitutional amendment granting lawmakers authority to redraw Virginia’s congressional districts mid-decade.
Under the resolution, adopted on a party-line vote in both chambers, lawmakers may now consider budget and revenue bills, judicial appointments and constitutional amendments related to redistricting and reapportionment. The measure effectively removes the usual constraints that limit special sessions to subjects designated by the governor or legislative leaders.
“This was an important vote for us to take this week in order for us to have that option,” said Del. Cia Price, D-Newport News, chair of the House Privileges and Elections Committee. “If we were not to take this action right now, then we would be pulling an option from the voters.”
Republicans decried the legislative action as an ambush carried out largely behind closed doors. Democrats argued the procedural expansion is needed to respond to what they view as a growing national campaign by Republicans — encouraged by President Donald Trump — to reengineer congressional maps mid-decade.
As first reported by The New York Times last week, Democratic strategists, including former Attorney General Eric Holder, have urged Virginia to act preemptively in case federal courts uphold new Republican-drawn maps in states such as Texas, North Carolina and Missouri that could tilt the balance of the U.S. House.
“The actions that Texas and Missouri and North Carolina have taken have triggered this,” Price said. “The trigger has already been pulled when it comes to attacks on our democracy. So that’s why Virginia is here. We are going to do our job to protect democracy in Virginia.”
Republicans cry foul
Republicans blasted the maneuver as a constitutional overreach designed to change election rules days before voters decide three statewide races.
House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore, R-Scott, said Democrats had sidelined the minority and the public in an opaque process that left many guessing what was actually being planned.
“There’s a lot of issues that we need to talk about to the voters of Virginia, but obviously the ruling party had other plans,” Kilgore told reporters on the House floor. “Just let it be known that we do think that this was a plan to take us out of having any motions of personal privilege. … I just want to know from our side, because we’re not privy to all this, are we going to have a redistricting constitutional amendment coming to the floor?”
House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore, R-Scott, speaks with reporters on the House floor Monday. (Photo by Markus Schmidt/Virginia Mercury)
Del. Israel O’Quinn, R-Washington, accused Democrats of hiding the ball: “You know a bill is a bad idea when a member mumbles through their description of it and refuses to take questions and sits back down,” O’Quinn said. “They don’t want morning hour speeches, so you’re getting to see a really bad idea play out in real time.”
Republicans also questioned whether Democrats had already missed the legal window to advance a constitutional amendment this year.
Del. Bobby Orrock, R-Spotsylvania, cited Virginia Code § 30-13, which requires proposed constitutional amendments to be posted publicly at least three months before the next House of Delegates election.
“That deadline has already passed,” Orrock said on the House floor, arguing that any amendment passed this week could not legally appear before voters in November.
Del. Lee Ware, R-Powhatan, warned that Democrats were defying centuries of precedent.
“Here we are, eight days before Election Day, near the conclusion of our 46-day election season, in Richmond,” Ware said. “The purpose of this unprecedented special session during an election is to hitch Virginia, belatedly, to the pell-mell bandwagon, to redistrict, or to speak more honestly, to gerrymander, the commonwealth’s electoral districts.”
Democrats: Amendment only creates an “option”
Price and other Democrats maintained that the move does not dismantle Virginia’s independent redistricting commission, approved by voters in 2020, but merely creates an additional safeguard should courts or federal actions reshape national political boundaries.
Del. Rodney Willett, D-Henrico, who will carry the proposed constitutional amendment, said the plan “is going to give us options.”
“Maybe the most important point to make here is what the resolution is not going to do, which is to abolish the commission that was created through the earlier constitutional amendment,” Willett said.
“This is to create, again, not a mandate, but an option, in the interim, in between those decennial redistrictings to do something when there’s an extraordinary circumstance.”
He added that the move was necessary because “our hand’s been forced here. This is not our choice to be here, but with this kind of attack, we’ve got to respond.”
Democratic House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, who last week called lawmakers back to Richmond, declined to outline his full plan publicly. But some Democratic leaders told Virginia Scope last week that the goal is to prevent Virginia’s representation in Congress from being weakened if neighboring states redraw their maps to favor Republicans.
Earle-Sears, GOP candidates seize on the optics
Before the session opened, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears — who presided over the state Senate Monday and is also the Republican nominee for governor — staged a campaign-style news conference on the Capitol steps, accusing Democrats of abusing their majority for partisan gain.
“Today, Democrats in our General Assembly are calling this special session, not to serve the people, but to serve ourselves,” Earle-Sears said. “They want to dismantle the very independent redistricting commission that Virginia was voting for in a bipartisan majority.”
Earle-Sears called the commission “born out of a prayer, a rare moment of unity, when Democrats and Republicans alike agreed that voters … should choose their own representatives, and not the other way around.”
Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears speaks at the state capitol Monday to rally against a special session called by Democratic leadership in the legislature to consider redistricting just over a week before Election Day. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods/Virginia Mercury)
She linked the move directly to her Democratic opponent, Abigail Spanberger, saying, “This pressure is coming from Washington insiders and Abigail Spanberger. What we are seeing today is the worst kind of political backtracking, an attempt to grab power by erasing the voter’s voice.”
Her remarks came as national attention turned to a $150,000 donation each from Holder’s National Democratic Redistricting Committee to Spanberger’s campaign and to Virginia House Democrats.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin seized on that timing Monday, accusing Spanberger of hypocrisy.
“This was Abigail Spanberger’s position just a few short years ago,” Youngkin wrote on X, citing her 2019 praise of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down racially gerrymandered districts. “All it took was $150,000 from the ‘Democrat Redistricting Committee’ to change her position completely,” Youngkin wrote.
Spanberger has not commented publicly on the current effort. In an August interview with WJLA, she said she opposed mid-decade redistricting and warned against “politicians trying to tilt the playing field in their favor,” aligning herself with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s call for fair-maps legislation.
Republican lieutenant governor nominee John Reid on Monday echoed Earle-Sears’ criticism, saying Democrats were “not respecting the will of the people.”
“They made it very clear, just five years ago, they don’t want petty partisanship,” Reid said. “They don’t want politicians drawing their own lines … this is not respectful to the people in Virginia.”
GOP congressional delegation joins chorus
Earlier in the day, Virginia’s five Republican members of Congress — U.S. Reps. Morgan Griffith, Jen Kiggans, Rob Wittman, Ben Cline and John McGuire — held a joint news conference at the Capitol condemning the Democratic move.
Griffith, a former House majority leader in the state legislature, said he had firsthand experience with partisan line-drawing.
“I was a part of partisan redistricting, but the voters of Virginia spoke in 2020 that they didn’t like that happening,” he said. Griffith argued that a special session after early voting had already begun “deprives those who have voted early” of the chance to weigh the issue.
U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans (left) and U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith (right) join their fellow Republican members of Virginia’s congressional delegation at the state capitol. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods/ Virginia Mercury)
Kiggans, who represents a competitive swing district in Hampton Roads, called the proposal a cynical replay of Washington dysfunction. “It’s a competitive district, and always will be,” she said, likening the Democratic plan to “partisan games in Washington” that have “now trickled down here to Richmond.”
Legal doubts and political fallout
Republican Party of Virginia Chair Mark Peake, a state senator from Lynchburg, told The Mercury in an interview Monday that the Democratic proposal was “unconstitutional.”
“There is no intervening election,” Peake said. “Nine-hundred thousand people have already voted. They’re supposed to post it in courthouses for three months before the election. They don’t have a bill, they don’t have a constitutional amendment. It’s not going through. As I said, it’s a ruse.”
Peake predicted “this will 100 percent end up in court.”
He dismissed comparisons to Trump’s mid-decade redistricting push in Texas.
“Where we are different is, we have a constitutional amendment in place that says how we do redistricting. Not mid-decade, it’s every decade. And it’s bipartisan.”
Broader stakes: A national redistricting arms race
The New York Times reported last week that Virginia Democrats’ rush to act stems from a fear that Republican-controlled states could redraw congressional boundaries before 2026, potentially costing Democrats several seats.
Trump’s public calls for GOP legislatures to redistrict mid-decade have prompted a flurry of legal and legislative action in Texas, Missouri and North Carolina. The U.S. Supreme Court is also currently weighing a major redistricting case from Louisiana.
In that context, Democrats in Virginia — one of only a few southern states with divided political control in recent years — see a constitutional amendment as both a defensive measure and a statement of principle.
But even some Democrats privately concede that the optics of returning to Richmond just days before an election could prove risky, particularly as Republicans work to cast the move as proof of overreach.
Next steps and uncertain path ahead
Price, whose committee oversees election law, said the Privileges and Elections Committee would meet Wednesday morning to review the amendment text, followed by a potential vote in the full House later this week.
She emphasized that the amendment would require approval again in the next legislative session and voter ratification in a statewide referendum before taking effect.
“I’ve been here for 10 years,” Price said. “We’ve had several proposed constitutional amendments, and when the Republicans were in charge, they weren’t worried about what they were bringing up. We are fully within our right to be here.”
Still, the legal and political obstacles are formidable.
Virginia law requires constitutional amendments to be approved by two separately elected General Assemblies, meaning even if Democrats pass it this week, it would need to survive another vote after the new legislature convenes in January — and then win approval at the ballot box in 2026.
Republicans appear determined to challenge the process in court before it gets that far. “They’re wasting our time,” Peake, the RPV chair, said flatly. “It’s going to be overturned as soon as it gets to court.”
As night fell on the Capitol, lawmakers filtered out of the chamber with few clear answers and even fewer signs of bipartisan consensus.
Price, standing outside the chamber doors, said Democrats would proceed carefully but deliberately.
“It’s important that we have all of our options on the table,” she said again. “This is about protecting democracy in Virginia.”
Reporters Nathaniel Cline and Charlotte Rene Woods contributed to this story.
Early voting continues through Saturday in a critical election in Virginia to determine the next governor, House of Delegates seats and a long list of local races.
Virginia voters speak out on the topics they’re most concerned about. (WTOP/Nick Iannelli)
Early voting continues through Saturday in a critical election in Virginia to determine the next governor, House of Delegates seats and a long list of local races.
Political pundits will be reading the tea leaves to determine whether Democrats are gaining momentum, one year removed from their overwhelming defeat in last year’s presidential election and one year ahead of the midterms they hope to win to regain control in Congress.
The main event is the race for governor, which has pitted the current Republican lieutenant governor, Winsome Earle-Sears, against Democratic former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger. The other major statewide offices of lieutenant governor and attorney general are also up for grabs.
All 100 seats in Virginia’s House of Delegates are also on the ballot, though some are not contested. Democrats have a slim 51-49 majority headed into November.
There’s also a slew of local races across Northern Virginia and the rest of the commonwealth.
Dates at a glance
Early in-person voting: Sept. 19 through Nov. 1
Deadline to register or update voter registration: Oct. 24 (passed)
Before voting either early or on Election Day, be sure to register to vote or confirm your voter registration is up to date.
For information on early voting locations, voters should check in with their city or county elections office. Each jurisdiction may have different policies regarding early voting, and early voting locations may differ from your Election Day polling place.
Mail ballots must be postmarked on or before Election Day and received by noon on Nov. 7.
Voters should check in with their city of county elections office for information about drop boxes and their locations.
Voting on Election Day
Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 4. Voters in line by 7 p.m. will be able to cast a ballot.
All voters need to provide an acceptable form of ID or sign an ID confirmation statement at the polls or vote a provisional ballot. Those who vote a provisional ballot will have until noon on the Friday after the election to deliver a copy of their ID to their jurisdiction’s election board or sign a confirmation statement in order for their ballot to be counted.
Virginia is one of two states, along with New Jersey, that conducts statewide races, including its governor’s contest, in the year following a presidential election, meaning these races will draw attention from politicos across the U.S.
The top of the ticket features the closely watched governor’s race between Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and Democratic former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger.
A Roanoke College poll released in August showed Spanberger ahead of Earle-Sears. Spanberger also has a hefty fundraising advantage, having raised more than $40 million for her campaign to Earle-Sears’ nearly $17 million, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
No matter who wins the general election, Virginia is set to elect a woman as governor for the first time this fall.
For lieutenant governor, voters will decide between Democratic state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi and Republican radio host John Reid.
Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares is seeking reelection, and is facing Democratic challenger Jay Jones, an attorney and former state delegate.
House of Delegates
All 100 House of Delegates seats are up for grabs during November’s election, but not all are contested. The contested races in the D.C. area are below:
An asterisk denotes an incumbent. Locations are within district but do not provide the full scope of the voting area.
District 1, part of Arlington County
Patrick Hope, Democrat*
William “Bill” Moher III, Republican
District 2, part of Arlington County
Adele McClure, Democrat*
Wendy Sigley, Republican
District 6, Fairfax County (Great Falls, McLean)
Richard “Rip” Sullivan Jr., Democrat*
Kristin Hoffman, Republican
District 7, Fairfax County (Reston)
Karen Keys-Gamarra, Democrat*
Cassandra Aucoin, Republican
District 8, Fairfax County (Herndon, Oak Hill)
Irene Shin, Democrat*
Indira Massey, Republican
District 9, Fairfax County (Chantilly, Centreville)
Karrie Delaney, Democrat*
Nhan Huynh, Republican
District 10, Fairfax County (Centreville, Clifton, Braddock)
Dan Helmer, Democrat*
David Guill, Republican
District 11, City of Fairfax and Fairfax County (Oakton, Fair Oaks)
David Bulova, Democrat*
Adam Wise, Republican
Brandon Givens, Forward Party
District 12, Fairfax County (Tysons, Vienna, Merrifield)
Holly Seibold, Democrat*
Nelson Figueroa-Velez, Republican
District 13, Falls Church and Fairfax County (Merrifield, Seven Corners)
Marcus Simon, Democrat*
Sylwia Oleksy, Republican
Dave Crance Jr., Libertarian
District 14, Fairfax County (Annandale, Wakefield, Lincolnia)
Vivian Watts, Democrat*
Eric Johnson, Republican
District 15, Fairfax County (Burke)
Laura Jane Cohen, Democrat*
Saundra Davis, Republican
District 16, Fairfax County (Mount Vernon, Fort Hunt, Woodlawn)
Paul Krizek, Democrat*
Richard Hayden, Republican
Shelly Arnoldi, Independent
District 17, Fairfax County (Springfield, Franconia)
Mark Sickles, Democrat*
Naomi Mesfin, Republican
District 18, Fairfax County (Springfield, Newington, Lorton)
Kathy Tran, Democrat*
Edward McGovern, Republican
District 20, Manassas, Manassas Park, part of Prince William County
Michelle-Ann Lopes Maldonado, Democrat*
Christopher Stone, Republican
District 21, Prince William County (Bull Run, Gainesville)
Joshua Thomas, Democrat*
Gregory “Greg” Gorham, Republican
District 22, Prince William County (Linton Hall, Bristow, Nokesville, Buckhall)
Elizabeth Guzman, Democrat
Ian Lovejoy, Republican*
District 23, Prince William County (Dumfries, Triangle) and Stafford County (Boswell’s Corner, Aquia)
Candi King, Democrat*
James Tully, Republican
District 26, Loudoun County (Brambleton, Stone Ridge, South Riding)
JJ Singh, Democrat*
Ommair Butt, Republican
District 27, Loudoun County (Sterling, Sugarland Run, Dulles)
Atoosa Reaser, Democrat*
Junaid Khan, Republican
District 28, Loudoun County (Ashburn, Countryside)
David Reid, Democrat*
Janet Geisler, Republican
District 29, Loudoun County (Leesburg, Lansdowne)
Fernando “Marty” Martinez, Democrat*
Scott Thomas, Republican
District 30, Loudoun County (Purcellville) and Fauquier County (Marshall)
John McAuliff, Democrat
Geary Higgins, Republican*
District 61, Fauquier County (Warrenton, Bealeton) and parts of Culpeper and Rappahannock counties
Jacob “Jac” Bennington, Democrat
Michael Webert, Republican*
Local races
Most jurisdictions in Northern Virginia have local races of some sort, whether they are contests for mayor, county board, school board, city council or sheriff.
Check the full list of local races on the Virginia Department of Elections website. Voters can also check in with their county or city electoral board for more information on local races.
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Virginia is in the political spotlight, as pundits will look to the result of the state’s election for governor between Abigail Spanberger and Winsome Earle-Sears for clues about next year’s midterms.
For all the latest developments in Congress, follow WTOP Capitol Hill correspondent Mitchell Miller at Today on the Hill.
Virginia’s race for governor is historic and the focus of the nation’s attention, as Republicans and Democrats seek momentum going into next year’s congressional midterm elections.
Whether voters choose Democratic former Rep. Abigail Spanberger or Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, history will be made with the election of the first woman as governor of the Commonwealth.
Virginia and New Jersey are in the political spotlight this fall, since they are the only states holding off-year elections for governor.
“When you look at the election for governor of Virginia in this year, you really recognize that, at least right now, all politics are national,” said Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington.
Spanberger has leaned into criticizing President Donald Trump for firing and laying off tens of thousands of federal employees since he’s returned to the White House.
Earle-Sears supports the president’s efforts to trim federal bureaucracy and Trump recently told reporters he believes she is a “very good” candidate, while calling Spanberger a “disaster.”
Impact of AG race and texting scandal
The down-ballot attorney general’s race has altered the gubernatorial campaign, with the revelation that Democratic candidate Jay Jones texted a Republican colleague in 2022, wishing deadly violence on then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert and his family.
Earle-Sears, whose candidacy has had difficulty raising money and at times been privately criticized by GOP strategists, has sought to capitalize on the scandal. She aired a television ad from the debate during which she pressed Spanberger to discuss her support for Jones and the texting issue, as the Democratic candidate remained silent.
Spanberger has condemned what Jones said and has sought to distance herself from the matter.
Farnsworth said Earle-Sears has had difficulty finding an issue to get “traction for her campaign” and that pressing Spanberger on whether she still backs Jones has been “the most compelling” issue of her campaign.
“But it doesn’t seem like it’s really big enough to move the governor’s race, particularly given how aggressively Spanberger has condemned what Jones said,” Farnsworth noted.
Polls have consistently shown Spanberger with a lead over Earle-Sears, who could become the first Black woman in the country to be elected governor.
Farnsworth said it is important for Democrats to win both the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races, if they are to make an argument that they are developing momentum to alter the balance of power in Congress.
“Oftentimes, Virginia is seen as a leading political indicator, maybe more so than New Jersey, because we’re more purple than New Jersey is,” Farnsworth said. “But the reality for both parties is that you want the bragging rights of having a good year in Virginia in year one of a presidential term, to give you a sense of inevitability of gains during year two — the midterm congressional elections.”
Democrats only need to pick up a handful of seats to regain power in the U.S. House.
Farnsworth said Spanberger and former New Jersey Rep. Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic candidate for governor in the Garden State, are both quality candidates.
They also have the advantage of a lot of “frustration and anger” among Democratic voters, aimed at the president, which helps drive turnout.
But polls have shown a tightening of the race between Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli, who has been endorsed by Trump. Farnsworth said it would be a “very, very bad sign for Democrats” going into the midterms if they don’t prevail in both states, but especially in Virginia.
Former President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that he plans to campaign in Virginia for Spanberger, appearing with her in Norfolk on Nov. 1.
“Virginia’s elections are some of the most important in the country this year,” Obama said in a recently released ad for Spanberger.
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Virginia’s election is only a few weeks away and the race for attorney general is drawing attention following the discovery of text messages sent in 2022 by Democratic nominee Jay Jones.
Virginia’s election is only a few weeks away and the race for attorney general is drawing attention following the discovery of text messages sent in 2022 by Democratic nominee Jay Jones.
In the messages, which recently resurfaced, Jones described a hypothetical scenario in which he would kill then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert. The messages were sent to Republican House of Delegates candidate Carrie Coyner.
At the time, Jones wrote:
Three people, two bullets
Gilbert, hitler, and pol pot
Gilbert gets two bullets to the head
Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time
Polling
Since the discovery, Jones has faced numerous calls from both Democrats and Republicans to drop out of the race. Polls have also shown the margins tightening between him and Republican incumbent candidate Jason Miyares.
Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball from the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said whether or not Miyares is really leading in polls remains to be seen.
“I don’t think we’ve really gotten true, nonpartisan polling of the race. Since the news about Jay Jones came out, there have been a few polls — including one from Jones’ campaign — that showed Jones losing ground, which makes sense. I mean, this is a huge story in Virginia politics,” Kondik said.
Thursday’s AG debate
The candidates for attorney general are set to have their first and only debate on Thursday.
Kondik said Miyares will likely try to ensure Jones’ text messages stay front and center in the minds of voters.
“I think the key thing is, what happens in this debate, and does it either sustain or stall this story?” Kondik said.
He also highlighted new advertisements incorporating the text messages from Jones.
“Miyares has already run, what I think are, some pretty effective ads using this text messaging story against Jones. And so he should be able to have some sort of advantage on that down the stretch of the election,” Kondik said.
National politics and ticket splitting
Despite the recent controversy surrounding Jones, Kondik said the current political environment still favors Democrats in Virginia politics. He also pointed to the polling in Virginia’s race for governor, which shows Democrat Abigail Spanberger leading Republican candidate Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.
“The challenge is, I think, it’s still probably a Democratic-leaning environment overall, in Virginia and nationally in 2025,” Kondik said. “I do think Abigail Spanberger is still favored in the governor’s race, and then the question is whether there are long enough coattails to allow Jones to win.”
He said ticket splitting has been on the decline in Virginia and it’s a great test to see how potent ticket splitting is.
“It’s possible that Jones gets beat up on this story for the rest of the campaign, but still is able to win just because of these bigger picture factors,” Kondik said.
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With just weeks until Election Day, the Virginia gubernatorial race is heating up with increasingly negative ads. Experts say both campaigns are leveraging national party tensions to sway voters.
If you think the television, radio and online advertising in the Virginia governor’s race is increasingly negative, you’re not alone.
With the election a mere three weeks away, Democrat Abigail Spanberger and Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears are doing their best to link their opponent to the most negative elements of their national parties, according to a political communications expert from Virginia Tech.
“The thing about negative advertising is that everyone says they don’t like it, but the reason why we have negative ads is because they work,” said Cayce Myers, director of graduate studies in the school of communications at Virginia Tech.
The Republican lieutenant governor has flooded the airwaves with ads focused on the cultural divide that helped President Donald Trump win the presidency last fall, casting Spanberger as unwilling to protect Virginia’s children from sexual predators.
Earle-Sears’ team even replicated some of the same messaging used against former Vice President Kamala Harris, saying Spanberger is “for they/them, not for us.”
“They work because it allows people to frame their opponent in a particular way,” Myers told WTOP. “It also allows them to build a narrative in the election. And we know that people just in general respond, in a political sense, more to negative than to positive.”
Myers said Republicans want the election to be a referendum on far-left progressive politics, especially parental rights and education. On the other side of the aisle, Democrats want the election to be about the chaos of Trump’s administration, including the government shutdown.
“There’s a lot to be said for people who are motivated to vote against someone than to vote for someone,” Myers said. “That’s one of the reasons why the race has become much more negative than we normally see.”
He pointed to last week’s debate in which Earle-Sears continuously interrupted Spanberger in an attempt to throw her off balance and make an unintentional comment, despite being admonished by the moderators.
“It’s this kind of off-the-cuff remark that a lot of politicians seize upon that they can then repackage into advertising and also leverage for viral content,” he said. “I don’t think (Earle-Sears) really got that.”
Spanberger faced forward throughout the debate, avoided eye contact and rarely addressed Earle-Sears directly. She did not speak during Earle-Sears’ answers, even when her opponent asked direct questions, resulting in moments of awkward silence.
In any case, Virginia’s gubernatorial campaign will be historic, as it could result in the first woman being elected the Commonwealth’s 75th governor.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Republican Winsome Earle-Sears and Democrat Abigail Spanberger are slated to debate their competing visions for Virginia on Thursday in the state’s gubernatorial race.
WTOP’s Nick Iannelli talks with both candidates about the government shutdown.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Republican Winsome Earle-Sears and Democrat Abigail Spanberger faced off for the first and only time on the debate stage Thursday night in Virginia’s high-stakes governors race.
It was a fiery affair in which Earle-Sears, who is trailing in the race, went on the offensive from the very beginning, repeatedly interrupting Spanberger and asking her several direct questions.
Spanberger, who largely avoided addressing her Republican opponent directly, sought to cast a bipartisan tone at times. Over the course of the hourlong affair, the candidates sparred over violent rhetoric, the federal shutdown and transgender children. The economy was largely an afterthought.
Virginia is one of just two states choosing governors this November, and its election is often seen as a bellwether for the party in power across the Potomac River ahead of midterm elections next year.
Washington politics are especially relevant this year in Virginia, as Trump’s cuts to the federal workforce and Congress’ current government shutdown have an outsize impact in a state filled with federal employees and military personnel.
Here’s are some takeaways from the debate at Norfolk State University:
A scandal at the outset
A scandal shaped the very beginning of the debate, although it was not a scandal directly involving either candidate onstage.
Instead, it was the Democratic candidate for attorney general, Jay Jones. He has been heavily criticized in recent days following last week’s publication of text messages from 2022 in which he suggested that Virginia’s former Republican House speaker get “two bullets in the head.”
Republicans across the nation, including Trump and Earle-Sears, have demanded that Jones quit his race. Over and over again Thursday night, Earle-Sears pushed Spanberger on whether she would do the same.
“Abigail, what if he said it about your three children? Is that when you would say it’s time to get out of the race?” Earle-Sears asked. She later added, “She has no courage.”
Spanberger had largely avoided the issue in the days leading up to the debate, aside from issuing a public statement condemning the texts. But facing repeated questions from the moderators and her opponent, she was forced to weigh in.
The Democratic congresswoman declined to say whether Jones should leave the race, saying it’s up to voters to make their own decision.
“Are you saying political murder is OK?” Earle-Sears charged.
“Once again, I have denounced political violence, political rhetoric, no matter who is leading the charge,” Spanberger responded, pointing to violent rhetoric from Trump that Earle-Sears declined to denounce and trying to sound a bipartisan tone.
“You routinely refer to me as your enemy. I’m not your enemy. You are not my enemy. We are political opponents,” Spanberger said.
The clash comes as threats of political violence have escalated across the country following the shooting deaths of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and former Minnesota Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband.
The shutdown
The showdown over the shutdown flared Thursday night.
The federal shutdown, which has been underway for more than a week, is especially prevalent in Virginia, home to roughly 315,000 federal workers. Even before much of the federal government closed its doors last week, many Virginians were already affected by Trump’s spring push to slash federal jobs and his ongoing threats to impose more mass firings.
Earle-Sears, a vocal Trump supporter, had perhaps the more difficult challenge during the debate. She argued that she is best positioned to strengthen the state’s economy, even as she was reluctant to criticize the Republican president’s job cuts in the state.
She declined to criticize Trump or call on him to end the shutdown when asked directly by the moderators Thursday.
Instead, she blamed Democrats for the mess and called on Spanberger to push Virginia Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Democrats, to vote in favor of a spending bill that would end the impasse with the Republican-controlled Congress.
Spanberger complied.
“I would encourage everyone, our Democratic senators, our Democratic House members, our Republican House members, to work and come back to the table,” she said.
Culture wars vs. wallets
Many voters say they’re most concerned about the direction of the economy, but some of the most pointed moments of the debate were focused on cultural issues.
In particular, Earle-Sears pressed Spanberger on whether she would keep transgender youths out of high school sports and bathrooms.
The Republican lieutenant governor has flooded the airwaves with ads focused on the cultural divide that helped Trump win the presidency last fall, casting Spanberger as unwilling to protect Virginia’s children from sexual predators.
“My answer is that each local community decision should be made between parents and educators and teachers in each community,” Spanberger said, pointing to her background in law enforcement and role as a mother.
“Nothing is more important to me than the safety of all children,” she said.
Spanberger declined to say whether she would rescind the measure signed by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin that would require students to go only to the restrooms of their birth gender.
That did not satisfy Earle-Sears, who pressed Spanberger on what she would say if her own children were forced to undress in a bathroom with biological males. The Republican also implied that transgender students are a safety threat when asked.
“We know that biological men are larger in strength than women,” she said. “This is biology.”
History in the making
Two women stood on the debate stage as the Democratic and Republican nominees for for the first time in state history, a reminder that Virginia is poised to elect its first female governor no matter who wins on Nov. 4.
Spanberger, 46, is a mother of three school-age children. She has represented a congressional district in northern Virginia since 2019. Her background is in law enforcement as a former CIA agent.
Earle-Sears, when asked what qualities she likes about her opponent, pointed to her family.
“I believe she is a devoted mom. I truly believe that,” Earle-Sears said. “And I do believe that she cares.”
Earle-Sears, a Marine veteran, may be better known statewide, having served as lieutenant governor for the last four years. A native of Jamaica, the 61-year-old mother of two is the first Black woman elected to statewide office in Virginia.
Spanberger complimented parts of her record.
“I admire her faith,” Spanberger said, “and her service to this country.”
Race and gender have been issues in the election.
Earle-Sears was the target of a racist sign displayed by a protester in August that touched on her opposition to transgender people using bathrooms that don’t match the sex on their birth certificates.
The sign read, “Hey Winsome, if trans can’t share your bathroom, then blacks can’t share my water fountain.”
___
Peoples reported from New York. AP writer Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed. 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.
Winsome Earle-Sears faces strong headwinds in her campaign to be Virginia’s next Republican governor. Could an endorsement from President Donald Trump help?
Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, attends the 54th Annual Buena Vista Labor Day Festival on September 01, 2025 in Buena Vista, Virginia. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Winsome Earle-Sears faces strong headwinds in her campaign to be Virginia’s next Republican governor.
She’s been outpaced in fundraising and lags in polling behind her Democratic rival, Rep. Abigail Spanberger. And the support from one voice that could narrow this race is largely absent.
President Donald Trump has yet to endorse Earle-Sears, Virginia’s current lieutenant governor. While slamming Spanberger during an event in Virginia for the U.S. Navy’s 250th anniversary over the weekend, Trump did not mention Earle-Sears, a Marine Corps veteran, at all.
Earle-Sears and Trump’s relationship turned tepid in 2022 after the lieutenant governor suggested it was time for the Republican Party to “move on” past him and declined to support his third White House bid.
“A true leader understands when they have become a liability. A true leader understands that it’s time to step off the stage. And the voters have given us that very clear message,” Earle-Sears said at the time.
Trump then undercut Earle-Sears on Truth Social, writing that he “never felt good” about her, and that she was a “phony.”
ABC News has reached out to The White House, Earle-Sears’ campaign and the Virginia GOP for comment.
Attorney general’s race
And now, as Republicans are at high risk of losing control of Virginia’s governor’s mansion, their chief executive and others in the administration are nowhere to be found on the campaign trail for Earle-Sears.
Yet they’re not completely withdrawn from Virginia politics.
Both Trump and Vice President JD Vance have joined the chorus of Republican voices calling for the resignation of Democratic attorney general candidate and former Virginia delegate Jay Jones after text messages to then-fellow Virginia delegate Carrie Coyner surfaced detailing a hypothetical situation about then-Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert getting “two bullets to the head.”
The National Review reported Jones also wished for Gilbert’s wife to “watch her own child die in her arms so that Gilbert might reconsider his political views.”
Coyner, a Republican, claimed in a note sent to her constituents this week and obtained by ABC that Jones meant to text someone else initially, but was OK with chatting when he realized it was her. She says once she expressed “alarm” about the messages, Jones “continued to try to justify his initial statements by phone and by text.”
Jones has apologized for the messages, telling WRIC that he “sincerely and from the bottom of my heart, want to express my remorse and my regret for what happened and what I said that language has no place in our discourse, and I am so remorseful for what happened.”
In a statement to ABC News, Coyner also alleged that in a separate phone call in 2020 during a conversation about police qualified immunity, Jones suggested that the death of a few officers might result in fewer police-inflicted killings.
“During the debate on repealing qualified immunity for law enforcement in Virginia, legislation Jay Jones supported, I stated that I believed that removing qualified immunity would make officers hesitate when making split second decisions, which would lead people and police officers to get killed. Jay stated that if a few police officers died maybe they would move on and stop killing people. His statements were and still are disqualifying, people should not have to die to prove Jay Jones’ talking points,” Coyner said to ABC.
Jones denied those remarks in a statement to ABC: “I have never believed and do not believe that any harm should come to law enforcement, period.”
Vance, on X, claimed Jones was “fantasizing about murdering his political opponents” and Trump labeled Jones as a “radial left lunatic” while offering his endorsement of Jason Miyares, Jones’ Republican opponent.
On this issue, the White House and Earle-Sears align — she’s also called for Jones to drop out, and has even cut an ad featuring screenshots of the aforementioned texts. Earle-Sears and Virginia Republicans are attempting to link this scandal to Spanberger, who say her recent advice on the campaign trail to “let your rage fuel you” as motivation to resist against Republicans is incendiary.
Spanberger has not called for Jones to step aside, yet said in a statement that she feels “disgust” for his language and condemned violent language in politics.
Still, Earle-Sears has less than a month to use this scandal as momentum and inch closer to Spanberger — with or without White House aid.
A new poll shows Democrat Abigail Spanberger with a double-digit lead over Republican Winsome Earle-Sears in Virginia’s governor’s race.
A new poll shows Democrat Abigail Spanberger with a double-digit lead in Virginia’s governor’s race.
The Washington Post/Schar School poll found Spanberger ahead of Republican Winsome Earle-Sears by 12 points among likely voters — 55% to 43%.
Spanberger also holds a 13-point advantage among registered voters overall.
This poll, conducted last week and surveying more than 1,000 registered voters in Virginia, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
Scott Clement, polling director for The Washington Post, joined WTOP’s Shawn Anderson and Anne Kramer on Friday to break down the polling.
Scott Clement, polling director for The Washington Post, joined WTOP to break down a new poll showing Abigail Spanberger with a double-digit lead in Virginia’s governor race.
The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity.
Anne Kramer:
Let’s break this down a little bit. You have Spanberger leading by double digits. What’s going on here, and how did you get to this point?
Scott Clement:
Spanberger is benefiting from a few things. One, most voters disapprove of President Trump’s job performance in Virginia and this is a really common pattern in Virginia the year after presidential election that tends to push back against the president, sort of an early warning sign of the midterms. Down to the actual voters. Voters have a lot of different concerns. But one of the big patterns helping Spanberger is she has a big lead among political independents, 27 percentage points. She’s also more popular than Winsome Earle-Sears personally. So she’s got a couple things at her back.
Shawn Anderson:
Now, 12 points at this point in the race, a 12 point lead overall. That is a heck of a lead this close to the election, isn’t it?
Scott Clement:
It’s a wide lead and we’ve seen these races tighten sometimes in the final month, not always getting back to a full comeback. But it’s a significant lead. If it holds to election day, would be one of the larger victories for governor in Virginia.
Anne Kramer:
Talk to us about independent voters. Where are they going for Spanberger here? Because that’s what it shows, right?
Scott Clement:
That’s right. You see a couple of different patterns there. I mean, one it really mirrors some of the ratings of Trump and group that he did well. Spanberger is also uniquely doing well among independents compared with down ballot Democrats. So that’s actually one of the reasons that the Virginia attorney general and lieutenant governor races are closer, is that Democrat Jay Jones and Democrat because Allah Hashmi have smaller advantages among political independents. Democrats and Republicans, by contrast, are overwhelmingly lining up behind their party’s candidates.
Shawn Anderson:
How much of a factor, if you could find it, is President Trump in shaping voter attitudes, particularly with what’s going on with the federal government shutdown right now?
Scott Clement:
It’s big and it’s difficult to measure. We asked people to rate how important Trump was in their vote for governor, and you had a big majority saying that it was at least fairly important in their vote. It was particularly important for people who disapprove of Trump, but also for people who approve. And we asked the same question eight years ago during the governor’s election, then and more people say that Trump is important to their vote today than they did eight years ago. So it seemed very high at the time. It’s even higher this time around.
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Virginia’s Republican Lieutenant Gov. and nominee for governor Winsome Earle-Sears said her opponent, Abigail Spanberger, needs to put her money where her mouth is when it comes to standing up for federal workers.
Virginia’s Republican nominee for governor, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, said her Democratic opponent, Abigail Spanberger, needs to put her money where her mouth is when it comes to standing up for federal workers.
Earle-Sears told WTOP’s Nick Iannelli on Friday that the government shutdown affecting federal employees across the state, and particularly in Northern Virginia, is not about politics, but leadership.
It comes just a couple days after WTOP spoke with Spanberger, who said Earle-Sears should be focused on standing up for Virginia jobs as lieutenant governor, instead of blaming Democrats for the shutdown.
Listen to Earle-Sears’ full conversation and read the transcript below.
Virginia’s Republican Lieutenant Gov. and nominee for governor Winsome Earle-Sears speaks with WTOP’s Nick Iannelli about the government shutdown and its impact on the gubernatorial election.
The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity.
Nick Iannelli:
What do you think? Is this shutdown going to impact the race that you’re in right now?
Winsome Earle-Sears:
Well, this isn’t about politics. It’s about leadership, and Abigail Spanberger’s Democratic allies voted to shut down the government, and Virginians are the ones who are paying the price. It’s plain and simple.
And Abigail Spanberger, all this time, all throughout summer, has been talking about the love that she has for federal workers. Well, you know how you show me love? It’s not to say it, it’s to do it, and that means show me love by telling Sens. Kane and Warner to get back to their jobs and vote against a shutdown. Vote to open the government back up so that our federal workers themselves can go back to their jobs.
Nick Iannelli:
I did ask her that exact thing. She urged both parties to immediately start negotiating to come to a deal. That was her response.
Winsome Earle-Sears:
Isn’t that a mealy mouthed response, both parties? All we needed was for seven senators, seven senators to come together, seven Democrats. And so now she’s blaming the Republican Party as well?
Every House member who’s a Republican voted for it, and every senator who’s a Republican voted for it. Come on, Abigail, don’t be a coward on this.
Nick Iannelli:
You two have a debate next week. Are you going to use the word “coward” in front of her during that debate?
Winsome Earle-Sears:
I don’t know what will happen, except we will come forward and the voters will hear from us.
Nick Iannelli:
Spanberger also told us that she thinks you should urge the Trump administration to avoid all this talk about mass layoffs given the saturation of federal employees, especially in Northern Virginia. What’s your response to that?
Winsome Earle-Sears:
So let me go back to what I’ve originally said. Every single Republican House member voted to keep our government open. Every single Republican senator voted to keep our government open, and yet all we needed was seven Democrats to come forward and say, “let’s keep our government open so that our federal workers who reside in Virginia would keep their jobs,” and we couldn’t find them. So Abigail Spanberger now, you can’t ever get a straight answer from this woman.
Nick Iannelli:
As it relates to the Trump administration’s threats for mass layoffs during the shutdown, though, have you had any conversations with the administration about that? You’ve urged Spanberger to lobby the Democratic senators to vote to keep the government open. She’s urging you to lobby the Trump administration to avoid these mass layoffs.
Winsome Earle-Sears:
I have answered the question. All of this started because we could not find seven Democrat senators to vote against a shutdown.
Nick Iannelli:
The Democrats are voting specifically against this because they argue that there should be an extension of subsidies for health care. Republicans say absolutely not. They won’t do that. So both sides are digging their heels in. Do you support the stand Republicans are taking then?
Winsome Earle-Sears:
So here’s the deal. Republicans are trying to negotiate. And 13 of the times when this same possibility of a shutdown happened, the Democrats and the Republicans came to the table and said, “let’s negotiate.”
And so what you have now are all of the Democrats saying that unless you agree to increase our deficit, our budget debt, by $1.5 trillion, we’re not going to negotiate. This $1.5 trillion that the Democrats want to add is going to be something that will help those who are illegally here. We cannot afford that.
Nick Iannelli:
You have been talking almost exclusively about cultural issues, including the transgender policies in schools in Northern Virginia. Now that this government shutdown is overtaking just about every other issue in Northern Virginia and the D.C. region, do you think that there’s a risk now of those issues being overshadowed by this shutdown?
Winsome Earle-Sears:
Are the children still going to school and having the girls undress in front of biological men? Is that still happening? Are biological girls still going to school and having to go to bathrooms with biological boys?
Leaders have to take life as it comes, and life doesn’t give you one issue and one issue only, and after you’ve dealt with that, then it moves on. No, leaders have a basket of ideas that come, a basket of problems, and you have to be able to negotiate your way through them. And so we can talk about many things at one time.
That’s how the real world works. So we can talk about a shutdown, which was caused by not being able to find seven Democratic senators who would keep our government open and also keep our girl children safe.
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It’s early on a Thursday evening and Winsome Earle-Sears, Virginia’s Republican candidate for governor, is in a familiar place. She’s standing outside of a school board meeting to call attention to policies related to where transgender students can use their elected bathroom and play school sports.
Falls Church, VA (CNN) — It’s early on a Thursday evening and Winsome Earle-Sears, Virginia’s Republican candidate for governor, is in a familiar place. She’s standing outside of a school board meeting to call attention to policies related to where transgender students can use their elected bathroom and play school sports.
“Let’s have girls have their private spaces and boys have their private spaces,” she said to applause. “It has worked for how many millennia and certainly it can work now.”
Earle-Sears has blanketed the airwaves with ads that characterize Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic nominee, as “being for they/them,” replicating the messaging used against former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. She is airing the ads during college and pro football games just as President Donald Trump’s campaign did last year.
On Friday, she will address an event hosted by the conservative group Moms for Liberty, an organization that says it works to defend parental rights at all levels of government.
Polls in Virginia and elsewhere suggest the top issue on voters’ minds this fall is affordability. But Earle-Sears has made trans policies a centerpiece of her messaging ahead of the November election, hammering her Democratic counterpart for not answering whether she agrees that trans youth should be able to use any bathroom in a school building or play on a sports team that corresponds with their gender identity.
Just in September, the Earle-Sears campaign spent over $2 million on ads focused on transgender policy, more than it spent on any other topic, including spots referring to “woke Abigail Spanberger.”
“She has to do something to differentiate herself and stand out in a very disaggregated media landscape and make up for the enthusiasm gap the Republicans have in Virginia,” said Chris Saxman, a Republican strategist who served as Earle-Sears’ transition director after she was elected lieutenant governor and is now president of the business newsletter Virginia FREE.
Democratic strategist Rodell Mollineau says focusing on transgender rights could work in some places but not in Virginia.
“The Earle-Sears campaign is counting on transgender rights splitting independent and center-right voters in the same way it was problematic for Vice President Harris,” Mollineau said. “The difference is it’s no longer 2024, Spanberger has done a great job of defining herself as a middle-of-the-road Democrat, and Earle-Sears is carrying the mantle for Trump in a state that hasn’t embraced MAGA.”
A poll of likely Virginia voters in September found they were most concerned about inflation and cost of living, followed by threats to democracy. According to the poll, conducted by Christopher Newport University, Democrats listed threats to democracy as by far their biggest concern while Republicans were split between cost-of-living concerns, immigration and crime.
National polling, meanwhile, also suggests that debates over transgender policies rank lower among some voters’ priorities. A nationwide CNN poll of adults released this month found that 33% said transgender policies were “extremely” or “very important,” ranking last among the issues surveyed, while 43% said it was “not too” or “not at all important,” the highest percentage of any issue that was asked about.
When asked by CNN at her earlier news conference if she was emphasizing policies related to transgender children at the expense of talking about the economy, Earle-Sears defended her focus.
“Look at all of these people here. They are supporting women’s rights,” she said.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican who is running for reelection, also defended focusing on the issue despite voters’ stated desire to talk about affordability. “This has been a huge issue in Virginia,” Miyares told CNN in an interview. “It’s absolutely something I hear about on the campaign trail, from voters and students and people that come up and talk to me and people that stop me.”
Spanberger, the former three-term Democratic congresswoman, told WSET that she would “support a bill that would put clear provisions in place that provide a lot of local ability for input, based on the age of children, based on the type of sport, based on competitiveness.”
“Ultimately, Abigail believes that these are decisions that must be made between parents, schools, and local communities — not politicians, and she believes that we need to get politics out of our public schools,” said a spokesperson for the campaign.
A host of downballot Virginia Republicans are mirroring Earle-Sears’ messaging topics as are GOP candidates running in Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee. And outgoing Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin this week announced that he has issued a state directive meant to “secure the health, safety, privacy, dignity and respect for all Virginians in sex-separated spaces.”
Trans people who oppose the Republican focus say they feel forgotten.
“It feels as though I’ve kind of been boiled down into a talking point. My life is part of just this strategy to make people angry and afraid and scared and prey on the population of trans kids in this country, which is inherently very vulnerable,” said Reed Williams, the 23-year-old digital director at Equality Virginia who transitioned at 12 while enrolled in the state’s public schools.
A decade ago, she says, her transition was supported by her family and school community. She worries that youth now won’t have access to the same level of support.
“I just wish that people could have a little more empathy,” Williams said.
Earle-Sears, though, is counting on conservative parents in Democratic strongholds like Fairfax County, echoing Youngkin’s successful emphasis on parental rights in schools four years ago.
A mother who declined to be named out of fear of exposing her family says she didn’t find out her child was transitioning until she went to access academic records and was shocked to see a different name.
“I did the best that I could at the time and I think the school did the best as well, but I think they should have told me,” she told CNN, adding that she voted early for Earle-Sears but does not broadcast her politics publicly.
Mark Harris, a political consultant to Earle-Sears, said the campaign thinks this is an issue that can help them with independents, moderate Democrats, Asian and Black Americans.
“From the campaign perspective, it’s a great issue to draw clear contrast between us and Spanberger and her being beholden to this very out-of-touch group of people that are driving the Democratic agenda,” Harris said in an interview with CNN.
Those supporting Democrats this fall reject that argument and say Earle-Sears and others aren’t speaking to the real concerns of most voters.
“They’re focused on things that don’t matter and they’re ignoring the millions of Americans whose health care is at risk,” said Laura Packard, a small business owner and cancer survivor who showed up to protest an Earle-Sears event.
Virginia State Sen. Danica Roem, the first openly transgender person to be elected and serve in both chambers of a state legislature in the nation’s history, says the overemphasis on trans issues indicates Earle-Sears is running a losing campaign.
“I’ve seen this happen. I have seen this playbook. It is not going to work,” said Roem, who suggested that top of mind for many Virginians is the uncertainty coming from the federal government in a state that is home to more than 300,000 federal workers.
Roem represents a state Senate district centered on Manassas, outside of Washington, DC, and has routinely been reelected after first flipping a state legislative district from red to blue in 2017.
“They attacked me over sports. They’ve attacked me over bathrooms. They’ve attacked me over health care. They’ve attacked me over forced outing, you name it. And I won,” she said.
Early voting begins Friday in a critical election in Virginia to determine the next governor, House of Delegates seats and a long list of local races.
Early voting begins Friday in a critical election in Virginia to determine the next governor, House of Delegates seats and a long list of local races.
Political pundits will be reading the tea leaves to determine whether Democrats are gaining momentum, one year removed from their overwhelming defeat in last year’s presidential election and one year ahead of the midterms they hope to win to regain control in Congress.
The main event is the race for governor, which has pitted the current Republican lieutenant governor, Winsome Earle-Sears, against Democratic former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger. The other major statewide offices of lieutenant governor and attorney general are also up for grabs.
All 100 seats in Virginia’s House of Delegates are also on the ballot, though some are not contested. Democrats have a slim 51-49 majority headed into November.
There’s also a slew of local races across Northern Virginia and the rest of the commonwealth.
Dates at a glance
Early in-person voting: Sept. 19 through Nov. 1
Deadline to register or update voter registration: Oct. 24
Before voting either early or on Election Day, be sure to register to vote or confirm your voter registration is up to date.
For information on early voting locations, voters should check in with their city or county elections office. Each jurisdiction may have different policies regarding early voting, and early voting locations may differ from your Election Day polling place.
Mail ballots must be postmarked on or before Election Day and received by noon on Nov. 7.
Voters should check in with their city of county elections office for information about drop boxes and their locations.
Voting on Election Day
Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 4. Voters in line by 7 p.m. will be able to cast a ballot.
All voters need to provide an acceptable form of ID or sign an ID confirmation statement at the polls or vote a provisional ballot. Those who vote a provisional ballot will have until noon on the Friday after the election to deliver a copy of their ID to their jurisdiction’s election board or sign a confirmation statement in order for their ballot to be counted.
Virginia is one of two states, along with New Jersey, that conducts statewide races, including its governor’s contest, in the year following a presidential election, meaning these races will draw attention from politicos across the U.S.
The top of the ticket features the closely watched governor’s race between Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and Democratic former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger.
A Roanoke College poll released in August showed Spanberger ahead of Earle-Sears. Spanberger also has a hefty fundraising advantage, having raised more than $40 million for her campaign to Earle-Sears’ nearly $17 million, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
No matter who wins the general election, Virginia is set to elect a woman as governor for the first time this fall.
For lieutenant governor, voters will decide between Democratic state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi and Republican radio host John Reid.
Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares is seeking reelection, and is facing Democratic challenger Jay Jones, an attorney and former state delegate.
House of Delegates
All 100 House of Delegates seats are up for grabs during November’s election, but not all are contested. The contested races in the D.C. area are below:
An asterisk denotes an incumbent. Locations are within district but do not provide the full scope of the voting area.
District 1, part of Arlington County
Patrick Hope, Democrat*
William “Bill” Moher III, Republican
District 2, part of Arlington County
Adele McClure, Democrat*
Wendy Sigley, Republican
District 6, Fairfax County (Great Falls, McLean)
Richard “Rip” Sullivan Jr., Democrat*
Kristin Hoffman, Republican
District 7, Fairfax County (Reston)
Karen Keys-Gamarra, Democrat*
Cassandra Aucoin, Republican
District 8, Fairfax County (Herndon, Oak Hill)
Irene Shin, Democrat*
Indira Massey, Republican
District 9, Fairfax County (Chantilly, Centreville)
Karrie Delaney, Democrat*
Nhan Huynh, Republican
District 10, Fairfax County (Centreville, Clifton, Braddock)
Dan Helmer, Democrat*
David Guill, Republican
District 11, City of Fairfax and Fairfax County (Oakton, Fair Oaks)
David Bulova, Democrat*
Adam Wise, Republican
Brandon Givens, Forward Party
District 12, Fairfax County (Tysons, Vienna, Merrifield)
Holly Seibold, Democrat*
Nelson Figueroa-Velez, Republican
District 13, Falls Church and Fairfax County (Merrifield, Seven Corners)
Marcus Simon, Democrat*
Sylwia Oleksy, Republican
Dave Crance Jr., Libertarian
District 14, Fairfax County (Annandale, Wakefield, Lincolnia)
Vivian Watts, Democrat*
Eric Johnson, Republican
District 15, Fairfax County (Burke)
Laura Jane Cohen, Democrat*
Saundra Davis, Republican
District 16, Fairfax County (Mount Vernon, Fort Hunt, Woodlawn)
Paul Krizek, Democrat*
Richard Hayden, Republican
Shelly Arnoldi, Independent
District 17, Fairfax County (Springfield, Franconia)
Mark Sickles, Democrat*
Naomi Mesfin, Republican
District 18, Fairfax County (Springfield, Newington, Lorton)
Kathy Tran, Democrat*
Edward McGovern, Republican
District 20, Manassas, Manassas Park, part of Prince William County
Michelle-Ann Lopes Maldonado, Democrat*
Christopher Stone, Republican
District 21, Prince William County (Bull Run, Gainesville)
Joshua Thomas, Democrat*
Gregory “Greg” Gorham, Republican
District 22, Prince William County (Linton Hall, Bristow, Nokesville, Buckhall)
Elizabeth Guzman, Democrat
Ian Lovejoy, Republican*
District 23, Prince William County (Dumfries, Triangle) and Stafford County (Boswell’s Corner, Aquia)
Candi King, Democrat*
James Tully, Republican
District 26, Loudoun County (Brambleton, Stone Ridge, South Riding)
JJ Singh, Democrat*
Ommair Butt, Republican
District 27, Loudoun County (Sterling, Sugarland Run, Dulles)
Atoosa Reaser, Democrat*
Junaid Khan, Republican
District 28, Loudoun County (Ashburn, Countryside)
David Reid, Democrat*
Janet Geisler, Republican
District 29, Loudoun County (Leesburg, Lansdowne)
Fernando “Marty” Martinez, Democrat*
Scott Thomas, Republican
District 30, Loudoun County (Purcellville) and Fauquier County (Marshall)
John McAuliff, Democrat
Geary Higgins, Republican*
District 61, Fauquier County (Warrenton, Bealeton) and parts of Culpeper and Rappahannock counties
Jacob “Jac” Bennington, Democrat
Michael Webert, Republican*
Local races
Most jurisdictions in Northern Virginia have local races of some sort, whether they are contests for mayor, county board, school board, city council or sheriff.
Check the full list of local races on the Virginia Department of Elections website. Voters can also check in with their county or city electoral board for more information on local races.
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Robert Johnson, the billionaire co-founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET), has donated $500,000 to Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears’ gubernatorial campaign after she was targeted by a racist sign at an Arlington County school board meeting.
Newsweek reached out via email to Johnson through his hotel investment company, RLJ Lodging Trust, and the Earle-Sears campaign for comment.
“Virginia Democrats unanimously, forcefully and unequivocally condemned the racist sign in Arlington—period,” Lamont Bagby, a Black state senator and former member of the Virginia House of Delegates, told Newsweek in part via email on Friday.
Why It Matters
Johnson’s hefty donation, first reported by Politico, comes after Republican candidate Earle-Sears was greeted with a sign targeting her last week at an Arlington County, Virginia, school board meeting.
The incident has since garnered millions of views on social media due to what was scribed on the sign: “Hey Winsome, if trans can’t share your bathroom, then blacks can’t share my water fountain.”
Earle-Sears, who has served in her current role since 2022, called the display “a shame,” telling local ABC affiliate 7News that Democrats are “spewing hate.” Some Virginia Democrats, in remarks to Newsweek and on social media, have condemned the sign.
What to Know
The sign was held by a Democratic volunteer who, according to 7News, has been canvassing for Democrats for years.
Johnson, in a statement provided to Politico, said he was “so appalled by that racist diatribe … that I choose to show the voters of Virginia how Black Brothers stand up to defend and support their Black Sisters.”
President-elect Donald Trump (C) greets Robert Johnson (R), the founder of Black Entertainment Television, and his wife Lauren Wooden (L) as they arrive for a meeting with president-elect Donald Trump at Trump International Golf Club,… President-elect Donald Trump (C) greets Robert Johnson (R), the founder of Black Entertainment Television, and his wife Lauren Wooden (L) as they arrive for a meeting with president-elect Donald Trump at Trump International Golf Club, November 20, 2016 in Bedminster Township, New Jersey.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Virginia Democrats, including Lamont Bagby, a Black state senator and former member of the Virginia House of Delegates, refuted claims from Earle-Sears and Republicans that members of his party supported the sign’s message.
“Virginia Democrats unanimously, forcefully and unequivocally condemned the racist sign in Arlington—period,” Bagby told Newsweek via email on Friday. “Winsome Sears’ actions and rhetoric mirror Donald Trump and his attacks on Black institutions and leaders, undermining the very progress our communities have fought for.
“It is no surprise she’s even cast doubt on the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education, invoked slavery to attack diversity programs, and supported defunding public schools in Black communities and cutting community health centers that all Virginians rely on for care. We’ve come too far, and we won’t allow Virginia to go backwards.”
Bagby, nor the Virginia Democrats, remarked on Johnson’s half-million-dollar donation.
Virginia Representative Abigail Spanberger, who is running as the Democratic nominee for governor, wrote in an X post on August 22 that the sign was “racist and abhorrent.”
“Many Virginians remember the segregated water fountains (and buses and schools and neighborhoods) of Virginia’s recent history,” Spanberger said. “And no matter the intended purpose or tone and no matter how much one might find someone else’s beliefs objectionable, to threaten a return of Jim Crow and segregation to a Black woman is unacceptable. Full stop.”
The Arlington Democratic Committee, which helped organize the rally to protest Earle-Sears, stated that the woman holding the sign is not affiliated with them and that they are not familiar with her, according to 7News.
“What happened in Arlington wasn’t just about a meeting,” Virginia Democrats’ Vice Chair Marc Broklawski wrote on X last weekend. “It was about the climate Winsome Sears is creating, one where contempt is currency and neighbors are turned against each other.”
In 2008, Johnson supported Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama and was even described as a “HillRaiser” at the time. A joke he made then about Obama believed to reference the eventual president’s past marijuana use was downplayed by the Clinton campaign, and it later led to Johnson issuing an apology to Obama—who he wanted to pick Clinton as his running mate.
Johnson, however, later made a remark that Obama would not be the Democratic Party‘s nominee if he were not Black. Johnson said at the time: “I make a joke about Obama doing drugs [and it’s] ‘Oh my God, a black man tearing down another black man.’”
Johnson also attempted to urge Black Americans to give Donald Trump a chance following his 2016 victory, noting how he personally knew Trump for years. That included meeting Trump at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
What People Are Saying
Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears to 7News: “Remember who I am. I’m an immigrant to this wonderful country, and not only that, but I’m a Black woman, and so I’m second in command in the former capital of the Confederate States. For her to talk about a water fountain that Blacks—she started with me and then she went to Black people in general—can’t be at her water fountain. When did you start owning the water fountains, my good friend? And I thought the water fountains belong to everybody. Are we going back to Klan days now?”
A poll published by Roanoke College last week showed Spanberger leading Earle-Sears, 46-39 percent. She has led her Republican counterpart in every major poll released in the past two months, including a Virginia Commonwealth University poll in July showing her with a 12-point lead. The Decision Desk HQ average in early August showed Spanberger leading with an average of 45.2 percent compared to 36 percent for Earle-Sears.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin has ordered state police to investigate explosive allegations from a conservative blog that Fairfax County Public Schools officials helped multiple underage girls obtain abortions in 2021.
This article was reprinted with permission from Virginia Mercury.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin has ordered state police to investigate explosive allegations from a conservative blog that Fairfax County Public Schools officials helped multiple underage girls obtain abortions in 2021 — a probe whose findings may not surface before Election Day but could still sway voters in the court of public opinion.
Virginia law requires minors to obtain either parental consent or a successful court petition to undergo the procedure. Such records are also exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Mercury asked the Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court whether any petitions were filed at all in 2021 and how many have been filed in subsequent years, which they did not provide.
Still, the possibility that a public school broke state law and bypassed parents’ consent rights is quickly becoming a political talking point for Republican candidates this year.
‘Gift that keeps on giving’
Against the backdrop of an ongoing effort to enshrine reproductive rights into Virginia’s constitution, Republican gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears has seized on the allegations.
At a recent campaign event in Chesterfield County, she welcomed the story’s circulation in the news cycle.
“I don’t know if you also saw what’s happening in Northern Virginia — it’s just a gift that keeps on giving,” Earle-Sears said as the crowd laughed.
It cheered after she added: “Parents. Still. Matter.”
Political analyst Bob Holsworth said the controversy echoes of Youngkin’s successful 2021 campaign, when allegations of a sexual assault in a Loudoun County school bathroom sparked national furor over transgender students’ use of restrooms.
Investigations and legal proceedings extended well beyond the campaign, but by then “Parents for Youngkin” signs and “parents matter” chants had become staples of his rallies. Youngkin went on to win the governorship, and Republicans flipped the House of Delegates for a term.
“Interestingly, the target audience is not voters in Fairfax and Loudoun,” Holsworth said of the Democratic strongholds, “but Republicans elsewhere in the commonwealth.”
The allegations first surfaced in WC Dispatch, an Ohio-based conservative blog run by independent investigative journalist Walter Curt Jr. His father, Walter Curt Sr., is a Youngkin appointee to the Virginia State Council of Higher Education and has donated thousands of dollars to both Youngkin and Earle-Sears. Curt Jr. told Virginia Scope that his familiar ties don’t affect his reporting.
Holsworth suggested that GOP campaigns are aiming to “get these issues aired on Fox News so they can deliver a message across Virginia in a way that Democrats can’t.”
That’s because the claim itself — whether ultimately proven or false — is already enough to stoke concerns among some voters about public schools encroaching on parental rights. Defending parental oversight in K-12 education been a consistent Republican theme in Virginia politics.
If the allegation proves true, Earle-Sears has vowed accountability.
“Your underage daughter can’t get an aspirin without your permission,” she wrote on X on Aug. 19. “Yet a Virginia school may have taken a young girl for an abortion, in secret, using your tax dollars. If true, it’s monstrous, and there will be consequences.”
The legal wait-and-see
Pending the outcome of the state police investigation, any responsibility to prosecute would fall to Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano, who has declined to comment.
Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, noted that the timeline for an investigation is uncertain. While the number of people involved doesn’t appear large he said, the allegation dates back four years —a factor that could complicate evidence gathering and examination.
Tobias added that Republicans could “make a lot of political hay of it” heading into the elections, especially since Fairfax’s commonwealth’s attorney has been a frequent target of Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares.
Miyares, who is up for reelection this year, has long pushed for changes in state law that would allow the state to intervene in local prosecutions and has repeatedly attacked Descano as being too lenient.
A potential prosecution arising from the Fairfax abortion allegation could even spill into the next gubernatorial term.
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger is also watching closely. Her campaign said in an email to The Mercury that she “will be monitoring the status of the Virginia State Police’s investigation and will support appropriate action to uphold Virginia law.”
The campaign also highlighted Spanberger’s perspective as a mother of three young girls who attend public school, adding: “She believes that decisions about a child’s health and safety should always be made between them and their parents.”
Fairfax vs. everyone else
Beyond the locality’s prosecutor, Fairfax County Public Schools has become a lightning rod for criticism from parents as well as state and federal leaders.
Among the most polarizing decisions: overhauling admissions at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology to promote greater diversity, and resisting statewide transgender policies that would have required schools to out transgender students or restrict pronoun use.
The division is also arranging a security detail for Superintendent Michelle Reid.
After the abortion allegations surfaced, Reid wrote to the school community that the conduct described “would be unacceptable” in the district.
“I want to stress that at no time would the situation as described in these allegations be acceptable in Fairfax County Public Schools,” Reid said.
The school district has also stated that it will “fully cooperate” with the investigation but cannot comment further while it is ongoing.
Reproductive laws in campaigns
Beyond Earle-Sears’ bid for governor and the lieutenant governor and attorney general races, all 100 House of Delegates seats are up for election this year.
Looming over those contests is an ongoing effort to enshrine reproductive rights — including abortion — into the state’s constitution. The measure must pass the legislature again next year before appearing on a statewide ballot for voter approval or rejection.
While every Republican in the General Assembly voted against the proposal this year, they first attempted to add language reflecting existing state law on minors’ access to abortion. Democrats rejected that effort, pointing out that a U.S. Supreme Court case also affirms parental consent under the 14th Amendment.
Even so, the possibility that someone may have broken the law in Fairfax is “alarming,” said Sen. Jennifer Boysko, D-Fairfax, who is carrying the Senate version of the reproductive rights amendment.
“We should all be deeply concerned anytime anyone says they have been forced, misled or coerced into life-changing decisions about their reproductive health,” she said.
While Boysko did not specifically address the amendment in her comments, she added that she is confident the investigation will “shed light on the facts of the case.”
