Virginia’s Next Governor Will Make History as First Woman

Whichever direction the results of Virginia’s governor’s race land Tuesday (Nov. 4), the Old Dominion state will have its first female governor in either Democrat Abigail Spanberger or Republican Winsome Earle-Sears. While both  candidates have served their country  they have extreme differences on their approach to paving the state’s future.

The election is taking place during one of the longest government shutdowns in the country’s history, rising unemployment among the state’s vast government workers is a key issue for Black voters both candidates must tackle.

According to Federal Reserve data, roughly 22,100 people in Virginia lost their jobs between January and May after the Department of Government Efficiency cut larger swaths of the federal bureaucracy. Leading private sector employers followed with thousands more layoffs. 

Throughout her campaign, Earle-Sears has stood firm in her support of cuts in government spending and job cuts handed down by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). On the subject of the government shutdown, she said she supports “whatever it takes to get Virginians back to work.” However, it did not clearly state how that should be done.

Spanberger, however, has been more pointed in her comments about DOGE cuts, the ongoing government shutdown, and Earle-Sears’ Trump support.

“Trump is now threatening DOGE 2.0 and she’s again defending it,” Spanberger wrote in an X post on Sept. 30 about Earle-Sears.

Considering a government job was once a ticket to the middle class for Black workers, Democratic strategists hope Spanberger can keep her lead over Earle-Sears and flip the government’s seat blue if she continues to hammer home her economic policies, which includes attacking rising health care costs to save Virginians more money.

Spanberger, a former CIA operative and three-time congressional leader, has pledged to protect every Virginian, including those most vulnerable amid the chipping away of programs and federal support tied to immigration, education, energy and environment, health care, and fair housing initiatives under the Trump administration. In a sea of political hard liners, Spanberger has positioned herself as a left-leaning voice determined to unite the state with common-sense policies.

Spanberger has vowed to keep public funding flowing into Virginia’s public schools while protecting LGBTQ students. Additionally, Spanberger said she would “absolutely veto” any further restrictions on abortion rights in the state, and she intends to restore voting rights to Virginians who have served their time, alongside a laundry list of other priorities she aims to achieve if she wins.

If Earle-Sears clinches victory, she will not only become Virginia’s first female governor but also the state’s first Black female governor. A Marine veteran and Jamaican immigrant who is also the state’s current lieutenant governor, Earle-Sears she is running on a platform of conservative values that appears to have been shaped by outgoing Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s 2021 playbook. (Youngkin isn’t eligible to run again due to Virginia’s rules around consecutive governorships.)

Earle-Sears already made history as the first Black woman to hold statewide office in Virginia when she was elected lieutenant governor in 2021, and she is seeking to take her career several steps forward by throwing her support behind all of President Donald Trump’s administration’s policies, including the reprioritization of coal as an energy source, strengthening the enforcement of immigration laws in partnership with federal authorities, and vehemently being against abortion altogether.

In the 2024 presidential election, Trump saw a surge of support among Black voters before he ultimately claimed victory in the state.Polls show Spanberger with a lead over Earle-Sears as the race tightens in the lead up to Nov. 4. But whether Earle-Sears ultimately wins or loses, her campaign could flip more Black voters into Trumpland.

This is the fifth in an ongoing series where The Root goes beyond the headlines, digging deep into the most critical political campaigns of 2025.