Virginia voters will elect a new governor Tuesday, and no matter which of the two major candidates wins, she will become the first woman to head the executive branch in Richmond.
Abigail Spanberger, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Democrat nominee, currently leads in most polling.
Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the Republican nominee, has picked up steam in the final stretch.
Here are five things to know about the race.
1. Abigail Spanberger
Spanberger, a former CIA agent, served in Congress from 2019 to 2025. While she presents herself as a moderate and unifier, she sided with her party on many controversial issues.
Spanberger is at least partially running against President Donald Trump’s administration in Washington, D.C. She has condemned his efforts to root out waste, fraud, and abuse through the Department of Government Efficiency initiative and championed federal government workers, many of whom live in Northern Virginia.
She faults Earle-Sears and current Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin for failing to oppose Trump.
She claims her policies will make life more affordable in Virginia, but critics say her climate policies will increase prices.
She touts police and law enforcement endorsements, but critics note that she voted to protect a Washington, D.C., law going soft on crime that even then-President Joe Biden opposed.
2. Earle-Sears
Earle-Sears, a Marine, would be the first black woman governor of the Old Dominion. Born in Jamaica, she immigrated to the U.S. as a young girl.
Opponents have engaged in racist attacks against her. A man shouted, “Go back to Haiti!” at Earle-Sears during a football game earlier this month. In August, a protester held a sign reading, “Hey, Winsome, if trans can’t share your bathroom, then blacks can’t share my water fountain.”
Earle-Sears is running to largely continue Youngkin’s policies on tax relief, economic growth, parental rights in education, and an all-of-the-above energy strategy.
Democrats attacked her for reportedly failing to disclose payments from a pro-Trump PAC and from a conservative nonprofit.
Critics also faulted Earle-Sears for repeatedly interrupting Spanberger during their debate earlier this month.
3. Jay Jones
The race fundamentally changed in early October, when National Review’s Audrey Fahlberg exposed text messages in which Jay Jones, the Democrat candidate for attorney general, fantasized about shooting then-House of Delegates Speaker Todd Gilbert, a Republican. Jones not only said that, in the hypothetical situation where he had only two bullets and could shoot Adolf Hitler, Cambodian dictator Pol Pot, or Gilbert, he declared he would use both bullets on Gilbert.
He later fantasized about Gilbert’s children dying in their mother’s arms, and he defended this disgusting death wish by saying, “Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.”
While Jones sent the texts in August 2022, the revelation came less than a month after the political assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Spanberger said she was “disgusted” by the remarks. She added, “as a candidate—and as the next governor of our commonwealth—I will always condemn violent language in our politics.”
Yet the Democrat, who publicly voted for Jones on Sept. 19 and campaigned with him, stopped short of calling for him to exit the race.
During a debate, Spanberger repeatedly refused to answer whether she still supports Jones.
Earle-Sears directly confronted Spanberger about it, and the Democrat responded by accusing her Republican opponent of not condemning political violence on the Right.
4. Transgender Issues
Earle-Sears has endorsed Youngkin’s position that boys and men should not be able to access girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms, and that boys should not be allowed to compete in girls sports.
Spanberger, on the other hand, has suggested that parents, administrators, and school districts should make decisions whether to allow boys access to girls’ spaces and sports on an individual basis.
This position arguably does not match Spanberger’s record in Congress, however. She sponsored and repeatedly voted for HR 5, the Equality Act, which would have mandated that schools allow boys in girls’ bathrooms and on girls sports teams, in the name of fighting discrimination.
Spanberger repeatedly refused to answer questions about transgender policy during the debate.
These questions gained new relevance in the Old Dominion this year. Richard Cox, a man who claims to identify as a woman, has been convicted of sex crimes involving children and currently faces charges of exposing himself to women and girls in locker rooms.
Meanwhile, Loudoun County Public Schools brought a Title IX case against teenage boys when they complained about a girl’s presence in their locker room. This took place at the very same school where a male student sexually assaulted girls in a girls’ bathroom in 2021.
5. A Last-Minute Special Session
On Monday, the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate met for a special session. House Speaker Don Scott, a Democrat, called the session in order to pursue a constitutional amendment on redistricting.
Scott called the special session one day after the House Democratic Caucus received a hefty donation from the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a nonprofit founded by Obama-era Attorney General Eric Holder. The committee also sent $150,000 to Spanberger’s campaign.
Earle-Sears, as lieutenant governor, left the campaign trail to preside over the Senate. Former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, however, told The Daily Signal that this move may help Republicans in the election.
Virginians voted, 66% to 34%, to amend the constitution in 2020 to establish a bipartisan redistricting commission. While Democrats are capitalizing on Trump calling for Republicans to use redistricting to gain an edge in the midterm elections, Virginians may not be willing to reverse course so quickly.
Neither the Spanberger campaign nor the Earle-Sears campaign responded to The Daily Signal’s request for comment by publication time.
