LGBTQ+ ally Abigail Spanberger trounces anti-trans Republican to win Virginia governor's racehttps://www.advocate.com/politics/abigail-spanberger-wins-virginia-governor 🔗Christopher Wiggins (4 Nov 2025)
Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer and three-term Democratic congresswoman, has won Virginia's governor's race, handily defeating Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears in a decisive victory that returns the state's executive mansion to Democratic control. She will be the 75th governor of the state and the first woman.
MSNBC called the race 53 minutes after polls closed Tuesday, with Spanberger leading across much of the state, including the suburban swing regions that have come to define Virginia's modern political landscape. Her win marks a personal triumph and a broader political repudiation of campaigns built around anti-transgender fearmongering.
"We sent a message to our neighbors and our fellow Americans across the country," Spanberger told the crowd. "We sent a message to the whole world that in 2025, Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship. We chose our commonwealth over chaos. You all chose leadership that will focus relentlessly on what matters most."
"I believe in this idea that there's so much more that unites us as Americans and Virginians than divides us, and I know in my heart that we can unite for Virginia's future and that we can set an example for the rest of the nation," she said.
Spanberger ran on a message of pragmatic leadership, pledging to "lower costs and raise expectations," while emphasizing education, health care, and bipartisan problem-solving. By contrast, Earle-Sears, who said during a debate with Spanberger that firing a person because they are gay "is not discrimination," focused her campaign on cultural issues, employing a barrage of attacks on transgender people and diversity programs.
