Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, arrives on stage at a campaign rally at the Jefferson Theater October 20, 2025 in Charlottesville, Virginia.
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Democratic candidates will win the Virginia governor’s race and the state’s attorney general election, NBC News projected on Tuesday night.
Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic nominee, will defeat Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears to become Virginia’s first female governor, according to NBC.
A former CIA officer and member of Congress, Spanberger will succeed Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican who is barred under Virginia law from seeking a second consecutive term.
Virginia is one of 18 states that have never had a female governor.
In the attorney general’s race, Democratic nominee Jay Jones will unseat Republican incumbent Jason Miyares, NBC projected.
In her victory speech Tuesday night, Spanberger said Virginia “chose pragmatism over partisanship” and “our Commonwealth over chaos.”
Republican gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears and Democratic gubernatorial candidate, former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA).
Anna Moneymaker | Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images
She praised her rival Sears and thanked supporters for “believing that Virginia could and would send a hopeful and joyful message tonight.”
Polls of the governor’s race, one of just two such contests taking place the year after President Donald Trump’s election in 2024, consistently favored Spanberger.
Meanwhile, the state AG’s race between Jones and Miyares tightened to an apparent toss-up amid a major controversy.
Jones once appeared likely to dominate over Miyares, polls showed. But Jones’ campaign came under intense fire early last month, when his 2022 texts envisioning violence against a GOP political opponent were published by National Review.
Jones repeatedly apologized for sending the texts, including during his Oct. 16 debate with Miyares.
The scandal shook up elections statewide, with Republican groups spending millions on a flurry of ads attacking Jones, NBC News reported. The texts emerged as Republicans have sought to link Democrats’ rhetoric to acts of political violence, including the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Some Virginia Democrats disavowed the texts, but few if any called on Jones to drop out of the race. Jones joined Spanberger and former President Barack Obama at a get-out-the-vote rally in Norfolk on Saturday.
Earle-Sears saw a fundraising boost as the controversy unfolded, and she sought to capitalize on the scandal in her mid-October debate versus Spanberger. But multiple polls released shortly before Election Day show Spanberger maintaining a double-digit lead over her opponent.
