Overview
- Major outlets projected former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger the winner over Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, making her Virginia’s first woman governor and flipping the office from Republican control.
- Democrat Ghazala Hashmi won the lieutenant governor race, becoming the first Muslim and first Indian American woman to hold statewide office in Virginia and the first Muslim woman elected to statewide office in the U.S.
- Democrat Jay Jones defeated Republican incumbent Jason Miyares for attorney general despite uproar over Jones’s 2022 texts invoking violence; Jones apologized for the messages during the campaign.
- Spanberger ran on affordability, abortion rights and public safety while emphasizing the impact of federal layoffs and the government shutdown on Virginia’s large federal-worker population, with high-profile support including Barack Obama.
- The Democratic sweep is being framed as a bellwether boost ahead of the 2026 midterms and factors into an ongoing battle over redistricting authority that Democrats recently advanced and Republicans are challenging in court.