The Associated Press called the Virginia governor’s race for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger early Tuesday evening. Jay Jones, the embattled Democratic candidate for attorney general and Ghazala Hashmi, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, also both prevailed against their Republican challengers.
Spanberger, the 46-year-old former congresswoman and CIA case officer will become the first female governor of Virginia. Spanberger defeated the Republican lieutenant governor Winsome Earle-Sears by 56 percent to 44 percent, with 79 percent of the vote counted, according to the AP. The New Jersey-born Democrat was never at risk of losing the race, which she led comfortably by double digits against Earle-Sears, whose election in 2021 alongside Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin shocked pundits.
In the lieutenant governor race, Hashmi, a 61-year-old former Democratic state senator, bested the former conservative radio host John Reid, who struggled to gain traction as his campaign was dogged by allegations that he oversaw a social media account that featured sexually explicit images of men. Hashmi was declared winner only minutes after Spanberger and within an hour of polls closing in Virginia. She becomes the first Indian and Muslim woman elected to statewide office in U.S. history.
Jones, a 36-year-old former Democratic state assemblyman, had to wait a little longer into the night before being declared the victor in his race against incumbent Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares, who was running for reelection. Jones faced a scandal of his own when text messages he sent threatening violence against Virginia Republicans surfaced. Despite a turbulent campaign, he managed to defeat Miyares who campaigned on a promise to crack down on crime.
Many commentators expected Jones to lose the election after the former Virginia assemblyman spent weeks dodging calls to drop out of the race. Spanberger repeatedly refused to comment on the scandal or outwardly condemn Jones, a point of contention that Earle-Sears used in an effort to swing independent voters in her direction. Earle-Sears also spent considerable political capital on the politics of transgenderism, claiming that Spanberger “supports nude men in girls’ locker rooms.” The strategies never connected with Virginia voters who ranked the economy, not social issues, as major motivators.
“My fellow Virginians, tonight we sent a message,” Spanberger said to supporters following her victory. “We sent a message to every corner of the Commonwealth. A message to our neighbors and our fellow Americans across the country. We sent a message to the whole world that in 2025, Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship. We chose our Commonwealth over chaos.”
Read the full article here
