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Abigail Spanberger
The Advocate is reporting live from Spanberger's election night victory event.
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.
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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.
Spanberger addressed supporters at an election night victory celebration in Richmond shortly after 8:30 p.m.
"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.
She said that Virginia is a commonwealth because the founders wanted people to come together for the common good. "We are still a commonwealth in every sense of the word,” Spanberger told supporters. "For those who believed in me, thank you. Thank you for devoting your time, your energy, and your conviction to this campaign."
Related: Big turnout expected at Buttigieg-Spanberger Virginia rally
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.
As The Advocate previously reported, Earle-Sears’s campaign released a “they/them” ad that accused Spanberger of supporting “men in girls’ locker rooms.” Another spot featured a digitally-altered image of a young boy on a girls’ sports team and claimed Spanberger backed “irreversible sterilization” of minors, claims experts and fact-checkers debunked as false and misleading.
Related: Virginia Republican runs ‘they/them’ ad in governor’s race
LGBTQ+ advocates condemned the ads as dangerous and dehumanizing, warning that such rhetoric fuels violence and misunderstanding about transgender youth. The strategy, which some credited in part for President Donald Trump’s victory in 2024 after his campaign spent tens of millions of dollars on anti-trans messaging, however, failed to resonate. Spanberger maintained steady leads in polls throughout the fall, indicating voters were far more focused on the economy and the state’s schools than on weaponized social issues.
“Tonight, Virginia chose progress and inclusion for all by electing Abigail Spanberger as Governor," Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said in a statement. "In the face of millions of dollars in anti-trans ad spending by her opponent, Governor-elect Spanberger ran a campaign that never sacrificed her belief in equality and freedom for all Virginians. That commitment isn’t new; Spanberger has long been a champion for a Virginia that works for everyone — from her service in Congress to her unwavering commitment to protecting every Virginian, including LGBTQ+ people."
Elected officials shared that sentiment.
“Republicans are not very creative and they can’t win on the merits of the issues, and so they try to demonize a group or two," Virginia U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan told The Advocate from Spanberger’s election night event. “Unfortunately, that worked for Donald Trump when he demonized the trans community and immigrants. But now the country is seeing how far that hate can go, and they’re not interested in that here in Virginia."
McClellan, who became Virginia’s first Black congresswoman when she won a special election in 2023, said that voters are fatigued with the Trump administration’s push of extreme division. “When Democrats focus on bringing people together, focus on helping people and solving problems, focus on meeting every voter where they are and addressing the issues that they care about, we win,” she said. “And when we don’t do that, then we don’t do as great. We did that this time."
She added, “Voters here are not interested in bullying trans kids or demonizing anybody. They just want a governor that’s going to fight for every Virginian and focus on issues that all Virginians have in common. And I think it’s time to send a message that that kind of pit groups against each other just to grab power is over."
Related: GOP candidate’s meltdown derails Virginia governor’s debate
Spanberger’s win cements her status as a rising national figure in the Democratic Party and as an example of how affirming LGBTQ+ rights and focusing on practical governance can coexist politically, even in a swing state with conservative pockets.
In Virginia, at least, Spanberger’s victory suggests that the politics of compassion and rejecting anti-trans scapegoating resonate deeply with voters seeking steady hands in turbulent times.
Spanberger’s "victory is proof that a campaign based on transphobia will lose to one grounded in dignity, equality, and a commitment to attack the problems most important to voters," Robinson said. "The Human Rights Campaign is proud to stand with Spanberger and looks forward to partnering with her administration to advance equality for all.”
Editor’s note: This is a developing story, and The Advocate will update it from Spanberger’s Election Night headquarters in Richmond.
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