Virginia’s upcoming gubernatorial race is poised to make history in 2025, with two women likely to lead the Republican and Democratic tickets.
Lieutenant Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R) and Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) are the clear front-runners in their respective parties, with Republicans and Democrats largely falling in line behind them.
If Earle-Sears and Spanberger each win their respective primaries, one of them will go on to become the commonwealth’s first female governor. And if Earle-Sears wins the general election, she would be the first Black woman to lead the state, which was once the capital of the Confederacy.
“The Republican Party has been very late to the recruitment and the Democratic Party depended upon women voters, particularly African American women voters, but didn’t do very much to ascend them to positions,” said Bob Holsworth, a veteran Virginia political analyst.
The last woman to run in a general election for Virginia’s governor’s mansion was former Democratic state Attorney General Mary Sue Terry in 1993. She lost by more than 17 points to then-Rep. George Allen (R-Va.). That same off-year election saw then-Republican Christine Todd Whitman become the first woman to serve as New Jersey governor.
Women ran in Virginia’s Republican convention and the Democratic primary ahead of the commonwealth’s last gubernatorial race in 2021. Former state Sen. Amanda Chase (R) ran in the Republican convention that was ultimately won by Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R). In the Democratic primary, two Black women, now-Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.) and state Sen. Jennifer Carroll Foy (D) ran, but the two lost to former Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D). The former governor carried 62 percent of the primary vote.
But four years later, the Republican and Democratic primary fields have largely cleared for Earle-Sears and Spanberger. Youngkin, arguably the most important endorsement in the state’s GOP primary, formally backed Earle-Sears for the post. The governor also backed state Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) for reelection, putting an end to speculation that Miyares and Earle-Sears would go head-to-head in a primary.
