Democrat Abigail Spanberger wins Virginia governor’s race in main check for celebration, CBS Information initiatives

Democratic candidate Abigail Spanberger will defeat Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears within the Virginia gubernatorial race, CBS Information projected Tuesday, marking considered one of Democrats’ first main victories since President Trump’s win final 12 months.

Spanberger might be Virginia’s first feminine governor.

Virginia’s off-year gubernatorial race tends to function a referendum on the president who was elected a 12 months prior — and traditionally, the president’s celebration has nearly all the time misplaced.

Nationwide politics had been a throughline on this 12 months’s race, particularly the Trump administration’s sweeping federal layoffs and the still-unresolved month-long authorities shutdown, which has compelled most federal staff to go with out pay. Each points are potent in Virginia, which has practically 150,000 federal civilian jobs and is house to scores of army personnel.

Spanberger, a former CIA officer and congresswoman, positioned herself as an adversary of the Trump administration and sought to hyperlink Earle-Sears to Mr. Trump. She continuously tried to capitalize on frustration over federal layoffs and Mr. Trump’s tariffs.

Virginia has moved leftward in recent times, pushed by shifts within the fast-growing suburbs of Washington, D.C., although Democrats misplaced floor final 12 months, with Mr. Trump boosting his share of the statewide vote from 44% in 2020 to 46.1% in 2024.

However the race additionally follows months of uncertainty for the Democratic Occasion, which was stung by its 2024 loss and remains to be riven by disagreements between its reasonable and progressive factions on the celebration’s technique shifting ahead. In the meantime, simply 34% of U.S. adults maintain a positive view of the celebration, in comparison with 41% for the GOP, in accordance with a CBS Information ballot from final month.

Earle-Sears, a Marine Corps veteran and former state lawmaker, took purpose at Spanberger over immigration and the participation of transgender college students at school sports activities.

In latest weeks, the race has been dominated by a scandal within the often lower-profile Virginia legal professional basic election, after textual content messages surfaced exhibiting Democratic nominee Jay Jones used violent and incendiary language towards Republicans. Spanberger condemned the messages, however Earle-Sears pressed her to name for Jones to drop out of the race.

Spanberger campaigned within the closing stretch with high-profile Democrats like former President Barack Obama, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Earle-Sears drew on assist from Virginia’s widespread however term-limited incumbent Gov. Glenn Youngkin, whose financial report Earle-Sears has touted. 

However the Republican candidate wasn’t explicitly endorsed by Mr. Trump, the chief of her celebration, though the president gave his “full and whole endorsement” to the GOP nominees in Virginia’s legal professional basic race and New Jersey’s gubernatorial race. Mr. Trump has provided some assist for Earle-Sears — however not by identify.

“I believe the Republican candidate is superb, and I believe she ought to win as a result of the Democrat candidate’s a catastrophe,” he advised reporters two weeks in the past, including, “I have not been an excessive amount of concerned in Virginia.”