As the nation gears up for the presidential election just weeks away, the candidates for the Virginia governor’s race are already looking ahead to 2025 with a recent poll showing they are equally supported by voters.
U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger, D-VA-07, was the first candidate to announce her bid for governor in November 2023. She is in her third term as the representative of Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, and is the only candidate seeking the Democratic nomination after Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney rescinded his decision to run, opting instead to vie for the lieutenant governor position.
Republican Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears announced her candidacy in early September at a rally in Virginia Beach. She has made history as the first female Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the first Black female elected statewide, the first naturalized female elected to statewide office, and the first female veteran to be elected to statewide office.
A state poll by the University of Mary Washington’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies in Fredericksburg last month showed both contenders were tied when it came to support among Virginians – 39% favored Spanberger and 39% favored Earle-Sears.
An Earle-Sears v. Spanberger matchup will be historic because it will put a female in the governor’s seat for the first time in Virginia.
Sears, 60, shared her life story with the attendees at her campaign announcement rally, giving them a sense of who she is. “A story like mine – a Jamaican immigrant, a United States Marine, a business owner, a homeless shelter director, the leader of a men’s prison ministry, a former delegate, and now your lieutenant governor – that story is only possible in America.”
“This is such a great country. God bless America,” is how she started her address to the crowd, adding her father came to America from Jamaica with $1.75 in his pocket 50 years ago in search of a better life when Sears was just six-years-old. She grew up in the Bronx and served as an electrician in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1983 until 1986.
As lieutenant governor, she said she has logged close to 30,000 miles since she was elected to office with Gov. Glenn Youngkin in 2022 and considers hearing directly from Virginians as one of her most important goals. She has coined the term “Ever Forward” as her approach to leading the Commonwealth into the future, which includes a focus on business growth and innovation, education reform, second amendment protection, curtailing illegal immigration, veteran support and crime reduction.
Her full announcement speech can be seen here.
Spanberger, 45, is a former CIA officer and previously worked as an agent for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. She was first elected to Congress by a narrow margin in 2018, flipping the longtime GOP seat.
She has worked on legislation to prevent fentanyl overdose, protect Virginia’s natural resources, support veterans, lower prescription drug costs and strengthen workforce training programs for Virginia students. She is a strong supporter of abortion, LGBTQ+, expanding access to affordable healthcare, helping farmers, and combating climate change.
In August, Spanberger surveyed constituents and received more than 2,750 responses concerning the Windfall Elimination Provision & Government Pension Offset which affect Social Security benefits. And she has worked on legislation to ban lawmakers from trading individual stocks to prevent profiting on access to privileged information.
Her sponsored bills, voting record and committee memberships can be seen here, and her gubernatorial candidate announcement can be seen here.
All three of Virginia’s statewide state government offices – governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general – are currently held by Republicans and will be on the ballot next year. Gov. Youngkin is unable to run for another term due to the state prohibiting a governor from running for consecutive terms.
Audrey Carpenter is the Loudoun County Bureau Chief for All Virginia News and can be reached at: audreycarpenter@allvirginia.news
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