2025 Virginia gubernatorial election
November 4, 2025
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| Turnout | 54.22% 0.68 | ||||||||||||||||
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Spanberger: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90% Earle-Sears: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90% Tie: 50% No votes | |||||||||||||||||
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| Elections in Virginia |
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The 2025 Virginia gubernatorial election was held on November 4, 2025, to elect the next governor of Virginia. The election was held concurrently with elections for Virginia's statewide offices, the House of Delegates, and other United States' offices. Incumbent Republican governor Glenn Youngkin was constitutionally barred from seeking reelection to a second term in office due to the state's unique prohibition on consecutive gubernatorial terms.
Neither Republican lieutenant governor Winsome Earle-Sears nor former Democratic U.S. representative Abigail Spanberger received opposition in their respective primaries. In April 2025, Spanberger and Earle-Sears were confirmed as the major party nominees. Spanberger defeated Earle-Sears by roughly 527,000 votes which is the largest raw vote margin in state history. She won by 15.36% — a landslide margin and the largest gubernatorial percentage margin since 2009. Democrats won all three statewide executive offices and a trifecta in Virginia's government for the first time since 2019.
The central issues of the campaign were the economy and affordability, which included the federal layoffs from the Trump administration. Transgender rights and political rhetoric followed behind as secondary issues. President Trump's general unpopularity and perceived performance on the economy, healthcare, immigration, and other issues were viewed as contributing factors for Earle-Sears' loss.
Spanberger was elected the first female governor in the state's history, winning by the largest Democratic gubernatorial margin since 1961. She was sworn in as the 75th governor of Virginia on January 17, 2026.