Virginia Governor's Race 2025
the front-runners can make history …
The Old Dominion has an off-cycle election every four years with an open seat available on election day, November 4, 2025. The state’s constitution prohibits incumbent governor Glenn Youngkin from seeking a consecutive term in Richmond's capital city.
Younkin’s lieutenant governor, Winsome Earle-Sears, is seeking the seat and is the odds-on favorite to win the Republican nomination on June 17th. Even though the Lt. Governor may be facing primary opposition, Earle-Sears will likely win the nod, especially after being endorsed by her popular boss.
The Democrats also appear ready to embrace former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger’s bid for their party’s nomination. Spanberger is a former CIA operative who held Virginia’s 7th district seat in Congress, winning elections in 2018, 2020, and 2022, before voluntarily not running in 2024 to run full-time for governor.
If either Earle-Sears or Spanberger is elected in November, they will be the state’s first female governor.
Virginia’s junior United States Senator Tim Kaine has called the election a “bell weather” on Donald Trump’s popularity, particularly in the face of massive federal employee layoffs in a state where more than 145,000 Virginians work for the federal government.
