Stay with WTOP on air, online and on our news app for team coverage, live results and analyses of election night in Virginia. Listen live.
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Democrat Abigail Spanberger has won a historic race to become Virginia’s first female governor.
The former congresswoman won 54.5% of the vote and Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears fell behind with 45.3%, The Associated Press reported at 8 p.m. with 34% of the votes counted.
A highly anticipated Election Day is coming to a close in Virginia with results trickling in for races to name the state’s next top leaders: governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.
It’s been a campaign cycle marked by a handful of formal debates, a helping of political drama and lots of dollars raised in statewide races.
Down the ballot, Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares is running for reelection against Democratic challenger Jay Jones, an attorney and former state delegate. With about 25% of the votes counted, Jones has earned 50.3% of the votes while Miyares is behind with 49.4%, as of 7:55 p.m.
Democratic State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi is running against Republican talk-radio host John Reid for lieutenant governor. Hashmi is ahead with 52.3% and Reid has earned 47.5%, as of 7:45 p.m. and with 30% of votes counted.
Both parties are treating the results of Tuesday’s election as a potential bellwether for the 2026 midterm elections and a measure of voter attitudes during President Donald Trump’s second term in office.
Outside the statewide races, all 100 seats in Virginia’s House of Delegates are up for grabs.
More Election News
- LIVE RESULTS: Virginia general election 2025
- Virginia and Maryland local and county election results
A historic governor’s race
Gov. Glenn Youngkin is currently the chief executive in Virginia, where Republicans hope to maintain power in all three top offices.
In Virginia, voters have the option to split a ticket, throwing their support behind candidates from both parties on the same ballot.
Surveys show Spanberger has carried a commanding lead over Earle-Sears in the weeks leading up to Election Day.
Spanberger has also far outraised her Republican opponent, bringing in more than $65 million compared to Earle-Sears’ $35 million, according to recent campaign finance reports shared by the Virginia Public Access Project.
The race is guaranteed to make history with the promise of electing the state’s first woman as governor. Neither candidate has made the race’s historic nature a focal point of their campaigns, instead focusing on topics such as the economy.
Spanberger, a former CIA case officer and member of Congress, has said the election is about the struggles of everyday voters, including those impacted by cuts to the federal workforce or tariffs. She’s taken a more moderate approach and avoided talking about Trump.
Earle-Sears has drawn attention to transgender students in public schools and reducing the cost of living. Before taking office as lieutenant governor, Earle-Sears served in the U.S. Marine Corps and in the Virginia House of Delegates during the early 2000s.
Attorney general race stirs up old texts
In the final weeks before Election Day, the attorney general race spotlighted old text messages sent by Jones that showed he fantasized about political violence toward a former colleague.
Jones has apologized for those texts, but they sparked pushback from the GOP nationwide, and Republicans have called for the Democratic nominee to drop out of the race.
Jones has fallen behind the Republican incumbent in recent polls, including a survey conducted by Roanoke College from Oct. 22-27.
During the candidates’ debate, Jones attempted to refocus the race on Trump and argued Miyares couldn’t push back on overreach from the White House.
Miyares has argued that Jones is unqualified and pushed his record as attorney general, citing actions on crime and schools.
Lieutenant governor’s race could be competitive
A brand-new lieutenant governor will take over the position from Earle-Sears, who opted against running for reelection and instead campaigned for governor.
Polls have leaned in favor of Hashmi, with a slight lead of around two points over Reid in recent weeks. Both candidates are based out of the Richmond area.
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If Hashmi were to win, she would be the first Indian American to win statewide office in Virginia. She would be the country’s first Muslim woman in statewide office.
A victory for Reid would be historic too; he would be the country’s first openly gay Republican to win statewide office.
Early in his career, Reid worked as an intern for former President Ronald Reagan. He has served as chief communications officer for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a veterans organization, according to his website.
Before being elected to the Virginia General Assembly, Hashmi was an academic administrator. She has pushed issues such as reproductive health care, gun violence protection and the economy.
Reid has also spotlighted the economy in his campaign, along with law enforcement, parental rights and immigration enforcement.
Voter turnout
Tons of voters opted to cast their ballots early, a record high for a nonpresidential election in Virginia, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
More than 130,000 people voted early in-person in Fairfax County, according to the county’s office of elections. Staff and volunteers started processing those early votes Tuesday morning to help get results ready ahead of polls closing at 7 p.m.
According to an update from Fairfax County’s office of elections, 23.9% of registered voters cast an absentee ballot or voted early in-person. Another 20.1% of the county’s 808,000 registered voters cast ballots on Election Day, as of 3 p.m.
In Loudoun County, about 45.5% of the county’s 307,000 registered voters cast a ballot, including early and absentee ballots, according to a 4 p.m. update from the county’s office of elections.
According to the Prince William County Office of Elections, more than 62,000 residents voted on Tuesday, as of 4 p.m. That brought Election Day turnout to 18.8% and another 23.2% of voters cast absentee or early ballots.
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