Spanberger and Earle-Sears want to make history in Virginia. But voters have election exhaustion

RICHMOND, Va. — (AP) — Just weeks after former Rep. Abigail Spanberger left the U.S. House for good, she strolled onto the floor of a different political chamber: the Virginia House of Delegates. The three-term congresswoman, now vying to be the state's next governor, rubbed elbows with fellow Democrats and held someone's baby at her hip, a not-so-subtle reminder that statewide elections are looming in the commonwealth this year.

“Shouldn’t you be out knocking on doors or something?” Democratic House Speaker Don Scott teased Spanberger, who minutes before had scooped up the infant nephew of a Democratic state lawmaker. The politicians shared a laugh.

For many U.S. voters exhausted by the 2024 elections, the early months of 2025 feel like a time to step away from politics. But the next campaign season has already begun in Virginia — where the governor and all 100 House members will soon be on the ballot — and the contours of a closely watched governor's race are taking shape. While Spanberger posed for photos and waved at fellow Virginians traversing the Capitol, Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears met with lawmakers at a news conference just down the hall, pitching her own candidacy for the top job and framing the race as a two-way contest between her and Spanberger.

That's a scenario widely predicted even by neutral Virginia observers and one that would give the state its first female governor. Both are looking to succeed Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who is term-limited.

“My opponent has said that she is going to run on the successes of a Republican administration,” Earle-Sears said of Spanberger that day. “Well, why should we change teams?”

Virginia is one of two states, along with New Jersey, that conducts statewide races, including its governor's contest, in the year following a presidential election and will likely draw attention from politicos all over the country.

The off-year races are often seen as an early barometer of voter sentiment heading into midterm elections. That's especially true in Virginia, which has picked both Democrats and Republicans for its top offices in recent years, and this year's contests will take place with Republicans in full control of the levers of power in nearby Washington.

Earle-Sears and Spanberger are widely seen as their parties' likely nominees in November, though others, such as Democratic U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, have debated entering the June primary race. On Friday, Scott also paid a visit to the statehouse.

Some of the financial groundwork for the contest has already been laid. Spanberger, who launched her campaign in late 2023, had roughly $6.5 million in the bank last month, according to the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project. Earle-Sears, who announced her candidacy in September, had more than $2 million in her war chest.

Still, the campaigns are heating up at a time when voters are unplugging from politics. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey conducted in early December found that about 7 in 10 Democrats say they are stepping back from political news. About 6 in 10 Republicans also say they've felt the need to take some time off, and the share for independents is similar.

But those figures haven't deterred the leading candidates.

Earle-Sears, a Marine veteran who immigrated to the United States from Jamaica as a child, has said she hopes to build on her successes as lieutenant governor and those of Youngkin's conservative administration. She has spent much of January at the state Capitol, in news conferences and in Republican caucus presentations, lauding "right to work" protections in Virginia, an issue that has become foundational in her bid for Virginia's Executive Mansion. Such laws forbid unions with collective bargaining power from requiring employees to join, diluting the power of organized labor.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve had a lieutenant governor who’s been willing to wade into substantive policy issues,” Virginia Republican Sen. Mark Obenshain, who endorsed Earle-Sears, said to her recently. “We absolutely have a leader in Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears.”

Spanberger, a former CIA operative no longer tied to her congressional responsibilities, has picked up steam along the campaign trail, stopping in Richmond and Southwestern Virginia in the last two weeks. She has presented herself as a bipartisan politician who will listen to all Virginians so she can focus on what they care about.

In a gun reform rally outside the statehouse earlier this month, Spanberger wiped away tears as she spoke of the toll gun violence has taken on people in Virginia and across the United States. Gun control advocates and volunteers held posters and wore T-shirts honoring those killed in shootings.

"Our current governor has vetoed proposals, bipartisan legislation that would have made progress on some of these issues, legislation that would have made our commonwealth a safer place to live, work and raise a family," Spanberger said, referencing Youngkin's decision to veto 30 Democratic-led firearm bills.

Spanberger took a breath as the crowd cheered: “We’ve got to make a change," she said. "So now, I’m running for governor.”

Across the street, Virginians wearing similar red clothes gathered around Earle-Sears, who, if elected, would become not only the first female governor but the first Black female to hold the office. In the marble-floor lobby of the attorney general’s office, she spoke in support of banning trans female athletes from participating in women’s sports teams. The legislation, which Republican lawmakers backed in the Democratic-led Virginia legislature, would fail in a Senate committee the following week.

Still, as the lieutenant governor stood side-by-side with Youngkin and Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, she rallied some of the state’s conservative base, portraying herself as a protector of and an advocate for Republican values.

“My policy is this: Don’t make my life any harder than it already is,” Earle-Sears said, later adding: “Common sense must prevail. We cannot say that enough because we don’t see enough of it.”

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Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.