On Tuesday, Nov. 4, Virginians will head to the polls for the 2025 state elections. There are three races appearing on the ballot: The gubernatorial election, the lieutenant gubernatorial election and the Attorney General election. Virginia’s position as a swing state makes the results of these races significant at both the state and national levels, so all eyes will be on the results on election night. The nominations of Abigail Spanberger and Winsome Earle-Sears are also historical for Virginia, as this election will be the first all-female gubernatorial election in state history, resulting in the first woman being elected to the governor’s office.
Gubernatorial Election
Democrat Abigail Spanberger and Republican Winsome Earle-Sears are the gubernatorial candidates for this cycle. As Virginia does not allow its governors to serve consecutive terms, incumbent governor Glenn Youngkin will not appear on the ballot.
Abigail Spanberger, D
Abigail Spanberger is a Virginia native with a long career in public service. Her campaign focuses on four key sections of policy: increasing affordability, strengthening public schools, keeping communities safe and protecting fundamental rights.
To increase affordability, Spanberger will work to lower prices on healthcare, housing, childcare and energy. By lowering costs and making necessities more accessible, she hopes to make it easier for all Virginians to get ahead.
She pledges to protect Virginians’ fundamental rights by guaranteeing voting rights for all, providing protections for same-sex and interracial couples and defending reproductive freedom. Spanberger will also work with law enforcement officers and legislators to increase public safety and decrease deaths from gun violence and drug use.
Spanberger’s plan for K-12 schools involves increasing school funding, providing more training for educators and addressing the teacher shortage. She hopes to modernize the Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments, work with the General Assembly to improve curriculums and promote accountability measures in schools.
Winsome Earle-Sears, R
Winsome Earle-Sears is the incumbent Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, holding previous positions as a state delegate and a member of the Virginia Board of Education. As governor, Earle-Sears will aim to reduce the cost of living, combat crime and ensure high quality education for all children.
Earle-Sears is against allowing transgender women to participate on women’s sports teams and will enforce laws that only allow women to compete on teams that match the gender they were assigned at birth.
Earle-Sears’ plan to reduce the cost of living involves lowering taxes, cutting government spending and removing regulations that are harmful to Virginians. She wants Virginia to be a place where all families can afford to live.
Earle-Sears will work to combat crime in Virginia by ending policies such as catch-and-release and increasing funding and resources for law enforcement officers.
She opposes sanctuary cities for immigrants and will work alongside the Trump administration to ensure that immigrants who come to the country illegally are arrested, detained and deported.
For K-12 schooling, Earle-Sears supports parent choice. She believes that children should not be forced to attend an underperforming school because of where they live or their income level and as governor, her campaign website states that she will “prioritize parents’ rights and basic reading and math skills over ideological grandstanding.”
Lieutenant Gubernatorial Election
Democrat Ghazala Hashmi and Republican John Reid are the candidates for the lieutenant gubernatorial race.
Ghazala Hashmi, D
Ghazala Hashmi is a longtime educator and advocate in Virginia and beyond. Hashmi and her campaign are focused on a number of issues, including housing inequity, health care, education and environmental justice.
Hashmi believes that access to housing and healthcare are a fundamental right that all Virginians deserve. As lieutenant governor, she will develop plans to support the homeless and the housing insecure. She will also work to make sure that all Virginians have access to adequate healthcare, including reproductive healthcare.
Hashmi supports providing full funding to public schools in Virginia. Hashmi’s campaign website states that she believes all students should have access to “top notch public schools with modern technology and sufficient staff including career counselors, mental health professionals and subject area specialists,” no matter where they live.
If elected, Hashmi will push Virginia to lead the way on critical environmental policy to address potential climate catastrophes and ensure that natural resources are protected for future generations. Her specific concerns include coastal resiliency programs, flooding threats and reducing carbon emissions.
John Reid, R
John Reid is a lifelong Virginian with experience in public service and communications. Reid’s campaign centers on expanding economic opportunities, protecting law enforcement officers, fostering first-class education and advocating for personal freedoms.
Reid is committed to creating a business-friendly Virginia that will grow the economy. He will decrease taxes and over-regulation and will fight to protect the right to work for employees and employers. He will also use his consulting experience to keep Virginia viable for expansion and growth in the job market.
As lieutenant governor, Reid will be a defender of law enforcement officers and will support police officers in Virginia. He will also advocate for personal freedoms for all Virginians and support decision making without government interference.
Reid’s campaign website states that he believes that Virginia should “prioritize first-class learning in education” without political interference. He says that children do not belong to the government and are not the responsibility of the state, and that the government should provide opportunities but parents should be the final decision makers.
Attorney General Election
Democrat Jay Jones and Republican incumbent Jason Miyares are the candidates for the attorney general election.
Jay Jones, D
Jay Jones is a multi-generational Virginian and experienced litigator. If elected, he plans to work towards protecting the rights of Virginians, ensuring a fair justice system, fostering growth and innovation in the state and protecting Virginia against the Trump administration.
Jones will work to ensure that all Virginians are protected under the law. He will maintain current abortion laws and will make sure that all women, doctors and clinics are protected from restrictions on abortions.
Jones will also fight for the civil and constitutional rights of Virginians from voting rights to civil rights.
Jones is committed to ensuring the well being and safety of Virginia communities. He will work closely with prosecutors and law enforcement and make sure that they have the support and resources they need and he aims to build closer ties between law enforcement officers and their neighborhoods.
He will also work to prevent illegal gun ownership and gun violence in Virginia.
As attorney general, Jones’s campaign website declares that will put the well being of Virginians first and will protect Virginia against the Trump administration. He will work with other attorneys general around the country to prevent unconstitutional acts from being exercised in both Virginia and the rest of the country.
Jason Miyares, R
Jason Miyares is the incumbent attorney general and a native Virginia resident. His campaign values include fighting violent crime, improving public safety, strengthening the economy and combatting corporate misconduct.
As attorney general, Miyares will continue to fight violent crime and drug use as he did in his first term. His office secured $1 billion in opioid settlements in his first term and he will continue to address the drug epidemic if reelected.
Miyares will work to decrease violent crime in Virginia and improve public safety. He implemented Operation Ceasefire as attorney general, a project which focuses on violence intervention and prosecution of gun crimes in order to protect citizens. He will remain focused on further decreasing these crimes in his second term.
Miyares is also committed to protecting Virginia’s youth. As attorney general, his campaign website has “held accountable those who have put our kids at risk” and will continue to help families keep their children safe if elected. He will remain working towards increasing student protection in schools as well as decreasing the threats caused by social media apps.
Candidate Backgrounds
Abigail Spanberger, D
Spanberger received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and earned her MBA from a joint program between Purdue University and Germany’s GISMA business school. She worked as a federal law enforcement officer and a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Case Officer before running for and being elected to Congress as the U.S. Representative for Virginia’s Seventh District. She represented Virginia in the House from 2019 to 2025 before stepping down to run for governor.
Winsome Earle-Sears, R
Earle-Sears received her associate’s degree from Tidewater Community College, her bachelor’s degree from Old Dominion University and her master’s degree from Regent University. She was as a Virginia State Delegate for VA District 90 from 2002 to 2004, was the Vice President of the Virginia State Board of Education and was a presidential appointee to the US Census Bureau. She is the first female lieutenant governor of Virginia.
Ghazala Hashmi, D
Hashmi earned her bachelor’s degree from Georgia Southern University and her PhD from Emory University. She taught at the University of Richmond and at Reynolds Community College, and served as the Founding Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL). She was elected to the Virginia Senate in 2019 and was named the Chair of the Senate Education and Health Committee.
John Reid, R
Reid earned his bachelor’s degree from Baylor University. He began his career as an intern for President Ronald Reagan, and later served as the communications director for Senator George Allen as well as the Chief Communications Officer for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. He worked as a news anchor in Richmond for over a decade before coming to his current role as the host for the WRVA Morning Show, a conservative talk radio program.
Jay Jones, D
Jones earned his undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary and received his law degree from the University of Virginia. Jones previously served as an Assistant Attorney General for the District of Columbia’s Office of Consumer Protection and has litigated for the Virginia NAACP and Planned Parenthood. He was a Virginia State Delegate from 2018 to 2021.
Jason Miyares, R
Miyares received his bachelor’s degree from James Madison University and his law degree from the College of William and Mary School of Law. Miyares worked as a prosecutor in the Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney Office and served three terms in the Virginia House of Delegates before he was elected as the 48th Attorney General of Virginia in 2021. He is the first Hispanic American to be elected to a statewide office.
All campaign information included in this article is from the candidates’ campaign websites.
