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The Democratic candidate for governor, Abigail Spanberger, is raising far more cash than her Republican rival, Winsome Earle-Sears, in a state where federal work force cuts are being acutely felt.
Reid J. Epstein has covered Virginia elections since 2017.
June 17, 2025Updated 9:32 a.m. ET
The politics of Washington nearly always bleed across the Potomac River and into Virginia’s odd-year elections for governor, long seen as the first sign of how the country is feeling about its new president.
This year in particular, that is a big advantage for Democrats.
In Virginia, they have fully united behind a candidate they view as ideal to win a Trump-era election in a purple state: former Representative Abigail Spanberger, a onetime C.I.A. officer who has raised buckets of money and defined herself as a moderate willing to buck her party’s leadership.
She is widely seen as the favorite against Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, a socially conservative Republican who has struggled to remain competitive financially in the early months of the race. Ms. Spanberger had $14.3 million on hand as of June 5, the latest campaign finance reporting date, compared with under $3 million for Ms. Earle-Sears.
And while the party locked out of the White House usually performs well in the Virginia governor’s race, this is no ordinary year for the state. President Trump’s slash-and-burn tactics for cutting the government have heavily affected Virginia’s large population of federal workers.
Democrats in the state and far beyond see Ms. Spanberger’s campaign as their biggest opportunity yet to make a statement about their opposition to Mr. Trump.
“The list goes on and on,” Ms. Spanberger said in an interview on Monday, discussing what voters were telling her. “Sometimes it’s the chaos, sometimes it is the anger. Sometimes they’ll name the president.”
