Whenever I write about politics here in my home state of Virginia, I like to remind readers that it’s always an election year in the Commonwealth. The second a presidential or midterm campaign season closes, our gubernatorial or state races begin. The fundraising texts ramp up and the mailboxes once again are filled with mailers. It’s exhausting.
This year, we have a gubernatorial election to replace our Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, who, sadly, cannot run for two consecutive terms. Youngkin caught lightning in a bottle in 2021, coming from out of nowhere to not only win in a crowded primary field, but also capture a Governor’s Mansion that hadn’t had a Republican in residence for nearly a decade. He did it by siding with parents who were outraged at the teachers’ union-led COVID school closures while also smarting at the many hard-left school boards who were pushing radical agendas and silencing parents.
Although Youngkin prevailed four years ago, it’s hard for Republicans to win state-wide in Virginia. Northern Virginia (NoVA) is a hotbed of leftism due to the large number of federal workers who reside there; Elon Musk and DOGE are only going to make the NoVA headwinds blow that much harder in 2025. Richmond, like most Democrat-run cities, is currently in the “lost cause” category for the GOP, and the Virginia Beach area can’t seem to make up its mind what it is politically.
MORE: Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears Makes Her Next Move and It’s Big
More Fun With Winsome Sears as She Disarms Bill Maher on the Subject of Guns
Like the United States at large, the population centers of Virginia decide the elections, despite the fact that, acreage-wise, the vast majority of the state is red. And here’s a hard truth for the GOP: Donald Trump, Elon Musk and DOGE aren’t going to play well in the population centers. The good news, of course, is that if DOGE clears out enough of NoVA’s federal workforce, the state will come back into balance and once again be competitive for Republicans.
The state of this year’s governor’s race came into clearer focus on Thursday, which was the deadline for those wishing to run in the primaries to submit their 10,000 petition signatures for their name to appear on the ballot. Democrat Abigail Spanberger, the hard-left former Congresswoman whose seat was filled by the odious Eugene Vindman, apparently submitted 40,000 signatures and locked up the Democrat nomination. Republican Winsome Sears, current lieutenant governor of Virginia, also met the threshold, as did Amanda Chase, a former state representative who calls herself “Trump in heels.”
Meet your next Governor of Virginia! @SpanbergerForVA is officially our nominee, and we are fired up to knock on more doors, make more phone calls & have more conversations with our neighbors than ever before to elect her.
She’s the fighter Virginians need. Let’s do this 💪 pic.twitter.com/s0zVFrpfvW
— Virginia Democrats (@vademocrats) April 3, 2025
So, the Virginia GOP has itself a primary race, but the real race between Sears and Chase might actually be for Donald Trump’s endorsement. There’s no assurance he will endorse in this primary, of course, but Sears has some ground to make up with the president. Back in 2022, she joined a chorus of voices on the right who were calling on Trump to not run again in 2024, which led to him post on Truth Social that Sears had “turned on the MAGA movement.”
Endorsements have poured in for Sears, and her fundraising machine has been hard at work since last year, so it’s her primary to lose. Be on the lookout for whether or not Donald Trump decides to get involved.
As for the unopposed Abigail Spanberger, she’s busy trying to portray herself as a moderate while wracking up donations from lefty donors like Reid Hoffman. Parents might remember that, back in the COVID days, she advocated for keeping public schools closed until all staffers had been vaccinated. Needless to say, she’s a darling of the teachers’ unions.
Spanberger is also a fan of abortion and has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood. While still in Congress, she voted against the Laken Riley Act, which enabled the Trump administration to take an MS-13 leader off the streets of Virginia last week, and for the Equality Act, which opened the door for men to compete in women’s sports. She once wanted illegals counted in the U.S. census, which would favor Democrats if legislative boundaries were ever redrawn, and has happily celebrated “Trans Visibility Day.”
Virginia Republicans have a fight ahead of them, but the race is far from over. Winsome Sears enters the primary as the frontrunner, but Amanda Chase won’t go down without a fight—especially if she can capture Trump’s endorsement. Meanwhile, Spanberger will try to mask her far-left record under the guise of “moderation,” but Virginians remember her COVID-era school policies, her alignment with the radical left on immigration and gender ideology, and her deep ties to Democrat mega-donors.
So, who’s ready for another election season?
Every single day, here at RedState, we will stand up and FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT against the radical left and deliver the conservative reporting our readers deserve.
Help us continue to tell the truth about the Trump administration and its major wins. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.
