Virginia Democrats swept the statewide elections Tuesday night–thanks to Northern Virginia voters who accounted for 88% of Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger’s victory margin.
Democrat Ghazala Hashmi won the lieutenant governor race, and Democrat Jay Jones won the attorney general race. Democrats also gained 13 house seats making their majority 64-36 for the 2026 session.
InsideNoVa analyzed preliminary election results and found that Spanberger won 72.3% of the total vote in Northern Virginia. Though across the rest of the state her winning margin was much closer to her Republican opponent Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.
According to the Associated Press, which has about 96% of the votes counted, Spanberger won Virginia by the largest gubernatorial margin since Terry McAuliffe in 2009. Spanberger won Virginia by 57.2% to 42.6% over Earle-Sears.
“‘TRUMP WASN’T ON THE BALLOT, AND SHUTDOWN, WERE THE TWO REASONS THAT REPUBLICANS LOST ELECTIONS TONIGHT,’ according to Pollsters,” President Donald Trump said via Truth Social Tuesday night in a response to the results.
Today marks the longest government shutdown in history, 36 days. The Democrats have voted 14 times to keep the government shutdown though they are still blaming Republicans.
Virginia has the second highest state population of federal workers, following California, and has been heavily impacted by the shutdown. According to the Census Bureau there are 147,358 federal civilian employees as of September 2025 in Virginia. Most of these Northern Virginia residents in the suburbs around Washington, D.C., furloughed due to the government shutdown.
As of July, the Trump Administration DOGED 11,000 Virginians federal jobs, according to a report from University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service.
Though Trump won the 2024 Presidential election, 312 electoral votes to Kamala Harris’ 226, Trump ultimately lost Virginia 46.3% to 52.1%. A recent poll conducted Oct. 30-31 by Emerson College and Nexstar Media found that his approval rating in Virginia is similar, 44.5% of Virginians approve of his job while 53.9% disapprove.
Both parties are already gearing up for the midterm elections officially a year away.
