Democrats sweep Virginia elections in historic win despite scandal
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The Democratic ticket at a Labor Day parade in September. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
Democrats have swept Virginia's statewide elections, winning with one of the most diverse tickets in state history.
Why it matters: A scandal just a month before Election Day cast doubt on whether it'd really happen — or if Virginians would choose to split their ticket for the first time in 20 years instead.
Driving the news: On Tuesday night, per AP, Virginians elected:
- Abigail Spanberger, the state's first woman governor.
- Ghazala Hashmi, the first Muslim-American woman to be lieutenant governor in the U.S.
- And Jay Jones, Virginia's first Black attorney general — who unseated incumbent Jason Miyares.
State of play: The results continue the so-called "Virginia curse," where voters typically pick a governor from the opposite party of the sitting U.S. president.
- And the victory gives Democrats unified control of the state government for the first time since 2021, after Dems held on to their majority in the House of Delegates.
Zoom out: The outcome could be a bellwether heading into next year's midterms, a test of Democrats' post-Trump durability in a purple state.
- Among their top priorities: tackling Virginia's cost-of-living crunch, safeguarding abortion rights and taking on President Trump.
The intrigue: The ticket is a hometown win, and the first time since 2009 that a Richmond-area resident has been among the victors (though Gov. Youngkin was born here).
- Both Spanberger and Hashmi hail from the Richmond area. Spanberger once represented the suburbs in Congress and Hashmi represents Chesterfield and parts of South Richmond in the state Senate.
- It's also the first time in 20 years that the winning statewide ticket doesn't include a Northern Virginia resident, per an Axios review of the state's election database.
- Jones is a former state lawmaker from Norfolk.
Zoom out: It was a chaotic election year in Virginia. Scandal hit both parties, and one candidate sparred with an AI-generated version of his opponent.
- Jones' campaign was jolted by resurfaced 2022 text messages showing he suggested a hypothetical scenario in which he'd shoot the then-Republican House speaker.
- That was three weeks before Election Day, after over 355,000 Virginians had already voted. While Jones previously had a comfortable lead over Miyares, betting markets and polls flipped on him.
What we're watching: How Virginia's new leaders attempt to move past Jones' controversy, and whether they set the state's new agenda together.