Mapped: Where women rule (now including Virginia)
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Virginia became the 33rd state in the nation this week to elect a woman governor.
Why it matters: The state's glass ceiling is officially shattered.
State of play: Only 51 women have served as governor in America's nearly 250-year history, per the Center for American Women and Politics.
- That number will be 53 come January, thanks to this week's gubernatorial election outcomes in Virginia and New Jersey.
- Governor-elect Spanberger's inauguration on Jan. 17 follows this year's record-setting number of 13 women governors, which happened after New Hampshire elected Gov. Kelly Ayotte in 2024.
What they're saying: "It's a big deal that the girls and the young women I have met along the campaign trail now know with certainty that they can achieve anything," Spanberger said in her victory speech Tuesday night in Richmond.
Zoom in: With her daughters behind her, Spanberger also thanked the women who blazed the trail before her, including Mary Sue Terry.
- Terry became the state's first woman to be elected statewide in 1985 after winning the attorney general race.
- She was the only woman to hold a statewide office in Virginia for nearly 30 years, until 2021, when Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears became the first Black woman in the state's executive branch.
Flashback: In 1925 — five years after the 19th amendment was ratified — Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming became America's first woman governor.
- Roughly two weeks later, Miriam Ferguson of Texas became the second.