Virginia pioneering candidates for the governor are preparing to compete in the economy, abortion and Trump

Tuesday is primary day in Virginia – but the general electoral match of the highest office of the Commonwealth is already set.

The Democrat Abigail Spanberger, former American representative, and the Republican WinSome Earle-Sears, the lieutenant-government of the state, have known for months that they would compete in the Breed to succeed Republican governor Glenn Youngkin because they were the only candidates for major parties to qualify for the ballot.

One of them is guaranteed to make history by being elected first woman governor of Virginia. And they have already put general campaigns focused on elections for months, offering an early boost to one of the governor’s two races this year (the other is in New Jersey). These elections will be early indicators of how voters react to President Donald Trump – and where political winds blow before 2026.

Already, clear division lines are emerged from the two campaigns, providing a card of how each candidate could carve out a way to gain the best political work in Virginia and navigate the policy of Trump’s second mandate.

Spanberger has focused strongly on economic and affordable issues, as well as its support for reproduction rights in a state that the rights of abortion are highlight as a rare place in the south where abortion care remain Widely accessible until viability. Spanberger’s campaign and Allied groups also have attacked Earle-Sears on her Conservative file on additional social issueslike contraception and the quality of marriage.

In addition, the Spanberger campaign and its allies frequently hit Earle on what they call an indifferent response to Trump movements To shrink the federal workforce. Virginia is home to more than 340,000 federal workers.

Earle-Sears has, largely, made all of the achievements of the administration of Youngkin, telling the voters that the elect would mark the file of the Popular Republican Governor (but long-limited), including the growth of the private sector of the economy and Defend “Parents’ Rights” in schools and classrooms of their children.

However, some Republicans have criticized the Earle-Sears campaign, complaining that he lack of discipline and consistency.

In interviews, state -of -the -art republican agents and elsewhere groaned that the campaign lacked a central message.

“I want to see her succeed. She just does not lead a good campaign,” said a GOP agent who worked in Virginia, who obtained anonymity to speak frankly about the campaign.

“His failures allowed Spanberger to sit tight. But the weather is not on the side of Earle-Searits. It is on the side of Spanberger, due to the composition of the state and his money advantage,” said the agent.

But the operator and the other Republicans NBC News spoke of having pointed out that it remains far too early to predict an end condemned for the Earle-Sears campaign, noting that the formal general electoral cycle only begins and indicates that Youngkin himself won a close victory for his arrival four years ago.

Earle-Sears “has a big story” and “it can be electrifying on the stump,” said the agent.

The spokesman for the Earle-Sears campaign, Peyton Vogel, said that she would rely on the Youngkin record and would keep Virginia “on the right track”.

“This race is a clear choice: Abigail Spanberger represents the status quo of Biden – higher prices, gentle policies and a war against parents’ rights,” said Vogel in an email. “Winstome builds a movement powered by real Virginians who want to keep Virginia on the right track.”

In an email, the spanch of the Spanberger campaign, Connor, Joseph, led the race through the problems it addressed as the main discussion points: affordability, economic problems, reproductive freedom and taking on Trump.

Joseph said Spanberger is “implacably concentrated in the strengthening of Virginia more affordable for their families, strengthening schools for their children and the growth of the Commonwealth economy for everyone”.

“At the moment marked by so much uncertainty, voters of Virginia also know that Abigail will never be afraid of resisting the attacks of the Trump administration against Virginia jobs and Virginia’s economy-and they know that Abigail will be a governor who always defends their fundamental freedoms, unlike his opponent,” he said.

How the campaigns set up their stories

The two candidates launched their first television advertisements in recent weekshighlighting their biographies when they present themselves to voters.

Earle-Sears, a Jamaican immigrant, is a marine veteran, electrician and businesswoman. She sat in the Chamber of Delegates and Vice-President of the Commonwealth Education Council before appearing to the Lieutenant Governor in 2021. She became the first woman lieutenant-government of the state and the first black woman at the state office.

Spanberger, a former CIA officer, overthrew a seat of the house held by the Republicans in 2018 and has established itself as a more moderate legislator, aligning with colleagues with the history of national security.

From January 1 to Tuesday, $ 3.7 million had been spent in advertisements in the race, according to Adimpact. The Spanberger campaign spent $ 1.4 million, while the Earle-Sears campaign spent $ 2.3 million.

This disparity, however, was not reflected in a very early survey, which showed Spanberger to come. In a recent Roanoke College survey32% of respondents saw Earle-Searits favorably, 48% saying that they had unfavorable opinions. 20% additional respondents said they had no opinion on her. On the other hand, 41% of respondents said they had seen Spanberger favorably, 40% saying that they considered it unfavorably.

The figures reflect the rise of the ones on the rise had already been confronted in their quest to keep control of the governor. Governor’s elections out of year tend to be broader political environment Belwethers – and the ruling party in Washington. In 11 of the last 12 races of the Governor of VirginiaThe voters elected the candidate of the party outside the power in the White House.

But the campaign will only be by an extensible hinge only on what is happening in Washington. Democratic aligned groups have gone to highlight, for example, the conservative positions of Earle-Searits on a pair of questions on which it is not aligned with Youngkin: homosexual marriage and rights to abortion.

“With the Republicans laying the basics to ban contraception and WinSome Earle-Sears, promising to do everything in its power to end abortion in the state, freedom of reproduction is on the voting bulletin in Virginia in November, and we will make sure that voters know it,” said the president of Emily, Jessica Mackler, in an interview. His group, which strives to elect democratic women who support abortion rights, Spanberger approved in December 2023Only a few weeks after launching her campaign when she was still at the Congress.

However, the Democrats refused to take anything for acquired in a Trump State lost less last year than in its previous races and where several recent governors were close.

“I have the impression that we have momentum, but at the same time, we are ready for this to be very competitive,” said the executive director of the Association of Democrats, Meghan Meehan-Draper last week. “The challenges of this race are far too high for us to take anything for granted.”

Youngkin has continued to praise publicly on his n ° 2, calling it in recent months “”unshakable partner“Who would be able to rely on his file. He has often referred to the victories and the achievements of” the Youngkin-Bearle-Sears administration “.”

“Winstome Earle-Sears is the American dream”, he Written on x this year. “His life as a service to God, the family, the country and the Commonwealth prepared her to take the governor’s manor this fall and keep Virginia.”