2025 Virginia gubernatorial election

The 2025 Virginia gubernatorial election will be held on November 4, 2025, to elect the governor of Virginia. Incumbent Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin is ineligible to run for re-election, as the Constitution of Virginia prohibits the state's governors from serving consecutive terms.

Former U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger is the Democratic nominee, and Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears is the Republican nominee. If elected, Earle-Sears would become the first black female governor in U.S. history. Both Spanberger and Earle-Sears won their respective parties' nominations unopposed. Whoever wins the general election will be sworn in as the 75th governor of Virginia on January 17, 2026. This is the first gubernatorial election in Virginia where both major party nominees are female. Virginia is one of 18 states that has never had a female governor.

This is the only Republican-held governorship up for election in 2025. Democrat Kamala Harris won the state in the 2024 presidential election by 5.8%. Despite this win for Democrats in Virginia during a presidential election that saw all battleground states go for Donald Trump, Democrats under-performed in almost all of the major contests held during that election last year.

Political analysts consider the election as being a popularity indicator of Donald Trump's second presidency in the state. With the exception of 2013 (which saw a strong performance by a third-party candidate), Virginia has elected a governor of the opposite party of the sitting president of the United States in every election since 1977.