The final races of the 2024 election may have only just been called but 2025 races are already well underway. Virginia will elect a new governor in 2025, and the outcome of that race will have major implications for the right to life in the Commonwealth. Current Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) is unable to run for a second consecutive term due to Virginia’s one-term limit for governors.
Governor Youngkin’s second-in-command, Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, is widely considered the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. Sears made history in 2021 when she became the first Black woman elected statewide in Virginia. As an immigrant from Jamaica, a former homeless shelter director, a veteran, a former state lawmaker, and a strong advocate for life, Sears brings a compelling personal story and proven record of leadership to the race.
Other potential Republican candidates Attorney General Jason Miyares and Congressman Rob Wittman have opted against entering the race.
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The Democratic frontrunner is pro-abortion Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer who currently represents Virginia’s Seventh Congressional District. First elected to the House in 2018, Spanberger has cultivated a reputation as a centrist lawmaker. On abortion, however, her voting record is nothing short of radical. She holds a 0% pro-life rating from National Right to Life for her time in Congress.
Spanberger voted for the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill which would enshrine unlimited abortion until birth in federal law and eliminate existing state-level protections for unborn children and their mothers nationwide, including parental involvement requirements for minors and limits on taxpayer funding of abortion.
Underscoring just how extreme Spanberger is, she even voted against the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, a bill which would ensure an infant who survives an attempted abortion is afforded the same degree of medical care as any other newborn of the same gestational age.
Spanberger’s campaign has already received the endorsement of EMILY’s List, the pro-abortion mega-fundraiser that backs Democratic women for elected office who support unlimited abortion until birth. In previous elections, Spanberger was also endorsed by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia, a political subsidiary of the nation’s largest abortion provider, which referred to her as a “fierce advocate for Virginians’ reproductive health and rights.”
Another potential Democratic candidate is pro-abortion Congressman Bobby Scott, who currently represents Virginia’s Third Congressional District. Like Spanberger, he also has a 0% pro-life rating from National Right to Life.
An early survey from the University of Mary Washington’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies found Sears and Spanberger tied at 39%-39%.
In 2020, Joe Biden carried Virginia by a little over 10 percentage points (54.11%-44%). But one year later, Glenn Youngkin (R) defeated Terry McAuliffe (D) in the 2021 Virginia governor race by about 2 percentage points (50.58%-48.64%), a 12-point swing from blue to red. That same year, Winsome Sears narrowly defeated Hala Ayala (D) in the lieutenant governor race by about 50,000 votes (50.71%-49.17%).
In 2024, Kamala Harris failed to match Biden’s 2020 numbers. Her margin of victory over Donald Trump was approximately 6 points (51.83%-46.05%). That means the Republican gubernatorial nominee in 2025 will need a blue-to-red swing greater than 6 points. Based on recent electoral history, that’s an achievable goal!
LifeNews Note: Andrew Bair works in the political affairs department of National Right to Life.
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