By Nia-Malika Henderson
A year after President Donald Trump won the White House on the economy, Democrats in Virginia did the same thing, managing a clean sweep of statewide races. It was a clear rebuke of Trump’s policies and an affirmation of Democratic centrism.
Abigail Spanberger, who will become Virginia’s first female governor, hammered Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears over the economy and cast her as a MAGA Republican who was too close to Trump. A former member of the “mod squad” in Congress and former CIA officer, Spanberger, 46, also leaned into her bipartisan bona fides, airing ads featuring moderate Republicans. And Spanberger had coattails, pulling attorney general candidate Jay Jones to a narrower victory, despite the October revelation of violent text messages about a GOP official that he had sent in 2022.
“We sent a message to the whole world that in 2025, Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship. We chose our Commonwealth over chaos. You all chose leadership that will focus relentlessly on what matters most,” Spanberger said in her victory speech. “Lowering costs, keeping our communities safe and strengthening our economy for every Virginian. Leadership that will focus on problem solving, not stoking division.”
For Spanberger, the outcome was never really in doubt. For much of the last year, she had a comfortable lead in the polls. Spanberger raised $65 million to Earle-Sears’ $35 million, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. And in the final weekend of the contest, she appeared with former President Barack Obama. Conversely, Trump never endorsed Earle-Sears, pointedly excluding her from a roster of over 50 endorsements he rolled out on social media on Sunday. He also failed to name her during an election eve rally on Monday.
But Spanberger relentlessly tied Earle-Sears to Trump. And in Virginia, which is home to over 300,000 federal workers and where the impact of DOGE cuts and the government shutdown have been stark, it worked. Headed into Election Day, an Emerson College poll showed that the economy was the top issue facing Virginia for 39% of voters, followed by threats to democracy at 16% and health care at 10%. The poll showed Trump with a 45% approval rating and a 54% disapproval rating.
Spanberger’s campaign created several ads using an awkward Earle-Sears appearance from 2024, when the Republican jousted with a rowdy crowd and repeatedly said, “I am speaking.”
“Sears speaks for Trump. She backs Trump’s billionaire tax breaks and Sears wants to ban abortion in Virginia too,” one ad claimed. “Heard enough? So far right, she’s wrong for Virginia.”
Spanberger’s margins were all the more remarkable because former Vice President Kamala Harris won Virginia by just under 6 points, losing ground among educated suburbanites and non-White voters. Just a year later, every single county in Virginia shifted towards Democrats in the race for the term-limited top job.
“Virginia Democrats could hardly have asked for a better night. Even Jay Jones’ horrific texts were not enough to turn Democratic voters away from what they saw as their main mission: repudiating President Trump,” said Stephen J. Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington. “While the statewide Republican candidates struggled with messaging and fundraising, President Trump’s policies made a bad situation worse for the party.”
Beyond Virginia, Democrats had a good night in other contests, electing a moderate Democratic governor in New Jersey and Democratic Socialist mayor of New York City. It comes as Trump’s overall approval rating stands at 41% and his disapproval is at 59%, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll, the highest disapproval rating in that poll since January 2021. Some 62% of respondents disapprove of his handling of the economy, the issue he won on — and now seems to be ignoring.
“We have no inflation,” Trump claimed in his “60 Minutes” interview Sunday evening. “Our groceries are down.”
Trump’s claim is more wish than reality. And Democrats as diverse as Spanberger, who warned the party in 2020 that they were moving too far to the left, and Mamdani, who is about as far to the left as US politics goes, proved that focusing on affordability issues can make for a winning campaign.
For his part, Trump saw it differently, quoting an unnamed pollster.
“‘Trump wasn’t on the ballot, and shutdown, were the two reasons that Republicans lost elections tonight,’ according to Pollsters” Trump posted on social media after the races were called.
The current shutdown is now the longest in history. The election results, and Trump’s acknowledgment that it’s hurting the GOP, could hasten its end. But to avoid another bad night a year from now, Trump must also acknowledge that this is his economy now — and that many voters are having buyer’s remorse.