By Michael Martz

Former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, says she raised $6.7 million for her campaign for governor in the first three months of this year, boosting the Democratic nominee’s fundraising to $16.3 million since launching her bid 16 months ago.

Spanberger, who stepped down from Congress in January after three terms, more than doubled the first-quarter funding haul of Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the Republican nominee. Earle-Sears said last week that she had raised $3.1 million in the quarter ending on March 31, a first-quarter GOP record in a Virginia governor’s race — excluding self-funding.

Spanberger’s campaign said her haul was the largest of any statewide candidate in the first quarter in Virginia history, based on contributions and excluding self-funding.

In the first quarter of the 2021 race, former Gov. Terry McAuliffe raised $4.2 million, more than his four Democratic rivals combined. In that quarter, Glenn Youngkin — who would defeat McAuliffe — raised $2.2 million, and fellow Republican candidate Pete Snyder raised $1.6 million – though Youngkin lent himself an additional $5.5 million in the three-month period and Snyder lent himself an extra $5.2 million, according to the Virginia Department of Elections.

Like Earle-Sears, Spanberger’s campaign declined to release how much cash it had on hand at the end of the quarter on March 31 or name its top individual donor. However, VoteVets announced in February that it had made a $500,000 contribution to the Democrat’s campaign, which it called the largest single donation in its 20-year history.

Earle-Sears and Spanberger have clinched their parties’ nominations, setting the stage for history as each seeks to become the first woman elected governor of Virginia. Earle-Sears, who was the first woman elected as Virginia’s lieutenant governor, would be the first Black woman elected governor of any U.S. state.

Spanberger’s campaign focused on its small donations — more than 50,000 contributions of $100 or less — as a measure of grassroots energy in an election year that is shaping up as an early referendum on President Donald Trump’s second term.

In 2017, in the first year of Trump’s first term, Virginia Democrats swept all three statewide offices and flipped 15 seats in the House of Delegates, shrinking the GOP advantage to a single seat. The race for an additional House seat in Newport News ended in a tie and the Republican incumbent retained it in a random drawing at the State Board of Elections.

The next year, Spanberger won her first term in Congress, defeating Rep. David Brat, R-7th, in what had been a Republican district for decades.

“Everywhere Abigail goes across the Commonwealth, she hears from Virginians who are ready for a leader who understands the challenges facing hard-working families, and are excited about Abigail Spanberger serving them as Virginia’s next governor,” campaign manager Samson Signori said. “We are proud to run a grassroots campaign with the strong support of thousands of volunteers across every corner of the Commonwealth.”

Signori said: “Virginians trust that, as their next governor, Abigail will work every day to strengthen our schools, defend Virginia jobs, keep our communities safe, and protect Virginians’ fundamental rights.”

Spanberger announced her candidacy in November, 2023, declining to run for a fourth congressional term to allow Democrats time to choose a new nominee in a district shifted from the Richmond suburbs to the exurbs of Northern Virginia under a new political map that the Virginia Supreme Court adopted at the end of 2021. The next year, she won a third term in the new district, and Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-7th, held the seat for Democrats last fall.

She used a fast fundraising start to outpace then-Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, who announced his candidacy for governor three weeks after she launched hers. Stoney dropped out of the race the following April and declared his candidacy for lieutenant governor instead. He is one of six Democrats vying for the nomination in a June primary.

Spanberger faced misgivings by some Black elected leaders, notably Senate Finance Chair Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, who had supported Stoney as the party’s candidate for governor. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-3rd, the first Black person elected to Congress in Virginia since John Mercer Langston in 1888, flirted with a bid early this year, but effectively quashed the idea in late February, when he told the Richmond Times-Dispatch, “If I were running, I wouldn’t be keeping it a secret.”

Spanberger’s campaign entered the year with $6.55 million in the bank, after raising $9.6 million through Dec. 31, which included $1.1 million that she transferred from her congressional campaign fund.