Democrat Abigail Spanberger wins Virginia’s governor’s race, flipping control from GOP

Geoff Bennett:

Welcome to the "News Hour."

On this Election Day, voters cast ballots in key races across the country.

Amna Nawaz:

In Virginia, Democrat Abigail Spanberger will be the first woman to serve as governor. With more than 70 percent of the vote counted, the former three-term congresswoman leads her Republican challenger, Winsome Earle-Sears, with 55 percent of the vote.

Spanberger spoke just moments ago.

Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), Governor-Elect: We are built on the things we share, not the things that pull us apart. And I am proud that our campaign earned votes from Democrats, Republicans, independents, and everyone in between.

(Cheering)

Geoff Bennett:

In New Jersey, Democrat Mikie Sherrill leads her Republican challenger, Jack Ciattarelli, in the governor's race, though the Associated Press has not yet called that race.

Meantime, the polls have just closed in New York City, where Democrat Zohran Mamdani is hoping to fend off a challenge from former Democratic Governor turned independent Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa.

Amna Nawaz:

Well, our team has been following all of the races today.

Liz Landers and William Brangham join me now with the latest.

So, Liz, let's talk about Virginia, former Congresswoman Spanberger there elected the first female governor, flipping the office to Democratic control. How did she do it?

Liz Landers:

She mentioned this a little bit in those remarks that we just played there, that she was appealing to people across all political spectrums.

She managed to get a decent number of independents to vote for her in this race. We have some of this from just some exit polls that came out within the last few hours; 56 percent of independent voters broke for Spanberger. Only 41 percent broke for Winsome Earle-Sears, the current lieutenant governor.

If you are a political candidate, you are always trying to win over those independent voters. You are looking at suburban moms. You are looking at people who may be wanting to — have changed their vote in the last few months because of what they are seeing at the federal government level.

So many of the voters that we spoke with out on the campaign trail said that they were thinking and considering some of the actions in Washington from President Trump because the federal work force has been dramatically slimmed down in the last few months.

Some of those federal cuts did affect some of these voters' finances. This is also something we are seeing right here in this exit poll. For Spanberger voters, 66 percent of her voters said that federal cuts impacted their finances. For Winsome Earle-Sears, only 33 percent of the voters who supported her said that federal cuts impacted their finances.

This was something that Spanberger was very focused on, on the campaign trail, was the economy and job creation. We heard that over and over from her. She was very disciplined on that, Earle-Sears focusing on immigration issues and some of those culture war issues instead.

So, in the end, this paid off for Spanberger, with her now projected as the first female governor there in Virginia.

Amna Nawaz:

Meanwhile, potentially more history made in Virginia as well. State Senator Ghazala Hashmi could become the first Muslim woman ever elected to statewide office in the entire United States. Tell us more about that race for lieutenant governor.

Liz Landers:

Yes.

So she is 61 years old. She was first elected to the Virginia Senate in 2019, and she said that she ran at that time in response to President Trump and some of the Muslim bans that he had passed as soon as he — or tried to implement as soon as he got into office. She said that that was an impetus for her.

On the campaign trail, while she was running, though, she focused on other issues like education. She's an educator by training, but, yes, just another example of history being made. And regardless of who had won, Spanberger or Winsome Earle-Sears, they're both women. They both would have made history in this race. There are few states that can say that they have not elected female governors at this point. Virginia crossed that off the list tonight.

(Laughter)

Amna Nawaz:

All right, history made there tonight.

Liz Landers:

Right.

Amna Nawaz:

William, meanwhile, in New Jersey, of course, you have got the Democratic Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill hoping to keep Democratic control of the governorship there against the Republican candidate, Jack Ciattarelli.

What's the latest tonight?

William Brangham:

The latest is that this is still a very, very tight race, unlike in Virginia. This is — this was a tight race all along.

I mean, New Jersey is considered a blue state, and this was very alarming to Democrats all along that Spanberger — I'm sorry — that Sherrill seemed to have a very tight lead over Ciattarelli. But two recent polls showed that she might even be in a dead heat with him.

Part of the reason for this is that President Trump had expanded the GOP's base when he last ran in New Jersey. He did pretty well in the state compared to previous Republicans, and Ciattarelli seemed to be riding some of those coattails.

And exit polls, though, did determine that Ciattarelli's embrace of Trump was hurting him. In some exit polls that came out tonight, voters who said that they were dissatisfied with the focus and the state of the current country were going by — going to Sherrill in very strong numbers.

Another key demographic was Latino voters. In 2024, Trump made big inroads with Latino voters in New Jersey. Let's look at this graphic here. You will see at the very bottom there Trump won 43 percent of Latino voters in the state versus Kamala Harris, but it seems that his time in office has soured them on him.

Look at the bottom — at the top there. Ciattarelli is down 10 percent in comparison, with just 32 percent of Latinos supporting him. We heard this a lot in earlier reporting, talking to Latino voters, who felt that the Trump administration's tariffs and its very aggressive actions on immigration, which has rounded up I think it's something like 3,000 people in New Jersey so far, has turned them.

So Sherrill's pressing of this issue throughout the case that Ciattarelli was a MAGA candidate seems to be helping her.

Amna Nawaz:

Meanwhile, I know, William, you are also following this New York mayoral contest, which has attracted national attention, global attention. Even President Trump has weighed in on it.

It's widely seen as Zohran Mamdani's race to lose here, but President Trump weighed in very late to endorse Andrew Cuomo as the independent candidate. What's the latest on that race? What should we know?

William Brangham:

The latest is that we are witnessing this truly remarkable political story, where a virtual unknown candidate a year ago, Zohran Mamdani, this 34-year-old Democratic socialist, came out of nowhere and now seems to be on the cusp of running the biggest city in the country.

And Andrew Cuomo, who this was considered his race to lose, now is a distant second in the polling that we have seen. And with his name recognition and his long legacy in the state as governor before, it's sort of striking that Mamdani and his campaign of affordability has punched through with voters.

As you said, the president has been weighing in on this race all along. Whether that will have an impact, we still just don't really know.

Amna Nawaz:

All right, Liz, meanwhile, I need to ask you as well about the Department of Justice's decision today — you have been following this — to send election monitors to two states as people were voting. What should we know about that?

Liz Landers:

They were sent to New Jersey and California, six counties, one of them Orange County, another one Los Angeles County, so some larger counties that people have heard of before.

I asked the Department of Justice for information about who they were sending, what kind of monitoring they were doing. They referred us to their announcement. And, in their announcement, they had said that this was to ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law.

Now, we got some more information, though, from the registrar in Orange County in California, who said that he got the names of the people who were being sent from the Department of Justice. They arrived yesterday. They're staying through tomorrow in that county.

One of them is the deputy assistant attorney general, Michael Gates. It's a pretty high-ranking official at the Department of Justice. He is a California attorney by training, and he has also been vocal about wanting to get rid of mail-in voting. That is something that we have heard the president talk about a number of times recently. The other person that was sent to Orange County is an assistant U.S. attorney, Cory Webster.

Now, I spoke with former Civil Rights Division DOJ attorney David Becker about what all of this means. He says it's not unusual for the Department of Justice to send election monitors during federal election years, during those midterm or presidential years. He said it is unusual, though, to see them sent for races that are not federal races.

California and New Jersey do not have any federal races on the ballot this year. And, more broadly speaking, voting rights advocates are concerned that this may be a test for more widespread efforts to undermine the midterm elections next year.

Amna Nawaz:

Another story we know you will continue to follow.

Liz Landers and William Brangham, our thanks to you both.