Politics
2 States Take Center Stage
Gubernatorial contests in Virginia and New Jersey may hold clue to next year’s midterms. BY JOHN GIZZI
V A
irginia and new jersey are taking center stage this fall as they host the only guber- natorial races in the nation.
Political experts will be poring over
the races to glean clues about how next year’s midterm elections will unfold. Since 1977, Virginians have elect- ed a governor from the party out of
power in the White House. New Jerseyans, meanwhile, did the
same from 1989 until 2021, when Dem- ocrat Gov. Phil Murphy won reelection the same year Joe Biden was sworn in as president. More often than not, New Jersey
sends a Democrat to its statehouse. On the infrequent occasion they’ve chosen a Republican, he or she is
almost always someone from the cen- ter of an increasingly right-of-center national party. The last two GOP governors —
Christine Todd Whitman in 1993 and Chris Christie in 2009 — were wide- ly mentioned as presidential candi- dates. But Whitman never ran, and Christie’s two presidential campaigns fizzled out.
VIRGINIA: GOP Underdog Musters Brass-Knuckle Campaign That’s a universe apart
s the sole state that limits its gov- ernor to only one
consecutive term, Virginia chooses a new chief execu- tive every four years. Its governors tend to
quickly fade into obscurity after leaving the state capital. Current GOP Gov. Glenn
Youngkin, however, recent- ly created a stir when he spoke at an event in Iowa, home of the first-in-the- nation presidential caucus- es. Few outside politicians go to Iowa unless they are at least thinking of running for president. Vying to succeed Young- kin are — and this is a first in Virginia — two women: Abigail Spanberg-
er, a former three- term Democrat con- gresswoman and onetime CIA opera- tive; and
Winsome Earle- SPANBERGER EARLE-SEARS 42 NEWSMAX | SEPTEMBER 2025
Sears, the current Republican lieu- tenant governor, a Jamaican who migrated with her
family to the U.S. (“and we did it legally!” she likes to remind audiences), and a Marine Corps veteran. Two months away from
voting, the advantage clear- ly belongs to Spanberger, who has raised more than $20 million compared to Earle-Sears, whose coffers hold less than $10 million. Spanberger, 46, clearly
projects a centrist image, and her “bread and butter” agenda features an “Afford- able Virginia Plan” that lays out her vision for low- ering housing, energy, and healthcare costs. Like Earle-Sears, she
supports eliminating Vir- ginia’s unpopular tax on automobiles that past gov- ernors have reduced but never could quite kill.
from the manifestos of New York mayoral hope- ful Zohran Mamdani, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and other high-profile Democratic Socialists. Republicans counter
that Spanberger is in truth a Joe Biden Democrat who, in fact, voted with the 46th president on all 73 bills in Congress he endorsed. Earle- Sears is expected to hit hard at this, and to ques- tion Spanberger’s commit- ment to ending the car tax. Trailing her opponent in
both the polls and fundrais- ing, Earle-Sears replaced campaign manager Will Archer, a former pastor, over the summer. Popular with grass-
STATE ILLUSTRATIONS/MAXGER©ISTOCK / POLLING BOOTH/RAWPIXEL©ISTOCK
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