Elections 2025: Virginia Polls CLOSE; Winsome Earle-Sears Vs Rep. Abigail Spanberger FACE OFF Begins

Oneindia

The Virginia Elections 2025 have officially entered their most crucial phase as polling stations close and counting begins. A tense face-off unfolds between Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and Rep. Abigail Spanberger, marking one of the most closely watched gubernatorial contests of the year. Both candidates represent starkly different visions for Virginia’s future — Earle-Sears emphasizing conservative governance and business revival, while Spanberger champions progressive reforms and public service renewal. As results trickle in, voter turnout and suburban swing regions are expected to play a decisive role in determining the state’s next leader.    #USElections2025 #Election2025 #USElectionLive #USElectionUpdates #NewYorkElection2025 #NYCMayoralElection2025 #VirginiaGovernorElection2025 #NewJerseyElections2025 #USElectionNews #KeyElections2025 #VoterTurnout2025 #ElectionDay2025 #USElections #AmericaVotes2025 #NYCElection2025 #USElectionCoverage #USPolitics2025 #BreakingElectionNews #USSpecialElections2025 #ElectionResultsLive  ~HT.410~PR.152~ED.103~

Transcript

00:00and California. Joining us this evening is Matthew Klein. He is with the Cook Political Report with

00:05Amy Walter. He analyzes house races as well as the gubernatorial. And Sabrina Siddiqui is with

00:13the National Political Reporter with the Wall Street Journal. And we thank you both for being

00:17here with us tonight. We are just about, what, four minutes away here from Virginia polls closing.

00:24Matthew Klein, do you think we get a call right away?

00:27Oh, right away? I don't know. That's a good question. It will probably come fairly quickly.

00:32Based on everything we've seen so far, if this is really going to be the decisive night for

00:36Abigail Spanberger that a lot of the polls have indicated that it might be, then yeah,

00:40we'll probably get a call fairly soon. It'll take a little while longer to call the Attorney

00:45General's race. Obviously, that has a history of voting very competitively. The Attorney General

00:50contests often take a little bit longer in Virginia. And I think because of the circumstances of the

00:55current contest between Jay Jones and Jason Meyers, the incumbent Republican, it's probably going to

01:01be, you know, a fairly long night before we have an answer on that one.

01:05One of our first callers came from Arlington, Virginia, suburbs here of Washington, D.C. Talk

01:11about Northern Virginia. How populated is this part of the state? And how quickly do they count votes

01:19there? Yeah. Northern Virginia is the engine of Democratic strength in Virginia. And it's part of

01:25the reason that the state swung from being sort of a Republican stronghold back in the 80s and 90s,

01:30really one of the few Southern states that was Republican, to now being one of the few Southern

01:35states that votes Democratic. The growth of Northern Virginia, Arlington, but Fairfax County,

01:40Loudoun County in particular, Prince William, some of those counties where it's really expanded out,

01:44has just been a huge, huge asset for Democrats. And it's also been particularly hard hit by the

01:51federal workforce layoffs that have happened and the government shutdown. And government shutdown

01:55doesn't just affect people who have been directly laid off by the federal government. Around here,

02:01it affects, you know, the people who are contractors for the federal government or who work

02:04closely with federal employees, rely on federal employees, getting them, you know, to and from for

02:08their businesses. And so, yeah, absolutely. Northern Virginia is an extremely crucial part of this

02:14equation. Some parts of it count faster than others. So we'll keep an eye on, you know, which

02:18parts do and don't. But I think, you know, we'll get a pretty early, pretty good sense of it pretty

02:22early on. When you look at the state, where are there Republican strongholds versus the Democratic

02:29strongholds that you just talked about? Yeah, Republicans have much stronger bases of support

02:33out in rural Virginia, particularly out in Western Virginia, more Appalachian. It's more mountainous,

02:40culturally more conservative out there. Republicans also do fairly well in some of the,

02:44suburbs of Richmond, the exurbs of Richmond. They've really lost a lot of ground here in

02:49Northern Virginia. So they used to have a decent base of support in Fairfax County. And in recent

02:54years, that's kind of gone away and they've become a much more rural-centric party. There is some

02:59Republican strength still in the Virginia Beach area. That continues to be represented by a Republican

03:03in Congress. But by and large, Republicans have seen their, while they may have seen their

03:08geographical footprint expand a little bit, they've, you know, taken over some more of the rural area,

03:12their actual share of the vote has diminished in recent cycles. And it seems like tonight's going

03:16to be another example of that. So when you look at the votes coming in right away when polls close

03:21at seven, as we see the percentage start to trickle in, what will it look like? Could it look lopsided

03:28at first? Yeah, certainly. And I think it's important not to make too many predictions based on anything that we're

03:34seeing right really, very quickly. We'll want to wait until we have some counties that have fully reported,

03:39which may take a little while before we can start actually comparing them to where things were last

03:43cycle in 2024, 2021, 2020. Abigail Spanberger, if she wins tonight, Sabrina, what does that mean for

03:53the Democratic Party? She's a national security candidate, a moderate Democrat. What does the party

04:01do with that? Is that a winning formula for them? I think the party believes that it is because I think

04:07they're looking at all of this depending on where that candidate is elected, right? So Abigail Spanberger

04:14is a very different type of candidate than Zoran Mamdani. And it's very likely that both of them

04:20will win their races tonight. And in some ways, it's the best of both worlds for Democrats as they are

04:25trying to reassemble this coalition that they lost in the last election cycle, where they were really

04:33struggling between appealing to centrists, you know, in a race ultimately between eventually

04:41between Vice President Harris and President Trump, at the same time as trying not to contend with the

04:47fact that they had turned off a lot of the progressive liberal leaning base. So, you know,

04:53I think Democrats are pretty enthusiastic about her candidacy. Also, she will make history. Either way,

04:59history will be made. Virginia will be electing also its first female governor, which is also worth

05:04marking, even though they didn't talk about it a lot on the campaign trail. But coming back to just

05:08the themes that we've seen, I think, you know, if this election is, if tonight is ultimately about

05:13costs of living, the economy, inflation, then I think Abigail Spanberger is going to have a really

05:18good night. Again, the margin is what Democrats are looking for. They really want it to be a very

05:24decisive victory because the more decisive and the more confident that they'll feel about rebuilding

05:29the party's image rather than simply a protest vote against President Trump. All right. The polls

05:34closed 90 seconds ago in Virginia. We are just a minute and change after 7 p.m. Eastern time here

05:42on the East Coast. And we are watching the candidates in the Virginia gubernatorial race. We've got cameras at

05:50the headquarters tonight. On your left is the headquarters for Abigail Spanberger. She's in

05:55Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the state. And the lieutenant governor, the Republican candidate,

06:01Winsome Earl Sears. She is in Leesburg, Virginia. When the candidates come out to speak, we will bring

06:08you live coverage of their remarks. That's all part of C-SPAN's election night 2025 coverage.

06:15Subscribe to One India and never miss an update. Download the One India app now.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended