RICHMOND — Abigail Davis Spanberger, a former Democratic member of Congress and undercover operative for the CIA, is set to become Virginia’s 75th governor Saturday as the first woman chosen to lead a state that waited until 1952 to ratify the federal amendment giving women the right to vote.
Spanberger, 46, won a 15-point victory last fall after promising to address the rising consumer costs, job insecurity and lack of access to health care that she blamed on policies enacted in Washington and by the Republican administration of President Donald Trump.
But Spanberger also ran on a record of bipartisanship during her three terms in Congress representing a conservative district, with a reputation for pragmatism that pulled her to the political center at a time of increasing partisan division. She set a theme of unity for Saturday’s inauguration, which is set to begin at noon on the steps of the State Capitol in Richmond — a spot where suffragists demonstrated for the vote more than a century ago.
A series of historic firsts will mark the day, which is expected to be chilly and cloudy. Former state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi will be sworn in as the first Muslim and first person of Indian descent to serve as lieutenant governor and former state Del. Jay Jones will take office as the first Black person elected Virginia attorney general.
Politically, the group marks a sharp left turn from the Republican executive branch that governed in Virginia over the past four years. Outgoing Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) is set to give Spanberger the keys to the Executive Mansion on Saturday morning, and in his final speech to the legislature earlier in the week, he urged Democrats to maintain his business-friendly policies and to establish a relationship with the Trump administration.
But Virginia Democrats wield the consolidated power to set any agenda they want. A blue “tsunami” in last fall’s elections — as House Speaker Don Scott (D-Portsmouth) put it — gave the party a 64-36 majority in the House of Delegates to go with a 21-19 majority they already hold in the state Senate. Democratic leaders have pledged to govern with restraint and to stay focused on an affordability agenda, and the national party is touting the state — and Spanberger — as a standard-bearer ahead of this fall’s congressional midterms.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, another Democrat with a national profile, said he plans to attend his neighboring governor’s inauguration. “I’m just going to be there to watch history being made,” Moore said in an interview this week. He added that he looks for a “new era of cooperation” between the two states, with shared concerns around issues such as transportation, energy and “protecting our federal workers.”
Virginia’s incoming leaders were busy even before inauguration day, with Jones on Friday dismissing top lawyersat George Mason University and the Virginia Military Institute — universities where Democrats have accused Youngkin and outgoing Attorney General Jason Miyares of politicizing the boards and kowtowing to efforts by the Trump administration to enforce a conservative ideology.
Spanberger sought resignations from board members at the University of Virginia and has pledged to make appointments there as soon as she takes office. She was expected to take those actions and sign a series of executive orders kicking off her agenda later Saturday.
Spanberger has cast her election as a victory for a long line of women who have broken barriers in Virginia — including her Republican opponent last year, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who in 2021 became the first woman elected to that role. Just as Virginia delayed ratifying the 19th Amendment for 32 years after it passed in 1920, Spanberger’s mother spent years lobbying the state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. It did so in 2020 under the leadership of its first female Speaker of the House of Delegates, Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax).
After being sworn in before thousands of spectators on risers facing the Capitol, Spanberger was set to watch a traditional parade and attend an inaugural ball in the evening.
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