Winsome Earle-Sears

Winsome Earle-Sears (Republican Party) is the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. She assumed office on January 15, 2022. Her current term ends on January 17, 2026.

Earle-Sears (Republican Party) is running for election for Governor of Virginia. She is on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025. The Republican primary for this office on June 17, 2025, was canceled.

Biography

Winsome Earle-Sears served in the U.S. Marine Corps. Earle-Sears earned a master's degree. Her career experience includes working as an electrician and managing a business. Earle-Sears served on the Advisory Committee on Women Veterans to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, as the vice president of the Virginia Board of Education, and as the co-chair of the African American Committee on the US Census Bureau.^[1]^[2]

2025 battleground election

See also: Virginia gubernatorial election, 2025

Ballotpedia identified the Nov. 4, 2025, general election as a battleground race. The summary below is from our coverage of this election, found here. Abigail Spanberger (D) and Winsome Earle-Sears (R) are running in the general election for Governor of Virginia on November 4, 2025. Incumbent Glenn Youngkin (R) is term-limited.

As one of only two gubernatorial elections-- the other being in New Jersey-- that take place in the odd year following a presidential election, media outlets and political observers have historically paid close attention to Virginia's gubernatorial race. According to USA Today's Savannah Kuchar, "The Commonwealth is heralded as a national bellwether, like clockwork every four years. Held in the odd year after the presidential election since 1869, Virginia’s gubernatorial race is a cyclical scorecard for voters’ moods and the issues at the forefront of the national consciousness."^[3]^[4]^[5]

In Ballotpedia's May 13, 2025 episode of On the Ballot, The Virginia Scope’s Brandon Jarvis listed education, the state's right-to-work law, and the Trump administration as key issues that the candidates are campaigning on. Click here to listen.

Abigail Spanberger (D) represented the 7th Congressional District from 2019 to 2025. Before serving in Congress, she was a CIA case agent. Spanberger is running on her record in Congress, saying she has "a really clear background and evidence of my ability to build coalitions across party lines...I have a very clear history of bringing people together to...deliver results."^[6] Spanberger says she is "focus[ed] on strengthening our public education system, lowering costs for families and keeping our communities safe."^[7]

Winsome Earle-Sears (R) is the incumbent lieutenant governor of Virginia. She was elected in 2021 and is running on her record. Her campaign website says, "As Lieutenant Governor, she led reforms across 13 medical boards, championed legislative change, and fought to increase educational freedom, scoring major victories for charter schools."^[8] Earle-Sears is also campaigning to continue Youngkin's tax policies, saying, "We’re talking about billions of dollars that we returned to you, the Virginians...We’re going to continue that because that’s part of the reason why our economy flourished."^[9]

This election is the first time in state history that the Democratic and Republican nominees for governor are both women. Virginia has never elected a woman to the governor's office.^[10]

In 2017, Ralph Northam (D) defeated Ed Gillespie (R) and Cliff Hyra (L) 53.9%-45%-1.2% while Donald Trump (R) was president. In 2021, Glenn Youngkin (R) defeated Terry McAuliffe (D) and Princess Blanding (L) 50.6%-48.6%-0.7% while Joe Biden (D) was president.

Neither Spanberger nor Earle-Sears faced a primary. The Democratic and Republican primaries were scheduled for June 17 but were cancelled after only two candidates filed to run for governor. The filing deadline was April 3, 2025.

In addition to the race for governor, Virginia is also holding elections for lieutenant governor, attorney general, and House of Delegates in 2025.

This race, along with the elections for Virginia's House of Delegates, will determine the state's trifecta status. Virginia has had a divided government, where neither party holds a trifecta, since 2022. Democrats currently hold majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly and Youngkin is a Republican.

The gubernatorial election and the attorney general election will also help determine the state's triplex status. Currently Virginia has a Republican triplex, where Republicans hold the offices of the governor, attorney general, and secretary of the commonwealth. In Virginia, the governor appoints the secretary of the commonwealth.

Click here to learn more about Virginia 2025 elections and here to learn more about gubernatorial elections in 2025.

Political career

Below is a list of offices within Ballotpedia’s scope. Offices outside of that scope will not be listed. If an update is needed and the office is within our scope, please contact us.

Earle-Sears' political career includes the following offices:

2022-present: Lieutenant Governor of Virginia

Elections

2025

General election

General election for Governor of Virginia

Abigail Spanberger, Winsome Earle-Sears, and Donna Charles are running in the general election for Governor of Virginia on November 4, 2025.

		Candidate
		Abigail Spanberger (D)
		Winsome Earle-Sears (R)
		Donna Charles (Independent) (Write-in)

	There are no incumbents in this race.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Levar Stoney (D)

Democratic primary election

The Democratic primary election was canceled. Abigail Spanberger advanced from the Democratic primary for Governor of Virginia.

Republican primary election

The Republican primary election was canceled. Winsome Earle-Sears advanced from the Republican primary for Governor of Virginia.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Polls

See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls

Polls are conducted with a variety of methodologies and have margins of error or credibility intervals.^[11] The Pew Research Center wrote, "A margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level means that if we fielded the same survey 100 times, we would expect the result to be within 3 percentage points of the true population value 95 of those times."^[12] For tips on reading polls from FiveThirtyEight, click here. For tips from Pew, click here.

Below we provide results for polls from a wide variety of sources, including media outlets, social media, campaigns, and aggregation websites, when available. We only report polls for which we can find a margin of error or credibility interval.

Virginia gubernatorial election, 2025: General election polls
Poll	Date	Spanberger	Earle-Sears	Undecided/Other	Margin of error	Sample size^[13]	Sponsor^[14]
co/efficient	8/23 - 8/26	48%	43%	10%^[15]	± 3.1	1025 LV	N//A
Roanoke College	8/11 - 8/15	46%	39%	15%^[16]	± 4.4	602 LV	N//A
Virginia Commonwealth University	6/19 - 7/3	49%	37%	14 %^[17]	± 4.2	764 RV	N/A
Roanoke College	5/12 - 5/19	43%	26%	31 %^[18]	± 5.25%	609 RV	N/A
Pantheon Insight and HarrisX	5/9 - 5/13	52%	48%	--	± 3.1	1,000 LV	Virginia FREE

Click [show] to see older poll results
Poll	Date	Spanberger	Earle-Sears	Undecided/Other	Margin of error	Sample size^[19]	Sponsor^[20]
Cygnal (R)	2/26 - 2/27	46%	40%	14%^[21]	± 4.0	600 LV	N/A
Christopher Newport Universitry	1/6 - 1/13	44%	39%	17%^[22]	± 3.6	806 RV	N/A
The Hill/Emerson	1/6 - 1/8	42%	41%	17%^[23]	± 3.0	1,000 RV	N/A
Mason-Dixon	12/15 - 12/19	47%	44%	9%^[24]	± 4.0	625 RV	N/A

Election campaign finance

The section and tables below contain data from financial reports submitted to state agencies. The data is gathered and made available by Transparency USA.

Satellite spending

See also: Satellite spending

Satellite spending describes political spending not controlled by candidates or their campaigns; that is, any political expenditures made by groups or individuals that are not directly affiliated with a candidate. This includes spending by political party committees, super PACs, trade associations, and 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups.^[25]^[26]

If available, satellite spending reports by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and OpenSecrets.org are linked below. FEC links include totals from monthly, quarterly, and semi-annual reports. OpenSecrets.org compiles data from those reports as well as 24- and 48-hour reports from the FEC.^[27]

Details about satellite spending of significant amounts and/or reported by media are included below those links. The amounts listed may not represent the total satellite spending in the election. To notify us of additional satellite spending, email us. ====Race ratings==== (general election candidates only)

See also: Race rating definitions and methods

Ballotpedia provides race ratings from four outlets: The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, Sabato's Crystal Ball, and DDHQ/The Hill. Each race rating indicates if one party is perceived to have an advantage in the race and, if so, the degree of advantage:

Safe and Solid ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge and the race is not competitive.
Likely ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge, but an upset is possible.
Lean ratings indicate that one party has a small edge, but the race is competitive.^[28]
Toss-up ratings indicate that neither party has an advantage.

Race ratings are informed by a number of factors, including polling, candidate quality, and election result history in the race's district or state.^[29]^[30]^[31]

Race ratings: Virginia gubernatorial election, 2025
Race tracker	Race ratings
	9/9/2025	9/2/2025	8/26/2025	8/19/2025
The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter	Lean Democratic	Lean Democratic	Lean Democratic	Lean Democratic
Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales	Lean Democratic	Lean Democratic	Tilt Democratic	Tilt Democratic
Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball	Likely Democratic	Lean Democratic	Lean Democratic	Lean Democratic
Note: Ballotpedia reviews external race ratings every week throughout the election season and posts weekly updates even if the media outlets have not revised their ratings during that week.

Endorsements

Earle-Sears received the following endorsements. To send us additional endorsements, click here.

U.S. Rep. Jennifer Kiggans (R)
U.S. Rep. Cory Mills (R)
U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R)
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R)
Virginia Beach Police Benevolent Association

See also: Virginia lieutenant gubernatorial election, 2025

Winsome Earle-Sears did not file to run for re-election.