As Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and Democrat Abigail Spanberger prepare to walk in the annual Labor Day Parade in Buena Vista on Monday, they’re both trying to repeat history — but from different years — as they try to make history as the first woman elected governor in Virginia.

Earle-Sears is emulating Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who rode parental concerns over COVID’s closed schools and school districts’ bathroom policies to an upset victory in 2021 over former Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

Spanberger is following the path of Ralph Northam, then lieutenant governor, who beat Republican Ed Gillespie in the 2017 governor’s race during President Donald Trump’s first term. She won the first of three terms in Congress the next year as Virginia’s political map turned Democratic blue during

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