Polls have closed in Virginia, where voters were deciding whether to keep the governor’s mansion in Republican hands by electing Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears or flipping it to Democratic control under former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger.

The race, in one of two states where voters are picking governors this year, is seen as a snapshot of voter sentiment nine months into the Trump administration. That is especially true in Virginia, which has a concentration of federal workers in the north who have been impacted by the president’s cuts to the workforce and the government shutdown.

Voters in Virginia have favored Democrats in recent decades but the state in 2021 chose Republican Glenn Youngkin and in 2024, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris won the state by only a modest margin. One t

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