Virginia is known for its competent government and low tolerance for chaos. In general, Virginians are allergic to maladministration.
For most of the 20th century, Virginia was a segregationist, poll-tax state that disenfranchised its poor, Blacks, and Southern Whites. Virginia was a state that experienced very little immigration from overseas and was culturally very much itself. Even now, it retains its political distinctiveness. Virginia prefers polished politicians. Other states distrust it; Virginians call it proper. The governor is only given one consecutive term—the only governor in the country who cannot run for reelection. Consequently, they have to show up ready to do their job, ready to govern, and having a coherent agenda. If not, they will not be remembered fondly.
Even during Jim Crow, the leaders of Virginia tended to at least be serious about governing. The giant of the times was Governor Byrd.
Harry Flood Byrd Sr. served as governor from 1926 to 1930. Byrd reorganized government, cut agencies, trimmed patronage—and kept control of the machine. He established state supervisory control over local road systems and increased the gasoline tax in 1927 to finance road expansion under his signature pay-as-you-go philosophy, expanding state highway mileage significantly without issuing bonds. His idea was simple and brilliant: make future infrastructure investment match revenue surpluses. So expand when you have extra money, the same way a private enterprise would reinvest profits. Republicans today could learn from Byrd. He used surpluses for projects, not tax cuts—so Virginia skipped bonds and stayed out of debt. He left office in 1930, having completed the first phase of a modern statewide road network and with a balanced budget that made pay-as-you-go the Virginia way for the next generation.
Because of Jim Crow, Virginia was a one-party state, but one man was dedicated to bringing the party of Lincoln to the Old Dominion. Abner Linwood Holton Jr. served as governor from 1970 to 1974 and ended the era of machine politics in Virginia while advancing integrated, modern governance. In 1970, Holton appointed a diverse cabinet and created the Secretary of Commerce and Resources office to modernize state planning. He led by example, and in 1971 he personally enrolled his children in integrated Richmond public schools. During 1972, Holton launched state environmental programs and strengthened pollution control measures while expanding public transit planning in metropolitan regions. In 1973, he signed legislation to advance regional cooperation authorities and increased funding for higher education and workforce development. Before leaving office in 1974, he established the framework for modern economic-development marketing and expanded women’s opportunities in government service. His daughter Anne, one of the kids sent to integrated schools, married the Democratic politician Tim Kaine, who later served as governor and is currently one of Virginia’s U.S. Senators. After being first daughter and first lady, Anne Holton herself was Virginia Secretary of Education from 2014–2016, continuing her father’s legacy of service to the Commonwealth. It can be said that Linwood Holton prepared Virginia for the 21st century. Holton was an old mountain-and-valley Republican, and his dedication to the inclusion of Virginia’s African American population, the oldest in the country, led some to esteem him as the “first governor of all Virginians.”
Virginia is known for leading the country, and it did so again in 1989 when it elected Lawrence Douglas Wilder as the first African American elected governor of any U.S. state. He served as governor from 1990 to 1994, and ironically, like the segregationist Harry Byrd, Wilder was a fiscal-stability architect during challenging economic times. Wilder initiated executive-branch streamlining for budget control, and in 1991 he implemented hiring freezes and reductions to close a $1.2 billion budget gap while preserving Virginia’s prized AAA bond rating through the Bush I recession without raising taxes. That’s a Virginian move. Then he put Virginia on course to routinely be rated one of the best-managed states when he championed passage of a constitutional amendment creating the Revenue Stabilization Fund, commonly known as the Rainy Day Fund, it keep us out of trouble. Like a family budge, the fund saves money during good times to be used when revenue falls short. Wilder came back a decade later to save Richmond City government and served as a highly rated crime fighting mayor from 2005–2009.
Virginia has been fortunate to have good, transformative governors when it needed them.
The Independent Voter Streak
Beginning with Republican John Nichols Dalton, Virginia started a new trend that held until 2013. Virginia elections for governor are held the year after the presidential election, when there are few other contests; only New Jersey also elects its governor in the off year before the congressional midterms. In 1976, Jimmy Carter won the White House, and the next year, Dalton won the governor’s mansion. And that is how it went for two generations, uninterrupted: the party that lost the presidential election won the governorship of Virginia. Democratic governors under Reagan and Bush were followed by Republican governors under Clinton, then Democrats under Bush and a Republican during Obama’s first term. A Democrat won during Obama’s second term. And then it returned—a Democrat under Trump 45—only for Glenn Youngkin to win in 2021, ironically defeating Terry McAuliffe, whose election in 2013 broke the pattern. McAuliffe could not do it a second time. And now, under Trump 47, a Democrat has won this week’s election. Perhaps we Virginians are really as independent as we believe, and we will choose the governor we think suits us, as the pattern holds even when Virginia votes for the winner of the presidential election.
In 2025, Virginia elected former congresswoman Abigail Spanberger as its first woman governor. Spanberger centered her campaign on economic and affordability issues that resonated with Virginians concerned about the cost of living and the potential impact of federal government disruptions on Virginia’s economy, which is heavily tied to federal employment and contracting. Her decisive victory over Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears was a clear rebuke to the national Republican Party, and also a reflection of the Virginia Republicans failure to focus on the concerns of Virginians.
Earle-Sears brought substantial government experience to the race, having served in the Virginia House of Delegates, on the Virginia Board of Education, and as lieutenant governor—giving her more direct state government experience than Spanberger, who had never held executive office or ever served at the state level. However, Earle-Sears struggled to find a coherent message that resonated with Virginia voters focused on economic stability and federal overreach. Despite her experience advantage, she was unable to translate her governmental background into a compelling case for leadership during a campaign dominated by concerns about affordability and the federal government’s impact on Virginia’s economy.
Republicans can win in Virginia again when they put forward a standard-bearer who treats Virginia as a commonwealth that needs governing, not a stage to perform culture war posturing. The focus must be housing, schools, infrastructure, jobs and justice. Find a leader with a new temperament, not a new slogan; one who shows the math, respects the law, keeps faith with people who do not vote the same way. One who knows our context and can walk from a church meeting, to college campus, and to a data center floor and speak plainly about what works. A governor-in-waiting who would rather balance a budget than trend for a day, who marries competence to charity, order to inclusion, and growth to prudence, will earn Virginia’s trust. The right candidate will speak with a neighbor’s voice and a scholar’s patience, answering hard questions from the public directly. Do that, and Virginians will answer.
Governor-elect Spanberger now faces the challenge that has defined Virginia’s most successful governors: arriving ready to govern from day one. She must work quickly with the General Assembly to enact an agenda to deal with the severe challenges of new digital economy and a polarized and chaotic federal government. Spanberger must now prove herself in state government and executive leadership, where Virginia’s expectations for competent administration remain as high as they were under Byrd, Holton, and Wilder. Whether she joins their ranks will depend on her ability to deliver the serious governance and clear accomplishments that Virginians demand. I wish her the best of luck.