Virginia Governor Election Results: History From 1977 to 2025

Virginia’s governor’s race has produced a Republican or Democratic winner in every cycle since 1977, and the history of Virginia governor election results shows a remarkably steady rhythm: the party that just lost the White House usually wins Richmond the following November. Twelve elections between 1977 and 2021 produced eleven wins for the party out of power in Washington, and the 2025 race extended the pattern again when Democrat Abigail Spanberger defeated Republican Winsome Earle-Sears by more than 15 points.

Results by Election, 1977 to 2025

1977: John Dalton (R)

Republican John Dalton won the 1977 race and served from 1978 to 1982. Turnout reached roughly 1.27 million voters, about 62.7% of those registered.¹ Dalton’s victory came one year after Democrat Jimmy Carter took the presidency.

1981: Charles Robb (D)

Democrat Charles Robb won in 1981 and served from 1982 to 1986. About 1.44 million Virginians voted, or 64.9% of registered voters.¹ Robb’s win followed Ronald Reagan’s 1980 landslide and began a stretch of Democratic nominees chosen by convention.

1985: Gerald Baliles (D)

Democrat Gerald Baliles defeated Republican Wyatt Durrette by roughly 55% to 45%.² Turnout fell to about 1.38 million, or 53% of registered voters.¹

1989: L. Douglas Wilder (D)

Democrat L. Douglas Wilder defeated Republican J. Marshall Coleman by 6,741 votes out of nearly 1.79 million cast, a margin under 0.4%.³ A recount trimmed Wilder’s lead by 113 votes, and Coleman then conceded.⁴ Wilder became the first African American elected governor of any state in U.S. history. A Richmond native and grandson of enslaved persons, he had already been the first African American elected to statewide office in Virginia when he won the lieutenant governorship in 1985.⁵ Turnout hit 66.5%, the highest for any gubernatorial election in the available state data.¹

1993: George Allen (R)

Republican George Allen defeated Democrat Mary Sue Terry with 58% to 41%, winning by about 300,000 votes and carrying 122 of Virginia’s 135 counties and cities.⁶ Terry had led by 29 points in polls five months out, but Allen’s focus on abolishing parole for violent offenders erased the gap.⁷ The win came one year after Bill Clinton’s election and ended a dozen years without a Republican in the Governor’s Mansion.

1997: James Gilmore (R)

Republican Jim Gilmore won with roughly 56% to Democrat Don Beyer’s 43%.² About 1.76 million Virginians voted, or 49.5% of those registered.¹

2001: Mark Warner (D)

Democrat Mark Warner defeated Republican Mark Earley 52.2% to 47%, taking 984,177 votes to Earley’s 887,234.⁸ The margin was nearly 97,000 votes out of about 1.89 million cast, and the win came a year after George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential victory.

2005: Tim Kaine (D)

Democrat Tim Kaine defeated Republican Jerry Kilgore 51.7% to 46%, a margin of about 113,600 votes out of nearly 1.98 million.⁹ Turnout stayed low, around 44.9% of registered voters.¹

2009: Bob McDonnell (R)

Republican Bob McDonnell took 58.6% to Democrat Creigh Deeds’s 41.3%, winning by nearly 345,000 votes.¹⁰ African American turnout dropped from 20% of the 2008 electorate to 15% in 2009, and Democrats could not reassemble the coalition that had delivered the state for Barack Obama the year before.¹¹ Republicans swept all three statewide offices. Overall turnout was about two million, or 40.4%.¹

2013: Terry McAuliffe (D)

Democrat Terry McAuliffe edged Republican Ken Cuccinelli 47.7% to 45.2%, with Libertarian Robert Sarvis drawing 6.5%. McAuliffe won by about 56,400 votes out of roughly 2.24 million cast.¹² This was the one race since 1977 in which the party holding the presidency also won Virginia’s governorship the following year.¹³ Turnout was 43%, among the lowest in the modern era.¹

2017: Ralph Northam (D)

Democrat Ralph Northam defeated Republican Ed Gillespie 53.9% to 45%, a margin of 8.9 points.¹⁴ Northam received about 1.41 million votes to Gillespie’s 1.18 million.¹⁵ Exit polls showed 57% of voters disapproved of President Donald Trump’s job performance, and 87% of those voters backed Northam; roughly 34% said they voted specifically to express opposition to Trump.¹⁶ Northam carried women by 22 points and college graduates 60% to 39%. Turnout rose to about 2.61 million, or 47.6%.¹

2021: Glenn Youngkin (R)

Republican Glenn Youngkin, a first-time candidate and former private equity executive, beat Democrat Terry McAuliffe 50.6% to 48.6%, a margin of about 63,600 votes.¹⁷ More than 3.28 million Virginians voted, a record at the time, with turnout at 54.9%.¹ Education dominated the race, with Youngkin focused on COVID-era school closures and a debate exchange in which McAuliffe said parents should not be telling schools what to teach.¹³

2025: Abigail Spanberger (D)

Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a former congresswoman and CIA officer, defeated Republican Winsome Earle-Sears 57.6% to 42.2%, a margin of 15.4 points.¹⁸¹¹⁹

Spanberger became the first woman elected governor in Virginia’s history. Democrats swept the ticket: state Senator Ghazala Hashmi won the lieutenant governor’s race, becoming the first Muslim woman elected to statewide office in Virginia, and former Delegate Jay Jones became the first Black attorney general in state history. Democrats also expanded their House of Delegates majority to one of the largest in decades.²⁰

Suburban voters drove the result. Spanberger won Fairfax County by 48 points, a 13-point shift toward Democrats compared with the 2024 presidential election. Loudoun County shifted 13 points more Democratic and Prince William 16. Nearly every county and city in the state moved toward Spanberger relative to the 2024 presidential results.²¹ Federal job security loomed over the race in a state with more than 140,000 civilian federal positions, alongside reproductive rights and healthcare access.²² Spanberger raised just under $66 million through late October, nearly double her opponent’s total.²⁰

The “Virginia Curse”

Analysts call the recurring pattern the Virginia Curse: since 1977, the party holding the White House has lost Virginia’s governor’s race the following year in every cycle but one. By one count, the party not controlling the presidency won 11 of 12 Virginia gubernatorial elections between 1977 and 2021.²³ The lone exception was Terry McAuliffe’s 2013 win a year after Barack Obama’s reelection.¹³ Glenn Youngkin reasserted the pattern in 2021 after Joe Biden’s presidential win, and Spanberger did so again in 2025 after Donald Trump’s 2024 victory. The 2025 margin represented about a nine-point swing away from the president’s party compared with Trump’s performance in Virginia the year before.²⁴

Because the governor’s race arrives just a year after each presidential contest, it has become a closely watched early referendum on each new administration.

Turnout Across the Decades

Turnout in Virginia gubernatorial elections has historically trailed presidential years, but participation has climbed sharply since the mid-2000s. The low point was 2009 at about 40.4%, or roughly two million voters. Turnout then rose to 43% in 2013, 47.6% in 2017, 54.9% in 2021, and 54.3% in 2025.¹ The 2021 and 2025 races each drew more than 3.2 million voters, well above the 1.4 to 1.8 million typical of earlier decades. Population growth and the increasing nationalization of Virginia’s off-year contests both account for the rise.

Why Virginia Elects a Governor in Odd Years

Virginia is one of only four states, along with Louisiana, Mississippi, and New Jersey, that hold gubernatorial elections in odd-numbered years. The schedule is an accidental artifact of post-Civil War politics rather than a deliberate design. After Congress required former Confederate states to draft new constitutions, Virginia’s drafting process stalled over disputes about enfranchising Black men and disenfranchising former Confederate leaders. A deal brokered with President Ulysses S. Grant in 1869 separated ratification of the new constitution from its most controversial provisions. Voters approved the constitution that summer, the general election for statewide offices followed later that year, and the odd-year cycle has stayed in place since.²⁵

Why No Virginia Governor Serves Back-to-Back

Every winner on the list above served exactly one four-year term, because Virginia is the only state that bans its governor from serving consecutive terms. Article V, Section 1 of the Virginia Constitution says the governor “shall be ineligible to the same office for the term next succeeding that for which he was elected.”²⁶ A former governor can run again after sitting out four years, but it is rarely attempted and has succeeded only once in the modern era.

The restriction dates to the late 1700s, when Virginia’s founders, suspicious of executive power, limited the governor’s authority relative to the legislature. Direct election by voters began with the 1851 state constitution, which retained the one-term limit. During the last major constitutional revision in 1971, former governors told the commission the restriction let them govern without having to campaign for reelection, and at that time about 15 states had similar bans.²⁷ Mississippi repealed its restriction in 1986 and Kentucky followed in 1992, leaving Virginia alone.²⁸ A 2024 constitutional amendment to allow consecutive terms was defeated by Democrats in a subcommittee, with opponents citing concerns about concentrating too much power in the executive branch.

The only person to serve two terms as governor under the modern system was Mills Godwin, who served first as a Democrat from 1966 to 1970 and then as a Republican from 1974 to 1978.²⁷ Terry McAuliffe tried for a non-consecutive second term in 2021 and lost to Youngkin.

1
Virginia Department of Elections. Registration/Turnout Statistics
2
Washington Post. Virginia Election History
3
Historical Elections. 1989 Virginia Gubernatorial Election
4
Washington Post. Coleman Concedes as Recount Confirms Victory by Wilder
5
Library of Virginia. L. Douglas Wilder
6
Washington Post. George Allen Elected Va. Governor
7
Virginian-Pilot. Allen’s Appeal Made Terry Look Bland
8
Historical Elections. 2001 Virginia Gubernatorial Election
9
Historical Elections. 2005 Virginia Gubernatorial Election
10
Historical Elections. 2009 Virginia Gubernatorial Election
11
Politico. GOP Dominates in Virginia
12
Historical Elections. 2013 Virginia Gubernatorial Election
13
Center for Politics. The Virginia Elections: Plenty of Late Drama Although Not at the Top of the Ticket
14
VPAP. 2017 Statewide Election Results
15
New York Times. Virginia Governor Election Results
16
Washington Post. Virginia Governor Exit Polls
17
Historical Elections. 2021 Virginia Gubernatorial Election
18
VPAP. Governor Elections
19
VPAP. Locality Turnout Compared to Statewide, Nov 2025
20
VPM. Election 2025: Democrats Win
21
New York Times. Results: Virginia Governor
22
Virginia Mercury. Democrats Sweep Virginia’s Statewide Races
23
FactCheck.org. Biden Botches Virginia Election History
24
Decision Desk HQ. Virginia and New Jersey’s Elections
25
VPM. Curious Commonwealth: Off Year Elections, Civil War
26
Virginia Code Commission. Constitution of Virginia, Article V
27
WHRO. Virginia’s Unique Term Limit for Governor Traces Back to the Founding Fathers’ Anxieties
28
Governing. Last One in the Statehouse