With the upcoming general election for Virginians (November 4th), it is important to know who you want to vote for, whether that’s based on morals, political beliefs, or other individual deciding factors. It is important to know who you are voting for and what their goals are for Virginia, as every vote counts and someone will be voted into the position of governor of the state relatively soon.
What do we know about the candidates running for governor? While both candidates have many credits to their name, this article will go over the main points, such as their main goals for Virginia, how they plan to go about said goals, their credentials, such as education and workforce experience, including current statistics on the electoral race.
To start, here is the basic information on the female democrat running for governor, Abigail Spanberger is a 46-year-old politician; she was born in the state of New Jersey but moved to Virginia when she was just 13 and has been a part of the community since. Her education includes a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia, a master of Business Administration from Purdue University, and the Gismas Business School of Germany. She has had experience as a federal law enforcement officer with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and also as a case officer in the CIA, where she worked for a total of 8 years.
Now that we have general background information about our democratic candidate, we need to know what goals she has for Virginia. Abigail Spanberger’s goals are aimed at addressing and improving a broad list of important issues, such as the education problems Virginia is currently facing regarding the teacher shortages, lack of structure in these educational systems, and the decline in overall academic performance among the youth residing in the state. Following this, she has also addressed and discussed the issues regarding the current economic state of Virginia, including both the difficulties of the influx in housing costs and the lack of workforce support for the people. Spanberger’s last issue she aims to fix is the rights of the people in Virginia; these individualistic rights are ones such as reproductive freedom, healthcare, while there are other issues she has addressed, these are the big ones Spanberger aims to fix.
So how does Abigail Spanberger plan to put an end to these issues? Regarding the listed issues in education, she has made a clear outline available to the public that breaks down her planned course of action step by step in fixing and repairing Virginia’s education system. To summarize what was expressed, she plans on fixing the teacher shortage by hiring more educators through increasing funding for teachers, along with programs that encourage teaching and teaching opportunities. Increasing accessibility and opportunities for educators to grow their careers, and in turn earn more, along with paying teachers more in general, to keep high-quality education in schools. Following this, she aims to fix the lack of structure in educational institutions and systems and the decline in academic performance by working with the general assembly to address the continued lack of support the state has put into schools across Virginia. She plans on offering more resources and help for students with disabilities, and also for students who are learning English and might not currently be fluent. Spanberger has also been vocal about not supporting voucher programs; these programs decrease funding from schools by shifting the funding and putting it towards parents’ choice in education for their children, whether it’s a private school or another form of schooling outside of public school. While voucher programs are not inherently bad, they do decrease funding to public schools, which affects teachers, students, and the public education system as a whole. Along with this abigail has talked about how she wants to improve healthcare for Virginians by making it more accessible to everyone, but she isn’t just stating this, but has in fact already made contributions in making it possible by voting on legislation that affectly helped lower the price in medical resources specifically medicine and pharmasuticles for seniors, however these legislations were never able to become more as current governor glen youngkin vetoed the legislation preventing it from becoming more. Spanberger has also mentioned and made a large part of her campaign on the rights of women, more specifically, the abortion rights. Similarly to the last issue discussed, she has already made an impact on this, as she voted to codify Roe v Wade into federal law. She has also proclaimed that, as governor, she will sign legislation to protect the right to contraception further and has already done previous work to protect access to fertility technology.
How about our other candidate? Here is the basic information on the Republican candidate running for governor alongside Spanberger. Winsome Earle-Sears is a 61-year-old politician. She was born in Jamaica and eventually immigrated to the United States when she was just 6 years old. She and her family moved to New York, where she spent the majority of her childhood. Her education is a Master of the Arts degree in organizational leadership from Regent University, an associate degree from Tidewater Community College, and a bachelor’s degree in English from Old Dominion University. She has experience as she served for 3 years as an electrician in the Marines for 3 years and held the rank of corporal during that time for the United States. She has experience in managing business, and she served on the advisory committee and eventually went up to secretary of women veterans for the Department of Veterans Affairs. She served as the vice president on the Virginia Board of Education and as the co-chair of the American Committee on the US Census Bureau.
Now that we have background information on our republican candidate, what goals does she have for Virginia if she becomes governor? Winsome Earle Sears’ goals are not as descriptive as Spanberger’s; furthermore, due to that, the following information will be noticeably shorter. Earle-Sears has discussed their desire for change in the economy of Virginia, along with the education system and even public safety. Breaking this down one by one, Earle-Sears has proclaimed that she wants to help the Virginia economy by eliminating property tax on vehicles, cutting down on wasteful spending, and more. Going into her next goal, the education systems in Virginia have been struggling for years now, and her plan to help this is by allowing parents to have more control and rights over their child’s education, whether it’s a private school, a public school, or another form of schooling. Addressing the issue firsthand about the educational decline in Virginia and bringing more awareness to it. Her third main goal is to ensure the public’s safety by focusing on immigration, women’s sports, and focusing on law enforcement.
Following this and knowing what Earle-Sears has expressed goals on, how does she plan on solving these issues? She plans on helping the economy by lowering or completely getting rid of property taxation on vehicles in Virginia. To do this, Earle-Sears has already launched a campaign called “Axe the tax,” which aims at the removal of the vehicle taxation on owned cars and vehicles. Following this, she wants to cut down on the wasteful spending from the government, but hasn’t made a clear plan on how she would do this. Moving on to her next goal as governor is the current decline in Virginia’s education system. She plans on solving this issue by giving parents more control over their children’s education. She has laid out multiple ways of doing this, such as voucher programs and making parents the primary decision makers in their children’s schooling. She has also been vocal about addressing this educational issue, as it is affecting all of Virginia, both youth and older adults. The decline in Virginia’s education has been a steady fall, but following COVID, that decline became more severe, with Virginia schools trying to catch up in rankings with neighboring states. Earle-Sears wants to fix this by addressing the issue hands-on, shining a light on it, and working with the people to mend the system. Moving on to public safety which has been a big part of Earle-sears campaign since the beginning, She wants to focus on the protection of public safety in many ways, some of these are focusing on womans sports and wanting to keep womans sports limited to biological woman and the exclusion of transwomen, along with this she has been very public about also wanting to keep transgenerder women out of womans bathrooms and limiting them to biological woman. This has been a very vocal point in her race, with her keeping more conservative views on gender and gender identity, similar to Glen Younkin’s views and themes in his campaigns. She also has discussed immigration and her support for the deportation of undocumented immigrants; she related this to herself being an immigrant and strives for Virginia to be strict on immigration and the deportation of those who are undocumented. Along with this, she has brought up the topic of law enforcement and its focus on public safety. She has had support from several law enforcement agencies during her campaign and preaches for the importance of them, along with respect for them. She has criticized lawsuits against law enforcement that she proclaimed as politically motivated.
While both candidates have an impressive resume of education and hands-on experience, the deciding factor on which politician you support and vote for is up to you as an individual, but don’t forget the importance of participating in elections; whether they seem monumental or insignificant, they still play a big role in our society. Your vote matters, your voice matters; it is your constitutional right to voice that and vote for someone who you want to represent you and your beliefs, so if you are eligible to cast your vote, then why not vote for who you want to see and represent you as the governor of Virginia in the upcoming election on November 4th, 2025.
