Yesterday morning, I tweeted from the Blue Virginia account:
“BTW, there’s a lot of chatter out there among Virginia politicos that Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA07) might not run for reelection in 2024, but instead could shift her focus to running for governor in 2025. If so, would that be a smart move – or not?”
I also posted a (non-scientific) Twitter poll, which got 11.1k votes in 24 hours, with Rep. Abigail Spanberger winning it over former Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, “Other” and Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney by a 48.9%-22.8%-20.7%-7.5% margin.
Now, a bit over a day later, Politico reports:
Rep. Abigail Spanberger , a centrist Democrat from Virginia who sits in a must-win seat for her party in 2024, has told multiple people she will run for governor in 2025.
[…]
Spanberger can run for reelection to her House seat and immediately launch a statewide run. But the congresswoman and an aide told two Virginia Democrats last spring that she does not plan to seek a fourth term in Congress, according to two people familiar with those conversations. Sam Signori, who ran Spanberger’s 2022 reelection campaign to Congress, is expected to manage her governor’s bid as well.
So that’s big news, for sure, even if it’s been rumored for a while now and even if it’s still not really “official.” And obviously, Spanberger would be a formidable candidate, as she’s demonstrated in her three runs for U.S. House (2018, 2020, 2022) in super-tough, “purple” districts against formidable opponents. Of course, Spanberger winning the Democratic gubernatorial nomination won’t be a slam-dunk against other heavweight Democratic contenders like Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney and former Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (plus possibly others, such as Del. David Reid? former Rep. Elaine Luria?), but she’s certainly shown over the past few years that she knows how to win tough races.
With that, here’s some more info/rumors on how 2025 is shaping up so far:
- There are rumors that AG Jason Miyares will probably run for reelection and not for governor, with LG Winsome Sears possibly “clearing the field” for the 2025 VA GOP gubernatorial nomination.
- Former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA05) has expressed interest in possibly running for governor in 2025 as an independent candidate.
- Possible Democratic candidates for AG include former Del. Jay Jones, who ran for the Democratic AG nomination in 2021 against Mark Herring; and Henrico County Comonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor. I’ve also heard Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano’s name mentioned.
- For the Democratic Lt. Governor nomination, I haven’t heard a lot solidly, but I have heard that State Senator Ghazala Hashmi is highly likely to run, presumably along with numerous others.
- Assuming Rep. Spanberger doesn’t seek reelection to the U.S. House in 2024, possible Democratic candidates to replace her I’ve heard mentioned include: State Senator Jeremy McPike, Del. Elizabeth Guzman, Ben Litchfield, former Del. Joshua Cole, Prince William School Board Chair Babur Lateef, Joel Griffin, former Del. Hala Ayala, former Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy, etc. And on the Republican side, presumably 2022 nominee Yesli Vega might run again?
So what are you hearing about 2025? Any other rumored candidates?
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