Virginia’s special elections could point out Spanberger, Sears Race trends

Voters in the suburbs of Washington in Virginia go to the polls on Tuesday in a special election that could offer an early overview of the Governor’s race with high state issues this fall.

Republican Stewart Whitson, a veteran of the combat army and former FBI agent, questions the Democrat James Walkinshaw, a Fairfax County supervisor and long-standing staff chief of representative Gerry Connolly, D-VA. The Northern Virginia district generally votes massively democratic, giving Walkinshaw a clear advantage.

Thanks to the analysis of recent elections on the state level, an overview of the government to come can be won even if Whitson does not succeed what would be a historical upheaval for the Republicans.

Virginia limits its governors to a consecutive term, and the outgoing victory of governor Glenn Youngkin in 2021 has been set not only to focus on urgent issues such as the economy and parental rights, but also its little declared capacity to proverbially increase in the already friendly fields for the Republicans.

“ Don’t maryland my virginia ”: Youngkin, 2025 GOP TICKET gathers for the first time before the key elections

The Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, WinSome Earle-Sears, a Republican, on the left, presents himself against the Democrat Abigail Spanberger, on the right, in the race of the State of the State this year. (Getty)

In Lee County – 400 miles from the other corner of the Commonwealth from where Whitson and Walkinshaw compete on Tuesday – the political landscape is exactly the opposite.

President Donald Trump lost Virginia in 2024 and 2020, while Youngkin upset former Democratic Governor Terence McAuliffe.

In 2020, Trump collected 84% of the votes in the county, anchored by the famous Cumberland Gap by Daniel Boone. Youngkin has passed Trump there and in almost all the other counties of Southwest Red West Virginia, collecting 88% a year later.

In Wise County, the results were similar – 79% for Trump; 83% for Youngkin. The County of Tazewell, bordering the country of coal of Virginia-Western and faced with winds-opposite for a certain time, gave Trump 82% of his support and of Youngkin 85%, a Reuters analysis also found.

Even in the County of Washington, one of the rare suburban counties of the region, which surrounds the independent city of Bristol de Bistate, Youngkin has surpassing Trump by about five points.

Turning the counties of Deep Blue Fairfax and Arlington who are zero for Tuesday race, Lieutenant-Governor WinSome Earle-Sears and the Democratic candidate of Governor Abigail Spanberger can also comfort or worry about what is happening in the margins of the results of the special election.

Youngkin’s potential successor focused on the message in a difficult breed to maintain the “red” swing

Connolly’s results in 2024 and 2022 were almost identical, the late Democrating beating the pilot of the naval helicopter Michael Van Meter and the Air Force Vétéran Jim Myles, respectively, by a margin of 67-33.

The results showing better performance by Walkinshaw than the recent competitions of his former boss may well warn for Spanberger, showing that Democrats are more energized to maintain it than former candidates.

In the same way, Earle-Sears can comfort itself in a better performance of Whitson, showing less excitement on the left in a district which is generally one of their most reliable in the state.

Earle-Sears told Fox News Digital that she had recognized the Southwest as the key not only of the elections but governing Virginia as a whole, committing to open a second office of the governor somewhere in the region, which is closer to at least three other state capitals than Richmond.

“”Everyone wants to be heard, “she said.” I made a promise that I would not be one of these types of politicians (which does not listen). “”

Conversely, she said, people in areas like the old Connolly district also have the right to hear a conservative message and to make leaders of all sides react to them.

Click here to obtain the Fox News app

“I mean, I look like the kind of people who normally vote democratic, and I am not. And so I call on all voters,” she told Fox News Digital in a recent interview.

A spanberger spokesperson also congratulated Walkinshaw in comments to Fox News Digital on Tuesday, calling him “fierce defender of North Virginia families”.

The candidate, a Comté de Fairfax supervisor, is a “loud voice to resist the devastating attacks on the Trump administration against workers and the federal economy of Virginia,” added the spokesperson.

“While the White House continues to pursue disastrous economic policies that skyrocket the costs and threaten Virginia jobs, the Virginians deserve leaders who are focused on laser to put the Commonwealth first.”

A Walkinshaw victory will give Spanberger a key regional ally if she also succeeds in November, added the spokesperson.

Together, they hope to “reduce costs for Virginia families, protect Virginia jobs, strengthen Virginia public schools and make Virginia a safer place to live,” she said.