Closing in on Election Day, a potential 2028 presidential candidate will be in Virginia to campaign for Democratic governor hopeful Abigail Spanberger.
CBS News has learned that Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro will campaign with Spanberger in the Hampton Roads area on Sunday as the race to lead Virginia reaches its final days.
Shapiro, who is running for re-election to his own office in 2026, has become nationally known for being able to win his tensely divided state. Shapiro and Spanberger — who during her time in Congress repeatedly won a competitive House district — both represent the more moderate part of the Democratic Party at a time when there are clear tensions between centrist-minded politicians and progressive figures on the left about the future.
“Here in Virginia we know the stakes of this election. and in fact, we know all the challenges coming at us, from Washington, from bad policies, but what we will do this November is not just vote against something, but we will vote for the policies that we believe in,” Spanberger said at a rally this week.
While Shapiro was a potential running mate option for Vice Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, he is now among a group of Democratic governors emphasizing accomplishments and executive leadership at a time when Democrats are looking to the future amid fatigue with Washington-centric rhetoric.
In the race to succeed Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who under state law cannot run for another term this year, Spanberger has been viewed as having an advantage over Virginia GOP Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.
But statewide races in Virginia can become surprisingly close, and Spanberger has struggled as of late to navigate the backlash to violent text messages, made public recently, that were sent several years ago by Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee in the Virginia Attorney General’s race.
Spanberger has denounced Jones’ words, where he wrote in the past about a hypothetical shooting of a man who was a Virginia House Republican leader. But Jones has remained the Democratic candidate on the ballot in the Nov. 4 election, a reality that has helped unite Republicans messaging in Virginia after struggling to coalesce around a campaign approach for much of this year.
Yet while the controversy could cost Jones the race for attorney general, Democrats remain hopeful about winning back the governor’s office in Virginia. President Trump has lost Virginia in the last three presidential elections, and has also so far been unwilling to clearly endorse or campaign for Earle-Sears despite the lieutenant governor’s conservative approach.
At the same time, Spanberger is getting support from former Democratic President Barack Obama, who is set to campaign with her the Saturday before election day and former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, another potential 2028 presidential candidate, who rallied with her in Charlottesville earlier this week.
Earle-Sears however has not been getting the same kind of major help on the right. The president has not rallied for her so far this year, but her campaign did move on Monday to publicize comments where Mr. Trump said he thinks “the Republican candidate is very good and I think she should win,” before explaining he hasn’t “been too much involved in Virginia.”
The absence has been especially stark considering Mr. Trump has already given what he described as his “complete and total endorsement” on social media to the GOP candidates for New Jersey governor and Virginia attorney general who are also on this fall’s Nov. 4 ballot.
Mr. Trump offered a measure of support that could benefit Earle-Sears on Wednesday, writing on social media that voting Republican in Virginia or New Jersey— including in the race for governor — “MEANS A DRASTIC DROP IN ENERGY PRICES AND ENERGY COSTS.” Yet he didn’t name Earle-Sears or explicitly endorse her.
Talking to CBS News last week, Earle-Sears demurred on questions about Trump and his role, or lack thereof, in her race to that point.
“I’m not going to talk about when the President and I speak. I’ve spoken with the President, I’ve visited him in the Oval Office, which folks for me, as an immigrant to this great country, you just don’t see yourself being in the Oval Office. You see it on television and you say to yourself ‘my god what a great country that this is'” Earle-Sears said.
