Richmond, Virginia
AP
—
Democrat Abigail Spanberger was sworn into workplace Saturday as Virginia’s first female governor, amid a chilly drizzle outdoors the state Capitol after centuries of males holding the commonwealth’s high workplace.
Spanberger defeated Republican Winsome Earle-Sears to succeed Gov. Glenn Youngkin, additionally a Republican. It marks a brand new chapter in Virginia as Democrats pull the levers of energy in state authorities whereas Republican President Donald Trump sits in the White House in neighboring Washington.
“The history and the gravity of this moment are not lost on me,” Spanberger mentioned in her tackle. “I maintain an abiding sense of gratitude to those who work, generation after generation, to ensure women could be among those casting ballots, but who could only dream of a day like today.”
Spanberger quoted Patrick Henry, Virginia’s first governor, saying, “‘Let us not split into factions, which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.’ That was the charge Gov. Henry put to Virginia at the close of the 18th century, and it is the charge we must answer again today.”
Two different Democrats have been additionally sworn in. Ghazala Hashmi, the first Muslim girl to serve in statewide workplace in the US, is the brand new lieutenant governor. Jay Jones is Virginia’s first Black legal professional normal.
Spanberger’s inauguration because the state’s seventy fifth governor is a historic first: Only males have held the put up since Virginia first turned a commonwealth in 1776. And no girl served as a colonial governor earlier than then.
She might be referred to with conventional formality: “Madam Governor” or, as some officers phrase it, “her excellency.”
Spanberger ran on a vow to guard Virginia’s financial system from the aggressive ways of Trump’s administration. On the path, she spoke of the White House’s gutting the civil service, rising prices of products and modifications impacting the state’s already fragile well being care system.
The state Democrats picked up 13 seats in the House of Delegates a yr after the celebration’s beautiful losses nationwide in the 2024 presidential election.
Democrats in the Statehouse have vowed to work with Spanberger to push by means of their bullish agenda, which incorporates redrawing the state’s congressional district map forward of the midterm elections this yr.