As Virginia’s governor’s race begins heating up ahead of November, Democrats are unsure of how much attention to give Donald Trump in it.
Some argue it will be hard not to address the president, while others say they should focus on policy and how it would directly affect Virginia. It’s part of a broader conversation Democrats are having after major losses in last year’s elections, and Virginia is set to be an early testing ground with its bellwether gubernatorial race.
“This isn’t about Trump being bad and us trying to tear him down for the sake of electoral gain,” newly elected Rep. Suhas Subramanyam told NOTUS. “We don’t need to necessarily campaign around him as much as the policies. ... I think people have become so desensitized to his personal crimes and flaws, they don’t care anymore. They care more about what he does.”
“We’ll see what strategy campaigns take and whether they work,” he added.
Former Rep. Abigail Spanberger is the only Democrat currently running for governor to replace outgoing Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. In a statement on behalf of her campaign, Spanberger’s communications director, Connor Joseph, said she is focused on issues relevant to Virginia voters like “strong public schools, safe communities, a more affordable Virginia, and a Commonwealth where the rights of all Virginians are protected.”
“She also knows that the job of the Governor of Virginia is to stand up for the Commonwealth, no matter who is President — and that’s exactly what she’ll do,” Joseph’s statement read.
Some Democrats already see signs that campaigning on being a check on Trump’s power may still be an effective way to drive voters to polls. In Virginia’s first elections since Trump won, two Democrats — state Sen. Kannan Srinivasan and state Del. JJ Singh — came through to win Loudoun County-area seats, keeping both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly in Democratic control. Loudoun County, a suburb of Washington, saw a shift toward Trump in November. (A Republican, Luther Cifers, won a third special election to a state senate seat in a different part of the state.)
“There were a lot of voters who were struggling with how to make sense of what happened, the fact that [Donald Trump] was reelected,” Singh told NOTUS. “There was anger, there was frustration, there was disappointment, there was shock, there was fatigue — all the above.”
In a press release after the special elections earlier this month, the Democratic National Committee said the results were a clear example of states fighting back against “increasing extremism at the federal level.”
“These two tremendous candidates will continue Virginia’s economic growth and stand as a backstop against the extremism of Donald Trump and Glenn Youngkin,” Roger Lau, executive director of the DNC, said in a statement.
Special elections like those that Srinivasan and Singh pulled off are limited in how much they can say about the state more broadly. Still, Democrats are hoping those special elections will give their party momentum to campaign on ahead of the gubernatorial.
They have their work cut out for them: Though the state has a history of voting Democrat in recent presidential elections, the gap between the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates got tighter in Virginia in 2024. Youngkin’s win in the state’s last governor’s election is also evidence of Republicans’ ability to win statewide.
State-level Republicans told NOTUS in November they are confident about their ability to use Trump’s gains in the state to build enthusiasm for the coming years. The Republican Party of Virginia did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
“I do feel like there is going to be an effort on the part of voters to make sure that there are checks on [Trump’s] power, and electing a Democrat governor in 2025 is one of those ways to do that,” said Tina Winkler, co-chair of the Goochland County Democratic Party. “I do think what happens here will indicate what happens in the midterms.”
State Sen. Danica Roem said while it’s impossible for voters to not think about Trump when heading to the polls, it’s not the smartest tactic to campaign on him.
“It’s hard not to think about him,” Roem said. “But the surefire way to win a campaign is on the basics, the issues that matter to voters in Virginia, and then just let Trump do whatever it is he is going to do.”
Del. Dan Helmer said it will be hard for Democrats to avoid talking about Trump on the campaign trail, especially in a state with such a large number of federal employees who worry about Trump’s proposed plans to cut the federal workforce.
“In a state full of government workers, there is real fear that the disregard for federal workers is going to deeply damage our economy, our national security and our ability to keep our communities safe,” Helmer said.
Beth Daisy, the Democratic chair in Augusta County, said Democrats also need to make the case that they’re willing to be bipartisan in conservative pockets of the state like hers, a county where Youngkin earned 78% of the vote in 2021.
“There are common ground issues that we can talk about and hopefully meet in the middle somewhere,” Daisy said. “There are things that people care about tremendously: voting rights is one, education is another, expanding on mental health.”
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Amelia Benavides-Colón is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.