Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger poses for a portrait during an interview in Richmond, Va., Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. Spanberger will break decades of tradition during her inauguration Saturday by not wearing a morning suit worn by male governors before her.
Tyrone Turner/UMOA
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Tyrone Turner/UMOA
RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia inaugurates its governors in traditional style, complete with a swearing-in ceremony outside the Capitol building, presided over by men in three-piece suits with ponytails and the occasional top hat.
“At the end of the oaths, there is a 19-gun salute from the National Guard and a plane flyover, if requested,” we can read in the state protocol guide. “After the salute, the previous governor and his family withdraw from the stage.”
While everyone else is bustling about in grand style, the guide continues, state employees are “preparing the governor’s office for the new governor and his staff…so that it will be ready for use the next day.”
But the guide will need a tweak or two now that Abigail Spanberger is set to become Virginia’s 75th governor and the first woman to hold the office.
“There are no requirements for what women wear, what they do,” she said. So she does her best to honor the traditions of the Commonwealth – but also to forge her own.
“I’m not going to wear a jacket, so as not to disappoint anyone,” she added with a laugh.
Glenn Youngkin (left) and Ralph Northam wear the traditional jumpsuit at their inaugurations in 2022 and 2018.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Kevin Morley/AP
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Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Kevin Morley/AP
Spanberger, a Democrat, said she wants her inauguration — which will be complete with a parade, small business market and ball — to showcase the modern dynamism and diversity of the Commonwealth. It helps that the other two leaders taking office are also breaking boundaries. On Saturday, Ghazala Hashmi will become lieutenant governor and first Muslim woman was sworn into a statewide office across the country. Jay Jones will become the Commonwealth’s first black attorney general.
Spanberger’s historic “first” wasn’t talked about much on the campaign trail, perhaps because the three-term congresswoman and former CIA officer was running against another woman, Republican Winsome Earle-Sears, for the job.
Spanberger, who led fundraising throughout the race, won a decisive 15-point victory in November after a campaign focused on the cost of living and the impact of the Trump administration’s federal cuts in Virginia. Democrats view his victory as an early test of the party’s emerging message about “affordability,” which they are expected to roll out across the country in this year’s midterms.
Economic concerns were at the forefront of his victory speech in November. But Spanberger also paid tribute to Virginia politicians before her, including Barbara Johns, a black teenage activist who led a school walkout in 1951 to protest school segregation. The walkout resulted in a lawsuit that was later incorporated into the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case. Brown v. School Board which ultimately desegregated America’s public schools.
“She showed us that no matter your age, you can be part of the change and progress you want to see here in Virginia and across the country,” Spanberger said in his speech. “We are a nation built on ideas, but we are a country where it is up to us, the citizens, to put those ideas into practice.”
She also recognized Mary Sue Terry, a fellow Democrat who served eight years in the Virginia House of Delegates and eight more as attorney general, making her the first woman elected to statewide office in Virginia.
Mary Sue Terry, the first woman elected to statewide office in Virginia, was sworn in as attorney general on January 11, 1986. Terry recalled to NPR that members of the legislature debated what she should wear to the inauguration. “The speaker, who had been my running mate for three elections, cut the subject short and said, ‘Damn, let her wear what she wants to wear.’ And that’s what I did,” she said.
Steve Helber/AP
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Steve Helber/AP
Terry said she was surprised and delighted to receive the thanks from Spanberger, who she said is “not just a woman, but the right woman for the job.”
In some ways, Spanberger’s election seemed like vindication, she told NPR. Terry ran for governor in 1993 but lost to Republican George Allen, despite her early fundraising and polling advantages. During the campaign, opponents criticized him for being single and childless. The attacks came to a head a month before Election Day, when Terry was accused of hiding a relationship with another woman. The allegation was baseless and came from a psychiatrist who had been prosecuted by Terry’s office for having sex with minors, but it dominated media coverage in the critical final weeks of the race. To avoid prosecution, the psychiatrist surrendered his medical license.
“All I knew I could do was remain as centered as possible while internalizing the reality that after 15 years of public service in Virginia, my term as an elected official would end due to the allegations about my sexuality and my failure to have children,” Terry recalled.
She says the episode hurt her deeply and she worried about what it meant for other women who followed her.
“I’m sure there were those who would consider running who weren’t comfortable with what I experienced and the prospect of what they were going to experience,” Terry said. “It was terrible.”
But in her concession speech after losing the race, Terry told supporters she still believed another woman would succeed one day.
“Tonight, somewhere in Virginia, Virginia’s first female governor is watching,” she said to cheers.
And while Spanberger can’t remember if she watched Terry’s speech more than thirty years ago — she was in ninth grade at the time — she remembers how excited her mother was about Terry’s candidacy, which she insisted made for “a teachable moment” for Spanberger and her two sisters.
“I know I was watching her campaign and it excited me and inspired me,” she recalls. “Just because it didn’t get to Inauguration Day doesn’t mean it didn’t impact all of us.”
Spanberger has a big job ahead of her. She will have to guide Virginia through a lagging economy and federal cuts to health care and the social safety netwhich, she stressed, will profoundly affect Virginia women, especially mothers caring for their children.
“It is up to states to work to close the gap where possible to ensure that it is not children and their guardians who bear the brunt of these choices,” she said.
She cited conversations with Virginia hospital systems, which may be forced to reduce or eliminate costly labor and delivery units to cope with the federal changes. She also said she would focus on policies to improve the economic reality for Virginia women, including reducing the state’s child care waitlist to make it easier for caregivers to re-enter the workforce.
But for now, Spanberger is also relishing the opportunity to shape a new image of what a Virginia governor can be — especially for younger Virginians. She shared a recent example of a father she met at an event.
“When he was leaving his house that afternoon, he said, ‘Oh, I’m going to go meet the next governor,’ and his little daughter said, ‘Okay, well, tell him hello.’ And he said to his daughter, “Actually, no, she’s a woman.” The next governor is a woman.
“The little girl said, ‘A GIRL governor?!'”
Source | domain www.npr.org
