Abigail Spanberger Makes History, Sworn In As Virginia’s 1st Female Governor | EUROtoday

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democrat Abigail Spanberger was sworn into workplace Saturday as Virginia’s first feminine governor, amid a chilly drizzle outdoors the state Capitol after centuries of males holding the state’s prime 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 within the White House in neighboring Washington.

“The history and the gravity of this moment are not lost on me,” Spanberger stated 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 Governor 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 F. Hashmi, the primary Muslim girl to serve in statewide workplace within the U.S., is the brand new lieutenant governor. Jay Jones is Virginia’s first Black legal professional common. He was sworn into his put up, notably, within the former capital of the Confederacy.

Spanberger’s inauguration because the state’s seventy fifth governor is a historic first: solely males have held the put up since Virginia first grew to become 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.”

According to “A Guide to Virginia Protocol and Traditions,” males within the official social gathering put on morning coats and girls put on darkish fits for the inauguration and lots of, together with the brand new governor’s husband, stored to that custom on Saturday.

But as the primary girl to function governor, Spanberger wore all white on Saturday, a attainable tribute to the ladies’s suffrage motion. She wore a gold pin on her lengthy, white coat.

Spanberger ran on a vow to guard Virginia’s economic system from the aggressive techniques 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 within the House of Delegates a 12 months after the social gathering’s gorgeous losses nationwide within the 2024 presidential election.

Democrats within 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 12 months.