Abigail Spanberger Backed by HRC in Virginia Governor Bid
The campaign arm of the Human Rights Campaign is endorsing Democrat Abigail Spanberger, who is seeking to become Virginia's next governor.
The Human Rights Campaign PAC has endorsed Democrat Abigail Spanberger to be the next governor of Virginia.
The endorsement by the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization comes at a time when some Democrats are urging members of their party to distance themselves from the LGBTQ community.
Spanberger, one of the more conservative members of the Democratic House Caucus during her six years in the U.S. House of Representatives, has been praised by some pundits for her criticism of left-leaning voices within the Democratic Party, especially on issues like public safety, national security, and support for Israel.\
But Spanberger has not sought to distance herself from her past support of legislation that would protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in employment, credit, housing and public accommodations, or her support of marriage equality, as evidenced by her vote for the Respect for Marriage Act.
HRC PAC emphasized the former congresswoman’s support of LGBTQ rights as an essential trait at a time when most state legislatures are seeking to restrict LGBTQ visibility and walk back legal protections for LGBTQ people.
“Abigail Spanberger has shown time and time again that she is a champion for the LGBTQ+ community and will fight for all Virginians,” Kelley Robinson, the president of HRC PAC, said in a statement. “She understands that Virginia’s future success depends on the full inclusion and protection of all its people.”
Spanberger said she was honored to receive HRC PAC’s endorsement.
“I’m ready to work together to build on the progress we’ve made to secure equal protections for all Virginians under the law,” she said in a statement. “Affirming that Virginia is a welcoming home for all families goes beyond protecting marriage equality — it means defending Virginians’ right to live without fear of discrimination or harm.”
As governor, Spanberger has promised to defend marriage equality and supports efforts to enshrine marriage equality in law. To achieve the latter, a Democrat-led legislature must approve the second of two votes on existing legislation in the early months of 2026.
That legislation would result in a ballot measure in November 2026, which would have to be approved by voters to remove the now-defunct Marshall-Newman Amendment from the commonwealth’s constitution.
Spanberger’s Republican opponent, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, has a long record of opposing LGBTQ rights.
She supported efforts to ban same-sex marriage in 2004, complaining in an op-ed that society “has gone immeasurably beyond all standards in accommodating the homosexual community.”
She has since dodged questions about repealing Virginia’s existing same-sex marriage ban.
In 2021, Earle-Sears campaigned for her current post alongside E.W. Jackson, a right-wing pastor who opposes LGBTQ rights and has a history of anti-LGBTQ statements, including that gay people should not be allowed to serve as judges, and that homosexuality was the “work of the devil.”
Earle-Sears also expressed support for the Family Foundation of Virginia’s social agenda — which includes overturning the commonwealth’s ban on conversion therapy — at a gala held by the right-wing advocacy organization, as reported by The Advocate.
She was also a part of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration, which rolled back protections for LGBTQ students in schools, allowing for the misgendering of transgender students, barring them from facilities and student groups that match their gender identity, and requiring teachers to “out” transgender students to their parents.
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