This story was reported and written by our media partner Capital News Service.
Youth voter turnout surged in the gubernatorial election, and Democrats were the beneficiaries. And the overall preliminary voter counts closely parallel the high turnout of the 2021 gubernatorial election.
Young voters turned out at a rate of 34%, matching a 12-year high previously seen in 2017’s gubernatorial election, according to estimates from Tufts University’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.
Historically, the youth voter bloc is not as active in statewide elections, according to the organization.
Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin defeated Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe in the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election by a slim margin of about 63,000 votes, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Just 27% of youth voters turned out that year.
Former Gov. Ralph Northam beat Republican candidate Ed Gillespie in 2017, with the same youth turnout percentage seen in 2025 that ushered in another Democratic victory, according to CIRCLE.
However, those turnout numbers are lower compared to Virginia’s youth voter turnout in the past two presidential elections. Voters aged 18-29 turned out at a rate of 55% in 2024. The turnout rate was a comparable 56% in 2020, according to CIRCLE.
Maddie Cross, an 18-year-old first-time voter, echoed sentiments of younger voters not being as active in statewide elections.
“I overheard some girls in my [dorm] hall talking about how they weren’t planning on going home to vote in this election because ‘presidential elections are the ones that actually matter,’” Cross said.
Cross, on the other hand, was eager to get out and vote for Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger on Election Day.
“I’ve been pre-registered since I was 17, so I was really looking forward to this election,” Cross said.
Cross formerly lived in a district represented by Spanberger before it was redrawn. When asked why she voted for Spanberger, she referenced her familiarity with Spanberger and her policies.
“I think she’s genuinely committed to making life better for Virginians,” Cross said.
Ella Swager, a 21-year-old voter, cast their ballot for Spanberger early ahead of Election Day, saying they felt like they had a civic responsibility to do so.
“Cost of living, women’s rights, immigrant rights, a lot of things that are being threatened right now, so I wanted to show up and vote and make a difference in the way I could,” Swager said.
Turnout should be equal across elections, because they’re all important, Swager said.
“If anything, statewide and local elections have a more direct impact on people’s daily lives,” Swager said. “I hope to see more awareness of those elections among young voters, and more turnout as well.”
Jewel Venable, age 19, said she did not vote in the gubernatorial election because she did not know enough about the candidates.
“I didn’t want to make a vote with not much knowledge and research,” Venable said.
Spanberger will be inaugurated in January as the state's 75th governor and first female governor in its history. She won by over 15 points.
Youth voters heavily favored Spanberger, with 70% of voters aged 18-29 supporting her, according to CNN Exit Polls.
Voter turnout also increased exponentially from 2021 within a majority of college precincts examined by Capital News Service, with all but one precinct voting Democratic, according to data from the Virginia Department of Elections.
Bob Holsworth, a political analyst and managing partner of DecideSmart, said this trend can be attributed to a broader issue of youth feelings towards the current administration and the Republican Party as a whole.
“There is, among young people, particularly among young women, there is a real distrust of Donald Trump,” Holsworth said.
The Republican Party ran their campaign on issues that young voters did not connect with, which helped cause such large victories for Democrats in Virginia, Holsworth said
“The economic issues, the reproductive rights issues, the deportations, there was nothing going on in the Republican campaign that made them appeal to young people very well,” Holsworth said.
Spanberger ran her campaign with an emphasis on women’s reproductive rights, public school funding, lowering health care costs, finding energy solutions and making the state more affordable for its residents, messages that seemed to resonate with young Virginia voters.
Capital News Service is a program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Robertson School of Communication. Students in the program provide state government coverage for a variety of media outlets in Virginia.