Scott’s interest in running signals that many powerful Virginia Democrats are unsure that Spanberger’s fellow statewide officers have what it takes.
Even before Democratic former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger is sworn in this weekend as Virginia’s 75th governor, there are already signs that at least one ambitious Virginia Democrat is making an early play to potentially succeed her in 2029. Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott has spent recent weeks telling allies he’s considering a run for governor in 2029, a half-dozen sources familiar with the matter tell National Review.
Virginia’s lobbying and state legislative circles have been buzzing with speculation about Scott’s statewide political ambitions in recent days as Democrats prepare for a busy 2026 legislative session. The party is hoping to pass a redistricting ballot initiative and advance constitutional amendments enshrining same-sex marriage, abortion rights, and voting rights for Virginians who have completed felony sentences in the commonwealth’s constitution. The Virginia House of Delegates unanimously reelected Scott to another speaker term this week.
Scott’s spokesman did not respond to National Review’s request for comment on his statewide ambitions.
Scott, a retired U.S. Naval officer, served nearly eight years in federal prison after pleading guilty in a drug conspiracy case. After his release, he finished law school, opened up his own law practice, and was elected as to the Virginia House of Delegates in 2019. He then served as his party’s minority leader before being elected speaker in 2024. President Joe Biden pardoned Scott for those offenses in 2025.
The 2029 race is a long way off, and the political landscape will look very different in a few years. But it’s not unusual for would-be gubernatorial candidates in Virginia to start laying the groundwork for future runs on the early side. Virginia has elections every year and bars its chief executives from serving consecutive terms, meaning Spanberger can’t run for reelection next cycle.
Scott’s private interest in a statewide run of some sort also signals that many powerful Virginia Democrats are unsure that Spanberger’s fellow statewide officers — Lieutenant Governor-elect Ghazala Hashmi and Attorney General-elect Jay Jones — are the party’s best choices for chief executive or even U.S. Senate, where popular and long-serving Democratic Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner won’t be around forever.
Hashmi is seen by some Democrats in Virginia as lacking in in the charisma department. And even though he won last fall’s attorney general race comfortably, Jones is seen has having a lot of baggage from the texting scandal National Review broke in October — the kind of baggage that could cost him among suburban voters in a primary. Even many Democrats who didn’t call on him to drop out of the race in the aftermath of the scandal would prefer to run a statewide candidate with a cleaner slate, and it didn’t go unnoticed that Jones won his November 2025 race by a much slimmer margin that the rest of the Democratic ticket (roughly 6.6 points to Spanberger’s 15.4 points and Hashmi’s 11.6 points).
This post has been updated.