Newly Elected Governors Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill Were Once Roommates Sharing Frozen Dinners Years Before Historic Wins

Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill both celebrated election night victories — but their shared journey goes far beyond political success.

Spanberger, 46, and Sherrill, 53, have been friends for years. After both were elected to Congress in 2018, the two women — then freshmen representatives — decided to live together on Capitol Hill, according to CNN.

Now, Spanberger is set to become Virginia’s first female governor, while Sherrill has made history as the first female Democrat to be elected governor of New Jersey. The pair moved into an apartment together in 2020, The Washington Post reported, where they spent evenings “eating frozen entrées from Trader Joe’s and balancing their work as legislators with their roles as busy moms.”

Post columnist Karen Tumulty once noted that the two “sometimes finished each other’s sentences” during a conversation in September 2024.

Before becoming roommates, both had separate apartments on the same floor in Washington, D.C. Spanberger described that period as lonely. “Some people seem to have fun in Congress. Speaking for both of us, while we’re here, we’re away from our families,” said Spanberger, a mother of three. Sherrill, a mother of four, agreed. “We just work from the time we get up to the time we go to bed, and it’s meeting, meeting, meeting.”

So the women decided to share a home while Congress was in session, staying there Monday through Thursday. Their apartment was modest, furnished with “a stained 20-year-old living room couch that Spanberger dragged out of storage,” and they often ate dinner “off Sherrill’s gold-rimmed wedding china, which couldn’t go in the microwave,” according to the Post. Their downtime included “a lot of coffee,” sauna sessions, and optimistic plans to visit the gym.

Though they no longer live together, their friendship remains strong. During a campaign event this summer, Spanberger said, “I maintain my friendship with her, so I know a bit about what she’s been doing across the campaign trail, and she’s been traveling everywhere in New Jersey,” per CNN.

In a joint interview with Elle published in June, the women revealed they had been texting throughout their campaigns. Spanberger said she found comfort knowing Sherrill was running for governor in the same cycle: “It just makes it seem less big, because it’s like, ‘Oh, I have a friend who is doing the same thing that I’m doing.’ It makes it feel a bit more normal.”

Sherrill added, “I feel incredibly fortunate, because who would’ve guessed when we entered Congress together that of the only two statewide races going on in the entire country all these years later, I’d be in it with a good friend of mine.”

Adding one more coincidence to their story — Spanberger, the incoming governor of Virginia, was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, while Sherrill, New Jersey’s new governor, is originally from Alexandria, Virginia.