For a smart woman, Virginia Gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger sure has made a lot of dumb mistakes lately. In the clip below from an undated interview, she tells a journalist, “And what we’ve seen recently, the really, I think, horrifying thing is that now under the new administration, or the Trump administration, where every cross into the United States is considered a criminal act.”
Considering that 8 U.S.C. § 1325 — the statute that criminalizes unauthorized entry into the United States — was enacted in 1929, the law has been on the books for nearly a century. However, in its zeal to import a new class of future Democratic voters, the Biden administration made a deliberate choice not to enforce it.
That strategic decision allowed an estimated 15 million illegal immigrants to pour into the country, including gang members and other criminals. This resulted in the loss of American lives, placed a severe strain on public resources, and left the Trump administration with the daunting task of trying to undo the damage.
As a congresswoman, Spanberger swore an oath to support and defend the U.S. Constitution, the foundation of all American laws. If she wins her bid for Virginia’s governor’s mansion, she will take that same oath again. Yet here she is, just two weeks before the election, calling U.S. immigration law “horrifying.”
Her out-of-touch remark was only the latest misstep in a campaign marked by unforced errors — and it handed yet another gift to her Republican opponent, Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears.
Earle-Sears currently trails Spanberger by 6.5 points in the RealClearPolitics average of polls. While Earle-Sears still faces an uphill battle, up until early September, Spanberger had held onto a consistent lead of 10 to 12 points.
It’s worth noting that a Trafalgar/Insider Advantage poll, the only survey in the RCP average conducted after Spanberger’s disastrous Oct. 9 debate performance, showed her lead had dwindled to 3 points.
The biggest takeaway from the debate was Spanberger’s refusal to call on Jay Jones, Virginia’s Democratic candidate for attorney general, to withdraw from the race after disturbing text messages he’d sent in 2022 emerged in which he fantasized about the violent deaths of former Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert (R) and his children.
Pressed several times by the debate moderator to disavow her support for Jones, Spanberger admitted that while his texts were “abhorrent,” she would leave it to voters to decide. “The voters now have the information, and it is up to voters to make an individual choice based on this information.”
The first sign of trouble in the race came in late August when an elderly, white liberal woman, who turned out to be a Spanberger campaign volunteer, showed up at an Earle-Sears event carrying a vile, racist sign that read, “Hey Winsome, if trans can’t share your bathroom, then blacks can’t share my water fountain.”
Earlier that week, Fox News reported that the U.S. Department of Education had designated five Northern Virginia schools as “high-risk” and placed restrictions on their federal funding. Those schools had recently faced backlash over policies allowing transgender students access to bathrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identity. After speaking at an Arlington County School Board meeting convened to address the issue, Earle-Sears spoke with constituents outside the venue.
Asked to comment on the sign, Spanberger couldn’t be bothered. Her campaign issued a statement that said, “Abigail condemns this repulsive display. It’s racist, abhorrent, and unacceptable.”
Disappointed by this response, Spanberger was later pressed for a direct comment and replied in a Facebook post:
As I said yesterday, the sign displayed in Arlington last night was racist and abhorrent.Many Virginians remember the segregated water fountains (and buses and schools and neighborhoods) of Virginia’s recent history. And no matter the intended purpose or tone and no matter how much one might find someone else’s beliefs objectionable, to threaten a return of Jim Crow and segregation to a Black woman is unacceptable. Full stop.
She would have done herself a big favor had she responded directly the first time, rather than through a subordinate.
As mentioned earlier, Spanberger still holds a lead in the race. It remains to be seen whether the clip of her telling a journalist she is “horrified” that crossing the border illegally is considered a crime will be enough to propel Earle-Sears across the finish line. Yet, when added to the growing list of Spanberger’s unforced errors, it underscores a campaign increasingly defined by self-inflicted wounds — and one that may be testing the limits of voter patience in the final stretch.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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