Virginia Gov. Spanberger Takes Credit for Investments Her Predecessor Secured

Virginia Gov. Spanberger Takes Credit for Investments Her Predecessor Secured

Virginia’s new Governor, Abigail Spanberger, is off to a terrible start. Voters are quickly realizing that they were sold a bill of goods and that Spanberger is not who she claimed to be as a candidate.

Now she is trying to take credit for investments made during the tenure of her Republican predecessor, Glenn Youngkin.

The Washington Free Beacon reports:

Abigail Spanberger Takes Credit for $7.1 Billion in Business Investments Secured by GOP Predecessor Glenn Youngkin

Virginia governor Abigail Spanberger (D.) took credit for over $7.1 billion in business investments to the Old Dominion—investments that were actually secured by her Republican predecessor, Glenn Youngkin.

Spanberger’s Monday announcement listed four bipartisan bills she signed that detail the capital investments from Avio USA, Hitachi Energy, Eli Lilly, and AstraZeneca, which involve building new facilities and will bring more than 3,200 jobs building rocket motors, producing critical electrical grid infrastructure, and manufacturing pharmaceuticals. The legislation provides financial incentives for each company.

“From my very first day in office, I have been working to create a stable business environment so companies can hire, expand, and continue to invest in our Commonwealth,” Spanberger said in the announcement. “Attracting new businesses and jobs to Virginia is a core focus of my administration — and I’m proud of the hundreds of millions of dollars in investment we have already announced this year.”

All four companies, however, announced their forthcoming investments last year while Youngkin was governor, as reporter Nick Minock of 7News DC first noted in a Wednesday X post. All four companies also included quotes from Youngkin when announcing the investments in 2025. AstraZeneca’s CEO specifically thanked “Governor Youngkin and his team for their energy and vision,” saying the company “found in Virginia an amazing team that moves at incredible speed to build a better future for this Commonwealth and the American people.” Hitachi said its new Virginia facility came “with the support of Governor Youngkin” as well as “the Trump Administration’s White House AI Action Plan.” Hitachi, Eli Lilly, and AstraZeneca announced their investments before Spanberger won in November.

Her approval ratings are also dropping like a stone.

Abigail Spanberger has the worst favorability rating after 80 days in office of any Virginia Governor of the 21st century. pic.twitter.com/l2hA7l5ApH

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) April 6, 2026

From The Hill:

Spanberger drop in approval rating ‘stunning’: Sabato

Political scientist Larry Sabato said Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s (D) drop-off in voter approval is “stunning” months into her first term at the helm of the Old Dominion State.

Her approval rating sat at 47 percent, with 46 percent of voters disapproving and 7 percent expressing no opinion, in a poll from The Washington Post and the Schar School of Policy and Government.

The rating is 13 percentage points below the average for Virginia governors analyzed by the Post since the 1990s.

“A drop of that margin is stunning, and it should be greatly disturbing to the governor and the governor’s staff if it’s repeated in other surveys,” Sabato told ABC 7 News.

Democrats were looking at Spanberger’s campaign for governor as a national model. It doesn’t look like that’s working out too well.

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