Virginia Voters Shocked That Spanberger Governs Like a Democrat
One Virginian: “I don’t see anything that makes me think I’ll be able to own a home again one day in this state.”
People. Centrist politicians do not exist, especially in the Democratic Party.
For example, Virginians are shocked that Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger isn’t a centrist!
Since taking office, Spanberger and the Democrats who control the Virginia legislature have been pushing through or attempting to push through horrendous bills.
Spanberger’s only been in office since January 17. Virginians are more divided over her than previous governors. From The Washington Post:
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s approval rating stands at 47 percent two months into the Democrat’s term, with 46 percent of voters disapproving and 7 percent expressing no opinion in a Washington Post-Schar School poll.
Spanberger won in a 15-point landslide last year after touting her reputation for bipartisanship built on three terms representing a conservative-leaning district in Congress. But her current ratings reflect sharp polarization among Virginia voters in their views of the state’s first female governor.
The approval mark for Spanberger is 13 percentage points lower than the average for Virginia governors in Post polling since the 1990s. Her near-even split between approval and disapproval is a worse net approval rating than the early-term scores of her predecessors in previous Post polls. It is also slightly weaker than ratings of her immediate predecessor, Glenn Youngkin (R), in a Post-Schar School poll last fall, showing he ended his term with 50 percent approval and 46 percent disapproval. Unlike Spanberger, Youngkin had come into office with a very narrow victory.
“Some amount of polarization is baked in, but this is unusual at this early stage of her administration and given that she had long cultivated a centrist image,” Mark Rozell, dean of George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, told WaPo.
Notice how WaPo slipped in that Spanberger is Virginia’s first female governor?
It has to be misogyny!
Independent voters are split, with 45% approving of Spanberger and 46% disapproving.
Almost 9 out of 10 Republicans disapprove of her.
“Two-thirds say they either strongly approve (29 percent) or strongly disapprove (38 percent),” according to WaPo. “Fewer than 6 in 10 felt strongly about Youngkin’s performance at any point in his tenure, with 28 percent strongly approving and 25 percent strongly disapproving in Post-Schar polling last September.”
Spanberger also lost support with black voters, but not with women:
Her support from Black Virginia voters appears shaky, with two-thirds saying they approve of Spanberger’s performance, compared with the 93 percent of Black voters who supported her last fall, according to network exit polls.
Spanberger maintains an edge with women voters, 52 percent of whom approve of her performance, while 54 percent of men disapprove.
ICE
Spanberger ended all cooperation with ICE when she took office. What has happened since then? The majority of murders committed by illegal aliens occur in Fairfax County:
Fairfax County’s sanctuary policies have made it a hot bed for illegal alien criminals.
So far in 2026, illegal aliens have allegedly committed 75% of all murders in the far-left county. Last week, ICE announced that it had lodged a detainer against Misael Lopez Gomez from Guatemala who allegedly bludgeoned his three-month old daughter to death. Lopez Gomez’s arrest comes just one day after another illegal alien from Guatemala, Anibal Armando Chavarria Muy, was arrested for fatally stabbing a man in his home.
Stacey wrote about Lopez Gomez. Will Spanberger ignore that detainer?
Let’s not forget Abdul Jalloh, 32, an illegal alien from Sierra Leone who allegedly stabbed to death Stephanie Minter, 41, at a Virginia bus stop.
He previously faced “rape, malicious wounding, assault, identity theft, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, assault, and pickpocketing” charges.
Spanberger already said she wouldn’t honor an ICE detainer for Jalloh, demanding a judicial warrant.
On Monday, DHS slammed the Fairfax County District Attorney’s office for offering two illegal aliens a sweetheart plea deal “after the two stabbed a man to death in Fairfax County in 2024.”
“This 5-year sweetheart plea deal for murder is insane. This is yet another example of Fairfax sanctuary politicians siding with criminal illegal aliens over U.S. citizens,” said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. “We are calling on Fairfax County sanctuary politicians and Governor Abigail Spanberger to commit to not releasing these murderers from jail back into our communities. How many more times must they release criminals into our neighborhoods to create more innocent victims?”
Cost of Living
Spanberger has told citizens that the government lacks an “automatic strategy to improve cost of living.”
But you know what helps the cost of living? Not taxing people to death.
Rozell pointed out that the “multiple tax proposals in the General Assembly, even though not enacted and not championed by Spanberger, drove a narrative of Democrats in Richmond lurching way left, which likely affected perceptions of the governor.”
Spanberger loses independents in this category, with 41% thinking her policies will make the state less affordable.
This part broke my heart:
Mason Necci, a self-described independent voter in rural Culpeper County, said he did not vote for Spanberger but hoped she would improve the cost of living.
Instead, he feels, she has been trying “to make herself into a Democratic icon.”
“I don’t see anything that makes me think I’ll be able to own a home again one day in this state,” said Necci, a 44-year-old car parts salesman.
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Comments
The headline is a bit dramatic, considering she still has more people approving than disapproving—even if it’s by a whole one percentage point. Apparently that now qualifies as a “shock.”
Also worth noting: this is the same electorate that handed her a comfortable win just a few months ago. It’s not as if her political positions were a mystery back then. But as usual, a portion of “undecided” voters seem surprised by outcomes that were fairly predictable all along.
At some point, calling it “surprise” starts to sound more like an excuse than anything else—an attempt to avoid responsibility for choices that were made with full access to the available information…
It’s striking when you compare her to prior governors.
This state also has an independent electorate that is easily duped by lipservice to bipartisanship. It’s not the first time that it has happened. Some are stuck living in the past of days gone by.
Also, she did temper her positions before election.
She was against gerrymandering before election, even knowing Trump’s plan. “I have no plans to redistrict Virginia” – Spanberger
She was softer on tax increases too and now is pushing them.
And it doesn’t matter if her approval goes underwater, because she can’t run for reelection.
The shock comes not from the approval numbers alone, but in contrast to the margin of victory in her election. The idea that she would so suddenly experience such a downturn in her approval rating (compared to her approval rating – over her opponent – evidenced in the election results) indicates something is amiss. Likely, her record as a moderate lulled people into believing she would continue in that vein, and their disapproval comes from the disconnect between who they thought they were voting for and who is actually sitting in the governor’s office.
Shades of the Supreme Court.
everybody’s assuming she was elected. wonder if she would have elected were there paper ballots and accurate voter registration
“an attempt to avoid responsibility for choices that were made with full access to the available information…”
It’s called “not doing the homework.”
Otherwise known as “common sense [fill in the blank],” the modern euphemism for, “I just pulled it out of my ass.”
To paraphase on old truism, you can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, and that is sufficient in politics.
As I’ve said before people are stupid and a lot it seems are very stupid. Who are the 47% who approve of her?
Gibsmedats.
And I imagine some NY voters are also shocked at Mamdani perplexed at how democrats obsessively pursue every divisive and economy crushing policy known to man. Difficult it is to find sympathy for me.
Since the fall of the USSR and communism, Democrats coped with the event by gradually taking up the banner here at home. Bad ideas, bad ideology using slightly different words to attract legions of dupes to vote for them.
They voted for her and her fellow travelers. They’re getting what every thoughtful person predicted. She was a bad CIA analyst and she is an even worse person/governor.
About that list of governors from Allen to today: the population of VA increased by 3 million while the percentage of White went from over 75% to less than 60%.
Those who are “shocked” about Democrat policies are misplacing their shock. They are slowly being replaced by the beneficiaries of the sanctuary policies.
Shocking, just shocking.
Wait until Virginians see the electricity bill for all the data centers they want to build. Her biggest levers on electricity prices would be: encouraging more gas-fired generation; making data centers build their own power generation instead of freeloading off the grid; getting out of the dumb regional greenhouse gas initiative. You know, the one Youngkin pulled VA out of and Spanberger out VA back in.
Her election was mostly a reaction to the government shutdown and the DOGE stuff. All the Fairfax govies came out to express their displeasure.
Tbf, i dont get why she is governing like a California progressive. Virginia has never been that far to the left. Maryland isnt really even as far left on some issues as Spanberger is taking VA. VA is an open carry state, since 1791!! The gun stuff alone I think will provoke a major backlash.
The backlash will go no where ….the racheting of damage can’t be undone. Seizing power requires making sure it can’t be undone. The nation is a patchwork of American and Global/socialist states. The Soviets won …their ideology flourishes in the West.
A backlash can only go somewhere if the population of Northern VA declines substantially before the 2027 (State Senate and House) and 2029 (State House and Governor) elections. It depends on those laid off by DOGE leaving the state.
The price for electricity is really an underappreciated aspect. Data centers draw a huge load which is fine if the spare capacity exists but it doesn’t. Especially in States that imposed some version of green/net zero nonsense. That’s where the big jump in costs will come spiked by rapidly rising demand but in some cases falling generation capacity.
Then there’s the issue of the water needed for cooling. Larger facilities need well over 1 million gal per day which is roughly the amount a small town of 30K uses and the release of water back into the watershed has some degree of contamination which ain’t great either.
The AI boom is single handedly ending the lunatic ‘green energy’ grift.
Notice how Democrats just suddenly stopped talking about ‘green energy’?
I’d say it is the law of supply and demand coupled with desperate d/prog trying to sidestep accountability for their headfirst dive into ‘green/net zero’ nonsense. The data centers are rapidly increasing demand for electricity which is unsupported by the level of supply which was deliberately downgraded by d/prog policies to close down nuke and coal fired plants while relying or refusing permits for NG pipeline and NG used to generate electricity. Rising costs are the natural result.
Some portion of Virginia is VERY far left – witness all the stupidity in Fairfax and Loudon. And they are far left because they have fully converted to the Progressive religion of statism. And the folks who used to live in those couple of counties now live as far south as Richmond. Along with the urban lefty population in Richmond. And 0bama broke the semi-conservative population in SE Virginia – it re-invigorated the “vote for a black man!” plantationism that hadn’t really been all that strong in the area for a long time.
Yes, a lot of the FedGov and NGO employees who were laid off live in Virginia – particularly the best paid ones. And most of them have spouses. That is 300-500K very angry people who have financial means and are driving the political train right now. [Most of the lower paid DEI patronage hires who were let go live in MD.] There may be some dissatisfaction for voters who weren’t paying close attention and just followed the D propaganda rag called “The Virginia Independent” which they mailed to every household in the state several times, but Spanberger’s core voters remain intact, and they are determined to win this gerrymandering referendum to “Stop Trump”, which it would. If the referendum passes, GOP retention of the US House will be impossible in 2026.
The gerrymandering can be offset elsewhere in other States. Plus the risk of over gerrymandering is making current d/prog CD more competitive. Shifting a bunch of GoP voters into d/prog CD via gerrymandering waters down the d/prog advantage as CD go from a 60%+ d/prog down to a 55% advantage. Five points is much easier to overcome than ten + points. I don’t live in VA but the redistricting plan doesn’t seem to be overwhelmingly popular from news reports. It may not get approved.
For example, Virginians are shocked that Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger isn’t a centrist!
I never understood the “But she ran as a moderate” bit. Yes, there was some stuff she tried to dance around in the one debate. But otherwise, all her campaign literature was loaded with TDS. That is NOT moderate. She wasn’t pro-anything that conservatives value. I do not see how anyone could have been “fooled.” Especially up against Winsome Earle-Sears.
Lot of ads of her with law enforcement and at the pistol range, implying pro gun and pro LE.
But I voted for the black immigrant.
I didn’t see a lot of commercials. I haven’t watched much TV at all in the last bunch of years.
Some consumption of MSM offerings is necessary if for no other reason than adherence to the maxim “know your enemy.”
The black immigrant who actually shoots the rifle that Abby wants to ban.
This is a spiritual crisis, not a political one. Virginia also elected an AG who wanted to kill the children of a political opponent. In Maine a neo-Nazi stands a good chance of becoming the next US Senator. Nationally there is open talk from the Communist Party about mass jailings and killings of opponents. Despite widespread unpopularity of these positions the Communists continue to push for importing millions of violent criminals and the sexual mutation of children. This is not human politics by any stretch of the imagination.
And because this is a spiritual crisis the normal ruled of politics do not apply. Usually when a politician or party takes actions that result in disaster there are changes. But the more unpopular Communists like Spanberger become the more their demons will drive them to escalate. The question is: how many of Spanberger’s voters are also demonically driven?
exactly
Since the biggest supporters of the Democrats care most about Abortion rights and Patronage jobs, the answer is a lot.
I hope you don’t mean that literally.
We constructed demons to avoid having to confront the fact that some people are just plain evil, no supernatural assistance needed. It makes us feel better as human beings. It’s a crutch. We need to understand that people are, indeed, as evil as they are all by themselves. No “demons” or “demonic possession” necessary.
who says the vote count form mail in ballots etc were legit???
oh thats right we cant really think that the dems cheat or would even need to cheat
I just keep going back to the governor’s debate last year when Spanberger refused to respond to Winsome Earle-Sears‘ questions.
Abigail?
Abigail?
Bueller?
And how many voters bothered to watch the debate? Unless you were undecided, there was no reason to bother.
Communists, doing what Communists do. Who is really surprised?
Meanwhile water remains wet.
What. do you expect when you elect a CIA operative from the deep state as your Governor?
Those who elect a Karen shall die by Karen. Virginia is getting exactly what it voted for. This was predictable and certain. Only the imbeciles didn’t see it coming.
“Spanberger also lost support with black voters, but not with women”
The only ism stronger than tribalism.
“Spanberger already said she wouldn’t honor an ICE detainer for Jalloh, demanding a judicial warrant.”
This guy stabbed a woman at a bus stop. Does she mean he won’t be kept in jail without this? How the h— would he even be let out that she would bother to comment that she would not honor a detainer?
Would they let this crazy out before trial to do who knows what to another innocent person?
She is a communist and will fully prove it, if not admit it before its over.
And dont be so sure of the election results. It was in the closeness range where they work magic.
They consider what is at stake to mean do whatever you must.
She is the leader of the party of LIARS. See, lies get easier and easier as the liar uses them. One can often tell by watching the eyes.
Have we had it so easy that people no longer think they need to be responsible at anything? Just collect their check and go home, on vacation, etc.
Quiz: Just how many generations of inbreeding, first cousin marriages, does it take to produce an Abigail Spanberger?
Bonus: If you’re a Spanberger, are daddy and grandpa the same person?