In First Months as Governor, Abigail Spanberger Kicks Up Heat From the Right [View all]

In her first weeks as governor, Ms. Spanberger ended all cooperation agreements between Virginia’s state law enforcement agencies and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She signed a bill for an April vote on whether to redraw Virginia’s political map ahead of the fall midterms, potentially giving Democrats an edge in 10 of the state’s 11 congressional districts compared with their 6-to-5 margin now.

Before taking office, Ms. Spanberger demanded and got the resignations of five University of Virginia board members, who all participated in a Trump White House push that removed James E. Ryan as the university’s president, largely because of his diversity efforts.

The right wing is on fire. Suddenly, to partisan critics eager to take down a Democrat whose political future is already discussed in terms of national office, she is a witch, a “Bond villain” and dangerous.......

In Ms. Spanberger’s view, the furor is a sign of the threat she poses to Republicans after winning the governorship in a rout. “It’s a good narrative,” she said of the attacks. She spoke in an interview in her office in the State Capitol, where portraits of some of the state’s previous 74 governors, all men, hang outside her top floor suite. “There’s probably plenty of reasons that one might be inclined to be critical of a Democrat who swung a state 17 points.”





https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/16/us/politics/spanberger-virginia-governor.html