Rep. Spanberger, a candidate for governor, reaches out to all voters

U.S. Rep Abigail Spanberger, a Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia, believes her ability to collaborate across the aisle will enable her to accomplish her goals in the statehouse.

Spanberger spoke about her time in Congress and her background in the Central Intelligence Agency during an event on Jan. 12 hosted by the Democratic Business Council of Northern Virginia.

Spanberger represents Virginia’s 7th District, which covers Stafford and Spotsylvania counties and parts of Prince William County.

She faces Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney in the Democratic Primary. A Republican candidate hasn’t surfaced yet. That district had been represented by Republicans for 60 years before Spanberger was elected in 2018.

During the event, Spanberger answered questions posed by longtime friend Rebecca Geller. When Geller asked her how she was able to get Republicans and independents to vote for her, Spanberger said, It’s all about “showing up, and being there, and talking about issues.”

“People are willing to vote for someone they don’t agree with 100 percent of the time if they feel respected and heard,” she said.

“It comes down to being willing to hear differences of opinion, to being accountable, to show up in places where you might not be expected,” Spanberger said. “If people think you don’t want their vote, they’re not going to vote for you.”

In Congress, she reaches out to colleagues across the aisle to try to understand why they oppose a piece of legislation she proposes.

“Even if you disagree with me, we can still have a productive conversation,” she said. In politics, there are legislative priorities that can be accomplished if one is willing to revise the language or change the timeline.

“If someone is trying to trample on people’s rights, that’s nonnegotiable,” said Spanberger, a moderate who is also progressive on social issues,

Some of the key issues she supports include protecting voting rights, protecting women’s access to reproductive healthcare, lowering prescription drug costs, and investing in the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy.

During her career in the CIA, Spanberger was a case officer based in Brussels where one of her roles was recruiting foreign nationals who were interested in passing along information to the U.S. government. “Those individuals often were very patriotic to their own country and wanted their country to be more free and more democratic,” she said.

After leaving the CIA, she moved back to her hometown, Richmond, to be closer to family.

While working in the private sector, she got involved with Moms Demand Action, an advocacy group working to end gun violence.

As a professional in the CIA, “I always carried firearms and I was very comfortable around firearms,” she said. “I felt this was a place where I could contribute to the conversation. I could talk about responsible gun ownership.”

After the 2016 election when President Trump implemented the travel ban, that was “a big motivator for me” to get into politics, she said.

Watching the president talk about it as a national security imperative,” she said, “I realized he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I knew far more about this topic.” The travel ban was “wrong and divisive and hurt communities.”

The mother of three school-age children, Spanberger had mostly kept her children away from the campaign trail, but when she was giving a victory speech after being elected to Congress in 2018, her 4-year-old daughter escaped from her husband’s hand and ran under the podium.

Photos of the child crawling around under Spanberger’s legs made the national news, and when she finally picked up her daughter, the crowd erupted. For Spanberger and women in the audience, that moment underscored the challenges of balancing motherhood and public life.