Spanberger vows to stand up for Virginians against the chaos in Washington

Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic candidate for governor, vows to stand up for Virginians against “the chaos coming out of the Republicans in Congress and the chaos coming out of the Trump administration.”

“At this point in time, the things that are most important to us as Virginians are under attack: the healthcare of hundreds of thousands of Virginians, food security programs that are so vital to so many families, and the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands,” Spanberger told the audience at the 2025 Women’s Summit hosted by Network NoVA in Tysons on June 27.

Spanberger, a former operations officer at the CIA, represented Virginia’s 7th District (Fredericksburg) in the House of Representatives from 2019 to Jan. 3, 2025. In Congress, she was known as a centrist Democrat and a leader in getting legislation passed with bipartisan support.

She faces hard-right Republican candidate Winsome Sears, the current lieutenant governor, in the general election on Nov. 4.

“When I think about what this election means, it is about what we are standing up against – the attacks, the assaults on our communities, on our commonwealth,” Spanberger said. “It is also about what we are standing up for.”

“There are people across Virginia who need us to be focused on lowering the cost of housing, healthcare, and energy,” she said.

Spanberger called the forced resignation of University of Virginia President Jim Ryan on June 27 “extortion.” The Trump Administration demanded the ouster of Ryan as a condition for settling a civil rights investigation into UVA’s DEI efforts.

“That the president of a top-ranked, thriving public university would be pressured to resign by the Department of Justice – in order to avoid further harm and harassment from the Trump Administration – is a clear infringement upon academic freedom and should concern every Virginian and American,” she said in a press statement.

“As an alumna of the University of Virginia, I am deeply saddened to see our governor, his administration, and so many members of the Board of Visitors remain silent in the face of these attacks on the integrity and independence of the University of Virginia,” Spanberger said.

Virginia and New Jersey are the only two states that will elect governors in 2025, and Virginia is the only state that has the opportunity to flip all three statewide seats.

State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi won the Democratic Primary on June 17 for lieutenant governor. She will face Republican candidate John Reid in November. Former member of the House of Delegates Jay Jones won the Democratic Primary for attorney general. He is running against the current Republican attorney general, Jason Miyares.

As governor, Spanberger acknowledged she won’t be able to stop all of the Trump administration’s assaults on Virginia.

But what she can do, she said, is spread the word about how those assaults are affecting Virginians – how many federal employees have been fired by DOGE, how many people have been disappeared, how many people are losing their healthcare, how many hospitals are closing, how many millions of research dollars universities are losing, and how many farmers are losing federal funds.

When things get overwhelming, Spanberger offered this advice from her mother: “Let your rage fuel you.”

“When we hear bad things every day, that’s motivation,” she said. “I have an opponent who is incredibly motivating.”

In his introduction at the Women’s Summit, Sen. Tim Kaine faulted Gov. Glenn Youngkin for failing to speak out against Trump administration policies that hurt Virginians.

“If the president plans to fire federal employees or uproot families, Abigail Spanberger will stand up. If a president decides to intrude on the Virginia higher education system, you won’t have to wonder, where’s Abigail Spanberger?” he said. “She’s not going to suck up to anybody in the White House.”