The Democrat Abigail Spanberger will quit Congress next year to run for governor of Virginia. Announcing her move a week after voters delivered a rebuke to the current Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, she cited rightwing threats to reproductive rights and attempts to clamp down on public schooling.
“Today, we find ourselves at a crossroads,” Spanberger, 44, said in a video on Monday. “Our country and our commonwealth are facing fundamental threats to our rights, our freedoms and to our democracy.”
Last week, voters gave Democrats control of both houses of the Virginia legislature, seemingly ending talk of a late entry into the Republican presidential primary by Youngkin, a governor deemed relatively centrist who has nonetheless chosen to focus on culture war issues in office.
Under Virginia law, Youngkin, elected in 2021, cannot run for a second consecutive term.
Virginians, Spanberger said, “are at risk of losing the right to reproductive freedom. While some politicians in Richmond focus on banning abortion and books, what they’re not doing is helping people.
“I know how to bring people together and get real things done that improve lives. That’s why I’m running for governor.
“No more using teachers and our kids as political pawns. It’s about focusing on recruiting and retaining teachers so all of our kids can succeed and stopping extremists from shredding women’s reproductive rights.”
Spanberger joins a growing list of members of Congress who will not run for re-election. The conservative House Republican Ken Buck made headlines by saying he was quitting because of dysfunction in his party but the most prominent such announcement came last week from Joe Manchin, a Democratic senator from West Virginia widely thought likely to announce a third-party run for the White House.
Like Manchin, Spanberger is seen as a centrist. A former CIA officer and gun control group organiser, she was elected to the US House in 2018 from a state which has trended Democratic but remains keenly fought. In 2022, she won a redrawn seat by her widest margin to date.
Spanberger has attracted headlines for criticising the left of her party. Before the elections last week, however, Rich Anderson, chairman of the Republican party of Virginia, told the Guardian that while Spanberger “does campaign as a moderate [and] her language is moderate in tone … she votes as a pretty progressive liberal out on the left edge of the spectrum”.
Among voters, Lynn Meyers, 78 and from Locust Grove, said: “I’d hate to lose her in Congress, but I think she would be a fantastic governor. She’s on point. She’s realistic. She’s fair. She’s not like a loose cannon like so many of our folks in politics are today.”
Spanberger’s announcement video nodded towards such “loose cannons” with mention of a looming government shutdown, a frequent threat from a House Republican caucus beholden to its far right.
“Even in this moment of deep division,” Spanberger said, “we can seize the opportunity. I am running to serve all Virginians in every community across our commonwealth, because it’s about time we do what’s right for everyone. And that’s what matters most.”
Speaking to the Guardian, another Virginia voter, Willow Drinkwater, 82 and from Gordonsville, pointed to another office many think Spanberger might yet pursue.
“I could see her as president some day. I really could,” Drinkwater said. “Because she brings people together. She’s a consensus-maker.”
