Spanberger Surge: Dems Bet on a Centrist Comeback
Abigail Spanberger’s bold 15-point win reshapes the Democratic Party, sparking debate over moderation, ICE policy, and the 2026 midterms.
On Tuesday night, Abigail Spanberger will take to the historic grounds of Colonial Williamsburg and deliver the Democratic Party's response to Donald Trump's State of the Union speech. With the midterm elections approaching and Democrats searching for a roadmap to regain power, the party has turned to a moderate leader who flipped a once Republican-held congressional seat in a Richmond suburb by 15 points.
Since taking office from Republican Glenn Youngkin in January, Spanberger has acted with lightning speed, surprising conservatives, much to the delight of those who still consider themselves liberals.
She fulfilled her campaign promise to end Virginia Law Enforcement's cooperation agreement with ICE and supported the possibility of redrawing the state's congressional map before the midterms. When the Trump administration pushed to remove the University of Virginia president over diversity policies, it ousted board members associated with the effort.
Now that Democrats in Richmond hold the governorship, state Senate, and House of Delegates for the first time in years, Spanberger hasn't been shy about slowing down.
Attacks from the right have been equally intense. Mark Levin posted on X that Spanberger is "moving at full speed to radicalize and change the state forever" and that she "campaigned as a moderate and told blatant lies." The Lepanto Institute, a conservative Catholic organization, posted an edited photo of her as the White Witch from the Chronicles of Narnia, poking fun at the white outfit she wore at her inauguration in honor of the voting rights movement.
Laura Loomer, a staunch Islamophobic whisperer in the Donald Trump administration, posted a video of Spanberger signing an executive order related to ICE, along with a statement that “white liberal women are the most dangerous people in our society.” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who oversees the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, watched the same clip and called the governor a “Bond villain.”
These allegations are leveled at a politician whose entire career was built around the idea that she was none of the left-wing things she has been accused of.
Spanberger spent years as a CIA case officer, handling foreign intelligence sources, before running for Congress in 2018 in a competitive suburban Richmond district, a position she needed to win over voters who supported Trump. She was the Democrat who, after the 2020 election, warned her colleagues on a caucus call never to use the words “socialist” or “socialism” again—a moment progressive activists have yet to forget. She won the governorship last November by 15 points, the largest Democratic margin in a Virginia gubernatorial race in more than six decades. This occurred on the same night as Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani's mayoral victory in New York.
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She will be the second consecutive former CIA officer to be tasked with delivering the Democratic response to Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress. Last year, this role went to Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin, another moderate who similarly built her political identity around national security credentials and bipartisan appeal. The party's return to the same profile twice in a row now shows where Democratic strategists believe the electoral center of gravity lies.
DNC Chair Ken Martin, speaking directly about the reasoning behind her selection during the California Democratic Convention in San Francisco on Saturday, spoke directly about the reasoning behind her selection: "Clearly, her message resonated with the people of Virginia last year," he told the Guardian. "Her focus on affordability and kitchen-table issues resulted in a very defensible victory in a very purple, if not red, state."
Spanberger's office did not respond to a request for comment.
What has been more muted, and equally clear, is the response from the left. Spanberger's public statements on her handling of ICE have emphasized the competence of law enforcement and community trust rather than immigrant rights.
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Her selection reflects how divided the Democratic Party appears on what should happen next. A Gallup poll in January found that 45% of Democrats want their party to move toward moderation, up from 34% in 2021. An Embold Research/New Republic poll that same month found that 46% want a progressive as the party's 2028 candidate. Most say they want the party to fight harder against corporations and the wealthy.
Senators Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have harnessed the energy from their "Fighting Oligarchy" tour, which attracted millions of people across the country between February and November of last year, and drew crowds of thousands in deep-red states like Utah, Montana, and Idaho.
While Spanberger is poised to deliver the Democratic Party's response to Trump, progressives may turn to Pennsylvania Democrat Summer Lee, who is running for the Working Families Party, and to the "State of the Swamp" boycott event, where several high-profile political and entertainment figures will also deliver opposing messages from DC.
As for the governor, she said in a statement that she will speak from Williamsburg because the city is a testament to "the power of ordinary citizens in shaping our nation's future."
She added: "I look forward to joining the people of Virginia at this historic site to tell the next chapter of our story – a clear vision of a stronger, safer, and more affordable future for every American who calls our country home."
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