Sound Familiar? ‘Moderate’ Dem Spanberger Became Virginia Gov by Promising ‘Affordability,’ But Leftists Immediately Push Radical Tax-First Agenda in Legislature
It’s a tale as old as time, as the song goes. And like the song’s corporate creator — Disney — the people behind it this time have gone crazy woke.
When Virginia Democrats nominated U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger as their nominee for the 2025 gubernatorial race, they basically thought they were nominating a candidate so safe she was like a deadbolt lock, swathed in 300 pounds of bubble wrap, and placed in a vault in Fort Knox. Spanberger had a reputation as a “moderate” among Democrats, such as they exist, and it wasn’t entirely unearned.
Spanberger famously upbraided Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and The Squad™ during a conference call in the aftermath of the party’s underperformance in the House elections in 2020, saying: “We need to not ever use the word ‘socialist’ or ‘socialism’ ever again. … We lost good members because of that.” AOC called her racist for it — but she was right.
During the 2025 gubernatorial race, when Spanberger wasn’t talking in platitudes, she used “affordability” like it was going out of style. She was a Democrat who had learned the lessons of Bidenflation before Bidenflation hit, which gave her some OG cred among independents and moderates.
And, in a state with a huge cost of living issue despite a generally popular outgoing GOP governor and a GOP nominee who wanted to fight culture war issues, not egg prices, this played well enough even when it turned out the Democrats’ attorney general candidate was an assassination fantasist who’d texted about wanting to kill Republicans. She still managed to drag him over the line and get him elected, too, in a landslide for the Democrats:
It shouldn't take this many words to say fantasizing about murder is wrong and that Jay Jones needs to go. pic.twitter.com/EVuOpk2Ksj
— Winsome Earle-Sears (@winwithwinsome) October 9, 2025