Remember back in 2021, how the Washington Post’s “journalists” covered the governor’s race (plus the LG and AG races)? For a quick refresher, see Three Front-Page WaPo Stories on the VA Governor’s Race…and They All SUCK (Hell, They Even Describe Youngkin as a “6 foot 5 Mystery Date” – WTF???) (“How much did Youngkin pay for this whitewash job?”; “What is this? A campaign ad for Youngkin, WAPO?”).More broadly, see if you can find much if any seriously probing, let alone critical, coverage of Glenn Youngkin, Winsome Sears or Jason Miyares during that campaign. Instead, what the WaPo preferred to do was stenography (e.g., glorified regurgitation of press releases by Republicans), “both-sides” false equivalence, polling and “horse-race” coverage as opposed to substance, avoidance of ever informing readers how extreme Republicans have gotten, frequent cheap shots at Democrats – and stoking (or flat-out inventing) intra-Democratic divisions, etc. Unfortunately, in 2021, the atrociously bad coverage of the governor’s race by the WaPo helped elect Glenn Youngkin. And this time around, when it comes to the 2025 Virginia governor’s race, it appears they’re starting up where they left off.
Case in point: this morning, we got yet another lazy, absurd, unsupported-by-evidence, stir-up-shit-among-Democrats article about Virginia politics in the Washington Post. Why do I say this? For starters, because this is what the Washington Post ALWAYS does in its Virginia political coverage – and, to a large extent, NATIONAL political coverage as well. Looking back at WaPo Virginia reporter Laura Vozzella’s articles published in 2024, a few things jump out regarding coverage of the 2025 governor’s race…
First of all, there’s just very sparse coverage – period – with the first article of the year about the 2025 Virginia governor’s race on September 5 (“Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears announces her candidacy for governor”), the second on November 18 (“Virginia AG Jason Miyares says he will run for reelection, not governor”), the third on December 1 (“Four centuries in, Virginia could be on track for its first female governor”), the fourth on December 13 (“Rep. Bobby Scott considers challenging Spanberger in Va. governor primary”), and the final one this morning (“Spanberger faces reckoning with left in bid for Va. governor”). That’s it for the entire year from Vozzella, with nothing more from her colleague Greg Schneider. This, by a newspaper owned by one of the richest people in the world, with unlimited resources at his disposal, and despite the fact that Virginia is very much in the WaPo’s core readership area. So weird – and telling!
Another point is that pretty much none of the the WaPo’s 2025 Virginia governor’s race coverage is focused on substance, but instead is mostly “horse-race” and “identity politics” – who announced they were/weren’t running, how Virginia “could be on track for its first female governor,” how Abigail Spanberger might face a primary challenge from Bobby Scott, and how (supposedly) “Spanberger faces reckoning with left in bid for Va. governor”) – which steer away from pointing out the obvious, that Republicans have gone far right, that Winsome Sears and Abigail Spanberger are wildly different politicians (talking about the historic nature of their candidacies, in an “identity politics” sense, seems to be the WaPo’s way of staying in its “safe space” and not informing its readers that Winsome Sears is a far-right extremist, just as they whitewashed/sanewashed Glenn Youngkin in 2021).
Another common tendency/motif in WaPo Virginia political coverage is to stoke supposed (whether they exist or not) intra-Democratic divisions, even if there’s minimal if any evidence to back up what the WaPo is trying to prove. For instance, in today’s WaPo article on Spanberger, they argue – with zero evidence presented – that Spanberger’s supposedly facing a “reckoning with left” (she is?) and that “The swing-district Democrat was on a seeming glidepath to her party’s gubernatorial nomination. Now she’s in the middle of its soul-searching” (wait, she’s “soul-searching?” I can’t wait for the evidence the WaPo presents to back up THIS claim! LOL). For instance, to the extent there’s a sizable or powerful “left” in Virginia – and that’s highly debatable at this point – what actual evidence is there that that this “left” is hostile to Abigail Spanberger’s gubernatorial candidacy? And if there IS said evidence, you’d think the WaPo article would back up its sensationalistic headline with some actual facts. So let’s take a look at the article and see if it did any of that.
After claiming that Spanberger “suddenly faces attacks from the left” and that Spanberger’s supposed “change of fortune…reflects her party’s soul-searching in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s reelection in November,” the main “evidence” presented is…you really can’t make this up…quotes by Mark Rozell, a political science professor at Koch brothers-funded GMU who rarely if ever has a good word for Democrats (but is quite friendly to Republicans). But regardless of what you think about Rozell, what he says is NOT evidence, just the glaringly obvious statement that a party primary is “very different” than spending three terms in Congress representing (and getting reelected in) a “purple”/highly-competitive district. As for Rozell’s main argument, it’s that “many [liberals] want to go to war, figuratively speaking, and they’re not looking for a bipartisan consensus-maker.” In fact, speaking for myself, what I think a LOT of Democrats are looking for is candidates who can WIN ELECTIONS, then get into office and get sh** done, while (obviously) pushing back against Trump’s assault on federal workers, civil liberties, voting rights, etc, etc. This really isn’t that complicated, actually, nor is it an indication of the WaPo’s overwrought, over-the-top “news” article (that really should be labeled OPINON, because that’s all it is).
Any other evidence presented to back up the WaPo’s audacious thesis? Well…nope, but the article does note that Spanberger was focused on “unnsexy, meat-and-potato fare — helping veterans tap their GI benefits to learn truck-driving, for instance, or expanding rural broadband” (note: the fact that the WaPo finds helping veterans tap their GI benefits as “unsexy” says a GREAT DEAL about the WaPo – and nothing good!). Also, the WaPo points out that Spanberger “has been ranked Virginia’s most bipartisan member of Congress five years in a row by the Lugar Center and Georgetown University’s McCourt School.” And…so??? Not sure where they’re going with this, other than that they think (hope?) that it will stir a backlash by the “left” (whoever that is exactly).
OK, anyway, still waiting for any evidence whatsoever to back up the WaPo’s hyperventilating headline. Instead, we get more editorializing by Vozzella, this time how Democrats “across the country” are supposedly “bitterly divided over whether to move right, left or some other way forward.” So sure, BREAKING NEWS – Democrats are not a monolith, and we’re also not an authoritarian party that just follows its leaders blindly. But trying to figure out what the hell happened in the 2024 presidential election, and being unhappy about how it turned out, is NOT the same as being “bitterly divided,” nor is it a sign that Spanberger’s candidacy suddenly faces a “reckoning” or is “in the middle of its soul-searching.”
Instead, what the WaPo seems to be arguing is that a potential candidacy by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA03), who by the way is NOT a far-left figure — according to Progressive Punch, Rep. Scott is the 138th-most-progressive US House member, below Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08)’s #58 ranking, Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA04)’s #79 ranking, Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-VA10)’s #129 ranking, and just slightly above Rep. Gerry Connolly’s #147 ranking. For her part, Spanberger ranks #188, which certainly puts her towards the lower end of the progressive scale among Democrats in the U.S. House, but still well within the Democratic mainstream — is reflective of bitter divisions, major opposition by the “left” to Spanberger’s candidacy, etc.
In fact, the only evidence presented in the WaPo article to back up its claims is that Rep. Bobby Scott *might* be seriously considering a run for governor, and that there have been grumblings of discontent with Spanberger by State Sen. Louise Lucas (who “did not respond to requests for comment”), apparently over issues related to party politics (according to this article, “Lucas said her concerns with Spanberger have been building for several years. Those concerns are rooted in, among other things, the candidate’s opposition to Lucas’ reelection to a top post in the state Democratic Party responsible for enlisting minority voters. Spanberger backed a former Arlington County Democratic leader.”) and relationships (“Spanberger, perhaps prematurely…focus[ed] on the challenge of governing rather than forging relationships with experienced lawmakers”), but not really about ideology (although yes, Spanberger DID oppose Nancy Pelosi for Speaker, and also criticized “some of the House’s younger, progressive Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York”).
The bottom line is that this WaPo article, like many of its article about Virginia politics, seem to do things in the opposite direction of how they SHOULD be done: 1) they decide on the narrative they want to push; 2) they attempt to shoehorn whatever facts, recent developments, people they can get juicy quotes from, etc. into whatever that narrative happens to be (often, stoking intra-Democratic divisions or creating them out of whole cloth). Is that real journalism? Definitely not. Is that opinion? Definitely yes. When combined with the almost-complete unwillingness to call out the Republican Party’s far-right lurch, is it biased against Democrats? No doubt about it. And finally, put all this in context of the WaPo’s owner – who nixed the paper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris – and, as Politico calls it, “The Rupert Murdoch-ization of the Washingon Post,” and it’s very hard to conlude anything other than that the WaPo is going to do whatever it can in 2025 to boost Winsome Sears and take shots at Abigail Spanberger. Just be aware of that as you read that paper, or choose NOT to read that paper, and as you decide whether you want to continue subscribing as well.
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