Barely two weeks into her governorship, with not a bill signed into law yet – and with solid/strong majorities of Virginians approving of Democratic priorities (and with Virginians optimistic about Gov. Spanberger’s term in office, by a whopping 60%-33% margin) – it’s fascinating to watch as Republicans/right wingers freak the f*** out about Abigail Spanberger. See below for just a few examples, including:
- The NY Post headline, “Conservatives brand Dem Virginia Gov. Spanberger ‘the White Witch” after she immediately enacts woke agenda”
- Meghan McCain insanely claiming “Abigail Spanberger is dragging the commonwealth of Virginia to hell.”
- Also from Meghan McCain: “Abigail Spanberger is a demonic radical communist psychopath. Her polices are an existential threat to our children and the state of Virginia,” etc.
- 2025 VA GOP Lt. Gov. nominee John Reid over and over again claiming, falsely, that Spanberger/Hashmi/etc. are radicals, socialists, communists, you name it.
- Former Rep. Bob Good (R-VA05), who’s about as far right as you can get, railing against “Spanberger’s radical policies” and “radical leftist policies.”
- Glenn Beck ranting about “Virginia’s new Marxist agenda.”
- Breitbart calling Spanberger a “radical extremist.”
- “The Blaze” claiming that Spanberger’s “unhinged liberal policies are poisoning the state.”
- Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA02) falsely claiming that Spanberger is the on pushing mid-decade redistricting in Virginia, and attacking her for supposedly doing so (but not attacking Trump for being the cause of all this, 100%).
- Random right-wing attacks on Spanberger for various bills that have been introduced in the General Assembly, but which Spanberger hasn’t weighed in on, let alone signed into law. And yet…of course, they’re attacking Spanberger for those bills (on leaf blowers, marginal tax rates for the wealthiest Virginians, whatever), demonstrating that they have no understanding of the legislative process. Hell, they even argue that Spanberger should put out statements denouncing bills as they are introduced, even though Glenn Youngkin never did that the past four years with hundreds of far-right-extremist bills, nor does ANY governor routinely do that.
Also note a few key points: 1) Spanberger, despite her relentless self-“branding” as a “moderate,” “bipartisan,” etc., and the reality that she actually has a very normal Democratic voting record (if anything, she was one of the lowest-ranking Democrats in Progressive Punch, #198 in 2014), is STILL being labeled by the right wingers as a “radical”/”Marxist”/etc, even though that’s wildly false, showing that Republicans will use these absurd attacks no matter what a Democratic politician does; 2) Spanberger hasn’t signed a single bill into law at this point, having mostly just presided over a snowstorm and issued a few executive orders that were exactly what you’d expect any Democratic governor to issue; and 3) Republicans aren’t really doing this to Mikie Sherrill, which makes one wonder why they’re so obsessed with Spanberger – presumably they see her as a bigger theat for U.S. Senate, VP, president, etc. in 2028 or beyond? Anyway, it’s all very striking, and would be hilarious if it weren’t so deranged and potentially dangerous…
P.S. I’ll add more examples of right wingers’ unhinged responses to Gov. Spanberger as I see them.
