Video: Fmr. VA Gov. Jim Gilmore Argues Abigail Spanberger Had “better get moving and get an issue that you feel like you can execute on because time is is running out.”

I don’t usually agree with former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore (R), but he had some really interesting stuff to say the other day at the VCU “Virginia at 250” symposium, I thought it was worth sharing. Also, former Gov. Doug Wilder (D) really nailed it (see video clip, below) when it comes to whether or not Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) member Kelsey Bagot should recuse herself from consideration of the proposed NextEra acquisition of Dominion Energy, given that she’s a former NextEra attorney; as Doug Wilder said, the answer to that is so simple a high school graduate could answer it immediately – “HELL YES!”  Exactly right, so why hasn’t she recused herself???

With that, see below for video and key points from what Jim Gilmore had to say, with my comments in brackets/green/bold/italics:

• Fmr. Gov. Jim Gilmore (R): “[2025] was a perfect storm election…Spanberger ran on affordability. That’s what she said she wanted to do. She didn’t have to do much in this election. [BINGO! As much as the Spanberger campaign people self-servingly want to pat themselves on the backs and claim that Spanberger’s huge win was mostly or all their doing, the fact is, 90%+ of Spanberger’s victory can be attributed to: a) the fact that there’s a Republican in the White House, given that Virginia always goes opposite in the gubernatorial election the year after the presidential election; b) the fact that the Republican president in the White House was VERY UNPOPULAR in Virginia; c) the fact that Winsome Earle-Sears was a really weak candidate.  Add those three factors up, and you pretty much can explain 90% if not more of Spanberger’s big win. One other point – if Spanberger’s campaign was so brilliant, then apparently so was Mikie Sherrill’s in Virginia, as were many other Democratic campaigns in 2025, since Democrats won a TON of elections that year…and also in 2026. But let’s stick with Occam’s Razor – the most parsimonious explanation for those Democratic wins is anti-Trump backlash.]  Winsome Sears is a nice lady and I called her and and told her how grateful I was that that she ran, but she never got a message out there. And what I have said to people, and I still believe this, I’ve said it to to Doug privately, this is not a purple state. This is a blue state. [Interesting to hear Jim Gilmore calling Virginia a blue state. I mostly agree, although I’d argue that the next time a Democrat’s in the White House, it’s POSSIBLE that Republicans could win statewide, but we’ll see…] This state will elect a Democrat reflexively if you don’t do something different. And what the Republican candidate must do is they have to have a message that will capture the imagination of the people of Virginia and particularly frankly the people of Northern Virginia. [Right, and a far-right loon like Winsome Earle-Sears is NOT going to have any appeal in the Northern Virginia suburbs/exurbs, or for that matter in the Richmond or Hampton Roads suburbs/exurbs…] And if you look back on it, you will see that [when] Governor Youngkin…was basically handed an issue, it was parental involvement in the schools and it was a hot issue at the time. It came out of Loudoun County and he ran on it and he won. Bob McDonnell talked about jobs, ‘Bob’s for jobs’. I talked about the car tax and affordability by putting money back in people’s pockets and we all won. But if you don’t have a message that will bite people and say this is really what this person wants to do that matches our concern. And by the way, the data center could could be that issue in the next election except that it’s a long way away. [Agreed, it’s too far away to know if data centers will be a big issue in the 2029 Virginia governor’s election; that’s an eternity away in political terms, and a LOT can and will happen between now and then.] So you’ve got that. And then there’s just no point in ignoring the fact that this was a referendum on the national presidency. This is a president who is very different and he’s doing a lot of things and he’s very vocal about all of it.”
• Gilmore: “You know, I have as many people probably know, when I came back from my ambassadorship in Vienna, Austria and began to really focus on public policy, I began to focus on foreign policy and I’ve been spending a lot of time on that. And I don’t mind saying that I disagree with the president’s foreign policy, I disagree with it. [KUDOS to Jim Gilmore for doing what almost no Republicans, certainly no sitting Republican politicians but even most retired ones, will do, which is say they DISAGREE WITH TRUMP! What a concept, huh? But most of them are terrified to do so, and it’s pathetic. So good for Gilmore for speaking out on his strong disagreements with Trump’s shambolic, disastrous foreign policy.]  And I’m very concerned about the direction that things are going right now. I believe we are basically already in World War III. And the question then is what will the nature of that war be as the months and years go ahead? Whether it will be a a constant shooting the war way World War II was or not; I think there’s a very good chance that it will be. [Disturbing analysis, but I don’t really disagree with it; the world today is arguably as dangerous, or more so, then it’s been since World War II, and for that we can point our fingers at the fossil fuel industry and its allies, Vladimir Putin, Artificial Intelligence, Donald Trump, the disastrously failed “mainstream” media, etc.] And I think that the people in Virginia are thinking about the national election, the national administration, and you ended up basically with a perfect storm. And as a result of that, Governor Spanberger won.”
• Gilmore: “But now she’s got a problem, a serious serious problem. [I’m not as sure about Gilmore’s analysis here. I mean, I agree that Spanberger got off to a rocky start the first six months or so of her governorship, but does that mean she has a “serious problem” going forward? Not sure. To me, the biggest problem Spanberger faces would have confronted ANY governor, which is dealing with the Trump disaster, including his trade wars/tariffs, the Iran war and oil prices, the DOGE cuts, etc, etc. But I *do* agree that Spanberger came into the governorship without preexisting relationships in Richmond, and that has probably hampered her, especially since some of her closest advisors also don’t have a ton of Richmond experience either. Also, I think that Spanberger may very well fall into the “overpromise/underdeliver” trap, as discussed by Larry Sabato and others in this symposium, in that – as Sabato notes – a governor has MINIMAL power over “affordability,” yet that word/theme was the centerpiece of Spanberger’s entire campaign, and continues to be something she talks about all the time. But can she do anything about it, other than nibbling around the edges? Probably not, as Sabato and probably almost any economist would tell you.] And so far the day is young. She’s only in her first year, but so far there is no message of governance in the governor’s office. [Well, it’s ‘affordability,’ but again, there’s not much she can do on that front.] And she’s going to have to get there pretty quick because when you’re a one-term governorship, it’s quick.”
• Gilmore: “I’ll say one more thing: the one-term governorship, I am in favor of the two-term governorship. I think it’s the right thing to do. I feel strongly strongly about it. [Same here: it’s absolutely ABSURD that Virignia has a one-term governorship, and that should be changed ASAP! But it won’t be, because the General Assembly doesn’t want to do so.] In the modern day, the modern era, the chief executive, it’s hard to get something done in the one-term governorship. The legislature will have to change that and they never will, because they’re anxious to get rid of the governor after four years. Yeah, that’s right. So, I’ll stop by saying this and my advice to this governor and and to any other would be this: when you become governor of Virginia, that first year is a very powerful time because you just got elected and the people of Virginia are behind you and the legislature is scared to death and they will do anything you ask them to do. I got a major car tax program put through immediately when I became governor. The second year the legislature is cordial. The third year the legislature is not cordial. And in the fourth year they’re trying to kill you. So my advice to Governor Spanberger is you better get moving and get an issue that you feel like you can execute on because time is is running out.” [I do agree that one four-year term isn’t much, and already about 1/6th of Spanberger’s single term is done; so yeah, you really don’t have much time to get stuff done, and as time goes by, the legislature probably does tend to get less interested in working with the governor and more interested in looking forward beyond their term in office…]

What else jumped out at you from this fascinating symposium? Thanks to the Wilder School for putting it on!