In Virginia’s race for governor, Democrat Abigail Spanberger is working hard to cast herself as a centrist who can appeal across party lines. Her campaign points to her background as a mother, a former CIA officer, and a practical problem solver. Yet her record in Congress tells a different story. Spanberger has been a reliable vote for Democratic priorities, many of which echo the progressive policies pushed by New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
Mamdani has emerged as a standard-bearer for the left, calling for rent freezes, free public transit, city-run grocery stores, and heavy new taxes on corporations and the wealthy. Spanberger has not put her name on those proposals, but her voting record shows steady support for the same type of big-government approach that Mamdani and other progressives want to bring into the mainstream.
PolitiFact found that Spanberger supported all 73 bills and resolutions backed by President Biden. She has regularly voted with her party’s leadership and has one of the lowest conservative ratings in Congress. The pattern is clear: her rhetoric may lean moderate, but her votes do not.
Her most partisan votes and ratings include:
- Full support for Biden’s agenda
She voted for all 73 bills and resolutions endorsed by the President. - Minimal conservative alignment
Heritage Action gives her both session and lifetime scores of just 5 percent. - Consistent opposition to Trump’s policies
She voted with Trump only 8.7 percent of the time while in office.
Spanberger has tried to create space between herself and the progressive brand by criticizing slogans like “defund the police” and voicing concerns about unchecked federal spending. Yet those words rarely matched her actions in the House, where she consistently voted with the Biden administration.
The contrast is now front and center in the governor’s race. Spanberger’s candidacy is an attempt to disguise a liberal record under the polish of moderation, a tactic Democrats regularly employ when running statewide in the Old Dominion. They count on suburban moderate-leaning voters to sway their direction by sounding pragmatic and centrist in their talking points despite their extreme voting records.
For voters, the question is whether Spanberger’s promises of balance and pragmatism will outweigh a record that shows near total loyalty to her party’s national agenda.
By contrast, Republican Winsome Earle-Sears has positioned herself as the steadier hand in the race, running as an extension of the Glenn Youngkin model. Her message focuses on economic relief, school choice, and public safety, themes that come across as far more practical and measured when set against Spanberger’s record of siding with Washington Democrats. In this campaign, it is Sears who ends up looking like the true moderate voice in Virginia politics.