Abigail Spanberger

Early life and education

Spanberger was born Abigail Anne Davis in Red Bank, New Jersey, on August 7, 1979, her father, Martin Davis, a police officer, and her mother, Eileen Davis, a nurse. She knew from a young age that she wanted to be a spy, writing her diary in code.

Her family moved often when she was young, living in Maine, the New York City area, and Philadelphia, before settling in Short Pump, Virginia, when she was 13. Her father had moved from policing to federal law enforcement for the United States Postal Inspection Service. She graduated from John Randolph Tucker High School and was later a page for U.S. senator Chuck Robb.

Spanberger earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia in 2001 and a Master of Business Administration from a joint program between the GISMA Business School in Germany and Purdue University's Krannert School of Management. She initially enrolled at the College of William and Mary before transferring to the University of Virginia. According to her sister Meredith Schatz, by the time she had completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia, Spanberger was conversationally fluent in Spanish and "five or six more" languages.

Career

In the early 2000s, Spanberger taught English literature as a substitute teacher at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Northern Virginia. She received a conditional job offer from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in December 2002. While waiting for a background check to be completed, Spanberger worked as a postal inspector, as her father did, focusing on money laundering and narcotics cases.

In July 2006, after Spanberger's background check had been completed, she joined the CIA as a case officer, working to find, recruit, and build relationships with foreign nationals who could have had information of value to the U.S. government. She has publicly said that she gathered intelligence about nuclear proliferation and terrorism. Her first assignment was to Brussels, according to The Washington Post. During her career, she held, at some point, five different passports, and met people undercover.

In 2014, Spanberger left the CIA and entered the private sector. She was hired by Royall & Company (now a part of EAB) to do consulting work for colleges and universities. After the 2016 presidential election, she began working with Emerge America to encourage women to run for state and congressional offices. In 2017, Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe appointed her to the Virginia Fair Housing Board.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

In July 2017, Spanberger announced her candidacy for the United States House of Representatives in Virginia's 7th congressional district in the 2018 election against incumbent Republican Dave Brat, a former Tea Party movement member. She had begun to consider challenging Brat after attending a town hall meeting he hosted in Nottoway County in February 2017 and made the final decision to run in May after the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, texting her husband, "I'm gonna run and I'm gonna f---ing win". On June 12, 2018, Spanberger defeated Dan Ward in the Democratic primary election with 73% of the vote, receiving more votes than any other candidate in the Virginia primaries that day.

In June, after winning the primary, while waiting for a train at the Richmond Staples Mill Road Amtrak station, Spanberger met William C. Mims, a justice on the Supreme Court of Virginia, who told her he was "impressed with her message".

In August, the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC closely aligned with Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, conducted a smear campaign against Spanberger. The campaign, which attempted to tie her to terrorism, was based on an SF-86 application she completed to obtain security clearance, which was released in breach of privacy rules. In a visit to the district, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon called the race "an absolute bellwether of the entire country" and said that losing it would mean Republican loss of control of the House.

Spanberger won the November 6 general election by about 6,800 votes. Brat won eight of the district's ten counties, but Spanberger dominated the two largest counties, Henrico and Chesterfield, by a combined margin of over 30,000 votes. Her campaign outraised Brat's, with $5.8 million (equivalent to $7,556,994 in 2025) to his $2.1 million (equivalent to $2,723,398 in 2025). After winning the election, Virginia Supreme Court Justice Mims wrote her a letter extolling the virtues of public service, leadership, and civility, alongside a copy of former Czech President Václav Havel's essay "Politics, Morality, and Civility". Spanberger has said the letter and its impact on her leadership were crucial to her development as a politician.

Spanberger was the first Democrat to win this seat since 1970, when four-term Democrat John Marsh retired and was succeeded by Republican J. Kenneth Robinson. But until 1993, the 7th stretched from the outer Washington suburbs through the Shenandoah Valley and Charlottesville to the outer Richmond suburbs; the present 7th is geographically and demographically the successor to what was the 3rd district before 1993. That district had been in Republican hands since 1981; former House majority leader Eric Cantor represented it from 2001 until Brat ousted him in the 2014 Republican primary.

Tenure

According to FiveThirtyEight's congressional vote tracker, Spanberger voted with President Trump 8.7% of the time. In the 2016 presidential election, Trump won 50% of the vote to Hillary Clinton's 44% in Spanberger's future congressional district.

On September 23, 2019, Spanberger joined six other freshman House Democrats with national security backgrounds in calling for an impeachment inquiry into Trump. They co-wrote a Washington Post opinion piece explaining their support for an impeachment inquiry, writing: "Congress must determine whether the president was indeed willing to use his power and withhold security assistance funds to persuade a foreign country to assist him in an upcoming election." They wrote that, if the allegations were true, they amounted to a "flagrant disregard for the law" and a "threat to all we have sworn to protect". Spanberger later announced that she would vote in favor of impeachment, saying, "The President's actions violate his oath of office, endanger our national security, and betray the public trust".

On June 1, 2020, Spanberger tweeted criticism of Trump's reaction to the George Floyd protests, a series of protests against police brutality that began in Minneapolis on May 26. On June 2, The Washington Post and The New York Times quoted Spanberger and several other high-profile former CIA analysts' interpretations of Trump's reaction to the protests as reminiscent of the reaction of totalitarian dictators on the brink of losing control of their dictatorships. "As a former CIA officer, I know this playbook, and I know the president's actions are betraying the very foundation of the rule of law he purports to support, the U.S. Constitution", she said. Spanberger criticized Trump after police used tear gas and rubber bullets on peaceful protestors and a priest during the George Floyd protests to clear a path so that he could have a photo op in front of St. John's Episcopal Church.

Spanberger opposed Democrats' attempts to amend the Insurrection Act of 1807, saying that amending the rarely used law would not accomplish what Democrats intended.

According to PolitiFact, Spanberger publicly disagreed with some of Biden's immigration policies that have not been subject to congressional votes, but she voted for all 73 bills and resolutions in the House of Representatives that Biden voiced support for. In a November 2021 interview with the New York Times, Spanberger criticized Biden after the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election, saying, "Nobody elected him to be F.D.R.; they elected him to be normal and stop the chaos." She also said the Democrats had not sufficiently recognized that inflation was problematic. In December 2023, she was one of six House Democrats to send Biden a letter criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Gaza military strategy.

Committee assignments

Spanberger's committee assignments included:

Committee on Agriculture

Subcommittee on Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit

Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry (Chair)

Committee on Foreign Affairs

Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and Nonproliferation

Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, Energy, and the Environment

Caucus memberships

LGBT Equality Caucus

New Democrat Coalition

Problem Solvers Caucus

Congressional Armenian Caucus

Congressional Caucus for the Equal Rights Amendment

Rare Disease Caucus

2025 gubernatorial election

In 2020, during a meeting with then-Governor of Virginia Ralph Northam, Northam suggested she should run for governor someday. Spanberger took his advice, and in November 2023 announced that she would not seek reelection to Congress and would instead run for governor of Virginia in the 2025 election. She secured the uncontested nomination in April 2025.

In May 2025, while campaigning, Spanberger said she would not sign a bill to fully repeal Virginia's right-to-work law if elected governor.

Spanberger is one of the few Virginia gubernatorial candidates to refuse money from Dominion Energy, instead getting donations from the anti-Dominion watchdog Clean Virginia alongside her running mates, who defeated Dominion-backed candidates. Her priorities on immigration include scrapping Youngkin's immigration order allowing local police to help carry out Trump's ICE raids and deportation policy. She supports rejoining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which Youngkin, a Republican, left after Northam had joined it.

Spanberger was elected in a landslide, securing 58% of the vote. The Republican nominee, incumbent lieutenant governor Winsome Earle-Sears, received 42%. It was the largest margin of victory for a Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Virginia since Albertis Harrison received just under 64% of the vote in 1961. The official vote margin was over 527,000. While Democrats won the three statewide races in Virginia in 2025, Spanberger's 15-point margin of victory was the largest. Spanberger outperformed Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election in the state by nearly 10 percentage points, while winning 99% of Harris's voters.

Governor of Virginia (2026–present)

Transition

On November 5, Spanberger announced her transition team, which included Chris Lu, Daun Hester, and Yohannes Abraham. Honorary co-chairs of the team included many Democratic Party of Virginia leaders, such as Louise Lucas, Don Scott, Jennifer Wexton, and Rick Boucher. Spanberger's transition informally began on November 6 with a lunch with Governor Youngkin. On November 12, Spanberger asked the University of Virginia's board of visitors to pause its search for a new president until her transition was complete, drawing criticism from both Youngkin and conservative alumni of the university for supposed politicization of the board process. Spanberger said Youngkin had done the same during his tenure, and promised structural reform to prevent it. Spanberger made her first cabinet appointment on December 2, announcing Marvin Figueroa as Secretary of Health and Human Resources, and continued to make appointments throughout the month.

Inauguration

Spanberger was sworn in as governor on January 17, 2026. She was sworn in by former Supreme Court of Virginia Justice William C. Mims, with her husband Adam holding the Bible and her daughters by her side.

Tenure

On January 17, 2026, her first day in office, Spanberger signed ten executive orders focusing primarily on affordability, healthcare, housing, education, and preparedness for potential federal policy changes under the Trump administration. Key orders included a statewide affordability directive requiring agencies to identify cost-reduction measures; establishment of task forces on health financing and economic resiliency amid federal cuts; a review of housing regulations and creation of a housing production commission; directives strengthening public education and inclusive practices; a review of university board appointment processes; expanded authority for the chief of staff; a non-discrimination and equal opportunity policy with affirmative recruitment measures; and rescission of former Governor Glenn Youngkin's Executive Order 47 requiring state and local law enforcement cooperation with federal civil immigration enforcement. Democrats praised the orders as delivering on campaign promises to lower costs and protect vulnerable populations, while Republicans criticized several as reversing effective Youngkin-era policies on immigration enforcement and merit-based education, and expressed concerns over the promotion of diversity initiatives and delegation of broad emergency powers.

One of Spanberger's first challenges as governor was managing the January 2026 North American winter storm, responsible for the deaths of four people and hundreds of traffic accidents. On January 22, she issued a state of emergency ordinance, mobilizing the Virginia Department of Emergency Management to work with state agencies, local governments, and private-sector partners to ensure preparedness during the winter storm, and promulgated guidelines for Virginians so that they could remain safe.

On January 30, Spanberger described the Virginia Leaders in Export Trade (VALET) program, promoting free trade in opposition to Trump's tariffs. The Virginia Port Authority is a major hub of international trade.

On January 19, 2026, Spanberger delivered her first address to a joint session of the Virginia General Assembly, emphasizing affordability, bipartisanship, and pragmatic solutions. She committed to reentering the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), maintaining Virginia's right-to-work law, collaborating with the federal government where possible, and pushing back against policies harming Virginia jobs or families. She outlined legislative priorities including lowering healthcare and energy costs, protecting renters, expanding housing production, supporting agriculture amid tariffs, implementing pro-worker measures such as paid family leave and a higher minimum wage, and bipartisan gun safety bills. Republicans welcomed the calls for unity and right-to-work commitment but proposed alternative tax relief measures and cautioned against increased spending.

Public image

Very early in Spanberger's governorship, opinion polls showed that her job approval rating was fairly stable and similar to the average of previous Virginia governors. A poll by the Institute for Policy and Opinion Research at Roanoke College in early February showed that 53% of Virginians gave her high marks for her job performance, while 38% disapproved.

By April, her approval rating had dropped significantly, with a Washington Post–Schar School poll finding that 47% of voters approved of Spanberger and 46% disapproved. This marked the worst net approval rating for a governor in the early months of their term in Washington Post polls since the early 1990s. Similarly, a State Navigate poll conducted on April 10–13 showed her net approval rating to be breaking even. But after the 2026 Virginia redistricting amendment, a Public Sentiment Institute poll found that 52% of voters approved of Spanberger and 41% disapproved, as in earlier polls. Her net approval rating fell back to -2% by July, according to a poll by Virginia Commonwealth University.

In June 2026, Vox described Spanberger as polarizing, attempting to placate both businesses and Democrats, while being viewed negatively by Republicans.

Political positions

Spanberger positions herself as a moderate Democrat and has called herself a "passionate pragmatist". Virginia NPR affiliate WCVE-FM called Spanberger's legislative voting record "typical in this highly partisan era" and said she has always voted for Biden's agenda while still being the fifth-most bipartisan House member when it came to cosponsoring legislation and opposing one of Biden's executive orders on immigration. In the 2019 speaker of the United States House of Representatives election on the opening day of the 116th United States Congress, Spanberger voted for Representative Cheri Bustos, an Illinois Democrat, joining 11 other Democrats who did not back Nancy Pelosi.

Abortion

Spanberger supports abortion rights. She opposed the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, overturning the right to abortion established by Roe v. Wade, saying that "it undermines the right to privacy and a woman's right to choose". She opposes legislation to restrict abortion, saying that the government should not "mandate a pregnancy". During her gubernatorial campaign, Spanberger said she would support a constitutional amendment to restore "the Roe standard" and that she supported Virginia's existing laws requiring minors seeking abortions to receive parental consent, and certain limitations on third-trimester abortions.

COVID-19

In February 2023, Spanberger was one of 12 House Democrats who voted in favor of H.J. Res. 7, a Republican-sponsored resolution to terminate the national emergency concerning COVID-19 declared in March 2020.

During her 2025 campaign for governor of Virginia, a January 6, 2021, photograph of Spanberger wearing an emergency escape hood inside the Capitol was circulated online by critics, who misrepresented it as COVID-19 protective gear and mocked her. The hoods, which protect against smoke and chemical irritants, were distributed to members of Congress by Capitol Police during the attack on the Capitol; the misrepresentation was widely noted and debunked online, with some observers saying that the circulation of the image drew attention to the events of January 6.

Criminal justice

In 2023, Spanberger voted against overturning the District of Columbia's revision of its criminal code, which reduced the maximum penalties for burglary, carjacking, and robbery. Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said, "This is one of the most extreme criminal-first, victim-last measures we've seen across the nation."

Spanberger opposes defunding the police, and has supported bills that would increase the ability of local police departments to hire and train more officers.

Economy

Although she was not a member of Congress when it passed, Spanberger criticized the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act supported by President Donald Trump, arguing that its permanent tax cuts for corporations would increase the national debt.

Spanberger called for the passage of the USMCA trade deal negotiated by the Trump administration, Mexico, and Canada. Spanberger opposed Trump's tariffs during her 2025 gubernatorial campaign. She has promoted free trade during her tenure as governor.

In May 2020, Spanberger voted against the HEROES Act, a proposed $3 trillion stimulus package in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She said the bill went "far beyond" pandemic relief and had no chance of passing the Republican-controlled Senate. In November 2020, Spanberger led a bipartisan effort to secure the 340B Drug Pricing Program against changes that would lead to significant increases in prescription medication costs.

Spanberger supports banning members of Congress from trading stocks. She has introduced legislation that would require lawmakers, as well as their spouses and dependent children, to place assets in a blind trust while in office.

In September 2025, Spanberger wrote an opinion article in The Washington Post opposing DOGE for conducting mass layoffs of federal workers in 2025 which particularly affect Virginia, as many federal workers live there. Spanberger focused her 2025 gubernatorial campaign on affordability and jobs.

Education

Through her "Strengthening Virginia Schools Plan", Spanberger announced she would make higher education more affordable and accessible and make it easier for high school students to take college-level courses. She supports allowing teachers to deliver instruction and manage curriculum without interference from political bodies or agendas. Spanberger has emphasized strengthening public schools by hiring and fairly compensating teachers, rather than supporting private schools and school choice. She also supports allowing schools to teach about Virginia's history of racism, saying, "history is important for us to learn from, for our kids to be proud of the progress we've made."

Environment

Spanberger has called climate change "one of the greatest and most imminent threats to our economy, our national security, and our way of life" and said she will "stand up to attacks against science". During a 2019 Committee on Foreign Affairs meeting, she asked the Trump administration to reverse its isolationist policies, saying, "it's in our national interest to reinforce our stature as a global leader on international environmental and energy issues".

Spanberger called the Green New Deal proposed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a "bold compilation of ideas meant to address global climate change" but criticized it for allegedly including unrelated policy proposals and not identifying specific resolutions to the problems that it identifies. "Overall I am not a supporter of the Green New Deal", she said.

Foreign affairs

In February 2023, during the Russo–Ukrainian War, Spanberger signed a letter advocating that President Biden give Ukraine F-16 fighter jets.

In June 2025, Spanberger supported the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.

Gun control

Spanberger has called for a new version of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban that expired in 2004. She favors requiring background checks on private gun sales and supported a ban on bump stocks. Before she served in Congress, Spanberger volunteered with Moms Demand Action, a gun-control advocacy group.

Health care

Spanberger supports the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). She supports a public option for healthcare via the proposed Medicare-X Choice Act. In November 2020, she called reducing the cost of prescription drugs "the top priority of families in my district".

In January 2020, Spanberger sponsored the Public Disclosure of Drug Discounts Act, which passed the House unanimously. The bill requires pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), who manage prescription drug benefits for health insurance companies, to publicize the rebates, discounts, and price concessions they negotiate, via a website hosted by the U.S. secretary of health and human services. Spanberger also co-sponsored the Elijah Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act, which grants Medicare Part D the power to negotiate prescription prices directly with drug companies.

Immigration

Spanberger objected to President Trump's travel bans from certain predominantly Muslim countries and argued that they would aid jihadist propaganda by allowing a portrayal of the U.S. as an anti-Muslim country. She has voiced her support for stronger border security measures but opposes Trump's proposed wall. Spanberger voted for a bill that included funding for border infrastructure, technology at ports of entry, and more customs and border protection officers and agents. She said she does not support "sanctuary cities" but also called the term "a campaign slogan a lot of people get caught up in". She added that it "degrades the value of the conversation if we're not actually talking about what the real concern is." Spanberger called for a pathway to legal status for illegal immigrants who abide by the laws, work, and pay taxes.

Spanberger voted to allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be notified when undocumented immigrants attempt to purchase firearms.

LGBTQ rights

Spanberger supports same-sex marriage, saying in 2025, "All Virginians deserve the freedom to marry and for their families to be welcomed in our Commonwealth without the shadow of an outdated and unconstitutional ban on marriage equality lingering in Virginia's Constitution." In 2019, she voted in favor of the Equality Act, which has not yet become law. In 2022, she voted in favor of the Respect for Marriage Act.

When Spanberger ran for governor in 2025, she was endorsed by the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group.

Personal life

In April 2006 she married Adam Spanberger, a University of Virginia-trained engineer, and her high school sweetheart. They have three daughters together. She helped run a Girl Scouts troop for her daughters when they were young.

In 2014, the family moved to Henrico County. Before Spanberger became governor, they lived in Glen Allen, Virginia.

Spanberger is a Protestant.

During her time in Congress, Spanberger roomed with colleague Mikie Sherrill, who was elected governor of New Jersey on the same day Spanberger was elected governor of Virginia.

Electoral history