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Seeking Virginia’s Votes, Spanberger Talks Like A Moderate. That’s Not How She Voted In Congress.
Abigail Spanberger, the Democrat candidate seeking to be the next governor of Virginia, has pitched herself as a moderate who opposes “extremism” in an attempt to win the purple state. When asked about basic policy positions, she’s dissembled and deflected, refusing to answer or giving what her opponent has called a “word salad.”
But actions speak louder than words, and the former congresswoman has plenty of actions on record. How did she actually vote when taking a stance was part of the job? According to a new study from the Institute for Legislative Analysis, the reality doesn’t align with the rhetoric.
“Our analysis makes one thing clear: Abigail Spanberger’s voting record is consistently more aligned with the far-left wing of the Democratic Party,” Ryan McGowan, CEO of the Institute for Legislative Analysis, told The Daily Wire.
On crime, she held “extreme progressive” views, opposing a bill to stop Washington, D.C., from charging 24-year old violent criminals as juveniles — a measure supported by a police union as essential to stopping violent crime. When the D.C. City Council passed reforms that lowered penalties for crimes like carjacking and homicide, D.C.’s mayor viewed it as so soft-on-crime that she vetoed it.
But the city council overrode the veto, causing Congress to step in to block it. Spanberger opposed blocking it, putting her to the left of then-President Joe Biden, who intervened to block the city council’s move. Many D.C. Democrats now view the city’s foray into leniency for violent criminals as a major mistake.
At a debate last week, Spanberger claimed that she would never allow Virginia to be a sanctuary state — seemingly a nod to the idea’s unpopularity — but was vague on specifics, and in other segments of the debate indicated that she would defer to counties to make policy. Virginia’s most populous counties, which also house most of the illegal immigrants, are controlled by Democrats.
In Congress, Spanberger’s voting record on immigration was categorized as “extreme progressive,” according to the analysis. She opposed the Laken Riley Act, the bill named after a young woman slain by an illegal immigrant which would place violent illegal aliens in federal custody, and the “Schools Not Shelters Act,” which would prevent housing illegal immigrants near children. She opposed the Protecting our Communities from Failure to Secure the Border Act, which prohibited federal money from housing illegal immigrants, even though Democrats like Marie Perez (D-WA), who caucused for Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), supported it.
Virginia is a purple state with a narrowly-divided legislature, but for the last two years, both chambers have been controlled by Democrats. Governor Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, has vetoed hundreds of bills that would have otherwise enacted far-Left policy.
Spanberger’s refusal to call for attorney general candidate Jay Jones to drop out of the race after texts emerged of him fantasizing about murdering the family of a Republican have led her opponent, Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, to accuse her of lacking “courage.” At a debate with Earle-Sears, Spanberger repeatedly dodged the moderator’s questions about what action — as opposed to mere condemnation — she would take in response to Jones’ texts, and instead blamed Republicans for the texts coming to light before the election.
All of that suggests Spanberger might serve as a rubber-stamp to Democrats in the state legislature — a vastly different party than the one many residents remember after many traditional Democrats were purged in 2019 after being primaried from the Left. The House of Delegates is now run by a convicted crack dealer, Speaker Don Scott.
The analysis of Spanberger’s voting record in Congress found that in some cases, she took stances that would increase regulations when even far-Left Reps. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) and Ilhan Omar (D-MI) did not.
On federal spending, she held a voting record further to the Left than Ocasio-Cortez when it comes to several key votes, according to the Institute’s analysis. The former CIA operative opposed an amendment offered by Squad member Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) to rein in Pentagon spending on low-priority projects. She opposed the USE IT Act, which would require the government to sell off buildings that were more than 40% empty — something even Progressive Caucus Chair Andrea Salinas (D-OR) supported.
On national security, she was moderate when it came to terrorism, supporting the designation of the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization. But she was further left than Progressive Caucus Democrats when it came to safeguarding the United States from China, according to the study. She opposed a bill to create a Chinese Communist Party Initiative at the Department of Justice to “curb spying” — a bill that was supported even by then-Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who infamously dated the Chinese spy Fang Fang. She opposed the “DHS Restrictions on Confucius Institutes and Chinese Entities of Concern Act,” which aimed to stop the Chinese government from setting up outposts in American schools.
On energy, Spanberger opposed a bill ensuring that gas stoves could not be outlawed, a response to a Biden initiative so extreme that the president later rolled it back. She supported an amendment that would ban procuring oil to restock the Strategic Oil Reserve, one supported by even Ocasio-Cortez, and an amendment that would shut down oil and gas production on federal lands, one opposed by Progressive Caucus Democrat Chris Deluzio (R-PA).
When it comes to Virginia’s congressional delegation, Republicans work across the aisle more frequently than Democrats, according to another report from the Institute for Legislative Analysis. Republican Rep. Jennifer Kiggans broke with President Donald Trump 45% of the time, and every Republican included in the tally broke with him at least 20% of the time, while no Democrat voted with the president more than 8% of the time.
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