Spanberger Stan

As Iran war heats up, Virginia's elected officials offer messages for troops from the Commonwealth And As President Donald Trump sends more Americans abroad, Rep. John McGuire, a Republican, said he was praying for them.

This coverage from the great Brad Kutner of Radio IQ.

www.wvtf.org/news/2026-03...

Abigail Spanberger speaks at the Virginia State Capitol for Lafayette Day. Also pictured are John McGuire on the left and a Lafayette reenactor. Credit to Brad Kutner of Radio IQ.

Spanberger at the Lafayette Day celebration at the state capitol:

"Democracy and freedom, not just here, but across the world, are built on a partnership between nations that trust one another and keep their promises."

(Also she greeted the French embassy delegation in French).

I'm not a journalist nor an expert on these things, but I appreciate that these systems are complex. Knee-jerk reactions don't help.

Spanberger has appointed competent, serious people under her. Not people whose main qualification is that they talk a good game on cable news.

It goes to show that you need competent policymaking, and then competent administration.

How does the FBI monitor people who have been released on terror charges? How do they work with the Probation and Pretrial Services System (which is not part of DoJ)? (2/3)

Governor Spanberger's post to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It's a clip of her discussing the Old Dominion University terrorist attack on NBC News, with the caption "Virginians deserve to know how a man who was convicted on terrorism charges and spent time in federal prison could carry out the horrific attack at Old Dominion University. As a former intelligence officer, I have serious concerns. A full FBI investigation is vitally important."

Governor Spanberger discussed the ODU attack on NBC Nightly News and posted the clip to social media.

She's right that we need a full investigation. Not every attack can be prevented, but this guy was on supervised release. He had a federal probation officer. (1/3)

It was a 10-6 vote by the VMI board to not renew his contract; all 10 "against" votes were Youngkin appointees.

I want to preserve VMI. Wins and many other VA military leaders come from there. But it needs strong oversight. Abigail appointing 5 of her own board members was a good starting point.

The "controversy" was that VMI got criticism for being racist and neo-Confederate, so they hired a black superintendent for the first time to make it less racist. And he made changes to that effect.

But then Virginia elected Youngkin and America elected Trump, so they didn't renew his contract.

It's not Spanberger's fault that McPike chose to leave his post to run for the state house. He and the primary voters created that vacancy, knowing the tradeoffs.

In my view it's a good example for the kids. Being a political leader isn't a male or female job. Supporting your spouse's professional success isn't a male or female decision.

Screenshot from Instagram. Adam Spanberger sits with some schoolchildren. Caption says "Thank you to Ms. Divita and this awesome group of first graders at Highland Springs Elementary School for welcoming me into your class in celebration of Read Across America Week! 📚 This year’s theme, “Championing Kindness,” is a great reminder that empathy, connection, and collaboration strengthen the foundation of our communities. #readacrossamerica"

Part of having a female governor for the first time, is that Virginia has a First Gentleman for the first time. He's visiting school kids, hosting people at the Executive Mansion, and he did a video on Engineer Week.

It goes both ways. Louise is showing that she's willing to kill some minor parts of the Spanberger agenda. But Spanberger still has the line-item veto to retaliate.

Facebook post from Governor Spanberger saying: "Proud of what we've accomplished in my first 50 days! 📈$575 million in new business investment 💰Advancing bills to lower housing, healthcare, and energy costs for families 🍏Working with parents and teachers to strengthen Virginia schools We’re just getting started."

These 50 days have flown by.

The business investment piece of things is underappreciated. She's always posting about a company opening a factory or HQ in VA, bringing jobs. It's not lawmaking, it's not really even policy, but it's part of the Gov's job to be a happy advocate for the Commonwealth.

Here's her statement in video form:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksxO...

Post from Abigail Spanberger's Threads account saying "A century ago, Virginian Dr. Carter G. Woodson first introduced the concept of what would become Black History Month. Last week, I was honored to welcome legislators and community leaders to celebrate the Black Virginians who’ve shaped our Commonwealth and our country."

Abigail's Threads post on this has like 10 great pics. She's worth a follow there.

But this is the pic that stuck out to me. Douglas Wilder was the first black governor since Reconstruction. He recently turned 95, so it's great to see him still active and going to events.

6) God Bless Virginia, God Bless America, and cut the feed.

Nothing fancy, just get it done, clear the bar, and get back to Richmond.

4/4

3) ICE is specifically fucked up because of all the masked, terroristic oppression of random folks.

4) My background and experience informs my assessment of the above.

5) Democrats are focused on making things better for people, not self-aggrandizing nonsense.

3/4

She just straightforwardly and concisely hit all the talking points:

1) Trump sucks -- he has unprecedented levels of evil, corruption, and dishonesty.

2) His polices are hurting Americans.

2/4

Democratic Response from Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) YouTube video by C-SPAN

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzX4...

I watched Abigail's State of the Union response twice now, and I think she did a great job. Along with Elissa Slotkin last year, she's ended the speech's reputation as a no-win event.

1/4

The idea that she served in "Obama's CIA" is just asinine, an insult to the intelligence of the reader. She joined in 2006, when Bush was president. She was in the pipeline for years before that.

As with the military, government employees don't serve under just one president.

Twitter Screenshot. Kyle Griffin: AP report about Governor Spanberger giving the State of the Union Response Mehdi Hasan: Sigh Hasan Piker: this is what they want the party to be

Guilty as charged.

I believe the torture program was a dark chapter of post 9/11 hysteria, per the reported NYT timeline. It doesn't work very well, and rational people don't keep doing ineffective, controversial things for no reason.

If the agency has a perspective it's pre-Trump Republican FoPo, meaning Dem now.

Yeah, the CIA has done bad things, including the torture program that was winding down as she joined.

But we'll always need an intelligence service, just like we'll always need a military.

Abigail was undercover. If we believe in this country, then it is laudable to undergo hardship and risk it.

Spanberger is giving the official Democratic Party Response. Mayors Johnson and Frey are giving their own response hosted by a nonprofit.

It's not the machine's fault that no one else chose to run against Spanberger in the primary. They could've gathered signatures and made their case.

The problem here is that these terms are broad, covering huge swaths of the political spectrum. Both progressives and centrists have their share of grifters and saboteurs; but large components of people who say "this wasn't my first choice of nominee but I'll support them in the general election."

Imagine if they switched it up and had Padilla give the English response and Spanberger give the Spanish response.

I think the changing perception of the SOTU response from "Great opportunity to get your name out there" to "cursed assignment" has changed the meta. You don't see Bob McDonnell trying to hit a home run. You see Elissa Slotkin trying to get thru it without stumbling. So that's where the bar is now.

I'm apprehensive. On the one hand, the notion that this is a career-killer is overhyped.

On the other hand, the last Virginian to do this was Bob McDonnell, who went from "Governor Landslide" to "Future President" to "desperately fighting to avoid prison" very quickly.

Interesting that people say this about Abigail, when she was touting her bipartisan credentials right up until Election Day 2025.

For her it's more like, she's dealing with a General Assembly and an electorate that's solidly Dem and quite angry at the GOP.

However, you do what you can with a word count and deadlines, and it's a very nice article overall. As a non-journalist thread-writer, I know how it goes when "well you should explain this" and "you should lay out the background of that" just derails your whole point.