How Spanberger managed to hit record-low approval rating in 80 days

House Democrats' loss of 14 seats to Republicans in the 2020 election was apparently an eye-opening experience for then-Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger (D), who blamed the ease and effectiveness with which critics branded her party as a bunch of radical leftists.

"We need to not ever use the word 'socialist' or 'socialism' ever again," Spanberger said on a post-action House Democratic Caucus phone call. "Because while people think it doesn't matter, it does matter, and we lost good members because of that."

Years after acknowledging the importance of concealing radical impulses from voters, the former undercover CIA officer who participated in the anti-Trump "resistance" after the 2016 election ran for governor of Virginia, campaigning in 2025 as an even-keeled and unifying pragmatist. The liberal media then forwarded that narrative.

'She's just a bot for the Democratic Party.'

It is now painfully obvious, however, that the supposed moderate who defeated former Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears (R) in November in a landslide is — as the GOP of Virginia and others had warned — not as advertised.

A damning new Washington Post-Schar School poll revealed on Monday that Virginians, realizing only too late how Spanberger really operates, have largely soured on the Democratic governor. In fact, her approval rating is so low, it set a record in Post polling.

When asked how Spanberger is handling her job as governor, 47% of respondents signaled approval, 36% signaled disapproval, and 7% expressed no opinion. The Post noted that approval rating is 13 percentage points lower than the average for Spanberger's predecessors going back to the 1990s.

Political analyst Larry Sabato told WJLA-TV, "A drop of that margin is stunning, and it should be greatly disturbing to the governor and the governor's staff if it's repeated in other surveys."

There is no shortage of clues in the poll's cross tabs as to why the people of the Old Dominion are less than enthused about their new governor.

When asked about the supposed moderate's views, a plurality of respondents — 45% — said they were "too liberal." Broken down by party affiliation, 91% of Republicans, 44% of independents, and 6% of Democrats said so. Nearly 10% of Virginians who voted for Spanberger were among those who rated her as "too liberal."

For starters, Spanberger dropped the moderate mask in her approach to immigration.

Weeks after rescinding former Gov. Glenn Youngkin's order requiring state law enforcement agencies to cooperate more fully with federal immigration authorities, Spanberger directed state police and other state agencies to terminate any such agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Department of Homeland Security Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis grouped Spanberger with those "sanctuary politicians" who have "tried to slow ICE down and chosen to release criminals from their jails into our communities to perpetrate more crimes and create more victims."

Virginians are already dealing with the fallout of Spanberger's virtue-signaling.

The DHS noted on Monday that "so far in 2026, illegal aliens have allegedly committed 75% of all murders" in Fairfax County, Virginia.

The supposed moderate also committed all state agencies to rejoining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a regional cap-and-trade program covering power sector emissions that Youngkin — who completed his term with a 50% approval rating — removed Virginia from and dubbed a hidden tax on ratepayers.

While previously a critic of partisan gerrymandering schemes, Spanberger has come out in support of a proposed constitutional amendment that would all but ensure that 10 out of the state's 11 congressional seats go to Democrats, thereby disenfranchising Republican voters in Virginia.

RELATED: Parents enraged over adult illegal alien allegedly molesting Virginia high school girls

Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Although consistent on the issue of abortion — she routinely voted in Congress to deprive the unborn of protections and to advance abortion ideology — her continued activism as governor may read as "too liberal" for some residents.

In February, for instance, she signed a partisan constitutional amendment that, if approved by voters later this year, would codify the "right to reproductive freedom, including the ability to make and carry out decisions relating to one's own prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, abortion care, miscarriage management, and fertility care."

In addition to taking an extreme approach to so-called reproductive rights, Spanberger is expected to help her fellow Virginia Democrats in waging war on the Second Amendment. She did, after all, vow not to veto gun-grab laws as Youngkin had and express support for a ban on sales of so-called assault-style weapons.

Among the various gun-control bills awaiting her signature are bills that would:

• Ban gun possession within 100 feet of locations used for election-related activities;
• Require a "handgun shooting" course as opposed to an NRA-affiliated safety course;
• Create a Class 1 misdemeanor for anyone who imports, sells, manufactures, purchases, or transfers a so-called assault firearm or magazines that hold over 15 rounds;
• Prohibit the carrying of loaded "assault firearms" in public spaces;
• Bar anyone convicted of a misdemeanor "hate crime" assault from possessing or carrying any firearm; and
• Prohibit Americans younger than 21 from buying a handgun or "assault firearm."

Spanberger faces an April 13 deadline to ratify these and other gun control bills.

Gregory Roddy, a self-identified independent voter from Fairfax County, told the Post that while always skeptical of Spanberger's presentation as a bipartisan candidate, it was clear once she was elected that "she's just a bot for the Democratic Party."

Mason Necci, another independent voter, this time from rural Culpeper County, suggested that Spanberger is attempting "to make herself into a Democratic icon."

"Virginia is already regretting electing a governor who stands for illegal immigrants over her constituents," Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) wrote. "Spanberger's alarming disapproval rating is telling. And she's been in office a mere three months."

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