Spanberger Stan

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.

The last time a Dem won this big, we didn't have free elections. A machine ran the state and kept blacks and poor whites off the voting rolls. So, it's not just that it's been a while, it's that her performance cannot be matched by any Dem under the modern party and the modern system.

2nd you have this quote: "Ms. Spanberger’s win in November by 15 points was the largest margin for a Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Virginia in more than six decades."

Also factually correct, but lacking context.

So the big VA story this decade is that it isn't a "Blue NoVA, Red RoVA" state anymore. With the Richmond suburbs and Hampton Roads shifting left, it's much more of an across the board urban vs. rural electorate. That makes it a usually blue state. Abigail embodied that change, being from Henrico.

First this quote: "She ran up big numbers in the blue swath of Northern Virginia, but also picked up support in the state’s rural red pockets."

This isn't wrong - every county trended left from 2021. But some of the biggest shifts were in the Central VA suburbs, especially Henrico & Chesterfield.

But 2 things stuck out to me, where a casual reader might come away with the wrong impression:

This is a good backgrounder, a nice way to introduce her to a national audience. It mostly covers her early life, time in the CIA, and activities as governor these past few weeks.

Yes you could write a book about her time in politics these past 8 years, but that's not the scope of the article.

I love Spanberger so much I made this single-purpose account. But first-term Virginia govs have a very hard time running for president. The timeline is just too tight.

It was a nice video, and I was happy you shared it! They've just gone off the deep end.

Abigail Spanberger's post on Threads: "Happy Valentine’s Day to my husband and the love of my life."

Hopefully everyone reading this has or will soon find a love like this.

Official portrait of Abigail Spanberger, 75th Governor of Virginia.

Abigail just posted her official portrait:

⚖️🚨🚨LEGAL UPDATE🚨🚨⚖️
Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger has a belt buckle.

Governor Spanberger stirs a giant pot of Brunswick Stew. State Senator Emily Brewer (R-Isle of Wight County) looks on.

Pic 2 of Spanberger stirring a giant pot of Brunswick Stew. Picture taken by Delegate Joshua Cole who shared it with @bradkutner.bsky.social.

From Governor Spanberger's Facebook post today stating "It’s Brunswick Stew Day at the General Assembly!"

Is this what centrist Dems mean when they talk about Abundance?

Just a whole lotta good stuff?

Even though Spanberger's National Security career took place during GWOT, it was very early 19th Century coded.

"First the young Virginian learns Spanish, German and French, then they become a Postal Inspector, then they run spy rings in the capitals of Old Europe."

One day after Mark Warner warns about Trump interfering with our elections, the 3 executives surrounding our national capital are meeting behind closed doors.

And then she's doing stuff with the Virginia National Guard. 🤔

YouTube video by Richmond Times-Dispatch Gov. Abigail Spanberger speaks about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Here's the video from @richmond.com, where she explains the reasoning and the process for unwinding this stuff.

youtube.com/watch?v=84fE...

It took a couple weeks, but now it's happening.

Abigail Spanberger posting on Threads: "Great to meet with WMATA GM Randy Clarke today! 🚇🚌 Metro is the #1 transit agency in the nation and one of Virginia’s greatest assets. We must keep Metro strong for the thousands of Virginians who rely on it each day to get where they need to go."

Oh my God. This made me sit up in bed and rush to post.

These are two generational talents meeting each other.

Randy saved WMATA from a death spiral, turning it into a model of efficiency. We are so lucky to have him.

Hopefully Abigail can protect his work thru a dedicated funding model.