Democrat Abigail Spanberger is emphasizing her life and profession as she goals to change into the subsequent governor of Virginia at a time when her nationwide celebration is trying to find solutions on find out how to win over voters after an election cycle crammed with setbacks.
The Spanberger marketing campaign’s new commercial for the overall election, first reported by CBS Information, exhibits her reflecting on the varied sorts of hallways she’s walked by means of, beginning along with her training at Virginia’s J.R. Tucker Excessive College, earlier than rapidly pivoting to the CIA, the place she was a case officer, after which to the Capitol, the place she was a bipartisan-minded U.S. Home consultant.
“As governor, I will work to decrease prices and ensure our colleges put together all our children for jobs of the long run,” Spanberger mentioned within the advertisement.
In line with the marketing campaign, the commercial is ready to run within the Norfolk and Richmond markets together with digital platforms.
The messaging method comes as Spanberger prepares to try to introduce herself to a wider vary of voters with lower than 5 months to go earlier than this fall’s off yr election. Earlier than operating for governor, Spanberger served three phrases in Congress after unseating a Republican incumbent within the 2018 midterm elections.
Over the past 25 years, Virginia has shifted from backing Republicans in presidential elections to Democrats. That has not been the case in races for governor nonetheless, with the workplace shifting backwards and forwards between the 2 main events over the identical time period.
The state’s gubernatorial contests, which occur within the off yr after presidential elections, have lengthy been seen as political bellwethers, with voters usually favoring a governor from the celebration reverse the president. That sample has held in practically each presidential election since 1980, from Ronald Reagan to Joe Biden. Most lately, Republican Glenn Youngkin’s 2021 victory was seen as an early warning signal for Democrats forward of their midterm challenges.
Strategists from each events see this yr’s consequence as a check of the nationwide temper — and of messaging on key points starting from abortion, crime and training to the economic system and immigration.
Youngkin’s 2021 victory over then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe at a time when backlash towards Democrats throughout the early days of the Biden administration appeared to energise Republican voters. Under Virginia law, a governor can not serve for 2 consecutive phrases, which has resulted in open races for the workplace with out the benefit of incumbency.
Virginia GOP Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who’s operating to be Youngkin’s successor, is going through each a difficult nationwide political local weather in her try and hold the governor’s workplace beneath Republican management throughout the second Trump administration and a notable native dynamic. Republicans have not gained two straight races for governor within the Commonwealth since George Allen and Jim Gilmore did so within the 1993 and 1997 elections.
“We’re going to win this in November and ensure we hold widespread sense, conservative insurance policies within the governor’s seat,” Earle-Sears mentioned in a recent social media post. “Virginia is prospering, and I’ll proceed to develop our lengthy checklist of successes as governor.”
No matter who wins between the 2 in November, both Spanberger or Earle-Sears will make historical past because the Commonwealth’s first feminine governor.
