If Zohran Mamdani, rather than Abigail Spanberger, had won the governorship of Virginia, what would be different?
After Democrats lost Congress in 2022, an irritated Spanberger warned her then-colleagues that throwing around words such as “socialist” or “socialism” had been disastrous. “Because while people think it doesn’t matter,” she explained, many “good” Democrats running in competitive districts had lost seats.
But it’s not as if Spanberger was annoyed by ideology. After all, her record at the time aligned nearly seamlessly with members of the left-wing ‘Squad.’ It’s perception that drives politics.
True to her word, never once did Spanberger utter the word “socialism” while running for Virginia governor last year. Her ads were awash with conservative themes, stressing her family roots, law enforcement background, and her uncanny, largely imaginary, ability to work with the opposition party. One of the political upsides of running against weak candidates, and Republicans were pathetic in Virginia, is that you’re never really compelled to outline an agenda. Spanberger’s plans couldn’t have been more opaque.
Leaning on the centrist label, Spanberger not only won the race by 15 points against Winsome Earle-Sears but also helped Democrats take a supermajority in the House of Delegates, as well. Even AG candidate Jay Jones, who was caught fantasizing about his Republican opponent being murdered and children being harmed, won handily.
And, on her first day, Abigail Spanberger transformed into Abigail Mamdani.
First, she rescinded Glenn Youngkin’s executive order enhancing cooperation between police and federal immigration authorities. Like other progressives, the governor doesn’t seem to believe that illegal immigration is a problem or that the federal government has purview over immigration enforcement.
Spanberger then rejoined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the environmentalist boondoggle and backdoor tax that creates a mandatory “market” for carbon credits that has done nothing to help lower emissions but will cost Virginia consumers hundreds of millions of dollars.
As Democrats regularly blocked Youngkin’s ability to appoint a new board to oversee Virginia universities, Spanberger was able to tap 27 new members to three school boards in one day. Most notably among them is former corrupt congressman, antisemite, and Qatari lobbyist Jim Moran and the former governor Ralph Northam, the first Virginia Military Institute board member to have donned Klansman robes in years.
The Washington Post reports that board members will “seek to determine whether it has done enough to root out racism and sexism at the school.” Or, in other words, DEI is back.
In their first week in power, emboldened Democrats also introduced a constitutional amendment, supported by Spanberger, that would make abortion a “fundamental right” until birth, not only to save a mother’s life, already completely legal in every state, but also for any nebulous “mental health” reasons.
Democrats have also introduced amendments to end mandatory minimum sentences in the state and to expand parole eligibility for thieves and others, exempting them from Virginia’s “three strikes” law. In the past, Spanberger has supported such efforts nationally.
Then, there is a bill mandating Virginia children be taught pseudo-“inclusive history” that focuses on “marginalized groups” and bills creating state-run child care.
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There is also the prerequisite effort to ban “assault firearm,” which in Virginia is broadly defined as “any semi-automatic center-fire rifle or pistol that expels single or multiple projectiles.” In other words, it can mean any semiautomatic gun.
Youngkin left Virginia with a $2 billion budget surplus. Yet, Democrats are aiming to impose new individual taxes on investments, trusts, and estates and sales taxes on gym memberships, dry cleaning, landscaping, pet boarding, and other yet untapped areas of “revenue.” There are new proposed taxes on deliveries from Amazon, Uber Eats, FedEx, and so on. There is also a new 11% tax on firearm and ammunition purchases that you can still buy.
So, again, I ask, what’s the difference between a “democratic socialist” and a Virginia Democrat?