By Sébastien Kraft
On a frigid, wind-chilled afternoon in early December, U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger finds herself exiled to the solitary confines of a large conference room on the ground floor of the U.S. Capitol.
As her third term in Congress nears its completion six years after she was elected as the first Democrat since 1968 – and first woman – to represent Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, Spanberger and her staff have vacated their offices to make room for incoming Rep. Eugene Vindman, a fellow Democrat, and his team.
Spanberger, meanwhile, is about to shift gears and focus on her run for governor this year.
The congresswoman is no stranger to the federal government, having worked as an agent investigating money laundering and narcotics with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and then as a case officer with the CIA from 2006 through 2014 – dealing with matters related to terrorism and national security.
As InsideNoVa spoke with Spanberger at the Capitol, it became clear the new workspace configuration hasn’t hindered the various legislative efforts she hoped to propel past the finish line before leaving town.
One such ambition is the Social Security Fairness Act, championed by Spanberger and Rep. Garret Graves, a Republican from Lousiana’s 6th District, which ultimately passed the U.S. Senate on Dec. 20.
At the time of the interview, the legislation’s fate remained unknown. But the bill is now headed to President Joe Biden’s desk, where it is expected to be signed into law after months of hearings and back-and-forth since the two lawmakers introduced the proposal in January 2023 at the onset of the 118th Congress.
The Spanberger-Graves Act will eliminate two key provisions added to the Social Security Act in 1983: the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset.
While the former reduces the earned Social Security benefits of individuals who receive a public pension from jobs that do not fall under the purview of Social Security, the latter alters benefits for spouses of various federal, state and local public workers – notably police officers, firefighters and educators – if those employees are not covered by Social Security.
One such ambition is the Social Security Fairness Act, championed by Spanberger and Rep. Garret Graves, a Republican from Lousiana’s 6th District, which ultimately passed the U.S. Senate on Dec. 20.
At the time of the interview, the legislation’s fate remained unknown. But the bill is now headed to President Joe Biden’s desk, where it is expected to be signed into law after months of hearings and back-and-forth since the two lawmakers introduced the proposal in January 2023 at the onset of the 118th Congress.
The Spanberger-Graves Act will eliminate two key provisions added to the Social Security Act in 1983: the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset.
While the former reduces the earned Social Security benefits of individuals who receive a public pension from jobs that do not fall under the purview of Social Security, the latter alters benefits for spouses of various federal, state and local public workers – notably police officers, firefighters and educators – if those employees are not covered by Social Security.
“One of the most tragic things of the [Congressional Budget Office] assessment of it takes into consideration the fact that actually passing our bill and removing the WEP and GPO would remove many seniors from food security programs,” Spanberger said. “Right now, they’re pushed into impoverished circumstances by virtue of their public service – frankly, it’s just unconscionable.”
As the only Virginian serving on the House Agriculture Committee, Spanberger has also been involved in Farm Bill negotiations in light of the damage caused by Hurricane Helene. The bill has stalled thus far with House leadership, but Spanberger said she is taking a more collective approach to disaster relief.
“I’ve spoken with the secretary of agriculture in Virginia multiple times about this – our Virginia delegation, at our last Virginia delegation lunch, was talking about … some [Small Business Administration] funding that folks have applied for or are eligible for,” Spanberger said, “but because we haven’t actually funded the programs, they’re getting approvals, but then they can’t actually get the support that they need for those impacted areas.”
Spanberger continued, “My approach here is, frankly, when it comes to any of the hurricane relief programs, what is good for Virginia also happens to be good for other states in the region who are impacted, and luckily, we’ve been working together in a more cohesive space … even though I don’t actually represent some of the impacted communities.”
A vast district
At the top of her list of legislative accomplishments, Spanberger cites the Summer Barrow Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Act, which targets issues of substance use disorder and addiction. The law is named after Barrow, a Richmond woman who died in January 2020 after a relapse and accidental drug overdose involving fentanyl.
Spanberger said the opportunity to announce the law’s passage to Barrow’s mother, Carey Colvin, was especially gratifying.
“To be able to call a mother who was personally, really emotionally involved in our legislative process and the police chiefs who came up to Capitol Hill to join me in a press conference, because they … don’t want to just keep arresting people, they want to fix it,” Spanberger said. “To be able to call Summer’s mother and tell her, ‘The president just signed the bill that we named after your daughter that will save lives,’ that’s … one of the most personally impactful things for me.”
Spanberger also recalls a specific community project as one of her main achievements in Congress. It involved a $990,000 grant to the town of Blackstone for a new fire truck. The Nottoway County town was previously part of Virginia’s 7th District before redistricting after the 2020 Census, which shifted it into the 5th District. The town was seeing some population growth and development that left its fire department lacking sufficient resources.
The previous, generally more conservative 7th District stretched from suburban Richmond and Chesterfield County into Spotsylvania County in the Fredericksburg area. The current version spans from Fredericksburg, north into Prince William County and west into Culpeper.
Spanberger managed to have the fire truck delivered to Blackstone shortly after she lost the town to redistricting. The grant made an immediate impact when the department responded to a major gas-related explosion, its first call with the new truck in tow.
“The now-former mayor of the town called me and said, ‘Can you believe it? What would have happened if this fire call had happened and we didn’t have the fire truck?’” Spanberger said. “It’s things like that, where those firefighters have no idea I was involved with it, but it’s … because I was listening, because my team was listening, because we sort of hustled to say, ‘We can help you with this.’ And so those are the ways that I’m really proud of the things that I’ve done.”
Spanberger largely focused on these unglamorous, grassroots initiatives during the December conversation with InsideNoVa. She said issues like these help “thematically” address similarities among the 11 localities she represents.
She mentioned support to local law enforcement as another example, including an investment in virtual job training for Greene County first responders and an initiative to help fix police radios that were previously malfunctioning in Madison County schools.
For matters related to Prince William, such as land use decisions and data center rezonings – items that are outside her federal purview – Spanberger said she is still willing to listen, namely where water quality and electrical grid infrastructure issues are concerned.
“With the infrastructure bill, we spent a lot of effort and legislative ink on trying to make investments in modernizing the electrical grid, not one-to-one because of data centers, of course, because we need to modernize our electrical grid, but from a federal perspective, being able to talk with constituents who might have concerns about what’s the kind of trajectory of the strength of our grid in Virginia,” the congresswoman said.
She added, “As a convener in that role, I’ve worked with the energy providers, be it the co-ops or Dominions, to understand where do they see things going … whether it’s an additional housing development or an apartment complex that we need.”
Politics of tomorrow
These elements comprise what Spanberger calls her “approach-specific” electoral strategy – the ability to win in traditionally favorable areas while also eliciting support in places where she is not favored.
Under both the old and redrawn lines of the 7th District, Spanberger said she has had the experience of representing “really unique communities” – which may bode well for her gubernatorial run as a microcosm of the commonwealth more broadly.
“When I’m in Culpeper, as an example, it isn’t … because I talk about localized meat processing that I think I won my reelection,” Spanberger said. “It’s the approach of when I’m talking to producers in Culpeper and [the counties of] Greene and Madison and Orange, I know this is an issue because I visited with farmers, and I visited with the cattlemen’s association, and I’ve spent time sitting down saying, ‘What are the hurdles that stand in the way of your success?’ And so the approach is what makes it so that this policy or that policy is actually relevant.”
With drops in turnout this past November amid the most heavily Democratic areas both nationally and statewide, Spanberger said she will continue to watch the numbers to generate heightened enthusiasm among voters.
As fellow Democratic Rep. Robert “Bobby” Scott, D-3rd District, mulls a primary challenge in the governor’s race, Spanberger will need to rely upon the extra year of campaign preparation she has lent herself by foregoing congressional reelection.
Stephen J. Farnsworth, a political science professor and director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington, said Spanberger’s outreach to the ideological middle has been integral to her success in the “purple” 7th District.
“She worked very aggressively at focusing on concerns in more rural parts of the area where Republicans are more numerous and basically did better in rural parts of the district than most Democrats usually do,” Farnsworth said. “Issues of importance to farmers, issues of expanding broadband, these are some key things that she focused on to connect with more Republican-leaning parts of the district.”
Farnsworth continued, “The centrist vision for the Democratic Party may not always be well-received in national Democratic circles, but that approach helped her win areas where Democrats usually lose.”
Farnsworth said the impending gubernatorial race can serve as a litmus test for presidential approval, hence its importance.
“Virginia elections always tend to have a huge amount of national money and national interest – both parties want bragging rights going into the midterm congressional elections, and Virginia is one of the few places where you can get a leading political indicator a year into a presidential term,” Farnsworth said. “So when we think about the year ahead, I think we can expect a very, very vigorous campaign on both sides.”
Farnsworth noted defeat in a presidential election has often entailed victory in Richmond.
“There is a trend in Virginia where the party that loses the White House tends to have the more energized voters,” he said. “More often than not, the party not in control of the White House wins the governor’s race a year later – but there are no assurances that that trend will be continued in 2025.”
Farnsworth said Spanberger’s legacy is one of straying from the present status quo of dominance by partisan extremes.
“Once upon a time, just about every Virginia Democrat was a centrist Democrat,” he said, “and Spanberger is keeping that vision of the Democratic Party alive in a way that many Democrats these days are not.”
Spanberger was asked about the news of that December week – President Biden’s pardoning of his son, Hunter – and offered a non-committal response, pivoting instead to several of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees.
“I don’t actually have one comment – I’m greatly conflicted,” Spanberger said. “I don’t ever want to be the sort of both sides-y person, but I’m looking at the caliber, I’ll generously call it that, of people who have been nominated to run the FBI, the [Office of the Director of National Intelligence], and the idea that the potential future FBI director would say, ‘We want to seek retribution,’ that’s kind of haunting and grotesque.”
Spanberger continued, “I’m conflicted, because I’m normally a girl scout and I am normally very black and white with appropriate and inappropriate – but I’m deeply conflicted.”
Looking ahead, Spanberger said she’s eager to collaborate with her congressional successor.
“He needs to pave his own path … we’re transitioning things over, but I keep telling him ‘I’m only a phone call away,’” Spanberger said. “When I was on the campaign trail with him, at one point, I did say, ‘I’m your new best friend, whether you like it or not’… I endeavor to be helpful, not too bossy.”