By Abby Turner

ARLINGTON, V.a.— Linda Allen is no stranger to Abigail Spanberger. The retired teacher has followed the three-term congresswoman since her first campaign in 2018, when she flipped Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, previously a Republican stronghold.

Reminiscing under feather boas at Arlington’s Freddie’s Beach Bar, Allen recalled how Spanberger immediately came across to her as a smart, principled Democrat who “wasn’t going to be blown around by the winds.”

“She is relationally driven, rather than ideologically driven, and that’s why I want her to be our next governor,” Allen said while sipping a beer in her blue “Shenandoah County Democrats” shirt, waiting for the former lawmaker’s arrival at the latest stop of her “Span Virginia Bus Tour” last week.

Spanberger’s brand as a hard-line centrist Democrat has followed her into this statewide race. As the Democratic Party struggles to define itself during the second Trump administration, some party members are looking to Spanberger to lead the way. Meanwhile, she’s focused on hyperlocal issues, and defending Virginians during a second Trump term has become a core tenet of her campaign. She is leaning on her bipartisan record and national security background, a similar playbook to the pitch she made during her first congressional campaign eight years ago.

“We need a governor who will stand up to make clear that the threats coming out of Washington, out of this Congress, it’s … hurting all of us,” Spanberger said to the crowd at Freddie’s. Underneath mini disco balls, state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, former Delegate Jay Jones, state Sen. Adam Ebbin, and Democratic Rep. Don Beyer gave speeches ahead of Spanberger.

Before Trump’s second term, Spanberger presented herself as an advocate for her constituents against a Washington that might not have their best interests at heart. With more on the line for Virginians during his second term, Spanberger is now addressing cuts to the federal workforce in a state where the federal government employs over 300,000 people and more are impacted by federal contracts in the private sector.

Trump’s cuts to the federal workforce hit Arlington and the Northern Virginia region hard. Voters are looking for someone who will stand up for them, federal worker Kristie Hogan said.

Spanberger told National Journal that she has questions about “how many people have actually lost their job as a result of DOGE, how many people have lost their jobs because federal contracts that were signed on the dotted line” were ultimately pulled by the administration, and “the impact on even just unemployment [insurance] rates small businesses across the state may be forced to pay next year to address the reality of where Virginia has gone.”

In addition to fighting against job cuts, Spanberger is walking a more nuanced line on immigration, an issue where Democrats have struggled to win voters over. Drawing on her background as a federal law enforcement officer, she told National Journal she supports deporting residents without legal status who have committed a crime and been prosecuted, but pushed back on pulling local police to conduct civil immigration enforcement.

“Diverting police resources or local dollars to fulfill an administrative federal function, it’s not something that I’m going to, you know—that I would be too pleased to be misdirecting those dollars away from keeping our community safe,” she said.

Abortion, a top issue for Democrats since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision three years ago despite its waning effect as a political talking point, hasn’t been the centerpiece of Spanberger’s messaging. Still, she remains vocal in her support for codifying the right to abortion in Virginia’s constitution. The General Assembly passed a reproductive-rights resolution in February, which would protect abortion rights but allow the state to regulate abortions after fetal viability.

Virginia currently has the least restrictive abortion laws in the South. If Spanberger becomes governor, she says she’ll oversee the second passage of the resolution followed by the statewide vote needed for the measure to be enshrined in the constitution.

“What I know to be true is the notion that discussions between a woman and her doctor should remain between a woman and her doctor—actually that’s a pretty popular position,” she said.

Spanberger has strayed from her party’s emphasis on other issues, including Democrats’ renewed conversations about impeachment after Trump failed to notify Congress before striking Iran. She joined six first-term centrist Democrats from national security backgrounds in 2019 to call for a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump’s pressuring of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden. This time around, Spanberger said current information does not warrant impeachment.

“No, I do not think that that falls under high crimes and misdemeanors and what is laid out as the sort of constitutional premise for impeachment,” she said of the Iran strike.

Spanberger faces Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears in Democrats’ effort to flip the state’s top three offices. Hashmi is running for lieutenant governor, and Jones is running for attorney general. Jones poked fun at the Republican statewide ticket, who will appear for the first time together at a July 1 joint campaign event after previously staying largely in their own lanes.

“We actually like each other. We talk to each other…. We’re not afraid to be seen in public together,” Jones joked at the Democrats’ event.

As couples in the crowd held hands and attendees ate plates of the ½-pound steamed spiced-shrimp specials and nachos at the bar, Allen said she hoped Spanberger, who wrapped up her week-long bus tour in Virginia Beach on Saturday, continues to differentiate herself from other Democrats by focusing on rural areas.

“I also think Democrats weren’t reaching out to rural America. Abigail was in a neighboring county this morning, and we’re hoping to get her to Shenandoah County sometime during the campaign season so that she can be seen,” Allen said.