While Running in Next Year’s Governor Race

A former undercover CIA expert and now Congressman from Virginia’s 7th District on serving various House intelligence committees, who also seeking to run for Governor of Virginia next year, an articulate Abigail Spanberger told a rousing audience at Falls Church’s popular Clare and Don’s restaurant Tuesday night that despite her own unavoidable trepidations, she thinks that enough agencies and resources are mobilizing on high alert to prevent a major disruption or perversion of the results of this November’s U.S. presidential election.

“I am very, very confident,” she said.

If anything, she said, the main factors that could corrupt this election are not foreign sourced this time, but domestic, and she said one of her main residual concerns has to do with the effectiveness of the U.S. Postal Service in efficiently processing mail-in ballots, given that it is only 45 days now before early voting for the November election begins.

She said she and other Congress members from Virginia, a bipartisan group, met with the head of the USPS, Louis DeJoy, on July 11, and came away, according to their press statement from that event, “continuing to voice concerns of Virginians who know there is still significant room for improvement…There is much more work to do, and we will continue to press for increased transparency, greater engagement with the public and a higher standard of service.”

Joining Spanberger in that meeting were Virginia’s two U.S. Senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, Rep. Rob Wittman and a representative of Rep. Jennifer McClellan’s office. It was noted that following pressure from an earlier meeting with the Virginia congressional delegation that “the on-time delivery rate of first class mail in Virginia improved from 66 percent to 77.4 percent during the first quarter of this year…but there is still much work necessary to meet the USPS goal of 93 percent.”

At Tuesday’s event, hosted by Rebecca and David Tax of Clare and Don’s, State Del. Marcus Simon introduced Spanberger to a crowd of 60 that jammed into the third room at the restaurant where all the chairs were lined up. Among those present to greet Spanberger were Falls Church Mayor Letty Hardi and Vice-Mayor Debbie Shantz-Hiscott.

Clearly evident at the event was the same high-spirited energy and enthusiasm that has characterized Democratic events everywhere in the last 10 days since Vice President Kamala Harris stepped to the head of the presidential ticket upon the withdrawal of President Joe Biden.

The significance of Spanberger’s drive to become Virginia’s first woman governor was not lost on the rowdy crowd as all of the array of top electeds (with the exception of Del. Simon) who took the small stage there were women – the candidate, the mayor, the vice-mayor, cheering on the vice president.
Spanberger noted a turning point in her career came when she was ready to move on from her CIA role in California, and given a number of options for a move somewhere else, including to exotic places in Europe and South America.

She asked her young daughter for her opinion, and she said “Virginia.” Asked why, the daughter said, “Because that’s where all the people we care about live.” For that wisdom, we are now looking at a future governor and who knows what else from there.

About this November’s presidential election, Spanberger said “We are going to crush it, also holding the Senate and winning a House majority,” and noting that Harris will be sworn in, when elected, on Martin Luther King Day in January.

Spanberger assailed the very first move of Virginia’s now Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin when he was sworn in, being to create a “teacher tip line” where parents or teachers can anonymously report allegations of misbehavior by teachers. This reflected the way in which Youngkin has disrespected the professionals in public education and is why she, Spanberger, will put such an emphasis if elected on advancing the resources available to public schools, she said.

Among her first goals will be to codify Roe V. Wade in the Virginia Constitution, being as Virginia currently is the only state in south that has not passed anti-abortion laws since the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade two years ago.

In addressing society’s current political divisions, she said, “public education makes a remarkable difference and it starts with a governor who values it.”