When Abigail Spanberger won the Virginia governor’s race last November, Democrats couldn’t stop talking about her. A pragmatic moderate who proved you didn’t have to go full-progressive to beat Republicans in a competitive state, she became the party’s savior in the polls.
That was five months ago. Now she’s making history — just not the kind her party had in mind.
Two recent polls show Spanberger has the lowest approval rating of any Virginia governor in recent history at this early point in their term. She won with 57% of the vote in November. Her approval has already dropped 10 points.
Forty-seven approve, forty-seven disapprove. For a governor who crushed her opponent by 15 points just five months ago, that is a remarkable collapse. And it’s not one poll going rogue.
A second poll confirmed the same finding: “Most historically unpopular Governor at this point in the most recent Virginia Governors’ terms.” That includes Republicans and Democrats alike. In a state that’s had some polarizing governors over the years, she’s managed to land at the bottom of the approval list faster than any of them.
Spanberger has the highest disapproval rating among Virginia governors since 1994 at this point in their term, with 46 percent disapproving — compared to her predecessor Glenn Youngkin, who had a 54-39 approval rating at the same stage.
An economist noted she “raced out of the gate with all these very liberal policies” and experienced “one of the swiftest declines in popularity in the first six months.” Republicans ran ads tying her to proposed taxes on dry cleaning, gym memberships, and pet care.
Spanberger’s office pushed back, noting the contested tax bills were never actually passed by the General Assembly and never reached her desk — but the political damage was already done.
Republicans framed her narrative before she could frame it herself. She never signed those tax increases. But the ads ran, the story stuck, and now her numbers look like this. Voters made up their minds fast.
At two months into her term, Spanberger’s approval rating stands at 47 percent — making her the least popular Virginia governor at this stage since polling began in the early 1990s.
Former Governor Glenn Youngkin had a 54 percent approval rating at that point. Democrat Ralph Northam stood at 48 percent and Terry McAuliffe at 52 percent. Spanberger trails all of them.
A political analyst noted: “The Republicans have done a good job of setting her up as somebody who’s going to do some radical things.”
She won Virginia by 15 points and is now below water on approval after five months. The Democrat that was supposed to show the party how to win is already the party’s cautionary tale.
Two polls, same story. The redistricting gamble may end up defining her entire first term — and not in the way her party hoped.
