Spanberger’s prospects improve, race moved from toss-up to lean Democrat 

The outlook for Abigail Spanberger (D) is looking better in her race to keep Virginia’s 7th Congressional seat. The Cook Political Report today moved Spanberger’s race against Republican Yesli Vega, a Prince William Board of County Supervisor member, from “toss-up to “lean Democratic.”

The move comes on the heels of Democrats’ successes in recent weeks, passing the Inflation Reduction Act, which addresses climate change, hiring 87,000 more IRS agents to audit citizens and small businesses, transferring some student loan debt to U.S. taxpayers and away from the borrower, and raiding the home of a former U.S. President Donald Trump to secure classified documents.

Until now, the 7th Congressional District, the 2nd in Virginia Beach, and the 10th in western Prince William County and Loudoun County were seen as competitive. The 7th Congressional District (full map here) includes eastern Prince William County, Stafford, Spotsylvania, King George and Caroline counties, and Fredericksburg city.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) advised his fellow Republicans seeking seats in Congress this fall.

“I think any candidate running today, if they are not focused on education, if they’re not focused on children and parents, then they are missing what I heard and I’m hearing from Virginians,” Youngkin told Potomac Local News during a visit to Colonial Forge High School on Thursday, September 1., 2022. “There are so many issues that families are worried about their kitchen, around their kitchen table, cost of living, and the ability to make enough money to pay the bills.”

Youngkin won the governorship in a November 2021 General Election, becoming the first Republican to win the highest office in the state since Bob McDonnell in 2009. Since then, the governor’s popularity has continued to increase, with a 55% approval rating.

On Thursday, Youngkin echoed one of this most vital campaign messages from a year ago — teachers and administrators in public schools must work in partnership with parents regarding students’ education. After seeing how some teachers conducted business during online learning during the pandemic, parents protested, saying they wanted more involvement in their child’s education.

The fight continues for conservatives in Loudoun County, where the father of a girl who was raped by a transgender student in a county high school protested during a School Board meeting and was arrested. It was a flashpoint in the parental rights movement last year.

According to the nonprofit Fight for Schools, Equality Loudoun posted on August 3 to its now defunct Twitter account, schools should never tell parents if their child is gay or transgender. Instead, it says children should tell their parents directly. “If you aren’t a safe space for your child, that’s on you,” the now-deleted Tweet stated.

Back in the 7th District, Spanberger shifted the campaign focus from national issues to Gov. Glenn Youngkin when she pressed him for answers on how the state will work to prevent another shutdown of Interstate 95 seen on January 3, 2022, snowstorm. At the time, the state was managed by Gov. Ralph Northam (D), who had just 12 days left in office.

Top Virginia Republicans called Spanberger’s move a distraction and said they’re confident in winning for Vega.

“When Virginia’s previous Democrat Governor failed to act decisively in the face of last year’s storm–a product of distraction from his primary duties while he was consumed by the unexpected disclosure of his racist past–Spanberger was nowhere to be found and had paid no attention to disaster relief planning before the winter storm season,” Virginia Republican Party Chair Rich Anderson told Potomac Local News. “Governor Youngkin will apply the hard-learned lessons of the past to ensure this doesn’t happen again. He has a great roadmap to do so in the state report that resoundingly condemned the Democrat administration for its lack of leadership in disaster relief planning.”