It took time for the schedules of a woman running a statewide campaign and the editor of a short-staffed weekly newspaper to align, but they eventually did, making this long-planned interview possible. Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, met us at an Innsbrook office in a nondescript building suited to the short-lived, intense work of campaigning. Inside, there were no frills — just walls and windows. We were led to a room where we were told she would appear shortly, but she was already there, waiting in a sparsely furnished space with a long meeting table. 

I couldn’t shake the notion that this former CIA officer was doing a threat assessment as we set up our equipment. If I were her, I would probably have done the same even though our interview took place in late July, weeks before the murder of activist and podcast host Charlie Kirk, a grim reminder of of the risks that come with being in the public eye. 

In our discussion, Spanberger addressed how her background shapes her approach to policy and governance, outlining the practical steps she believes are necessary to address issues such as housing, health care and public safety. The 46-year-old described the challenge of running for office in the “interesting times” we happen to be living in. 

Richmond Free Press: What are your top three priorities if elected governor? 

Spanberger: My priorities are to focus on addressing the issues of costs, across Virginia. Those areas of importance are within particularly housing, health care and energy. So I’ve already released my affordability plans for housing, health care and energy and, frankly, that’s my top priority because I hear about it from voters across every corner of Virginia. My second priority is ensuring that we are putting Virginia on a path through having the very best public schools in the country and strengthening [them] of all aspects, whether it’s contending with issues of teacher shortages or working to expand access to career and technical training programs, and what might be really the path of success for kids. And then my third priority is ultimately setting the landscape during this time when we see so much under attack from Washington, whether it’s contending with the impact of Medicaid cuts and what that will mean for Virginia or contending with the cuts to food security programs or contending with the reality of the economic impact of having so many Virginians lose their jobs because of the DOGE efforts. 

RFP: What do you say to people, in light of all these drastic changes that the Trump administration has proposed, who feel powerless or discouraged? 

Spanberger: That there are a lot of reasons to feel discouraged. But — we have to, as we can, take everything that we disagree with and use it as motivation to make the change that, frankly, our kids or our grandkids or our neighbors deserve. I just use it all for motivation because what he is doing doesn’t align with what the country I believe in or the Commonwealth I believe in, or what I think the American people deserve in their leadership. And I don’t want my kids or any other kid to think that this is just who we are and what we are long term. In Virginia we’re lucky, we get to vote, we get to send a message this November. And certainly we’re talking about my race, but it’s not just the governor’s race. It’s a lieutenant governor’s race, the attorney general’s race and we’ve got 100 people running for House of Delegates. And so we get to take our power back and make a change, certainly, with the statewide races, but [also] reelecting people who are doing good work in the General Assembly and then adding to their numbers and, in doing so, we’ll send a message to the rest of the country. 

RFP: What have you learned from your constituents, others in your district, and people around the state — that has changed your perspective on governing? 

Spanberger: All across the state, people really are talking about so many of the same things, sometimes the ways that it comes up might be slightly different … if it’s talk about health care costs, right, certainly in more rural parts of the state, it’s worry that there may not be any access. But in other parts of the state, it’s that prices continue to go up. When it comes to housing, in some places, it’s just housing prices are far too expensive and people can’t afford it, and the supply is not what it needs to be. … I was in Southside about two weeks ago, and the constraint issues are the fact that some of the affordable housing is getting bought up by large outside companies and the prices, right? 

The supply is there, but the pressure being put on the overall cost particularly within the rental market is outpacing what people can afford. 

I think what at times is a little bit surprising, but it is true, is that everywhere so many of the same challenges are front of mind for people, even if they might manifest in slightly different ways. That hasn’t necessarily changed my mind on something, but I think it’s just fortified my commitment to try and actually recognize these complicated issues. I can’t fix everything, you know, in a day or a month or in some cases even a four-year term. But you’ve got to try and fix things, and you’ve got to put us on a path toward being there. 

RFP: Considering where you’ve worked before, how come we haven’t seen bombshell revelations about the other candidates? Are you holding back? 

Spanberger: [laughs] 

RFP: I expected to have a big story every other week. 

Spanberger: [laughs] Oh, are you referencing my CIA background? You know, I really want people to know, like who I am as a candidate, what I’m running for. So I pushed out my affordability plans. Next up, we’re releasing our economic plan, the Growing Virginia Plan. My opponent is welcome to speak to her plans and priorities at whatever point and time in the future she chooses. Certainly, as a campaigner, I will absolutely be making clear the contrasts that exist between the two of us. I think she creates enough news on her own when she talks to her press, so I’ll let her continue to do that. 

RFP: Back to your time with the federal government, how do you balance that background with calls for criminal justice reform, especially in the Black community? 

Spanberger: It informs a lot of what I think are reforms that are necessary. When I was a young federal agent, I was oftentimes the only woman on a search warrant or an arrest warrant. And that meant, when there were kids, wives or girlfriends, mothers or other individuals in a home, when we would make entry on a house and arrest the person we were endeavoring to arrest, you have to go through an interview — everyone. I was frequently the one who would engage with the moms or the kids. So even as a very young professional, like, the impact on family members, of what it means when their loved one … when they had done something wrong, when they were getting arrested and then as they were going through the criminal justice system, the impact is not just on that one individual, the impact is on the entirety of the family or even the community. I think as a former federal agent, as a former law enforcement officer, and it’s something I carried through, certainly as a member of Congress, when you are in a position of public trust of any type, I think that you have an increased level of responsibility for being held to a high, high standard. And so to some degree, as a former law enforcement officer, I have no qualms about saying to any law enforcement officer that in that position of public trust, they should be held to the highest standard possible and recognize the impact of what they do on a day-to-day basis.

Certainly upholding the law as a responsibility, but doing it in a way where you are — whether it’s respecting someone’s humanity, their actual constitutional rights, or trying to see that our system of justice should be a system of justice and not just a sort of a punitive exercise that, you know, creates ripples and harms people and communities beyond actually just holding one person accountable. 

RFP: Where do you stand on restoring voting rights for people who have completed their prison sentences? 

Spanberger: The constitutional amendment, I fully supported. As governor, I won’t have a role in passing that, other than making sure that I’m campaigning heartily for it when it comes before the people in 2026, but importantly, I’m going to work on the assumption that it will pass this next General Assembly and then pass on the referendum on the ballot in 2026, but there will still be a substantial number of people who will be eligible to have had their voting rights restored before that amendment will go through. And so it will be my responsibility to make sure that anyone who’s eligible, they shouldn’t have to wait till that referendum passes and, you know, months down the line before if they are eligible when I’m sworn in, then they should be in process to get their voting rights restored without having to wait for that referendum. 

And then importantly ensuring that there’s a clearer path of communication for anyone who does get their voting rights restored, either by actions through my office or ultimately through that constitutional amendment, that people clearly know what that means, that they know that is something that will, once that amendment passes, that will happen automatically, and how they know, ensure they know how to register and they know how to reengage. Yes, it’s about the right to vote, but it’s actually about what that means … as a citizen, what that means in terms of the actions they can take.

RFP: Talk about your stance on the efforts to restrict how Black history is taught in schools. 

Spanberger: I think it’s terrible. It’s a short answer. The long answer is … efforts to restrict how we teach history, it harms all of our kids. I’m a white woman, my kids are white. And when they’re in school, I want them to learn the successes and the failures of Virginia, of our history. I want them to see examples of extraordinary Black resilience and strength and successes. I also want them to understand that, you know, the earliest days of our country and our Commonwealth were built on a really shameful history. We’re the birthplace of democracy; we’re also the birthplace of slavery in the Western world. But I also recognize it’s extraordinarily important, you know, not just for my kids to see all those examples of … people throughout history, I want kids to see themselves in the stories that are told of success and of innovation and whether it’s in the arts or whether it’s research or in agriculture. 

Sen. [Lamont] Bagby has a bill that would allow for AP African American history to count toward graduation. That’s a bill that should be signed into law. If AP European history counts to graduation, why would AP American history that happens to be focused on the history of African American communities and development across the United States not count? 

RFP: What do you do when you have down days on the campaign? 

Spanberger: We used to go on a lot of family bike rides. My children are at an age where they’re not obliging me as much. But I like to be outside. So we’ll spend some time walking along the river. I like to read or watch movies. I’m currently reading two books. One is called “The Good Spy,” which I feel like is probably given the joke you made earlier — I probably shouldn’t have admitted to that one. 

RFP: Too late. 

Spanberger: [laughs] Yeah. It’s a history of a CIA officer who worked a lot on the Middle East peace process and was killed in the Beirut bombing. And then I’m reading “The Rural Voter,” which is a really interesting one. One of the authors is from Virginia, the other is from Maine, I believe. 

RFP: When you thought about running for governor, did you ever imagine you’d be running against two Black women? 

Spanberger: [laughs ] No. No. When I got in the race, I obviously assumed that the lieutenant governor would run. 

RFP: Anything else you want to add? 

Spanberger: I think we’re at an interesting time where so much of what I think historically has really strengthened our country — whether it’s diversity of experience or diversity of perspective or skill set — where that is not only being sort of eroded and deemphasized, but there’s this effort to say that, like, none of it matters and, in fact, if you do think that someone’s difference of perspective matters, that you’re wrong. 

And I just think that it’s really essential that in Virginia, we make clear that when we vote in this election in 2025, that we are rejecting, obviously, this is my opinion, that we’re rejecting what we’re seeing coming out of Washington that attacks so much of what Virginia is, has been, and what our future is.