Abigail Spanberger defends record at six-month mark with approval rating underwater
Virginia Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) is maintaining her stance on her economic performance after six months in office, despite a new poll indicating her disapproval ratings have increased to 47%, surpassing her approval rating of 44%. A survey by Virginia Commonwealth University highlights inflation and the cost of living as Virginia residents’ top concerns, with 30% citing these issues, up from previous years. despite this, Spanberger is committed to improving affordability in Virginia, emphasizing recent legislative efforts like tax relief, increasing the minimum wage, capping insulin costs, and offering paid family leave.she also signed into law the affordable Virginia Agenda, aimed at reducing living costs.
Spanberger acknowledged the low approval ratings and recognized the importance of effective interaction between her administration, the legislature, and voters to demonstrate the positive impacts of her policies. She also highlighted lessons learned about over-communicating to ensure clarity, especially given the busy legislative environment. she remains focused on her goal of delivering a more affordable and improved quality of life for Virginians,despite the challenges reflected in the polling data.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) is standing by her economic record at the six-month mark of her administration, while a new poll shows her disapproval numbers stand 3 points higher than her 44% approval rating.
Virginia Commonwealth University released a poll on Wednesday showing Spanberger with a 47% disapproval rating six months into her role as Virginia‘s governor. The survey results also ranked inflation and the cost of living as the No. 1 issue facing Virginians, six months after Spanberger took the oath of office and vowed to tackle affordability issues as her top priority.
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But Spanberger remains determined in her mission to deliver a more affordable commonwealth to Virginians, touting her signing of the Affordable Virginia Agenda into law in a Friday statement.
“Since day one, we have been focused on the challenge Virginians tell me about everywhere I go: the high cost of living,” Spanberger said. “We’re delivering tax relief by increasing the standard deduction. We’re raising the minimum wage. We’re capping the out-of-pocket cost of insulin. We’re becoming the first state in the South to offer paid family and medical leave to working Virginians. And we established a first-of-its-kind energy consumption tax on data centers.”
Thirty percent of VCU’s survey respondents listed inflation and the cost of living as the top concern for Virginia taxpayers, up 2 points from the same poll in 2025, when Gov. Glenn Youngkin was in office.
VCU distinguished professor and former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder wrote in the university’s survey results that it was unusual for a governor to have such low approval this early in her administration.
“These findings suggest that Virginians are paying attention to the issues that matter most in their daily lives,” Wilder said. “The message from the people is unmistakable: Public trust is earned through leadership that listens, governance that delivers and results that improve the lives of all Virginians.”
But Spanberger assured reporters this week that she knew affordability issues would still be a concern for voters.
“I did not need a poll to know that that would be what people would be talking about,” Spanberger told Virginia Mercury.
Spanberger also told the Virginia outlet that the onus remains on the state’s Democratic-led executive branch and legislature to communicate to voters how her changes can positively impact their wallets.
“The priority needs to be on our administration and, frankly, the members of the General Assembly who passed all these bills, to be connecting the dots,” Spanberger said.
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She also stressed the lessons she has learned about communication throughout her first six months, telling the Virginia Scope that she “can never actually overcommunicate,” particularly touching on her returning legislative amendments after the General Assembly’s regular session, which had reportedly been a point of miscommunication between Spanberger and the legislature.
“It’s actually just human nature and a busy schedule, and it’s something that I frankly should have clocked earlier,” Spanberger told the outlet. “But making sure that over-communicating needs to be the bare minimum, particularly with a legislative body that moves at such an intense pace because it’s part-time.”
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