Former Rep. Abigail Spanberger is burnishing her bipartisan image in the Virginia governor’s race by touting support from a pair of her old GOP colleagues on Capitol Hill who loathe President Trump.
Former Republican Reps. Denver Riggleman and Barbara Comstock, both vocal critics of Mr. Trump who endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024, praise Ms. Spanberger in the Democratic nominee’s latest ad, days before early voting starts in Virginia.
“We’re both voting for Abigail Spanberger for governor,” Mr. Riggleman says in the “Republicans” ad. “I saw firsthand that Abigail was one of the most bipartisan Members of Congress.”
Mr. Riggleman, who is no longer a Republican and helped the House select committee investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, said he had his policy differences with Ms. Spanberger but believes that she is a person of integrity.
“My support for Abigail isn’t about party, it’s what’s best for Virginia,” Ms. Comstock says in the ad.
Trailing in the polls, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the Republican nominee, has challenged the idea that Ms. Spanberger is a pragmatic problem-solver by casting her as being beholden to radical elements of the Democratic Party.
Ms. Earle-Sears has repeatedly criticized Ms. Spanberger’s record on transgender issues, including a 2021 vote for a bill that prohibited discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation and gender identity that barred biological males who identify as female from being denied access to shared public facilities, including restrooms, locker rooms and dressing rooms.
“She voted to allow men in girls’ sports, bathrooms and locker rooms,” a narrator says in an Earle-Sears campaign ad released earlier this month. “And if a child secretly identifies as transgender at school, she says that parents shouldn’t be told.”
While that vote opened Ms. Spanberger up to attacks now, it did not prevent her from being ranked as the fifth-most bipartisan member of the 117th Congress, according to the Lugar Center and the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy. GOP Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia placed last in that session of Congress.
In 2023, Ms. Spanberger ranked as the 17th-most bipartisan member among the 436 House lawmakers included in the tally. Reps. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, placed last on that list.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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