It’s only two months into one-party Democrat rule in the Old Dominion, and Virginians don’t like what they’re seeing.
On April 6, the Washington Post released the results of an opinion poll conducted March 26-31 that asked Virginia registered voters, “Do you approve or disapprove of the way Abigail Spanberger is handling her job as governor of Virginia?” The governor registered a lower approval rating and higher disapproval rating for a governor than the averages for the past eight governors – dating back to the late 1990s. An article accompanying the poll explained, “The approval mark for Spanberger is 13 percentage points lower than the average for Virginia governors in Post polling since the 1990s.” Despite her brief tenure, Spanberger already has a negative net approval rating among independents.
University of Virginia political science professor and cable news pundit Larry Sabato told ABC affiliate WJLA, “A drop of that margin is stunning, and it should be greatly disturbing to the governor and the governor's staff if it's repeated in other surveys.”
There are likely several reasons for Spanberger’s tanking approval rating.
After Spanberger ran on a purported “affordability” agenda, Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly introduced “more than 50 new tax proposals.” This included a new 11-percent tax on firearms and ammunition. At the same time, Virginia legislators voted themselves a 278-percent pay raise.
Spanberger has worked to hinder cooperation with federal law enforcement on immigration matters, with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) labelling her a “sanctuary governor.” There have been several recent high-profile crimes allegedly committed by illegal immigrants in Northern Virginia. In early April, a DHS social media account posted, “Of the four defendants in Fairfax County murder trials this year, THREE are ILLEGAL ALIENS.”
Virginia is also amid a statewide referendum that would empower the Democrat-controlled legislature to redraw the state’s congressional districts. Currently, that power is held by a bipartisan commission. The Democrat-controlled legislature’s comically gerrymandered map seeks to impose a 10-1 Democrat advantage in congressional representation in the purple state (the current ratio is 6-5).
As a March 2, 2026 Fox News article pointed out,
In 2019, Abigail Spanberger said, "Gerrymandering is detrimental to our democracy. Opposing gerrymandering should be a bipartisan priority." While running for governor, she added, "Short answer is no. I have no plans to redistrict Virginia."
Spanberger (with the help of Barack Obama) is now campaigning on behalf of the redistricting campaign.
Then there’s Virginia Democrat lawmakers’ embrace of radical gun control.
In late 2023, NBC News published an article titled, “Poll: Gun ownership reaches record high with American electorate.” According to the item, “More than half of American voters -- 52% -- say they or someone in their household owns a gun, per the latest NBC News national poll.” The piece went on to explain, “That's the highest share of voters who say that they or someone in their household owns a gun in the history of the NBC News poll, on a question dating back to 1999.” Further, there’s strong evidence to suggest that this considerable number is a severe undercount.
Armed with an array of gun control bills, the Democratic-controlled General Assembly did their best to aggravate every type of gun owner (at least the law-abiding ones).
The gun control measures sent to Spanberger’s desk include a ban on commonly-owned semi-automatic firearms and their magazines, restrictions on the Right-to-Carry a firearm for self-defense, restrictions on transporting firearms, storage requirements, and age restrictions on young adults. In one instance, lawmakers sought a special carveout for themselves in one of their gun control schemes.
As it turns out, gun control isn’t as popular as gun control advocates try to get lawmakers to believe.
In a rare instance of journalistic integrity, the New York Times published an item in 2022 titled, “Voters Say They Want Gun Control. Their Votes Say Something Different.” Examining efforts to criminalize the private transfer of firearms (sometimes misleadingly termed “universal background checks”), the author explained that while some polling may show support for the measure, voter behavior makes clear that Americans are divided on the policy.
After listing some of the usual explanations for this reality, the author noted, “But there’s another possibility, one that might be the most sobering of all for gun control supporters: Their problem could also be the voters, not just politicians or special interests.”
Similarly, in 2018, the New York Times published a piece titled, “Support for Gun Control Seems Strong. But It May Be Softer Than It Looks.” The author of that piece explained, “While a wide range of gun control laws appear popular in polls, support may soften once details emerge and they’re subjected to a robust political debate.”
In other words: as ignorance recedes, so does support for gun control. It’s reasonable to suppose that in Virginia, once gun owners and others found out just what Spanberger’s Democrat allies in the General Assembly had in store for them, the state party’s standard-bearer paid a political price.
To right the ship, Spanberger and the General Assembly could try protecting the public from dangerous criminals and respecting the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.
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