Gov. Abigail Spanberger (Photo by Jay Paul)
Following in her father’s footsteps, Gov. Abigail Spanberger became a federal postal inspector in the early 2000s, working money laundering and narcotics cases while carrying a 9 mm Beretta on her hip every day. During her time as a counterterrorism agent with the Central Intelligence Agency from 2006-2014, she trained with a “variety of firearms,” according to The Washington Post, in order to become proficient at escaping “if ambushed.”
That experience might come in handy sooner rather than later. Virginia is moving squarely into the crosshairs of the Trump administration, thanks to a redistricting push and the governor’s recent executive order instructing Virginia State Police and other state agencies to “terminate all existing 287(g) agreements with U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE).” The governor’s detailed knowledge of national security issues, however, just might provide the commonwealth cover.
“I think so far the governor has been able to lean into her background in law enforcement to have a layer of credibility for her actions that isn’t always present with a governor,” says Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington. “The traditional Republican argument that Democrats are weak in this area simply doesn’t apply to someone with her career experience.”
Indeed, Spanberger appears to be the only Virginia governor in modern history to have worked exclusively as a cop. Former Gov. Jim Gilmore served as a counterintelligence agent with the U.S. Army in the early 1970s, but outside of that, nary a Republican nor Democratic governor in at least half a century has been employed as a boots-on-the-ground federal law enforcement officer.
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, who worked with Spanberger in Congress, says she has credibility with local police that most politicians don’t. “Not every county sheriff naturally loves a Democratic governor,” says Kaine, also a former Virginia governor (2006-2010), adding that Spanberger has a unique understanding of the relationship between federal, state and local law enforcement. “She will have as good an ability as anybody to make plain, whether it’s to everyday citizens or federal law enforcement officials — there’s a right way and a wrong way to do this.”
