Abigail Spanberger
What is significant about Abigail Spanbergerâs 2025 political campaign?
What was Abigail Spanbergerâs role in the CIA?
What prompted Abigail Spanberger to run for Congress in 2018?
What were Spanberger and some of her colleagues called in the House of Reprsentatives?
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For a significant part of Abigail Spanbergerâs professional life, even her closest friends did not know what she did for a living. That is because for more than eight years she was a CIA field agent doing intelligence gathering in the United States and overseas on nuclear proliferation and terror threats. Four years after leaving the agency, she was elected to the U.S. Congress as a Democrat in a traditionally Republican district. In 2026, she was sworn in as governor of Virginia, becoming the first woman to serve in that role. Her job, and potentially her larger role in Democratic politics nationwide, are no longer a secret.
Read: How women with military backgrounds are changing the face of politics
Early life
- Birth date: August 7, 1979
- Birthplace: Red Bank, New Jersey, U.S.
- Education: University of Virginia, B.A. in French language and literature, 2001; Purdue University, M.B.A., 2002
- Previous roles: Postal inspection agent, CIA agent, three-term Democratic member of Congress
- Current role: Governor of Virginia;
- Family: Married to Adam Spanberger, an engineer; the couple has three daughters, Claire, Charlotte, and Catherine
- Quotation: âWe worked hard to get people to give me a chance, and what that means is that I work for everybody.â
Spanberger was born Abigail Anne Davis in 1979, the eldest of three daughters born to Martin Davis, who served in the U.S. Army before going into law enforcement, and Eileen Davis, a nurse. Her future seemed set at an early age after becoming intrigued by listening to a babysitter who spoke Spanish. She taught herself Spanish as a child (and would later learn French, German, and Italian) and at age seven was writing in her diary in code. Her family moved from New Jersey to a suburb of Richmond, Virginia, when she was 13. Spanberger had her first exposure to politics at age 16, when she served as a page for U.S. Sen. Charles Robb of Virginia. She went on to earn a degree in French literature at the University of Virginia in 2001 and later a masterâs degree in business from Purdue University.
Life in law enforcement
In 2002 Spanberger applied for a job with the CIA, but it took four years for her security clearance to come through. During that time she waited tables, worked as a substitute teacher, and spent more than two years working with the Maryland and Washington, D.C., police as a postal inspector during a time when anthrax and other white powdery substances were being frequently sent to politicians. Before starting at the CIA, she married Adam Spanberger; her tenure as a CIA officer took her and her young family overseas and to the West Coast. Although specifics of Abigail Spanbergerâs assignments remain classified, she has said that her role included understanding âwhat it is that the United States government needed to know to thwart a terrorist attack.â
Spanberger left the agency in 2014, and the family moved back to Virginia. Several months later her role was declassified and she could tell friends the broad outlines of her job. She spoke about the challenges in a 2018 interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
I was in positions that I would never want my daughters to put themselves in. But I always felt very much in control.
2018 race for Congress
After returning to Virginia, Spanberger seemed poised for a more quiet lifestyle. She took a job in the private sector, working at an education firm. But the outcome of the 2016 presidential election spurred many women to consider running for elected office, including Spanberger. At the suggestion of a former CIA colleague, Spanberger went through a training program for would-be female politicians. Still, she admits that the idea of running for public office gave her pause. But a vote by Rep. Dave Brat, the Republican congressman who represented her district, on the American Health Care Act became a catalyst. After she saw online that a friend whose daughter had a genetic condition would face bankruptcy because her care would no longer be covered, she texted her husband: âIâm definitely running. This is it for me.â
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Spanberger was one of six Democrats in the 2018 primary trying to unseat Brat, who had made headlines in 2014 with his stunning victory over House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor. In the general election she beat Brat by a narrow margin, joining more than 100 women who won congressional races that year.
Being part of the âMod Squadâ
Spanberger announced her presence as a different type of Democratic representative when she said she would not support Nancy Pelosi for speaker of the House in 2018: âI wonât vote for her under any circumstances,â she said, citing the need for new leadership. She was joined by other freshmen who had won races against incumbent Republicans, including Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey. The three women all had backgrounds in national security (Slotkin, like Spanberger, in the CIA, and Sherrill as a Navy helicopter pilot) and became fast friends, with Sherrill and Spanberger sharing an apartment on Capitol Hill. Even as the three women have moved on from the House (Slotkin is now a senator, and Sherrill is running for governor of New Jersey), they continue to text on a near-daily basis. âWe are actually real friendsâŠat work and beyond,â Spanberger told The Washington Post in 2025.
While they were House colleagues, they became known as the âMod Squad,â a centrist alternative to the progressive âSquadâ that includes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. The moniker reflected some of the moderate-to-conservative positions Spanberger adopted, including opposing the progressive plan to address climate change known as the Green New Deal and her willingness to work with Republicans on issues affecting rural communities. She told the Richmond Times-Dispatch after her 2018 win:
Iâm a Democrat generally speaking.âŠI align with the Democratic Party. That is not to say that theyâre the exclusive party of good ideas. I donât think thatâs the case.
Spanberger was reelected in 2020 and 2022, but facing a tough campaign in 2020 she warned Democrats against allowing themselves to be painted into an extreme left-wing corner. âWe need to not ever use the word âsocialistâ or âsocialismâ ever again,â she said in 2020.
Run for governor
Spanberger passed on seeking a fourth term in the House in 2024, instead setting her sights on the Virginia Executive Mansion in 2025. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin canât seek reelection because of term limits. Spanberger defeated Youngkinâs lieutenant governor, Winsome Earle-Sears, who would have become the first Black woman governor.
Spanberger embraced her reputation as being a moderate and working across party lines in striking a conciliatory note in her January 2026 inaugural speech:
âI know that some who are here today or watching from home may disagree with the litany of challenges and hardships I laid out. Your perspective may differ from mine, but that does not preclude from us working together where we may find common cause.
Looking on as Spanberger took the oath of office was her old friend and the new governor-elect of New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill.
In February 2026, Spanberger was given a national stage when she was tapped to deliver the Democratic response to Trumpâs State of the Union address. In April, a redistricting plan intended to turn as many as four congressional districts toward Democrats was passed by voters. Despite Spanbergerâs vows to work in bipartisan ways, she campaigned aggressively to secure House seats for her fellow Democrats.