Republicans in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District intend to show that Rep. Abigail Spanberger is not the centrist her campaign ads portray her to be.
Spanberger, a first-term Democrat who considers herself a centrist within her party, represents a district then-candidate Donald Trump won in 2016 by 6 points. She won the seat in 2018 by 2 points against two-term Republican incumbent Rep. David Brat.
The former CIA officer will now face Republican Nick Freitas, a two-tour Army veteran and member of the Green Berets who presently represents the 30th District in Virginia’s House of Delegates, who will cast her as a liberal.
“She obviously styled herself as a reach-across-the-aisle kind of moderate Democrat, and that’s not what we’ve seen in the voting record. She’s voted with Democrat leadership over 90% of the time. When it comes to obstructing the president, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has voted in line with the president more than Abigail has,” Freitas told the Washington Examiner.
The district is in the center of the state and includes Culpeper, Orange, Goochland, Nottoway, Amelia, and Powhatan counties as well as regions of Chesterfield and Henrico counties.
Most of the counties are relatively conservative when it comes to gun rights. Each county adopted a resolution either declaring itself a “Second Amendment sanctuary county” last year, meaning any gun control measure passed in Richmond would not be locally enforced, or declaring support for the Second Amendment.
Spanberger, however, supported her party’s gun control measures on Capitol Hill, including universal background checks and reinstating the assault weapons ban.
“How many years did we hear Democrats say, ‘Nobody wants to take your guns’? And then, as soon as they got into office, they immediately started dropping bills, criminalizing people for having standard handguns and rifles,” Freitas said. “And so, I think that’s the part that a lot of people are really concerned about and are really waking up to the idea that the Democratic Party is not the one that they recognize from even 20 years ago.”
The Washington Examiner asked Spanberger for comment but received no response.
The Virginia Democrat has a nearly 12:1 cash-on-hand advantage over Freitas, according to the latest Federal Election Commission records, and J. Miles Coleman, associate editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, told the Washington Examiner that he thinks that edge and Sen. Mark Warner’s reelection campaign are big pluses in her favor.
“In the 2017 gubernatorial race, the Republican, Ed Gillespie, hit on some ‘law and order’ themes. He attacked now-Gov. Northam on sanctuary cities and was critical of ex-Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s restoration of voting rights to felons. Gillespie lost that race, but he carried the 7th District by 4 percentage points. So, that may suggest that type of messaging has some promise for Freitas,” Coleman said.
“In 2018, the congressional results were tied closely to the Senate race. I found that Sen. Tim Kaine carried seven of the state’s 11 districts. The seven he carried elected Democrats to the House, while the four he lost stayed in Republican hands,” Coleman continued. “Polling for the Senate race this year has been scant, but the last poll puts Mark Warner up 21%. That’s a bigger margin than Kaine’s 16% edge in 2018. Assuming we’ll see another relatively straight-party vote, Warner could lift Spanberger.”
He added, “Overall, the Crystal Ball has the race at ‘leans Democratic.’ If Trump carries the district, it may just be by a few points like Gillespie in 2017. While there’s less ticket-splitting these days, we think Spanberger could run at least a few points ahead of Biden and hold on.”
Freitas argued that since his nomination, Republicans and conservative organizations have been raising money for the race.
“So we’re working together, everyone’s cooperating. If you look at the total number that we’ve raised, plus what’s been reserved for us through, CLF and other conservative orgs, I think we’re closing in on $6 million. That’s not on hand. That’s that’s total raised.”
He added, “Fundraising has been going well, and like I said … the Republican House caucus have been incredibly helpful, very supportive. So, we’re very happy with the cooperation that we’re getting from all the Republican conservative organizations.”
