It’s a truism in the history of politics that a political movement is near its end when new actors emerge and try to seize the reins, believing they can reinvigorate an ideology that is beyond repair. In this case, I’m talking about the neoliberal/globalist movement the left has embraced since the early 2000s.
The notion of open borders and climate change hysteria is now encountering strong resistance from populist movements across the Western world, because the public sees its rights being taken away by unelected bureaucrats.
It is also possible for those new actors to serve as transition agents, pushing the Democratic Party in a new ideological direction. Abigail Spanberger, the newly elected governor of Virginia, will likely be taking one of those two roles.
Spanberger declared herself a moderate during her campaign, although it appears her use of the term was a strategy to get her elected. Her first act was to rescind the previous governor’s order to cooperate with ICE. That’s straight blue ideology.
Governor Spanberger also signed ten executive orders focused on affordability, healthcare, housing, education, and government preparedness. They direct state agencies to identify ways to reduce costs for Virginians (e.g., housing, health care, energy, groceries).
These ten orders have a dual purpose. They highlight the Democratic Party’s 2026 campaign theme: that Trump can’t fix America’s affordability problem because he doesn’t care enough about the people, and is angling to claw back the loyalty of the historical constituencies they abused during recent years.
Lunch box issues are always attractive to political parties because they sound good, even though they’re impossible to achieve. Later, they can campaign on the fact that they tried. Politics is always about touting the imaginable, especially if it creates an advantage for the next election.
Spanberger indicated that Virginia would rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a regional climate collaboration. Ten Northeastern states are members, and they will try to save the climate initiative for the next Democratic president, but the issue may be on borrowed time.
The governor has replaced some members of the VMI (Virginia Military Institute) governing board with individuals more in line with her governing philosophy. Virginia lawmakers are now advancing a proposal that could reshape VMI’s future, raising fresh questions about governance, accountability, and whether the state should continue funding an institution that does not comply with the Democrat DEI rulebook.
Spanberger opposes defunding of police, which makes sense considering her background, but she won’t take a position on transitioning teenagers. She can’t afford to gamble her popularity by upsetting feminists, who are a vital constituency.
The governor is the daughter of a career law enforcement officer, who served in law enforcement herself before joining the CIA. While at the CIA, she was a case officer, working to find, recruit, and build relationships with foreign nationals who could have had information of value to the U.S. government. She left the CIA and was elected to the House of Representatives in 2018.
Is she trying to turn her state more blue or attempting to set a middle course between traditional Democratic ideology and the radical progressives? The latter makes more sense because her party has to move to the right to win future elections. Still, Spanberger will have to feel her way toward the right because the majority of the House Democratic coalition is progressive and wields significant power. Woke is dead, so it’s easy to ignore. DEI is fading, but many Dems want to reverse that trend. ICE in blue states is the hottest issue.
Women are now governors in 14 states; 10 are blue, and 4 are red. In one case, a Republican governs a blue state (New Hampshire), and in another case, a Democrat governs a red state (Kansas). Overall, Democrats control 24 states, so women represent 41% of the blue governor states.
These are aggressive smart women who stand in stark contrast to the radical feminists I wrote about previously. These are practical Democratic women with power who are trying to chart a new course for the Democratic Party. Of course, the feminists are a vital constituency that the politicians can’t ignore.
As the Democrats try to redefine themselves, the Republican Party is in a state of paralysis. It is beholden to Trump and Trump policies, so there will be no redefining until Trump is gone. Trump’s monumental task of tearing down the deep state in order to level the playing field for conservatives cannot yield results quickly because of the resistance by Democrats and the strength of the bureaucracy itself.
Without a better strategy, a House victory for the Democrats this November looks likely, and that will further stifle progress for the Trump agenda.
Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.
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