New Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) hit notes of bipartisanship, spoke about affordability, and emphasized her resistance to the Trump administration‘s agenda in her inaugural address on Saturday.
Spanberger, clad in a bright-white overcoat with gold accents, made her first speech as Virginia governor soon after she was sworn in.
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As Virginia’s 75th governor, she is also the first female governor. She acknowledged the milestone in her speech.
“The history and the gravity of this moment are not lost on me,” Spanberger said in her address. “I maintain an abiding sense of gratitude to those who work, generation after generation, to ensure women could be among those casting ballots, but who could only dream of a day like today.”
She decisively beat former Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears in the November election last year to win the governor’s mansion. All three top executive positions in Virginia — governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general — were won by Democrats.
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Spanberger thanked the outgoing Republicans, including Earle-Sears, who she called a “trailblazer.”
New Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi, who was sworn in on the Quran as the state’s first Muslim lieutenant governor, and Attorney General Jay Jones also took office on Saturday. Jones faced the coolest reception from the crowd after a scandal in which he wished death upon his political opponent and his children.
Much of Spanberger’s speech focused on Virginia’s history, with a portion dedicated to the state’s first governor, Patrick Henry. “‘Let us not split into factions, which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs,’” she quoted him as saying.
She also noted the United States’s first black governor, Douglas Wilder.
“Governor L Douglas WilJOE CONCHA: IN A WORLD OF DOOMSCROLLING, ACCURATE HEADLINES ARE MORE CRUCIAL THAN EVERder changed what so many of our fellow citizens believed was possible, and today on his 95th birthday, I thank you, Governor for being here to celebrate this Virginia tradition as we continue to write our Commonwealth story,” she said.
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Then she turned to the White House. While Spanberger never mentioned Trump directly, she slammed the administration for its policies on healthcare and affordability.
“I know many of you are worried about the recklessness coming out of Washington,” she said.
“You are worried about policies that are hurting our communities, cutting health care access, imperiling rural hospitals and driving up costs… You are worried about an administration that is gilding buildings while schools crumble, breaking the social safety net and sowing fear across our communities, betraying the values of who we are as Americans, the very values that we celebrate here on these steps,” Spanberger added.
She noted that while she may have differences with Virginians, some of whom voted for the current administration, “that does not preclude us from working together where we may find common cause.”
Spanberger, after touting her life experience as a CIA officer and a mother, said she “will work relentlessly to make life more affordable for our fellow Virginians.” She said that it will include lowering housing and energy costs while cutting red tape and keeping healthcare access.
She drew her loudest applause on a line emphasizing her defense of the state’s immigrants.
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“In Virginia, our hard-working, law-abiding immigrant neighbors will know that when we say that we will focus on the security and safety of all of our neighbors, we mean them too,” she shouted.
Spanberger takes over for former Gov. Glenn Youngkin and is expected to collaborate with the state’s General Assembly to steer the state in a more progressive direction. Democrats picked up more than a dozen seats in the House of Delegates last year, and owns a majority in the state’s Senate as well.
