Virginia Democrats are turning on Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) as another poll shows her plummeting popularity is here to stay.
Democratic representatives and political action committees are now beginning to distance themselves from the newly elected governor during a redistricting battle that could swing the purple state’s House delegation from a 6-5 Democratic majority to a 10-1 blue stronghold.
The latest number from State Navigate shows Spanberger’s approval rating split down the middle, with 47% of respondents approving of her short tenure and 47% disapproving.
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This comes on the heels of a Washington Post-Schar School poll taken at the end of March showing a 47%-46% approval-disapproval rating, making Spanberger the most unpopular governor at two months into office in modern Virginia’s history.
This possibly makes Spanberger the third-most-disliked governor in the nation when compared to a Morning Consult poll from February, with only Govs. Kim Reynolds (R-IA) and Michael Dunleavy (R-AK) taking the first and second spots, respectively.
Plus, the degree of dissatisfaction is greater in the State Navigate poll.
“There’s much more hardcore disapprovers than hardcore approvers, too, ” the State Navigate polling team wrote. “41% of likely voters strongly disapprove of the Governor, while 31% strongly approve.”
Just five months earlier, Spanberger beat Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears by 15 points with 57% of the vote.
“The State Navigate poll is indeed confirmation that Gov. Spanberger has lost favorability along the lines of the WaPo poll,” political scientist Larry Sabato told Washington Examiner.
“A drop of that margin is stunning, and it should be greatly disturbing to the governor and the governor’s staff if it’s repeated in other surveys,” Sabato had told 7News after the Washington Post poll came out.
Now, it’s a trend, and these numbers are having consequences.
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Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas is calling Spanberger’s credibility into question. Lucas was considered one of the original proponents of the redistricting effort. A video of her shouting “10-F******-1!” went viral earlier this year.
“Interesting poll- my numbers are doing just fine,” Lucas wrote in response to a post about the State Navigate poll. “It’s not redistricting bringing numbers down or she wouldn’t be doing worse than the “yes” campaign. The problem she has to correct is her policies don’t match her rhetoric from the campaign trail. Her issue is credibility.”
The poll found the “Yes” vote is leading by 5 points. When asked, “Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia’s standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?” 50% said yes, while 45% said no.
However, when the maps of the current and proposed maps were laid out in front of people without telling them which was which, 26% said they would vote for the current map, while 25% said they would vote for the proposed map, with 46% of respondents saying they “don’t know.”
Arlington County Republican Committee Chairman Matthew Hurtt criticized the wording of the constitutional referendum, arguing it is intentionally misleading and the margins would be much different if the maps could be shown on the ballots.
“The referendum was written in a way to purposely confuse voters,” Hurtt told the Washington Examiner. “They refused to put two maps in each voting location to show voters what the districts would look like if this referendum passes.”
While Barack Obama’s “Vote Yes” ad is still being pushed hard before every other video on YouTube, there are whispers Virginians for Fair Elections, the PAC funding the Spanberger video, is no longer paying to air the ad anymore, and it doesn’t stop there.
While, on their website, the video is still featured on the front page, the last time the organization featured Spanberger on their X account was March 26th. Meanwhile, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) is all over the Virginians for Fair Elections social media.
New York has big money in the referendum. The Washington Examiner was given a mailer from a voter in Arlington, Virginia, and the postage was stamped from Westchester, New York.
New York is highly invested in the Virginia redistricting referendum.
I was given this mailer by someone at my church who lives in Arlington, and the postage was stamped from Westchester, NY. pic.twitter.com/exV9iao52A
— Amy DeLaura (@AmyDeLaura) April 17, 2026
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This falls in line with Virginians for Fair Elections’s funding, with $64,094,335 raised just since the start of the year, including $5,059,977 from New York.
Only 3% of contributions have been received from donors in Virginia. Meanwhile, 88% of donations to Virginians for Fair Maps, the vote “no” group led by Jason Miyares, are from Virginia residents.
