VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.—Two-term Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) survived a “tossup” race in her reelection bid against Prince William Board Supervisor Yesli Vega, a former police officer who led Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Latinos for Youngkin campaign.
According to the Associated Press, Spanberger won 51.9 percent of the vote, versus Vega’s 48.1 percent with 98 percent of votes counted as of 11:03 p.m. ET.
This race in VA-07, which mainly spans Prince William, Stafford, and Spotsylvania counties, was the most expensive in the Commonwealth. The total spending on political ads for the race was over $25 million, according to Virginia Public Access Project, a nonprofit organization connecting Virginians with nonpartisan political information.
Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) with supporters in Woodbridge, Va., on Oct. 22, 2022. Terri Wu/The Epoch Times
Spanberger has run her reelection campaign as a moderate candidate who isn’t afraid of challenging authorities. In September, she called for new Democrat leadership after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) didn’t support her legislation to ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks. She has also been running TV ads of endorsements from a local Republican police chief and former Virginia Republican congressman.
On Election Day, she has been highlighting on Twitter access to abortion, her endorsement from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and her endorsement from Sens, Time Kaine (D-Va.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.). However, she didn’t promote First Lady Jill Biden’s appearance for her on Nov. 7.
Throughout the campaign, Spanberger rotated her messages between abortion, Trump, social security and Medicare, and back to abortion on Election Day.
The congresswoman also accused Vega of not having a policy. On the campaign trail, Vega has repeatedly avoided the policy question and simply mentioned that she would do everything opposite to what Biden, Pelosi, and Spanberger were doing.
Republican Congressional candidate Yesli Vega in Fredericksburg, Va., on Nov. 5, 2022. Terri Wu/The Epoch Times
Throughout her campaign, Vega focused on inflation, crimes, and education and tied her opponent Spanberger with President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She also framed the election as not about Republicans or Democrats but about people’s lives and the future of the country.
Sean Brown, an Axiom strategist for Vega’s campaign, previously summarized Vega’s story as: “a unique candidate with a unique story running in a year against a candidate from a very unpopular party with an unpopular president and [an] unpopular economy around their neck.”
