NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly talks to Virginia’s Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger about her priorities and being the primary girl to guide the Commonwealth.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
At 12 midday on Saturday, January 17, Abigail Spanberger will likely be sworn in as governor of Virginia. In our present period of division, when it could possibly really feel laborious to get folks to agree on something – and that’s earlier than you point out politics – Spanberger gained by a double-digit margin. She’ll be the primary girl to guide the commonwealth, the primary mother, and the primary Virginia governor to have served as a CIA officer. She joins me now from her transition workplaces in Virginia. Governor-elect Spanberger, welcome.
ABIGAIL SPANBERGER: Thanks a lot for having me. I actually respect it.
KELLY: So the final time I interviewed you – I simply went and regarded – was 2021. Joe Biden was within the White Home. You and your fellow Democrats managed the Home…
SPANBERGER: Yeah.
KELLY: …Skinny margin, however you have been within the majority. Y’all have been nonetheless struggling to advance his agenda, and I keep in mind asking you a fairly blunt query – what do Democrats stand for? How would you reply that query immediately?
SPANBERGER: I am curious to know the way I answered it again then, however I do know that…
KELLY: Again then, you informed me (laughter) – I am paraphrasing – however you mentioned Democrats must give up arguing on TV. And then you definitely mentioned, and we’d like…
SPANBERGER: Oh, yeah, that feels like me (laughter).
KELLY: …We have to do a greater job of claiming, that is what we’re working towards.
SPANBERGER: Yeah, so…
KELLY: What are you working towards in 2025?
SPANBERGER: What I am working in the direction of – I imply, I feel that is probably the most central factor. What I am working in the direction of is delivering a Virginia that’s in the end extra reasonably priced. It is contending with the problems that matter to voters, to Virginians, to small companies, to small enterprise homeowners, to household farmers, to communities throughout our commonwealth. You already know, we – like so many locations throughout the nation – are impacted by, you understand, fear about affordability, housing provide that’s inflicting prices to go up for households to lease a house, to purchase a house. Right here in Virginia, the price of shopping for a home has gone up 18% over the past 4 years, 14% over the past 4 years to lease a house. And that has an actual affect.
And so what I’m for is contending with and making progress on – and, you understand, frankly, additionally being sincere with voters and with Virginians – we can not repair each downside. There is no sort of one single lever to drag. If there have been, we’d have pulled it some time in the past. However we’d like somebody who’s relentless in bringing collectively members of our state legislature to cross payments which might be going to maneuver us in the correct course, to having an administration the place each secretariat is concentrated on, you understand, bettering the lives of Virginians and creating alternative and in the end, day in and day trip, specializing in delivering.
KELLY: Simply to push you on this, and I do know you do not…
SPANBERGER: Positive.
KELLY: …Converse for the Democratic Celebration, however you will have served at senior ranges within the federal – in Washington and now about to be in Virginia. Has your get together discovered what you stand for, versus standing in opposition to lots of President Trump’s agenda?
SPANBERGER: So that is the place I’ll say, whether or not folks have figured it out or not would not matter as a lot as whether or not the voters – the folks of the nation or of particular person states – assume that now we have, proper? I imply, I am a Democrat ‘trigger I feel our insurance policies are higher at getting on the points that matter most to folks, serving to folks, creating alternative, however…
KELLY: However you are chatting with a messaging problem.
SPANBERGER: Yeah. And so if folks do not realize it, do not feel it, do not know it, throughout the nation, then I feel it is as much as each particular person in elected workplace or in search of elected workplace to clarify what they’re for. And I do assume that there’s a lot of room for enchancment in lots of locations throughout the nation, with out query.
KELLY: I discussed, Abigail Spanberger, you are the primary girl to be elected governor of Virginia. For years, each time I interview a girl who’s the primary girl to carry a place, I ask about it, and I at all times assume I so look ahead to after I get to cease asking this query as a result of we have reached a…
SPANBERGER: Yeah.
KELLY: …Day when it is completely regular for girls to be amply represented in positions of management. Are we shut? How far off is that day?
SPANBERGER: I feel it is nearer than it was. It is nearer than it was two months in the past, I am going to say that.
KELLY: (Laughter) Proper.
SPANBERGER: You already know? And I feel it is each little bit of progress as a result of each instance of management and of what, you understand, completely different kinds might be, who might be in positions of management, each instance that, you understand, that the subsequent technology sees is useful. And, you understand, I’d word not solely actually was I elected however we elected a girl as our lieutenant governor. We flipped 13 seats within the Basic Meeting. Nearly all of them have been additionally ladies candidates who flipped these seats.
And so I feel what’s thrilling for me is to listen to from individuals who say issues like, you understand, I introduced my daughter right here. I introduced my granddaughter right here in order that they will see you converse. Or, you understand, yesterday, there was a teenage lady who mentioned, oh, my goodness, my grandpa loves you. I used to be at an occasion. And I feel that we’re a lot, a lot nearer, and we get ever nearer to having, you understand, these very boring and really regular interviews that you just look ahead to having with simply yet one more girl governor…
KELLY: One more girl governor…
SPANBERGER: …Or yet one more…
KELLY: …How boring is that?
SPANBERGER: …Girl.
KELLY: Do you spend…
SPANBERGER: Precisely.
KELLY: …A lot time fascinated about it?
SPANBERGER: I truly discover it actually, actually heavy to consider. So the brief reply is, I do not spend that a lot time fascinated about it as a result of then it leads me to the subsequent place of, effectively, then how do I make sure that every little thing I do is setting instance? From, after all, the great insurance policies I put forth, however the best way I give a speech, to the best way I current myself, to the best way I, you understand, discuss each side of what led me right here, or who I’m, or what I need to obtain.
However I do acknowledge the instance and the permission construction. There was a gaggle of youngsters I noticed yesterday, which is why I’ve a number of teenage ladies on my thoughts, and one other one mentioned to me, she mentioned, I’ll observe in your footsteps, and I’ll be president, she mentioned. And so I checked out her. I mentioned, OK, effectively, remind me your identify. And he or she mentioned her identify, and I mentioned, OK, effectively, I am going to do not forget that for after I’m effervescent you in…
KELLY: (Laughter).
SPANBERGER: …On my presidential poll, proper?
KELLY: Yeah.
SPANBERGER: And I do not know that she would have had that very same dialog with, you understand, a person who occurred to be the governor-elect.
KELLY: Abigail Spanberger – Democrat, former member of Congress, former CIA officer and now governor-elect of Virginia – thanks.
SPANBERGER: Thanks for having me.
KELLY: And you may hear our full dialog on subsequent week’s episode of our nationwide safety podcast Sources & Strategies. We’ll embody that different piece of her resume, the ex-CIA piece.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
SPANBERGER: I beloved it. I used to be a case officer. I used to be undercover my entire time on the company. I later acquired my employment declassified.
KELLY: That episode with governor-elect Spanberger drops on Monday. You will discover it wherever you get your podcasts.
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