Imagine for a moment that you’re at a Donald Trump rally. As you approach the event, you come across a Republican protester wearing an anti-Trump mask and carrying a “No more wars” sign. Perhaps the person is also accusing the president of being too cozy with corporations.
Does that sound unlikely?
Well, outside a Democratic meeting this week—an event sponsored by a Democrat state senator and featuring an appearance by L. Louise Lucas, the president pro tempore of the Senate and the state’s most influential lawmaker—stood the Virginia Democratic Party’s version of just such a protester.
This Democrat sported a cardboard image of the Democrat governor wearing a mock tiara that said: “Diva Data Center.” The protester was holding a “No more data centers” sign and hinted the governor is too close to Dominion Energy. The protester wasn’t shunned for shaming a governor from her own party; other rally-goers seemed to welcome her presence.
The governor’s rift with Democrats goes deeper.
Earlier that same day, Spanberger’s staff reportedly asked two Democrats who’ve appeared recently with Lucas to leave a bill signing that Spanberger was hosting. “It’s a shame the governor decided to take these actions today,” Sen. Russet Perry told Virginia Scope. “I’ve never been publicly critical or disparaging of her and genuinely wish her the best. But it is my job as a senator, in a coequal branch, to fight for my constituents.”
Spanberger herself was met by anti-data center protesters at an event in Loudoun County this week.
One of Spanberger’s hurdles is the same one faced by all governors: Virginia is the only state that limits its governor to a single consecutive term. That means that the governor’s strongest day is Election Day, and it can be a downhill slide from there.
Still, Spanberger has taken that slide on steroids. She scored 57 percent of the vote in November 2025, sweeping into office in a state that had narrowly elected Republican Glenn Youngkin four years earlier.
But the honeymoon was short. By the end of March, just more than two months into her term, a George Mason University poll put Spanberger’s job approval at 47 percent; it found that 46 percent disapproved. As a candidate, Spanberger benefited from a weak opponent: few voters seemed excited about then-Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears. So it makes sense that the new governor would lose some support as Republicans and independents fantasized about what might have been.
But a 10-point drop in such a short time frame is surprising, especially since the state remains in generally good shape. It isn’t as if Virginia has endured a natural disaster or similar external threat. In fact, general fund revenues soared throughout the beginning of her tenure. Revenues jumped 6.9 percent in April year over year, and total collections are running 3.3 percent ahead of projections.
The governor angered Democrats by vetoing 31 bills they passed this year, including attempts to grant collective bargaining rights to public employees and to create a market for the sale of cannabis products. Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell criticized Spanberger for vetoing bills instead of negotiating with lawmakers while those bills were being drafted.
“It’s hard to work with a governor’s office that has opinions when they don’t share them before they act, or they don’t share them during the legislative process,” he told the Virginia Mercury. “Governor Spanberger’s proposals were serious policy proposals, but they were made about two months too late.”
Spanberger’s biggest problem seems to be weak support within her own party. Following the release of the poll, Sen. Lucas trolled the governor on social media. “Interesting poll—my numbers are doing just fine,” she wrote. “The problem she has to correct is her policies don’t match her rhetoric from the campaign trail. Her issue is credibility.”
Still, there are signs that Spanberger may eventually solidify her support inside her party. The cannabis proposal is expected to be included in a budget compromise bill that lawmakers must pass next week. That bill is likely to include some changes to the state’s support for data centers, which Senate Democrats and Republicans have called for.
Gov. Spanberger seems to be gambling that she can steer a centrist path between Virginia Republicans and legislative Democrats. She still has three and a half years left in her term and will lead the commonwealth through another election when a new Senate and House will be chosen in 2027. Youngkin found ways to flex his power even after Democrats took control of both houses of the state legislature in 2023, and perhaps she can chart a similar course.
Only time will tell whether she can pull off the high-wire act.
We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.
