Conservative online personalities are rooting for Virginia’s new governor, Abigail Spanberger, as she enacts her policies.
The online right bemoaned Spanberger’s first week as governor, arguing that she was only acting like a moderate while running for office and that she has now taken a far-left turn.
In her first days as governor, Spanberger signed several executive orders, one of which ended state and local cooperation with federal immigration agents, a policy proposal she said she would implement if elected.
Conservatives are expressing outrage at Spanberger’s first moves, calling her a villain, a witch and one of the “most dangerous people in our society.”
Spanberger was sworn in as governor last week after narrowly winning the governor’s race last November. / Win McNamee / Getty Images
Spanberger’s overall agenda as governor, outlined on her campaign website, also aligns with her three terms as a House Democrat.
The Virginia-based Lepanto Institute, a Catholic organization, compared Spanberger to the White Witch from The Chronicles of Narnia in a post on X.
A Catholic organization compared her to the antagonist in The Chronicles of Narnia. / @LeptanoInst/X
“White liberal women are the most dangerous people in our society,” MAGA activist Laura Loomer posted to her 1.8 million followers on X.
Harmeet K. Dhillon, deputy attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, called Spanberger “a Bond villain.”
Other online MAGA accounts compared Spanberger to a demon. / @TonySeruga/X
Arizona Republican Congressman Abe Hamadeh posted on X that “What’s happening in Virginia should be a lesson to all Republicans in Congress. If Democrats regain power, they will unleash the most radical and transformative legislative agenda in our nation’s history.”
“We won’t even recognize our country and we may never get it back,” argued Hamadeh, who is known for introducing a bill that would require states to provide only English-language ballots.
The freshman congressman from Arizona has weighed in on Virginia politics. / @RepAbeHamadeh
Speaking further Special report with Bret Baier on Fox News, Josh Holmes co-hosts the film Ruthless podcast, said of Spanberger, “She’s there for a cup of coffee, and all of a sudden we have a communist manifesto in front of us. This is going fast and furious, but that’s how the Democrats rule, no matter what they say.”
Conservative baby-boo Meghan McCain has come under fire for posting a photo of Spanberger during the Jan. 6 attempted Capitol insurrection, during which she was wearing an emergency evacuation hood.
“Virginia is an idiot,” said the post, which she deleted.
McCain later deleted the post about Spanberger from her X page. / RelevantPeach3997 on r/fauxmoi
“Damn all of you who lied to low information voters and sold Abigail Spanberger as some kind of moderate,” McCain said in a later post. “She’s been in the office for about 6 hours and she’s already trying to turn Virginia into Minneapolis.”
Other MAGA figures took their criticism of Spanberger further, dispelling theories about the Democratic governor and calling for certain Virginia counties to secede.
Michelle Maxwell, a self-described “Constitutional Conservative from Virginia,” claimed that the Democratic Party was “grooming” Spanberger to run for president and that she would be “the new Hillary.”
“Being governor is just a stepping stone. So while everyone is distracted by Gavin [Newsom] she is the plan,” she posted to her more than 330,000 followers, adding “Spanberger is the country’s problem now and we better not take her lightly.”
She claimed the Democratic Party is grooming Spanberger to be the next Hillary Clinton / @MichelleMaxwell/X
Maxwell also claimed that New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill, who is seen as comparable to Spanberger in terms of policies and behavior, was also groomed by the Democratic Party.
Spanberger and Sherrill served in the House at the same time before becoming governors of their respective states. / Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
“The fact that the three counties outside DC that decide for the entire state should be a reason for the rest of the state to secede. We have no representation,” posted a far-right TimCast producer, adding, “Many aren’t even born in America. They’re trying to enshrine foreign control with that degradation of the integrity of the vote.”
That claim was quickly debunked, as another user pointed out that even if Northern Virginia counties, where a significant portion of Virginia’s population lives, had not voted in the 2025 election, Spanberger would still have won the race.
Spanberger won in the Commonwealth of Virginia, not just the DC suburbs. / @StatisticUrban/X
Spanberger defeated her opponent, former lieutenant governor Winsome Earle-Sears, by more than 15 percentage points, or more than 520,000 votes, flipping the state from Republican to Democratic control in the 2025 Commonwealth gubernatorial election.
Despite their current outrage at Spanberger, Republicans in Virginia strongly doubted Earle Sears’ candidacy, as she frequently revealed in interviews, and Trump rejected her in the high-profile race, withholding her endorsement.