U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) all through a press convention with Moore Hallmark, Vice President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Brian Lam, a regional organization proprietor, outside of Collage Spa on November 3, 2022 in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Samuel Corum | Getty Photographs
Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger has been reelected to the Property in Virginia’s 7th District, defeating Republican Yesli Vega, NBC Information projected.
The central Virginia district was greatly viewed as a litmus examination for how Democrats could possibly fare in swing districts throughout an election cycle that traditionally favors Republicans. The GOP arrived into Election Day closely favored to acquire Home management, but Spanberger’s swing district was viewed as a critical one for Democrats to maintain in get to suppress their losses.
Spanberger, a former CIA agent, was first elected to Congress in 2018, winning a seat in a district that contains Richmond suburbs that are usually helpful to Democrats.
But redistricting in 2020 shifted Spanberger’s district north to the outer suburbs of Washington D.C., where by the voters is 20% Latino and voters are extra socially conservative than in her latest district.
The new district also involves more of Prince William County, exactly where Vega is a county supervisor and an auxiliary deputy in the county sheriff’s place of work. If she had been elected, Vega would also be the very first Latina from Virginia in Congress.
Endorsed by former President Donald Trump, Vega is a relative political newcomer who defeated quite a few superior recognized Republicans to clinch the GOP nomination in June.
Spanberger ran a marketing campaign pleasing to reasonable Republicans and independent voters, and distancing herself from the national Democratic Bash and from President Joe Biden, whose nationwide approval ratings are in the small 40s.
Spanberger also manufactured abortion rights a central component of her marketing campaign, contrasting herself from Vega, who supported the Supreme Court’s choice to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The race was a single of the nation’s most high-priced Dwelling races, with extra than $20 million pouring in from national get together committees and outside PACs. Vega and Spanberger every confronted close to $7.5 million of destructive ad expending funded by outdoors groups, according to the nonprofit Open up Secrets, which tracks campaign paying out.
