Virginia's Governor Sold Herself as a Moderate Centrist as a Candidate.
Surprise! In Office, She's a Radical Leftist

I know you're all stunned.

Karol Markowicz:

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger was sworn in just a few weeks ago, but the tornado of bad policy is already swirling around her state.

Spanberger's very first order of business was reversing Gov. Glenn Youngkin's Executive Order 47, which had allowed for coordination between the Virginia State Police and the Department of Corrections and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That coordination was important because it allowed the federal and state governments to cooperate to remove people in the country illegally who had committed additional crimes. That it was necessary for Spanberger to make it harder to deport criminals is a tell that her moderate campaign commercials will instead translate into a much further left administration.

Spanberger isn't alone in moving Virginia sharply leftward. Both branches of the state legislature are now also controlled by Democrats, and they're introducing policies that no one campaigned on. House Bill 863 would reduce minimum sentencing for rape, manslaughter and child pornography. If Spanberger ran on "let's let rapists off easy," the Virginia electorate somehow missed it. In fact, Spanberger's campaign ads highlighted her law enforcement experience and that she's a moderate who works with both sides of the political aisle.

...

Then there's House Bill 1442, which would prevent any enforcement of immigration law near polling locations. We're told it's very rare for illegal immigrants to vote in our elections and yet the Virginia legislature thinks a law like this is a high priority for the state. Why would immigration operations interfere with polling locations unless there are illegal immigrants voting at those polling locations?

...

Democrats are going to spend the next four years moving Virginia as far left as they can get away with -- unless Virginians stop them. Virginians who want to save their state have to keep pointing out that Spanberger the candidate is not Spanberger the governor, and that the state government being fully controlled by the Democratic Party is turning lawlessness and social engineering into policy. Virginia can be saved from this, before it becomes another failed blue state with residents running for the door, but they need to act quickly.

Obviously they want to tax everything. To increase affordability, they say.

Virginia Democrats are proposing a slew of new hikes, pushing to have consumers to pay up for their gym memberships, Amazon orders, leaf blowers, and over a dozen other tax hikes. All of this comes after the Democrats and Governor Abigail Spanberger ran on "affordability," a message that flies in the face of the new proposals.

The new tax bills are pushing for a tax on all of the following areas:

Higher sales taxes on all Virginia counties and cities
Personal property tax on electric leaf blowers as well as electric landscaping equipment
Large employer tax
Ammunition and firearms tax
New income tax brackets
A delivery tax, set to hit Amazon orders, FedEx and UPS orders, as well as Uber Eats in Northern Virginia
Gym membership tax
Counseling tax
New car tax and highway usage fees
Storage facility tax
Investment income tax
Event tax
Vehicle repair tax
Dry cleaning tax
Fantasy sports tax
Rideshare tax
Dog walking tax
Digital personal property tax
Increase in taxes in the Arlington area for hotels
Statewide speed camera (not a tax, but additional fines)

They have big plans for all that new money "liberated" from taxpayers: They're going to buy themselves fucking houses.

Virginia Democrat politicians propose "unlimited" grants for home purchases for the most deserving constituency of all -- Virginia Democrat bureaucrats.

Bonus: Remember the guy who blocked DOGE from entering his offices? The guy who ran the taxpayer-funded grift the Africa Development Foundation?

Yeah, there was a reason he didn't want anyone looking at his records.

Top Official Of USAID-Linked Foreign Aid Agency To Plead Guilty To Taking Bribes

African Development Foundation CFO admits he routed money to friend's African 'pass-through' in exchange for kickbacks

By Luke Rosiak

Jan 30, 2026 DailyWire.com

Top Official Of USAID-Linked Foreign Aid Agency To Plead Guilty To Taking Bribes
Mathieu Zahui, chief financial officer of the African Development Foundation / ADF

The chief financial officer of the African Development Foundation, a federal agency affiliated with USAID, will plead guilty to steering grants and contracts in exchange for bribes.

The previously-obscure African Development Foundation became a darling of the Left when its CFO, Mathieu Zahui, locked its doors to prevent Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency from entering. Democrat politicians framed it as an act of moral courage, and left-wing media called the group "the little agency that could."

But on Friday, the Department of Justice said Zahui admitted that he was doing exactly what conservatives have suspected is common in foreign aid: Laundering money through poor nations and then back to D.C. insiders, who used it to enrich themselves.

According to court papers filed Friday, the African Development Foundation sent $800,000 to a Kenya-based company run by Zahui's friend. The friend paid Zahui a kickback of $12,000, and the company kept $134,886 for doing no work.

The rest of the money was simply a "pass-through" where the Kenyan company paid bills that the agency owed to other people. That made it appear that more money was going to African aid as opposed to bureaucratic overhead, and added a layer that concealed where the agency's money was actually going.

Zahui has agreed to plead guilty to accepting gratuities and making a false statement to a federal law enforcement officer, after he lied to the USAID Office of Inspector General about having received the kickbacks. He could face up to seven years in prison.

Today started out as a slow news day but now there are a lot of stories being leaked out for a Friday burial.

posted by Ace at 05:15 PM

| Access Comments