Transcript: Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," Nov. 9, 2025

The following is the transcript of the interview with Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Nov. 9, 2025.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to the Democratic governor elect of Virginia, Abigail Spanberger, she joins us this morning from Glen Allen, just outside of Richmond. Welcome to Face The Nation.

ABIGAIL SPANBERGER: Thank you so much for having me.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, Virginia boasts one of the highest numbers of federal workers in the country, and as you know, many of them are not getting paid. You know, some in your party look at your election on Tuesday and the win in New Jersey and say that is permission to hold the line in Congress and refuse to fund the government or fold on the shutdown. Should congressional Democrats view your victory that way?

ABIGAIL SPANBERGER: Absolutely not. Our victory was a victory that was based on a campaign that was addressing concerns related to costs and chaos. My campaign across the past two years have been focused on hearing the challenges that people are facing all across Virginia. It's rising costs in health care, housing, energy, and it's the chaos coming out of Washington that has been impacting Virginians so severely, beginning with the DOGE efforts, of course, continuing with chaotic trade policies, and now in this government shutdown. Virginians need to and Virginians want to see the government reopen, and my expectation is that we will see a congress, a Senate, and ultimately a president, driving us in that direction.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But should congressional Democrats open the government and then talk about health care?

ABIGAIL SPANBERGER: The government needs to open and it needs to open immediately. We need the president to demonstrate leadership, bringing people together, endeavoring to get through whatever negotiations need to get through, whether it's before or after. My priority is the, is focusing on the needs and the, the devastation, frankly, that more than 300,000 Virginians are facing. And that's just the federal employees, government contractors, they will never get made whole. The entirety of Virginia's economy is impacted by the shutdown, just as we've been impacted by Doge attacks, and the government needs to reopen quickly.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, and that's why I'm asking, because there are what, 825,000 enrollees on food aid in the SNAP program. They're in limbo right now. You have immediate pain, so at what point do you weigh that against the potential of health care premiums? I mean, this pain is very real and very acute for people in your state right now.

ABIGAIL SPANBERGER: And it's been going on now for weeks, weeks too long the government needs to reopen because in addition to the pain that we are already seeing–

(CROSSTALK)

MARGARET BRENNAN

But eight Democrats could cross the aisle and do so.

ABIGAIL SPANBERGER: We absolutely need everyone to vote to open the government. And that's not to say that the challenges we're facing within our health care system are not also immediate and acute. Even the passage of the One Big, Beautiful Bill will have catastrophic impacts on Virginia, taking $26 billion out of our health care, leading to the closure of at least six rural hospitals. We've already seen three rural clinics announce their closure. Hundreds of 1000s will lose their Medicaid, and so the impacts on health care are already catastrophic. We cannot compound that pain by keeping the government closed.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Let's take a break and finish this on the other side of it. Please stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to Face The Nation. We return to our conversation with Virginia Governor elect Abigail Spanberger. Governor-elect, artificial intelligence has created a really big demand for these data centers, and Virginia has the world's largest concentration of them. Power bills are up nearly 7% in your state over the past year. Is that driven by the AI boom? And if so, how do you offset those rising energy costs?

ABIGAIL SPANBERGER: Well, what we've seen in the, in the research so far is that it is not, the increased costs are not driven by the increase in data centers. There's some bad energy policies in some of our neighboring states that have driven up prices, particularly in southwest Virginia. But looking towards the future, we have to be clear eyed about the fact that we will have an energy crisis headed into the future. And so here on the ground in Virginia, we currently have a rate case where it will be important that large scale energy users, particularly data centers, that the public, know that they are paying their fair share for the energy that they are using. And we have to increase our energy production here at home so that we can meet the demand, certainly of larger scale energy users, but, but also of increased demand from, from our communities. And it is a real challenge that we have to get ahead of. And that's why among the first affordability plans that I laid out was one focused on energy. It's a challenge that is pervasive across our communities and particularly acute in southwest Virginia.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Just a few days ago, Cornell University reached a $60 million deal with the Trump administration in order to see their federal funding restored. This is the fifth such deal since the administration began this pressure campaign on universities. I know you went to University of Virginia, as did I, and must be following that. UVA cut deals with the government, including kicking out the president of the school. You called that extortion. But now, as governor, are you going to have to play ball with the Department of Education and the Justice Department in order to keep federal government funding going?

ABIGAIL SPANBERGER: So it should, It should shock everyone that universities, public and private, are receiving demands from the federal government and that dollars, research dollars, are being withheld, that our universities are under attack. And certainly what we've seen in the case the University of Virginia, a popular, experienced, excellent president was pushed out, and on the ground here, we did not see our governor in any way step up in defense of our university. And the idea that the federal government would be withholding federal dollars, including dollars already appropriated by Congress for research, in order to compel universities to take certain actions, it is absolute federal government overreach, and as governor, I will be clear eyed about ensuring that we have structures in place, including boards of visitors across our universities that want to defend academic freedom and frankly, the viability and vitality of extraordinary institutions like the University of Virginia.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about your party. In 2020 when Democrats lost House seats, you said we need to not ever use the word socialist or socialism ever again. There are some who look to Tuesday's win in New York City of a Democratic socialist and say that your, your party is actually being rewarded for echoing progressive policies. Does that victory create a branding problem for Democrats?

ABIGAIL SPANBERGER: Well, certainly, you know, I'm excited about what we did here in Virginia on Tuesday. I campaigned addressing, wanting to address the issues of costs and stopping the chaos. I'm a capitalist, I'm a Democrat, and I won by 15 points in Virginia. You look to New Jersey, and a similar story in Mikie Sherrill's win now the governor elect there. And so I think, you know, certainly, we're a big tent party, but when I look at what led to the success that we had here, and the, you know, the mandate for real governance here in the Commonwealth of Virginia, it was based on what I campaigned on, the efforts to really address the challenges that people are facing in a day to day basis. And now it's on us to deliver and prove that that really truly the the mandate that we have to work on lowering costs and strengthening our schools and keeping our communities safe and and creating steady leadership here in the Commonwealth of Virginia, particularly in light of the chaos coming out of Washington, that not only was it a winning message, but the winning path towards governance.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Thank you very much for your time this morning, Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger, the, who will be the first female governor ever of the state of Virginia. We'll be right back.

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