By Suzanna Stohr
Student Life Editor
The Growl
Massaponax High School
Typically, when someone hears that someone works for the CIA, their mind instantly thinks of a secret agent like James Bond, fighting international crime and stealing top secret information. However, when one of the candidates for Virginia’s 7th district representative, Abigail Spanberger, speaks of her previous career at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), she is speaking of a job that was much less violent.
Spanberger served overseas for eight years where she worked to collect information related to particular topics so that we could make good decisions based on classified intelligence that we were able to gather carefully and in a well-sourced manner.” said Spanberger.
Spanberger grew up in Short Pump, graduated from the University of Virginia, earned her Master’s of Business Administration in Germany and worked as a law enforcement officer with the U.S. Postal Inspections Service, all before joining the CIA. After her service with the CIA, she moved back to Virginia where she worked for the EAB-Royall and Company, an organization that works to improve academic proficiency, increase graduation rates and much more for higher education students.
Spanberger then made the decision to continue serving her country by running for Congress.
“I continue to desire to serve this country,” said Spanberger. “I think that we are in a difficult place in this country and I think that we need people who are committed to service and committed to representing their community.”
Some might view this transition from the CIA to politics as a change requiring major adjustment; however, her experiences with the CIA have aided her in her campaign.
“As a CIA officer you have to be prepared for anything., you have to be ready for anything, and you have to be calm at all times,” said Spanberger. “So I think that’s been, at the most basic level, how I’ve been so prepared.”
Spanberger is the Democratic candidate for the 7th district, which includes much of Central Virginia, including a large portion of Spotsylvania County. She has made her plans for public education in this region, if elected, apparent during several interview and public forums.
“I am a proponent of strong public education, said Spanberger. “That includes ensuring that we are keeping public dollars in public schools., that students are going to schools where they are safe, that the buildings are strong and standing up around them and where the teachers are well paid, well-respected and want to be there so that they can meaningfully impact the lives of the next generation, and so that when students graduate they are ready to enter the work fore, college, training program or the military.”
Spanberger also has shared her option on healthcare, renewable energy and internet infrastructure.
“the number one issue that people across the district talk about is healthcare, and I want to make sure that everyone has access to affordable, quality healthcare, and that is something I think we should get started on right away,” said Spanberger. “I do not believe we should continue to have people’s varied health be such a political issue. We also need to recognize the future infrastructure and opportunities that exist in renewable energy, because it is an economic issue, it’s an environmental issue. Also, in some of our rural communities internet infrastructure is really important because there are so many community members across the seventh district who are negatively impacted by a lack of access. So it’s educational, it’s also jog related because how we are supposed to attract new businesses if there is no internet infrastructure.”
Spanberger is running against Republican candidate Dave Brat in the general election, which will be held Nov. 6.
She already has plans for what she intends to enact if elected.
“The immediate impact I could have as a first-term member of Congress is really standing true to how it is I talk about issues, and not falling into the us versus them type of discussions in terms of what it is that we can work on, and what it is that we can legislatively impact.” said Spanberger. “It will be a trying time since there has been such a back and forth, so I think it’s important to recognize that we are not going to be able to come through with all this legislation, but the opportunity that we have is that it is a great place for us to say that we are a two party system and have power in different houses, so let’s find commonality and let’s find things that we can agree on.”
No matter the results of the election, Spanberger has experienced and taken many risks throughout her life and hopes to inspire others to do the same.
“Anyone can do anything.” said Spanberger. “There will always be hurdles, there will always be challenges, and if someone tells you no, the only person you should really listen to is yourself. Challenges are not something to be afraid of, they are something to embrace because they make you stronger and failture is something to not be afraid of because it only makes you stronger.: