Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s approval rating tanks in new GMU, Washington Post poll

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s approval rating stands at 47%, with 46% of voters disapproving and 7% expressing no opinion, the Washington Post reported on Monday.

The poll was conducted by the Washington Post and George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government from March 26-31 among a random sample of 1,101 registered voters.

The new poll shows Spanberger’s support has dropped by double digits.

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“A drop of that margin is stunning, and it should be greatly disturbing to the governor and the governor’s staff if it’s repeated in other surveys,” Political scientist Larry Sabato told 7News.

Spanberger won in a 15-point landslide against Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears last year with 57% of the vote.

“The approval mark for Spanberger is 13 percentage points lower than the average for Virginia governors in Post polling since the 1990s. Her near-even split between approval and disapproval is a worse net approval rating than the early-term scores of her predecessors in previous Post polls,” The Washington Post reported.

The new poll also shows more voters think Spanberger’s policies will make Virginia less affordable (41%) than more affordable (31%), while 23% don’t think her policies will make a difference, the Washington Post reported.

Spanberger has been criticized by Republicans for her party’s tax increase proposals this legislative session, along with Spanberger’s decision to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which critics say would increase electricity prices.

“That’s an example of where the Spanberger team has to change directions,” said Sabato. “They really haven’t put out very much about affordability. She has a case to make based on the legislation she proposed that was passed, and they’ve had a press conference or two here and there, but you really have to hit people hard with information before they can absorb it. It’s a particularly busy time in the world and in this country, so I don’t think they’ve done enough there, and they need to work on that pretty rapidly. They don’t want her ratings to continue to sink. She just started. She’s been in for two and a half months.”

Spanberger has also been criticized for her decision to stop state law enforcement from working with federal immigration officials to deport violent illegal immigrants. So far this year, three of the four murder cases in Fairfax County have involved illegal immigrant suspects.

“The good news for her is it’s early and she can change it, but the bad news is that I think she’s lost a point here and a point there, and a point over there, and these things add up, and before you know it, you’re below 50% and that’s where she is, if this poll is accurate,” said Sabato. “She ought to be concerned about it, but they have plenty of time to change it.”

7News reached out to Spanberger’s office for comment.