After hot political movements burned the party in power, Democrats are hoping for a cool down – By Sahil Kapur (NBC News) / Apr 11 2021
Why Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger’s battle for re-election in central Virginia may tell the story of the 2022 midterm election.
NORTH CHESTERFIELD, Va. — Abigail Spanberger’s congressional district two hours outside Washington, D.C. has been a hot spot for political movements over the last decade, from the rise of the tea party to the “blue wave.”
Now, in the time of President Joe Biden, temperatures appear to have cooled. Maybe it’s a fleeting calm due to the receding Covid-19 pandemic and improving economy.
“I’m seeing, gradually, the anxieties tamping down a little bit in the engagement that I’m having with people,” Spanberger, a two-term Democratic congresswoman, said in a wide-ranging interview at the urban Farmhouse market & café outside Richmond.
“And I can’t ascribe that wholly to Biden — it’s also Covid moving in the right direction and people are starting to get their vaccine.”
Democrats are hoping it’s a harbinger for their ability to buck the historical trends and win the midterm elections as the party in charge. Spanberger’s district has had an uncanny knack for reflecting the national mood, and is again seen by both parties as key to the battle for House control in 2022
