Virginia Gov. Spanberger accused of supporting redistricting by Rep. Cline

Exclusive: Governor of Virginia Abigail Spanberger A senior Republican said she would not have been given the airtime in Democrats’ formal response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address had it not been for her support of the commonwealth’s controversial redistricting and toeing the party line.

A new congressional map credited to Virginia Senate Leader L. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, would eliminate Virginia’s 6-5 Republican-to-Democrat congressional ratio and leave only southwest Virginia Republican Rep. Morgan Griffith in a convenient seat if elected. Constitutional amendment to redraw Maps pass in April.

Lucas and House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, led the redistricting plan, while also facing headwinds from a lawsuit in Tazewell County backed by minority Republicans.

Rep. Ben Cline, R-Virginia, whose district extends from suburban Roanoke along U.S. 11 and Interstate 81 to the West Virginia line near Perryville, will be one of the Republicans likely to be ousted by sheer arithmetic if Democrats get their way.

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, left; Representative Ben Kline, right. (Marvin Joseph/Getty Images; Bill Clark; Getty Images)

Spanberger’s support for redistricting belies her previous public comments criticizing the idea of ​​gerrymandering or partisan redistricting, Klein told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.

He added that it’s Spanberger’s current support that has endeared her to her national party so much that they are projecting her as their State of the Union respondent.

“Governor Spanberger is trying to play national Democrats to raise her profile and try to get national prominence on the agenda by acquiescing to this partisan gerrymandering in the Virginia Legislature,” Kline said.

“She campaigned on the premise of not gerrymandering; when she said gerrymandering was wrong, that turns around when the tough time comes, and she gets a chance to reward such leaders in the National Party as Barack Obama And Hakeem Jeffries.”

Klein said he was not surprised by the news, adding that Spanberger also made “false statements” on key issues during her campaign against the former lieutenant governor. Winson Sears last year.

Klein said he remembers working with then-Rep. Spanberger in Congress—and that they were often united in support of key Virginia industries such as agriculture—but he no longer recognized the governor in that light.

“Abigail Spanberger was on the House Agriculture Committee and I loved talking about her relationship with agriculture in Virginia. But my district is currently the most agriculture-dependent district in Virginia and I broke it up into five different districts and divided it up for Democrats in Northern Virginia to use to make their numbers work,” he said.

Klein said the move was offensive to Virginia farmersas the new map strips them of a collective voice in Washington and instead forces them to lobby for whatever liberal-sourced district their community falls into.

Spanberger gestures to the left after the centrist campaign; GOP leader warns of ‘fair fax to rest of Virginia’

Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., arrives for a House Republican Caucus meeting at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington on Tuesday, May 23, 2023. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

“She should be ashamed of herself,” Klain said, adding that if Spanberger had maintained her pre-government position that gerrymandering was wrong, “Democrats would not have given her a second glance, because it would not have been consistent with the plan they had in place to actually seize the House majority with these gerrymandering efforts.”

Instead, he said, she is being “rewarded” for switching to the party line.

People in his district are also sounding the alarm about Spanberger beyond gerrymandering plans, citing affordability comments and other promises as well.

Democrats say Trump redistricting backfires as Virginia leads in new House maps

“They’re very upset by the way she’s flipped from her campaign pledges to the way she actually governs. And I don’t think they’re going to respond well on April 21. I think they’re going to vote against this effort to gerrymander Virginia.”

Concerns have also been raised about the language of the amendment approved by the Legislature — scheduled to go before voters on April 21 — that asks whether they want “justice restored,” a phrase that Klein and other opponents, including Del. Reign Williams, R-Stuart, said is misleading and mainly benefits partisan Democratic politicians.

Redistricting is the most prominent effort by Spanberger and Richmond Democrats to fundamentally change election laws, economic policy, taxes, cooperation agreements with federal immigration authorities and more, Klein said.

“What Governor Spanberger did Withdrawing from our Agreement 287-G With the state police is unacceptable. It makes us a haven country for violent and illegal immigrants trying to escape accountability for their crimes. “They came to Virginia, and Governor Spanberger refuses to allow the state police to work with ICE.”

“And so this type of reckless behavior, not only on the part of Governor Spanberger but also on the part of the state Assembly, is certainly having an impact here in the western part of Virginia,” he said.

The Mill Mountain Star Hotel is located in the Roanoke, Virginia skyline. (Jeff Greenberg/Getty Images)

Under the new map, Klein’s current 6th District will be divided between the new 10th, 11th, 7th, 6th and 9th Districts, with the 9th District being Griffith District.

Instead of following a southwest-northeast oval trail that follows the general course of the Colonial-era “Valley Pike” — Klein, who lives in Botetourt County, will find himself on the 6th or 9th.

10th Street, near Winchester, would connect to liberal Washington suburbs like Reston, and 11th Street would zigzag from Luray to Washington, leaving room for a seventh “scorpion” that would jut out in “pincers” toward Mount Sidney on the west and Powhatan on the east, and a sixth that would connect blue cities in the rural interior like Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, and Roanoke.

The heavily liberal Fairfax County will consist of five different districts that extend into less populated conservative areas.

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The new 2nd District, which currently includes Cape Charles, Accomack and Virginia Beach, would shift far enough west to carve up the dense, Democratic-friendly parts of Chesapeake City.

Critics have also compared it to Third Former Maryland – A 1st District federal judge denounced the “pterodactyl” shape, which relied on the Patapsco River and Chesapeake Bay rather than land to connect its many disjointed sections between Annapolis and Baltimore.

A new, slightly more streamlined district is currently represented by Rep. Sarah Elfreth, a Democrat from Elkridge.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Spanberger for comment.

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