Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA07) knocked her Republican challenger Yesli Vega for saying she would support a government shutdown in order to stop President Biden from implementing his agenda.
On Tuesday, Vega was asked by the host of a local conservative talk radio show if she would support a government shutdown in order to bring the Biden administration to a halt. “If push comes to shove, and it comes to this, are you in favor of shutting this government down and grinding Biden’s administration to a halt through appropriations and choking the money off as long as it takes – not just a month, two months, as long as it takes – you in favor for that?” the host asked.
“I certainly think that we have to slam the brakes and we have to, you know, take a closer look at what’s happening and yes, government is not the solution, right?” Vega responded. “Government tends to be the problem, and so you’re over here creating these problems and you want to do nothing to fix them. So if it has to come to that, I think that we have to.”
Spanberger reacted to the comments from Vega in a statement Wednesday morning. “The notion that my opponent would vote to shut down the government — just because her political party is not in the White House — means that she doesn’t understand the catastrophic impacts of shutdowns on Virginians, Virginia’s economy, our nation’s economy, and our national security,” Spanberger said. “My opponent is telling Virginians whose side she wants to take in Congress – and it’s not the side of the American people who depend on a functioning government, not the side of Virginia’s thousands of federal employees or contract workers, and not the side of the career FBI agents,CBP agents, and every other federal law enforcement or intelligence officer who must work without pay during government shutdowns.”
OPM reported in 2017 that 144,295 federal employees live in Virginia.
“In a district that is home to thousands of proud, career public servants, [Vega] is completely out of touch,” Spanberger said.
During the interview, Vega also called Spanberger two-faced and used her lack of a stance on student loan debt relief as an example. “She’s noncommittal to that because against she has to keep up with her being this moderate independent thinker,” Vega said.
Vega also called Biden’s plan to forgive some student loan debt a “blast to the face of hardworking Americans.”
Spanberger and Vega are competing for the VA-07 seat in Congress. Election day is November 8, early in-person voting begins Sept. 23.
A reminder of the electorate profile generated by analysis from VPAP:
- Glenn Youngkin won VA-07 with 52% of the vote in 2021
- Tim Kaine won VA-07 with 55% of the vote in 2018
- Ralph Northam won VA-07 with 52% of the vote in 2017
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