Two Virginia women who came to Congress on a mission are preparing to leave at a critical time

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Reps. Abigail Spanberger and Jennifer Wexton stormed into Washington six years ago as part of a record wave of women vying for seats in the House of Representatives, many on a mission to push back against politics from Donald Trump.

“We were part of that class of 2018 and we were kind of running there, ‘There’s a fire. We’re here,” Spanberger said.

The outgoing congresswoman, who along with Wexton recently reflected on their time in Congress in interviews with The Associated Press, took a quick breath.

“It’s a little different from the tone of where things are now,” she said.

That’s an understatement. Trump, a president that the two Virginia Democrats campaigned against when they unseated Republican incumbents, is about to begin a second term after an unlikely political comeback. Of the 35 Democratic women first elected in 2018, Spanberger and Wexton are among 14 who have since left Congress or will leave next year.

That does not mean that their journey is over or that they are withdrawing from public debate.

Kelly Dittmar, research director at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, described Virginia as a canary in a coal mine when voters elected more women to the state House in 2017, followed by the election of Spanberger, Wexton and former Assemblywoman Elaine Luria there in 2018. But Dittmar said progress toward better gender representation hasn’t always been linear.

Last month, 21 of the original 35 female Democrats first elected in 2018 filed for re-election to their seats in the House of Representatives, with the exception of Rep. Elissa Slotkin, who was elected to the Senate by Michigan voters this year chosen. And in those races, 20 won. They will be among the 150 women — 110 Democrats and 40 Republicans — serving in the 119th Congress next year, one woman fewer than the record of 151 in 2023.

Spanberger, meanwhile, is running for governor in a race that includes only two female candidates, making it likely that Virginia’s next governor will be a woman for the first time.

But when women leave elected office, Dittmar says, their absence is felt more acutely because there are fewer women represented to begin with. She said it’s unclear whether the U.S. will soon see a new wave of women seeking to run for office.

She looked into why women said they were running in 2018 and “yes, there is evidence they were talking about Donald Trump,” Dittmar said. “I think the difference between ’16 and ’24 – and we can’t know yet – is the level of exhaustion and the level of toxicity that can play a role in the calculation of whether or not to run for office set.”

For both Spanberger and Wexton, that path has taken unexpected turns.

After winning re-election twice, Wexton was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, a life-threatening neurological condition similar to Parkinson’s disease, and made the difficult decision to retire. Spanberger is trading in her congressional pin for a loftier goal in state politics. They will be succeeded in Congress by Democrats Eugene Vindman and Suhas Subramanyam, reducing Virginia’s representation of women in Congress from four to two.

A bond forged in public service and friendship

In the stately formality of a convention hall, Spanberger and Wexton reminisced about their time on Capitol Hill. They have become unusually close, bonded by time spent together, some shared views on public policy and a friendship that has managed to transcend the ups and downs of Washington politics. A flurry of text messages that started after their victory speeches in 2018 has continued since then.

Their bids for Congress were supported by many women who marched, made phone calls and organized in a grassroots movement denouncing Trump and working to elect female Democrats.

They won the votes. They took an oath. And then the women went to work.

Wexton, formerly a state senator and prosecutor, developed a reputation for taking care of her district, said Rosalyn Cooperman, a professor at the University of Mary Washington. Cooperman said she fought for funding opportunities and committee assignments that helped bring tens of millions of dollars in federal investments to Northern Virginia. She also tackled opioid addiction, transgender rights and childhood cancer research. After announcing her diagnosis, Wexton co-sponsored the National Plan to End Parkinson’s Act, which President Joe Biden signed in July. Lawmakers named the legislation in her honor.

Spanberger, an ex-CIA agent who left work at an education company to run for Congress, developed a knack for tackling low-key issues: bringing broadband to rural areas, combating drug trafficking and veterans’ issues. The Lugar Center and Georgetown University’s McCourt School ranked the Virginia Democrat as the 17th most bipartisan member of the House of Representatives last year.

“Both women really understood the districts they represented and what the districts needed, and they handled it very effectively and without too much fuss,” Cooperman said.

Spanberger and Wexton became fast friends when they first campaigned for their House of Representatives seats in 2018. The two formed a trio with Luria, who left Congress after losing to Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans in 2022. Spanberger described Wexton as her smart big sister — someone who gave her advice on everything from raising teenagers to navigating a legislature. At one point, Wexton Spanberger wrote a script to speak on the House floor.

Wexton spoke, with the help of an artificial intelligence program, that Spanberger supported her in a more vulnerable way: styling Wexton’s hair when she appeared at Congress with her health problems.

“That’s no small feat – I had first-hand experience of how difficult it became to do my hair,” Wexton said. “For the next almost 90 minutes, Abigail put various potions in my hair and dried it with a round brush.

“It was great. I felt so spoiled.”

Spanberger laughed with tears in her eyes, “You have so much hair!”

Wexton discovered in 2023 that she had progressive supranuclear palsy. Over the past two years, she lost her ability to speak clearly and walk unassisted. In her interview, the congresswoman used her index finger to type thoughts on her tablet, which she then played back out loud. In her final months in Congress, she said, well-meaning colleagues talked to her like a child or reintroduced themselves to her.

“My PSP has robbed me of my voice, and others may take that as a sign that it has also robbed me of my cognitive skills,” she said. “But that’s not true. I am just as much myself as I have always been.”

As the current term ends, many women agree with Trump’s return to power. Many Democrats say the fight is not over, but has changed in unexpected ways.

“To be clear, I am super excited to have Eugene Vindman and Suhas Subramanyam replace us,” said Spanberger. “But it’s a little bit bittersweet that we came in with this group of three women, and within three terms we’re both — that all three of us are gone.”

Wexton said she hoped people, and women in particular, would persevere.

“We’re not going to win every battle or every election,” she said, “but it is true that our democracy works best when more people participate.”

___

Olivia Diaz is a staff member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.