The MeidasTouch Podcast - Abigail Spanberger Discuss Massive Vibe Shift in Virginia

Episode Date: July 5, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump getting stunned by recent shock polls in Virginia and how even in red areas in Virginia he is growing very unpopular, and Meiselas interviews Virginia Democratic Governor Candidate Abigail Spanberger about what she saw on her recent bus tour in Virginia. Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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19 plus to wager Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact sound. Donald Trump continues to get bad news and got a rude awakening out of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The latest polling out of there from civics has him again very much underwater, 58% disapproving, only 38% approval. When you go through the cross tabs, you see young people absolutely despise him. 68% of young people, 18 to 34, disapprove. They see Donald Trump stealing their future. You go to the 35 to 49 demographic, 61% disapprove.

As you get a little bit older, 50 to 64, still underwater, 51% disapprove. And interestingly, when you see the 65 and above, you're seeing 52% disapprove. Although I would expect those numbers to get even worse for Donald Trump as he starts taking away more people's healthcare. Looking at other demographic cross tabs here,

females in Virginia, 66% disapprove. Independence, which is gonna play an important role, I think, in the governor's race there coming up, 56% disapprove. Even when you go to the cross tab of white people, 50% disapprove. Black or African-American, 84% disapprove. Hispanic, Latino, obviously being targeted

by the Trump regime in mass deportation, 62% disapprove. Even when you go to kind of redder areas in Virginia that typically don't vote for Democrats. You're seeing huge crowds show up, for example, in Lynchburg and Withville and places like that at the No Kings protest. Congresswoman Abigail Spamburgers running for governor in Virginia did a bus tour, and she went right into Lynchburg and Withville

and red areas as well that previously had voted Trump. for a governor in Virginia did a bus tour and she went right into Lynchburg and Wytheville and red areas as well that previously had voted Trump and got a lot of love out there. Let me just show everybody, this is the Lynchburg No Kings peaceful protest. Let's just show a clip of it. Excuse me. Excuse me. One of the things we're seeing in Virginia as well is that it's facing the longest unemployment surge since the Great Recession.

Many ways there's a Great Recession right right now, based on what Trump is doing with the jobs in Virginia, what their horrible Governor Youngkin is doing right now, and what their Lieutenant Governor Earl Sears will do is just make the situation much, much worse. I mean, we're literally looking at the new data showing Virginia's unemployment rate increasing for five straight months,

the longest streak since 2008, great recession, and of course, Medicaid cuts and other essential services being taken away. Let's bring in Congresswoman Spanberger. She's running for governor in Virginia. You took this bus tour, and I think it was a priority as well to go into the, you know, not just the blue and the purple areas, but go into the red areas. Can you tell us what you saw there when you traveled there? Absolutely.

Well, thank you for highlighting the work that we're doing on the ground to win every possible vote across Virginia. Of course, our election is this November, so we are in the general election at this moment and running hard towards this November. I've always won in my congressional races before now my campaign for governor

by campaigning everywhere, by endeavoring to ensure that every voter knows who I am, why I'm running, why I'm asking for their vote, whether they choose to vote for me or not. And so now in my statewide race, I'm endeavoring to do much of the same, traveling across the entirety of our Commonwealth over and over again,

to make sure that we're reaching out to voters. I'm listening to people in every corner of Virginia, including some of our reddest communities, to talk about my plans to address the issues that matter most to them, particularly in areas of affordability, whether that's in health care or housing or energy pricing, my plans to strengthen our public education system here in Virginia. And the bus tour was a great kickoff for the general election. We just got our nominees for lieutenant governor and attorney general. And so the three of us set off making stops all across Virginia, and it was a fantastic

bus tour. People feeling these devastating impacts by the Trump regime. Like when you go to these areas, you know, sometimes we talk about these things in like theoretical ways and messaging and this and that. But when you take a bus tour, you hear from people who are losing their healthcare, you hear from people who can't afford to buy groceries or who suffer the psychological torture of living paycheck to paycheck.

Can you speak to that, what you saw in that bus tour? Absolutely, the stories that I heard from people in every corner of Virginia were pretty profound, certainly consistent with what I've been hearing now across the campaign, but just a couple examples. I had a young man come up to me in Southwest Virginia and say that he is really worried about the future of Medicaid

and the future of healthcare in Virginia. I asked him a little bit about, you know, his situation and what motivates him to talk about this. And he actually works in a hospital system. He's a phlebotomist. And he said to me, like the most earnest thing where he said, well, this, you know, this isn't about my job.

I don't want to lose my job if the hospital shuts down, but where are the patients that I help? Where are they gonna go if my hospital shuts down? And to hear someone advocating for their patients in such an earnest way, that's consistent with what I hear. I was in Roanoke at another event, and I had two physicians approach me

and talk about their significant deep worries about what cuts to Medicaid would mean for the community that they serve and the people who, not just the folks who rely on Medicaid, but in fact the larger community where some of our hospitals across various parts of Virginia stay afloat because Virginia chose to expand Medicaid a couple years back. And I've heard from a young man who said I'm really grateful that you know you've said you'll sign a minimum wage

increase bill that's something certainly that our current governor has already vetoed because he said he's a minimum wage increase bill that's something certainly that our current governor has already vetoed because he said he's a minimum wage worker, he works hard, you know, he likes working, he works hard, but he dreams of a time when we'll actually increase the minimum wage in Virginia. And the stories are significant, people telling of their own hardships related to food security or health challenges or cost of living and housing, but the stories of local elected officials, town mayors and board of supervisor members who are telling me the hurdles and the challenges that people within their community are

facing, particularly related to housing prices and the cost of rents going up. And so in every corner of Virginia, whether it was discussing tariffs or federal layoffs, I actually had one gentleman come to an event. This was in Northern Virginia. And he said, I wanted to be at this event. I wanted to say hello. And I'm getting fired tomorrow from my federal job. And he told me a little bit about his job

and the department that he works for and the work that he does. And he said, I love my job. I love the mission of the job. I don't wanna lose my job, but I'm really worried about the United States and our safety and national security when my job and jobs like mine continue to be cut.

So the realities on the ground are something that people clearly perceive and it's motivating people to get out and come to events and to use their voices to advocate for changes or supports to things that they know are of value in our communities. No, I'm not trying to be facetious here. You know, I try to see other sides of it. So I'm like, what is your opponent,

Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earl Steele, like, what is she running? Like, what is she actually, other than like the culture wars to try to divide people, and other than, you know, her saying that Donald Trump is the greatest thing since sliced bread and Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump,

he's a smart, I truly, and I'm not saying, I don't know what they're running on anymore. I mean, I guess it's also just always help the, help billionaires get tax cuts and screw people. But like, I don't understand, that's not politics. And it frustrates me that it gets normalized in a way, you know, and I don't know, maybe this is like a weird question to be asking because you're in a political race. I don't even understand this political race

because you're running to deliver for the people. I just genuinely don't know what your opponent's doing. Well, I recognize you have a slight bias in this conversation, which I accept and I appreciate. But I would say as someone who is campaigning on the ground, I agree with you. The things that my opponent says that she's for, she's for a ban on abortion,

she is morally opposed to same-sex marriage, she is for taking public dollars out of public schools. From my perspective, that isn't much of an agenda that I think would resonate with people. And so it's actually a really interesting time on the ground because I've rolled out my affordability agenda for housing, healthcare, energy. We're rolling out additional agendas into the near term to make sure that people know

that not only do I recognize the starkness of this moment here in the Commonwealth, but I'm actually trying to plan for a brighter future and be responsive to the issues that people are bringing to me. But I would say as the opponent in the race, it is a really interesting campaign because, you know, I've run multiple political campaigns before and I could always say, you know, I'm here on this issue,

my opponent, you know, I'm advocating for this, my opponent's advocating for that. And that's actually with the exception of a couple of really extreme things, that's not even present in this circumstance. But I would remind everybody, Virginia is a purple state. We're a toss-up state. We currently have a Republican governor.

My opponent, as much as I'm saying she doesn't have a plan, which she doesn't, she is currently the lieutenant governor. So we are taking this race serious in every minute. This race, I feel confident if it were tomorrow, I'd win, but it's not tomorrow. And I've got a lot of work to do to make sure in every corner of Virginia, people know what I am for, how I want to stand up for them, and how I wanna do right by our fellow Virginians.

So it's a long path between now and November, but we're gonna run hard every day. I mean, they used to like fake it. They used to say, okay, if we give the tax cuts to the billionaires, it's going to trickle down and you're going to do even better. Like, they're not they don't even go there anymore. What they just do now is they go,

it doesn't say that in the bill and like it says it in the bill or like that's not happening. And like, yeah, it is happening. Things are great. It's like, no, no, no, it's not. And I'll just say this like, and I've said this before. And when I say this, my wife always gets upset because It's like no, no, no, it's not and I'll just say this like and I've said this before And when I say this my wife always gets upset because she's like you do like politics because I always say to her

It's funny that I run a political media companies because I really don't like politics So I guess you do but I don't I like the issues and I like the people and so where my bias is on is Okay. Well, what are the issues that matter to the people right now? When it's affordability, when it's having a job that pays them with dignity, when it's education, when it's their health. My bias is always there. So, I like you, but if you one day started saying the things

that she, if you started saying the things that she started saying. And you agree, right? Yeah. Yeah. Where can people find out more about what you're doing if they want to know more about the issues as we dig in? And any final thing you want to say to our audience?

Yeah, well, I just, thank you for highlighting, frankly, you know, so much of the good work that Virginians are doing here on the ground. Virginians recognize the uniqueness of the situation that we are in. It's just us in New Jersey that have off-year elections this year, 2025. We know we get to set an example for the rest of the country, and it's a responsibility.

Certainly, I want to serve my fellow Virginians as governor, but, you know, across the board, people are motivated because we know that how we vote in Virginia, not just flipping three statewide seats, but also the elect elections that we have of 100 seats in the House of Delegates, where this year we have 100 Democrats running in every corner of the Commonwealth. We know that we'll set an example that we'll send a message to the rest of the country with what it is that we do.

And so, you know, people across the country, I welcome you to watch what we're doing. We're looking to set a great example that others can follow in 26. My website is abigailspandberger.com. You can sign up to volunteer. Certainly you can donate, you can support from afar, or keep track of us on social media

to make sure you can see fun photos from the campaign trail across Virginia. It's a beautiful place. I welcome anyone to come and visit into the future and certainly come January, there will be a new governor to greet you. And a governor for the people, not for the bullies and the billionaires, for the people.

Congresswoman Spanberger, thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Everybody hit subscribe, let's get to 6 million. The truth is more important than ever. Check out our new Truth Over Lies collection at store.mitustouch.com. All 100% USA Union made. The Truth Over Lies