Abigail Spanberger presents herself as bulwark against chaos and cruelty

She spoke of political turmoil coming out of Washington. Recklessness and heartlessness coming out of Washington. A careless, chaotic, reckless economic policy coming out of Washington. She did not mention Donald Trump.

The Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia, Abigail Spanberger, pitched her closing argument on Saturday to more than 7,000 supporters at a campaign rally in Norfolk, home to the world’s biggest naval base.

Related: Obama criticizes Trump and Republican policy in stump speech for Abigail Spanberger

To the joy of the crowd she was joined on stage by former president Barack Obama, who eviscerated the Trump presidency with barbs, sarcasm and biting critiques. Spanberger, by contrast, is betting that the antidote to Trumpism is unflashy competence and a focus on the cost of living.

The former CIA officer and three-term congresswoman has not attended any of the “No Kings” protests that featured millions of anti-Trump voters and seldom mentions him by name. “I feel like if I say it too much, it’s like Beetlejuice,” the 46-year-old joked recently to the Associated Press. “He’s gonna show up.”

It is a different approach a year after Kamala Harris hammered a warning about stopping Trump to save democracy only for him to sweep back into power. On Tuesday Democrats hope to start hauling themselves up off the canvas by winning gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia.

History will be made in Virginia where Spanberger and the Republican lieutenant-governor, Winsome Earle-Sears, are vying to become the state’s first female governor. The commonwealth, as it is known, is also seeking to reassert its claim to be the most progressive state in the south after four years under Republican Glenn Youngkin.

Virginia is second only to California in the size of its federal workforce. Spanberger has vowed in stump speeches to stand up for the thousands of employees laid off by Trump’s department of government efficiency, or Doge.

“We need a governor who will support the thousands upon thousands of Virginia families whose livelihoods have been disrupted or destroyed because of Doge and now this government shutdown,” she said in Norfolk, against a backdrop of a giant Stars and Stripes and supporters waving mini-US flags and campaign signs.

“We do not need someone who has said that losing a job isn’t a ‘real issue’ when we have Virginians who have dedicated themselves to service to our country who have lost their jobs because of bad policies and a reckless administration.”

The “someone” in question was Earle-Sears, 61, who has been criticised for not taking the government shutdown seriously. The Marine veteran has vowed to cut taxes, root out wasteful government spending and be tough on crime. A Jamaican-born immigrant, she has accused Democrats of playing “the race card”.

Her campaign was boosted by an endorsement from Trump and a down-ticket scandal involving Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones, who reportedly sent violent text messages about a political rival in 2022.

But polls show Earle-Sears trailing by about seven percentage points in a state that Obama won in 2008 – the first Democrat in 44 years to do so – and that Trump has lost three times. Indeed, Virginia had been moving left for years on issues such as reproductive rights, gun safety and the death penalty until Youngkin’s 2021 victory put a Republican back in the governor’s mansion.

Earle-Sears has sought to emulate the Youngkin playbook with a focus on culture war issues such as abortion, parents’ rights and transgender athletes. She ran an ad that attacks Spanberger for voting “to let boys share locker rooms with little girls” and “let children change genders without telling their parents”.

Echoing a spot from Trump’s campaign last year, a narrator says: “Spanberger is for they/them, not us.” But this time the messages appear to be falling flat.

Brian Jones, a partner at Black Rock Group, told an audience at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington that Republicans “jumped right to where they thought they could replicate some of the success of President Trump on the trans issue. It’s my sense that it hasn’t broken through. I don’t know if people are tired of the message or it’s just not as effective.

“My sense is that Winsome Sears has not been effective in driving a credible message on Spanberger, [who has] done a nice job on the bio front presenting herself as somebody who is this committed centrist.”

Spanberger’s brand was reinforced on Saturday when Obama extolled her ability to reach across the aisle despite Washington’s deepening polarisation. He told the crowd: “Abigail is ranked as the most bipartisan member of Congress from the Commonwealth. She has had bills signed into law by both President Trump and President Biden. That is not easy to do.”

As Democrats continue to debate how to fight back, Spanberger has not been drawing the huge crowds that follow progressive Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont or Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. But those who did the rally in Norfolk took a pragmatic view of her candidacy in a purple state such as Virginia.

Kacie Schappert, 46, a doctor’s assistant attending with her 14-year-old daughter, said: “Some things I agree with, some things I don’t but at this point regardless Democrats need to come together and fight the craziness that’s going on. We have to vote for the people that are most going to do that for us. She’s a woman; she’s in a state that can go either way; she has to be moderate.”

The party that lost the White House is often the more energised in off-year elections and 2025 promises to be no different. A vendor outside the rally was selling merchandise with slogans such as “Anti Trump Grandmas Club”, “Are we great yet?”, “Cats against Trump”, “Elect a clown, expect a circus”, “Gulf of Mexico: est 1550”, “No Kings in America”, “No kings since 1776” and a silhouette of dog defecating on the word “Trump”.

Standing in a queue outside the sports arena, June Ameika, 61, a pilates and yoga teacher whose husband served in the navy for 30 years, said: “What’s going on in our country at the moment is absolutely frightening and so it takes all of us to come out and show support and be visible.

“Every election is about sending a message. We have to let Trump know that his behaviour is despicable, breaking the law is despicable, and we’re not going to stand for it. Donald Trump has basically no regard for the democracy of this country and that’s fundamental going forward.”

Spanberger is currently embarked on her second statewide bus tour of the campaign. On Thursday, she spoke at a “Latinos for Spanberger” event at a Mexican restaurant in Alexandria, delivering her stump speech in both English and Spanish – a language she used to conduct arrests during her days as a federal agent working narcotics cases.

She accused the Trump administration of terrorising communities with its hardline approach to immigration. “I am a law and order Democrat – I’m a former intel officer and a former federal agent – but it is not law and in order to have your citizens, your community members, live in fear,” she said.

Some attendees were government workers who have been furloughed since the shutdown began a month ago. Anna, 45, a Latino single mother who did not wish to give her last name, said: “I try to save, but it’s not going to last long. Instead of going out and contributing to the global economy, now it’s more restricted. I cannot spend a lot of money on certain things. It’s hard.”

Anna said she would vote for Spanberger because of immigration, abortion and LGBTQ rights and urged Latino voters, who swung towards the Republicans last year, to return to the Democratic fold. “I hope people are opening their eyes. Latinos have to unify. I hope those who were in the middle and went towards Trump will now switch.”

Spanberger presented herself as a bulwark against the chaos and cruelty emanating from Washington. She promised to work tirelessly to lower costs in housing, energy and healthcare and to improve public schools. She did not dwell on Trump and his attacks on institutions.

Lauren Spears, 55, who works part-time at a school, said: “I love her background: CIA, law enforcement, congresswoman. I love that she is reasonable, moderate, very smart. She is a wonky policy kind of person and is good at compromise, which is what our government desperately needs.”

Republicans have poured late money into the race but Trump has given only tepid support for Earle-Sears and has not campaigned with her in person – a clue that he suspects she cannot win. She has struggled to pull off the Trump-lite approach that Youngkin mastered four years ago by nodding to Maga without fully embracing it.

Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said: “The Republican candidate is a pleasant enough person but she’s far right. She is extreme. What worries me about Spanberger is she’s going to try and be bipartisan the way she’s advertising. She’s going to find the Democrats won’t put up with that either. This is not the time to be bipartisan.”