Spanberger’s Affordability Promises Collapse on First Day

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Well, folks, here we are in the Old Dominion, where the peanuts are salty, the history is thick, and the politics? Oh, they’re as predictable as a politician’s promise to cut taxes while building a new monument to themselves. Enter Abigail Spanberger, Virginia’s shiny new governor, sworn in on January 17, 2026, after a landslide win in the 2025 election with 57.6 percent of the vote against Winsome Earle-Sears’ 42.2 percent.

During her campaign, she played the moderate card like a pro at a poker table full of amateurs—talking up pragmatic fixes for skyrocketing costs in housing, healthcare, and energy, all while vowing to be the grown-up in the room who works across the aisle. “Passionate pragmatist,” she called herself, promising to lower bills, boost the economy, and keep things sensible. Virginians bought it hook, line, and sinker. But fast-forward to her first week in office, and it’s looking less like a balanced budget and more like a left-leaning lurch. Let’s unpack her opening acts: the executive orders that hit like a surprise tax audit, the appointments that smell of insider deals, and the legislation she’s backing that’s got more progressive flair than a San Francisco parade.

Executive Orders: The Day-One Dash to the Left

You know that feeling when you order a moderate burger and end up with a tofu patty slathered in organic kale sauce? That’s Spanberger’s first day on the job. She signed ten executive orders on January 17, 2026, right after the inauguration confetti settled, and while some nod to her campaign chatter about affordability—like directing agencies to hunt for ways to trim living expenses within 90 days or setting up a task force to wrestle down healthcare spending—they’re laced with moves that scream anything but middle-of-the-road.

Take Executive Order 10, which rescinds the previous governor’s directive requiring state police and corrections folks to lend a hand to federal immigration enforcement on civil matters. Spanberger framed it as freeing up local cops to focus on real crimes, but in an America First world where borders matter more than ever, this looks like rolling out the welcome mat for folks who’d rather skip the line. Her campaign talked tough on public safety, yet here she is, potentially tying the hands of law enforcement amid a national push to deport threats. And don’t get me started on Executive Order 9, which revives the equal opportunity playbook with a heavy emphasis on diversity initiatives, including protections for gender identity and expression—rescinding a prior order that had dialed back the DEI circus. Moderate? More like a U-turn into the progressive express lane, where every decision gets a rainbow filter whether it needs one or not.

Then there’s the Economic Resiliency Task Force in Order 5, geared up to buffer Virginia from federal cuts like those from the Department of Government Efficiency. It’s dressed up as practical prep work, but it reeks of preemptive resistance to policies aimed at trimming federal fat—policies that could actually put more money back in Virginians’ pockets by curbing waste. And Order 4 on education? It accelerates literacy and math programs, sure, but ignores the cries for school choice that could truly empower families, opting instead for more state-directed tweaks. These aren’t the actions of a centrist fixer; they’re the opening salvos of someone who’s ditched the bipartisan bridge for a one-way progressive highway.

Appointments: Packing the Deck with Pals

If politics is a game, Spanberger’s stacking the cards early. On her first day, she announced 27 board appointments across George Mason University, the University of Virginia, and the Virginia Military Institute—12, 10, and 5 respectively. At least 13 of these picks were donors to her campaign, turning what should be merit-based slots into a gratitude gala. Take the University of Virginia board, where she slotted in fresh faces just after five holdovers from the prior administration resigned under scrutiny. It’s like cleaning house before the party, but the new guests all seem to owe her a favor.

And let’s not overlook the cabinet picks announced in the lead-up. She tapped Sesha Joi Moon as Chief Diversity Officer on January 1, 2026, signaling a full-throated return to DEI priorities that her predecessor had wisely mothballed. Moon’s role? To steer state government toward “inclusion” that’s code for quotas over qualifications. Other slots, like Marvin Figueroa for Health and Human Resources or Candi Mundon King for Secretary of the Commonwealth, round out a team that’s heavy on progressive creds. Spanberger campaigned as the anti-extremist, the one who’d put Virginia first without the ideological baggage. But these choices? They’re like inviting the fox to guard the henhouse, ensuring her agenda sails through without a whisper of opposition from the right.

Legislation: The Progressive Wish List in Disguise

Here’s a list of Bills they’re putting up for the Dem-controlled State House and Senate session:

– New 4.3% sales tax on Uber Eats, Amazon, etc deliveries.
– New sales tax on admissions to a wide variety of businesses.
– Create two new higher tax brackets of 8% and 10% on people making over $600K.
– A new 10% tax bracket for anyone making over $1M.
– 3.8% investment tax on top of state income taxes.
– Raise the hotel tax.
– New personal property tax on landscaping equipment.
– Ban gas powered leaf blowers.
– Guarantee illegal aliens free education.
– Make it illegal to approach somebody at an abortion clinic.
– Extend the time absentee ballots can be received after election day to three days
– Allow people to cast their votes electronically through the internet.
– Expand ranked-choice voting.
– Extend the deadline for ballot curing to one week after election day.
– Redact the addresses of political candidates from FOIAs.
– Add Virginia to the National Popular Vote Compact for presidential electors.
– Make it illegal to hand count ballots.
– $500 sales tax on firearm suppressors .
– “Assault weapons” and large capacity magazine ban.
– 11% sales tax on all firearms and ammunition.
– Prohibit outdoor shooting of a firearm on land less than 5 acres.
– Lower the criminal penalties for robbery.
– Ban the arrest of illegal aliens in courthouses.
– Remove mandatory minimum sentences.
– Allow localities to install speed cameras.
– Replace Columbus Day with “Indigenous Peoples Day.”

Spanberger’s not stopping at pen strokes; she’s already pushing a legislative package dubbed the Affordable Virginia Agenda, unveiled in her January 19, 2026, address to the General Assembly. On paper, it’s about slashing costs in healthcare, energy, and housing—echoing her campaign pledges. But dig in, and it’s a Trojan horse of lefty delights. She’s backing a hike in the minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour, which sounds peachy until you remember how it jacks up prices for everyone else, especially small businesses still reeling from inflation. Teacher and cop pay bumps? Fine, but paired with gun control grabs like banning ghost guns and tightening red-flag laws—vetoed before, now poised for her signature—that chip away at Second Amendment rights under the guise of safety.

Energy-wise, she’s all in on rejoining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cap-and-trade scheme her predecessor ditched because it hiked utility bills. Campaign Spanberger talked lowering energy costs; Governor Spanberger’s ready to green-light a program that could add hundreds to the average family’s tab. And on the hot-button front, she’s supporting constitutional amendments, including one enshrining reproductive rights up to birth—framed as “freedom” but feeling like a radical rewrite of life-and-liberty basics. Polls showed affordability as Virginians’ top worry at 49 percent in late 2025 surveys, yet her push includes these ideological add-ons that stray far from the moderate lane she promised. It’s like ordering a sensible sedan and getting a hybrid hot rod that guzzles virtue-signaling fuel.

In the end, Spanberger’s opening act isn’t the moderate makeover Virginia was sold—it’s a comedic tragedy of broken promises, where the “pragmatic” mask slips to reveal the same old progressive playbook. Virginians wanted relief from high costs and common-sense governance; instead, they’re getting a governor who’s dancing to the left while the band plays on. If this is moderation, I’m a vegan at a barbecue. But hey, at least the next four years will give us plenty to chuckle about—or cry over, depending on your tax bracket.