Three-term House Agriculture Committee member Abigail Spanberger, a leading advocate for farm conservation programs, announced Monday that she won't run for re-election next year and will instead seek the Democratic nomination for governor of Virginia in 2025.
Spanberger became a specialist on conservation policy while representing a district that includes rural areas of central Virginia, and she was the chief House Democratic sponsor of the Growing Climate Solutions Act, enacted in 2022 to authorize USDA to take a role in developing ag carbon markets by certifying farm advisers.
She is the ranking member of Agriculture’s Conservation, Research and Biotechnology Subcommittee, which she chaired when Democrats controlled the House.
She has been rated as one of the more bipartisan members of Congress and twice voted against Nancy Pelosi for speaker of the House. She has received the “Friend of Farm Bureau Award” from the Virginia Farm Bureau.
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Spanberger’s web site says she is “committed to expanding farmers’ access to domestic and foreign markets, strengthening voluntary conservation programs and expanding access to high-speed broadband.” She says she led the largest investment in conservation programs since the Dust Bowl, which was signed into law in the Inflation Reduction Act last year.
Earlier this year, Spanberger called for increased investment in historically Black colleges and universities citing a report by USDA and the Department of Education that showed that decades of state underfunding of Virginia State University, an 1890 land-grant institution, created “a severe gap in its funding relative to other universities.” She said Virginia State would have received an additional $277 million over the past 30 years if it had been funded at a level comparable to Virginia Tech.
Spanberger will face competition in the Virginia gubernatorial primary from the Black mayor or Richmond, Levar Stoney.
