AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

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

“We were part of that 2018 class, and we sort of ran in there like: ‘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, drew a quick breath.

“It’s slightly different than the tone of where things are right now,” she said.

That is an understatement. Trump, a president the two Virginia Democrats campaigned against as they unseated established incumbent Republicans, is about to embark on a second term after mounting an improbable political comeback. Of the 35 Democratic women first elected in 2018, Spanberger and Wexton are among 14 who have since left or will be leaving Congress by next year.

That’s not to say their journey is over or that they are retreating from public discourse.

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 statehouse in 2017, followed by the election of Spanberger, Wexton and former Rep. 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 ran for reelection to their House seats, not including Rep. Elissa Slotkin, elected to the Senate by Michigan voters this year. And in those races, 20 won. They’ll be among the 150 women — 110 Democrats and 40 Republicans — serving in the 119th Congress next year, one woman shy of a record of 151 set in 2023.

Spanberger, meanwhile, is running for governor in a race comprised solely of 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 said, their absence is felt more acutely because there is less female representation to begin with. She said it’s unclear whether the U.S. will see another surge of women filing to run anytime soon.

She looked into why women said they ran in 2018 and “yes, there is evidence that they talked about Donald Trump,” Dittmar said. “I think the difference between ’16 and ’24 — and that we just can’t know yet — is the degree of exhaustion and the degree of toxicity that may go into a calculation about deciding whether or not to run for office.”

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

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

A bond forged in public service and friendship

In the stately formality of a congressional conference room, Spanberger and Wexton reminisced on their time on Capitol Hill. They have become uncommonly close, bound 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 stream of text messages that began after their victory speeches in 2018 has continued ever since.

Their bids for Congress were backed by many women who marched, phone-banked and organized in a grass-roots movement that decried Trump and worked to elect female Democrats.

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

Wexton, previously 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 vied 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 operative who stopped working at an education company to run for Congress, cultivated a knack for tackling lower-profile issues: bringing broadband to rural areas, fighting 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 last year.

“Both women really understood the districts that they represented and what the districts needed, and went about the work very effectively and without too much fanfare,” Cooperman said.

Spanberger and Wexton became fast friends while first campaigning for their House 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 quick-witted big sister — someone who gave her advice on everything from raising teenagers to navigating a legislature. At one point, Wexton wrote Spanberger a script for speaking on the House floor.

Wexton, with the help of an artificial intelligence program, spoke of Spanberger supporting her in a more vulnerable way: styling Wexton’s hair as she showed up to Congress with her health struggles.

“That is no small feat — I had experienced first-hand how hard it was becoming to do my hair,” Wexton said. “For the next almost 90 minutes, Abigail would put various potions in my hair and dry it with a round brush.

“It was wonderful. I felt so pampered.”

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

Wexton learned she had progressive supranuclear palsy in 2023. Within the last two years, she lost her ability to speak clearly and walk without assistance. In her interview, the congresswoman used her pointer finger to type thoughts on her tablet, which she then played aloud. In her final months in Congress, she said, well-meaning colleagues would talk to her like a child or reintroduce themselves to her.

“My PSP has robbed me of my voice, and others may take that to mean it has robbed me of my cognitive ability as well,” she said. “But that’s not true. I’m just as much me as I’ve always been.”

As the current term ends, many women are coming to terms with Trump’s ascent back to power. Many Democrats say the fight isn’t over but has changed in unexpected ways.

“To be very clear, I’m super excited that Eugene Vindman and Suhas Subramanyam are replacing us,” Spanberger said. “But it is 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 no longer there.”

Wexton said she hoped people, and women specifically, 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 in it.”

___

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

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© 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

A Shockoe Bottom bakery and coffee shop is doubling down in the city.

Whisk is planning to open a cafe in the Library of Virginia at 800 E. Broad St. in early January, owner Billy Bryan said.

Whisk will take over the space in the state library that was formerly occupied by Can Can Cafe, a now-shuttered spinoff location of Carytown-based French restaurant Can Can Brasserie.

Bryan said the expansion would allow Whisk to tap into what he called an underserved area for coffee, and the location would be able to serve not only people at the library but also nearby city and state government workers and those working at the General Assembly building.

“While you’re not getting walk-by pedestrians, you are able to capture and serve a huge market down there, with City Hall being next door, the staff in the library, the state buildings across the street,” he said.

Whisk, which continues to operate its original location at 2100 E. Main St., plans to serve coffee, baked goods, smoothies, sandwiches, soups and salads at the library location.

Library of Virginia Executive Director Scott Dodson said in a prepared statement that Whisk’s entry would support the library’s mission of being a community space.

“Whether our guests are here to see an exhibition, hear a book talk, do family research, or just looking for a place to meet, Whisk will add to the Library’s ability to serve as a public square for the city and Commonwealth,” Dodson said.

Whisk is leasing the cafe space in the atrium on the library’s first floor. Dedicated to preserving the state’s history and culture, the library says it attracts nearly 100,000 visitors annually with its exhibitions, events and resources, and has a collection of more than 130 million historic items.

The cafe has a dedicated seating area that can accommodate 50 people. Bryan declined to share the investment being made to launch the new Whisk location.

The Library of Virginia announced on social media in early September that Can Can was out, and that it was on the hunt for a new operator for the café space. Bryan said that after a short period of discussion, the library and Whisk were able to come to an arrangement for the coffee shop to take over the space.

“Over the course of several months we were able to determine it would be a good partnership and we’d be a good fit. Throughout the process, they talked to some other operators as well and they felt we most closely modeled what they were looking for,” Bryan said.

Bryan felt he could bring a unique perspective to the library-bound cafe. He worked as a librarian in a New York public library for a few years. He noted that his own love of books drew him to the partnership with the state library, and that Whisk has come to do more business with nonprofit and educational groups.

“Being able to marry my love of books and education with my love of culinary, it seemed like a natural progression. One of the things we’ve started to do as an organization is work more heavily with nonprofits and with organizations that are education-minded or arts-minded, either in philanthropy or our wholesale business,” he said.

In addition to selling coffee and pastries, Whisk also offers culinary classes and is expected to do so at the library space as well.

Whisk’s first day of business in the library is expected to be Jan. 6. It will be open 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The Library of Virginia’s atrium cafe space prior to the arrival of Can Can Cafe in 2022. Whisk is now preparing to take over the space and planning to open there in early January. (BizSense file)

The opening of the library cafe follows the closure earlier this year of Whisk’s western Henrico outpost at 8308 Staples Mill Road.

Bryan said the location, which was a neighborhood market concept, didn’t catch on as expected. Whisk shifted the Henrico outpost away from customer-facing retail into a catering facility before closing it entirely.

“Honestly, it’s just not a good location. The traffic just wasn’t sustainable for the expenses you were incurring there. While customers had asked us to be in a West End area, that particular area wasn’t necessarily the demographic that’s a Whisk customer,” he said.

The new library cafe is the latest chapter in Whisk’s nearly 10-year history. It first opened at 2100 E. Main St. in 2015 under the ownership of Morgan Botwinick, who sold the business to Bryan a little under three years ago.

Can Can’s run in the library cafe space began in late 2022 and ended shortly after Can Can was acquired this year by Housepitality Family, a local restaurant group that runs Boathouse and other eateries. Housepitality continues to operate Can Can’s flagship location in Carytown.

RICHMOND, Va. (WVVA) -Governor Glenn Youngkin released a statement about the recent drone sightings in Virginia.

His statement saying, the Commonwealth is home to many national security and critical infrastructure sites that the nation depends on every day.

“The Virginia State Police Homeland Security Division and Virginia Department of Emergency Management continue to closely coordinate through our Fusion Center with the greater law enforcement and first responder community regarding drone activity in the Commonwealth. We will continue to engage with numerous federal partners and release further information as it becomes known and available,” said Governor Youngkin.

The public can still assist Virginia by reporting observations to the Virginia Fusion Center at vfc.virginia.gov or by calling (877) 4VA-TIPS.

Copyright 2024 WVVA. All rights reserved.