PARRISH: A Tale of Two Business Climates
Spanberger's "Lucy and the Football" gambit on Virginia's right to work statutes should raise questions among Virginia's business leaders, writes Parrish.
Virginia’s business community has long recognized that protecting Virginia Right to Work laws as the single most important policy enabling the Commonwealth’s economy to thrive and attract out-of-state investment.
The recent Virginia renaissance recapturing our status as CNBC’s #1 “Best Place to do Business” continues to be spearheaded by Governor Glenn Youngkin’s investment in four key areas: infrastructure, education, preserving Virginia’s AAA bond rating, and a vigorous defense of our right-to-work statute.
Yet announced 2025 gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger’s fragile record in Washington paints a very different picture than the one carefully maintained by her handlers. In fact, should Spanberger’s record point prove anything, the direction she will take Virginia will spell disaster for our businesses and our economy.
Let’s be very clear about the stakes. Virginia enjoys a delicate yet energetic environment where small businesses are thriving, local manufacturers growing, and major employers moving in, finding a home in the Old Dominion. Our right-to-work laws have protected our business ranking for over 70 years. Yet too many Virginia families are feeling pressured to seek better and higher-paying jobs elsewhere.
If Youngkin has managed to stop this bleeding over the last four years, then the next four years will be decisive. Will Virginia return to the upheaval of the McAuliffe-Northam era as they watch Spanberger champion a repeal of right-to-work? Or do the smart pro-growth policies and poise of the Youngkin era deserve another opportunity?
Spanberger’s fragility lies in her brittle voting record on a host of issues which leaves her particularly vulnerable in a general election to Virginia voters.
First and foremost, let’s settle for some numbers.
Spanberger is a member of one of the most disliked legislative bodies in American history. Congress currently has a 12% approval rating — low even for them. Yet Spanberger has voted with Biden nearly 100% of the time — a president with approval ratings consistently in the low 40s among Virginians.
We have seen the greatest human migration into the United States in our 248-year history, consistently making immigration a top issue with voters. Yet once again, she has consistently voted with her party to stop measures that would have secured the border and stop the influx of over 6.5 million illegal immigrants.
Then there’s inflation. Virginians are still suffering from Spanberger’s repeated support for Biden’s failed economic policies, including the Inflation Reduction Act, which has force fed $3.37 trillion in new federal spending into the economy over the past two years and created double-digit inflation rates on basic goods like gasoline, food, and housing.
The impact our weak economy has on Virginians cannot be hammered home hard enough. Inflation alone has gobbled up over 20% of our hard-earned dollars’ value, with the price of some basic goods rising as high as 40% since 2021.
As Reagan noted, inflation is a tax on the poor, and it is working-class Virginians paying the price for Spanberger’s spending spree. Only now is the public starting to face the reality that inflationary prices are not coming back down to earth anytime soon. One can imagine the television ads tying Washington’s debt-fueled inflation spike directly at the feet of the Congresswoman precisely because she supported the policies creating the impact.
Finally, and arguably most importantly, when it comes to Virginia’s business environment, Spanberger’s position on right-to-work ranges from opaque to openly hostile.
In Congress, Spanberger co-sponsored the PRO Act in 2021, legislation that would have repealed the right-to-work in 26 states including Virginia — and would effectively shut down independent contracting and many other small businesses. Dragooning Virginia workers into forced unionism would only strengthen unions bosses’ political power. Such a move would break the back of the economic renaissance Virginia enjoys under Youngkin’s leadership. By contrast, Spanberger’s efforts prioritized union power at the expense of worker choice.
If there was any stronger contrast between the failed economic policies of the past and the clear vision for the future fostered under the Youngkin administration, Spanberger’s attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable within her own political party isn’t just a red flag for business leaders, but a pyromaniac dancing among the powder kegs. Spanberger will have to decide; she cannot have it both ways.
The race in 2025 will come down to a simple contrast of visions. If you like the Biden-Harris legacy of inflation, a fragile economy, border insecurity, and weakness abroad? Spanberger agrees with – and votes with – that agenda nearly 100% of the time, bringing that economic fragility back to Richmond.
However, if Virginians prefer the Glenn Youngkin model of governance which resulted in $5 billion in tax relief for Virginia businesses, record investments in public safety and education, and a return to fiscal sanity? Virginia’s business community can and should muster the backbone to insist upon policies helping those who understand the difference between profit and loss.
Virginia’s business community deserves to hear where Spanberger stands on these issues, especially when, at their core, they know her voting record belies her rhetoric.
Spanberger’s voting record is the best indication of how she will govern in Virginia, not the pollyannish sales pitch we hear today. Youngkin’s record of achievement deserves an extended term with pro-business leadership, not an agenda seeking to harm that economic renaissance.
So, what now? The call to action is rather simple: Virginia voters should put Spanberger and any other person vying to lead our Commonwealth on the spot to stop endorsing anti-worker policies such as the PRO Act which put union leader interests above the choices and flexibility of workers.
TIM PARRISH is a Marine Corps veteran, founder and executive of a Virginia-based business group, and currently serves as State Director of Americans for Prosperity —Virginia.