Abigail Spanberger opened her general election bid for Virginia governor Wednesday using her high school alma mater near Richmond.
"I grew up walking the halls of Tucker High School," the former congresswoman says as she walks past a bank of lockers in her first ad since securing the Democratic nomination. Later, she notes her experience as a CIA case officer, then in the halls of Congress as a tough-minded, get-things-done lawmaker.
The same kind of message is echoing in New Jersey from Rep. Mikie Sherrill, as she also makes a bid for governor . Both women are selling themselves as Democrats who can rise above the rancor of Donald Trump's Washington .
For national Democrats who have spent months debating how to counter the president's aggressive second administration, it's a reminder of what worked for the party during Trump's first term. Spanberger and Sherrill were headliners in the 2018 roster of center-left Democrats who helped flip House control from Republicans with balanced appeals to moderates, progressives and even anti-Trump conservatives. Now, they're leading statewide tickets in races that could offer Democrats a back-to-the-future path forward as they look toward next year's midterms.
"There are a lot of similarities" in Democrats' current position and the 2018 campaigns, said Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., who, as a House member, chaired his party's congressional campaign arm during Trump's first midterm election cycle.