RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – Freshman Democratic U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger has kept her seat in a competitive Virginia congressional race in the Richmond suburbs.
The former CIA operations officer defeated Republican challenger and state House delegate Nick Freitas in a close race that was called on Sunday.
Spanberger is considered one of Congress’ more moderate Democrats and was part of a wave of women who helped Democrats retake the U.S. House in 2018. But Freitas had tried to tie Spanberger to her party’s leadership and said that it was out of sync with constituents.
Spanberger spent nearly a decade with the CIA, working on counterterrorism and nuclear proliferation cases. She is one of two moderate Virginia Democrats who held on to U.S. House seats they flipped from red to blue two years ago, as Democrats’ strength in the Old Dominion continues to grow.
The 7th District stretches from the suburbs west of Richmond to the exurbs of Washington to rural towns at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It supported President Donald Trump’s first presidential bid.