Two Virginia women who came to Congress on a mission prepare to leave at a critical moment

WASHINGTON -- 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.”

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