13 News Now [Norfolk]: Spanberger Plans to Move Quickly on Issue of Affordability
Democrat Abigail Spanberger will take the oath of office on January 17 in Richmond. The Governor-elect said she plans to move quickly on the issue of affordability with plans to bring down costs in energy, housing, and healthcare.
“Seeing the fact that we’ve built the path to increasing housing supply — that’s not going to happen quickly — but a reduction in evictions, that can happen quickly,” she explained. She also highlighted immediate goals for health care, stating that while lowering insurance and drug costs is a complex process, “we can absolutely say you have the right to go to the pharmacy of your choosing; that can happen quickly.”
WTOP [Washington, D.C.]: Spanberger Talks Affordability, Data Centers and Top Priorities Heading into Virginia Governorship
Anne Kramer: The first 100 days in office, always extremely important for a new Governor. Some of the highlights you’ve mentioned as priorities, things you campaigned on, you just talked about some of them: affordable housing, lowering energy and utility bills for Virginians, lowering the cost of prescription drugs for folks, among other priorities. How do you hit the ground running on all of these, Governor-elect?
Spanberger: Well, it is an all hands on deck approach. It’s why we’ve been furiously appointing not just heads of our secretariats, with all of our secretary designates, but agency heads, ensuring that at every step along the way, I have an administration that knows that the marching orders are to focus on affordability. It’s why, two weeks ago, with leadership from the General Assembly, I released the “Affordable Virginia Agenda” so that day one of this General Assembly session, they are working, among all the priorities that they have, to ensure that they are moving forward the affordability related legislation that are priorities of my administration and arguably for Virginians as a whole.
Virginia Business Magazine: Spanberger Talks Economic Priorities in Exclusive Q&A
Virginia Business: You won by one of the widest-ever margins in the state’s history, and some politicos deemed your victory a rebuke of President Donald Trump’s policies. Given that, what do you consider your mandate to be as Governor?
Spanberger: In thinking through what is the mandate of my election and what motivated so many people to get out and vote, I think about the things I talked about on the campaign trail — issues of affordability and housing, health care, energy. It’s really standing up for the federal workforce and recognizing the strength of Virginia’s economy is intertwined with the federal government.
VPM: Virginia Lawmakers Seek to Balance Energy Affordability, Reliability in 2026
Virginia Democrats campaigned on affordability this year — and incoming Gov. Abigail Spanberger made energy costs a key part of that message. As the 2026 General Assembly session approaches, lawmakers are already debating how best to address rates and what costs are worthwhile.
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The Governor-elect announced a slate of affordability proposals in December, including six energy-related policies.
Her proposals focused on increasing renewable energy deployment and expanding energy efficiency programs. She also proposed ordering the State Corporation Commission to check the calculations of utilities when planning for future demand growth and take a closer look at which transmission lines have extra capacity — in theory, avoiding the need for expensive, often controversial projects.
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