Analysis: Spanberger sure did veto a lot of Democratic bills her freshman year

Abigail Spanberger vetoed 31 bills in her freshman year as governor, which is significant in that she’s supposedly a Democrat, and both houses of the Virginia General Assembly are majority Democrat.

Analysis from the Virginia Public Access Project shows that Spanberger’s same-party veto haul is an order of magnitude higher than any other governor dating back to 2000.

To be fair, we’ve only had a governor supposedly being of the same party as both houses of the General Assembly for six of the past 27 years.

Thanks, Republican gerrymandering!

Those governors:

Jim Gilmore

• 2000: 19 vetoes
• 2001: 12 vetoes

Bob McDonnell

• 2012: nine vetoes
• 2013: seven vetoes

Ralph Northam

• 2020: four vetoes

Abigail Spanberger

• 2026: 31 vetoes

More fun with numbers

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• Mark Warner (2002-2005), who was governor as Republicans held both houses of the General Assembly, issued a total of 18 vetoes.
• Tim Kaine (2006-2009) had two years with Republicans in control of both houses, and two years with a split legislature. His four-year veto tally: 43.
• Bob McDonnell (2010-2013) had two years of a split legislature and two years of a GOP legislature: Four-year veto tally: 21.
• Terry McAuliffe (2014-2017) had four years of a GOP legislature: Four-year veto tally: 130.
• Ralph Northam (2018-2021): Two years of a Republican legislature, two years of a Democrat legislature: Four-year veto tally: 45.
• Glenn Youngkin (2022-2025): Youngkin issued 41 vetoes during his two years with a split legislature. During his two years with a Democrat legislature: 397.