# Abigail Spanberger > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "Abigail Spanberger," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/abigail-spanberger/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *Governor of Virginia from 2025 and, before Congress, a CIA officer alongside John Kiriakou in the Counterterrorism Center, whom he calls a perfectly nice person who would have been a middle-of-the-road Republican in the 1970s and 1980s, and whose victory speech, to his surprise, said all the right things.* - **Office:** Governor of Virginia, elected November 2025 - **Shared history with Kiriakou:** They worked together in the CIA's Counterterrorism Center - **His personal verdict:** "Perfectly nice person" - **His political placement:** A middle-of-the-road Republican, by 1970s and 1980s standards - **Margin over her opponent:** Six percentage points, in the polling Kiriakou cited - **The victory speech:** Abortion and same-sex marriage amendments; a $15 minimum wage; parental leave - **His reaction to it:** "I hope, for the sake of having a viable Democratic party, that they listen" **Abigail Spanberger** is the governor of Virginia elected in November 2025, a former [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) officer and member of Congress, and one of the few serving American politicians with whom [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) can claim a working relationship inside the agency. ## The colleague Kiriakou states the connection plainly and repeatedly. *"I've taken a couple of swipes at Abby Spanberger, and I mentioned yesterday: Abby and I worked together in the CIA's Counterterrorism Center."*[1] The personal assessment is warm and the political one is not. Casting his early vote at the Arlington courthouse a fortnight before the election, he described her as *"a perfectly nice person, but she would, in the 1970s and 80s, be kind of a middle-of-the-road Republican."*[2] He repeats the placement without softening it: *"So Spanberger, in my view, is very conservative. She's from the conservative wing of the Democratic party."*[3] ## How she ran On the campaign itself, his description matches his placement of her. *"She ran as a moderate, a right-of-centre Democrat, a conservative Democrat."*[1] The debate he watched turned less on her positions than on her opponent's conduct, which he says was so relentless that *"Spanberger couldn't get a word out."* Her central line of attack, in his account, was that [Winsome Earle-Sears](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/winsome-earle-sears-and-the-machine-gun) supported discrimination.[3][4] ## The victory speech Kiriakou's assessment changed, at least in tone, on the night. *"In her post-election victory speech last night, she said all the right things. And man, I hope, for the sake of having a viable Democratic party, that they listen to what she said."*[1] The list he gave: constitutional amendments to guarantee abortion rights and to recognise same-sex marriages in perpetuity, and a first bill guaranteeing a $15 minimum wage plus paid parental leave. He noted the significance of the list in one clause, *"none of which has ever been done in Virginia before"*, and predicted that a handgun registration measure would probably fail.[5][6] His approval was for the method rather than the person: *"real ideas for a change, instead of: oh, vote for me because I'm not Donald Trump."*[6] ## See also - [Winsome Earle Sears And The Machine Gun](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/winsome-earle-sears-and-the-machine-gun) - [Jason Miyares](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/jason-miyares) - [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) ## Sources 1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-11-05), at 02:36. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mebPnYD1ko&t=156s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-05-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-1mebPn/ 2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-10-22), at 32:50. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhvUJehZGo&t=1970s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-22-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-10-22), at 33:56. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhvUJehZGo&t=2036s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-22-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 4. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-10-22), at 34:26. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhvUJehZGo&t=2066s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-22-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 5. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-11-05), at 03:08. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mebPnYD1ko&t=188s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-05-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-1mebPn/ 6. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-11-05), at 03:43. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mebPnYD1ko&t=223s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-05-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-1mebPn/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/abigail-spanberger/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt