RICHMOND, VA – Today, Independent Women’s Voice launched a campaign to stand up for women by exposing the anti-female agenda of Virginia gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger. While Spanberger wants voters to believe she is a sensible moderate, her anti-woman record is extreme. 

Independent Women Voice’s layered campaign includes radio ads airing across the state through iHeartRadio highlighting Abigail Spanberger’s failure to stand with women and her vote against protecting women’s sports—an issue that polls over 80% with swing voters. Independent Women’s Voice is also organizing a series of opinion editorials from local women. 

Despite thousands of women and girls being forced to compete with men in women’s sports, losing roster spots and playing time, and suffering injuries—including in her state of Virginia—Spanberger continues to vote against measures to ensure that women’s sports are for women only. Spanberger failed the Riley Gaines Stand with Women Scorecard, a first-of-its-kind resource that tells every American who Stands with Women and who does not.


Independent Women Features (IW Features), the grassroots storytelling and original journalism arm of Independent Women, has published various stories on the devastating consequences of the influence of ideologues like Spanberger in Virginia schools. After Roanoke College and the NCAA attempted to force the women’s swim team to accept a male athlete, who formerly swam for Roanoke College’s men’s team, as their teammate, three young women bravely put their athletic careers on the line to stand up for fair and safe competition. In Loudoun County Public Schools, Policy 8040, passed in 2021, allows students to use the restroom and locker room that aligns with their “gender identity.” 

This policy has enabled dangerous situations for locker rooms and bathrooms, and IW Features reported that two sexual assaults occurred in the district’s high schools as a result of Policy 8040:

“The assault rightly triggered parental outrage, but the district’s priority was and remains on students’ so-called right to use whichever facility they prefer.”

Carrie Sheffield, senior policy analyst at Independent Women, recently wrote an op-ed titled “Abigail Spanberger Is No Moderate,” where she says, in part:

“While still in Congress, Spanberger also voted against the Laken Riley Act, which enabled the Trump administration to take an MS-13 gang leader off the streets of Virginia. She capped off Women’s History Month by happily celebrating ‘Trans Visibility Day’ and also voted against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023, landing her a failed score on Independent Women’s Voice’s Riley Gaines ‘Stand with Women’ Scorecard.” 

As her record shows, Spanberger is the anti-woman candidate and, even if given the opportunity, she still won’t stand up for women’s rights. 

Independent Women’s Voice remains dedicated to improving Americans’ lives by developing and advancing policies that enhance people’s opportunity and well-being, particularly on issues that women, as well as younger Americans, are impacted by and by defending women’s rights.

Independent Women’s Voice radio ads running across Virginia can be found HERE, HERE, and HERE.

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www.iwv.org 

Independent Women fights for women by expanding support for policy solutions that aren’t just well-intended, but actually preserve and advance opportunity and well-being.