Abigail Spanberger Accuses American Founders Of Misogyny
Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger said America’s founders would be “pretty surprised” if she became Virginia’s governor during a college commencement speech Friday.
The governor, 46, delivered keynote remarks at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University during the commencement ceremonies, which run May 9-16. She argued that America’s history “is not a straight line” and said she thought the country’s founders would be “pretty surprised” that she held Virginia’s highest public office and also by some of those present. Spanberger won the state’s November 2025 gubernatorial election against former Virginia Republican Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.
“Each generation must decide whether the words on these founding documents are simply ink on parchment or whether they mean something tangible in our country today,” Spanberger said. “And class of 26, you too. You can choose what the words on your diploma mean to you.” (RELATED: Abigail Spanberger’s Sprawling Gun Crackdown Hits the Legal Wall Right From the Start)
She emphasized that their diplomas marked their academic success and the difficulties they had overcome.
“And just like our individual life paths, the path of our shared American history is not a straight line,” Spanberger continued. “And if our founders were here today, I feel like they would be pretty surprised to see me here as governor of Virginia, and pretty surprised to see some of you sitting here in the audience. But that’s exactly the point, as we move forward as individuals, as a Commonwealth, as a country. And you, as new graduates of Virginia Tech. We can follow the compass of where we want to be, who we are, and where we’re going. “
The Founders declared the United States free and independent in 1776, at a time when women holding formal political power were rare outside of a handful of royal figures, such as Austrian Empress Maria Theresa and Russian Tsar Catherine the Great. A New Jersey state constitutional reform in 1790 allowed propertied women to vote, although this changed in the years that followed in some elections, with an 1807 law disenfranchising black women and men for all elective offices in an apparent effort to end the divide, according to the American Revolution Museum. Wyoming extended the right to vote to women in 1869, while it was a territory, and adult female citizens of Virginia gained the right to vote after ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920.
The Daily Caller has reached out to the Virginia governor’s office for comment.
