共和党国会议员指责弗吉尼亚州州长为确保获得国情咨文回应角色，背弃了反杰利蝾螈（选区操纵）立场
作者：查尔斯·克里茨
福克斯新闻
发布时间：2026年2月24日 美国东部时间下午6:20
独家报道：弗吉尼亚州州长阿比盖尔·斯潘伯格（Abigail Spanberger）若不是支持弗吉尼亚州颇具争议的重新划区方案并遵守党派路线，绝不会获得民主党官方回应唐纳德·特朗普总统国情咨文的播出时间，一位共和党高层人士表示。
由弗吉尼亚州参议院领袖、民主党人L.路易斯·卢卡斯（L. Louise Lucas）提出的新国会选区图，若4月通过修宪重新划区，将消除弗吉尼亚州6比5的共和党占优的国会席位比例，仅剩西南弗吉尼亚州共和党众议员摩根·格里菲斯（Morgan Griffith）占据有利席位。
卢卡斯和众议院议长、朴次茅斯民主党人唐·斯科特（Don Scott）牵头推动了这次重新划区计划，同时也面临着由共和党少数派支持的塔兹韦尔县诉讼带来的阻力。
来自弗吉尼亚州的众议员本·克莱恩（Ben Cline）的选区从罗阿诺克郊区沿11号美国国道和81号州际公路延伸至靠近贝里维尔的西弗吉尼亚州边界，若民主党得逞，他将是可能因数学优势而被推翻的共和党人之一。
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弗吉尼亚州州长阿比盖尔·斯潘伯格（左）；众议员本·克莱恩（右）（Marvin Joseph/Getty Images；Bill Clark；Getty Images）
克莱恩在接受福克斯新闻数字版独家采访时表示，斯潘伯格对重新划区的支持与其之前公开抨击以党派方式进行选区操纵的言论相悖。
他补充说，正是斯潘伯格当前的支持使她成为其全国性政党的宠儿，以至于该党将她作为国情咨文回应者进行宣传。
“斯潘伯格州长试图讨好全国民主党人以提高自己的知名度，并试图通过默许弗吉尼亚州立法机构这种党派性选区操纵来登上全国政治舞台，”克莱恩表示。
“她竞选时承诺不会搞选区操纵；称选区操纵是错误的，但在关键时刻却发生了转变，并且借此机会奖励像巴拉克·奥巴马和哈基姆·杰弗里斯这样的全国性政党领袖。”
克莱恩称，他对这一消息并不感到惊讶，还表示斯潘伯格在去年与前副州长温索姆·西尔斯（Winsome Sears）的竞选期间也对关键问题做出了”错误陈述”。
克莱恩回忆起曾与当时的众议员斯潘伯格合作——两人曾经常在支持弗吉尼亚州关键产业如农业方面保持一致——但他现在不再从这个角度看待这位州长了。
“阿比盖尔·斯潘伯格曾在众议院农业委员会任职，喜欢谈论她与弗吉尼亚农业的联系。但我的选区目前是弗吉尼亚州农业最集中的选区，而她却将其分割成五个不同的选区，分配给北弗吉尼亚州民主党人以凑齐他们的席位数字。”他说。
克莱恩称这一举措对弗吉尼亚州农民是一种冒犯，因为新的选区划分剥夺了他们在华盛顿的集体发声权，反而迫使他们只能游说所在社区落入的任何自由派郊区来源的选区。
[斯潘伯格信号左转后倾向激进；共和党领袖警告”弗吉尼亚其他地区将被’费尔法克斯化’”]
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弗吉尼亚州共和党众议员本·克莱恩于2023年5月23日周二在华盛顿国会山俱乐部参加众议院共和党核心小组会议时抵达（Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images）
“她应该为此感到羞耻，”克莱恩补充道，如果斯潘伯格坚持她担任州长前认为选区操纵错误的立场，”民主党人根本不会再考虑她，因为她不会配合他们通过这种选区操纵努力实际夺取众议院多数席位的计划。”
他说，相反，她正因为转向党派路线而获得”奖励”。
他选区的民众也对斯潘伯格除了重新划区计划之外的其他行为发出警告，包括对生活成本的评论和其他承诺。
[民主党称特朗普重新划区推动反制弗吉尼亚推进新众议院选区图]
“他们对她从竞选承诺到实际施政的转变非常不满。我认为他们在4月21日不会给出好脸色。我认为他们会投票否决这次操纵弗吉尼亚州选区的企图。”
对立法机构批准的修宪语言也产生了担忧——该修正案将于4月21日提交选民，内容询问是否希望”恢复公平”，克莱恩和其他反对者（包括R-斯图尔特的德尔·雷恩·威廉姆斯议员）表示这一表述具有误导性，实质上有利于党派性民主党政客。
克莱恩表示，重新划区是斯潘伯格和里士满民主党人激进改变选举法、经济政策、税收、与联邦移民当局合作协议等努力的核心。
“斯潘伯格州长退出与州警察的287-G协议是不可接受的。这使我们成为暴力非法移民的庇护州，这些人试图逃避对其罪行的问责。他们来到弗吉尼亚州，而斯潘伯格州长拒绝允许州警察与移民与海关执法局（ICE）合作。”他说。
“因此，斯潘伯格州长以及州议会的这种鲁莽行为，肯定对弗吉尼亚州西部地区产生了影响。”
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弗吉尼亚州罗阿诺克天际线上的米尔山之星（Mill Mountain Star）（Jeff Greenberg/Getty Images）
根据新的选区图，克莱恩目前的第6选区将被划分为新的第10、11、7、6和9选区，其中第9选区由格里菲斯代表。
而不是一条从西南向东北沿殖民时代”山谷大道”（Valley Pike）延伸的椭圆形选区，住在博特图尔县的克莱恩将发现自己要么在第6选区，要么在第9选区。
第10选区位于温彻斯特附近，与像雷斯通（Reston）这样的自由派华盛顿郊区相连，第11选区从卢雷蜿蜒至华盛顿，留出空间让”蝎子形”的第7选区向西部的西德尼山和东部的波瓦坦延伸出两个”钳子”状区域，第6选区则连接查尔茨维尔、哈里森堡和罗阿诺克等农村腹地的蓝色城市。
人口密集的自由派费尔法克斯县将在五个不同的选区中占据一席之地，延伸到人口较少的保守地区。
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新的第2选区目前包括开普查尔斯、阿科马克和弗吉尼亚海滩，将向西移动足够距离以切断切萨皮克市大量民主党友好的地区。
批评者还将其比作前马里兰州第3选区——一位联邦法官谴责该选区为”翼龙形状”，依赖帕塔普斯科河和切萨皮克湾而非土地来连接安纳波利斯和巴尔的摩之间的几个脱节部分。
目前由埃尔克里奇民主党人莎拉·埃尔弗雷思（Sarah Elfreth）代表的新选区形状相对更流畅。
福克斯新闻数字版已联系斯潘伯格寻求置评。
查尔斯·克里茨是福克斯新闻数字版记者。
他于2013年加入福克斯新闻，担任作家和制作助理。
查尔斯负责报道福克斯新闻数字版的媒体、政治和文化新闻。
查尔斯是宾夕法尼亚州本地人，毕业于天普大学，获广播新闻学士学位。新闻线索可发送至charles.creitz@fox.com。
New Dem star’s quick hard-left turn after ‘moderate’ campaign won her coveted response to Trump: Lawmaker
Republican congressman accuses governor of abandoning anti-gerrymandering stance to secure State of the Union response role
By Charles Creitz
Fox News
Published February 24, 2026 6:20pm EST
EXCLUSIVE: Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger would never have been given airtime in the Democrats’ official response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union if it weren’t for her support of the commonwealth’s controversial redistricting and adherence to the party line, a top Republican said.
A new congressional map credited to Virginia Senate Leader L. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, would eliminate Virginia’s 6–5 Republican-to-Democrat congressional ratio and leave only southwestern Virginia Republican Rep. Morgan Griffith in a favorable seat if a constitutional amendment to redraw the maps passes in April.
Lucas and House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, have spearheaded the redistricting plan, while also facing headwinds from a Tazewell County lawsuit supported by the Republican minority.
Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., whose district runs from the Roanoke suburbs along U.S. 11 and Interstate 81 to the West Virginia line near Berryville, would be one of the Republicans likely unseated by sheer math if Democrats have their way.
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Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, left; Rep. Ben Cline, right.(Marvin Joseph/Getty Images; Bill Clark; Getty Images)
Cline told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that Spanberger’s support for redistricting belies her prior public comments lambasting the idea of gerrymandering or redistricting in a partisan way.
He added that it is Spanberger’s current support that has made her a darling of her national party to the point they are showcasing her as the State of the Union respondent.
“Governor Spanberger is trying to play the national Democrats to raise her profile and try and get on the national scene on the agenda by acquiescing to this partisan gerrymandering of the Virginia legislature,” Cline said.
“She campaigned on not gerrymandering; on saying that gerrymandering was wrong, and that flips when push comes to shove and she gets a chance to reward those leaders in the national party like Barack Obama and Hakeem Jeffries.”
Cline said he’s not surprised by the news, adding that Spanberger also made “misstatements” about key issues during her campaign against former Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears last year.
Cline said he recalls working with then-Rep. Spanberger in Congress – and that the two of them were often united in support of key Virginia industries like agriculture – but that he no longer recognizes the governor in that light.
“Abigail Spanberger was on the House Agriculture Committee and loved to talk about her connection to Virginia agriculture. But my district is currently the most agriculture-based district in Virginia and she has chopped it into five different districts and parceled it out to Northern Virginia Democrats to use to make their numbers work,” he said.
Cline said the move is offensive to Virginia farmers, as the new map strips them of a collective voice in Washington and instead forces them to lobby whichever liberal-suburb-sourced district their community falls into.
[SPANBERGER SIGNALS LEFT BENT AFTER CENTRIST CAMPAIGN; GOP LEADER WARNS OF ‘FAIRFAXING THE REST OF VA’]
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Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., arrives for the House Republicans’ caucus meeting at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington on Tuesday, May 23, 2023.(Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“She should be ashamed of herself,” Cline said, adding that if Spanberger had kept to her pre-governorship position that gerrymandering is wrong, “the Democrats wouldn’t have given her a second look, because she wouldn’t have been playing along with a plan that they have for actually seizing the House majority through this gerrymandering effort.”
Instead, she’s being “rewarded” for pivoting to the party line, he said.
People in his district are also sounding the alarm about Spanberger beyond the gerrymandering plans, citing affordability commentary and other promises as well.
[DEMOCRATS SAY TRUMP REDISTRICTING PUSH BACKFIRING AS VIRGINIA ADVANCES NEW HOUSE MAPS]
“They’re very upset with the way she’s flipped from her campaign pledges to the way she’s actually governing. And I don’t think they’re going to respond well on April 21. I think they are going to vote down this effort to gerrymander Virginia.”
Concerns also arose over the legislature-approved language of the amendment — set to go before voters April 21 — which asks if they want to “restore fairness,” a phrase Cline and other opponents, including Del. Wren Williams, R-Stuart, have said is misleading and essentially benefits partisan Democratic politicians.
Cline said the redistricting is the marquee of Spanberger and Richmond Democrats’ efforts to radically change election laws, economic policy, taxation, cooperation agreements with federal immigration authorities and more.
“What Governor Spanberger did by withdrawing from our 287-G agreement with the state police is unacceptable. It makes us a sanctuary state for violent, illegal immigrants who are trying to escape being held accountable for their crimes. They come to Virginia, and Governor Spanberger refuses to allow state police to work with ICE,” he said.
“And so this type of reckless behavior, not only by Governor Spanberger but also the state assembly, is definitely having an impact out here in the western part of Virginia,” he said.
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The Mill Mountain Star dots the Roanoke skyline in Virginia.(Jeff Greenberg/Getty Images)
Under the new map, Cline’s current 6th district would be divided between the new 10th, 11th, 7th, 6th and 9th district, with the 9th being Griffith’s.
Instead of one southwest to northeast oval following the general path of the Colonial-era “Valley Pike” — Cline, who lives in Botetourt County, would find himself in the 6th or 9th.
The 10th, near Winchester, would be connected to liberal Washington suburbs like Reston, the 11th would serpentine from Luray to Washington, leaving room for the “scorpion” 7th jutting in two “pincers” toward Mount Sidney in the west and Powhatan in the east, and the 6th connecting blue cities in the rural interior like Charlottesville, Harrisonburg and Roanoke.
Heavily-populated, liberal Fairfax County will have a piece of five different districts extending into less-populated, conservative areas.
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The new 2nd District, currently comprising Cape Charles, Accomac and Virginia Beach, will shift just westward enough to slice off dense, Democrat-friendly parts of the city of Chesapeake.
Critics have also compared it to the former Maryland 3rd – a district one federal judge denounced as a “pterodactyl” shape that relied upon the Patapsco River and Chesapeake Bay rather than land to connect its several disjointed sections between Annapolis and Baltimore.
A new, slightly more streamlined district is currently represented by Rep. Sarah Elfreth, an Elkridge Democrat.
Fox News Digital reached out to Spanberger for comment.
Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.
He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.
Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.
Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.