Why the Virginia Police Association Backed Democrat Spanberger for Governor

This week, the Virginia Police Benevolent Association announced its endorsements for the three statewide executive races in Virginia. One of the endorsements raised eyebrows, as it was for Democrat Abigail Spanberger for governor.

Four years ago, the association endorsed Republican Glenn Youngkin, and in 2017, it endorsed Republican Ed Gillespie, and in 2013, it was Republican Ken Cuccinelli. In 2021, it endorsed Republican Winsome Earle-Sears for lieutenant governor, but why not this year, when she’s running for governor?

Virginia Police Benevolent Association President Joe Woloszyn said Spanberger has “a deep, expert-level knowledge of the unique challenges facing Virginia’s law enforcement officers.”

Richard Goska, a field representative with association, told Norfolk’s WVEC TV, “We are looking for a big investment and a big change in how Virginia treats its law enforcement and corrections officers,” seemingly indicating that in the association’s view, the past four years had not seen such an effort. We’ll come back to that.

The association applauded Spanberger for voting to increase funding for local police and sheriffs’ offices. The 2022 bill in Congress it pointed to is the Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, on the Beat Program Reauthorization and Parity Act that authorized $50 million nationally in conditional grants annually for police departments with fewer than 200 officers to hire and train additional officers. Hardly a blank check.

The former CIA case officer and member of Congress from Virginia’s 7th Congressional District said that “Virginians deserve a governor who recognizes the tremendous sacrifice that comes with swearing an oath to protect and serve our neighbors.” Seems simple enough to check out, so we did.

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We checked on the two times laws pushed by the “Defund the Police” movement came up in the U.S. House of Representatives for a vote. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Acts of both 2020 and 2021 lowered the criminal intent standard—from willful to knowing or reckless—to convict a law enforcement officer in a federal prosecution for misconduct or the use of excessive force.

Both acts also limited qualified immunity. Qualified immunity protects officers from being personally sued for damages in civil court unless they violate a constitutional right that is clearly defined in the law.

In both cases, Spanberger was a “YEA.”

So, what has happened in Virginia in the past four years of the Youngkin administration that would have earned Earle-Sears the statement, “We are looking for a big investment and a big change in how Virginia treats its law enforcement and corrections officers”?

Going through the multitudes of vetoes the governor signed, we couldn’t find any bill he vetoed that would have made policing in Virginia better. He did veto a bill that would have allowed illegal aliens who received Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, status the opportunity to become police officers.

Without Republican majorities in either chamber of the Virginia General Assembly, the Youngkin administration has been able to get budgets through that increase police pay. In 2024, police saw a 10% salary increase, and deputy sheriffs with law enforcement responsibility also received a 10% salary increase.

The Virginia Police Benevolent Association’s choice for governor is, of course, its right. But is that choice more about Spanberger’s position on union-like associations than on police officers themselves?

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