Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger claimed she helped bring thousands of jobs to her state — even though the companies she listed all invested in Virginia when her Republican predecessor was still in office.
The governor took a victory lap Monday for a package of four bipartisan bills she signed that day, with both an X post from her government account and a press release from her office claiming the legislation brought about 3,250 new jobs and $7.1 billion in investment to her state. Reporter Nick Minock of Washington-based ABC affiliate WJLA, however, noted in a Wednesday morning X post that the four companies specifically mentioned in the release all announced they would be investing in Virginia during former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s tenure.
“Attracting new companies and jobs to communities across our Commonwealth is a core focus of my administration,” Spanberger wrote in her Monday afternoon X post.
The press release names aerospace company Avio USA, electrification technology company Hitachi Energy, as well as pharmaceutical giants Eli Lilly and Company and AstraZeneca as the four companies investing nine or ten-figure sums in Virginia. The release appears to attribute each of the four investments to a different bill introduced by two Democratic state legislators and signed by Spanberger on Monday.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Minock’s X post pointing out the discrepancy had received over 5,700 likes compared to the governor’s post from two days earlier, which had received just shy of 400.
Spanberger’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
In a subsequent X post, Minock provided screenshots of press releases and news coverage showing that each of the respective investments in the four companies were made under Youngkin’s administration.
“Governor Glenn Youngkin today announced Hitachi Energy, a global leader in electrification, will invest $457 million to expand the company’s power transformer production facility in South Boston, Virginia, creating 825 new jobs in the Commonwealth,” a September 2025 release from the tech company states.
“AstraZeneca today announces $50 billion of investment in the United States by 2030, building on America’s global leadership in medicines manufacturing and R&D,” the pharmaceutical company wrote via a release from July of the same year, which clearly indicated that Youngkin was the governor at the time of the investment.
“Governor Glenn Youngkin, Commonwealth of Virginia, said: ‘I want to thank AstraZeneca for choosing Virginia as the cornerstone for this transformational investment in the United States,’” AstraZeneca’s release continued.
“Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) today announced that it plans to build a $5 billion manufacturing facility just west of Richmond, Virginia, in Goochland County,” states a September 2025 press release, which goes on to include a quote from Youngkin about the investment.
“Avio S.p.A. (“Avio” or the “Company”) announces that its subsidiary Avio USA has chosen Virginia as the location for the new advanced manufacturing facility for the production of solid-propellant rocket motors for defense, tactical propulsion, missile systems, and space sectors,” states a November 2025 release, in which Youngkin thanks the aerospace company for “choosing Virginia.”
While left-leaning outlet Virginia Mercury reported on Spanberger’s signing of the four bills Monday, its story, “Spanberger signs bipartisan bills tied to billions in business investment across Virginia,” only mentioned Youngkin’s name once — in the eighth paragraph. The paragraph noted that the companies’ investments were made under the Republican former governor and that the bills Spanberger signed merely authorized incentives and support for the projects.
A Washington Post-Schar School poll released Monday found that Spanberger’s current approval rating is lower than the average approval ratings of each of the eight Virginia governors who preceded her in office. This includes former Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, who became embroiled in a blackface scandal during his tenure.
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