Did overturning Roe hand Democrats a lifeline? The view from Virginia.
Wearing a pink linen blazer and her congressional pin on a necklace chain, Abigail Spanberger bounces in the passenger seat of Roy Whitlock’s old truck as the octogenarian farmer drives his congresswoman to the wooded pasture where his cattle are hiding from the August sun.
Mr. Whitlock tells Ms. Spanberger about how his life has gotten harder recently, now that filling up his truck with gas a few times is equivalent to the profit from selling a calf.
The farm is one of several stops on a Field to Fridge Supply Chain Tour, in which Representative Spanberger is meeting with farmers, business owners, and voters in Virginia’s new 7th Congressional District that stretches from the northern suburbs to western farmlands. She has just come from a roundtable where farmers were lamenting the labor shortages impacting almost every area of their work, from truck drivers to veterinarians.
Concerns about labor shortages, inflation, gun violence, democracy, and an array of other” ahead of this fall’s midterm elections. That pessimism, coupled with President Joe Biden’s low approval ratings and the tendency for post-presidential midterms to swing against the party in power, has led to grim election forecasts for the Democratic Party.
