New Dem star's quick hard-left turn after 'moderate' campaign won her coveted response to Trump: lawmaker

By Fox News · Fox News

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. VICTORIOUS VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS MORPH FROM PRETEND MODERATES INTO LIBERAL EXTREMISTS OVER NIGHT 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 t…