OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A leading Democratic lawmaker is putting a lot of distance between herself and President Joe Biden as she gears up for what could be a difficult reelection effort.
What’s more, Rep. Abigail Spanberger pointed out during a Fox News interview on Tuesday that she “outperformed” Biden in her home state of Virginia.
Host Dana Perino told Spanberger the Cook Politico Report shows the district she is campaigning for this November ā which is the newly redrawn 7th Congressional District in Virginia ā is listed as a “Democratic toss-up.”
The former White House press secretary under then-President George W. Bush thus asked Spanberger whether Biden would help her campaign. But the Virginia Democrat made it clear Biden will not.
“I intend to do the campaigning myself. I am the candidate. It is my name on the ballot,” Spanberger said. “Certainly when I first ran, I ran in an R +7 district. And I won in that seat by getting out, speaking to voters, and making sure that they know who I am and what it is that I intended to do for them.”
“In 2020, I ran for re-election and certainly outperformed the president on the ballot by telling the people what I had done and what I was going to continue to do,” she added.
Earlier in the interview, the moderate Dem would not say whether she supported Biden for reelection in 2024.
“Iām looking squarely toward 2022 and the re-election ahead of me, working to make sure voters across Virginia’s 7th district know what Iāve been doing on their behalf and why Iām asking for their vote again,” Spanberger said. “Iāll be focused on 2024 after we get through the 2022 elections.”
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Spanberger has made headlines in the past.
During the 2020 election, audio was leaked of her torching her progressive colleagues over the embrace and support for the “defund the police” movement and other far-left policies that most Americans do not support.
“We have to commit to not saying the words ‘defund the police’ ever again,” SpanbergerĀ said in a post-election phone call with the Democratic caucus after the party lost seats in the House. “We need to not ever use the words ‘socialist’ or ‘socialism’ ever again.”
“If we run this race again we will get f***ing torn apart again in 2022,” she predicted.
“We need to be pretty clear” the election “was a failure. It was not a success. We lost incredible members of Congress,” she added.
Moderate Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-VA, unloads on call w/ Dems: "We need to be pretty clear ā¦ it was a failure. It was not a success. We lost incredible members of Congress."
— Ben Siegel (@bensiegel) November 5, 2020
Increasingly, Biden appears to be politically radioactive for a growing number of Democrats, many of whom do not want him to run again next time around.
In fact, by April, Bidenās poll numbers had plummeted so low that some Democrats began to hit the panic button.
āItās bad,ā an anonymous Democratic strategist said, according toĀ The Hill. āYou have an energy crisis thatās paralyzing and inflation is at a 40-year high and weāre heading into a recession. The problem is simple. The American people have lost confidence in him.ā
āEveryone needs to come to terms with the reality that weāre going to get slaughtered in November,ā the strategist reportedly continued. āThatās a fact. His polling has gotten worse, not better. Itās indicative of the fact that people have lost confidence in his leadership. Thereās nothing theyāre going to be able to do.ā
Bill Galston, Chair of the Brookings Institutions governance study program and former domestic policy adviser to former President Bill Clinton, said, āunless and until inflation comes down appreciably, that thereās going to be a ceiling on his job approval thatās a lot lower than the White House wants it to be.ā
Gallup senior editor Jeff Jones said, āhigh gas prices are one of the biggest anchors on presidential approval.ā
On Wednesday, according to the Real Clear Politics average of polling, Bidenās approval rating stood at just under 38 percent, his lowest since taking office amid worsening inflation, product shortages, and a chaotic and porous southwestern border.