Democrat Rep. Abigail Spanberger to Run in Congressional District Where She Does Not Live

Democrat Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) announced she will run for reelection in Virginia’s new seventh congressional district — which she currently represents — after the redistricting maps were unanimously approved, putting her current residence outside the new lines.

“Nearly 200,000 Virginians in the new [7th district] have already been my constituents under the current district lines, and I look forward to continuing my service representing them as well as my future constituents,” Spanberger said in a statement to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Spanberger will have to seek support from new constituents in the new seventh congressional district after most of her base from the Richmond area was moved into a different congressional district. The Supreme Court of Virginia unanimously approved the proposed congressional maps on Tuesday under the commonwealth’s new redistricting process when the newly created bipartisan redistricting commission could not agree on a map.

Spanberger said, “Much like the current Seventh District, the new Seventh District includes a diverse mix of Virginia’s suburban, rural and military communities.”

However, Spanberger lives in Henrico County, outside the district, with her husband and three children. While members of Congress are not required to live in the districts they represent, it has been considered politically favorable to the constituents they would be representing. Spanberger did not tell the Richmond Times-Dispatch if her family plans to move within the new district lines.

Before she announced her intentions to run for reelection in the seventh congressional district, she was quietly making calls to lawmakers to “express interest in seeking out the Northern Virginia seat” after the Virginia Supreme Court had issued draft redistricting maps that tore her district apart, which would have left her with “no obvious seat” to run in for reelection, the Richmond Times-Dispatch said.

The new seventh district will reportedly still lean Democrat by seven points, but it has a minority population of 46 percent. Given this, Spanberger is already facing a large primary field.

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter.