Less talk about Trump and more focus on the economy is part of the playbook for Democrats in Tuesday’s election

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) — Democrat Abigail Spanberger seems more eager to talk about struggling soybean farmers than President Donald Trump’s attacks on American institutions. She downplays the historic nature of her campaign for governor of Virginia and avoids making big, bold promises about what she will accomplish if elected.

However, some believe the moderate approach — described as boring by others — that the former congresswoman and CIA issues official took before Tuesday’s election holds the key to the Democratic Party’s national renaissance.

He watches: How Virginia’s governor’s race became a microcosm of national issues

“Don’t promise things you know you can’t deliver,” Spanberger said on her bus campaign this week to become the state’s first female governor. It was a sobering warning to Democratic leaders across the country, including New York mayoral candidate Zahran Mamdani and former President Joe Biden.

That may be a disappointing message to millions of angry voters who have flocked to anti-Donald Trump protests in recent weeks to demand that Democratic leaders take bold action to combat a norm-busting Republican presidency. But as the Democratic Party searches for an effective message and messengers in the wake of its Election Day defeat last fall, Spanberger offers a practical focus on economic concerns and a tempered pledge to address Trump’s most damaging policies, when possible.

The trend is consistent with a growing group of Democratic governors, top party activists and Mikie Sherrill, a New Jersey congresswoman and former Navy helicopter pilot who is the only other Democratic gubernatorial candidate on next week’s ballot. They are betting big that a centrist message targeting voters’ economic concerns will deliver victory where an intense focus on preventing Trump from dismantling American democracy in 2024 has failed.

Read more: Republican Winsome Earl Sears and Democrat Abigail Spanberger debate abortion in Virginia

Republican candidates in Virginia and New Jersey, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earl Sears, and former business owner and state legislator Jack Ciattarelli, who is backed by Trump, have tried to paint their Democratic opponents as out-of-touch liberals, more concerned with the rights of transgender people and immigrants in the U.S. illegally than with the safety of schoolchildren.

This approach worked for Trump in the last presidential election. But given the national security backgrounds of Spanberger and Sherrill, it’s unclear whether that will succeed Tuesday.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who campaigned alongside Spanberger and Sherrill over the past week, noted that both candidates focused on rising costs while offering a clear contrast to the chaos that has consumed Washington under Trump. It’s much the same approach Shapiro has taken as he prepares for his 2026 reelection campaign in the battleground state ahead of a potential 2028 presidential bid.

He watches: A look at the New Jersey governor’s race and its national implications

“The lesson is to win,” Shapiro said when asked whether the approach reflects lessons learned from Democrats’ struggles in 2024.

Democratic divisions loom on the horizon

The Democratic Party is far from united on how to move forward.

Just as Spanberger and Sherrill are espousing moderation, progressive leaders like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have lined up behind Mamdani, who will also be on the ballot Tuesday. The self-described democratic socialist has called for government-run grocery stores, free public transportation and a rent freeze, among other policies that may be difficult to enact if he wins.

Mamdani is locked in an increasingly acrimonious race with former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani.

Read more: Mamdani rallies voters in New York City with support from Bernie Sanders and AOC

“The socialists want to control the Democratic Party,” Cuomo said in a radio interview over the weekend. “He won, book a plane ticket to Florida now.”

But some Democratic voters, and even some who turned out to hear Spanberger’s message in Virginia this week, say they’re excited about Mamdani.

Mikal Blount, a 31-year-old commercial window cleaner, joined dozens of voters at a Norfolk restaurant Sunday to see Spanberger. He said he admires her bipartisan approach and law enforcement experience, but he also hopes Mamdani wins and emerges as a national star.

“It is acceptable for moderates to create common ground and for progressives to be ready to fight,” he said, expressing his frustration with his party’s leaders in Washington. “I’m like what do we do? We’re not pushing back. MAGA Republicans aren’t pushing back, so why should we?” – in reference to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.

Spanberger was less enthusiastic about Mamdani’s appearance.

In an interview, Spanberger said she feared his approach would drive people away from the party, but not necessarily because of its more controversial policies, even those she disagreed with. She sees it as a matter of telling the truth.

“We should always, always, always dream big. It’s not focusing on, just do small things,” she said. “But if he’s making promises he can’t keep to people who are struggling to put food on the table for their children or pay the bus fare to get to their second job of the day, what is the long-term impact on the people who put their trust in someone?”

Spanberger offered similar criticism of Biden’s campaign promises to cancel student debt.

“We wonder why people say, ‘Oh, I’m tired of voting Democratic,'” she said. “If you were to talk to people about debt cancellation, a number of people would express some level of, ‘He didn’t do what he said he was going to do.’ Well, he was never able to do that, was he?

Move to the middle

A group of Democratic activists released a report this week titled “Deciding to Win: Toward a Common Sense Renewal for the Democratic Party,” which effectively endorses Spanberger’s approach.

The report includes input from senior advisors to Biden, former President Barack Obama, and former Vice President Kamala Harris. It calls on Democratic candidates to reject progressive purity tests and talk less about democracy, climate change and the cultural priorities of the far left and more about health care, the cost of living and public safety.

Veteran Democratic operative Jessie Ferguson, who provided input, said Spanberger is in good stead because she is “able to connect pain from Washington to pockets of Virginia.”

“Trump’s authoritarianism will fail — not because we convince people it is authoritarian, but because we show them it is expensive,” Ferguson said.

Spanberger did not attend any of the “No Kings” protests attended by millions of anti-Trump voters concerned about the threat he poses to American democracy. She rarely mentioned his name during a statewide bus tour this week that took her from affluent Virginia suburbs in the north to military base communities on the Eastern Shore and the Appalachian hills of the rural Southwest.

“I feel like if I say that too much, it’ll be like Beetlejuice. He’ll show up,” Spanberger joked.

She said that this election is more about voters’ daily struggles than Trump’s attack on democracy.

“When we win, it’s a rejection of policies that hurt Virginia, whether that’s a shutdown, DOGE, or tariffs,” Spanberger said. “Just as one person is crushing Virginia soybean farmers, just as one person is driving up input costs for fertilizer and farm equipment.”

Another topic Spanberger didn’t mention much: the possibility of becoming Virginia’s first female elected governor.

“I’m happy that we’ll have a woman as governor,” she said. “And I’m happy about the fact that when the next generation of candidates comes forward, it’s not, ‘Oh, do you think a woman can win?’” “It’s very important to other people. But I never want to make racing about me.”