The CIA headquarters in McLean, Va., on March 3, 2005.
Photo: Brooks Kraft LLC/Corbis via Getty Images
The Democratic Party
is rife with internal caucuses and factions. There’s the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Blue Dog Coalition, the “Squad,” and so on. But since 2019, when Elissa Slotkin and Abigail Spanberger first took seats in the House of Representatives, the party has had another, more sinister emerging faction: the CIA Spook Caucus.
In the last seven years, the Spook Caucus has only gained in strength. Both of its core members have graduated from the House to higher office, with Slotkin
elected to the Senate
in 2024 and Spanberger elected the
governor of Virginia
the following year. Soon afterward, Spanberger was selected by the Democratic leadership to deliver the
rebuttal
to Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union Address, which elevated her to the national stage. Slotkin, meanwhile, has
floated the idea
of a 2028 presidential run.
And in the 2026
midterms
, the Spook Caucus might expand further: In the Democratic primary for Virginia’s 8th Congressional District, former CIA officer
Adam Dunigan
is running for the opportunity to challenge
GOP nominee
Anthony Sabio, who is
also
ex-CIA. But if you happen to care about concepts like “human rights” or “democracy,” this influx of intelligence operatives into our elections is extremely bad news.
Spanberger’s honeymoon period with the Virginia Democrats is already over. Less than a year into her tenure as governor, she has
vetoed
31 of the General Assembly’s bills, including “
high-profile Democratic priorities
” like
collective bargaining rights
for public workers and protections against ICE agents making
warrantless arrests inside courthouses
. On the labor bill, local unions
say
Spanberger betrayed a
campaign promise
she’d made to them. After vetoing two bills to limit ICE arrests, the ACLU of Virginia
said
her actions “constitu
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