Funding, Policing, and Political Optics: The Bloomberg, Jim Crow, Spanberger Connection

As Virginia’s gubernatorial race intensifies, Abigail Spanberger’s campaign is drawing scrutiny, not just for her policy positions, but for the powerful figures backing her. Among them is billionaire Michael Bloomberg, whose legacy includes aggressive policing tactics like Stop & Frisk and a sprawling influence network that shapes Democratic messaging nationwide. For critics, Spanberger’s alignment with Bloomberg-backed organizations raises uncomfortable echoes of past systems of control, ones that disproportionately targeted marginalized communities under the guise of public safety.

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Bloomberg’s Legacy: Stop & Frisk and Surveillance

During his tenure as mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg oversaw the expansion of Stop & Frisk—a policy that allowed police to detain and search individuals based on vague suspicion. The program disproportionately impacted Black and Latino residents, fueling accusations of racial profiling and civil rights violations. Though Bloomberg later apologized, the damage was done. Millions of stops, thousands of lawsuits, and a chilling reminder of how state power can be weaponized against the vulnerable.

Additional source: PolitiFact | Mike Bloomberg’s record on stop and frisk

Spanberger’s Funding and Policy Alignment

While Abigail Spanberger has positioned herself as a moderate Democrat, her campaign has benefited from Bloomberg-aligned groups like Everytown for Gun Safety, which advocate for expanded surveillance, red flag laws, and predictive policing, all under the banner of gun control. These policies, critics argue, mirror the logic of Jim Crow-era laws: using public safety as a pretext to monitor, disarm, and disenfranchise.

• Red flag laws, for example, allow authorities to seize firearms based on subjective assessments of risk—often without due process.

• Expanded background checks and registry systems can disproportionately impact low-income and minority communities, echoing historical barriers to voting, property ownership, and self-defense.

  
  

Symbolism of Control: Echoes of Jim Crow

Jim Crow wasn’t just about segregation; it was about control. It was about deciding who could speak, who could defend themselves, and who was deemed a threat. Today, critics argue that Spanberger’s support for Bloomberg-style policies, that are surveillance-heavy, enforcement-driven, and selectively applied, resurrects that same architecture of control, dressed in modern optics.

• The language of “common sense gun reform” often masks policies that empower the state while disempowering individuals.

• The partnerships with elite donors like Bloomberg signal a top-down approach to governance, where rural and working-class voices are sidelined in favor of technocratic solutions.

Summed up...

Abigail Spanberger’s campaign may not invoke Jim Crow by name, but the structures she supports... funded by figures like Bloomberg... carry its DNA. From Stop & Frisk to red flag laws, the pattern is clear: surveillance, suspicion, and selective enforcement. For Virginians who value civil liberties, self-defense, and community autonomy, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

It should also be mentioned, Abigail Spanberger's hubby, Adam, works for a pretty prestigious technology company, L3Harris, that specializes in surveillance amongst other things. Anywho... more on him, later!