@Pawhuska Under presidents Bush and Obama, Spanberger’s job as a CIA operative was to persuade foreign nationals to share information with her. “Sitting across the table from someone committing espionage on behalf of the U.S. and being their only point of contact—it’s a heavy responsibility,” she says. Such meetings could require days of travel with no communication. “I’m very good at, ‘This is Plan A, but these are all the things that could go wrong, and here are the ways we can adapt,’ ” she says. Her agility (and her foreign affairs expertise) could sway voters in her June primary.
