Can a Former Spy Make a Good Governor?

Abigail Spanberger's CIA spycraft skills—from working under pressure to sizing up enemies to bending people to her will—equip her well to lead Virginia. But will she?

When we first interviewed Abigail Spanberger for the SpyTalk podcast back in September, she had just announced she was giving up her congressional seat in the distant Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. to run for governor.

A Democrat elected in a district that had gone Republican for decades, Spanberger quickly won a reputation for bipartisanship in …