CULPEPER STAR-EXPONENT

The Lugar Center and Georgetown University’s McCourt School announced Tuesday that it ranks U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger as the House’s fifth most bipartisan Democrats and the most bipartisan member of the chamber’s Virginia delegation.

In their nonpartisan 2019 Bipartisan Index, the center and school highlighted the 7th District Democrat for her collaboration with Republicans in the 116th Congress.

The index measures how often House members introduce bills that succeed in attracting cosponsors from the opposite political party and how often they cosponsor a bill introduced by a member of the other party. The measure tries to encourage lawmakers to be more bipartisan when writing or cosponsoring legislation.

“We congratulate Rep. Spanberger for ranking in the top 5 percent of House members on the Bipartisan Index,” said Dan Diller, The Lugar Center’s director of policy. “Her score demonstrates a strong commitment to working across the aisle on bipartisan legislative solutions.”

With a bipartisanship score of 1.36993, Spanberger ranks as the Virginia delegation’s most bipartisan member, the fifth most bipartisan House Democrat, and the 16th most bipartisan House member. In the U.S. Senate, only Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) has a higher bipartisan score than Spanberger does in the House.

“Far too often, the message coming from Capitol Hill is focused on the hyper-partisanship that continues to divide our country,” Spanberger said in a statement. “… Especially during this moment of crisis, we need to recognize that our challenges are shared—and that the success of our solutions ultimately depends on how we face our challenges together as a country, not as members of warring factions.”