NORFOLK, Va. — After Abigail Spanberger took the stage at a campaign event Sunday afternoon here, she delivered an impassioned speech casting next week's gubernatorial election as a chance to reject President Donald Trump and the chaos she said his administration's policies have sowed in Virginia's economy.

It's a message Spanberger, the Democratic nominee, has remained laser-focused on in the closing stretch of the campaign, even as a series of new outside developments and lines of attack threatened to upend the race against Republican Winsome Earle-Sears.

“We are so excited about what this election means,” Spanberger said at a restaurant in downtown Norfolk owned by NBA referee Tony Brothers, one stop on a bus tour across the state in the race’s closing days.

“And that’s not because w

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