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Spanberger, who hopes to become Virginia鈥檚 next governor, listened as her former Spanish teacher, Millie Green, revved up the crowd with anecdotes of the candidate鈥檚 past.

鈥淢y expectation was to make a mark in the lives of our students 鈥� however, what I did not expect was that one of those students would profoundly and positively impact my very own life and the lives of so many people,鈥� Green said. 鈥淎bigail didn鈥檛 just rise to the challenge, she helped define what success looked like. She was and she is, in every sense of the word, a pioneer.鈥�

Spanberger recalled what hearing those words meant to her, coming from someone who helped shape her into the person she has become.

鈥淚t was pretty heavy,鈥� Spanberger said. 鈥淭o hear her say those things about me 鈥� it was a lot.鈥�

Virginia will make history in November 鈥� either Spanberger or Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the Republican nominee, will be the first woman to hold the state鈥檚 highest office.

Both parties are offering historically diverse tickets. Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, the party鈥檚 nominee for lieutenant governor, is the first Muslim and the first Indian American to appear on a statewide ballot in Virginia. Former Del. Jay Jones, the party鈥檚 nominee for attorney general, would be the first Black person elected to the post.

Earle-Sears, an immigrant from Jamaica, would be the first Black woman elected governor in the United States. John Reid, the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor, is Virginia鈥檚 first openly gay nominee for statewide office. Attorney General Jason Miyares, the son of a Cuban refugee, already is the first Hispanic person elected to statewide office in Virginia.

Each campaign for governor recently gave a Richmond Times-Dispatch photojournalist access to the candidates as they met with voters, lending insights into the grind of running for the commonwealth鈥檚 highest office.

Under the bright, white lights at J.R. Tucker, Spanberger announced her 鈥淪pan Virginia Bus Tour鈥� that would take her around the state over an eight-day stretch. It was on this trip that The Times-Dispatch accompanied her for this story.

About a week later, Spanberger climbed the steps of a midnight blue bus emblazoned with her name and set out to meet voters and pitch her policy proposals. Spanberger said the bus would make more than 40 stops, from the New River Valley to Newport News and from Fairfax to Farmville. 鈥淲e will be hearing directly from our fellow Virginians,鈥� she said.

About 300 miles down the road, Spanberger stepped off the bus in a small, back lot of a brewery in Wytheville 鈥� a town in Southwest Virginia鈥檚 Wythe County 鈥� with her staff, security and a daughter in tow. Inside, hockey jerseys hung from the rafters and American flags and gay pride flags intermingled on the walls.

Standing in front of a cobalt blue drum set and a garage door covered by a massive American flag, she spoke to a packed house. After wrapping up her speech filled with anecdotes and policy promises, the candidate schmoozed with the crowd, seemingly determined to shake every hand before her staff ushered her back to the bus.

When headlining back-to-back events all day, she tends to ride the high from one campaign stop to the next, only letting the exhaustion overtake her when she gets home at the end of the night. Recharging before meeting the next group of supporters comes in one of two forms 鈥� prolonged phone calls with either of her two sisters, and family movie nights.

As the bus rolled on along the interstate, Spanberger鈥檚 daughter, Charlotte, rolled her eyes in feigned exasperation about her mother鈥檚 movie preferences 鈥� a point of some contention in the Spanberger household.

鈥淲e really like Marvel, 鈥楽tar Wars鈥欌�� and she likes rom coms,鈥� Charlotte said, noting that they even used to watch the Hallmark channel. While Spanberger does not typically like to watch the same romantic comedy more than once, she does favor those with a Christmas theme.

Campaigning is not a new concept for Spanberger. In 2018, she upset Rep. Dave Brat, R-7th, flipping a seat Republicans had held for decades. Spanberger served in Congress for three terms, holding onto the seat after redistricting moved it to Northern Virginia, where it is now based in Prince William, Stafford and Spotsylvania counties. But running statewide is new.

Spanberger, who worked as a postal inspector before serving undercover at the CIA, says the tough transition for her came before she got into politics. It meant stepping into the public eye when her prior career was the antithesis of that. Going from a job where success was measured by secrecy to one where her life was on display was jarring, she said as the bus barreled from Appomattox to Lynchburg.

鈥淚鈥檓 a huge extrovert, I love talking to strangers, but the fact that then people know so much about me 鈥� that鈥檚 the part that鈥檚 interesting,鈥� she said.

When she decided to run for Congress, she began telling her friends what she had been doing for work. She recalled her husband, Adam Spanberger, suggesting she speak in the mirror about being a CIA officer because the obfuscation around work was so ingrained in her that her face would contort when she mentioned it.

鈥淲hen people put so much faith in you, it鈥檚 an interesting reality and it鈥檚 certainly very different from my CIA years,鈥� she said.

While fields, forests and small towns whipped past the windows, the atmosphere on the bus remained light and cheerful as the candidate joked with her team and studied up for the next stop. Tucked into a plush, gray, captain鈥檚 chair, Spanberger pored over a three-ring binder filled with notes and hurriedly grabbed bites to eat between updates from her staff and various phone calls. She hand-steamed her blazer hanging in the small kitchenette in preparation for the next destination: the Robert Russa Moton Museum in Farmville.

The museum is at the site of the school where teenage civil rights heroine Barbara Johns led a student walkout in 1951 to protest the school鈥檚 substandard conditions. The Prince Edward County case became one of five in Brown v. Board of Education, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled state-sanctioned school segregation unconstitutional. With the temperatures in the triple digits, Spanberger toured the historic site, led by Executive Director Cainan Townsend, before taking the stage in front of a standing-room only audience of a few hundred.

Townsend said: 鈥淭o be in a place like Moton, which is so interconnected with the legacy of leadership, but female leadership in particular 鈥� It was really, really powerful to ... be walking through the space, teaching about the legacy of resilience and resistance and African American leadership and civil rights, to this person who could then have impact on those policies today.鈥�

Following the rally 鈥� and yet another prolonged meet and greet with local residents 鈥� the bus wound its way up Route 20 as the sun began to set behind the Blue Ridge Mountains, finally arriving at Eastwood Farm and Winery just outside of Charlottesville for Spanberger鈥檚 last stop of the fourth day of the tour.