“I’m not a politician. I’m a doer,” the Richmond-area resident said in an interview Sunday. “I like to unify people and get things done.”

In a 90-second YouTube video, Ramirez describes herself as a single mother and former teacher who founded a nonprofit organization that has brought “freedom to persecuted communities worldwide.” She is shown on work assignments overseas and pushing her 4-year-old daughter, Abigail, on a swing.

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“I will fight to defend the sanctity of every life, to defend religious freedoms and to create jobs and opportunities for hard-working Virginians,” she says in the video. “I will work to improve a broken education system, find sensible solutions to our health-care crisis and reform a failed system for our veterans. And I support real immigration reform that includes securing our border.”

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Spanberger won the seat in November by defeating Republican Dave Brat in what had been a reliably red suburban Richmond district. As a little-known economics professor with tea party backing, Brat had won the seat four years earlier after beating then-Majority Leader Eric I. Cantor in the GOP primary — a stunning upset of an establishment figure that presaged the rise of Donald Trump.

Brat faced a tough opponent in Spanberger, a former CIA agent whose national security credentials and moderate positioning appealed to suburban women who don’t like Trump.

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In several ways, Ramirez represents the sort of candidate GOP leaders say they need to stem their losses in the suburbs — Hispanic, highly educated and a woman. Her status as a single parent is considered something to play up, as a relatable bit of her biography.

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A native of the Richmond area, Ramirez grew up in Powhatan and earned an undergraduate degree in history and political science from Vanguard University in California, then a master’s degree in education from the school. She later earned a master’s in international human rights law from the University of Essex in England.

She has held various positions in Washington promoting religious freedom, including as a staff member for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. She also worked for a bipartisan House task force on the topic.

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