2026-02-24 12:44
12:44
February 24, 2026
pm
America/Chicago
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Democratic women lawmakers are again wearing white as a symbol of protest during this year’s State of the Union address.
After expanding the dress code to include pink last year to call attention to President Donald Trump’s administration’s treatment of women and families, the lawmakers will return to white, the color of suffrage, partially in reference to the SAVE America Act. The bill, which could make it more difficult for married women and LGBTQ+ people to register to vote, recently passed the House and could be taken up soon by the Senate.
“Trump will speak later tonight, but you don’t have to be a fortune teller to know what he’s going to say,” Ohio Rep. Shontel Brown said during a Democratic Women’s Caucus news conference. “He’s not going to talk about the challenges facing women and families every day. Tonight, the president will lie, gaslight and flat-out ignore women’s issues because our voices were never a part of his agenda to make America great again.”
Lawmakers’ guests to Tuesday night’s speech will include at least half a dozen survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender with ties to many powerful people who died while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who was one of the most vocal proponents of releasing more batches of documents concerning the late financier’s sex offenses, is bringing Haley Robson, who says Epstein trafficked her starting when she was 16.
“Haley’s courageous fight is proof that this isn’t about politics, it’s about exposing America’s two-tiered system of justice and bringing accountability to the Epstein class involved in the horrific abuse of young girls,” Khanna said in a statement. “She and her fellow survivors’ bravery was the catalyst for changing a rotten system and finally standing up for humanity and American values.”
Illinois Democratic Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García will bring Marimar Martinez, a Chicago woman who was shot multiple times by a Customs and Border Protection agent in October. Body camera video footage and the officer’s texts were released earlier this month, showing the agent had bragged about shooting her.
Trump’s approval rating among women has dropped since his last State of the Union address. One recent CNN poll showed a nine-point drop for women respondents since February 2025, while a Quinnipiac poll from this February showed a 30 percent approval rating for the president among women, with 64 percent disapproving.
“Women are not safe in Trump’s America, as costs keep rising, health care slips out of reach, and violence becomes a daily headline,” said DWC chair Teresa Leger Fernández, a New Mexico Democrat.
Meanwhile, a handful of Democrats in both chambers plan on skipping the event for a “People’s State of the Union” held near the Lincoln Memorial, while others say they will stay at home.