![\"Abigail](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/cda1c6aaeca7cab33f2b3cb0300084e1716c45b9.jpeg\")
Abigail Spanberger delivers the Democratic response. AP<\/p>\nVirginia Governor Abigail Spanberger was giving the Democratic Party response following Trump\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n
She offered a sharp contrast to Trump\u2019s depiction of the nation as being in a \u201cgolden age\u201d during his State of the Union, arguing that costs remain high for many Americans more than a year into his second term.<\/p>\n
Abigail Spanberger delivers the Democratic response. AP<\/p>\n
Her message, that families are still struggling under Trump\u2019s policies, is one Democrats plan to carry nationwide ahead of the midterm elections. Party leaders point to Spanberger\u2019s double-digit victory in Virginia last November as validation of a disciplined, cost-focused campaign they now hope to replicate across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cDemocrats across the country are laser-focused on affordability in our nation\u2019s capital and in state capitals and communities across America,\u201d said Spanberger. \u201cIn the most innovative and exceptional nation in the history of the world, Americans deserve to know that their leaders are focused on addressing the problems that keep them up at night.\u201d<\/p>\n
She had far less time than the Republican president to make her case. Trump\u2019s address to Congress stretched for just over an hour and 48 minutes, during which he described a nation with lower costs than when he took office, declaring, \u201cThis is the golden age of America.\u201d<\/p>\n
As viewership tends to drop the longer the speech runs, the response has become one of the more perilous assignments in politics. Now\u2013Secretary of State Marco Rubio was widely mocked for reaching for a water bottle during the GOP response in 2013. Other rebuttals have quickly faded from memory.<\/p>\n
Even with the time disadvantage, Democrats argue the political winds are shifting in their favour. Spanberger\u2019s win in Virginia was followed by other high-profile Democratic victories, including a special election earlier this month in Texas, where a Democrat flipped a reliably Republican state Senate district that Trump carried by 17 percentage points in 2024.<\/p>\n
Some Democrats chose to make their point by skipping Trump\u2019s address. Counterprogramming events are planned, including a \u201cState of the Swamp\u201d featuring Democratic lawmakers alongside state and local leaders and celebrities.<\/p>\n
AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger was giving the Democratic Party response following Trump\u2019s speech. She offered a sharp contrast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-502541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}