{"id":478806,"date":"2026-02-19T23:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T23:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/478806\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T23:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T23:56:11","slug":"spanberger-to-give-democratic-response-to-trumps-state-of-the-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/478806\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanberger to give Democratic response to Trump’s State of the Union"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger<\/a> will deliver the Democratic response to President Donald Trump\u2019s State of the Union address next week, just months after resoundingly winning an office previously held by a Republican.<\/p>\n

Spanberger, who served three terms in the U.S. House, became Virginia\u2019s first female governor earlier this year. She won by a double-digit margin, campaigning on affordability and lowering costs for families \u2014 a message Democrats are now elevating as they seek to win back the House and Senate in this year\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cGov. Spanberger will lay out a clear path forward: lower everyday costs, protect healthcare, and defend the freedoms that define who we are as a nation,\u201d Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. <\/p>\n

Democrats try to counter Trump\u2019s large platform<\/p>\n

Spanbberger\u2019s rebuttal will follow Trump\u2019s address to Congress on Tuesday, where he\u2019ll have a national platform to tout his record and shape the GOP\u2019s message \u2014 valuable airtime presidents often use to the fullest. Trump\u2019s first joint address of his second term last March stretched an hour and 40 minutes.<\/p>\n

Spanberger will have far less time for rebuttal. Last year\u2019s Democratic response, delivered by Sen. Elissa Slotkin<\/a> of Michigan, ran just over 10 minutes. <\/p>\n

The brevity and lack of an audience have made the response to the State of the Union one of the most fraught assignments in politics. Republican Sen. Katie Britt\u2019s 2024 response to President Joe Biden in 2024 was lampooned on \u201cSaturday Night Live,\u201d for example, while now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio faced mockery for reaching for a water bottle when delivering the GOP response in 2013. Other responses have been quickly forgotten.<\/p>\n

Spanberger\u2019s speech will not be the only Democratic response to Trump on Tuesday night. Leaders also announced that California Sen. Alex Padilla will deliver the Spanish-language rebuttal.<\/p>\n

Some Democratic lawmakers are skipping Trump\u2019s address altogether and holding their own counterprogramming, including a \u201cPeople\u2019s State of the Union\u201d rally being held on the National Mall with members of the Senate and House.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump is a disgrace. He\u2019s easily the most corrupt President in American history by a long shot,\u201d Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., wrote on social media. \u201cI\u2019m not attending his State of the Union to listen to him ramble and lie.\u201d<\/p>\n

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has urged his members to either sit in \u201csilent defiance\u201d during Trump\u2019s speech or stay away, wary of the disruptions that have become commonplace at recent presidential addresses. <\/p>\n

Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas was removed from the House chamber<\/a> during Trump\u2019s address to Congress last year when he stood and started responding to the president. Other Democrats displayed protest signs from their seats. <\/p>\n

Spanberger seen as electoral success for Democrats<\/p>\n

Jeffries said in announcing Spanberger as the party\u2019s pick that she \u201cembodies the best of America as a mother, community leader and dedicated public servant.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a former CIA case officer, Spanberger has tied her political career to her public service and national security credentials. She also has pitched herself as a mother of daughters educated in Virginia\u2019s public schools and a Capitol Hill veteran who often worked across the aisle.<\/p>\n

Since winning the election she has vowed to work with the president when they are aligned, but also has taken more pointed digs at the White House.<\/p>\n

On the campaign trail last year, Spanberger spoke out against the White House\u2019s gutting of the civil service, an issue that hit particularly hard<\/a> in Virginia, home to a large number of federal workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who have devoted their lives to public service, you are worried about an administration that is gilding buildings while schools crumble, breaking the social safety net and sowing fear across our communities,\u201d Spanberger said at her inauguration. \u201cBetraying the values of who we are as Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s record-breaking government shutdown also hit the state\u2019s sizable federal workforce, leaving many employees without pay for weeks.<\/p>\n

The federal government is once again partially shut down<\/a> as Democratic leaders in Congress and the White House negotiate funding for the Department of Homeland Security. The shutdown, which began Saturday, is likely to stretch into Trump\u2019s address Tuesday, with no agreement in sight.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Diaz reported from Richmond, Virginia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger will deliver the Democratic response to President Donald Trump\u2019s State of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[51932,140884,23,9286,12,1070,28866,793,3138,12481,3319,161308,643,3,12803,111,8638,3770,9293,795,3438,21,792,19,22,20,25,24,5148,800],"class_list":{"0":"post-478806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-abigail-spanberger","9":"tag-alex-padilla","10":"tag-america","11":"tag-charles-schumer","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-elections","14":"tag-elissa-slotkin","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-government-and-politics","17":"tag-hakeem-jeffries","18":"tag-joe-biden","19":"tag-katie-britt","20":"tag-marco-rubio","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-patty-murray","23":"tag-politics","24":"tag-u-s-democratic-party","25":"tag-u-s-department-of-homeland-security","26":"tag-u-s-government-shutdown","27":"tag-u-s-news","28":"tag-u-s-republican-party","29":"tag-united-states","30":"tag-united-states-government","31":"tag-united-states-of-america","32":"tag-unitedstates","33":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","34":"tag-us","35":"tag-usa","36":"tag-virginia","37":"tag-washington-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}