Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger on Feb. 24 delivered Democrats’ response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, centering her response on affordability and immigration.
“As we watched our nation’s lawmakers gather for a joint session of Congress, we did not hear the truth from our president,” Spanberger said.
It comes after Trump delivered a speech that hit on similar issues as those highlighted by Spanberger.
Spanberger said that in his speech, Trump “offered no real solutions to our nation’s pressing challenges.”
Speaking from the House of Burgesses in Colonial Williamsburg, Spanberger opened with a reference to the significance of 2026, which marks the 250th anniversary of the U.S. founding.
“The United States was founded on the idea that ordinary people could reject the unacceptable excesses of poor leadership, band together to demand better of their government, and create a nation that would be an example for the world,” Spanberger said.
“This year, as we celebrate 250 years since America declared independence of tyranny, I can think of no better place to speak to you as we reflect on the current state of our union tonight,” Spanberger said, referencing her decision to hold the speech in one of the most historic areas in her state.
Spanberger, a former U.S. representative and member of the House Intelligence Committee, was elected governor of Virginia last November by a 15-point margin, expanding Democrats’ control of the state legislature.
She asked three main questions: “Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family? Is the president working to keep Americans safe, both at home and abroad? Is the president working for you?”
Economics
Most of Spanberger’s speech focused on economic issues, with the governor describing Democrats as being “laser-focused on affordability.”
First, Spanberger decried what she described as Trump’s “reckless trade policies.”
Despite the Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning Trump’s authority to unilaterally impose certain kinds of tariffs, Spanberger said, “The damage to us, the American people, has already been done.”
Spanberger said these new tariffs represent “another tax hike on you and your family.”
“Republicans in Congress, they remain unwilling to assert their constitutional authority to stop him,” she said. “They’re making your life harder. They’re making your life more expensive.
Trump had said that tariff costs would not be passed onto consumers and that foreign countries are taking up the burden. He said tariffs can protect American businesses and jobs by addressing unfair trade practices and boosting domestic manufacturing.
Core inflation, which strips out volatile energy and food prices, also eased to a 12-month rate of 2.5 percent, the lowest level since March 2021.
Spanberger also linked the affordability issue to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included a nearly $1 trillion cut to Medicaid, a primary source of revenue for many of these types of hospitals.
“They’re even making it more difficult to see a doctor,” she said, citing rural hospital closures.
Immigration and Safety
Spanberger also discussed immigration enforcement and broader national security concerns.
Democrats’ concerns over the behavior of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents under Trump have been one of their primary objections to the administration.
“Our president has sent poorly trained federal agents into our cities where they have arrested and detained American citizens and people who aspire to be Americans, and they have done it without a warrant,” Spanberger said, citing the use of administrative warrants by ICE rather than court-granted judicial warrants to enter homes.
These agents, Spanberger said, “have ripped nursing mothers away from their babies. They have sent children, a little boy in a blue bunny hat, children, to far off detention centers,” Spanberger said. “They have killed American citizens in our streets, and they have done it all with their faces masked from accountability.”
More briefly, Spanberger also cited international concerns.
Trump, she said, “continues to cede economic power and technological strength to Russia, bow down to China, bow down to a Russian dictator, and make plans for war with Iran.”
She said that “through [Department of Government Efficiency] mass firings and the appointment of deeply unserious people to our nation’s most serious positions, our president has endangered the long, storied history of the United States of America being a force for good.”
Andrew Moran contributed to this report.
