Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, who crushed her Republican opponent by double digits just months ago, will deliver the Democratic response to Trump’s State of the Union address next week—and the MAGA crowd is already losing it.
Spanberger, a former CIA case officer and Virginia’s first female governor, was tapped by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to rebut Trump’s address on Tuesday. The selection is a clear signal: Democrats think her message on lowering costs and protecting healthcare is their ticket back to relevance in the midterms.
“Gov. 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,” Schumer said in a statement.
She’ll have a tough job. Trump’s last joint address stretched an excruciating hour and 40 minutes. Spanberger will get maybe 10 minutes to respond, without an audience, in what’s become one of the most thankless gigs in politics.
The State of the Union response has ruined careers. Senator Katie Britt’s 2024 rebuttal was mocked so viciously on Saturday Night Live it became a punchline. Marco Rubio’s desperate lunge for a water bottle in 2013 defined him for years. Most responses are simply forgotten.
But Democrats are betting Spanberger is different. She won Virginia by campaigning on affordability while Trump’s policies hammered the state’s massive federal workforce. The current partial government shutdown—now stretching into its fifth day—is hitting those same workers again, with no end in sight before Trump takes the podium Tuesday.
Spanberger hasn’t been shy about criticizing the administration. At her inauguration, she went after the White House directly: “Those 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. Betraying the values of who we are as Americans.”
Not everyone will be there to hear Trump’s speech. Senator Patty Murray of Washington is skipping entirely. “President Trump is a disgrace. He’s easily the most corrupt President in American history by a long shot,” she wrote on social media. “I’m not attending his State of the Union to listen to him ramble and lie.”
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has urged members who do attend to sit in “silent defiance”—a response to last year’s chaos, when Texas Rep. Al Green was physically removed from the chamber for responding to Trump mid-speech.
California Senator Alex Padilla will deliver the Spanish-language response, while some progressive lawmakers are holding a competing “People’s State of the Union” rally on the National Mall.
The shutdown negotiations between Democrats and the White House over Department of Homeland Security funding remain stalled, meaning federal workers may still be missing paychecks when Trump starts bragging about his record.