Virginia Gov. Spanberger to give Democratic State of the Union response

Gov. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., will deliver the Democrats’ response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday, party leadership announced on Thursday.

Spanberger, 46, is a former CIA officer who served three terms in the House and became Virginia’s first female governor after her victory in the November election.

In a statement, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called Spanberger “a trusted public servant” who “has worked to deliver real results for everyone, while upholding the Constitution.”

Jeffries also hinted that Spanberger may refer to affordability in her rebuttal to Trump, calling her “a champion for lowering the high cost of living, saving healthcare from the relentless far-right assault and protecting the federal workforce so they can serve the American people without political interference.”

Spanberger made affordability — a message that Democrats have been focusing on ahead of the midterm elections, and that Trump has struggled to grasp — a centerpiece of her gubernatorial campaign. She has also shown an ability to appeal to voters across the political aisle, having flipped her district’s seat from red to blue when she won her first House election in 2018.

“Virginians and Americans across the country are contending with rising costs, chaos in their communities, and a real fear of what each day might bring,” Spanberger said in a statement Thursday. “Next week, I look forward to laying out what these Americans expect and deserve — leaders who are working hard to deliver for them.”

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., is set to deliver the party’s Spanish language response. Like Spanberger, Padilla is also a trailblazer: He is California’s first Latino senator, a role he assumed in 2021 after Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., appointed him to fill the vacancy left by former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Padilla made headlines last year for confronting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a press conference in Los Angeles, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement swept the city. Padilla was forcibly removed from the room by law enforcement. Since then, he has continued calling for congressional oversight of ICE and has sounded the alarm about what he has called “inhumane” conditions in their detention centers.

Before he joined the Senate, Padilla served in the L.A. City Council, as a state senator and as California’s first Latino secretary of state.

“Americans don’t need another speech from Donald Trump pretending everything is fine when their bills are too high, paychecks are too low, and masked and militarized federal agents are roaming our communities violating Constitutional rights on a daily basis,” Padilla said in a statement Thursday.

In a statement, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., noted Padilla’s roots as the son of Mexican immigrants, and suggested his message would draw on his history of supporting working families in order to “stand in sharp contrast to President Trump’s chaos and self-dealing.”

The president is set to deliver his State of the Union address at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

MS NOW’s televised State of the Union coverage will begin at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday. You can follow the live blog on ms.now beginning at 5 p.m. ET.