{"id":19163,"date":"2026-02-19T20:31:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T20:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/virginia-gov-abigail-spanberger-tapped-for-state-of-the-union-rebuttal\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T20:31:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T20:31:38","slug":"virginia-gov-abigail-spanberger-tapped-for-state-of-the-union-rebuttal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/virginia-gov-abigail-spanberger-tapped-for-state-of-the-union-rebuttal\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger tapped for State of the Union rebuttal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger will deliver the Democratic rebuttal to President Donald Trump\u2019s State of the Union address next week, Democratic Minority Leaders Hakeem Jeffires<\/a> and Chuck Schumer<\/a> announced Thursday.<\/p>\n

Sen. Schumer said Spanberger \u201chas always put service over politics,\u201d and Rep. Jeffries praised Spanberger for her decisive victory in November\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe stands in stark contrast to Donald Trump, who will lie, deflect and blame everyone but himself for his failed presidency on Tuesday evening,\u201d Jeffries said.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Spanberger said Americans expect and deserve \u201cleaders who are working hard to deliver for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are at a defining moment in our nation\u2019s history,\u201d she said. \u201cVirginians and Americans across the country are contending with rising costs, chaos in their communities, and a real fear of what each day might bring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spanberger flipped Virginia\u2019s governor\u2019s mansion blue<\/a> last year, becoming the state\u2019s first female governor. She previously represented the commonwealth\u2019s 7th District in the House. Before her time in politics, Spanberger served in the CIA.<\/p>\n

The two minority leaders also announced Thursday that Sen. Alex Padilla<\/a> (D-Calif.) will deliver the Democratic response in Spanish on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Padilla, the son of Mexican immigrants and California’s first Latino senator, garnered nationwide attention last summer after he was forcibly detained<\/a> by officers during a press conference with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Donald Trump, Kristi Noem and MAGA extremists have tried to silence the voices of our Latino brothers and sisters, Senator Alex Padilla has consistently fought back and proven Democrats will not bend the knee to this out-of-control administration,\u201d Jeffries said.<\/p>\n

Schumer added that Padilla\u2019s message will be a \u201csharp contrast to President Trump\u2019s chaos and self-dealing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Padilla said he plans to discuss lowering costs, safeguarding democracy and reining in \u201crogue federal agencies” in his speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmericans don\u2019t 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,\u201d Padilla said.<\/p>\n

Trump will address the nation from the Capitol on Tuesday, though a swath of Democrats have announced they plan to boycott the address<\/a>. Jeffries, however, told reporters Wednesday that he plans to attend Trump\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to Donald Trump\u2019s house, he\u2019s coming to our house,\u201d Jeffries said. \u201cIt\u2019s my view that you don\u2019t let anyone ever run you off of your block.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger will deliver the Democratic rebuttal to President Donald Trump\u2019s State of the Union address next week, Democratic Minority Leaders Hakeem Jeffires and Chuck Schumer announced Thursday. Sen. Schumer said Spanberger \u201chas always put service over politics,\u201d and Rep. Jeffries praised Spanberger for her decisive victory in November\u2019s election. \u201cShe stands in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19163\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}