All eyes are on United States President Donald Trump as he delivers his annual State of the Union (Sotu) address to the US Congress. After his remarks, the spotlight will shift on Abigail Spanberger, the first woman governor in Virginia’s history, who will give the Democrats’ response to Trump’s speech.
It is a tradition that started in 1966. The rebuttal is given by the rising star of the opposing party, according to a report in the BBC. Spanberger is among at least a dozen Democratic lawmakers who have refused to attend the Washington, DC event, saying they won’t “legitimise”
Trump’s remarks.
Today, she will deliver the Democratic response from the historic grounds of Colonial Williamsburg, a living history museum with restored 18th-century buildings, the site was at the heart of Virginia’s early opposition to British rule and connecting that legacy to the current political moment, according to her team.
Who is Abigail Spanberger?
Abigail Spanberger, 46, made history when she was elected as
Virginia’s governor in November. She was elected to the state’s top seat after defeating Republican Lt Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, turning Virginia blue.
Before her historic win, she served in the US Congress and worked as a CIA officer.
Spanberger was born on August 7, 1979 in Red Bank, New Jersey. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a master’s from Purdue University. Service was instilled in Spanberger’s life very early on through her parents. Her father served in the US army and went on to become a career law enforcement officer. Her mother spent her early years in foster care, put herself through nursing school, and worked tirelessly — late nights and weekends — to care for her patients.
In the early 2000s, Spanberger followed in her father’s footsteps; she joined the US Postal Inspection Service, where she worked on federal narcotics and money laundering cases. Her website states that she investigated child predators and narcotics traffickers.
In 2006, Spanberger joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as a case officer. During her CIA tenure, she worked undercover to understand the threats facing the United States, prevent terrorist attacks, counter the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and track transnational criminal organisations.
More than a decade later, in 2017, she took the plunge into politics. First, she was appointed to the Virginia Fair Housing Board, following which she announced her candidacy for the United States House of Representatives in Virginia’s 7th congressional district in the 2018 election against incumbent Republican Dave Brat, a Tea Party movement member.
Notably, she and her fellow Democrats, Elissa Slotkin and Mikie Sherrill (who also won the governor’s election in New Jersey), are known as the “mod squad”, a moderate alternative to the progressive.
In November 2023, Spanberger announced that she would not be running for US Congress again and she set her eyes on the governor’s position. During her campaign, she focused on the impact of Republican polices on the cost of food, healthcare, on businesses hit by tariffs, and on federal workers and contractors fired by the Trump administration. She vowed to work on lowering the cost of housing, energy and healthcare. She spoke against gun violence and
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Why was Spanberger picked by Democrats?
Democratic leaders rallied behind Spanberger to deliver the response to Trump’s address. Democratic National Convention chair, Ken Martin, gave a clear reasoning behind the Virginia governor’s selection: “Clearly her message last year resonated with Virginians,” he told The Guardian. “Her focus on affordability and kitchen-table issues resulted in a very decisive win in a very purple, if not red, state.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, “Abigail is 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.”
“She stands in stark contrast to Donald Trump, who will lie, deflect and blame everyone but himself for his failed presidency on Tuesday evening.”
What to expect from Spanberger’s rebuttal?
Democrats are betting that the Virginia governor’s affordability-focused message, which helped her flip a Republican-held office last November, will resonate with Americans when she delivers their party’s response to Trump’s State of the Union address.
The rebuttal gives Democrats a prime opportunity to make their case against Trump and his policies ahead of the midterm elections. Spanberger’s double-digit victory in Virginia last November was viewed by party leaders as validation of a disciplined message centred on lowering costs — one they now want to elevate in campaigns nationwide, according to the AP.
“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. “I look forward to laying out what these Americans expect and deserve — leaders who are working hard to deliver for them.”
Spanberger will have far less time than the Republican president to deliver her rebuttal. Trump’s speech before Congress last year stretched to an hour and 40 minutes, while Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin’s Democratic response lasted just over 10 minutes.
Spanberger’s speech will be the fifth consecutive response to a president’s address to Congress delivered by a female senator or governor.
Trump on Monday told reporters that his State of the Union is “going to be a long speech, because we have so much to talk about.”
As viewership tends to drop the longer the speech runs, the response has become one of the more perilous assignments in politics. Now, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was widely mocked for reaching for a water bottle during the GOP response in 2013. Other rebuttals have quickly faded from memory.
Even with the time disadvantage, Democrats argue the political winds are shifting in their favour. Spanberger’s win in Virginia was followed by other high-profile Democratic victories, including a special election earlier this month in Texas, where a Democrat flipped a reliably Republican state Senate district that Trump carried by 17 percentage points in 2024.
With inputs from agencies
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