WASHINGTON (AP) — Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger will deliver the Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address next week, just months after resoundingly winning an office previously held by a Republican.
Spanberger, who served three terms in the U.S. House, became Virginia’s first female governor earlier this year. She won by a double-digit margin, campaigning on affordability and lowering costs for families — a message Democrats are now elevating as they seek to win back the House and Senate in this year's midterm elections.
“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,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.
Spanbberger's rebuttal will follow Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday, where he'll have a national platform to tout his record and shape the GOP’s message — valuable airtime presidents often use to the fullest. Trump's first joint address of his second term last March stretched an hour and 40 minutes.
Spanberger will have far less time for rebuttal. Last year’s Democratic response, delivered by Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, ran just over 10 minutes.
The brevity and lack of an audience have made the response to the State of the Union one of the most fraught assignments in politics. Republican Sen. Katie Britt's 2024 response to President Joe Biden in 2024 was lampooned on “Saturday Night Live,” for example, while now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio faced mockery for reaching for a water bottle when delivering the GOP response in 2013. Other responses have been quickly forgotten.
Spanberger’s speech will not be the only Democratic response to Trump on Tuesday night. Leaders also announced that California Sen. Alex Padilla will deliver the Spanish-language rebuttal.
Some Democratic lawmakers are skipping Trump's address altogether and holding their own counterprogramming, including a “People's State of the Union” rally being held on the National Mall with members of the Senate and House.
“President Trump is a disgrace. He’s easily the most corrupt President in American history by a long shot,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., 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 his members to either sit in “silent defiance” during Trump's speech or stay away, wary of the disruptions that have become commonplace at recent presidential addresses.
Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas was removed from the House chamber during Trump's address to Congress last year when he stood and started responding to the president. Other Democrats displayed protest signs from their seats.
Jeffries said in announcing Spanberger as the party’s pick that she “embodies the best of America as a mother, community leader and dedicated public servant.”
As a former CIA case officer, Spanberger has tied her political career to her public service and national security credentials. She also has pitched herself as a mother of daughters educated in Virginia’s public schools and a Capitol Hill veteran who often worked across the aisle.
Since winning the election she has vowed to work with the president when they are aligned, but also has taken more pointed digs at the White House.
On the campaign trail last year, Spanberger spoke out against the White House’s gutting of the civil service, an issue that hit particularly hard in Virginia, home to a large number of federal workers.
"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,” Spanberger said at her inauguration. “Betraying the values of who we are as Americans.”
Last year’s record-breaking government shutdown also hit the state’s sizable federal workforce, leaving many employees without pay for weeks.
The federal government is once again partially shut down as Democratic leaders in Congress and the White House negotiate funding for the Department of Homeland Security. The shutdown, which began Saturday, is likely to stretch into Trump’s address Tuesday, with no agreement in sight.
Diaz reported from Richmond, Virginia.
FILE - Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger delivers her State of the Commonwealth address before a joint session of the Virignia General Assembly at the Capitol, Jan. 19, 2026, in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
ROME, Ga. (AP) — The White House insisted that President Donald Trump was visiting Georgia to promote the economy.
But in the opening minutes of his first stop at a local restaurant, the president raised the prospect of voter fraud without evidence, talked up his plan to require voters to show identification before casting ballots, and discussed the recent FBI raid of election offices in the state's most populous county.
“They came in, they took all those ballots; all those crooked ballots were taken," Trump said. “And the Democrats are fighting like hell. They don’t want anyone to see those ballots. Let’s see what happens.”
He added, “We're going to clean it up."
The White House has long said Trump would focus more on the economy, and he frequently complains that he doesn’t get enough credit for it. But recent months have been dominated by other issues, including deadly clashes during deportation efforts in Minneapolis, potential military action in Iran, and his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
Trump's destination in Georgia suggests he has something else on his mind, too. After his stop at The Varsity Restaurant, he headed to a steel company in the congressional district previously represented by Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former supporter who resigned in January after feuding with Trump.
There's a special election to replace her on March 10.
As another reminder of Trump's divided attention, Trump opened Thursday focusing on one of his passion projects. He joined representatives from some of the more than two dozen countries that have joined his Board of Peace, a diplomatic initiative to potentially supplant the United Nations.
Vice President JD Vance, in a nod to domestic politics heading into the midterm elections, tried to sell the Board of Peace as a win for the American people.
“The reason that we’re here today is yes to save lives and yes to promote peace, but this creates incredible prosperity for the American people,” Vance said Thursday morning, suggesting that the countries represented on the board represent “trillions of dollars of investment” in the U.S.
The Georgia visit comes less than a month after federal agents seized voting records and ballots from Fulton County, home to the state’s largest collection of Democrats.
Trump has long seen Georgia as central to his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen by Democrats and President Joe Biden, a fabrication that he reiterated Wednesday during a White House reception on Black History Month.
“We won by millions of votes but they cheated,” Trump said.
Audits, state officials, courts and Trump’s own former attorney general have all rejected the idea of widespread problems that could have altered the election.
Some Republicans are now pushing for Georgia’s State Election Board, which has a Trump-aligned majority, to take control of elections in Fulton County — a step enabled by a controversial state law passed in 2021. Board member and conservative commentator Janelle King said she was aware of calls for a takeover, but said Wednesday that “it’s just not something that we’re looking to do without having all of the information.”
She said she expects to have a clearer picture once the FBI is done with its investigation. But she and the other two members of the board’s majority said they had serious concerns about Fulton County and were glad to see the federal government get involved.
Leavitt, in the White House, said Wednesday that Trump was “exploring his options” when it comes to a potential executive order he teased on social media over the weekend designed to address voter fraud.
Trump described Democrats as “horrible, disingenuous CHEATERS” in the post, which is pinned to the top of his social media account. He also said that Republicans should feature such claims “at the top of every speech.”
Scott Johnson of Marietta, a longtime GOP leader in Georgia who gathered at the Coosa Steel Corporation in Rome to see the president, said “the economy is a winning issue for us.”
He's not so sure that boosting claims of election fraud from 2020 is a good idea.
“I’m not concerned about relitigating the past. I’m concerned about moving forward in the future," he said.
Trump may be distracted by fresh attacks from Greene, once among the president's most vocal allies in Congress and now one of his loudest conservative critics.
In a social media post ahead of Trump's visit, Greene noted that the White House and Republican leaders met earlier in the week to develop an effective midterm message. She suggested they were “on the struggle bus" and blamed them for health insurance costs that ballooned this year.
“Approximately 75,000 households in my former district had their health insurance double or more on January 1st of this year because the ACA tax credits expired and Republicans have absolutely failed to fix our health insurance system that was destroyed by Obamacare,” she said. “And you can call me all the petty names you want, I don’t worship a man. I’m not in a cult.”
Early voting has already begun in the special election to replace Greene, and the leading Republican candidates have fully embraced Trump.
Trump was traveling on Thursday with his preferred candidate, Clay Fuller, a district attorney who prosecutes crimes in four counties. Fuller described Trump’s endorsement as “rocket fuel” for his candidacy in a weekend interview and vowed to maintain an America First agenda even if he remains in Congress after Trump is no longer president.
Other candidates include Republican former state Sen. Colton Moore, who made a name for himself with a vociferous attack on Trump’s prosecution in Georgia. Moore, the favorite of many far-right activists, said he’s been in communication with Trump even after Trump endorsed Fuller, calling the choice “unfortunate.”
“I think he’s the greatest president of our lifetimes,” Moore said.
The top Democrat in the race is Shawn Harris, who unsuccessfully ran against Greene in 2024. Democrats voice hope for an upset, but the district is rated as the most Republican district in Georgia by the Cook Political Report.
Peoples reported from Washington. AP writer Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed.
President Donald Trump speaks at The Varsity restaurant, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, in Rome, Ga. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Supporters gather outside as President Donald Trump speaks at The Varsity restaurant, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, in Rome, Ga. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Donald Trump speaks at The Varsity restaurant, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, in Rome, Ga. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
A supporter waits to see President Donald Trump speak at a rally at Coosa Steel Corporation in Rome, Ga., Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
People wait to enter to see President Donald Trump speak at a rally at Coosa Steel Corporation in Rome, Ga., Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
President Donald Trump boards Air Force One, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., for a trip to Georgia. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Donald Trump gestures during a Black History Month event in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
