Choice of Virginia governor to give Trump rebuttal suggests DNC believes moderate approach could bring midterm wins
State of the Union address - live updates
On Tuesday night, Abigail Spanberger will walk out on to the historic grounds of Colonial Williamsburg and deliver the Democratic response to Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. With midterm elections approaching and Democrats desperately searching for a roadmap back to relevance, the party has turned to a moderate who once flipped a Republican-held congressional seat in the suburbs of Richmond and then parlayed that into the governorship by 15 points.
Since taking the office from Republican Glenn Youngkin in January, Spanberger has moved with lightning speed that has caught conservatives flat-footed, much to the delight of those who still identify as liberal.
She followed through on a campaign promise to end Virginia law enforcement’s cooperation agreements with ICE, and backed a potential redrawing of the state’s congressional maps ahead of the midterms. When the Trump administration pushed to remove the University of Virginia’s president over diversity policies, she forced out the board members tied to the effort.
