A centrist Democratic governor MAGA has called a villain, a witch, and one of the “most dangerous people in our society” will deliver the rebuttal to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech next week.
MAGA supporters have for weeks been nonstop complaining about newly inaugurated Virginia Gov. Abigail Spangerber. They claim she has taken a sharp left turn and was only pretending to be a moderate while running for office.
Now, she will be given an even bigger platform as she has been tapped to deliver the Democrats’ response to Trump’s speech Tuesday.
“We are at a defining moment in our nation’s history,” Spanberger said in a statement Thursday. “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. Next week, I look forward to laying out what these Americans expect and deserve — leaders who are working hard to deliver for them.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries picked Spanberger to deliver the high-profile speech. In a statement, he said Spanberger “stands in stark contrast to Donald Trump, who will lie, deflect and blame everyone but himself for his failed presidency on Tuesday evening.”
California Sen. Alex Padilla will deliver the rebuttal in Spanish.
While speeches responding to the State of the Union have been largely forgettable, they have historically elevated the national profile of the person delivering them.
Four former presidents—Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Joe Biden—were picked by their parties to deliver the rebuttal before they went on to take over the Oval Office.
Some speeches, however, are remembered in infamy, such as Alabama Sen. Katie Britt’s rebuttal in 2024, dubbed by Republicans as “one of our biggest disasters,” or Marco Rubio awkwardly leaning out of the frame to take a sip of water in his 2013 rebuttal.
While it remains to be seen how Spanberger’s delivery will be received, MAGA has been in nonstop turmoil over her first few weeks as governor.
The Virginia Republican Party has dramatically claimed that “Spanberger is putting Virginians in danger by shielding criminals from accountability to virtue signal to the left-wing mob.”
MAGA activist Laura Loomer has called her one of “the most dangerous people in our society,” and Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, called her a “bond Villian.”
Despite the MAGA meltdown, Spanberger’s overall agenda as governor was outlined on her campaign website, and also aligns with her beliefs while she served three terms in the House.
In the commonwealth’s 2025 gubernatorial race, Spanberger beat her opponent, former Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, by over 15 percentage points, or more than 520,000 votes.
And despite the outrage on the right over Spanberger, the Virginia GOP heavily doubted Earle Sears’ candidacy, as she frequently melted down during interviews, and Trump snubbed her of his endorsement in the race.
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