By JOEY CAPPELLETTI and OLIVIA DIAZ, Related Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger will ship the Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union deal with subsequent week, simply months after resoundingly successful an workplace beforehand held by a Republican.
The Democratic rebuttal will instantly observe Trump’s deal with to Congress subsequent Tuesday, providing the celebration’s most high-profile alternative to ship a countermessage.
Spanberger, who served three phrases in Congress, turned Virginia’s first feminine governor earlier this 12 months. She received the race by a double-digit margin, campaigning on affordability and reducing prices for households.
“Gov. Spanberger will lay out a transparent path ahead: decrease on a regular basis prices, defend healthcare, and defend the freedoms that outline who we’re as a nation,” Senate Democratic Chief Chuck Schumer mentioned in a press release.
Home Democratic Chief Hakeem Jeffries mentioned in asserting Spanberger because the celebration’s decide that she “embodies the perfect of America as a mom, group chief and devoted public servant.”
On the marketing campaign path final 12 months, Spanberger additionally spoke out in opposition to the White Home’s gutting of the civil service, a problem that hit significantly laborious in Virginia, residence to a lot of federal staff.
“Those that have devoted their lives to public service, you might be nervous about an administration that’s gilding buildings whereas faculties crumble, breaking the social security internet and sowing worry throughout our communities,” Spanberger mentioned at her inauguration. “Betraying the values of who we’re as People.”
Final 12 months’s record-breaking authorities shutdown additionally hit the state’s sizable federal workforce, leaving many staff with out pay for weeks.
The federal authorities is as soon as once more partially shut down as Democratic leaders in Congress and the White Home stay at an deadlock over funding for the Division of Homeland Safety. The shutdown, which started Saturday, is prone to stretch into Trump’s deal with Tuesday, with no settlement in sight.
As a former CIA case officer, Spanberger has tied her political profession to her public service and nationwide safety credentials. She additionally has pitched herself as a mom of daughters educated in Virginia’s public faculties and a Capitol Hill veteran who typically labored throughout the aisle.
Within the months since successful the election, she has vowed to work with the president when they’re aligned, but in addition has taken extra pointed digs on the White Home.
Diaz reported from Richmond, Virginia
