Tipsheet

Abigail Spanberger's State of the Union Rebuttal Was a Massive Failure, Just Like Her

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  February 25, 2026 8:00 AM

A few days before the State of the Union address, Democrats announced that newly installed Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger would be giving their party's response to President Trump. From the outset, it was a bad choice because in her short time as Governor, Spanberger has overseen the Democrats introduce massive tax increases on Virginians, on everything from dog walking to Uber Eats to gyms. She's also pushing for a redistricting of maps that would disenfranchise the 45 percent of Virginians who don't vote blue, ended state law enforcement cooperation with ICE, and managed to drive Boeing out of the state in just six weeks.

Things are so disastrous for Spanberger that the Left was even fighting over the venue for her rebuttal: Colonial Williamsburg. 

The optics of Spanberger's speech were bad, but not because she was at Colonial Williamsburg. Instead, she was in a giant room flanked by a handful of people who you never really see on camera. But if you listen to the audio, especially of the tightly-controlled applause, it's clear the room is largely empty.

Spanberger also ran into teleprompter trouble, and was caught off guard.

She also lied about everything, including tax increases, immigration enforcement efforts, and ICE agents "killing American citizens in our streets."

It was Spanberger who, during her time in Congress, repeatedly undermined border security by voting against the Secure the Border Act, supporting a pathway to citizenship for more than two million illegal aliens, co-sponsoring an amnesty bill for millions of illegals, and twice voting to terminate President Trump’s national emergency declaration at the southern border.

She's soft-on-crime, and has consistently supported defunding the police efforts, accepting tens of thousands in campaign contributions from groups advocating defunding and marching with a group that claimed “law enforcement doesn’t protect or save our lives.”

And if she wants to talk about affordability, spending and taxes, we'll remind you that Spanberger enthusiastically supported Biden’s multi-trillion-dollar tax-and-spending spree while ignoring warnings about skyrocketing inflation; she opposed President Trump’s landmark 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which cut taxes for 80% of taxpayers, calling it “irresponsible," and also opposed the Working Families Tax Cut, which delivered unprecedented tax relief to nearly every American. And as we mentioned above, her party proposed over 50 new taxes on Virginians just weeks after taking office.

Spanberger and the Democrats also support expensive "green energy" agendas, which drive up utility costs for Americans. In January 2026, she proudly announced Virginia’s rejoining of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, imposing costly regulations on energy producers that raise electricity bills for families and businesses. She also cheered Biden’s reentry into the Paris Climate Agreement, a scam projected to cost American families over $20,000 in lost income, eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs, and inflict trillions in economic damage.

She also lied about the five-year-old boy in the blue hat. He was abandoned by his criminal, illegal alien father, who tried to flee from authorities, and his mother also refused to take custody of the child. So our ICE agents cared for him.

Spanberger also talked about how "divisive" President Trump is, but she — and her party — embrace radical gender ideology, where they rip children from their parents when those parents don't "affirm" a child's gender identity. In fact, a teen girl and her mom, Michele Blair, were at the State of the Union last night. Blair sued a Virginia school district after it facilitated her daughter's "social transition," which led to the girl running away and being trafficked to Maryland, where officials tried to keep her from her family.

Spanberger voted against passage of the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which would bar biological males from competing in women’s and girls’ sports, voted twice to allow men in women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms, and advocated against commonsense restrictions on radical gender-affirming care for minors, prioritizing ideology over parental rights and child welfare.

During her rebuttal, Spanberger tried to appeal to American history. That didn't go over well, either, given the Democrats' track record on hating America's founding, its Constitution, and its history.

"Who do you think you people are kidding here? The Left despises America. They hate this country and its founders, and no amount of flowery rhetoric from Democrat politicians will ever be able to gaslight the general public into thinking otherwise," Heiens wrote.