“Tonight, as we watched our nations lawmakers gather for a join session of Congress, we did not hear the truth from our president,” said Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who gave a 13-minute Democratic response to the State of the Union from Colonial Williamsburg. “So, let’s speak plainly and honestly. And let me ask you, the American people watching at home 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?”

Spanberger, who took office in January, said that while on the campaign trail, she heard the same “pressing concerns” across her state — people told her costs are too high in areas ranging from housing, healthcare, energy and childcare.

“And I know these same conversations are being had all across this country, because since this president took office last year his reckless trade policies have forced American families to pay $1,700 each in tariff costs.”

She also said small businesses have suffered, as have farmers, some of whom lost entire markets.

“Everyday Americans are paying the price,” Spanberger said. “And even though the Supreme Court struck down these tariffs down four days ago, the damage to us, the American people, has already been done.”

She then said Republicans in Congress remain unwilling to use their constitutional authority to stop Trump from implementing new tariffs, which she described as “another massive tax hike on you and your family.”

“They’re making your life harder,” she said. “They’re making your life more expensive. They’re even making it more difficult to see a doctor.”

She said rural health clinics across the country — including in Virginia — are closing because of the “so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill championed by the president and Republicans in Congress.

“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.”

She said that in Virginia, she’s working with the state legislature to lower costs and make the commonwealth more affordable.

She said Democrats across the country are laser-focused on affordability.

“In the most innovative and exceptional nation in the history of the world, Americans deserve to know that their leaders are focused on addressing the problems that keep them up at night.”

Spanberger added that such problems dictate where people might live, whether they could afford to start a business or whether they’d have to skip a prescription in order to buy groceries.

“So I’ll ask again, is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family?

“We all know the answer is ‘no.’”

Spanberger then described growing up in a “house of service” — her mother was a nurse and her father career law enforcement. She followed in his footsteps, as a federal agent, working money laundering and narcotics cases.

She discussed the “unique responsibility” law enforcement officers across the country have — doing the “serious work” of investigating crimes, comforting victims and making arrests.

“It’s about building trust,” she said. “And that requires an abiding sense of duty and commitment to community. And yet our president has sent poorly trained federal agents into our cities, where they have arrested and detained American citizens and people who desire to be Americans. And they have done it without a warrant.”

She added that these poorly trained agents have ripped nursing mothers away from their babies, sent children to far-off detention centers and killed American citizens in our streets.

“And they have done it all with their faces masked from accountability,” she said. “Every minute spent sowing fear is a minute not spent investigating murders, crimes against children or the criminals defrauding seniors of their life savings.”

Responding to Trump’s claims that we’re safer, Spanberger asked, “because these agents arrest mothers and detain children?

“Think about that,” she said. “Our broken immigration system is something to be fixed, not an excuse for unaccountable agents to terrorize our communities.”

Spanberger, whose law enforcement career also included time as a CIA officer, then turned her attention to Trump’s activities on the world stage.

“As the president spoke of his perceived successes tonight, he continued to cede economic power and technological strength to China, bow down to a Russian dictator and make plans for war with Iran.”

She said Trump has endangered the United States’ long and storied history of being a force for good through DOGE, mass firings and the “appointment of deeply unserious people to our nation’s most serious positions.”

She again asked if the president is working to keep Americans safe at home and abroad.

“We all know the answer is ‘no.’”

Spanberger said that not only did Trump lie, scapegoat and distract, he also offered no real solutions to the country’s pressing challenges, “so many of which he is actively making worse.”

She said Trump is trying to divide and enrage us, pitting neighbor against neighbor.

“And sometimes he succeeds. So you have to ask, who benefits from his rhetoric, his policies, his actions, the short list of laws he’s pushed through this Republican Congress? Somebody must be benefiting”

Answering her own question, she said Trump is enriching himself, his family and friends.

“The scale of corruption is unprecedented,” she said. “There’s the cover-up of the Epstein files, the crypto scams, cozying up to foreign princes for airplanes and billionaires for ballrooms, putting his name and face on buildings all over our nation’s capital.

“This is not what our founders envisioned, not by a long shot.”

Spanberger then said the special thing about Americans is that we know more than any nation what is possible when ordinary citizens reject the unacceptable and demand more of their government.

She cited the examples of students organizing school walkouts across the country, the bravery of people in Minnesota peacefully protesting in subzero temperatures and carpooling children to school so their immigrant parents aren’t ripped away in the parking lot.

She described being inspired by their bravery as the mother of three school-age daughters, but also being sickened by the fact that their actions are necessary.

She pointed out that Americans across the country are taking action, some by going to the ballot box to “reject this chaos.”

Spanberger said that she won her election by 15 points and that Democrats won 13 new seats in the Virginia legislature because voters decided they wanted something different.

“Our campaign earned votes from Democrats, Republicans and everyone in between because they knew, as citizens, that they could demand more; that they could vote for what they believed matters and that they didn’t need to be constrained by a party or political affiliation.”

She pointed out that this is happening across the country, with the election of New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill in a double-digit victory and Democrats flipping state legislative seats in states like Georgia, Iowa, Mississippi and Texas.

“Ordinary Americans are stepping up to run in the spirit of our forefathers,” Spanberger said. “They are running to demand more and to do more for their neighbors and communities.”

She concluded by citing George Washington’s farewell address, in which he warned about the possibility of “’cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men rising to power.’

“But he also encouraged us — all Americans — to unite in a common cause, to move this nation forward. That is our charge once more, and that is what we’re seeing across the country.”

She said that is how we ensure the state of our union remains strong.