Abigail Spanberger’s State of the Union response models affordability politics
She's doing it right, and we should take notes
On Tuesday night, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger did something Democrats have struggled to do consistently: she made affordability the spine of her argument, not a sidebar.
Her response to President Trump’s State of the Union opened with a question most Americans are already asking themselves: Is the President working to make life more affordable for you and your family? She asked it three times throughout her speech, each time the question becoming more poignant viewers.
Spanberger rooted the affordability crisis in specific, tangible failures. She named tariffs as a tax hike, pointing out that American families have already absorbed more than $1,700 in tariff costs since Trump took office. She spelled out the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s impact: rural health clinics closed, millions losing healthcare, nutrition programs for children cut, and rising costs in energy and housing. She connected the dots between federal legislation and what people experience every day.
Throughout her speech, she positioned Democrats, in state capitals and in Congress, as the party trying to lower costs. “Democrats across the country are laser-focused on affordability,” she said, pointing to her own work with Virginia’s legislature. That’s exactly the kind of governing-not-just-messaging credibility that wins voters.
Spanberger won her governor’s race by 15 points as Virginia flipped 13 state legislative seats. She did that by speaking to voters, admitting where Democrats went wrong, finding out what their number one issues were, and then talking about it. This led to her winning over Republicans, independents, and disengaged voters. Her theory was that affordability is a universal language, and on Tuesday night she spoke it fluently.