El Paso Congresswoman Veronica Escobar gives Democrats’ Spanish language rebuttal to Trump speech
WASHINGTON, DC — After President Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, freshman Congresswoman Veronica Escobar of El Paso delivered the Democratic response in Spanish.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer delivered their party’s response to Trump’s address in English, and Escobar followed it up with a Spanish-language version of the speech at a family health center in El Paso.
Escobar, like Whitmer, kept the focus on health care and the economy.
According to a transcript of her speech translated into English, Escobar said, “Republicans across the nation are actively fighting to dismantle benefits that save lives, working in the courts to eliminate every last protection of the Affordable Care Act, including protections for the 130 million people with pre-existing conditions. Democrats are fighting back.”
And she said, “Democrats also know that too many families are struggling to get by in our economy. President Trump’s economic policies have created inequality that is creating two Americas: one where the wealthiest 1% benefit and one that leaves too many farmers, businesses, and working families behind.”
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the Texas congresswoman’s “values and vision beautifully represent our party and our country.” And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Escobar “has embodied the best of public service in her first year in Congress.”
Escobar is the first woman to represent Texas’s 16th Congressional District, which encompasses the city of El Paso and surrounding suburbs. She filled the seat formerly held by Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who unsuccessfully challenged Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for Senate in 2018.
Escobar first entered politics in 2006, when she was elected county commissioner of El Paso County. She was later elected county judge in 2010. Before that, Escobar worked as an English teacher at the University of Texas at El Paso.
She has been a vocal critic of Trump’s immigration policies. She is also an advocate for gun violence prevention measures, gaining prominence on the issue in the wake of a shooting at an El Paso Walmart that left 22 people dead last August.
The shooter told police he had been targeting Mexicans. Escobar linked the President’s rhetoric about immigrants to the violence, saying Trump was not welcome in the city after the attack.
“Words have consequences,” she said on MSNBC at the time. “And the President has made my community and my people the enemy. He has told the country that we are people to be feared, people to be hated.”
Escobar has been influential in the House Democratic freshman class since she entered Congress, winning a secret ballot election among her peers late last year to replace former Rep. Katie Hill as a freshman representative in Democratic leadership. She sits on the House Armed Services Committee, as well as the high-profile House Judiciary Committee.
As a member of the Judiciary Committee, Escobar was involved in the House’s impeachment inquiry into Trump’s conduct related to Ukraine.
Her husband, Michael Pleters, is a federal immigration judge who was appointed to the job by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. They have two college-aged children.
