RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — President Joe Biden gave his third State of the Union Address Tuesday night, and some elected officials in Virginia have voiced their opinions on the speech.

United States Senator Mark Warner (D-Va) said he approves of the work Biden has done to unite Democrats and Republicans to address problems the American people and people abroad are facing.

Since President Biden came into office, Congress has passed a slew of bipartisan bills to help our economy recover from the pandemic, address inflation, rebuild our infrastructure, support our vets, make our communities safer, and our country more competitive against China. We’ve also worked across the aisle to support the Ukrainians in their fight against Putin’s brutal invasion of their country. I agree with the President: what we have accomplished over these last two years demonstrates what can be done when both parties put aside their red and their blue jerseys, and focus on getting stuff done for the American people. I hope we’ll see more of that in the new Congress.

Senator Mark Warner

Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D), who represents Virginia’s 7th congressional district, said she was encouraged to hear about Biden’s focus on lowering costs, investing in infrastructure and addressing addiction and substance abuse in the United States. She also said she was glad to hear Biden acknowledge the urgency of protecting voting and reproductive rights.

In the weeks and months ahead, the President must find more common ground between Democrats and Republicans. Unfortunately, we continue to grapple with hyper-partisanship in the U.S. House — particularly on the issue of paying our nation’s bills and avoiding a debt ceiling default. Going forward, I’ll continue to remind my colleagues that Virginians — and the American people overall — expect us to resolve our differences, get things done, and provide more opportunity to the next generation of Americans.

Representative Abigail Spanberger

Rep. Bobby Scott (D), who represents Virginia’s 3rd district, highlighted Biden’s emphasis on addressing police brutality and the importance of increasing the quality and affordability of education, growing the job market and fighting child hunger.

President Biden outlined the historic progress we have made the last two years to bring the economy back from the pandemic and set the economy up for long term success. The President was clear that while we have made great strides, there is more work to do so we can finish the job of building an economy where everyone can succeed. Instead of passing tax cuts for corporations and billionaires, we have grown the economy by investing in working families. We fought to lower health care costs, prescription drug costs, energy costs and paid for it by making the wealthy and well-connected pay their fair share.

Representative Bobby Scott

However, not all of Virginia’s elected officials were happy to hear what Biden had to say in his address. Rep. Rob Wittman, who represents Virginia’s 1st district, criticized the Biden administration letting prices increase, as well as what he called a display of weakness with their response to the Chinese balloon that was seen flying in U.S. airspace last week.

This year, we will begin to fulfill our commitment by rebuilding our nation’s struggling economy – we will continue to promote our proven pro-growth, pro-worker policies that reduce the cost of living, boost local businesses, and encourage innovation and competition. Americans have been paying record-high prices in the grocery store, at the gas pump, to heat their homes, and more – this will begin to change now that we have a new majority in the House of Representatives that will push back against these disastrous policies. 

Representative Rob Wittman