Members Of The United States House Of Representatives

"Protect every citizen, including the millions of people of foreign birth who will flock to our shores to become citizens and to find here a land of liberty and law."

"This is not more complicated than the fact that Trump wants a giant island with his name on it. He wouldn’t think twice about putting our troops in danger if it makes him feel big and strong. The US military is not a toy."

"... he wasn't going to look into whether the signature was a forgery, and I'm concerned about that, because this is the president ... If there are forgeries or forgers out there, I think we should investigate it ... Someone 22 years ago went back to the future and forged his signature when he was a Democrat ... knew he would become a Republican, become president 22 years later ... We can solve this problem for the American people ... Let's bring in a signature expert ... I just think that, rather than this drag out for weeks or months. Is it his? Is it not his? Does he like to draw? Doesn't he like to draw? Right? Like, let's just get an expert in here to tell us."

"Spanberger’s inauguration arrives at a moment when the political temperature around LGBTQ+ life remains volatile across the country. But in Virginia, the 2025 election cycle produced a quiet rebuke of grievance-driven politics. Democrats swept statewide offices, and efforts to weaponize transgender existence as a campaign issue failed to deliver the electoral payoff Republicans had promised. That shift is already visible in the composition of the incoming government. Lt. Gov.-elect Ghazala Hashmi appointed Equality Virginia Executive Director Narissa Rahaman to her transition team, embedding LGBTQ+ leadership into the fabric of the new administration. Millner said he hopes Spanberger will explicitly name LGBTQ+ communities in her inaugural address — not as symbols, but as people whose lives are bound up in state policy. He added Spanberger made a “concerted effort to engage queer and trans folks” not only in her campaign but in its leadership — a move that promises “seats at the table that we haven’t had... for the last four years.”"

"Virginians did not vote for this. Senator Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, and their sidekick, Abigail Spanberger, supported a government shutdown. They chose politics over people and left families wondering how they’ll pay their bills. At a time when Virginians need leadership, they chose to play games."

"Millner told The Advocate that Virginia Pride was “thrilled” to be invited to participate directly in the inaugural parade, an invitation he called “a huge honor” and a deliberate signal that visibility and belonging will be part of the new administration’s public posture from its first moments in power. “It sends a really powerful statement,” he said, “that Abigail Spanberger wanted representation and visibility from the queer community in her inaugural events.” But the symbolism is tethered to policy. Millner said advocates are looking to Spanberger to restore and aggressively enforce the Virginia Values Act, a comprehensive 2020 civil rights law that added sexual orientation and gender identity to the state’s nondiscrimination statutes and created some of the strongest legal protections for LGBTQ+ people anywhere in the South. The law bars discrimination in housing, employment, credit, and public accommodations, requires equal access to places such as hotels, restaurants, schools, and retail businesses, and authorizes private lawsuits for discrimination — protections that advocates say were underenforced during the Youngkin administration. Millner said he is hopeful the Spanberger administration will “lean into that law as a platform for enforcing those protections and advancing those protections for LGBTQ+ people.” The parade’s architecture reads like a census of modern Virginia: immigrant-led organizations, Girl Scouts and 4-H students, Bollywood dancers and Korean dance troupes, labor groups and public school bands, firefighters and paramedics, NASA researchers and military cadets. It is, in effect, a living map of who Virginia is and who it intends to serve."

"Virginians are already facing the dire impacts of DOGE, reckless tariffs, and attacks on their healthcare coverage. And now, our Commonwealth faces totally unnecessary job cuts as President Trump promises to enact mass firings. With each new attack from the White House, Winsome Earle-Sears fails to stand up for Virginia’s families, workforce, and economy. Just yesterday, when given multiple opportunities to publicly ask the President to stop further cuts to Virginia jobs, she outright refused to do so. We need a Governor who will put Virginia first, no matter who is in the White House or which party controls the levers of power across the Potomac. As Governor, I will remain focused on lowering costs for Virginia families, protecting access to affordable healthcare, and — critically — always standing up for Virginia jobs and businesses. President Trump must reverse course and work in good faith to end this shutdown as soon as possible. And we need leaders in Richmond who will demand this of the President, not use this moment as an opportunity to punish even more Virginians."

"On January 17, transgender people in Virginia will be able to breathe easier knowing they have ally in the state’s governor’s mansion again. Anti-trans Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin will be out, and a historic Democratic woman will be in the governor's seat. When Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer and three-term member of Congress, takes the oath as the Commonwealth’s 75th governor, the parade that follows will not simply be ceremonial. It will be political. It will be cultural. And, for LGBTQ+ Virginians who have spent years bracing against erasure and rollback, it will be deeply personal. Marching through downtown Richmond will be Virginia Pride and Diversity Richmond — queer organizations whose presence in the inaugural procession marks a sharp departure from the Youngkin years, when LGBTQ+ communities were routinely sidelined as legislative battles over transgender students, classroom speech, and public accommodation laws reshaped daily life. “This dark cloud that has hung over Virginia, particularly as it pertains to the dignity and the rights of LGBTQ folks, is going to be lifted,” said James Millner, executive director of Virginia Pride, who described the moment as a “huge relief” for queer and transgender Virginians who have felt their lives become political weapons."

"We lost a lot of that capacity with these cuts. And then they're telling me, you know, we also need to have a conversation about insurance and what it means to protect the homes and protect property with good, like, hardier equipment and plants and removing brush from around people's homes."

"where we can, that we are understanding where we should and should not build, or where we are at risk. I mean, that's that's the biggest thing where we're at risk. And, how how can we mitigate as much risk as possible."

"The pulling of resources from wildfire fighting activities was unacceptable. And even firefighters that voted for Trump were very concerned that the the land resources that they had. Weren't weren't there in the numbers that they needed them to be in."

"So I've been telling the firefighters, tell me exactly what you need. Some have said, oh, I need backhoes. I need hard equipment. They've also told me that we need to make sure that we're doing forest management."

"But also, I've been talking with insurance companies. I've been talking with my colleagues about what it takes for us to make sure we have the resources that we need."

"So our office has been engaged regularly on the front lines in, you know, all of the coordinating meetings and keeping abreast of what's happening, informing the public, telling people where resources can be found."

"You know, during the August break, I spent time with firefighters, both in central Oregon and in roundtables and at our National Night Out.And the message was consistent."

"And I want men and women, young and old, to see me and think, ‘That was my m’hija, That was my daughter.’ Or…’I’m an intern somewhere and I don’t feel seen. But if she could do it, so can I.’”"

"When you spread it out and say, we're just going to go get anybody we can, that's actually making us less safe, because now you're using resources to get people who are their friends, their neighbors."

"You bring up the National Guard, you rise tensions. People come out and this is what you're starting to see happen."

"Every one of you here can make that difference in this race. This is how we get our message out. We tell people who I am, we tell people who were fighting for, and I can't do it without you because money and politics is buying our elected officials."

"There is a way to do enforcement. It's targeted enforcement. It's been done over and over again and hasn't resulted in this. This is really a distraction."

"Talk about opportunity, we all just want a chance, a shot at the American Dream and how do you get there? In school. Education."

"I believe that education is the number one equalizer."

"Some of those people, they're just dismissing their cases. They're trampling on due process. They're not even getting access to a lawyer."

"I've gotten a piece of the American dream, but now I'm running to make sure others have that same opportunity and that in a nutshell is why I'm running for Congress."

"We were looking at social justice issues. Back then, we were talking about racial profiling. What has happened now? It's just gotten worse."

"We saw that happening starting when [he said he's] going to defund California and stop giving the federal money. Now he's taking it to the immigration front. So this is his game plan and we can't let people fall into it. We have to make sure not to take the bait, not to do the violence."

"They're just treating everybody as a criminal. They're not distinguishing between who are the real criminals versus -- which are the folks that they're saying they're going after, versus everybody else."

"This is an abuse of power and what dictators do. It's unnecessary and not needed."

"There's no targeted effort here to find criminals. Like they said we're going to do. They're sweeping up friends and neighbors of people who are just trying to find jobs at these worksites outside of Home Depot."

"If you are going after serious criminal offenders, we support that. There is no disagreement about that. But they're not doing targeted enforcement. What they're doing is, they're doing mass deportation, round up of just everybody, let's see who we can get."

"This is a sign of a dictator who takes over a National Guard against the governor's will, [and] against all elected officials' will. The presence of the National Guard in itself is sending that message, "we're here to take you over." This is to empower the president to flex his muscles."

"It was the sheriffs who got things under control, not the National Guard. In downtown L.A. that night, it was the LAPD who got things under control, it was not the National Guard."

"In Nebraska, the GDP here has decreased by 6% over the last year. And it's all about trade. It's all about getting corn and soybeans out the door."

"It would be a total mistake to invade an ally. It would be catastrophic to our allies and everything. It's just the worst idea ever in my view."

"Nebraska is an export state, one of the biggest export states in the country, and tariff war is not good for us."

"The Constitution gives tariff authority to the Congress. We've given the president emergency powers, but I think it's being abused in this case. And it's creating a lot of damage."

"We're losing lots of business, lots of customers, lots of tourists."

"The gentleman [Mr. Taber] from New York says [agricultural research] is all foolish. Yes; it was foolish when Burbank was experimenting with wild cactus. It was foolish when the Wright boys went down to Kitty Hawk and had a contraption there that they were going to fly like birds. It was foolish when Robert Fulton tried to put a boiler into a sail boat and steam it up the Hudson. It was foolish when one of my ancestors thought the world was round and discovered this country so that the gentleman from New York could become a Congressman. ... Do not seek to stop progress; do not seek to put the hand of politics on these scientific men who are doing a great work. As the gentleman from Texas points out, it is not the discharge of these particular employees that is at stake, it is all the work of investigation, of research, of experimentation that has been going on for years that will be stopped and lost."

"Why is it, whenever a group of internationalists get together they always decide that Uncle Sam must be the goat?"

"If you want inner peace find it in solitude, not speed, and if you would find yourself, look to the land from which you came and to which you go."

"No words can depict, no pen can describe, the wonderful variety, richness, grandeur and beauty which the Almighty has stamped upon this, our favored land. Every material for human industry, every facility for honorable employment, can be here found. The fisherman, the sailor, the farmer, the miner, the mechanic of very kind, the artist, the merchant, and even the preacher, the doctor, and the lawyer, may here find means of pursuing his vocation. In what part of the habitable globe can any man utter with greater truth the words of the psalmist: "O Lord, how great are thy works"?"

"It is obvious that the best qualities in man must atrophy in a standing-room-only environment."

"America today stands poised on a pinnacle of wealth and power, yet we live in a land of vanishing beauty, of increasing ugliness, of shrinking open space, and of an overall environment that is diminished daily by pollution and noise and blight."

"A land ethic for tomorrow should be as honest as Thoreau's Walden, and as comprehensive as the sensitive science of ecology. It should stress the oneness of our resources and the live-and-help-live logic of the great chain of life. If, in our haste to "progress," the economics of ecology are disregarded by citizens and policy makers alike, the result will be an ugly America."

"The real story of settlement was a story of work, not conquest."

"Where nature is concerned, familiarity breeds love and knowledge, not contempt."

"Cherish sunsets, wild creatures, and wild places. Have a love affair with the wonder and beauty of the Earth!"

"Gross National Product is our Holy Grail; the economists and statisticians its keepers."

"Over the long haul of life on this planet it is the ecologists — and not the bookkeepers of business — who are the ultimate accountants."

"We who have chopped and mined and built and machined our way to wealth and power now grope out from our cities...for something we cannot forget. Beyond the noise and the asphalt and ugly architecture, we yearn for the long waves and beach grass; we see white wings on morning air, and in the afternoon, the shadows cast by the doorways of history."