Congresswoman Veronica Escobar's State of the Union rebuttal to be delivered from El Paso

The speech itself may be a work in progress, but U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar knows it's important her response to Donald Trump's State of the Union Address be delivered from El Paso.

White sheets of paper filled with the text of the freshman congresswoman's rebuttal sat on her El Paso office desk Monday. Lines of text were crossed out in blue ink, revisions scrawled on the page.

On Tuesday — about a mile away from her office — Escobar will give the Spanish-language Democratic response to Trump's address at Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe in the Segundo Barrio neighborhood.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer will deliver the Democratic response in English.

"There's so much to talk about," Escobar said. "The challenges that we're confronting today are enormous."

For about a week, the freshman congresswoman has been working to craft the prose, trying to include all of the topics she wants to address: healthcare, the economy, climate change, immigration and gun violence.

Versions of the speech have gone back and forth between the El Paso representative and her team. Friday was the "moment of truth" when she gave a draft to the Speaker's office to get notes.

She gave a practice version of the speech this weekend, where her husband timed her. She was five minutes over.

Back to trimming.

Escobar called El Paso "ground zero for many of the Trump administration's hateful anti-immigrant policies," pointing to family separation and the Migrant Protection Protocols, often referred to as the "Remain in Mexico" policy.

She pointed to the Aug. 3 mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart where 22 people were killed, after a man drove allegedly across the state, targeting Hispanics in the attack. In the aftermath, Escobar linked Trump's language about immigrants to violence Latinos face and said he was "not welcome" in the city.

Survivors of the shooting will be present for Escobar's speech, she said.

"So it's all of those reasons, everything that we've been through, everything that we've lived through, that made me want to deliver the speech from El Paso," Escobar said. "But also for me, I want it to be El Pasoans delivering that response. Not me as the representative, but all of us as a community. That El Paso has been, and will continue to be a light in very dark times."

It was a year ago, during his 2019 State of the Union address, that Donald Trump claimed that El Paso was a dangerous city until a fence was built along the U.S.-Mexico border. That claim was disputed by the El Paso Times' own fact check and El Paso Mayor Dee Margo, a Republican.

The fact that Trump "so maligned" El Paso is his most recent address was not lost on Beto O'Rourke, the former congressman who made an unsuccessful run for president in 2019 and organized a counter-rally when Trump visited El Paso.

"His anti-immigrant rhetoric, his insistence that we're being invaded, that there's an infestation coming from across the border, his efforts to dehumanize people ... all comes to a head right here in El Paso," O'Rourke said. "And (there is) no one better to offer that response, and that rebuke, and to offer the truth, and the real story than Veronica."

The location of the speech — Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe — also holds a significance.

It's "figuratively a stone's throw away from Mexico, from our ports of entry, from downtown El Paso," Escobar said.

"From everything that makes us who we are, and that sort of celebrates our location on the border," she continued. The organization also provides "critical health care" to those in the community, Escobar said.

El Paso may be the physical backdrop of the speech, but the State of the Union Address and the Democratic Response will also coincide with the Senate's impeachment trial.

"I feel it's important to mention, at least briefly," Escobar said. "This is a very tragic moment in American history."

State of the Union response a decades-long practice

The practice of having a televised rebuttal of the president's State of the Union Address began in the 1966, during President Lyndon B. Johnson's tenure.

It was most recently delivered by Stacey Abrams, who ran for Georgia governor in 2018 and delivered the English-language response, and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who gave his speech in Spanish.

"The the function for whoever gives it, whichever party happens to be the minority, is really an attempt to try to get their their perspective on equal footing," said Richard Pineda, director of the Sam Donaldson Center at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Pineda said he'll be interested to see how Escobar's speech differs from the one delivered by Whitmer.

Margo called Escobar's rebuttal a "great opportunity" for the city.

“Congresswoman Escobar’s Spanish language Democratic response to President Trump’s State of the Union is a great opportunity for the El Paso community to be represented on a national stage," Margo said in a statement. "The City congratulates Representative Escobar."

El Paso County Republican Party Chairman Adolpho Telles is planning to watch the State of the Union address, as well as the two Democratic responses.

Telles looks forward to hearing the "extremely positive" things that have occurred over Trump's term, he said, and expects Trump to touch on things like the economy and the employment rate.

"(Escobar is) going to try to paint it in the negative picture," he said.

As the eyes of the nation turn to the Democratic response following Trump's speech, so will the attention of El Pasoans, including members of the El Paso delegation of the Texas Legislature.

"I think that national leaders are recognizing that international border communities are are important to our country," said state Rep. Lina Ortega, a Democrat. "I suspect that there's there's many reasons that she was selected to present the version in in Spanish. I think that she's been a proven, influential leader in El Paso and in D.C. as well."

Ortega hopes to hear Escobar, who is one of the first two Latinas from Texas to serve in Congress, address issues related to immigration and the economy, as well as Trump's "hateful rhetoric," she said.

El Paso can't be the focus of the speech — it must speak to the larger message of the Democratic Caucus in Congress, Escobar said.

"But we're going to have as many El Pasoans with us (at the response) as possible from all walks of life, and who have been impacted in many different ways by the policies of the president or by the policies of the Democrats who have been fighting back," Escobar said.

Eleanor Dearman may be reached at 361-244-0047; edearman@elpasotimes.com; @EllyDearman on Twitter.