After a State of the Union speech focused on the U.S. economy, Democrats responded to President Donald Trump by highlighting income inequality and those struggling to afford healthcare.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, giving the party's official response speech, said despite the President's rosy assessments, "American workers are hurting."
Trump spoke of the "great economic success" of his administration, while boasting of a soaring stock market and record unemployment rates.
But Whitmer said Americans are not experiencing those gains in an equal way, with pay for executives skyrocketing at a time when wages for many workers remain stagnant.
"It doesn't matter what the president says about the stock market. What matters is that millions of people struggle to get by or don't have enough money at the end of the month after paying for transportation, student loans, or prescription drugs," she said. "So when the president says the economy is strong, my question is: strong for whom?"
Whitmer also spoke of her family's challenges battling health insurance companies and said that as a state lawmaker she worked to expand coverage under the Affordable Care Act, the healthcare program that was a signature of former President Barack Obama.
"Democrats are trying to make your healthcare better. Republicans in Washington are trying to take it away," Whitmer said.
Trump has long been a critic of the ACA, and in his address he accused some Democratic lawmakers of trying to take away the option of having a private health insurance plan.
The issue will likely be one of the top campaigning points ahead of this November's national elections in which Trump is running for re-election against a Democratic challenger, and one-third of the Senate and all of the seats in the House of Representatives are on the ballot.
Whitmer focused blame on Senate Republicans for not acting on economic legislation already passed by the Democrat-majority House.
"In the U.S. House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democrats passed a landmark bill on equal pay, another bill to give 30 million Americans a raise by increasing the minimum wage, and groundbreaking legislation to finally give Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices for America's seniors and families," she said, calling on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to bring them up for consideration.
WATCH: Quotes from Trump's speech
In addition to the economy, Trump spent a big section of his speech on immigration, citing efforts to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border and plans to seek a merit-based immigration system.
Texas Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, who gave the Spanish Democratic response, spoke of the importance of reflecting the dignity and "values of America."
She cited Trump's weakening of protections for those who came to the country illegally as children, the separation of migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border, deaths of migrant children, and sending asylum seekers back to Mexico to await U.S. immigration proceedings.
"These are policies none of us ever imagined would happen in American," Escobar said.
Whitmer made only brief mention of climate change in her address, and Trump spoke only of a worldwide tree-planting initiative.
Escobar said fires, floods and Hurricane Maria, which devastated the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico in 2017, show that climate change is the "biggest threat of our time."
"We can't allow four more years of denial and inaction," she said.
