EXCLUSIVE — Senate Democrats are grappling with whether to leave their chairs empty later this month when President Donald Trump travels to the Capitol to deliver the first State of the Union address of his second term. 

Senior Democrats have been having “general discussions” about whether to skip the address on Feb. 24, according to Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), who, along with several other senators, is undecided on whether to go. There have been individual conversations within the caucus, but Durbin and other committee leaders discussed the topic for the first time formally on Wednesday at their lunch, according to multiple senators who attended.

“Virtually everyone is thinking about it. It’s a tough call,” Durbin told the Washington Examiner.

In the House, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) had a similar meeting with his whip team on Wednesday, according to Axios, discussing how to tamp down the jeers and protest signs Democrats brought at last year’s joint address to Congress, which came weeks into Trump’s presidency. 

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who attended the Senate lunch, said theirs focused on attendance, not conduct. He said he is undecided on whether to go and believes Democratic leadership will take a hand-off approach to that decision.

“I think the general feeling is every senator should make their own decision,” Blumenthal said. 

The deliberations are a sign of just how bitter relations have become between Trump and congressional Democrats, who are locked in a widening set of disputes, including a failed attempt this week to indict six of their members over a video urging service members to refuse illegal orders.

Two of those members, Sens. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), told the Washington Examiner that they still plan to attend the State of the Union, as do a number of centrists who feel their attendance is about respecting the office of the presidency. However, the hostility has prompted even long-attending members to reconsider their commitment to the event.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), who said he has never skipped a State of the Union since he entered Congress in 1991, predicted that he would “probably” attend but was weighing that decision against the president’s “behavior.” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) called Trump’s joint address last March “strikingly unpleasant” and said, at this point, he is undecided.

“My gut instinct is that I’ll probably go, but we’ve really literally just started discussing it,” Coons said.

Sen. Angus King (I-ME), an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, was the only senator who told the Washington Examiner they are unlikely to go. However, he denied it is for partisan reasons, citing the failed indictments, the topic of a Thursday morning Democratic caucus meeting, in siding with members who are leaning toward not attending.

“That’s never happened in American history. It’s an outrage,” King said. “So for people to be not wanting to be in the same room with this guy is not surprising.”

Other senators have their own gripes with Trump, including Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the target of a mortgage fraud investigation, and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), who is feuding with the president over the expected closure of a national climate lab in his state. Both said they are undecided.

The protests against Trump’s speech are expected to come largely from House Democrats, many of whom walked out mid-address last year, though they hope to avoid a repeat this time. The disruptions prompted House Republicans to censure Rep. Al Green (D-TX), who shouted at Trump that he had no “mandate to cut Medicaid.”

“I just think most people won’t go, and if they do, I think they’ll just sit there quietly. I don’t think you’ll see what happened in the past,” Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) said.

For their part, Senate Democrats have long taken a more deferential view of the speech and generally shy away from the spectacle of confrontation.

“It just looks petty,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said. “You can disagree with dignity, that’s the thing.”

Blumenthal added, “My feeling is, either you go and be respectful, or you don’t go, and you can yell at the TV.”

There is also the possibility that Trump will engage Democrats in what is expected to be a free-wheeling speech, as former President Joe Biden did when former Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene interrupted him over the death of Laken Riley in 2024.

How Kelly reacts to the president “depends on what he says,” the Arizona congressman told the Washington Examiner, but he will not be “yelling” at Trump or responding to anything he says during the address.

“I wouldn’t respond to him, not at the State of the Union,” he said.

Democrats see the guests they bring as an opportunity to make a quiet political statement. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) said she has a guest with “some very strong feelings about the Medicaid cuts” in Trump’s tax law.

Both of Nevada’s Democratic senators also plan on attending, with Sen. Cortez Masto (D-NV) inviting a guest struggling in the tourism industry and Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) bringing a Latina woman who she said has been harmed by the administration’s policies. 

Fetterman, as well as Sens. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY), and Andy Kim (D-NJ), also plan on going, arguing that they have a duty to do so.

“There’s no secret that I have major disagreements with this president, and the people of Georgia voted for me, and the people of Georgia voted for him, and I intend to continue to hold him accountable,” Warnock said.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who delivered a rebuttal speech after Trump’s joint address last year on behalf of progressives, told the Washington Examiner that he is still undecided.

“We will see,” he said.

Lauren Green contributed to this report.