Representatives and Senators invite guests to the State of the Union address with an eye on messaging, as do presidents. Some–like civil rights leaders and heroic public servants–are meant to inspire. Others, like now-dead conservative talk show hosts, are meant to inflame. According to Roll Call, here are some of the guests in the gallery scheduled for Tuesday’s speech:
- Roya Rahmani, Afghanistan’s first female ambassador to the United States, guest of Texas Republican Congressman and Foreign Affairs Committee chair Mike McCaul.
- Michael Brown Sr., the guest of Missouri Democratic Congresswoman Cori Bush, is the father of Michael Brown Jr., killed by a police officer in 2015 and an early impetus for the Black Lives Matter movement.
- Democratic Senator Edward J. Markey invited abortion rights activist Kate Dineen who had to travel from Massachusetts to Maryland to obtain an abortion after her child suffered a debilitating stroke in utero at 33 weeks.
- Nevada Democratic Congressman and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Steven Horsford will bring the mother and stepfather of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old who was beaten to death by Memphis police in January.
- Darrell Woodie will attend in the place of Florida Republican Congressman Greg Steube, who was injured in a fall from a ladder at his home in January. Woodie is the Amazon delivery driver who found Steube injured after the fall and called for an ambulance.
- Republican New York Congressman George Santos said he invited retired FDNY firefighter Michael Weinstock who helped rescue people from the World Trade Center during the September 11th attacks.