Jill Biden to host Bono and Paul Pelosi during State of the Union address

Jill Biden will host Bono and Paul Pelosi in the first lady’s box during Tuesday night’s State of the Union address. Her guests will include Americans who became known in the public eye for their roles in some of the top issues President Joe Biden is expected to push in his remarks.

Those guests include a Texas woman who nearly died due to the state’s strict abortion law; the man who helped stop the Monterey Park Lunar shooter; and the mother of Tyre Nichols, a black man who died after being beaten by police.

Other guests have ties to Joe and Jill Biden’s top priorities in the White House, including their Cancer Moonshot and the first lady’s Joining Forces Initiative.

The diverse guest list also highlights Americans who have benefited from the administration’s legislative accomplishments including its bipartisan infrastructure plan, the American Rescue Plan, and the CHIPS Act.

The first lady’s box is the most prominent perch on the night of the State of the Union address. It overlooks the well of the House of Representatives where President Biden will lay out his accomplishments for the past year and present his vision for the nation in the year ahead.

Additionally the television cameras pan to the first lady’s box on several occasions during the speech and the president typically points to its guest to give a human face to his policies.

President Biden’s speech is widely expected to be a preview of his argument for re-election. He has not officially said he is running for a second term but has indicated he will seek one.

Jill Biden’s guests ‘personify issues or themes to be addressed by the President in his speech, or they embody the Biden-Harris Administration’s policies at work for the American people,’ the first lady’s office said in a statement.  

The first lady’s guest list for the State of the Union Address highlights Joe and Jill Biden’s top priorities in the White House, including their Cancer Moonshot and the first lady’s Joining Forces Initiative – above the Bidens at the White House in January

For the second year in a row, in a show of support for Ukraine, Jill Biden invited its Ambassador Oksana Markarova to sit in her box. Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff will also be there.

Joining the first lady on Tuesday night will be RowVaughn and Rodney Wells.

The Tennessee couple are the mother and stepfather of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year old unarmed black man who was severely beaten by multiple police officers during an alleged traffic stop in Memphis, Tennessee. Nichols died after the beating.

President Biden called for peaceful protests after the graphic video of the beating was released. He’s also spoken with Nichol’s parents. He is expected to use his State of the Union address to call on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. One year ago, Biden used his annual address to call for more police funding.

The Wells originally accepted an invitation to attend the speech from Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford, who is chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, but will have a more prominent position by sitting in the first lady’s box.

Also sitting with the first lady is Brandon Tsay of California, who disarmed the shooter responsible for the mass shooting at the Monterey Park Lunar New Year celebrations on January 21. The gunman killed eleven people and injured nine others at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio. The shooter then headed to another dance center in nearby Alhambra.

When he entered the Lai Lai Ballroom and Studio, Tsay, a 26-year-old computer programmer whose family owns the dance studio, confronted the gunman in the lobby, wrestled the gun away, and chased him out. Tsay is credited with stopping another massacre.

‘The carnage would have been so much worse had it not been for Brandon Tsay,’ Democratic Rep. Judy Chu of California said the following weekend at the Alhambra Lunar New Year Festival, at which Tsay was honored for his actions.

She also said she invited Tsay to be her guest at the State of the Union Address but then the president invited Tsay himself. ‘I can’t believe you turned me down for the president,’ Chu told Tsay.

Biden called Tsay after the shootings to praise him for his ‘act of incredible courage.’

Jill Biden will host RowVaughn Wells and her husband Rodney Wells; RowVaughn is the mother of Tyre Nichols, the Tennessee black man who died after being beaten by police

Jill Biden will host RowVaughn Wells and her husband Rodney Wells; RowVaughn is the mother of Tyre Nichols, the Tennessee black man who died after being beaten by police

Jill Biden will host Brandon Tsay of California, who disarmed the shooter responsible for the mass shooting at the Monterey Park Lunar New Year celebrations - above Brandon accepts the Metal of Courage award after his actions

Jill Biden will host Brandon Tsay of California, who disarmed the shooter responsible for the mass shooting at the Monterey Park Lunar New Year celebrations – above Brandon accepts the Metal of Courage award after his actions

Also seated with Jill Biden will be Amanda Zurawski of Austin, Texas. She was 18 weeks pregnant when her water broke but doctors were unable to help her because they were concerned that providing the treatment she needed would violate the Texas abortion ban. The law, which is the strictest in the nation, prohibits abortion care unless a woman’s life is in danger.

That meant she would either have to be sick enough for doctors to intervene or miscarry on her own.

She and her husband Josh had been through 18 months of fertility treatments before they were able to conceive their baby girl.

She was sent home with instructions to come back if she developed signs of a life-threatening infection, which she did, three days later. Zurawski developed sepsis and nearly died because of the delay in receiving treatment. She continues to suffer from medical complications due to the delay.

She and Josh will be in the House chamber for the president’s address.

Democrats used the abortion issue to rally voters in the 2022 midterms, an issue that became a potent political weapon for them after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade.

Also seated with the first lady will be Paul Pelosi, the husband of Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. He is recovering from being beaten by a hammer after an intruder broke into the Pelosis’ San Francisco home looking for the then-speaker.

David DePape said his attack was politically motivated and expressed no regret for his actions. He is facing criminal charges.

Paul Pelosi has slowly returned to public life after receiving brain surgery. In the past he attended the president’s address as a guest of his wife. As speaker, Nancy Pelosi got her own box for guests – a privilege she lost when she stepped down from party leadership.

Jill Biden will host Amanda Zurawski of Austin, who nearly died after doctors feared treating her miscarriage because of the state's strict abortion law - above Amanda and her husband Josh, who will also attend the State of the Union Address

Jill Biden will host Amanda Zurawski of Austin, who nearly died after doctors feared treating her miscarriage because of the state’s strict abortion law – above Amanda and her husband Josh, who will also attend the State of the Union Address

Bono is being invited to sit with the first lady for his work in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The U2 lead singer, who is from Dublin, also helped build bipartisan support for the creation of PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) – originally created by President George W. Bush and championed by then-Senator Biden.

President Biden is proud of his Irish roots and often touts his ties to that country.

The Bidens saw the singer in December when U2 was honored by the Kennedy Center at its annual Honors program.

President Biden said of U2 at the time: ‘To quote my friend Bono, “Music can change the world because it can change people.” For more than 40 years, U2 has changed the world. Anthems about civil rights, solidarity of workers, the struggle for peace. Ballads about love and family. Concerts dedicated to ending poverty and disease.

‘At a moment when there’s too much hate, too much anger, too much division here in America and, quite frankly, around the world, we have to remember today, as their song goes, “We’re one, but we’re not the same. We get to carry each other,”‘ he said.

Also in the first lady’s box will be Ruth Cohen of Rockville, Maryland, a Holocaust survivor and a volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial. During World War II. She and her family were forced from their home and Cohen was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. She was liberated from the death camp in 1945.

She is the special guest of Emhoff, who visited Auschwitz-Birkenau on International Holocaust Remembrance Day as part of his six-day trip to Europe to demonstrate the Biden administration’s commitment to anti-semitism.

Jill Biden also will host Maurice and Kandice Barron from New York, whose three-year-old daughter Ava survived a rare form of pediatric cancer. Maurice Barron wrote to President Biden to thank him for the Cancer Moonshot, the first couple’s initiative to reduce cancer death rates by at least 50 percent over the next 25 years.

Joining them will be Darlene Gaffney of North Charleston, South Carolina, who is a breast cancer survivor. She was diagnosed with Stage 2 Breast Cancer in March 2015.

The Cancer Moonshot recently celebrated its one-year anniversary after the Bidens restarted it last year. It was originally formed when Joe Biden was vice president.

It’s a personal cause to the Bidens, who lost their son Beau to brain cancer in 2015.

Also in the first lady’s box is Lynette Bonar from Arizona, a member of the Navajo Nation. She was a sergeant and former medic in the U.S. Army. In 2019, Jill Biden joined Bonar to help celebrate the first opening of a cancer center on a Native American reservation.

Another guest is Deanna Branch of Wisconsin, who shared her family’s experiences with lead exposure with Vice President Kamala Harris. She is working on the issue in her community after her son Aidan battled lead poisoning as a result of unsafe drinking water.

Under the bipartisan infrastructure law, the administration is working to replace all lead service lines in America in the next decade.

Jill Biden will also host Paul Pelosi, the husband of Nancy Pelosi - the Pelosis at the White House last month

Jill Biden will also host Paul Pelosi, the husband of Nancy Pelosi – the Pelosis at the White House last month

Bono will sit with the first lady  - the lead singer for U2 is seen above at the White House in December along with other Kennedy Center Honorees Amy Grant, The Edge, and Gladys Knight and President Biden

Bono will sit with the first lady  – the lead singer for U2 is seen above at the White House in December along with other Kennedy Center Honorees Amy Grant, The Edge, and Gladys Knight and President Biden

Kristin Christensen and her daughter Avarie Kollmar from Seattle are part of an issue close to the first lady’s heart: Children who help care for their veteran parents, known as Hidden Helpers.

Christensen is a mother of three and a caregiver to her husband who was medically retired from the Navy due to combat-related injuries. Avarie also helps care for her father. In 2022, Christensen and Kollmar shared their experiences with the first lady during a Joining Forces event in support of Hidden Helpers.

Mitzi Colin Lopez of Pennsylvania is a DREAMER. She was brought by her parents to the United States from Mexico when she was just three years old. She received Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in 2015, and is an advocate for comprehensive immigration reform. She met President Biden in 2021 to share her experiences.

Maurice ‘Dion’ Dykes of Knoxville, Tennessee, is working to become a teacher through a program funded by President Biden’s American Rescue Plan. Jill Biden, who teaches at a Northern Virginia community college, met him in 2022 when she visited Tennessee.

Kate Foley of Rolling Meadows, Illinois, is a 10th grade computer-integrated manufacturing student at Rolling Meadows High School – a public high school that prepares students for future careers through partnerships throughout the community.

Jill Biden met Foley in 2022 during a visit to the school.

Doug Griffin of New Hampshire lost his 20-year-old daughter, Courtney, in 2014 to a fentanyl overdose. He is helping other families in his community deal with addiction issues.

According to the CDC, 107,375 people in the United States died of drug overdoses and drug poisonings in the 12-month period ending in January 2022.

New Hampshire, in particular, has seen a record rise in overdose deaths.

Jill Biden will also host Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova - who sat in the first lady's box last year (above)

Jill Biden will also host Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova – who sat in the first lady’s box last year (above)

Saria Gwin-Maye of Cincinnati, Ohio, is a union iron worker who introduced Biden at the Brent Spence Bridge in Covington, Kentucky. Republican Senator Mitch McConnell joined the president at the bipartisan event to discuss infrastructure.

Jacki Liszak of Fort Myers, Florida, is a small business owner and president of the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce. The Bidens met her in 2022 when they surveyed the storm damage from Hurricane Ian.

Harry Miller of Ohio is a senior in mechanical engineering at Ohio State University. A former football player, in 2022, he announced he would no longer continue to be a student athlete to prioritize his mental health and has since become an advocate on the issue.

Gina and Heidi Nortonsmith of Massachusetts were the plaintiffs in Goodridge vs. MA Dept. of Public Health that led to their state becoming the first in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage. They celebrated it by getting married on the first day that same-sex marriage licenses were issued in Massachusetts in 2004.

Paul Sarzoza of Phoenix owns a cleaning company whose biggest customer is TSMC, a semiconductor manufacturing company. The Taiwan-based company is expanding in the United States under Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act.

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