Several members of Congress have selected guests primed for politics for an evening in the shadow of the recent and possibly looming government shutdowns.
Each member of Congress may bring a guest to the address, and many representatives choose guests who highlight key policy issues or stances that they support.
Here's who different members of Congress will bring as their guests to the State of the Union:
Senate
- Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California) — air traffic control specialist Trisha Pesiri-Dybvik, who lost her home in the 2017 Thomas Fire and was furloughed during the government shutdown
- Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) — mother and daughter Albertina Contreras Teletor and Yakelin Garcia Contreras, who were separated at the southern border last spring
- Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) — Border Patrol Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Manny Padilla
House of Representatives
- Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-California) — Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor and gun reform activist Cameron Kasky
- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) — Activist Ana Maria Archila who confronted former Republican senator Jeff Flake in an elevator on Capitol Hill over the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court
- Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) — Jennie Taylor, widow of Maj. Brent Taylor of the Utah Army National Guard who was killed in Afghanistan in November
- Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Nebraska) — Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad, a Yazidi human rights activist and survivor of sexual slavery at the hands of ISIS in Iraq