Who is going to deliver the Republican response to the 2024 State of the Union?

The youngest Republican woman to be elected to the Senate, Katie Britt of Alabama, has been tapped to deliver the GOP response to Presidnet Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. Senator Britt was elected to the Senate in 2022 and came to Washington from the business sector, where she served as the Presidnet of the Business Council of Alabama. The juxtaposition between President Biden and Senator Britt will not be more stark. Her selection is strategic and serves to give the GOP a younger image.

Senator Britt comes to Washington

An Alabama native, Senator Britt attended the University of Alabama for her undergraduate and law degrees. After graduating, Britt worked for Senator Richard Shelby as his office’s press secretary. After leaving Senator Shelby’s office, she would go into private law. Her re-entry into politics began in 2014 when she established a political affairs branch at Butler Snow LLP law office in Birmingham. Senator Britt left the law office and began working on the campaign of began as a campaign director and advisor. In 2021, Britt began to take seriously the idea of running for Senate. She serves on the Committee on Appropriations, Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and Committee on Rules and Administration.

The bills introduced by the Alabama Senator are a mixed bag. There are a few resolutions to honor famous political and cultural leaders, from Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. Many of the laws that she has introduced and passed in the Senate are co-sponsored by Democrats and Republicans. One of the more recent pieces of bipartisan legislation introduced by Senator Britt was a resolution “recognizing the importance of the economic relationship between the United States and Israel and affirming that trade facilitated by the United States-Israel Free Trade Agreement is a tool to support the economy of Israel during the conflict with Hamas.”

What will be interesting to watch for tonight is how Senator Britt decides to deliver the speech and focus on bipartisanship or taking a more Trumpian approach of attacking the entire Democratic Party.