Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, the youngest Republican woman in the Senate’s history, has been tapped by the GOP to deliver their response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech next Thursday.
“The American people will hear from an unapologetic optimist fighting to secure a stronger future and leave Washington Democrats’ failures behind,” Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday.
A loyal ally of former President Donald Trump, the 2024 GOP frontrunner, Britt is a staunch conservative and a young face for a Republican Party trying to highlight the 81-year-old Biden’s age as he runs for reelection.
“I am truly honored and grateful for the opportunity to speak directly to my fellow Americans on March 7,” Britt wrote on X. “We’ll have a candid conversation about the future of our nation—and I’ll outline the Republican vision to secure the American Dream for generations to come.”
Britt was born around 10 years after Biden was first elected to the Senate. Biden, the oldest president in U.S. history, will attempt to appeal to voters that he is worth a second shot through age 87 in what is likely to be one of his most-viewed speeches of the year.
A potential contender for his vice presidential slot, Trump endorsed Britt in 2022 in the Alabama GOP Senate primary after initially backing Rep. Mo Brooks. In turn, Britt endorsed him for president in December.
The selection of an Alabama senator comes as her home state was thrust into the national spotlight by a state Supreme Court ruling last week that found frozen embryos being used for in vitro fertilization can be considered children. Several facilities in Alabama paused IVF services, but lawmakers in the state’s House of Representatives quickly and overwhelmingly passed a bill on Thursday that would protect IVF providers from litigation and prosecution.
Britt, who ran on a platform that defined life as beginning at conception and late-term abortions as murder, denounced the court decision in a statement, writing: “defending life and ensuring continued access to IVF services for loving parents are not mutually exclusive.
After the decision, Britt made calls to fellow Republicans, including Trump, to argue for the importance of supporting the treatments, emphasizing that they are pro-life and pro-family, a person familiar with the calls told the Associated Press.
Biden and his allies have made reproductive rights central to their appeals to voters since the Supreme Court ended the right to an abortion by appealing Roe v. Wade in 2021.
“Faith, family, freedom,” Britt says in a video she posted to her campaign account announcing her State of the Union response. “Everyday that Joe Biden is president, we are weaker and more vulnerable.”
In the video, she calls for a balanced budget and to “seal and secure the border.”
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, praised the announcement.
“Alabamians & Americans alike can look forward to Senator Britt delivering this year’s SOTU response. I’m proud this mom from Alabama will be the first Alabamian to provide the rebuttal at a time we so desperately need common sense,” Ivey wrote on X. “Sometimes the best man for the job is a woman!”
The traditional response to the State of the Union by a member of the opposing party is often an up and coming politician the party hopes to highlight. But the response, which airs after the president’s speech, typically gets less viewership.
In 2023, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump’s former press secretary, was tapped for the GOP rebuttal. In 2022, it was Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds. During the Trump administration, then-Rep. Joe Kennedy III, D-Mass., Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer gave responses.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.