Youngest Woman Senator Katie Britt Delivers Powerful GOP Response to Biden’s State of the Union Address

Alabama Republican Senator Delivers Party’s Response to Biden’s State of the Union

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7 March 2024

Updated 47 minutes ago

Alabama’s Katie Britt, the youngest woman representing the Republicans in the US Senate, has given her party’s response to President Joe Biden’s third State of the Union address.

Sat at her kitchen table, she accused the president of being out of touch and painted a dark picture of the US under his watch.

“Right now, the American Dream has turned into a nightmare for so many families,” she said.

The rebuttal – first delivered in 1966 – is often given by rising stars in the opposition party.

Ms Britt, 42, echoed popular Republican attack lines in her 17-minute speech, hitting Mr Biden hard on the border crisis and inflation.

Reactions to her performance were mixed. Conservative media outlet Fox News reviewed the speech as a successful effort which “pulled-no-punches” when “shredding” the president’s national address.

But some criticism focussed on her performative delivery. Others took issue with the unconventional setting – her kitchen table in Montgomery – for a speech meant to counter presidential remarks delivered from the Capitol.

Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former Trump White House communications adviser posted on X: “I do not understand the decision to put her in a KITCHEN for one of the most important speeches she’s ever given.”

Ahead of the speech, some political commentators had suggested Ms Britt was an astute choice to deliver the Republican response.

She has avoided isolationist tendencies in her party and emerged as a hawkish figure on national security. And her speech largely avoided the kind of combative politics championed by some in the party.

After earning a law degree at the University of Alabama, she served variously as press secretary, communications director, and chief of staff to Alabama Senator Richard Shelby.

In 2018, she was elected as the first woman to lead her state’s business council, where she became associated with the Keep Alabama Open campaign during the Covid-19 pandemic. The role elevated her profile within the state, and her resignation in 2021 prompted speculation – proven correct – about her intention to seek the Senate seat of her outgoing mentor, Sen Shelly.

She was elected in 2022 after easily seeing off her main opponent for the Republican nomination, Mo Brooks – a state representative at the time and a long-time adversary of Mr Trump’s – before sweeping away her Democratic rival in the general election.

Since her arrival in Washington DC, Ms Britt has taken a position on the powerful Senate appropriations committee and worked as a key fundraiser for more senior colleagues.

Among Democrats, she has won some approval by working on a bipartisan bill prohibiting children under 13 from using social media and visiting John Fetterman when the Pennsylvania senator checked into the hospital to seek treatment for depression.

Thursday’s speech has elevated her profile to the national stage and won the approval of Donald Trump.

“She was compassionate and caring, especially concerning Women and Women’s Issues. Her conversation on Migrant Crime was powerful and insightful. Great job Katie!” he wrote on Truth Social, his own social media platform.

Some saw her speech as an audition for a spot on Mr Trump’s list of candidates for the vice-presidency. But she and the former president are not natural allies.

She was the last member of Alabama’s congressional delegation to endorse the 77-year-old in December, and observers note that her political views have been more temperate than Mr Trump’s.

In an interview with Politico last year, Ms Britt criticized – obliquely – Mr Trump’s penchant for personalized attacks on his political opponents.

Indeed, the Alabama native has been more closely aligned with outgoing Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, joining his leadership group as an informal adviser last year.

Mr McConnell – a veteran dealmaker in the chamber – has long been at odds with Mr Trump and his brand of politics.

Ms Britt has also become known for her hawkish views on national security, at times running up against colleagues in a party increasingly defined by American isolationism.

Nonetheless, she has remained in favor with senior members of the Senate leadership and those within Mr Trump’s orbit, a difficult feat.