Everything on Capitol Hill is political, down to the guests local members of Congress are bringing to the State of the Union on Tuesday.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms will be U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s plus-one to President Donald Trump’s second State of the Union address. Also accompanying Georgia lawmakers in the House chamber is a conservative Latino activist from Gainesville, an injured Green Beret who rose through the ranks at Hunter Army Airfield and the Dunwoody-based parents of a recent gun violence victim.
Like all members of Congress, each of Georgia’s 16 members of the House and Senate has an extra ticket to give to a guest. And many are using their guests to send political — or purposefully apolitical — messages about their priorities.
U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson of West Point, a newly minted member of the Republican leadership, is bringing Jeffrey Willis, a LaGrange manufacturer whose automotive parts business has added jobs since the GOP passed its tax overhaul.
Gainesville Republican U.s. Rep. Doug Collins invited Art Gallegos Jr., the co-founder of Latinos Conservative Organization, an outreach organization in Northeast Georgia.
“I’m hoping to hear (Trump’s) stance on the wall and also go a little deeper into how we can unite everyone to try to get something concrete on the immigration issue,” said Gallegos, who added that many people he speaks to in the Latino community are open to overhauling the country’s immigration laws.
U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, Georgia’s newest member of Congress, is looking to send a message of a different kind. A gun control advocate before arriving in Congress, McBath has invited Dunwoody residents Jeff and Margaret Binkley to Washington for the speech this year.
Like McBath, the Binkleys lost a child to a firearm — their 21-year-old daughter, Maura, died in a November mass shooting at a Tallahassee, Fla., yoga studio — and they started a nonprofit aimed at advancing research into the causes of gun violence. Jeff Binkley said he and his wife plan to meet with members of Congress in the hours before Trump's speech.
“We think there are some areas of common interest where we can help,” he said in a recent interview, citing a recent bipartisan push on criminal justice. “That’s why we’re going. We appreciate the honor, but we’re going to offer ourselves and the resources of this organization to support positive cultural change.”
Third-term GOP Congressman Jody Hice of Monroe is bringing Fox News radio host Todd Starnes, an old friend from his days as a conservative talk radio host.
Other lawmakers have decided to take a decidedly apolitical tack in the lead-up to Tuesday’s address.
Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue, who is gearing up for a 2020 re-election bid, invited college student Kai Hartman, Boys & Girls Clubs of Georgia's 2018 Youth of the Year winner, as his guest.
Pooler Republican U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter is bringing Lt. Col. Kenneth Dwyer, a garrison commander at Hunter Army Airfield. A Green Beret who lost his left hand and eye in an ambush in Afghanistan, Dwyer later returned to the Special Forces and rose in the ranks.
Isakson chose to invite his fourth Democratic guest in six years. During the final three years of the Obama presidency, the Republican brought then-Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Atlanta City Council President Caesar Mitchell and Savannah Mayor Edna Jackson.
Some Georgia lawmakers are choosing to skip the address altogether. Atlanta Democratic U.S. Rep. John Lewis said he plans to continue his boycott of Trump's speeches, while U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia, is instead planning to appear at an official watch party for Stacey Abrams' rebuttal a few miles from the U.S. Capitol.
Others are planning to take a more traditional guest. Democratic U.S. Reps. Sanford Bishop of Albany and David Scott of Atlanta are taking their wives as their dates.
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