In the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s State of the Union address, the White House broke from speech tradition and rolled out the kind of policy proposals usually reserved for unveiling behind the podium.
But the first lady’s guest list in the viewing box may reveal the surprises to come: it’s not just Alan Gross, who was held in Cuba for five years, getting an invitation to spend the night within earshot of Michelle Obama and eyesight of the president in Washington’s most watched seating box. From the faces that could lead to Obama’s “Ferguson moment” to the humanity behind the partisan gridlock on issues like immigration, the environment and healthcare, these are the American stories the president will be highlighting, in order to get through the more difficult – but altogether less wonky and perhaps more memorable – parts of his penultimate State of the Union speech.
Race and policing: a teenager, a cop and an ex-convict set for reform
Malik Bryant
The 13-year-old Chicago resident will be the youngest of nearly two dozen official guests in the box. He was invited after a letter he sent to Santa Claus – a letter asking for “safety” – was rerouted to the president’s desk. Bryant’s request could be tied to the racial tensions laid bare between police departments and citizens after the white police officer Darren Wilson fatally shot the unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. As protests grew across the nation, black 12-year-old Tamir Rice was fatally shot by police in Ohio.
What to watch for: Many have been calling for Obama to make a sweeping public statement about race and police violence, but he has taken a fairly cautious stance in the six month’s since Brown’s death. This could be the moment for long-awaited rhetoric.
Captain Phillip C Tingirides
With protesters and everyday Americans pushing Obama to speak out on cop killings and the future of community policing, the White House has invited the Los Angeles Police Department captain. Tingirides spearheaded a community policing program in Watts, a neighborhood famous for being the scene of race riots in 1965.
What to watch for: Obama has created a task force to address the community issues, with recommendations due in March. He could cite Tingirides as part of an emphasis on where he’d like those ideas to lean.
Prophet Walker
At age 27, Walker has already served six years in prison for robbery, become a construction engineer and worked in multiple nonprofits aimed at improving the criminal justice system and police relations – including work with Tingirides of the LAPD.
What to watch for: With US attorney general Eric Holder headed for retirement, some have suggested that a roadmap for major justice-system reform may be in the offing.
Scott Kelly
The most prominent US astronaut of the moment, Kelly is preparing to become the first American to live and work on the International Space Station for a year. Scientists will also compare Kelly’s medical data with that of his twin brother and fellow astronaut, Mark, to learn more about how the human body works in space.
What to watch for: Scott Kelly’s presence will probably serve as a reminder that Obama wants to send humans to Mars by the 2030s, despite cutting back Nasa funds. The efforts of his brother and his brother’s wife, Gabrielle Giffords, will only serve to reinforce the spectre of gun violence.
The economy: faces for Robin Hood, minimum wage and workers
Rebekah Erler
Obama spent a day with this Minnesota resident, whose story he sees as a kind of microcosm of how middle-class families are making progress, but still struggling after the economic recession. Perhaps the most audacious plan Obama outlined ahead of his speech is a proposal to close loopholes for the wealthiest Americans and reform the tax code to benefit the middle class.
What to watch for: The tax overture – already dubbed the “Robin Hood” plan – would seem to dismantle some of the economic principles modern Republicans hold most dear. The GOP has quickly voiced its opposition, but Obama is already trying to put a human face on the inequality front.
Catherine Pugh
The only politician to be invited into the box, Pugh is Maryland’s state senate majority leader and president-elect of the National Black Caucus of State Legislatures. She pushed for a minimum wage increase in the state and has introduced a bill to give workers in the state earned paid sick leave.
What to watch for: A handful of local governments have pushed to raise minimum wage, and after years of demonstrations by workers demanding better treatment, large corporations are making small moves to acquiesce to their demands.
LeDaya Epps
One of two women to complete a Los Angeles-area union apprenticeship in construction and now, after years of unstable employment, Epps has a job that enables her to support her three children.
What to watch for: Women still earn 77 cents for every dollar that a man makes, according to 2012 census data. The data is even worse for African American women, who make 66 cents for every dollar all men make.
Carolyn Reed
This Colorado resident and her husband own seven sandwich shops and credit the Small Business Administration loan program for allowing them to raise wages for all of their employees last year.
What to watch for: Meanwhile, large corporations are continuing to resist a movement to raise hourly rates for low-wage workers. And the overall benefits of the SBA loan program have been challenged in several studies. Studies also show that racial discrimination in loan programs is a pressing issue.
Victor Fugate
This Missouri resident was employed for “a while” a few years ago but earned a degree and found a full-time job. He credited the Affordable Care Act and student loan payment plans for helping himself and his wife get security.
What to watch for: Unemployment rates are continuing to drop, but the latest figures show nine million Americans are still out of work. And many of those regaining employment are doing so in low-wage industries. Long-term unemployment is still a problem, with people out of jobs for 27 weeks or more accounting for 32% of the unemployed.
Tiairris Woodward
This mother of three used to work 17 hours a day at Chrysler and a local school system in Michigan before joining a union and Chrysler’s tuition assistance program.
What to watch for: Detroit’s recovery is an important spot for Obama to highlight his contributions to the economy, but the city’s long struggle and nascent rebound are individual to the city, one of several that has had to file for bankruptcy in the wake of the economic recession.
War, peace and diplomacy – including the face of Cuban-American relations
Jason Gibson
After being gravely wounded in Afghanistan, Gibson told Obama that he received excellent healthcare, has become a new father and is moving into a new home. His story comes months after Veterans Affairs secretary Eric Shinseki resigned in May after failing to conceal or remedy the dangerous systemic backlog of veterans waiting for care on hospital waiting lists.
What to watch for: The Afghanistan war may be winding down, but with many plates to spin on national security and foreign policy, this may be the way to bring it all back home.
Alan and Judy Gross
With much fanfare and a menschy press conference, Alan Gross returned to the US in December after being held in Cuba for five years. The surprise return accompanied the news that the US would finally ease its relations with Cuba.
What to watch for: The Cuban embargo is still in place and some are concerned about how restoring relations could affect immigration law, a key issue in Obama’s presidency.
The tough stuff: immigration, the environment and Obamacare
Ana Zamora
The daughter of two people living in the US illegally, Zamora travelled from Texas to Washington for the speech as a representative of the benefits of the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
What to watch for: The official White House statement says Zamora’s parents are “potentially eligible” to benefit from the executive action on immigration Obama announced in November. His sweeping action overlooked the parents of people who were given temporarily relief and work authorization under Daca.
Nicole Hernandez Hammer
An environmental activist who also works as a sea level rise researcher, Hernandez Hammer is working to show how climate change will have devastating effects on her local community in south Florida and the rest of the world.
What to watch for: Obama has announced plans to curb emissions, but the state of the global environment is still dismal, as a report released last week shows that 2014 was the hottest year on record. Critics say his plan to curb methane emissions overlooks existing oil and gas infrastructure and the considerable pollution it creates.
Astrid Muhammad
Muhammad sent a letter to Obama, praising the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for allowing her to get treatment for a potentially fatal brain tumor. Under previous healthcare laws, she could have been turned away for having a “pre-existing condition”.
What to watch for: The law she credits with effectively saving her life is still facing pushback from Republican lawmakers, and the overall economic benefits of the ACA are still unclear. But it’s tough to jeer a mother of two.
William Elder Jr
This medical student benefited from precision medicine to treat his cystic fibrosis, inspiring him to pursue a career in family medicine with a focus on preventive care.
What to watch for: While his story is touted for showing the benefits of precision medicine, an emerging type of treatment, such nuanced discussions of healthcare are largely unacknowledged in the current political climate as Republicans focus on undoing the five-year-old Obamacare program.
Kathy Pham
This guest blends the worlds of technology and health to improve treatment and care for Americans, especially veterans like her brother. There has been a drop in backlog claims, which represent the amount of first-time claims to Veteran Affairs that have been unresolved for more than four months, but the latest report shows that it still at about 245,000.
What to watch for: Pham’s mother also received cancer treatment because of the ACA, which the new Republican majority is attempting to dismantle over the coming months.
Larry Merlo
The president and CEO of CVS Health was invited to the speech because of his company’s initiative to hire some of the groups hardest hit by the economic downturn: veterans, the long-term unemployed and transition workers moving off public assistance.
What to watch for: The administration also praised his commitment to health, pointing to the store’s decision to eliminate tobacco sales at all of its stores. The decision is beneficial, but also overlooks the collection of enormously unhealthy products it continues to stock.
Pranav Shetty
The Washington DC-based doctor has been shuttling between west Africa in the US as a critical figure in the fight against Ebola, which has killed more than 7,500 people since the latest outbreak started in December 2013.
What to watch for: Liberia and districts in Sierra Leone began the year reporting a decline in the number of outbreaks, but Americans are now using these successes to point to the need to address other global health issues besetting the international community.
Education: affordability, debt and diversity
Anthony Mendez
The first person to graduate from high school in his family, this University of Hartford will be in the first lady’s box because he exemplifies Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher initiative. The program encourages students to complete some form of education past high school, even if they face setbacks like Mendez, who was at one point living with his family in his homeless shelter.
What to watch for: Students interested in pursuing higher education, however, must face a system of high tuition and the resulting student loan debt.
Katrice Mubiru
This career-technical education teacher wrote to the president to share stories about students achieving degrees in spite of the financial challenges. Obama highlighted the importance of technical programs in a visit to the school Mubiru teaches at.
What to watch for: Technical education programs are not as costly as a four-year degree – and they’re meant to address the opportunity gap faced by low-income families and non-white students.
Chelsey Davis
She’s set to graduate from Pellissippi State Community College in her home state of Tennessee this year. Earlier this month, Obama promoted his proposal to make two years of community college free at Davis’s school, but it was immediately met with opposition from the House speaker, John Boehner.
What to watch for: The community college plan requires congressional approval, and its $60bn price tag is unlikely to sway the Republican majority.
