House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Saturday invited President Biden to deliver the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on March 7.
“In this moment of great challenge for our country, it is my solemn duty to extend this invitation,” said Johnson, who took over the speakership role in October, speaking in a brief formal letter to the president.
Biden confirmed in a message on X later on Saturday that he accepted the invitation. “Looking forward to it, Mr. Speaker,” he said.
The address will be Biden’s third since taking office and his second time giving the speech to a divided Congress, which has for months been wrangling with deadlines to keep crucial parts of the government open. The State of the Union address is set to follow two such critical deadlines — one expiring in less than two weeks on Jan. 19 to keep core government services open and another on Feb. 2 to fund the rest of the government.
It will be Johnson’s first State of the Union as speaker, who typically introduces the president and sits behind him alongside the vice president during delivery.
The speech, a top annual political ritual in American politics that last year garnered more than 20 million viewers, will allow Biden to lay out his political messaging as his campaign intensifies ahead of the November presidential election. The March 7 date is later than has been traditional in recent years and will take place two days after Super Tuesday, when 15 states and American Samoa hold their primaries.
Last year, Biden struck a relatively bipartisan tone while previewing potential messaging for his 2024 campaign, focusing on blue-collar workers and American manufacturing as he criticized the oil, technology and pharmaceutical industries for reaping profits during an economically challenging time for Americans. The president was met with some raucous jeers from Republicans during sections of that address on fentanyl deaths, gun control and immigration.