Republicans chose first-term Alabama senator Katie Britt, the youngest Republican woman ever to serve in the Senate, to deliver the rebuttal to Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday.
The 42-year-old presented a counterpoint to the oldest sitting president at her kitchen table in Alabama after his speech.
“Right now the American dream has turned into a nightmare for so many families,” she said, before lodging a litany of accusations.
She said Biden was responsible for uncontrolled spending and inflation (both have decreased under the administration), and high crime rates (the average crime rate is down nationwide after a pandemic peak).
Britt also hammered down on immigration, a key issue in this election, and the recent murder of Laken Riley, a student in Georgia who was killed by an undocumented immigrant.
“Tonight, President Biden finally said her name, but he refused to take responsibility for his own actions,” said Britt. “Mr President, enough is enough. Innocent Americans are dying and you only have yourself to blame. Fulfill your oath of office, reverse your policies, end this crisis and stop the suffering.”
And she pointed to international conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East to posit that Biden had brought on national security threats.
“Our commander-in-chief is not in command,” she said.
“The free world deserves better than a doddering and diminished leader. America deserves leaders who recognize that secure borders, stable prices, safe streets and a strong defense are actually the cornerstones of a great nation.”
She tried to push back on the uproar against conservatives after the recent supreme court ruling that frozen embryos, used in in vitro fertilization, are children under state law.
The high-stakes political showdown over women’s access to IVF in her home state has put Republicans on the back foot as many in their own party balked at the extreme nature of the pro-life argument.
Alabama’s legislature subsequently wrote new legislation to protect IVF treatments, which the governor, Kay Ivey, signed into law on Wednesday.
Britt was elected to the Senate in 2022. Her political fortunes can be attributed in part to her astute balancing act navigating relationships with Alabama’s business elite as a consummate political insider, while connecting herself to president Donald Trump and Trumpist populism as a candidate.
She also got lucky. Her opponent in the race, Mo Brooks, had Trump’s endorsement to succeed the retiring senator Richard Shelby, but squandered an early polling lead. Trump withdrew his endorsement mid-race, and the business-backed Britt swept into place.
Britt has two school-age children with her husband, former San Diego Chargers offensive tackle Wesley Britt.
Her political résumé began in high school, when she was elected in 1999 by the delegates of Alabama Girls State program to be their governor . The high school valedictorian graduated from the University of Alabama as student body president in 2004. After a stint serving as former Shelby’s communications chief, she earned a law degree there in 2013.
