This year’s guests from the Democrat-heavy California delegation include President Donald Trump’s former housekeeper, and undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children.
Think of it as the Oscars red carpet, State of the Union style.
But instead of outfits and hairdos, the focus is on who members of Congress are bringing as guests to the annual speech from the president about how America is doing. Often, the choice of guest is – much like the speech itself – a political statement, one meant to show approval or scorn of a president’s policies.
This year’s State of the Union guests from the Democrat-heavy California delegation include a woman who lost her home to a wildfire and her income to last month’s federal government shutdown, President Donald Trump’s former housekeeper, and undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children.
Here are some of the guests who will be in the gallery when Trump speaks Tuesday, Feb. 5.
Trisha Pesiri-Dybvik, guest of Democratic presidential candidate and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California, is a wife of a Navy veteran and a mother of three. In 2017, her family was displaced by the Thomas Fire, which destroyed their Ventura home.
They moved to a rental property in Camarillo, which they had to evacuate in 2018 when rains threatened to cause flooding and mudslides in burn areas from that year’s Woolsey and Hill fires.
So far this year, Pesiri-Dybvik, an air traffic control specialist, has been forced to work without a paycheck when the government shut down for 35 days over a dispute between Trump and congressional Democrats over the president’s demand for a border wall.
