President Joe Biden to Address Divided Congress in State of the Union Address

President Joe Biden will deliver his first State of the Union address on Tuesday night, facing a challenge that has confronted all of his four immediate predecessors: responding to an election that ended his party’s unified control of Congress.

The State of the Union address is a time-honored tradition, with the President striding through the House chamber after the ringing eight-word cue: “Mr. Speaker, the president of the United States!” But like Biden, each of his predecessors during their presidency saw voters shift control of one or both congressional chambers to the other party.

In their first State of the Union after that defeat, each president grappled directly with the new power alignment in Washington. Presidential aides have sought to shake up the annual speech, considering pulling it out of the Capitol and moving it to heartland states, shortening it by two-thirds or sticking to just a single theme.

However, the State of the Union address has remained largely unchanged. It is still a stylized piece of theater, with the President delivering a speech that is both a report on the nation’s progress and a call to action. It is one of the biggest audiences a President can have, and it is an opportunity to set the agenda for the coming year.

President Biden will be the first President to deliver a State of the Union address since the 2020 election, and he will be facing a divided Congress. He will have to find a way to bridge the partisan divide and make his case for the policies he wants to pursue. It will be a difficult task, but one that all of his predecessors have faced.