Who is attending this year’s State of the Union address?

President Joe Biden will deliver his second State of the Union address on Tuesday 7 February – his first since the Republicans took control of the House of Representatives after November’s midterms.

Mr Biden’s speech will take place at 9pm EST (2am GMT) and will be carried live across the major American news networks. It marks the unofficial start of the 2024 presidential campaign, with the Democrat discussing key areas of public concern, from police reform and the economy to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

He is expected to lay out policy priorities, champion the country’s bounceback from Covid-19 and draw contrasts between his administration’s hopes of encouraging unity post-Trump and the behaviour of certain fringe Republicans still more interested in sowing division, judging by the chaotic (and ultimately unsuccessful) resistance mounted to stop Kevin McCarthy securing the House speakership.

Mr Biden’s address to the joint session of Congress will also provide him with a platform from which to reassure Democrats that he is fighting fit and ready to embark on a second term, despite having turned 80 in November.

As is customary, the president will be flanked by the House speaker, Mr McCarthy, and his vice president, Kamala Harris, as he delivers his speech to the assembled members of the House and Senate, with family, friends and specially invited guests looking down from the balcony of the lower chamber.

Among the parties already invited to attend this year’s event include RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, the mother and stepfather of Tyre Nichols, and Brandon Tsay, the hero of the Monterey Park mass shooting.

Here’s a guide to everyone confirmed so far.

RowVaughn and Rodney Wells

Tyre Nichols, 29, a FedEx driver by profession, was brutally beaten by five police officers during a routine traffic stop in Memphis, Tennessee, on 7 January and died three days later of his injuries in hospital.

The officers concerned have all been dismissed and an investigation into their conduct is underway but the release of bodycam footage of the incident has provoked fresh outrage and renewed calls for reform.

The deceased’s parents were invited to attend the State of the Union by Congressional Black Caucus chairman Steven Horsford, a Nevada Democratic congressman, and have accepted.

“Like so many, I was outraged and deeply pained to see the horrific video of the beating that resulted in Tyre Nichols’ death,” Mr Biden has said of the incident.

“It has a lot to say and do with the image of America. It has a lot to do with whether or not we are the country that we say we are.”

Vice President Harris has since attended Nichols’ funeral in Memphis alongside civil rights leaders the Reverend Al Sharpton and Ben Crump.

Brandon Tsay and Henry Lo

Mr Tsay, 26, was invited to the State of the Union by California Democratic congresswoman Judy Chu after he heroically intervened to disarm the gunman who carried out the mass shooting at a Lunar New Year celebration in Monterey Park near Los Angeles on 21 January, saving an untold number of lives.

According to CNN, just an hour after Ms Chu extended the invitation to Washington, he was called by Mr Biden himself to make the same offer, the president having already been in touch to thank Mr Tsay for his bravery.

“I wanted to call to see how you’re doing and thank you for taking such incredible action in the face of danger,” Mr Biden had told him.

“I don’t think you understand just how much you’ve done for so many people who are never going to even know you. But I want them to know more about you.”

Mr Tsay has since been awarded a medal of courage by the Alhambra Police Department during a ceremony on Sunday.

Monterey’s mayor, Henry Lo, has also been invited by California senator Alex Padilla.

Family members of mass shooting victims

Congressmen Maxwell Frost of Florida and Greg Casar of Texas will invite will invite parents of victims of the Parkland and Uvalde school shooting massacres.

Congressmen Joe Neguse and Jason Crow, both of Colorado, have also invited guests with ties to recent mass shootings.

Mr Neguse will bring the wife of a man killed in a 2021 mass shooting in Boulder while Crow will be in attendance with Army veteran Richard M Fierro, who charged and disarmed a shooter in Colorado Springs last year.

Michael Brown Sr

Representative Cori Bush of Missouri will invite Michael Brown Sr, the father of Michael Brown, the unarmed Black teen who was killed in a police shooting in Ferguson in 2014. The shooting set off racial justice protests in Missouri and around the US, and contributed to the founding of the Black Lives Matter movement that continues to this day.

Sterling Brown

Wisconsin Democratic congresswoman Gwen Moore has invited the professional basketball player, who was tackled and tased by police in 2018 during his time playing for the Milwaukee Bucks.

“In light of the ongoing police brutality crisis in our country that just claimed the life of Tyre Nichols, I am inviting an individual who had the unfortunate experience of encountering this epidemic firsthand in Milwaukee,” Moore said.

Enes Freedom

Speaker McCarthy has invited another basketball star, formerly of the Boston Celtics, as his guest.

“In light of everything too with what’s happening in China, here’s a man who stood up for freedom, lost his right to continue to play basketball, but he continues to fight for freedom,” Mr McCarthy said.

Kelley O’Hara

New Jersey congressman Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, will bring the professional soccer player and two-time World Cup winner as his guest, honouring her advocacy for equal pay in the women’s game.

Eugenie Ouedraogo

Massachusetts senator and former Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has invited Eugnie Ouedraogo to the SOTU.

Ms Ouedraogo is a nursing student at UMass Dartmouth and a mother of three, originally from Burkina Faso, who is forced to juggle her aspirations and responsibilities in light of the national crisis in affordable child care.

“We both know what it’s like to struggle to find child care while pursuing an education,” Ms Warren said in a tweet.

“I’m fighting to ensure that every family can find affordable, quality child care.”

Kate Dineen

Another Massachusetts Democratic senator, Ed Markey, is bringing abortion activist Kate Dineen as his honoured guest.

Ms Dineen was reportedly forced to travel 500 miles to Maryland to get an abortion at a cost of more than $10,000 after her son “suffered a catastrophic stroke in utero,” a trauma that inspired her to fight for abortion rights in her home state.

“No one should ever have to go through the anguish and uncertainty Kate and her husband went through to find care,” Mr Markey said.

James Gibbs

Virginia Democratic senator Tim Kaine will bring the international vice president of United Mine Workers of America to highlight the Inflation Reduction Act’s funding for a black lung benefits programmes, intended to help miners cover their health care costs.

Liz Shuler

Similarly, Oregon Democratic senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon will promote the benefits of that same act by attending with the president of the AFL-CIO.

Chris DeShields

Another hero on the guestlist is this Philadelphia bus driver who stopped an attempted carjacking by using his 40-foot public vehicle to box in and scare off the perpetrator.

The Democratic congressman for Philadelphia, Brendan F Boyle, extended the invitation.

Darrell Woodie

Greg Steube, the Florida Republican congressman who has been in recovery ever since falling from the roof of his house on 18 January, has announced that the “Good Samaritan” who saved him by calling an ambulance has been rewarded with an invite to Mr Biden’s address.

Mr Steube spent the night in intensive care after sustaining multiple but non-life threatening injuries after falling approximately 25 feet from a ladder while cutting tree limbs at his property in Sarasota.

“While I will still be in Sarasota recovering from my injuries, it is my privilege to share that Mr Darrell Woodie will be attending next week’s State of the Union as my official guest!” the politician wrote on Twitter.

“Mr Woodie called 911 after witnessing my accident and is the epitome of a Good Samaritan!”

Jeffrey T Smith

The Montgomery County sheriff from Fort Plain, New York, has been invited by Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik from the same state.

“Sheriff Smith and countless other members of law enforcement are on the frontlines every day protecting our communities and fighting against the crises caused by Joe Biden’s failed policies,” Ms Stefanik said in a highly partisan statement.

“The American people deserve a government with the same dedication to public safety, and House Republicans are leading the charge to hold the Biden Administration accountable for its crises and deliver on our commitment to create a nation that is safe.”

Jordan Zaitz

Similarly, freshman Republican representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer has invited Portland’s police officer, who has served, she said, “on the front lines of the homelessness and drug crises in Oregon.”

Mark A Hurley

The former Illinois Air Force colonel retired from the US military in opposition to President Biden’s decision to make the Covid-19 vaccine a mandatory requirement among servicemen and women and is being honoured for that decision by Republican congresswoman Mary Miller.

“Biden used the Covid vaccine mandate as a political purge to force the best and the brightest out of our military, and Biden has still failed to provide accountability for his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan more than two years ago,” Ms Miller said.

Roya Rahmani

Texas Republican Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which is opening an investigation into Mr Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, has announced that his guest will be that country’s first female ambassador to the US.

Mr McCaul said he hopes her attendance will “send a signal to the women of Afghanistan that they have not been forgotten”.

“Women there – many of whom only ever knew the freedoms of the last 20 years – no longer have rights,” he said in a statement.

“They must remain fully covered outside of their homes. They can’t go to school. They can’t even be outside without a male companion.”