The State of the Union address is an annual event in the US. The 46th US President, Joe Biden, has today, March 8th 2024, delivered the annual State of the Union (SOTU) address at Capitol hill.
US presidents have continued to observe this tradition of in-person SOTU address, since the presidency of Woodrow Wilson in 1913. The Senate and the House listen to the president’s speech from the same venue, normally at Capitol Hill.
Before President Wilson begun the in-person tradition, the Senate and the House of Representatives used to receive different copies of written speeches from the president. These would be read to them from their respective venues. The precedent for that tradition had been set by President Thomas Jefferson in 1801.
The first State of the Union address was given by President George Washington on January 8th 1790, but at the time and up to 1946, the message was referred to as the president’s “Annual Message”.
In 1945, a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives listened to the president’s message according to tradition, but since President Franklin Roosevelt did not read the speech himself, the address is not counted among the “in-person” State of the Union addresses.
This year, supporters of President Biden are happy with the energy he manifested while delivering the 100th in-person State of the Union address. Biden was vivacious as he pinpointed the milestones the country has attained in his first term of his presidency, and the trajectory he plans to take during his second term.
The president’s show of vitality is important because his political opponents have often insinuated that, at 82 years of age, he is too old to govern for a second term. Meanwhile, the 2024 Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, is 78 years old.