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\n

Progressives are naming California Rep. Lateefah Simon, a rising Democratic star, to deliver their response to President Donald Trump\u2019s joint address to Congress next week, according to a statement provided first to Blue Light News.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m honored to speak on behalf of the Working Families Party,\u201d Simon said in a statement. \u201cWe need a government that is run by and for working people, not billionaires \u2014 and that\u2019s what the WFP is fighting for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simon, who is serving her first term and represents a district centered around Oakland, California, is expected to focus on the impact of Trump and Elon Musk\u2019s dramatic overhaul of the federal government, according to a spokesperson. She is also likely to talk about her recent visit to labs at the University of California, Berkeley and the effects of cuts at the National Institutes of Health on disease research.<\/p>\n

The Working Families Party response to the State of the Union or the president’s joint address has generally given the party\u2019s left flank an opportunity to provide counter-programming apart from Democrats\u2019 main rebuttal speech. The progressive organization also gave rebuttal speeches to former President Joe Biden\u2019s joint addresses, causing some controversy<\/u><\/a> among Democrats who chafed at the left-flank pressure.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia City Councilmember Nicholas O\u2019Rourke gave the rebuttal speech to Biden last year, and progressive \u201cSquad\u201d member Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) gave the last progressive response to Trump in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking people are looking for leaders who will fight for them, and Rep. Lateefah Simon was born to lead in this moment,\u201d said Maurice Mitchell, National Director of the Working Families Party.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Progressives are naming California Rep. Lateefah Simon, a rising Democratic star, to deliver their response to President Donald Trump\u2019s joint address to Congress next week, according to a statement provided first to Blue Light News. \u201cI\u2019m honored to speak on behalf of the Working Families Party,\u201d Simon said in a statement. \u201cWe need a government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6638\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}