The State of the Union address is set for March 7, the latest it has been since 1934 (and, intriguingly, just days after Super Tuesday). The White House has been working around the clock to craft a speech that crystallizes the president’s accomplishments over the past year and clearly sets forth his vision for the future, in hopes of building support for his re-election. If the past is prologue, it is likely President Joe Biden will speak for roughly one hour and follow a traditional list-driven format.
But it doesn’t have to be like that.
With the future of democracy hinging on the outcome of this year’s election, Biden’s administration should modernize the State of the Union to better reach all generations. Two of the most important audiences for this reinvention are also key to his re-election prospects: young people, who are 2024’s largest voting bloc, and those over 65, who traditionally are the most likely to vote.
The message must be delivered in a way that voters from both our generations will hear, believe, and feel matters to their lives.
The authors of this piece represent those demographic groups. As both of us work to mobilize our generational peers to vote, we have found that despite persistent messaging, many still remain unaware of what Biden has accomplished as president and what he could accomplish with four more years. Worse, some have accepted lies about what Donald Trump did in his first term or haven’t heard the truth about how he would destroy democracy if he gets another.
On nearly every issue both our generations care about — from climate change to the burden of student loans to reducing gun violence, improving our stature in the world order, and securing voting rights at home — Biden and his administration have delivered. Their agenda for a second term matches the values of these groups.
But that doesn’t matter unless the message gets through, and more messaging to television viewers and newspaper readers about the facts is not the answer for either group. Instead, the message must be delivered in a way that voters from both our generations will hear, believe, and feel matters to their lives.
For young voters, that effectively eliminates the hope of using traditional media — newspapers, television, radio and cable — to deliver the message. Data shows that young people simply do not get their information there. Instead, the majority of young people get their “news” from social media.
And although the older generations do consume traditional media, they need a message crafted to show how Biden’s achievements have affected their lives.
To do that, it would be wise for Biden and his team to rethink the structure, dissemination channels and follow-up of this year’s State of the Union. We discussed this before last year’s State of the Union on our podcast, “iGen Politics,” with MSNBC anchor Lawrence O’Donnell. Even though his most direct experience with a State of the the Union speech involved a fictional president, our discussion led us to conclude a real State of the Union also needs some long overdue changes.
With average attention spans shrinking, even the most gifted orator can struggle to hold an audience’s attention for an hour.
Not every tradition needs to go: Speaking before a joint session of Congress in a crowded House of Representatives captures the moment’s grandness and seriousness. Like past States of the Union, the spotlight also can and should stay largely on Biden, his policy victories and his goals for a second term, as well as what the Trump alternative would look like. But changing the format could dramatically alter the results.
To start, the president does not need to be the sole speaker for more than an hour. With average attention spans shrinking, even the most gifted orator can struggle to hold an audience’s attention for an hour. What’s more, the current format has clearly failed to inform voters as well. A poll released before last year’s State of the Union found that more than 60% of the country said they could not list one Biden accomplishment.
One format change that would go a long way toward that goal is having a multimedia message delivered not solely by the president, but by short videos from members of his administration and Americans who have benefited from his policies. Evidence shows that messages have a higher probability of persuading the listener if delivered by a peer. Supplementing the president’s remarks with young speakers sharing their stories about how Biden’s policies have helped them would be a powerful way to increase the likelihood young people will hear and absorb the message Biden conveys. Weaving in the voices of ordinary Americans from the diverse backgrounds of all generations would increase the acceptance of the message.
The same would be true of Biden’s Cabinet officials giving concrete examples of how each department will continue to implement Biden’s agenda to help all generations of voters. Doing so would also show those who may be concerned about Biden’s age that the federal government is more than just one person; instead, his administration includes a record number of women and people of color — all working together to deliver for all Americans.
For a model of what this could look like, recall the successful Jan. 6 committee hearings. With the help of former television executives and documentary filmmakers, the committee revamped the typical hearing into a compelling and memorable presentation of facts via video clips and graphics. The same approach can benefit the State of the Union. And each segment could then be posted across the administration’s and campaign’s social media platforms, expanding its reach.
The Biden team can also gather influencers to livestream the event on newer platforms from inside either the Capitol or the White House during his speech. They did that recently by hosting the first-ever White House holiday party for content creators, who included dancers, singers and digital activists, so why not bring them in again to cover one of the largest political moments and reach important audiences?
The changes would not stop when Biden is finished speaking.
On its face, this may seem too dramatic a departure from tradition. But though Article 2 of the Constitution requires the president to “from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union,” there are no requirements for its delivery. In fact, for over 100 years, from Thomas Jefferson through William Howard Taft, the address was a written report without any personal appearance.
The changes would not stop when Biden is finished speaking. Traditionally, after the address, friendly surrogates may be deployed to the networks, and the opposition party (and sometimes other organizations) deliver responses. Instead, the administration should create its own responses, both from popular elected officials like Govs. J.B. Pritzker and Gretchen Whitmer and from influencers, young people and older workers from a variety of fields.
In recent years, an organization called “Young People Address the Nation” has featured 20 young leaders responding to those State of the Union addresses. The White House and Biden campaign could adopt that model, enhance the production, and broadcast it across social media. Getting young people to react to the State of the Union personally would be the final marker of transforming the State of the Union from another Washington product to a production aimed directly at reaching a younger and newer swath of voters.
We both follow Biden’s administration closely and know there is no question that Biden has the record, character and experience to win in 2024. But for those assets to matter, voters need to know about them, feel excited about them, and be motivated to act on them by voting and getting their peers to do so too. Reimagining and reinventing the upcoming State of the Union is a great opportunity for Biden to reach all voters. Every speech a president makes matters — and this one can matter more than ever.