Bono Will Be Among First Lady Jill Biden’s Guests At State Of The Union

Bono will be among the guests of First Lady Jill Biden at tonight’s State of the Union address, joining a list that includes the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Oksana Markarova and Paul Pelosi, the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The White House cited Bono’s work as an activist in the fight against HIV/AIDS and extreme poverty. Bono helped build bipartisan support for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which President George W. Bush announced at his State of the Union 20 years ago. Bono visited the White House in December along with other members of U2 as they were recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors.

Also on the guest list: Maurice and Kandice Barron, whose daughter is a survivor of a rare form of pediatric cancer; Lynette Bonar, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who is an executive at Tuba City Health Care Corp.; Deanna Branch, who has worked to eradicate lead exposure after her son Aidan suffered poisoning; Kristin Christensen and Avarie Kollmar, a caregiver to her husband, who is medically retired from the Navy due to combat injuries; and Ruth Cohen, a volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum who is a survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. She is a guest of Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman.