PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — City Council member Nicolas O’Rourke, who became the second Working Families Party candidate to be elected to Philadelphia City Council in the last city election cycle, will offer the party’s response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address next week.
“It’s certainly an honor,” O’Rourke told KYW Newsradio.
O’Rourke followed fellow Working Families Party Kendra Brooks to City Council, who claimed its first seat in 2019 before getting re-elected in 2023. The party is a bit to the left of Democrats, but is generally supportive of them. It means O’Rourke is unlikely to be critical of Biden, and said he will zero in on issues that impact working Americans.
“Who better than a municipal elected?” O’Rourke said. “As much as we hear from Congressmen, Senators and governors, it is important to have folks speaking out from the ground, from the grass roots.”
This is the seventh Working Families Party State of the Union response and previous speakers have been mostly congressmen with one Lieutenant Governor.
A party spokesperson lauded O’Rourke’s “moral clarity and strategic vision.” His remarks will be livestreamed after the president’s address next Thursday, March 7.