SAN ANTONIO — A Uvalde teen who has advocated loudly for gun reform and a Dallas woman who spoke out about the challenges of receiving an abortion after doctors told her her health was in danger will attend Thursday's State of the Union in Washington D.C. as guests of the White House.
Jazmin Cazares and Kate Cox will watch the evening address alongside First Lady Jill Biden, the White House said in a statement.
Cazaras' 9-year-old sister, Jackie, was one of 19 children killed at the Robb Elementary School shooting in May 2022. Jazmin spent the next year traveling repeatedly to Austin to fight for gun reform, testifying in front of legislators for firearm safety legislation that has largely not come to pass.
Specifically, the Cazares family was focused on HB 2744, which would have raised the minimum legal age to buy semi-automatic rifles to 21. But it failed to pass after the Calendars Committee never set a date for a House vote.
Cox, meanwhile, was forced to travel outside of Texas last year for care she wasn't able to receive in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned, and after learning her baby had a rare genetic disorder. Doctors said the baby would live for a week, at best.
She sued the State of Texas over the ability to get an abortion to end an unwanted pregnancy; the Texas Supreme Court ultimately denied her request, but she had already left the state for an abortion.
The White House said year's guests "personify issues or themes to be addressed by the president in his speech, or they embody the Biden-Harris administration's policies at work."
Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz also announced a guest, this one personifying a different political battle at play in South Texas: that of immigration. Presidio County Sheriff Danny Dominguez was invited by the senator after Cruz's office said he "witnesses the tremendous strain this humanitarian and national security crisis places on our Texas-Mexico border communities."
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