In S.O.T.U. Pelosi is a "bigger star of the evening than the president,"

Pelosi over his shoulder: Trump faces heartened Dems at SOTU
By LAURIE KELLMAN
Posted: Feb. 4, 2019 8:00 am Updated: Feb. 4, 2019 3:55 pm

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats now own a stake in the state of the union.

Members of the new House majority get to show off their new clout Tuesday night when President Donald Trump delivers his first State of the Union address under divided government. Evidence of the changes afoot will be firmly in the television frame, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sitting above and behind Trump, her status strengthened by his capitulation to her terms for reopening the government.

"In some ways, Nancy Pelosi is the bigger star of the evening than the president," said University of Michigan's Aaron Kall, an author of a book about memorable presidential addresses.

Pelosi's new perch is only one example of how women will surround the president at the annual address. A record number of new female lawmakers, including some the first Native Americans and Muslims to serve in Congress, will dot the audience. Invited guests who represent key Democratic agenda items — climate and the environment, immigration, LBGTQ rights, the plight of federal workers — will watch from the gallery above. They'll include two former workers at Trump's New Jersey golf club who have spoken out about his hiring practices, and Ana Maria Archila, the woman who cornered a Republican senator in an elevator to protest Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court.

https://www.njherald.com/article/20190204/AP/302049794