Two of President Barack Obama’s most notable supporters from his first White House campaign will join First Lady Michelle Obama this week at the State of the Union address, a White House official said Saturday.
In a nod to the early days of Obama’s first campaign, Edith Childs of Greenville, South Carolina, and Vietnam veteran Earl Smith of Austin, Texas, will both attend Tuesday’s address in the first lady’s guest box.
Childs became an icon to the Obama campaign in 2007 when she rallied a small group of 38 supporters in Greenwood County to chant, “Fired Up! Ready to Go!” drawing in more and more supporters as the cheer continued. The call-and-response chant became the unofficial slogan for the Obama campaigns of 2008 and 2012.
Smith met Obama in 2008 at a Hyatt Regency in Austin, where he worked as the director of security. While Smith was in an elevator with the then-senator, Smith gave Obama a patch he had worn while serving with an artillery brigade in Vietnam that sustained 10,041 casualties and received 13 Medals of Honor. Smith held onto the patch for 40 years before giving it to Obama, who then carried it in his pocket for the rest of the 2008 campaign.
In a 2009 interview with CNN’s John King before Obama’s first inauguration, Childs spoke about the importance of attending the event.
“I never thought that I would be able to see this day, so I just need to be there. Don’t want to be nowhere near the front. I just want to be there,” Childs said. “It means everything to me, because I want to be treated as a person. Not because I’m Edith Childs and black, but because I’m a person.”
The White House will also leave one seat empty in the first lady’s guest box at the State of the Union address to represent victims of gun violence, Obama announced Friday.