President Joe Biden will deliver the annual State of the Union address on Thursday, and the crowd in the House chamber will be full of members of Congress and several special guests.

Each member of Congress is typically allowed one or two guests for the State of the Union, with Republicans and Democrats usually selecting their guests based on the political climate or recent national incidents.

All eyes will be on Biden to see how he describes his approach to immigration, the economy, and foreign affairs — particularly if he blames any policy issues on Republican infighting and inability to work across the aisle.

Based on the guest list, the parties are making it clear what topics are most important to them. Democrats are mostly bringing guests related to abortion and women’s healthcare, and Republicans are focusing on immigration and crime victims.

Here are some of the most notable guests attending the State of the Union address this year.

Evan Gershkovich’s parents

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) invited the parents of Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was jailed in Russia while reporting on the Kremlin. The address comes just weeks ahead of the first anniversary of Gershkovich’s arrest on March 29 on charges of espionage. 

“We are grateful to Speaker Johnson for inviting us to attend the State of the Union and for providing the opportunity to highlight Evan’s wrongful detention,” Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal.

Gershkovich’s parents also thanked Biden in their statement, praising him for his “continued work” to bring the journalist home. 

Johnson said in a statement that bringing Gershkovich’s parents to the State of the Union address would “shine a spotlight on the unjust detention of their son.”

NYPD officers attacked in Times Square

A pair of New York police officers who were attacked in Times Square by a group of illegal immigrants will also make an appearance on Thursday. 

Ben Kurian and Zunxu Tian will attend the State of the Union address as guests of Johnson, as well as Reps. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY) and Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY). The police lieutenant and officer were attacked by a group of immigrants just outside a shelter near Times Square last month. 

Republicans have seized on that incident, as well as others, to blame the Biden administration’s border policies for causing a rise in crime across the country. 

Chinese spy balloon photographer

Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) invited Larry Mayer, the first photographer to capture the Chinese spy balloon that rocked headlines after it was spotted over the United States last January. The balloon traveled over Alaska and Canada and reentered the U.S. airspace over Idaho. It traversed across the nation before the U.S. military shot it down.

The balloon raised serious concerns among Democrats and Republicans over how much intelligence it was able to gather and send back to Beijing, but U.S. military officials said the balloon was not capable of collecting significant intelligence.

South Dakota sheriff

Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) invited Butte County Sheriff Fred Lamphere to the State of the Union, one of several local leaders invited to the address in an attempt to display Biden’s border policies on local communities.

Lamphere has made several trips to the southern border and continues to be vocal about how the influx of illegal immigrants has increased drug use and trafficking in South Dakota communities.

Woman who was rejected abortion access in Texas

Democrats will also be homing in on their campaign message of maintaining abortion access and reproductive healthcare. House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) will be bringing Amanda Zurawski, a woman who struggled to receive an abortion due to Texas’s restrictive abortion laws, as her guest. 

Zurawski sought an abortion last year after her water broke just 18 weeks into her pregnancy, after which her doctors told her she would lose her baby and was at risk of a life-threatening infection. However, because of the state’s restrictive abortion laws, she was not able to get an abortion until she went into septic shock. 

“Republicans told us that Dobbs was just the beginning. Their mission is clear: a nationwide abortion ban,” Clark said in a statement. “Amanda Zurawski knows firsthand the pain and cruelty inflicted by the MAGA assault on reproductive freedom. Now, in the aftermath of the senseless Alabama ruling on IVF, her family’s future is once again in the hands of right-wing politicians.”

Kristina Gill, widow of slain Trump administration official

Another guest of Johnson is Kristina Gill, the wife of former Trump administration official Mike Gill, who was fatally shot during a carjacking in Washington, D.C., in late January. He later died in a local hospital from life-threatening injuries.

Carjacking is on the rise in Washington, and Republicans have used the district as a focal point to describe Democrats as being soft on crime. The Council of the District of Columbia, which is often the object of GOP targets, held its second and final vote on the Secure D.C. Omnibus bill on Tuesday, passing the legislation and sending it to Mayor Muriel Bowser’s desk.

Jill Biden’s guests

First lady Jill Biden is bringing 20 guests to the State of the Union, with each guest connected to a variety of topics as the president looks to tout his accomplishments on Thursday.

Among the first lady’s guests are Kate Cox and Latorya Beasley. Cox gained nationwide attention after she had to travel out of state for an abortion once Texas courts rejected her petition to receive the procedure despite her doctors arguing the pregnancy put her health at risk.

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Beasley is an Alabama mother who had her in vitro fertilization treatments halted following a ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court that determined frozen embryos are children. The ruling caused healthcare systems that provided IVF procedures to pause operations temporarily out of fear of criminal or civil lawsuits. 

Other guests include Keenan Jones, a middle school educator who had her student loans forgiven, and Shawn Fain, the head of United Auto Workers, the union that recently endorsed Biden following strikes over wages across the country.