Rusty Hills op-ed on GOP State of the Union response published in the Washington Times | Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy

Rusty Hills op-ed on GOP State of the Union response published in the Washington Times

February 12, 2013
In an op-ed for the Washington Times, Rusty Hills proposes breathing new life into the Republican Party's response to President Obama's State of the Union address. The response, which is given by the opposition party immediately following the State of the Union each February, receives notoriously little media coverage.

Hill's suggestions for increasing viewership start with choosing a different date.

"Agreeing to respond on the same day and time as the president guarantees that anything said by the GOP will be relegated to Paragraph 38 of the next day's story," Hills wrote in the Washington Times.

Hills also proposed inviting high-profile party members to attend the speech and using the occasion to offer a pro-active policy agenda rather than a response to the President's proposals.