From junior Miss America runner up to NFL and the Senate to being ridiculed by Scarlett Johansson: Inside the rapid rise of Republican Katie Britt from life in Alabama to the now infamous State of the Union response

In her book 'God Calls us to do hard things,' Senator Katie Britt offered the following recommendations for getting through life: focus on what you can control, be unafraid to fail, and be able to take criticism and tough love.

It is advice she could use herself these days.

In her book, Britt talks about the tough times she's gone through, from working in her parent's hardware store as a child to a close call with a tornado in 2011 that destroyed her Alabama home.

But none of this may have prepared the 42-year-old Republican for when she found herself the butt of a national joke after actress Scarlett Johansson played her in a skit on Saturday Night Live, mocking her response to President Joe Biden's State of the Union address.

Senator Katie Britt of Alabama has long been seen as a rising star in the Republican Party but she shot to national attention when she gave the response to the State of the Union address

But along with the bad times there were good ones.

Britt has had a remarkable rise in American politics: going from a senator's young press secretary to being a lawmaker herself in two decades. 

Along the way, she won scholarships in Miss Junior America competitions, attended the University of Alabama, worked as a top lawyer and married the captain of the football team, with whom she had two children.

Britt was seen as a rising star in the Republican Party from the moment she was elected in 2022. The first female senator from Alabama, she opposed abortion, supported the Second Amendment, advocated for increased border security, championed small businesses and spoke passionately about her faith.

And she was chosen by party leadership to give the high-profile primetime spot to refute President Joe Biden's State of the Union address – an assignment given to political stars in the making.

But the reaction to her speech may have torpedoed talk of her being Donald Trump's running mate in 2024 and hurt the Republican Party's quest to win more female voters.

Critics called Britt's speech out of touch and said it was sexist to have her deliver it from her kitchen table. But Britt used that table in her remarks, saying it was where moms like her gathered with their children to eat together and to have tough conversations.

'Republicans have now two years in a row picked a young woman — last year Sarah Huckabee Sanders, this year Katie Britt — to try to shift the image of the Republican Party away from older white men, which is really quite the reality of the party,' Debbie Walsh, the executive director of the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University, told The Hill newspaper.

But, she said, the drama will likely pass – unless Britt ends up as Trump's vice presidential pick.

'Then it would come up in a bigger way,' Walsh said.

After Britt's speech was widely panned - and critics mocked her for giving it from her kitchen table - she posted online a picture with her husband and children at the same table

Actress Scarlett Johansson played Britt in a Saturday Night Live skit mocking her speech

Katie Britt, husband Wesley and children Bennett and Ridgeway on April 27, 2011 - the day of one of the deadliest tornados in Alabama history struck the state

Katie and Wesley Britt with children Bennett and Ridgeway

Britt, in response, posted a photo of herself and her family – husband Wesley Britt, daughter Bennett, and son Ridgeway - seated together at the table on her Instagram account, writing: 'To the American people: Our future starts around kitchen tables just like this. With moms and dads just like you.' 

Republicans have been losing female voters since Trump took office in 2016. The Supreme Court overturn of the landmark abortion law Roe v. Wade further galvanized women voters, helping Democrats in the 2022 midterm election.

Trump is reported to be worried about the abortion issue and how it could help his rival in the presidential election.

He also said he has already ruled some possible vice presidential contenders because they haven't 'behaved properly' although he declined to name names.

'Some people that I didn't think behaved properly. Yeah, I think I've ruled some people out, but I've ruled a lot of people in. We have a lot of great people in the Republican Party, and they'll do a terrific job, I think, but certainly I have people that I wouldn't want as a vice president,' Trump told Newsmax.

The former president also doesn't like people who get mocked and he would be aware of the SNL skit.

Additionally, Britt is from Alabama, which passed a law that stated frozen embryos are human beings and those who destroy them can be held liable for wrongful death. The law halted IVF treatments throughout the state. Some Republicans - including Trump - criticized the law for going too far. 

Britt has spoken of her support for IVF treatments but the association with her home state could be tough to overcome.

Katie Britt was born in Enterprise, Ala., a small town of 30,000 people that lies 90 miles south of state capital of Montgomery. Her mother, Debra Boyd, is a former pageant queen who owned a dance studio. Her father, Julian Boyd, owned a hardware store. Britt was the eldest of four daughters.

She competed in pageants herself when she was young.

A young Katie Boyd was crowned Little Miss Enterprise in first grade, then the 1989 Little Miss National Peanut Festival the next year.

Later she would win the title of Alabama Junior Miss in 2000 and compete in the national contest. Her talent was jazzercise and, as first runner-up, she won $25,000 in scholarships and shared a $10,000 fitness award with three other contestants.

But it was a youthful brush with politics that turned her from her desire to be an ear, nose and throat doctor to running for public office.

Britt attended Girls State, an annual conference sponsored by the American Legion Auxiliary to teach young women about leadership in 1999, the summer before her senior year of high school. The delegates there elected her governor.

'Girls State was something that changed the trajectory of my life and things I wanted to do and things I thought were possible and how I saw that leadership could change people's lives in a positive way. Real leadership,' Britt later said.

She would be involved in politics from then on out.

While attending the University of Alabama, where she majored in political science and government, she successfully ran for student government president in 2003.

It's also where she met her husband, Wesley Britt, who was captain of the college football team. They married in 2008. He spent four years as a tackle for the New England Patriots before being released in 2009.

The couple then focused their life on Alabama. Britt went to law school at University of Alabama, while he pursued an MBA. Their daughter, Bennett was born in 2009 and their son Ridgeway in 2010. Wesley Britt is now a lobbyist who helps manage his wife's political campaigns.

Katie - then with her maiden name of Katie Boyd - was first runner up in the Junior Miss America pageant in 2000

Katie met her husband Wesley at the University of Alabama when they were students there - he was captain of the football team and spent four years in the NFL

Katie and Wesley Britt on their wedding day

Britt got her start in politics in former Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby's office as his press secretary, before leaving to go to law school and work as an attorney.

It was during that time the young couple faced one of the biggest challenges - the loss of their home. 

The couple was at their home in Tuscaloosa with Bennett and Ridgeway on April 27, 2011 - the day of one of the deadliest tornados in Alabama history struck the state.

Britt said they were watching the news when they realized they were directly in the storm's path.

'Wesley moved us to the back of the house,' Britt said. 'He put us in between two closets. He's a big boy, so he moved a dresser in front of the two closets. And he puts a mattress, he kind of bended it in half, put it on top of us. God was guiding him in all of that.'

She was holding Ridgeway when the storm struck.

'When we came out everything was gone, including the second story of the house. What should have been our bedroom was the sky.'

In 2015 Britt returned to politics to help Shelby run what would end up being his last re-election campaign. She became his chief of staff and when Shelby announced he was retiring, she threw her hat in the ring to replace him.

She shot up in the polls – garnering the admiration and endorsement of Trump on the way. When she took the oath of office in 2023 she was the youngest woman elected to the Senate.

Her star rose from there, culminating in last week's speech and the ensuing fallout.

Britt went along with the SNL skit in good humor, telling Senator Ted Cruz on his podcast that she was 'pumped' that The Avengers star was playing her.

'I'll be honest with you, a bingo card of 2024 for Katie Britt, I did not have this on it and so certainly did not have Scarlett Johansson playing me,' she said, 'I mean Scarlett Johansson - here you have Black Widow, they bring in someone from Avengers to play me in the cold open, I'm here for it.'

She also said she took comfort in advice from Speaker Mike Johnson.

'People are going to tell you horror stories about all of these things that happened and people's career being blown up over it,' Britt relayed of his words. 'And he's like, 'It'll be fine, it'll be fine.''