Duck Dynasty‘s Willie Robertson will join Louisiana Rep. Vance McAllister at the State of the Union Address tonight in what Deadline calls a return favor for the Robertsons’ help in electing McAllister last November.

Deadline portrays the move as a high-profile marketing ploy to help the show’s lower-than-projected numbers in the first few weeks of the Spring season, hinting that Phil Robertson’s controversial comments have taken a toll on ratings.

Duck Dynasty star Willie Robertson is expected to join Louisiana Rep. Vance McAllister at tonight’s State of the Union Address. Robertson is CEO of the Robertson family’s Duck Commander company — and the State of the Union Address has become one of a handful of Washington’s Celebrity Petting Zoos, though it trails the White House Correspondents Dinner by many, many laps. Willie also is the son of family patriarch Phil Robertson, who landed in hot water after giving an interview to GQ in which he waxed headline-hoggingly about gays and blacks. A&E, you’ll recall, suspended him from the show for an indefinite period but unsuspended him pretty quickly in the wake of wrist-slap blow-back.

The Robertson clan helped McAllister’s election campaign in 2012, appearing in a number of ads which many believe was a major factor in McAllister’s upset win against the GOP and Tea Party-backed favorite.

The Duck Dynasty Spring 2014 premiere was down 28% from season 4, but still garnered an impressive 8.5 million viewers.