John,
I must have been asked, “Why are you running? Why did you run?” a thousand times since I launched my campaign for Congress in July 2019. In reply I had a number of answers, all true, that were calibrated to the setting. In some I gave more policy, others a more principled or philosophical bent. The general thrust was concern about the direction of the country, and a desire to return to strong, stable, and effective representation for West Michigan. I held up Vern Ehlers, Paul Henry, and Gerald Ford as emblematic figures in the quest for stability.
I can’t help but ponder perhaps a better question, more relevant today: what was I running to prevent? What scenarios do I fear, what outcomes am I working to keep from coming to pass? I don’t have to calibrate this answer or distill into a simple sentence a range of goals and priorities. My answer is as it has been since I became politically engaged: preventing undivided, generational Democratic rule.
When it’s nihilistic to work across the aisle, things are already bad and clearly getting worse. I have hope for the policy areas outside the klieg lights of cable news where we have been able to score some victories, like war powers reform, caring for veterans, and outcompeting China. But we need to tackle immigration, healthcare costs, and the national debt, and politics (and hypocrisy) as usual won’t cut it. There is too much on the line for self-indulgent fantasies aimed more at soothing egos than winning elections. If I am quick to brush off feelings it’s because the facts, the results, are what matters in delivering for this country.
I will be serving West Michigan in Congress until at least until January 2023. I hope to do it for longer, to notch more policy victories while getting the Republican party to a point where we stop losing and win and win again.
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