A CONSERVATIVE CONVERSATION WITH CONGRESSWOMAN VICKY HARTZLER

Candidate for US Senate

As the November elections approach, we must all be intentional in taking an active role in choosing suitable candidates for office. Not just any Republican is good enough. We must be sure that the candidate we choose genuinely is aligned with and will have the backs of the people. Not just say they are, but they have a proven track record and have taken the time to invest in those who support them. A candidate who will not forget you once they are elected. One such candidate sat down for over an hour with me; this was an in-depth interview, with no sound bites or quips but honest answers for all Americans’ . US Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler answered detailed questions on the issues before this country. She is running for the US Senate for an open seat in a crowded primary field here in Missouri, and tough decisions need to be made. I have completed my choice, and I pray that you will agree with me after reading this interview. Hear her heart for our country, the people, and this State.

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CHRIS: For the benefit of those who do not know you. Who is Vicky Hartzler?

VICKY: She’s a wife and a mother, lifelong farmer, small business owner, and former public-school teacher. Still, I’m a Christian, a public servant who is blessed to serve the people of Missouri’s 4th district. Now I’m in my sixth term. I’m a senior member of the Armed Services Committee. The only person in the Missouri Congressional delegation, both in the House and the Senate, sits on Agriculture Committee. Ag is our number one industry in Missouri. I’m the Chairman of the House Values Action Team, with over 100 members of Congress who protected, defended, and fought for faith, family, freedom, religious freedom, and life. I’m on the tip of the spear helping lead those efforts in Washington, and so it’s a beautiful blessing. Hopefully, I will have the opportunity to serve all the citizens of Missouri as their Senator.

CHRIS: Talk to our readers about how your faith guides you. How your faith leads your thought process as you serve and will serve if you win the election as our new Senator?

VICKY: Faith is integral to my life. I accepted Jesus when I was nine years old, and he’s been my best friend ever since, and he’s the Lord of my life. I have tried to do things his way. I’m very thankful for Ephesians 2:10, which says we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which he’s prepared in advance for us to do. It’s exciting to be a Christian and that as we delight ourselves in him, he gives us the desires of our hearts. Jesus placed it on my heart to be involved in public service. I became a teacher, but I always thought about maybe someday running for office. When I was nine years old, making mud pies on my front sidewalk and talking to God, what did he want me to be when I grew up? I forgot about it, but as I look back on my life, I was always drawn to public policy. When I was teaching for 11 years and was grading papers, the phone rang one night. It was a man asking me to run for state representative. At first, I said no, that I’ ve worked with teenagers, and it was a big step to leaving my career as a teacher. However, he said, “ would you think about it, pray about it”? My husband and I did a lot of praying and then talked with others, and we just got the advice that this is what we should do. This is a way that perhaps God could use me to make a difference for him and others. I ran, won, and now I’m blessed to be in Congress.

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Every day I start the day reading my Bible and praying and asking God for wisdom. I’m very grateful for the Bible studies on Capitol Hill, and I am involved in one on Wednesday with other members of Congress. We discuss what the Bible has to say about the issues we’re facing. We pray together, and we seek guidance. It’s integral, but I think it’s crucial in this time that we have a Senator who has this as an essential piece of their life. I believe we’re in a battle for the heart and soul of this nation, and we were established as a Christian nation. Yet, all those values are under attack. To meet that challenge, we must have someone who has the character and the belief system in our Judeo-Christian heritage. Someone who dares to stand up and make a stand to fight for those things. That’s what I’ ve been doing and want to do as Missouri’s next Senator.

CHRIS: Looking back at your decision to run for Congress, what led you to that decision?

VICKY: I chose not to run for re-election for state representative in 2001 because we were blessed with our daughter, and I always wanted to be a stay-at-home Mom. So, I decided not to run for re-election and went back home. But then I became very involved in helping other suitable candidates. I was asked to be the spokesperson for the Coalition to Protect Marriage in Missouri, which was formed to help promote the passage of a constitutional amendment in Missouri in 2004 to establish that marriage is between a man and a woman. That passed with 71%.

CHRIS: That’s a lot of bipartisan support in this State for a state constitutional amendment to affirm that marriage is between a man and a woman.

VICKY: That’s right, and we ended up helping and working with people all over the State to promote that. I also wrote a book called Running God’s Way, step by step during that time.

CHRIS: I have an autographed copy.

VICKY: I know. So, there were many things I did during that interim period. Still, then 2008 happened when President Obama was elected. Nancy Pelosi took over as

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Speaker of the House, and Harry Reid took over the Senate. They just very quickly started dismantling everything that made this country great. Many of us became very distraught. To see the potential demise of our great nation. I had this realization that in Missouri’s 4th district, we were part of the problem because our representative was casting our vote for Nancy Pelosi, helping her become speaker, and then for her agenda. I just said to my husband that somebody needs to run against him. He was an icon in our district. He had not ever really been challenged. I told him somebody needed to run against him, and my husband turned to me and said, “ well, why don’t you do it?” And I said, well, we can’t do that. We have a 9-year-old little girl.

CHRIS: Has your husband regretted suggesting that you do that. Now that you have spent all this time away from him and your farm?

VICKY: He’s a man of God and tries to seek his will for himself and us. You know the Lord brings people together, and marriage is to help each other. You accomplish what he wants you to. And I’m very blessed and thankful for him, for his support. Otherwise, I wouldn’t do this without his encouragement and sacrifice. The family members of elected officials are the unsung heroes that really don’t get any of the glory, but they make all sacrifices. He’s an extraordinary man. He did encourage me to run and that we should be praying about it. Within days, we started having people come up to me saying, “Vicky, you ’ ve got to run to get against Ike Skelton. You ’re the only one who could beat him, ” . It still took a little while before we had to find out. What does that entail, and what would that be like. We really felt that God was tapping me on the should and saying, “I need you off the bench. There was time for you to go home for a while. Focus on being a full-time Mom and doing these other volunteer things. But now I need you back in the game, and it’s time. ” So, we took a leap of faith and signed up to run. Then we realized that we had a nine-way primary. We won the primary by almost 10%, and then we took on the 34-year incumbent Chairman of the Armed Services Committee. We had $100,000 left after the primary. He had 1.6 million in the bank, and many people said you can’t do it, but the people in the 4th district did it, and I just helped be a part of that movement. We stood up together and said no more. Nancy Pelosi needs to go. Our values matter, and we’re going to fight for our country. We won with five percentage points, and now I’m in my sixth term.

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CHRIS: What led you to decide to run for the Senate? Here in Missouri, the battle is the primary. Whoever wins the primary will win the general election. This will not be easy; you are the only female in the race, big money all around; why you and why now?

VICKY: I’m running for the Senate because America is in crisis. I’m the only person in this race who really has this experience of courageous conservative leadership needed at this hour to help turn this thing around. Who indeed is ready because they care about the people, the State? Also, who has the background that reflects the people of this State and is better equipped to start turning this thing around. Being in the Senate isn’t a learn as you go on the job. Experience, especially in this crisis that we are facing. If we don’t step up now and stop this socialist liberal train wreck. We are not going to recognize our country in five or ten years. Our kids and our grandkids aren’t going to live in the same great country that we have or experience the opportunities and live with the values that we’ ve had. And so now is the time. I think every person cares about this country to do everything we can to save this country. It may be locally getting people registered, voting, helping, putting out yard signs, and praying for our nation. But for me, we need a senator to step up here in Missouri with this void with Senator Blunt’s retirement. Who can help get our country back on track in the Senate? That’s why I’m stepping up to do my part to try to help turn this thing around.

CHRIS: OK, let’s dive right in and talk about China. COVID, with the impact that it has had on the world. The trade deficit is their leverage, our relationship with how we deal with China. They have a powerful economic lever over this country because of the Biden and Obama policies. Where are your thoughts concerning China and those items?

VICKY: China is a severe adversary. They have a plan for world domination. I produced a four-part video series on my official website, hartzler.house.gov, to make Americans aware of the threats. The first video is about the military threat. The second is the economic threat. The third talks about foreign influence. What they ’re doing on our college campuses, and the fourth covers the human rights abuses. I’m already trying to increase awareness. We also must understand that they only understand

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strength. I believe in peace through strength, as both Xi Jinping and Putin are concerned, and that’s why I’ ve been fighting to rebuild our military. I want to continue to do that so that we can deter potential wars to deter China from being aggressive in taking Taiwan. To prevent Putin from invading Ukraine, that’s sadly too late due to the weakness of the Biden Presidency, his failed policies, and his handling of Russia.

China, I’ ve been very focused on. I’ ve passed legislation to ensure our military has what they need in the Indo-Pacific Theater. More specifically, legislation to force the removal of all the video surveillance equipment in our federal government agencies and departments when it comes from China. We didn’t realize for how many years they were even there. My office got a call from the Wall Street Journal. A few years ago, they asked what my feelings were about these video surveillance cameras at Fort Leonard Wood from China? We’re like, what cameras at Fort Leonard Wood? They did some investigating. There were only five that they could find, and they pulled them out. It was a wake-up call for me as a member of the Armed Services Committee. We started realizing that many of those cameras are in all of our government buildings in these units. So, I passed legislation to pull those, and that’s being done as we speak. But I’ ve introduced several pieces of legislation currently that I want to keep building on as your Senator. One piece of legislation I recently introduced is the Chinese Communist Party Act. It bars and prevents members of the Communist Chinese Party (CCP), Congress, and leadership from coming here and getting an education in America and their family members. For instance, Chairman Xi Jinping’s daughter received her undergraduate degree at Harvard, and she’s still here somewhere getting her graduate degree. So, why would we enable our adversaries to come here, receive our world-class education, and expose ourselves? Potentially to espionage? I think that’s just the start. There are 317,000 Chinese students here on their campuses.

I presented a bill concerning the Persecution of Christians in China and religious minorities, and it passed with bipartisan support. Exposing all the persecution they ’re doing, not just the Christians but the Muslims currently in China. There’s more persecution of Christians than at any time since Mao. We have churches being demolished and crosses being taken down. However, we also hear stories of pictures

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of Jesus being replaced by Xi Jinping inside the churches. Up to half a mile surrounding Christian churches, signs on every corner say, “No one under 18 is allowed beyond this point” . It’s against the law for anybody under 18 to go to a Christian Church. Yet, they send the Chinese children to the Communist Party camps and indoctrinate them for their whole life. The Chinese government is afraid to expose that there is a God in Jesus that loves them. Hope and freedom through his salvation. They don’t want children to hear that message. They want them to grow up dependent on this Communist Party.

Still, they ’re also putting video surveillance equipment outside all the churches. They watch and monitor who comes. There’s a Catholic priest in prison because he refused to allow a video surveillance camera. If you put a camera on the front of the pulpit and so very, very draconian persecution, plus the record number of the imprisonment of pastors, Christians, and the systematic torture. So, I want to speak up for those who can’t speak up for themselves and raise awareness. I was grateful to have some Democrats come on board and recognize this threat and vote for this bill. I’ ve also introduced the SOS Act that stops the aggressive sterilization act to call for sanctions on those involved.

CHRIS: What about our trade with China? Prospects? Threats?

VICKY: We do need trade with them, certainly on the agriculture side; it’s been positive for us to have the Trump trade deal. China had been increasing more purchases of soybeans and of our pork. They ’re about $19 billion short of their obligations to the Us. So our trade representatives, I think, need to be very firm that China needs to fulfill those obligations.

CHRIS: A lot of that pork and soybeans come from this State (Missouri).

VICKY: Absolutely so. But it’s kind of a delicate balance with China. We need the trade, and it’s beneficial to have that export market. They have a lot of people they need to feed. This is good for our agriculture, but we also must be careful and not become dependent on China. That’s why I called for legislation, before the pandemic, to bring back our pharmaceutical production to America.

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John Garamendi, a Democrat from California, and I learned that most of the medicines, even aspirin, is given to our service members come from China. Or the active pharmaceutical ingredients come from China, India, or other countries. If we went to war with China, we realized the threat they could win without firing a shot by sending some tainted medicine or vaccines. So, we were already calling for bringing that back and calling on the President to use the Defense Production Act to stand up for American pharmaceuticals. Then COVID hit, and we all learned more about that vulnerability. I’m a huge advocate of bringing back our pharmaceuticals production.

CHRIS: I want to divert just a little bit. Stay on the international relations. But you know, it hit me as you talked about the persecution. Christians in China, and we saw this in Russia in the past as well with this new onslaught of runaway progressivism. I think we are at a point now where we will see a much less subtle version of persecution of Christians right here. I don’t know what your thoughts are on that. It just hit me as you were talking. The whole cancel culture, the doxing, and all this stuff that’s going on. People like us are automatic targets for that. You spoke of being a schoolteacher. We’ll get into that in a minute with all the CRT stuff. You see those who’ ve spoken up; they get attacked. People call their jobs to try and get them fired for their political beliefs or affiliations. This is a potential indicator of bad things if we don’t stem that tide.

VICKY: We are starting to see the chilling impact of censorship here, and political correctness and wokeness threaten our religious liberties. We’re having some woke social media platforms determine what information deserves to get out or not get out. And if you go beyond those parameters, they shut you down, and it’s feeling more like we’re living in China or Russia than the America I grew up in if this continues. Plus, the radical agenda on sexuality. This also impacts religious liberties, and we’re starting to see court cases against those people who believe marriage means only between a man and a woman. Nancy Pelosi keeps pushing what’s called the Equality Act. I call it the in-Equality Act. They ’re trying to also implement this by using executive orders and department policies to redefine the definition of gender (sex) and civil rights laws to include sexual orientation and gender identity and making it a protected class. If you don’t provide equality, this has enormous ramifications for women and just for families and people of religion. The healthcare industry can be just

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as bad an actor if you ’re a doctor who objects because of religious or medical reasons that do not support a 14-year-old girl going through gender, gender change, and mastectomy. You say I don’t think that’s good for her as a teenager.

Over 80 to 90% of young people who have gender confusion end up settling in the gender of their birth. You could be charged with discrimination and forced to participate in these surgeries. If this becomes standardized, businesses can be forced to include in their health care policies for their workers to pay for gender transition surgeries and be forced to have sexless bathrooms. Parental rights are in real jeopardy. There has already been a case where parents had their daughter taken away and given to the grandparent. In Ohio, they have some of these state laws and had a teenage girl that wanted to transition to a boy. The parents didn’t support it. Giving the hormone blockers and starting that process. Someone else on the outside took the parents to court. The judge said they were discriminating, taking away the parental rights and giving them to the grandparents. This also impacts adoption agencies.

There are huge ramifications, but what I have specifically been focusing on is; girls’ sports. I used to be a track coach, and I was involved in sports myself. I ran track, basketball, and volleyball. Title IX years ago, was passed. So that with the quality of opportunity, they could compete, experience what it’s like to win, and achieve the personal attributes of self-discipline. You learn all those things in sports and have the opportunity to win medals and excel to get scholarships and recognition. It is all in jeopardy now. Where they are through this wokeness and redefining gender or allowing males who identify as females to compete on the same sports teams.

Girls are being denied those opportunities because of this craziness. People are not really speaking the truth. I don’t think it’s loving to tell someone they affirm this. It’s not helpful for them. It’s not beneficial for others. So, I’m hopeful that we can get that turned back. It’s going to jeopardize our religious freedoms. What speech can you say at work? Will you be able to share your beliefs without being charged with discrimination? It’s deeply concerning. It is. The entire Title 9 transgender issue is that it’s hurting female sports.

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CHRIS: You know, it’s ironic to me and comment on how you feel about it, and you may disagree with me, and that’s fine. Ironically, the Liberals, once upon a time, and many parents fought for girls to have all their own sports. They fought so hard to get some sort of parity. One of the groups that helped accomplish that is the group that’s destroying it. In eliminating these opportunities, I see constant comments from parents who are like, well, you know, my daughter just dropped out. If there’s going to be this biological boy that’s against a biological girl. What’s the point? Because they can’t compete, and it’s just the irony of it all. When I see your comments on it, on Twitter and Facebook. I know many people who don’t see the world like we do, agreeing with you. What’s your response, not just from your position as the congresswoman for the 4th district, but from a campaign perspective? How is that playing out for you?

VICKY: I’m getting a very positive response from all over. When I see people first. They don’t like my political background, but I’ ve seen a lot of women who’ ve come up to me and say, I’m so glad you ’re running. Thank you. I don’t know if it’s because of my speaking up for women and women’s sports or if some of the other people are running in this race and some concerns there. I’m really encouraged by that, and it’s been encouraging in Washington DC. As this issue has come to the forefront of seeing several feminist groups come alongside some of us conservative women who are fighting for this, we’re finding commonality. We may be on different sides of the abortion issue, but we can agree on this area. I think that’s encouraging. People just recognize the unfairness; people say that’s just not fair. Some common sense and have policies women sports should be for women in sports should be for men, right?

CHRIS: I agree. So, let’s talk about kind of that commonality theme, right? There’s no arguing that Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler is a Republican, Christian Conservative. However, governing still must happen. Governing means talking to people who don’t necessarily agree with you on everything and working together on things that matter to everyone. Talk about your opponents in this Senate race regarding their willingness to govern. Clearly, you are the grown-up in the room. Someone has to be one to reach across the aisle. How do you feel you stack up against your primary opponents?

VICKY: I will let them talk about their philosophy on that. I just know I look for opportunities where you have common ground and when you can find that, let’s get

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things done. Remember, I work for the people in this State, and they want something done. As we discussed, I co-sponsored the bill to bring back pharmaceutical production from China to America with a Democrat because we’re both on Armed Services Committee. We recognized the threat. We’ ve worked on other things in life, low income and housing tax credits. On the Armed Services Committee and the Agriculture Committee, we work together. There’s a lot of commonalities there trying to get more broadband and high-speed internet both in urban and rural areas, which I’ ve helped pass. We passed three amendments to the last farm and food bill to allow more funding to go to high-speed internet. There are a lot of areas that we can agree on. We should come together and get things done where we can agree without compromising our principles.

CHRIS: This ends part one of this extensive interview with Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler. I pray you can see what I see in this outstanding candidate. A Godly woman of conviction, compassion, and purpose. The Missouri primary is August 2nd, 2022. If you live in Missouri or have friends here, please join me in supporting Vicky Hartzler.

Chris Grahn-Howard with Vicky Hartzler

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