Christie Vilsack for Congress

July 19, 2011 Announcement Speech

I want to thank all of you for coming out today. I especially want to thank my husband Tom and my sons Doug and Jess, my daughter-in-law Kate and my grandson Jake for standing with me.

As most of you know, I’ve been on a listening tour of Northwest and North Central Iowa for the past couple of months. I’ve had the privilege of visiting with and talking to hundreds of everyday Iowans in the 39 counties that make up the new 4^th Congressional District.

During these travels and conversations, I’ve been reminded of some lessons that go to the core of who I am. 

Iowa – especially its small cities and rural communities – is a very special place.

I know that because I was born and raised in Mount Pleasant, a small town of 8,000 people surrounded by some of the richest farmland in the world. 

I grew up in a house my parents bought with help from the GI Bill. I grew up surrounded by families of World War II veterans just like us. 

I played with my brothers and neighborhood kids in the 36-acre pasture that was behind our house. Like so many other Iowans, our lives revolved around our school and our church.

And when my mother died of breast cancer two weeks short of my high school graduation, that community embraced me and my dad and my ten-year-old brother. Our friends and neighbors in Mount Pleasant made sure we got through the storm.

I went away to a small college in New York, where I met the man that I wanted to share my life with.

And when I brought Tom Vilsack home to visit, and he went to his first Iowa potluck supper, we both knew that Mount Pleasant was where we wanted to raise our family.

As First Lady of Iowa for eight years, I had the privilege of traveling our state. I visited more than 500 Iowa libraries to promote literacy and early education. And in each small town and rural community, I recognized the same values as Mount Pleasant. I truly feel that each small town in Iowa is MY hometown.

I want my children and grandchildren – yes, I have one grandchild and another on the way – to have the same opportunity to grow and thrive in the Iowa I grew up in – where people know you and care about you and don’t hesitate to help you out.

To make sure that opportunity remains for families like yours and mine, I am announcing my candidacy to be your representative in Congress.

I believe in the future of our small cities and rural communities. As I’ve traveled the 4^th District these past few months, I’ve seen a lot of positive things we can build on.

I am running for Congress because I believe the federal government has a role to play in helping our communities – large and small – survive and prosper. But that role must be focused – and sensible.

Our current federal budget deficit offends me as a child of Iowa. My father was a small-town lawyer who started his practice from scratch. He built his business helping family farmers and preparing tax returns over many years.

My mother was a homemaker who helped my dad during tax time every year.

Like a lot of Iowa families, much of what we ate came from our own garden. If you couldn’t eat it when you picked it, you canned it or froze it. 

So I know the value of a dollar, including the ones we pay in taxes. And it offends me when those hard-earned dollars are wasted or given away to those who don’t need them. 

But it also offends me when some of the wealthiest people in this country and some of our most profitable corporations are not asked to pay their fair share in taxes. It’s like showing up at the potluck without bringing a covered dish. 

Like so many problems our nation is facing today, the answer won’t be found at one extreme or the other. We can’t solve our budget problems with all cuts or all tax increases. The answer lies somewhere in the middle.

In the Midwest, we know compromise isn’t a bad word – we need to be finding more common ground in Washington, not less.

And we cannot break our promise to the senior citizens of our country, who depend on the Social Security and Medicare programs they’ve paid into.

As I traveled the 4^th District, I heard great concern from Iowa seniors about the Medicare changes recently passed by the House of Representatives. One gentleman told me that, at 80 years old, he doesn’t want to start shopping around for his health insurance. 

I firmly believe that we can save Medicare without turning it into a voucher program that costs seniors thousands more each year to get the care they need. And as the representative for this district, I will fight to preserve it.

Another concern I heard from seniors was about the farms and businesses they had built. Many are ready to pass them on, but are worried there won’t be anyone to inherit them. 

This matched the concern I heard from many of our younger people and their parents. They are anxious about the economy and worried about paying for college and finding jobs that will keep them here.

We can’t survive as a state or community if we keep losing our young people – or families who have lived here for years but leave to find opportunity elsewhere.  

Over the course of this campaign, I will lay out my vision of how we can preserve and promote job opportunities across Northwest and north central Iowa. I will be specific about how the federal government can help or hurt in that effort. But I can tell you a few things I already know:

First, we have the hardest working people in the world. This work ethic is part and parcel of being an Iowan. If they can’t find work here, Iowans will go someplace else to find it. We need to give our people the skills required for good jobs today and an opportunity to use them. 

That means we must continue to invest in education.  

I’ve been a teacher for over 30 years, and I see our goals and challenges through the lens of education. From pre-school to community college or a university, education is the key to opportunity and success. Fortunately, education has always been a priority in Iowa. In the global economy, it must be a priority for our nation.

Second, our future growth depends on our ability to make connections. In some cases, that means bringing our towns and businesses closer to a four-lane highway – and finally finishing Highway 20. 

In other cases, it means expanding the ability to market and grow our businesses through access to high-speed Internet. Government can help us forge these connections, which are essential in keeping our businesses and communities alive.

And third, we need to build on the innovations all around us. In every Iowa community I visited during my listening tour, there were exciting developments. Old businesses are being revitalized. New businesses are being created.

In Carroll, I met a family that operates a winery. They’ve added a large facility in the downtown for banquets and celebrations. It’s a small, entrepreneurial business that employs nearly 60 people and contracts with local farmers to grow the grapes for the wines it produces.

In Emmetsburg, I visited a cutting-edge ethanol plant that just received a major loan guarantee from the Department of Energy to expand its operations and create even more efficient fuel. In Galva, they’re creating a cluster of ethanol plants and researching the co-products to develop a higher value feed for cattle and other livestock.

These innovations are occurring not just in our ag sector, but in other businesses, too.

In Forest City, I visited a company that custom-makes small implements. One of their products was just used to pick up large trees and put them in the ground at the 9-11 memorial site in New York City.

Sure, there have been some economic setbacks along the way. But with Iowa spirit and resilience, the people and towns I visited have not let it stop them. 

In Blencoe – in Harrison County – I just visited some Iowa farmers with half their fields underwater because of the historic floods. Despite their recent hardship, they remain undaunted – like their ancestors who settled our state. With some help from the federal government and their own hard work and dedication, they’ll soon be back on their feet and doing God’s work of feeding the world.

In Charles City, where the Winnebago plant shut down, a new company has started hiring workers to manufacture large tires in that same plant.

In Spencer, where their commercial air service moved away, they’re applying to the federal government to use the airfield for testing unmanned vehicles.

All of these ventures will create jobs that won’t be moved because they have roots in Iowa. And government can help them grow and succeed – not by weighing them down with unnecessary rules and regulations, but by helping to supply the infra-structure they need – good roads and high-speed Internet and community colleges producing skilled workers.

But to keep Northwest and north central Iowa thriving, we need to aim even higher.

We have more wind turbines in this district than anyplace in the country outside of Texas. Why can’t some of their 8,000 component parts be made right here in Northwest and North Central Iowa? 

We have servicemen and women returning from deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan – many with strong technical skills.  Why can’t they be trained to service these wind turbines?

We have niche manufacturers able to make custom products for large businesses. Why can’t we extend our highways -- and our information highway -- to help them market their products to the world? 

Achieving these goals will require a partnership between our public and private sectors. I’m running for Congress to help build those partnerships, so we can guarantee the future of Iowa’s communities and all the families who live there. 

And speaking of partnerships, there’s another thing my listening tour taught me. Iowans are sick of the partisanship and finger-pointing that has poisoned our politics and blocked progress.

They want us to be civil in our dealings with each other – the same kind of civility they show to their neighbors.

Now, we have differences in Iowa. But we don’t let them divide us. I like to say that if I didn’t have Republican friends in Mount Pleasant, I wouldn’t have many friends. But even when we have disagreements, we never stop talking to each other. And we know it takes compromise to get important things done.

That’s what Iowans want and expect from our government. They want our leaders in Washington to lower their voices and raise their sights.

I’m not entering this campaign to run AGAINST someone. I’m running FOR something – the idea that we can still work with one another on behalf of the common good.

I want to work with Democrats and Republicans and everybody in between for jobs and opportunity for Iowa workers and financial security for Iowa seniors. I don’t want to score points. I want to make progress – with common-sense ideas and a willingness to compromise to get things done.

You know, my hometown of Mount Pleasant has two highways that intersect, but there’s never been a stoplight at that intersection. To avoid a crash, approaching drivers are forced to slow down and look each other in the eye to avoid a crash.

I think that’s what we need more of in Washington – leaders willing to slow down and talk to each other, regardless of party or ideology. We need leaders willing to work together and to appreciate the other person’s point of view. 

That’s how we’ve always gotten along in Iowa. And that’s how we will make sure that our values endure.

Thank you very much. And I’ll see you on the campaign trail!