We're back with another edition of the Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Sean Fleetwood.
As always, you can email the show at radio at the Federalist dot com,
follow us on Twitter at fdurlst. Make sure to subscribe wherever you download
your podcasts, and the premium version on our website. Today I'm joined by
Andy Roth. Andy is the president of the State Freedomcocus Network. He previously
worked on Capitol Hill for nearly twenty years. I was affiliated with the Club
for Growth. Andy Roth, Welcome to the program. Thanks for having Sean.
Yeah, absolutely, and you guys have been doing a lot of great
work with State Freedom Caucus, especially now with state legislatures being in session.
But before we kind of delve into the more specifics of what's been going on
in some of these states, can you kind of give everyone a ten thousand
foot overview of what is the State freedomco Network, How you guys got started,
what was the inspiration behind the idea? Yeah, so the State Freedom
Caucus Network was created back in December twenty twenty one, but before that,
the House Freedom Caucus, which a lot of your listeners probably know of,
was started in twenty fifteen, and they're the most conservative members of the US
House here in DC. And that business model where like minded conservatives come together
in form a caucus is a great business model. We've seen that play out
up here in DC. Why isn't that happening at the state level, Like,
why aren't there fifty state freedom caucuses? So the State Freedom Caucus Network
launched in December of twenty twenty one, and with the Georgia Freedom Caucus it
was the first one, and then we went to South Carolina, South Dakota,
Illinois, Arizona, on and on. Missouri was our most recent one.
They launched in January of this year. So we have eleven total,
and the goal is to get into all fifty. You know, I joke
that California and Vermont and Hawaii are going to take some time. But every
state deserves one. Everyone every state needs one. I argue that there are
fifty swamps and they're worse than DC. And some people don't believe me when
I say that, but it's true. And the reason why it's true is
that so much attention is paid on DC. Every time you turn on your
TV, you are hearing about Biden, Trump, the war in Ukraine,
inflation and all those things. Are important that people should be paying attention to.
But nobody knows what's happening in Columbia, South Carolina, or in Boise,
Idaho, and really bad things are happening. But the establishment in those
fifty swamps like operating in the dark where there's very little media attention. Most
people don't know who their state rep or their state senator is, so it's
a perfect environment for really bad things to happen. And so we launched the
network to combat that problem. And our job is to just help these conservative
lawmakers and also members that aren't in the Freedom the State Freedom causes, help
recognize what the problem is and fight it and win. Yeah, and I
think you guys did a report with The Daily Wire last year, if I'm
not correct, where you basically broke down every state legislature in the country looking
at these Republicans voting records, and the findings are very astonishing because you know,
most people look at a state like South Carolina, Oh, you have
a Republican governor Republican legislature, so it's got to be a conservative state.
But then you look at the voting record and I think only Hawaii was like
the only GOP you know representatives who had a less conservative voting record than South
Carolina, right they one of the most liberal of Republicans in the country and
kind of dovetailing into South Carolina. There's been a lot of activity going on
there, particularly over this health bill. You know, most people look back
at the COVID pandemic and how horribly it was botched not just by Democrat governors
and governments controlled governments, but also Republicans as well, and so I know
there's been a big battle going on there recently, in recent weeks. I
was hoping you could give our audience an insight into what's been going on there.
So the Daily Wire piece that you're talking about it was a very eye
opening report. Basically, it's said that there are eighteen or nineteen states that
are more conservative than Florida. Because everybody thinks of Florida under Desantus as being
the most conservative state in the country when it comes to enacting good legislation at
the state level, there are eighteen or nineteen states that are technically more red
than Florida, but are nowhere close to performing like Florida. And the reason
why is because liberal Democrats know that they cannot get elected to the state legislature
in a state like South Carolina or Wyoming, so they put an R after
their name, get elected, and then vote like liberal Democrats. And you
mentioned that Hawaii is the most liberal Republicans in the state legislature. South Carolina
is the second most liberal. The legislature is stacked with liberal Democrats who have
and are after their name, and so South Carolina just is not capable of
passing the kind of things that are happening in Florida. And the Health of
Czar bill, what you're talking about is the latest example of this. The
supporters of this bill, including the governor and all the liberal Democrats and the
legislature, they say, oh, we're consolidating government, we're making it more
efficient, we're going to streamline the process. But what they're trying to do
is consolidate all of the power into a Health of Czar, a doctorauci,
so to speak. In South Carolina, they tried to ram this bill through
and our South Carolina Freedom Caucus on the very last day of session and they
have a hard constitutional stop at five pm on a specific day where all legislation
has to stop. Our South Carolina Freedom Caucus. They used a procedural motion
to basically just block the bill, and so it died on the vine and
it was a great victory for conservatives. The uniparty in South Carolina came out
and whined about how the South Carolina Freedom Caucus was harming South Carolinians by doing
this, and it was just you know, glossary stuff. And so it
was a great victory. But now we just found out a couple of days
ago that the governor's going to use his power with a veto session. He's
got a veto TICKI tech bills here and there, and so there's going to
be a veto session coming up and they're going to try and jam this built
through again. So the fight's not over. And I know that there's been
like this has been going on for years, this kind of activity. I
think back in twenty twenty two in the primary season, you had a couple
incumbents that lost to Freedom Caucus backed candidates. And then later that year,
when the session for Legislatures starting to roll in, the Republican Conference was like,
okay, well we're going to institute which is basically like a loyalty pledge,
like you have to pledge that oh, you can't run against their campaign
against a fellow GOP incumbent. And if I recall correctly, the Freedom Caucus
was like, no, no, we're not doing that, and they got
kicked out of the conference. That's exactly it. I mean, it was
absurd on its face with this loyalty pledge said and basically said that Republicans can't
campaign against each other. And one of the Freedom Caucus members he raised his
hand in the private meeting and said, what does campaign mean, because that's
a very vague term. Does it mean that I cannot take a picture of
the vote board on the House floor and tweet it out just as a matter
of fact, like, here's how your representative voted on this bill that did
X, Y and Z. Is that campaigning against our fellow Republicans? And
they said yes. And so when they heard that then they're like, well,
we're not going to sign this. And so they summarily got kicked out
of the House Republican conference in South Carolina. And it, frankly, it's
the best thing that's ever happened in the Freedom Caucus. So now they don't
have to listen to these fake Republicans wind to them in private meetings every week,
so it's great. Yeah, and this kind of retaliation I know isn't
necessarily exclusive to South Carolina. It's something you're seeing places. Yeah. Do
you have these freedom caucuses the more recent I think it's Missouri you mentioned earlier
being your kind of newest freedom Caucus. I know at the beginning of the
session that there was some back and forth between members of the Freedom Caucus and
leadership because the Freedom Caucus wanted leadership to obviously prioritize conservative legislation shocker, I
know, but leadership was just not having it in the President of the Senate,
Caleb Rowden, basically retaliated against them and as an active retaliation, gave
them the farthest parking spots away from the Capitol. I know that particularly.
It was worse than that by the way. They lost their committee chairs,
they lost their parking spots, some of their staff got docked ten thousand dollars
and their pay just because they worked for Freedom Caucus members, and there was
even a threat that they were going to take away their furniture. And the
emotions got so heated that one of the leaders, Sinny McLoughlin, threatened to
expel or try to expel one of our Missouri Freedom Caucus members out of his
office, like denying the wishes of his voters. She wanted to kick I'm
literally out of the legislature, and she later apologized for that because she can
control her emotions. But when they punish our members, it's very swift and
very brutal, and they think that it works. And that's the best part
is that our Freedom Caucus members are just like the folks up here in Congress.
You can punish them all day long, but that will only make them
stronger. And I know the week that we're recording, this is the last
week of the Missouri session and the issue of initiative petition reform, and it
has been a big issue that the Freedom Cock has been trying to get done
since really the beginning of the session, and leadership, particularly in the Senate,
has been very resistant to that. Do you have any updates about what's
been going on there if you think they're going to get that done by the
time session ends this week? Yeah. So when people hear initiative petition reformed,
they're like, I don't know what that is, and I don't care.
It's not taxes or abortion or spending or anything like that. But it's
actually a big deal in Missouri. Basically, the left, with their very
deep pockets, they know that they can't undo abortion bands. They know that
they can't raise the minimum wage. They know they can't pass ring choice voting
through the legislature because it's too red, even with a bunch of fake Republicans
there, they know they can't pass that stuff. So they want to pass
it through the ballot initiative process so that they can put it on the ballot.
And they've done that in Ohio, They've done that all over the place,
and our Freedom Caucus said, well, we want to protect the voters
right to vote on this stuff, but the way that things get on the
ballot is not fair. The left will just go into very liberal cities like
Saint Louis or Kansas City and get the necessary signatures to get something on the
ballot, and our folks are saying, well, what about the rest of
the state. You need to have some signatures and proportionally throughout the state in
order to get something on the ballot. This is a GOP priority of the
state. Even the fake Republicans like Caleb Browdon and Cindy O'Laughlin. They have
said over and over that this is a priority, but it's just lip service
and they've never done anything about it. Well after the Missouri Freedom Caucus was
launched, they started flexing their muscles saying, no, we are going to
pass this. This is a priority of ours. Our party has agreed that
this is a big deal, so let's do it. And they basically said
no, and so our Freedom Caucus filibustered on and on and on. Most
recently, they had a forty one hour filibuster. And this is a real
life filibuster, not like what you see in the US Senate. They're actually
standing, they're speaking, they're reading from the Bible. They're doing everything to
just gum up the works. And they set the state record for the longest
filibuster forty one hours. It concluded at three thirty am. They concluded the
filibuster with a deal with leadership that it would get taken up this week.
And it remains to be seen. Like leadership, they don't want to be
seen as breaking their promise, but they are trying every little ticky tack thing
that they can to try to undermine it. And so we'll find out by
the end of well the seventeenth I yess it is. We'll find out by
then if it passes or not. But we've finally taken the fight to them
and expose them for who they are. And so frankly, win or lose.
I mean, we all want to win, but even if we lose,
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dot com. Yeah, and again, the states we're talking about, they're
not like closely contested, considered battleground states. These like South Carolina, Missouri.
These are deep red states where you have all Republicans statewide elected officials.
And yet the problems that you're having is like if you're fighting another party,
and in many ways you are fighting it a completely different party, because,
as you've been talking about, the establishment has just become so entrenched. They're
so used to not having to answer to anyone, and that's just allowed them
to essentially glide by by doing the bare minimum if that, and kind of
advance these what we would consider liberal leftist policies under the guise of essentially being
Republicans. Yeah, I mean the UNI Party in any red state, their
number one job is to carry water for the special interests and move the money
to where it needs to go to pay them off. And the best example
I give is in Wyoming. It's just ridiculous. I mean, the Wyoming
is technically the most red state in the Union. It's brick red. Trump
won more there in any other state. The Wyoming House has fifty seven Republicans,
it's only five Democrats. I mean, think about that. Fifty seven
to five like that, that's not a supermajority, that's like an ultra platinum
gold supermajority. And yet they can't pass school choice, they can't ban transgender
surgeries on minors, they can't do all sorts of stuff. And it goes
back to my previous point, which is that there are a lot of liberal
Democrats who put in R after their name and deceive voters. And so if
you look at the fifty seven to five, when you actually look at their
voting records, it's twenty six conservatives to thirty six liberals. So liberals are
in charge of the state legislature in the reddest state in the Union. And
I'd like to say that that's an anomaly in Wyoming's just different. But it's
happening in South Carolina. Like we mentioned, it's happening in Wyoming, it's
happening in Illinois, it's happening in Montana to a varying degree. And it
used to happen in Louisiana until we got a Louisiana Freedom Caucus there, and
they've turned things completely around down there, and I believe that it's one of
the most underreported stories Louisiana is because they now have a fairly conservative governor and
Jeff Landry. They have a full throttled, well oiled Louisiana Freedom Caucus that's
on the same page as the governor, and they're passing conservative policies left and
right down there, and so I think they could take a run at Florida
for being the most conservative state. And it's great to finally see that happen
in Louisiana. I believe the constitutional amendment that was recently passed banning what we
call Zuckbux, the private election funding that was spearheaded by a member of the
Freedom Focus, wasn't it Yeah? And we passed that. We closed the
primaries in Louisiana, unfortunately just for Congress. But the US Senator down there,
Bill Cassidy, Big Rhino, his days are number now, I think
because if he's going to run for reelection in twenty six, I believe he's
going to have to be in a closed primary rather than the jungle primary that
they used to have where Republicans and Democrats are run together on the same ballot.
So we were able, they were able to pass that. They're passing
all kinds of labor union reforms down there, no paycheck protection or card check
or pay tech protection. They're doing all sorts of stuff. They're trying to
pass school choice. They're ramming through bills left and right banning transgender surgeries on
minors, which got vetoed by the Democrat governor last year. It's really fun
to see. And you mentioned Wyoming earlier. I know that this pass session
was a would consider to be like non legislative budget session, which means like
any non budgetary items bills require a two thirds majority to kind of bring to
the floor like bring up for consideration. And as you mentioned, there are
only five Democrats in the House, and so you'd expect like, oh,
we can get a lot of priorities done. I know the Secretary of State
there, Republican Chuck Gray, he requested that the legislature pass a Zuckbus ban
ahead of the twenty twenty four election, And for our listeners, just as
a recap, during the twenty twenty election, you had Mark Zuckerberg pour hundreds
of millions of dollars into left wing nonprofits which basically funneled these moneys into local
election offices to push Democrat backed voting policies. Of course, most of that
went to Democrat municipalities, making it a Democrat get out the vote operation.
And so Chuck Gray said, hey, can we get this done ahead of
the twenty twenty four election to make sure this doesn't happen in Wyoming, And
of course it goes to the legislature and it goes to committee, and basically
what ended up happening as a member of the committee introduced emotion to basically kill
it, and he tacitly admitted that he was doing this in retaliation for what
the Freedom Caucus was doing and kind of stopping a lot of the bloated spending
that was going on. So it's just remarkable that even in a state like
Wyoming, you still can't even get the most basic of conservative policies passes because
of this gridlock that's instituted by the establishment. Yeah. And the good news
though, is that the tide is turning. Their liberal speaker announced his retirement
because I think the heat was just too much for him. A lot of
his lieutenants are either running for the state senator or retiring as well. And
like I said, instead of fifty seven to five, it's twenty six Conservatives
to thirty six liberals. All the Conservatives have to do is pick up five
seats and then they're in charge of the Wyoming House and their primaries are coming
up in August, and I think they've got a real shot at doing it.
And it's only because the Wyoming Freedom Caucus has been very vocal and very
loud about what they've been doing and educating the voters, because like I said,
you know, most people don't know who their state rep is or their
state senator. But now they're finally seeing that, hey, there's that Freedom
Caucus in DC. That's really awesome. I just learned that we have one
in Wyoming, and now they're like, now we have somebody to fight for
and somebody to support, and so I think we've got to win that are
back in Wyoming, and I think we could be successful. But even if
we aren't, the fact that we're just exposing them and forcing them to defend
their lousy policies is almost a victory in and of itself. And that's precisely
what we're trying to do. And it's something that I say all the time,
is that when we win, we win, and when we lose,
we kind of win too. But we are running out of time. I
mean, the countries in dire straits right now, and I think that because
of the polarization in DC, I don't think that if we're going to win
back this country, we're going to be able to do it in d C.
I mean, we need the House Freedom Caucus for sure, to to
be the last line of defense in Congress. But I think if we're going
to take back this country, we've got to do at the same level.
And our solution is to create freedom caucuses in the States to do that.
Yeah, and I think you guys have done a really good job, you
know, raising awareness, and you guys you mentioned, you know, making
noise about it, and I think that's the biggest key because everyday Americans and
I'm not saying this, you know, to knock them or anything. But
they have lives, they have jobs, they have you know, family stuff
going on, so they don't have necessarily the bandwidth to pay attention to every
single thing. But I think when you make noise about issues going on in
you know, their state or local government, it really does make them more
aware and more likely to get involved. Because the media apparatus, particularly around
DC, is so center focused on what's going on in Washington and so that's
what most people are focused on. And meanwhile, you have your state government
where you have the power to essentially push back against a lot of the federal
tyranny that's been happening in recent years. But you know that doesn't really necessarily
that's not the first thing most people think of when they think of government.
And I think you guys have done a really great job about focusing in on
these state and local issues and giving people that idea and planting the seed that,
oh, I do have the power to push back. There is a
mechanism for me to use to actually have a voice in my government. Yeah,
And it's kind of weird because you know, inflation is obviously a big
problem and that's affecting everybody's pocketbook. The war in Ukraine is a big deal,
but people don't quite understand how that's impacting their family specifically. But when
you look at it, what happens in the state capitals directly affects everybody's lives,
especially families. If you think about it, what's happening with the school
choice movement, when you think about, you know, the gender identity garbage
that's being taught in our schools, when you think about the transgender ban on
surgeries, you know, and then you've got abortion is now a state issue
because of the Dobs decision. And then just think about all the COVID mandates
that occurred a couple of years ago that was because of state government doing that
stuff. And so when you think about the things that directly affect you and
your family, it's happening in the state capitals, and people don't quite recognize
that. And so we're just trying to bring awareness to that fact, telling
people you have to pay attention about what's going on in your state capital.
You have to find out who your state rep is, who your state senator
is. You have to find out if there's a freedom caucusing in your state,
and if there is, you should support them and if you don't have
a freedom Caucus in your state, you should call up your state rep and
say, why aren't you part of a state freedom caucus and just force those
conversations so that when they meet in those state legislatures and make very big decisions
on the issues we just talked about, you now are making them accountable for
it. And even in states like Florida, where you have a solid governor
who is advancing conservative priorities on a regular basis, there's no freedom Caucus in
Florida because I think most people are like, oh, well, we have
DeSantis and a yes, he's doing all the work, So why do we
even need a Florida Freedom Caucus? But Rona Santis is not going to be
governor of Florida forever. And I think the advantage and the really good thing
about the state Freedom Couse network is you guys create that permanent infrastructure that goes
beyond a governor or a House speaker majority leader in the Senate, that it's
always going to be there to push back against any funny business that leadership is
trying to pass. Yeah. Well, I mean the Freedom Caucus brand is
a great brand. I mean, I think it's one of the best in
politics. And so if somebody knows that there is a State Freedom Caucus there,
it's going to live in perpetuity. I mean, it's members are going
to retire, run for another office, get turned out, do all sorts
of things, but the institution itself, the State Freedom Caucus. Our hope
is that these live in perpetuity to always be that conservative north star that the
voters can look to. And you're right about Florida. I mean, it
pains me that we don't have one there because DeSantis isn't going to be there
forever. The lawmakers down there are not as conservative as people think. They
had been following him just because he's such a powerful force. But that's going
to end if it hasn't kind of already, and I think that there are
some signs that it has. And so Florida desperately needs one, and there
are countless other states that absolutely should have one and they don't because of this
problem we keep talking about, which is that liberal Republicans put in R after
their name, get elected and then behave like liberal Democrats. It is such
a problem happening in so many states that we've got to combat it and we've
got to do it now. And you mentioned being that north star, and
I think a lot of it boils down to a leadership problem. If you
don't have that strong leadership there, then nothing's really going to get done.
You know, the legislators in Florida, you know, you said, they're
not as conservative as what most people think they are, and they're really just
going along with the Santis because he has kind of taken the reins and if
you go against him, then it makes it look like you're siding with the
Democrats, which in a lot of cases they are. But just having that
leadership is so key, and I think that's what's so lacking, not it's
just at the state level, but the national level as well as a strong
leadership to advance conservative policies, to talk about them in a common sense way,
to relate them to voters. And I think members of the Freedom Caucuss
have done a really good job kind of exposing the fallacies and the GPS establishment,
not just not advancing conservative policies, but just kind of sitting back and
watching the country burn in front of them. Yeah, there is a structural
problem to this too, which is that most people don't know but the state
lawmakers are part time for the most part. There's places like Pennsylvania and California
and maybe one or two others they're year round. But like in Wyoming,
you know, they're in session for two months and then for the other ten
months they're back home with their full time job and their families. But think
about it. I mean, the governor in Wyoming's full time year round,
The lobbyists are full time year round. The leadership, the woke agencies that
run government, they're all full time. And so who's mind in the store
basically when the session is out nobody. And so what we'd say is that
we want to help lawmakers go from part time lawmakers to a full time freedom
caucus. So some of our best work has been out of session. The
South Carolina Freedom Caucus, they shut down a transgender clinic just by exposing it,
and there was no bill to be considered, there was no vote to
be taken. They just made a lot of noise out of session. And
so the Medical University of South Carolina shut down their transgender clinic and fired their
lead doctor just because of the pressure they got from the South Carolina Freedom Caucus.
And in Illinois, we have an Illinois Freedom Caucus, believe it or
not, deep blue seat, a deep blue state, and they were able
to shut down an abortion clinic before it could even open because they were able
to expose it and alert the voters about what was happening. And they did
that out of session. In Wyoming, we found out that the Department of
Corrections in their bylaws allowed biological men to be housed in the female prison.
The Wyoming Freedom Caucus put out a press statement saying, what what is this
craziness? And within twenty four hours they changed their policy. This was all
done out of session and it was just because conservative lawmakers raised the flag and
said, wait, this is really bad, let's make some change. And
so that's the really exciting part. I mean, when we got involved in
this, we knew that there would be some opportunities out of session, but
nothing like we've seen. And so we are really bringing the heat to the
establishment. In the fifty states or in the eleven states were in now but
year round, just three hundred and sixty five days to twenty four to seven,
just all the time. And that's one of the best choice of this
job. And you said, you're in eleven states. What states would you
say are looking good for establishing new state freedom caucuses. I know in Texas
recently they just had their primaries and a lot of incumbents went down or headed
to runoffs, and that was partially, I think due to involvement by the
Governor Greg Abbott, who kind of stepped in and, you know, said,
oh, you're not going to pass school choice, well, then we're
going to endorse you your opponent. So what states are looking fairly good for
new freedom I have to be a little bit coy on that, just because
of the confidential conversations I'm having with various lawmakers. But our hope is that
we can get three or four more this year, and they're not necessarily the
states you think about. I do want to talk about Texas, though,
because I think it's sort of it's a it's a it's a sign of how
things are changing. You're right that. I mean, we did not have
a Texas Freedom Caucus there because there weren't enough conservatives, but the governor decided
to pick a fight on the school choice and the Texas House Speaker. This
is another one of those crazy things, and it reinforces my view that the
fifty swamps are worse than DC. But the Texas Speaker indoor put Democrats as
committee chairs. Like the Texas House is fully Republican, but he thought it
would be a good idea to have Democrats as committee chairs. And so when
you wonder why school choice hasn't passed in Texas, it's because until recently,
a Democrat was in charge of the Education Committee. When you wonder why business
regulations aren't being slashed left and right, it's because a Democrat was in charge
of the REGs Committee or the Business and Commerce Committee, and so exposing that
is absolutely vital. And what the governor has done, the Lieutenant Governor,
the AG, a small handful of conservative lawmakers like Brian Harrison and Tony Tenderholt.
They've absolutely exposed it. And they just wiped the rhinos in the Prime
Mary's in March, and they do have some runoffs coming up in late May
to kind of finalize a lot of the races, and including the House Speaker
who's fighting for his life and I believe will likely lose later this month.
But if all of that happens in Texas, you're going to see rhinos all
across the country. Rethink what they're doing. And they'll whine about it,
they'll fight about it, but at some point they're going to have to accommodate
and say, you know, I'm a fake Republican. I'm a liberal Democrat
with an R after my name. But if I want to keep staying in
office, I may have to, you know, start pushing some conservative policies
even though I don't agree with them. But you're seeing the governor in Iowa
fight against incumbents on school choice. You're seeing a lot of fake Republicans side
with the Democrats in Ohio and getting penalized for it. Like, you're starting
to see this more and more, and I think the tide is definitely in
our favor. And so and then you kind of touched on this a little
bit earlier. You know, how can people support you? What's the best
way that they can go about getting a freedom caucus in their own state.
Is there a certain person with your organization they can reach out to, or
you know, just reaching out to different lawmakers in the legislature. Yeah,
great question. So go to Statefreedomcaucus dot org. We've got a map there
that shows where we have a freedom caucus. If you are fortunate enough to
live in a state that has a Freedom Caucus, I would absolutely encourage you
to reach out to one of the members and just get plugged in. Each
one of our freedom caucuses has a newsletter, so you can at least get
an update every once in a while, but I would go the extra mile
even for them that I would find out who your state Rep is and ask
them why they are or aren't in the Freedom Caucus. Just get more involved
about what's going on in your state. If you live in a state that
doesn't have one, then you just got to like find out why. And
just the first thing is just called your state Rep and state Senator and say
what's going on there. It's no longer an excuse for state Rep to say,
oh, I didn't know about this, and you know, oh that's
interesting, maybe I'll look into it. We have reached out to every state
and made ourselves available and say if you're interested in this, come talk to
us, and we're happy to help. There are some states, I'll mention
this quickly. There are some states like Alabama and Tennessee that are so red
that you would think you would think that they could start a freedom caucus.
But We've talked to folks there, and the institutional rot is so bad that
we can't cobble together even two or three lawmakers in Tennessee and Alabama because they
are so bad and so so for the listeners if they encounter, you know,
if they live in Tennessee or Alabama, they've got a tough task in
front of them to try and change things. But you know, in Virginia,
Colorado, you know, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, even North Dakota,
there are still plenty of opportunities for us to do something. And I'll
tell you what, I think New England has a real shot at getting a
few freedom causes. I think that there's some really good folks in Rhode Island.
I think there's some in Maine. New Hampshire's got a great system up
there. It's a little bit wacky because they've got so many state reps up
there, but there's a great opportunity there. I firmly believe we'll be in
more states in New England than in places like Tennessee and Alabama. But all
that is to say, go to our upside at Statefreedomcocus dot org. We've
got our own newsletter find out what's going on in your state and you can
find out more. Yeah, it's a great newsletter. I subscribe to it.
Yeah, gives a lot of great information. So yeah, you guys
again, you guys have been doing great work. I'm very excited to see
what you guys have planned for the future. And best of luck to you.
Yeah. Let me add two more things. We're pretty vocal on Twitter.
I my handle is at Andy Roth and you can follow me on there.
But also our director of communications, Greg Price, is a is a
Twitter master. He's got hundreds of thousands of followers. I think his handle
is Greg underscore Price at eleven. So Greg Price is his name. Greg
underscore Price eleven is his Twitter handle, So follow him on there as well.
Yeah, Greg's a great follow Whenever something happens in the political world,
it's like someone says something stupid, I just go to Greg's Twitter because I
know I'm going to find the video there. Well, and that's the thing
is these state fights, these little skirmishes that happen all over the country.
Gregg's job is to try and take those little fights and blow them up into
national stories. And I know the Federalist has done a great job at helping
us expose that as well. So he's a great asset and he's a key
part of what we do. Awesome. Yeah, and thank you again so
much for being on the podcast. And you've been listening to another edition of
the Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Sean Fleetwood. We'll be back with more soon.
Until then, be lovers of freedom and anxious for the fray.