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[cheers and applause] >> thank you. you are fantastic, thank you. [applause] ♪ >> good morning. how are you? are you full on lamb, fries and ice cream and all cheered up and grateful for freedom? yes. thank you for having me. adam invited me to come out and spend the day with a bunch of patriots who love the u.s. of america, and i said, i am all over that! although nobody told me what a lamb fry was until i already ate it. [laughter] a little more disclosure and transparency would be appreciated. i have eaten my fair share of rocky mountain oysters, but my first lamb fries, they weren't

too bad. i will hang out with you guys any day. let's have a honest conversation today, should we? then a few people had any idea who i was two years ago, did you? the first time you heard my name was when the liberals on the national news, elizabeth warren, and rachel maddow -- [crowd booing] -- night after night on the nightly news were attacking me, going after me, calling me reckless, irresponsible, dangerous for the decisions i was making in south dakota. there are a few other names thrown in too, but i will remind them of those at the appropriate time. listen, i want you to know that my people are happy. they are happy because they are free. [applause] one of the reasons i'm here is because adam asked me, i'm also here -- because you have a fantastic sheriff that is

running for governor. do you know that? do you know how amazing he is? you know what a disaster your governor is? yes, what a mess. dear lord. when somebody says you can campaign against that guy has said, i will be there every day of the week if i can. i'm shocked by what he did to you. i'm shocked by what he did to your businesses, your families. in the worst way possible by taking action to crush your economy and the liberties that our founders handed to you. i'm going to tell you a little bit about the decisions i made, what i want you to understand how i grew up first, that explains my thought process. i was raised by a cowboy. my dad was tough. he was almost exactly like john wayne. we do not talk about politics, we lifted them. he expected us as children to be excellent. never taught us to do anything, he just made us do it and if we got it done we did our job, and if we failed we went back and

did it until we did it. he woke up every day by yelling at the stairs, it up, or people die in bed than anywhere else. [laughter] i remember going up the stairs as a little girl and he would tell me, sleep fast. i was like, is that a thing? but, anyways, when i was in college he was killed in an accident, and he was only 49 years old at the time. he was my best friend and i was devastated. and it up quitting college and taking over the operation. within several months we got hit with a letter from the irs that said we owed death taxes. so i remember being 22 years old, trying to figure out how to keep this operation together that was one of the biggest in south dakota, not knowing how i was going to get through the next day, then all of a sudden the government told me because we had a tragedy i know owed to them hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars that i cannot pay. and it made me angry.

people ask how i got involved in government, he was because of that. i started showing up at meetings. i had a family that said we do not complain about things, we fix them. i went to meetings at that time, u.s. senate majority leader was tom daschle. anybody remember tom daschle from south dakota? most people think south dakota is super conservative. it is. it has more republicans than democrats, but it is very populist. want to remind you of the environment i am in, because most people say you will not have a problem. you were going to win easy. you have so many republicans. i will win. i will remind you, i always win. whatever i run for. but -- but i only won my last race for governor by three points against a bernie sanders guy. so that tells you a little bit about the environment of south dakota and the political

environment we are in here in south dakota. i think i did what every other governor in this country did during the pandemic. we all studied the virus, we did our research, we talked to experts, looked at other countries as the virus hit, as he came into the united states, we looked at states, how they were handling their caseload. i think what i did differently was i spend a lot of time with my general counsel, with constitutional attorneys. i wanted to understand what my role was as governor and what authority i had. what authority i did not have. because i believe that when leaders on the government overstep their authority, especially in a crisis, that is when we break this country. i did not want to be the governor who did that. so i will be quick about this, but i will remind everybody that we in south dakota, we are the only state that never once closed a single business, not mandate everything.

never once defined what an essential business was, because i don't believe government has the authority to tell you your businesses nonessential. in fact, we were the only state in the country that when the president offered those elevated unemployment benefits, i said, thank you, mr. president, but we don't need it. our people want to work. [applause] i just worked with the people of south dakota and told him i would trust them. we would use personal responsibility and get through this, and we did. today we have the best economy in the country. our incomes are going up faster than any other state in the entire nation. they have gone up 21% in the last two years. i have less than 800 people in the entire state that are on unemployment today. everybody is working and earning more money.

our kids are outperforming kids from every other state in the classroom because they were in their classrooms. they are outperforming in educational outcomes. we have a aaa credit rating. no corporate income tax, no personal property tax. all we have is a 4.5 cents sales tax and we have revenue coming in because businesses are expanding. tens of thousands of people are moving in, we are thriving, and it is because we did what conservatives believed. we just did it and we have proved it works. so i'm here today just to tell you i can be your story. that can be your story. leadership has consequences. it matters who is in these seats. we for the first time in a long time have the ability to have conversations with people we haven't been able to talk to in a long time. most people panic when they see

people showing up at school board meetings because they think it is unrest. i would tell you, i love it. we have people paying attention and have not been paying attention for a very long time. they lost their businesses and have no idea why or noise exactly what and they are finally going to get engaged. their kids are failing in school because some governor -- government bureaucrat told him they could not be in with their teachers learning. and now they are passionate about getting their liberty back. that is the opportunity we have and i think it is fantastic. the hope is in the republican party. the hope is in conservatives and all of you. i was shocked by how i saw the media use fear to control people. and how liberals used fear to push their agenda. people across this country rolled over and give up their freedoms because the government told him they could not get together at gatherings. they give up their freedom of

assembly because people told -- government told people they cannot go to church. the government is letting certain social media platforms tell people what they can say in cannot say. it is time for every single one of us to remember what our founders gave us, how special it is. the greatest experiment in all of human history. they took the best of civilization from london, to athens, to rome, put it together, and gave us this amazing country that i had the chance to benefit from going up. i could be a little girl and dream of being anything in the world. never once thought i would be the first female governor of south dakota. never once thought that. but i can. i have a little one-year-old granddaughter that i call miss addie that i want her to grow up in their country too. that is why i get up every day. bless me, why do you do this?

i do that for her. i got a little tired of grandparents who kept talking about how amazing it is to be a grandparent. don't you kind of think, give me a break, it can't be that great? it really is. it really is amazing. and, yes, she already has a shotgun, rifle, and a pony. she has it all. she is ready to go. but you need to elect leaders. that is their priority. you do not want leaders who want power. who want to be big deals, walking around with titles, surrounded by detail, you cannot get near them. never seen them at a public event like this. you need adam. you need the sheriff, right? i'm going to always call him the sheriff because i think being in law enforcement is it special. when the rest of the country was melting down and we had riots

and violence, and with people wanting to defund the police, it made me angry. so i did a national marketing campaign to law enforcement officers. i said, if you are in law enforcement and you want to live somewhere people respect you, if you want to live in a community where people wrap their arms around your family, moved to south dakota. in one week i had 900 law enforcement or -- law-enforcement officers raise their hand and say, we want to come to south dakota. since then we have had thousands. if we become the state of law enforcement i'm good with that. we will do that all the time. that would be fantastic. there is three things i want to ask you today to do. because we have this unique opportunity i'm going to ask you to do something i think is how we save our republic. i'm the one is, want you to start saying yes. some of you came here today just to listen to really good speeches, and that will be good.

it is good to hear a speech, it is good to talk about it. people are asking you to do things in this political environment you are uncomfortable with. maybe somebody has been asking you to volunteer for their campaign and you are too busy. you have to say no. i'm going to ask you to stop doing that and start saying yes. somebody is asking you for a check or donation. i want you to double it. make it more. it is time to be invested. we will be good investments. we will pay off. maybe some of you need to run for office. you need to start saying yes. number one, you have been uncomfortable doing something in the past, now is the time for you to say yes. i need you to get over yourselves. quit being offended by everything. we just love to be offended by each other in today's day and age? just get over yourself. i had a pastor years ago that said to me, people are going to throw offenses at you all the

time but you are the one who wants to -- he gets to decide whether you get to pick it up and carry it with you. but then you were the one that is carrying that burden. people for an offense walk right past it and keep going on with your life. we have people in our lives we have quit talking to. you live in a state where you have a lot of division. a lot of people fighting over issues and fighting over one policy when they agree on 80% of the issues that might save our country. i need you to start talking the -- to those people again and start by listening. i married into a family that the majority of them were democrats. then i took their name and ran for office as a republican. can you imagine doing that to them? those poor people? you know what? they still love me and it did not happen because i blew them up at these -- at the thanksgiving day dinner table.

you want to know something else? the majority of them now all republicans. [applause] and it did not happen because i was yelling at them or fighting with them over one issue. it happened because we built relationships, we talked, and eventually like everybody else they figured out i was right. right? so, i'm going to ask you to stop being offended. you have people in your work, in your day-to-day lives and neighborhood, maybe even your church and family who you were not talking to because you have been offended and decided they are a lost cause. i would ask you to start talking to them again. start day asking them questions. the last thing before i leave is, i need you to be happy. i need you to wake up remembering you woke up this morning in the latest country in the entire world, united states of america. we are so incredibly blessed

because of that. we will draw people to us by our optimism. people will want to be around us, because when we passed time with them and see them on the streets they will wonder, why are they happy? have you seen what is going on in the world? you are the hope. you have to show them that what you believe works, and we have proof of it. just look from state to state. this governor is not going to be around long. he has a couple more months and then he is gone, and we have fantastic new leadership. we are going to have a new u.s. senator who is going to stop all of this craziness out of joe biden. it is going to be morning in nevada again, and you are going to be the reason, because you went out there and saved the republic. you so much. say yes, start talking to people, and be happy. god bless you. you have a wonderful day. you for inviting me.

>> c-span's washington journal. everyday we take your calls live on the air on the needs of the day, and we discussed policy issues that impact you. coming up wednesday morning, a former trump administration domestic policy advisor on the new public safety coalition initiative to reduce violent crime and enhance criminal justice reform. then sarah longwell, founder of the republican accountability project, talks about efforts by her group to oppose a future trump political candidacy and higher -- and highlight his role in the generous six capital attack. watch on c-span or c-span now, our free mobile app. join the conversation with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages, or tweets. >> over the past few month, the

january 6 committee held a series of hearings reviewing the findings from its investigation. all week, watch c-span as we look back at the committee hearings, featuring never-before-seen evidence, depositions, and witness testimony on the attack. at the u.s. capitol. on wednesday at 8:00 p.m. eastern, the image of vice president mike pence, security and the capitol,. are shown to the public for the first time. and testimony on the pressure the vice president received from president trump to not certify the results. watch wednesday on c-span or anytime on demand at c-span.org. ♪ >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more, including cox. >> homework can be hard.

but squatting in a diner for internetwork is even harder. if that is where are providing low income students access to affordable internet, so homework can just be homework. >> cox along with these other television providers, giving you a front-row seat to democracy. >> nebraska governor pete ricketts also spoke at the basque fry in nevada. he talked about the gop's approaches to the covid-19 pandemic, and immigration. he also recounted ways is estate worked with the trump administration on those and other issues. [applause] ♪ >> all right. good morning everybody. what a great day we got going on here, right?