Campaign Kick-Off Speech

Last week, I joined over a hundred supporters to launch my re-election campaign with a rally at the Topeka Statehouse.  Thanks so much to all of you who attended!
 
In case you weren't able to join us last week, here's the prepared text of my announcement speech.  A video will follow soon!

- Nancy
 
 
It's an honor to join you this afternoon.  What an incredible crowd - what an honor.
 
It's a particular privilege to have the support of Michael Massey and Captain Miller.  Working for you in Congress has been an extraordinary experience, and constituent service is the best part of the job.  Thank you for coming, and thanks for letting me represent you in Congress.
 
In American history, we've had quiet times.
 
We've had times when government ran effectively, when policy triumphed over politics, when everyday citizens could afford to sit back, focus on their jobs and their families, and let Washington run itself.
 
We've had quiet times in American history.  But these are not quiet times.
 
Today, our country is hurting due to the negligence, the incompetence, the corruption, and the blind partisanship of those we trusted to lead.
 
These are times that demand all of us to get involved.  America needs change... but not just any change.
 
We need the right kind of change - the change that Kansas brought Congress in 2006.
 
When Kansans looked at Congress two years ago, we saw a branch of government shattered beyond recognition.  The culture of corruption ran deep, earmarks ran amok, and our veterans had been abandoned.
 
When we look at Congress today, too much remains the same.  Washington is still a very messed up place.  It didn't get this messed up overnight, and we can't fix it overnight either.
 
But we can see glimmers of hope.  Kansans have stopped accepting that Washington is broken.  We've started demanding a new direction.
 
And we're beginning to get it.
 
A few years ago, corruption not only was rampant in Washington - it was richly rewarded.  Members of Congress who committed bribery, embezzlement, mail fraud, and other felonies still received a lavish pension.
 
Can you believe it?  American taxpayers funded the retirements of felons.  You paid $126,000 a year to Representative Dan Rostenkowski, who stands convicted of embezzlement.  Can you believe it?
 
That was the way Washington worked for decades.  For decades, nobody stood up and said, "This is absurd.  This is broken.  We need a new direction."
 
But during my first month in office, I wrote a bill to strip the pensions of crooked politicians.  That bill is now the law of the land.
 
That's the right kind of change.
 
A few years ago, earmarks were out of control in Washington.  They had exploded by a factor of ten in just a decade.  Billions of taxpayer dollars were wasted each year on ridiculous projects like the "bridge to nowhere."  Worst of all, the public never knew who had requested what earmark.
 
It was a broken system with zero transparency, zero accountability.  It was also nothing new.  Generations of leaders had complained about the problem - but I was among the first in history to release my earmark requests to the public.
 
That's the right kind of change.
 
A few years ago, America's veterans were low priority on Capitol Hill.  In fact, veterans were no priority at all.  The VA was underfunded.  VA hospitals were understaffed.  Soldiers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan found themselves tangled in a broken system.
 
After so many decades of neglect, some veterans wondered if anything would ever change.
 
No longer.  Since I was sworn into office, Congress has passed 18 billion dollars in new VA health care funding.  Veterans right here in Topeka are actually seeing a difference.  There's a long way to go, but it's already easier to see a doctor, easier to seek care.
 
And in Congress, I wrote a law to abolish the so-called "Soldier Tax."  Next year, my bill will cut taxes for 150,000 military families.
 
Not only was this the right thing to do - it was the right kind of change.
 
Now, we can't afford to pretend that Washington has turned around on a dime.  Washington isn't perfect.  It isn't good.  In fact, it's pretty darned awful.  And believe me, I'm as frustrated as you are.
 
Too many politicians are too frightened to speak a phrase that hasn't been poll-tested, too terrified to cast a vote that might look bad in an attack ad.  And frankly, I think we've all had enough.
 
We've had enough of politicians handing out our tax dollars to Big Oil.  It's time to hold Big Oil's feet to the fire:  to demand that they immediately launch domestic drilling, that they use the 68 million acres of land they already control.
 
We've had enough of Washington sitting idly by as the immigration crisis boils over.  We have 12 million illegal immigrants in this country, and the time has long since come to enforce our laws.  We must give employers the tools they need to know who is here legally, and we must hold employers accountable.
 
We've had enough of politicians saying one thing about taxes and doing another.  We need to make permanent the middle-class tax cuts - the child tax credit and the marriage penalty relief.  We need tax credits for Kansas families who are taking care of elderly parents.  We need to cut taxes on college tuition, and we need to make it easier for small businesses to take the home office deduction.
 
The middle class works hard in Kansas, and we deserve a Congress that works hard for us.  We've had enough infighting, enough partisanship, and that's why I'm running for re-election:  because Congress needs the right kind of change.
 
We need leaders with courage and guts.  You don't fix Congress by giving in to lobbyists or rolling over before Big Oil.  You fix Congress by working hard, by holding yourself and everyone around you to the highest standards of transparency and accountability.
 
You fix Congress by sometimes challenging people, sometimes saying "no," and always standing up for your constituents.
 
We can only fix Congress together, through our unending, unwavering efforts.  We can only succeed if we stand up together and demand better.
 
Two years ago, the people of the great state of Kansas called for a new direction in Washington, D.C.  If some folks in Washington didn't get the message, then come this Election Day, we'll say it even louder!
 
Thank you very much.

Announcement Speech from Nancy Boyda on Vimeo.