Jenny Beth sits down with an old friend Georgia State Representative Charlice Byrd who also Chairs the State Freedom Caucus in Georgia. Charlice is a staunch conservative who often stands alone for what she believes to be right in the Georgia State Legislature. Tune in to hear some of her experiences, how she has defended President Trump on the state level, and her tips for what it takes to run for office.
Jenny Beth sits down with an old friend Georgia State Representative Charlice Byrd who also Chairs the State Freedom Caucus in Georgia. Charlice is a staunch conservative who often stands alone for what she believes to be right in the Georgia State Legislature. Tune in to hear some of her experiences, how she has defended President Trump on the state level, and her tips for what it takes to run for office.
Twitter/X: @charlice_byrd | @jennybethm
Website: https://charlicebyrd.com/
Charlice Byrd (00:00):
We need transparency more than ever. When we are talking about election integrity, it's one of the rights that people fought and died for and it should be taken care of and we should be talking about all of the integrity that goes with an election and we are not. It's concerning because so many of our leaders are failing to do their job.
Narrator (00:22):
Keeping our republic is on the line and it requires Patriots with great passion, dedication, and eternal vigilance to preserve our freedoms. Jenny Beth Martin is the co-founder of Tea Party Patriots. She's an author of filmmaker and one of time magazine's most influential people in the world, but the title she is most proud of is Mom to Her Boy, girl Twins. She has been at the forefront fighting to protect America's core principles for more than a decade. Welcome to the Jenny Beth Show,
Jenny Beth Martin (00:54):
Charlie Spur. Thank you so much for being with me today.
Charlice Byrd (00:57):
Thank you for having me. I look forward to our conversation.
Jenny Beth Martin (01:00):
I do too. I'm so excited to have you. We go back so long working on elections really since both of us moved to Cherokee County, Georgia, and you have a lot of experience with election integrity related issues personally that I want to talk about today. And then also you're part of the Georgia Freedom Caucus. We interviewed Andy Roth before and I just think it's really important that you talk about what you're doing in Georgia and how you're trying to make a difference with conservative values.
Charlice Byrd (01:35):
Absolutely. The election integrity is very important to all of us and back in 2004 when I started running, we had an election and it was the primary election. There were two other people in it. Two of us came out as the top winners. Correct, thank you.
Jenny Beth Martin (02:02):
The top vote contenders or whatever.
Charlice Byrd (02:03):
Yes. So we had to run in a runoff. During the runoff. There was an incident in Cherokee County, there was actually a shooting and my opponent claimed that it kept people from going to vote. She took it to a court. The judge overturned the election, which you had won by four votes, four votes, four votes. So that's why it's important for everyone to go and cast their ballot. After that, I had to run all over again and start from scratch knocking doors. That particular election probably knocked on 15,000 plus doors, so we had the runoff and the second time I won, I had 132 votes beating her because of all of the hoopla of going through a court system, overturning my election, starting from scratch again. And I think the people of the community were very upset because it meant more taxpayer dollars that we were spending on election integrity, which of course is important.
Jenny Beth Martin (03:09):
It is important and what I was in the courtroom as you went through all of that, I was there every single day because we'd gone door to door together every single day before that. But what I learned during that time, and one of the things that was so important is that your opponent brought forward, you won by four votes and she brought forward 12 or 20 people who were witnesses who said they had some sort of problem voting, and she was not in any way contending that there was fraud. So there was no evidence of fraud. That wasn't what the claim was. But in Georgia, I think the code is OCGA 21 dash two dash 5 22 may be wrong, but I think that's what it is. It says that an election may be contested due to fraud misconduct or irregularities that cast doubt on the outcome of the election.
(04:03):
And she was looking at irregularities that casted doubt on the outcome of the election and she brought forward 12 or 20 people, but 12 is greater than four, and they all said that they had problems and the judge wouldn't let them tell how they would've voted so they could have voted for you, but that was irrelevant. It was just that they had a problem voting and it was more than the margin of vote difference between the two Reeses, and so he overturned the election according to state law, and now we have people in Georgia who are indicted for challenging an election under the same thing that happened to you. It's just crazy and I think that it's applying the same law and it's legal to contest an election.
Charlice Byrd (04:51):
We have to remember now we are living under a two justice system and it is, I guess I would consider it's Republicans against Democrats, the left or the right, and they are challenging those types of things in the court system, which I believe is bogus. It is a witch hunt, all those sorts of things, but yet nothing's being done about that particular election and we're still talking 2020 and we are about to take on the 2024 election, and it is very disconcerting because there are still many people that are concerned about how their vote and how it will be counted. Are we going to have fair and honest elections and we have to sort that out immediately.
Jenny Beth Martin (05:39):
That's right, and there were a lot of problems in Georgia and other states around the country. We've worked to make sure that we've got poll watchers in place in Georgia and we urge everyone to step up and actually be a poll worker to work the poll rather than being a poll watcher, but if they can't work it, then be a poll watcher to get involved. But there are broader issues like in Georgia, we've got a bit of a problem right now with which we're talking about with the United States Postal Service and the delivery because they've changed what all has gone on with that. That better than me explain that.
Charlice Byrd (06:18):
It is my understanding that they wanted to build a new facility and they have placed it in Palmetto. Palmetto is in the airport south area of Fulton County. It has been built. They've put all the equipment inside that building. However, nothing is working at this point. It is my understanding that they are going to shut that down for now because if you can't have mail that is processed in a timely manner, how are we ever going to get absentee ballots through the mail process?
Jenny Beth Martin (06:52):
Yeah, it's very, very concerning and it's good news to know that they're doing something to revert back to the old system or to make sure that mail is processing properly and then we've got to make sure people know how to deal with it, especially in Georgia that there is an issue, so they know how there are alternative methods to return their absentee ballot if they have to vote absentee or to go vote early. We have three weeks of early voting in Georgia.
Charlice Byrd (07:17):
That's correct. I mean, I remember the days when there was 45 days of early voting, and I was concerned at that time because the Constitution said you're supposed to have one day of voting, and if it means giving everyone a holiday, that's what we should go back to so that we know exactly who is voting instead of the whole absentee process or having excuses of why you are not going to show up at the poll in person. I'm all about in-person voting, so I mean we continue to work on those things at the state level, but we opened a Pandora's box when we started the boxes in various locations, drop boxes, and to me, a Dropbox all these years was called the Mailbox, and so now we have all these drop boxes. The good news is that at least they're under surveillance now with cameras, and so we actually know how many people are coming in there and dropping their ballots off. Me personally, I am still against the drop boxes, but I'm only one in maybe a handful at the Capitol
Jenny Beth Martin (08:23):
And then at the Capitol this past legislative session, there were changes to election law. What happened with that?
Charlice Byrd (08:32):
Everyone has been discussing this for years of what they would like to see. One of 'em was getting rid of the QR code because no one really understood what did it say? You can't test it to know what it states on that QR code. We also made the decision to put a watermark on paper. That was another one request from a lot of Board of Elections people in the community because they were concerned once again about their ballot. So those are a couple of things that we have done. We also said that any citizen who had a concern about the election that they would have the ability to, whether it's a lawsuit or challenge it themselves, which is also a good thing. I'm sure there would've been a lot of other people that would've liked to challenged that particular box or the boxes that everybody brought in. So we're moving in the right direction. The bad news is the what we have done this year and what the governor has signed does not become effective until 2026.
Jenny Beth Martin (09:38):
Wow. So we still have to work through the system that we had in 2022 right now.
Charlice Byrd (09:45):
That is correct.
Jenny Beth Martin (09:45):
Which is an improvement over 2020, but not as good as what it will be in a couple of years from now.
Charlice Byrd (09:51):
That's right.
Jenny Beth Martin (09:52):
Okay. Now you're part of the Georgia Freedom Caucus, which is part of the overall State Freedom Caucus network. What do you do with that and explain what your role is and how that is helpful?
Charlice Byrd (10:07):
We started a state freedom caucus. We were the very first state that made the decision to have a network and excuse me, a caucus. It started because we needed to lean farther, right. And possibly get people that are kind of middle of the road Republicans to maybe think about their vote more often before voting
Jenny Beth Martin (10:31):
Legislators, not just voters.
Charlice Byrd (10:33):
Correct. Sorry. Yes, it was legislators. The Freedom Caucus started in 2021. I was a founding member of the Freedom Caucus, and it has worked well in some instances. We have a long ways to go. We are very small, but our main purpose is to drive other legislators to think in terms of the four pillars that we go by before casting a vote. One is does it grow government? Does it raise taxes? Does it increase regulation and does it infringe on personal liberties? Those things that after I read a bill, I put in a box to consider how any of those relate to those four pillars. But I also add a fifth pillar for myself, and that is what is the proper role of government? We are so beyond the proper role of government right now, whether it's the state of Georgia across the country, technically the Constitution told us it was to protect, defend, and preserve. Nothing else, nothing more to protect us military, police force, sheriffs, you name it, to protect us, defend all those sorts of things. But now we are spending money at a state level that is unbelievable for things that should have never been paid for. So we are trying to move other Republican legislators to think in those terms instead of giving every single dollar of new revenue that comes in to add it to some new program.
Jenny Beth Martin (12:15):
And are you reading bills? How does it function when you're in session?
Charlice Byrd (12:23):
Sure. We have a director of the state Freedom Caucus and we have a policy director. The gentleman that is the policy director reads every single bill. Doesn't matter whether it's going to a committee or not, it's just whatever bill is around, he starts reading it. I only read the bills that are coming to the floor for a house vote or the bills that are in my committees. There are 48 plus committees in the house, and it's very difficult to prepare for all 48 committees. So I only focus on my own committees. Then the second step is if it is coming to the floor for a vote, I make sure I reread the bill, make sure that there have been no changes. But on the same hand, the policy director and I are communicating. He takes a summary of the bill and he tells me exactly what is in there. He gives the pros and the cons and he takes the four pillars and if it fits into any of those pillars, he said, this is a no vote. However I want you to understand it doesn't mean that's how I am going to vote. It is his suggestion of how we make the four pillars. There are occasions that that does not work, and there are also occasions that he and I get into a discussion of what I believe of why it should be voted on or why it should be a no.
Jenny Beth Martin (13:49):
And is that working well for you? Because you were a state legislator before there was a state freedom caucus and now you're one with it. How do you think it helps support the role of a legislator?
Charlice Byrd (14:00):
Back in the days when I served from oh five to 2012, we did have a group very similar to the Georgia Freedom Caucus, and at the time it was called the two 16 Club, and it was only because it was a room that we met in
Jenny Beth Martin (14:16):
Room
Charlice Byrd (14:16):
Two 16. That's exactly right. We read those bills as a group. We had lively debate, but we did a negative one and a positive one, but with five different pillars. So we would discuss those, we would then rate them, and it was still up to each individual of how they needed to vote, whether it was the way it fit into your district or the way you believed in what the bill was saying. And so the Georgia Freedom Caucus is almost identical to what we did back in 2012 when we rated all of those bills. It does work. It helps immensely. We haven't convinced everyone of those four pillars. And there are this year that there were a few legislators that came and asked me how I was voting. I explained the bill why I was voting the way I was, and so it kind of helped them. It didn't mean that they were voting the same way I was, but at least they understood really what the Georgia Freedom Caucus was representing.
Jenny Beth Martin (15:21):
And was that a problem before? Did they not understand what you were representing? And it seems to me like one of the things with what you're describing and maybe the House Freedom Caucus does the same thing, but I haven't seen it explained so succinctly when you say these are the four things we're evaluating each bill on or five things, it provides a lot of clarity for how you're going to be voting.
Charlice Byrd (15:47):
It does. It helps immensely. We have a white paper that our policy director gives to me and a couple of other people during the day before or either that morning so that we can have real clarity while I am reading my own bill, because there are too many people in the house that do not read the bills. They have no idea what is in the bill. They go and vote one way or the other. And then I on occasion question, why did you vote for that? Or they'll come in over to me and say, well, why did you vote no? And then I give them a very clear, concise reason why I voted no. And that's why they should have voted no as well. That hasn't worked yet. But more and more people are understanding what the Freedom Caucus represents.
Jenny Beth Martin (16:40):
I think that's good. And it is small right now. Hopefully it grows in the coming years.
Charlice Byrd (16:48):
That's our plan. Yesterday I was on a two hour conference call with our Freedom Caucus to talk about those things, a long-term short-term strategy. We're kind of in a down period now because school is about to end. Everybody's involved in graduation trying to get people to go and do their voting for the primary election, but once that's over, it's going to give us about 60 days to refresh and renew, start hard again in August so we can start talking about what exactly is our mission? What is it that we want to accomplish come January, what is it? Do we want to share with the rest of our legislators? Do we want to share our white papers with them, everybody or just the ones that are more interested in why we vote the way we do. So those are the things that we are discussing now because nothing would be more important than to grow. When you have a strong group of individuals in the house of a hundred of us or 102 Republicans, you may then be able to sway everybody to vote the best way possible to represent the state of Georgia.
Jenny Beth Martin (17:59):
That's I think really important. We need more conservative legislation and a red state, and it seems like a problem that many red states are actually having a red seat, but then oftentimes the legislation that's passing isn't as conservative as you would think would come out of a red state.
Charlice Byrd (18:18):
That's correct. People, I find that all of my friends that I sit with and the house chamber are all good people, but they're not considering the long-term outcomes when they pass a bill. They don't know what the unintended consequences are. And we're constantly going back the next session to put a bandaid on the unintended consequences. We have to have another bill to fix that unintended consequences. And across the state right now, there are 11 freedom caucuses and
Jenny Beth Martin (18:51):
They are across the country.
Charlice Byrd (18:53):
Across the country, okay. Sorry, across the country. And they are having just as many problems as we are. They have more numbers in their caucus, but the probably more moderate people that are in their chambers don't want their input. They don't want to cause waves because they don't want the people to know what is really going on under that gold dome as most people don't. They think they were insulated and they don't have to worry about the people that are outside that you were supposed to be representing. And who voted you in office places like Idaho, I believe it is that they were, it's
Jenny Beth Martin (19:35):
Funny. That's exactly what I was thinking about. Go ahead.
Charlice Byrd (19:38):
Yes, they actually, the speaker of their house removed all of their furniture, so they couldn't even have any kind of meeting in their own office. Now, that guy did not vote for those legislators. It was their districts that voted, and obviously they want them in that seat. So for someone to cut them out is absolutely ludicrous. Exactly what they did to Senator Colton Moore right here in Georgia, the Republican caucus in the Senate voted to remove him from the caucus because they didn't want him causing them issues in their district when he was out there touting what exactly was going on with their votes.
Jenny Beth Martin (20:23):
Speaking of Colton Moore and some of the things that expose the differences that you guys do versus others in the state legislature, you and I and Colton spoke at a press conference last summer, late summer after the indictments in Georgia, and you guys were pushing for the impeachment of Fannie Willis, or at least to bring the potential articles of impeachment to debate it in the chambers. And there were not really any other members of the house standing with you or the Senate standing with him. Why is that?
Charlice Byrd (21:01):
One, they don't want to get involved. One, they don't believe that there was any fraud, so there was no reason to do anything against former President Trump. We started a letter in August of last year and asked our house members and Senate members to sign on so that we could start a process against Fannie Willis. Not one person sied on. They were sent to the governor. It was sent to the Attorney General. And we asked all of our house members, no one wanted to participate. I mean, who knows why? Everybody has their own reason. They don't want to be seen in the limelight trying to cause trouble. This is why we have been elected not to sit on the sideline. I then filed a resolution for impeachment of Fannie Willis because the impeachment comes from the house side and then the Senate must do the investigation. But unfortunately, no one wanted to hear my resolution in the house because they didn't want the limelight to be shining on them of reasons why they weren't taking this up. So there I sat all by myself with the articles of impeachment and now look where we are. And Fannie Willis being investigated in all sorts of ways. You would think one would say, I wonder why we didn't impeach her when we could.
Jenny Beth Martin (22:36):
Right. And what you were doing in last, late last summer after the indictments in Georgia came out, and for those who are not aware, the indictments included President Trump along with people who were electors in Georgia and attorneys and people who worked for him in the White House and others. Some of them seem rather random from other parts of the country who wound up being indicted for challenging an election which is legal in Georgia and happened to you and an election was actually overturned of your election. What you're trying to do is beyond just what's happening to President Trump and those who are indicted, it is protecting the integrity of the entire system. All of those people, whether they're Republican or Democrat, they may be in the same boat at some point and need to challenge an election. There may be true irregularities that happen where they need the court to take a look at what happened and determine is it enough that it creates and cast doubt on the outcome of the election and should the election be overturned or not. But when we turn legal activity into crimes, it really creates a problem for the entire system.
Charlice Byrd (23:54):
It does indeed. Certainly there were people like Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, Stacey Abrams said exactly the same thing that President Trump said that there was issues with the election. There was nothing done to them because they called people out on the election. So to me, this is once again the double standards that we are living under right now. We are also talking about our first amendment, right. All they did was state that there were some misgivings about the election. I don't know that they ever used the word fraud. They were just expressing themselves to the public that they had grave concern about the election process. So if we are now looking at what they are doing to those people, former President Trump and the 18 other people that were indicted as well, then we all should be concerned because at any time someone could knock on our door and accuse us of anything and we could go the same route.
Jenny Beth Martin (25:01):
That's exactly right. So your letter was calling for a special session of the legislature to look into whether an impeachment article should even be introduced or not. So it was a special session and it requires a super majority or the act of a governor to have a special session in Georgia. And then during the session they didn't want to hear anything about it. And towards the end of the session, they were doing some investigations in the Senate into Fannie Willis and her behavior because Michael Roman, who is one of the people who's been indicted and his attorney and then others afterwards have raised legitimate concerns about whether there were conflicts of interest with what she did. And now the appeals court is going to hear. It just seems like there's always this desire to just sort of kick the can. It's like a hot potato. It's not even kicking the can down the road. It's like, I don't want to touch it. Let me throw it away to someone else. Nobody wants the responsibility of having to deal with it if it's in their hand, but you were willing to
Charlice Byrd (26:11):
Indeed. Going back to the whole election integrity part of it, if we don't stand up and take a strong stand against these types of things, what's going to happen in the future? I mean, look what we're fighting now and what may happen in November. We have no idea. I mean, I know every day it seems like we are talking to more people in the district and they are still very concerned of how their vote will be counted, whether it's going to go in a box and it'll never be seen. We need transparency more than ever when we are talking about election integrity. It's one of the rights that people fought and died for. Men and women went out and are protecting the freedoms of this country. And that is one of the freedoms that we fought for the ability to go out and vote and it should be taken care of. And we should be talking about all of the integrity that goes with an election. And we are not. And it's concerning because so many of our leaders are failing to do their job.
Jenny Beth Martin (27:16):
True. And leadership isn't fun. Sometimes you have to make the tough decisions. Sometimes you have to do things that your friends don't like because you're doing what's right or you're trying to get people to follow or it's what is expected of you. And it's tough. Sometimes it's really tough. And when you do that, all of the attention and there's positive attention of course, but also negative attention zeroes in on you and you start taking a lot of flack for it. And you and Colton experienced that last summer.
Charlice Byrd (27:53):
We certainly have. There's a lot of arrows that are thrown for sure. You have to be strong in who you are, and you have to be strong in what you believe because when you take on those types of people, you know that at some point there could be consequences. You never know. I have to say from the house side, they have not removed me from the caucus. That would be to me a huge mistake removing you from your own caucus. It brings even more highlight to someone that has removed Colton Moore from his caucus. It puts them all in a bad light because they have now taken action against one of their own. He stands alone in the Senate all the time. I have to applaud him. He is extremely outspoken and he stands upright every single day. Doesn't matter how many arrows he's taken. And I just applaud and appreciate him for what he is doing from the Senate side. And he stands with me from the house side. And we together continue to hold each other up. We just enjoy each other's company and we know it's a difficult task, but someone has to do it because if not, things will remain the same.
Jenny Beth Martin (29:06):
That is correct. Now I want to, you remember how you just said previously, so you were and four, you were elected in 2004 and began in 2005 and stayed in office through the end of 2012, and you lost an election and then you went back and ran again later, which must have been not a fun decision for you to make. You knew the positives and the negatives of it, but you still did that and I'm glad that you did. But back then you met in room two 16. And I'm not saying that the current speaker or the current house leadership had anything to do with this, but didn't you guys get kicked out of a room in the house?
Charlice Byrd (29:55):
We did. We used room two 16 and there was a legislator that wanted a bill to come to the house floor to pass and hopefully to pass. It was about tax cuts. The speaker of the house at the time, they made a deal and the deal was at you give up the two 16 club and move on and I will let your bill come to the house floor for a vote. So there were many that scattered because they did not want to be associated any longer with the two 16. So there were probably at the time, maybe two handfuls, about 10 people that stuck to it where we still met every single morning to discuss the bills that were coming to the house floor for a vote. But again, that dwindled as well because one people didn't have the time to put together, read all the bills that we were going to discuss. They didn't want the leadership to know they were still part of it because everybody, a lot of people at the capitol want to be in the inner circle. And if you are outside of the inner circle and you have been told not to do something and then you continue to do it, you are going to be excommunicated.
Jenny Beth Martin (31:10):
That's not good. And in Idaho, they're really finding that out. They
Charlice Byrd (31:15):
Are. I mean, it's horrible. And the leadership must remember that we were voted by our district. There is not one person under the gold dome that votes for me, but I do vote for them. One is like the governor, lieutenant Governor, those people. And also we have to vote for the speaker of the house. So those are the votes that I cast. They don't vote for me. So I should be standing for my community and my district and my county to know exactly what they want, not what the people in the gold don't
Jenny Beth Martin (31:48):
Want. And you do that well and you've gone door to door to get elected. I think a lot of the others in the capitol haven't done that. So they haven't had those face-to-face conversations with the constituents the same way that you have. Not that they're not having conversations, but at the door, much different than seeing someone in the grocery store doing a town hall meeting. And then you also are very involved with town hall meetings and updating your constituents and staying in touch and listening to them.
Charlice Byrd (32:21):
I do. It's very important, once you are elected, you need to let everyone know what is going on at the capitol. So having a town hall meeting once a week or monthly for sure, and then going into districts to meet with HOAs, just giving you the ability to have time to talk. I belong to civic organizations and they proudly let me speak on, oh, what's going on? And it's not to talk about whether it's right or wrong or good or bad, it's just what, this is very informational and I think that is important so that your constituents know who you are and what you were doing for them. I put things in three silos as a state legislator. One is by Constitution, Georgia Constitution, we must pass a budget. Number two is to pass or repeal laws. And number three is constituent services. And the constituent services is where you are reaching out to your community where people come and meet you so that they know that you are part of their community. Whether you belong to civic organizations or the Chamber of Commerce or your church and Sunday school, these are all important things. If you are going to be elected and remain elected. No one wants you to go into a box once you are elected and not see you or hear from you.
(33:45):
So I put out a newsletter on a weekly basis. I do my own handheld videos so that I can tell people about a bill and we know that everything has to be done in short clips. So I mean they last for 45 seconds just so you can get a general sense of it. And if you need to call and talk to me about a bill, I gladly pick up that telephone call. I tell people all the time, it's a lot easier to vote no than it is. Yes. Because you can justify your No, a lot easier than you can justify your Yes,
Jenny Beth Martin (34:19):
Elaborate on that.
Charlice Byrd (34:21):
So the budget, alright, we have a big budget and a little budget. Our little budget, which is called a supplemental budget, we do that in March this year. And then we vote for the large budget, which is for the budget for 2025. I am the only no vote. It's tough being the only no vote on many occasions, but if we stop funding certain things, for instance the DA's office, they wouldn't be able to exist. But we keep funding those kinds of things. And then another thing is that we give raises to everybody who is in government, no evaluation anything, but everybody across the board gets a raise. Now if the budget were never to pass, we could stop a whole lot of stuff. But we also have to keep in mind people continue to vote for the budget because they have a little piece in their district or getting a new healthcare center or a new technical school, things that go into your district, they want to vote for it, but I am a vote.
(35:38):
And when that's talking about, it's easier to justify your No, I know there's a lot of other good things in a bill to take care of maybe the elderly or a child that has a particular disease, but that is all part of the big budget and I can't vote for a lot of the bad stuff when there is also good stuff. Transportation is one. Sure. We just did 2 billion worth for transportation, but I voted no on our budget because we need transportation. But there were too many bad things in the bill that I didn't believe in.
Jenny Beth Martin (36:13):
I'm glad that you're willing to do that and it winds up being really tough to explain. Why do you keep funding the DA's office who's creating a two-tiered system of justice or other issues that may exist that people are voting for? I think it's harder to justify some of it. So many bad things that wind up getting approved.
Charlice Byrd (36:38):
That's true. There are so many things that you probably don't know as a taxpayer what we are funding. It's astounding. And when I tell people, their eyes just become really big and they go, really? That is unbelievable. Why are we funding that? Because somebody asked for it and now we're going to give them the money to take back to their districts so they can say they did a great thing.
Jenny Beth Martin (37:03):
It's crazy. It's just crazy. It's so frustrating. And you and I have complained about those kind of issues for a long, long time. You moved here prior to being here, you were in Hong Kong, weren't you? That's
Charlice Byrd (37:17):
Correct.
Jenny Beth Martin (37:18):
And you and your husband were there when it changed from English control to Chinese control.
Charlice Byrd (37:25):
That's right.
Jenny Beth Martin (37:25):
And weren't you in the League of Women, but were you the president of the League of Women Voters?
Charlice Byrd (37:30):
I was the president of the League of Women Voters in Hong Kong, but it was very different considering the League of Women Voters here in the States over in Hong Kong. We would have speakers that would come to our meetings. It could have been Newt Gingrich at the time. It could have been the patent was his name at the time when I was there. But he would come and speak and when we would meet, we would talk about various topics from everyone's country and how it was good, how was bad, what they would do to change if they had been duly elected. So it was a great process to learn and prepare for when I came back to the states to know exactly what my mission was, what my God-given purpose was, to get involved in the political world over in Hong Kong. Things were very different. Of course, being under British rule, it seemed like everything was free.
(38:24):
Like America has been in the past changing a bit. But for that time, the British, I think it was his prime minister, I remember if he, and so it was terrific. I mean they had the American Club, which I think they still have the American club. And in 1998 when the Chinese, after their hundred years had given to the British, we watched the Britannia with Prince Charles leave the harbor on his yacht and watched the military of China move in the back door to be quietly held in place for supposedly another 50 years. China was not supposed to come and let Hong Kong remain their own country, their own political system. But as we know now, that did not happen. 50 years did not happen. It was more like 20 or 25 years if I think that's correct. So coming back to the States after that was set my course for the political realm.
Jenny Beth Martin (39:34):
And if somebody is thinking of running for office, what would you recommend
Charlice Byrd (39:39):
To them? Don't do it.
Jenny Beth Martin (39:41):
I knew you were going to say that, but if they feel like they're being called to do that or they think they can really make a difference, what's the kind of advice that you give to people who ask you about it?
Charlice Byrd (39:54):
Sure. One of my favorite quotes these days is if you're not at the table, you're on the menu. And that is true for anything. And if you really want to make change, you have to be on the inside, which is why I ran again in 2019. So I do tell people that, number one, be sure that you understand that you are giving up a lot, especially family, and that your spouse or your family has to be part of it because it is a rough road when you want to run for office. Number two is if you are planning a run for office, say two years from now, start planning, start joining your civic organizations. Make sure that you're out front at the chamber events, making sure that you are attending a church and going to Sunday school and any and everything else to be involved in your community.
(40:41):
Become a political activist as well. Start going to your meetings at the Cherokee County Republican Party or any other organizations that may have politics so that you know what is going on so that you can intelligently talk about issues. That would be start it now and start early. Be prepared in 18 months if you are going to run for office to know exactly what you want to say and what you plan to do and why you're running for the office. Don't just tell me that you're running because I've always wanted to do this. This is not an answer for me. May it be it should be some kind of driven reason like illegal immigration. There is a gentleman that's running for office right now and one of his family members was actually murdered by an illegal. That's what's motivated him to run, find an stick to two or three issues, be prepared for anything, and be knowledgeable. You want more than anything to have name recognition in the community by the time you're ready to step in and run for public office,
Jenny Beth Martin (41:49):
That's really good advice. And also you can't take any of that for granted, right? Because even if you have a lot of name recognition or you know how to respond, campaigns are very wind up being very unpredictable,
Charlice Byrd (42:02):
Unpredictable one. And number two is always costly. But number three, you always have to have a really good campaign manager like Jenny Beth Martin, she was my campaign manager for two terms. We won, as you can tell, because I'm sitting here now and without someone that is a strong believer in you and what you are doing and your campaign, you really can't get a lot done because you need a strong, strong person that has been involved in the community and political activism just as much as you as the candidate.
Jenny Beth Martin (42:38):
And I think when you're thinking of that, oftentimes, especially in a local campaign, the campaign manager winds up being someone who's local and I was just a volunteer. But you and that person and your spouse all have to have very thick skin let things, you can't take it personally, even though it's very personal. You have to be able to just go, it's just a campaign and we have to just keep plowing through and almost put blinders on.
Charlice Byrd (43:07):
You do. You cannot. And I made this promise to myself and to my husband that if there was anything that upset me that I was not going to cry in public. I would go home and cry. If you were angry about something and you were about to write it down and put it in an email or any other thing in writing, go home, sleep on it, and then delete those kinds of things that you have to learn. And you do have to grow a thick skin. And I don't believe that it's anything personal against you as an individual, but it's really the policy or the issue that they are so passionate about. I am very passionate about a lot of issues. I am very black and white, but there is a lot of people that's in between and they want to have those conversations. And you can agree to disagree in a respectful manner, and you don't have to take everything personally because you can't because you would spend a lot of time in the bathroom crying,
Jenny Beth Martin (44:06):
Right? Or getting really angry and doing foolish things,
Charlice Byrd (44:10):
Stupid things. Yes,
Jenny Beth Martin (44:12):
Absolutely. I think that's really good advice that you laid out there and people should listen to it. And we need more people who truly are conservative to step up and run for office.
Charlice Byrd (44:24):
We do. I would love to see many more conservatives. When you talk about conservatism, everybody's definition is very different. And the only way you're going to actually know if someone is conservative, you can say anything on the campaign trail until you have to cast those ballots on the screen where it's either green or red. You then find out how conservative someone is. Many of my colleagues call themselves conservatives, but when I see their vote, I beg to differ on those issues for sure.
Jenny Beth Martin (44:57):
Yeah. And I'm sure that I would differ with them as well. But we see the same thing happening in the House and the Senate on Capitol Hill. The things that I think should be no brainer votes for people who are Republican, it isn't. They have a different definition or they're looking at a different calculus.
Charlice Byrd (45:23):
That's correct. And I think that's why we have a pillar of those four pillars so that you can decide and think about the other votes that you must make. And we don't get involved in some issues so that we are not voting yes or no. It's like a neutral. You need to vote however you think you need to. Again, I want to repeat that they are not telling me how to vote. I make that decision on my own. But you do need to understand the entirety of the four pillars and how we need to get back to the freedoms and liberties that we have so grown to cherish and now we have moved so far away from those freedoms and liberties. And that is a concern that all of us as not only Georgians but across America, that we should be concerned about our freedom and liberties being taken away.
Jenny Beth Martin (46:18):
So if you were giving final advice to either legislators or to voters, what would be the final things you would say?
Charlice Byrd (46:29):
Number one would be read the bill. Number two, give it serious consideration and put those four pillars in front of you so that we are not giving away all of the money that we bring in as new revenue. Make sure that you cautiously and carefully consider before voting and how it's going to affect other people in the community and in our state. I try to vote not so much on individual bills that will affect one or two people or maybe a dozen people, but how it affects everybody across the state of Georgia. We are so used to voting for winners and losers, tax exemptions for certain companies, but we don't give it to these other companies. Why is that? So if we're voting for something, everyone should see the same benefit. So I would suggest if you plan on voting, do all of those things first so you understand that every vote and every bill that becomes a law takes someone's right away whether you agree with it or not,
Jenny Beth Martin (47:39):
It's very good advice. Well, Charlie Spur, thank you so much for being with me today and for being such a strong conservative in Georgia.
Charlice Byrd (47:47):
Thank you Jenny Beth. It's great to be part of this for sure, and our relationship has grown exponentially through the years and always look forward to sitting down and chatting with you.
Narrator (47:57):
The Jenny Beth Show is hosted by Jenny Beth Martin, produced by Kevin Han and directed by Luke Livingston. The Jenny Beth Show is a production of Tea Party Patriots action. For more information, visit tea party patriots.org.
Jenny Beth Martin (48:17):
If you like this episode, let me know by hitting the light button or leaving a comment or a five star review. And if you want to be the first to know every time we drop a new episode, be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications for whichever platform you're listening on. If you do these simple things, it will help the podcast grow and I'd really appreciate it. Thank you so much.