Jenny Beth continues her conversation with Texas Tea Party Patriots State Coordinator Suzanne Guggenheim, a super activist committed to fighting for freedom. This episode chronicles her departure from war-torn Europe to the United States and her continued fight for freedom as an American activist.
Jenny Beth continues her conversation with Texas Tea Party Patriots State Coordinator Suzanne Guggenheim, a super activist committed to fighting for freedom. This episode chronicles her departure from war-torn Europe to the United States and her continued fight for freedom as an American activist.
Twitter: @sguggenheim @jennybethm
Suzanne Guggenheim (00:00):
You feel that your country is going in a place you don't want it to go, and you have to do everything that's in your power to stop the sleep.
Narrator (00:10):
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, a filmmaker, and one of time magazine's most influential people in the world. But the title she's 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 (00:42):
Welcome back to the Jenny Beth Show where I continue my conversation with Suzanne Guggenheim, an amazing woman who was born on D-Day and war torn Europe where it became her way of life to fight against tyranny. In this episode will find out what finally brought her to America, where she continues to fight for freedom. To this day, we're back with Suzanne Guggenheim in the Coastal Bend Republican Coalition offices, and in the last episode we're talking about your life as a young girl and a university student in France and growing up post World War ii. What happened once you met your husband and you got married and you kind of decided you've got to get out of the university scene?
Suzanne Guggenheim (01:29):
So we got married and stayed a few more years active in uni, that much active that uni. We had a small building in Paris for all our offices, and we had built in it a small apartment because we were there 24 7, physically 24 7. So one day we said, we really need to go away because if we don't leave ferries, we will never have a normal life because we will always be doing that because there's just so much to be done. So he first went, he did his military service, and during that time of course I was still there. And after his military service, it was time to look for a job. He had finished his engineering degree and when he was hired, he was offered a position in Martinique to go and build a dam in Martinique. So we left for Martinique and where we are supposed to get a normal life, and I had decided I would retire all activities, but it happened that the chancellor of the, there are two different things.
(02:58):
Chancellor of the Academy, which was overseeing all the elementary high school and universities in three French departments, which were Martine, Guadalupe, and Guana was one of our members before he had been nominated as a rector of that academy. So he asked me to come as his chief of staff. I hesitated, but how could I say no? Right, yes. So I went and started to do that and one year later, in fact, we were on our way for our first trip to America where it was a time when Easter Airline has those fantastic tickets where you could get for $200, three weeks of unlimited stops. So we are going to do that, and our first stop was in Guadalupe to take the plane to go to the US and he happened to go and visit the branch of his company in Guadalupe and we'd like to hire you.
(04:17):
Can you start tomorrow morning in America? No, in Guadalupe. In Guadalupe. In Guadalupe where supposed to take the plane the next morning for America, so no more vacation. He was hired to start the next morning, and by the way, you need to be there at five o'clock in the morning. So we left. Then Gu Martinique for Guadalupe and the chancellor of the academy asked me if I would continue to be his chief of staff based in Guadalupe this time, but also the church law of the university, which is overseeing the university for him. So I accepted and most of the teacher were extreme left and were Independentists, which is part of a group that wanted Martinique and Guadalupe to become independent from France. So they had started and were rising up with some violent elements among them. Ellen started as an engineer. So in Guadalupe, and after a year he was offered a different position as a c e O of, there's no equivalent here, but it would be a hybrid between the Chamber of Commerce and the lobbying group for the businesses.
(05:50):
So he was representing all the CEOs of the different companies and they had in fact three companies, one for small businesses, one for retailers, and one for agriculture. And so he became the c e O of that. And it used to be in those two departments of France. They were departments, but they had a special statues and people there liked it because in fact they had privileges, but they also did not have all the same rights. People who work did not have workman's comp. There were no social security, there were no retirement. So there were a lot of things they did not have. And Ellen was able to convince the business people, the business community, that yes, it would cost them money, but it was their best interest to have their workers become true French people with old benefits that people had in France. So it was a little bit hard at the beginning and he had to convince first his board and the local businessmen.
(07:15):
But then he was coming every month in Paris and meeting in all the different ministries and agency to obtain those rights to be extended to Guadalupe and Martinique and Grenna. When he would come back, people would first he got interviewed always and he would explain what he did in France and what he was bringing back and people would stop him in the street to thank him for what he was doing. The Independentists got very mad at that and their analysis was if they did not stop that people were getting happy. So that was not at all a good thing. So they had to stop it because it would be too late for them if not to try to gain independence. So they started their violent phase of their action. So it was in the same time as Granada and there was a lot of Cuban influence helping the Independentists. So the influence grew more and more. I felt it of course in my part of the business in the celery where we got occupied by the student and the teachers who said they wanted more of everything, like always.
(08:40):
And Ellen felt it much more because one day when he had a board meeting, his secretary arrived white and saying, I have letters for you, all of you. And she had a letter for each board member from the group of liberation that was telling him, well, we know your daughter goes to this school and we know your wife does this and we are watching you. So if all the white people don't leave before the end of the year, we are going to start the revolution. So they started shooting several of his board members starting being shot. None of them was killed, but they started having several attack and it was getting borderline. So the police gave each of them, well, I'm not sure each of them, but I'm sure for Ellen, he got personal protection first. We had it at one of the houses where we were living until at night I felt that we were being watched. And so we moved to a different house and every night we had the police would come around our property to make sure everything was okay. So it started being an uncomfortable feeling as you can imagine. And every morning they would come at our house and they would follow Ellen in a car to his job. So detention was riding and was rising everywhere, and they were more and more attacks, but they were mainly building and nobody had gotten killed yet.
(10:38):
So as the tension was growing, the French president Esta felt that it was time to calm the situation and starting arresting a few people, and he decided that he would come and spend Christmas in Guadalupe to show that everything was under control. So he arrived just the day before Christmas, there was a bomb in the airport. So I guess he still kind of realized it was not that much under control. So he stayed there for a week and he departed the day before New Year on December 30th. On that day for the first time, the police was not there to accompany us to Ellen's office. I was going with him generally, and he was dropping me at my office and then he was going to his. So that day we did not have the police with us and just inside our development, at the first crossing, suddenly I saw a car in front of us block the way, and I was looking at the driver.
(12:02):
I was just hypnotized because I had never seen such a hate in someone's eyes. So I was looking at him and I heard noise, and I saw thought that's all also gravel from when we stopped, when he stopped in front of us. And suddenly I feel Ellen backing off and the pickup gets, a lady jumps in and the pickups take off and Ellen backs off and I say, what are you doing? We need to get the license plate. And then I hear him swear, which was not usual. I turned around and the car was full of blood. I had not even heard that they had shot him and that it went through the, luckily for us, it went through the mirror, outside mirror and the window. He was one of the only people in the island to have a car with air conditioning. There was no air conditioning in French cars and to drive with windows closed.
(13:12):
And so he got shot and the bullet arrived in the button of his color and went all the way up between the lung and the heart. Wow. So I hadn't seen any of all that. So he backed off all the way to our house, and then we started calling the police and everybody and his friends was like the governor here, but nobody answered because everybody was at the airport because the president was leaving. So to see the president leave and protect him, and so we finally got the fire department to come and get him and take him to the hospital where the doctor said, it's a miracle. You are really incredibly lucky that he did not reach the heart. So he was taken into surgery. And then in the hospital. And at the hospital, it was interesting, we had protection that the first night there was a policeman in front of him in front of his door all night, and it was the first time that anybody had seen two of the terrorists he saw, I don't even know if he saw any, I don't think he did, but I saw both the driver very well.
(14:40):
I could still recognize him. And the lady who shot him, she was hidden in the garden of an occupied house and they had done a hole in the fence to shoot him, so we couldn't even see her.
(14:57):
So that was the first time two of them had been seen. So we thought that's why we had the protection, but the next day there was not. And we found out the protection was to prevent the journalist from coming and interviewing him because the message of the president was that everything was calm and under control. So he didn't want to know anybody to know. So for sure people got to know and they didn't stay there, but because we didn't have protection, so the military, Allen had been very involved with the military also, and he was in the reserve and active reserve. And so the military camp said, come here and we will assure your protection. So we stayed there for quite a while until we went back home. So that was for sure quite emotional time. And it took a while for him to recover still from his injury.
(16:00):
And shortly after that, Miran got elected as president of France as a socialist. And the first thing they did is take five communists in his government. And next thing they did was to do an amnesty for all the people that had started to be arrested, all the independentist. And they were all released with an amnesty. Amnesty in France makes that the fact don't exist anymore. If tomorrow I see the people who shot him, if I say it, it's a crime because the fact don't exist. So I am accusing them of something they have not done because it's erased. The facts have been erased. So we thought that was starting to be a little bit much, and that's when we decided that it was time to go in America. I always wanted anyway to his finish a degree or whatever in America. So it's a good time to go there.
(17:08):
So it took us six months or a year to really make the decision and the jump. But that's when we decided to come in America in beginning of 82. And we started in California. And within a week I went to my first Republican women meeting. Of course you did, of course. And then we got very involved with the local Republican party and very active, even though there were a lot of things that as non-citizens we didn't even want to do because we thought that was not right. We could help, we could support, we could do all kind of things, but we didn't want neither to do block walking or phone calling because we thought that was not appropriate as non citizen. But we were very involved with everything. So after it took us about almost two years to get our green card because we became legal citizens, but first legal immigrants. So we had a green card after all work to do for that for five years, and then we needed five more years to get our citizenship.
Jenny Beth Martin (18:30):
When you came to America, were you here under political asylum or just regular
Suzanne Guggenheim (18:34):
Immigration? No, just immigration and got a work visa because computer science was one of the fields that we could get it. So we had created a computer support company. And so that's how we got our visa and our green card. And then we got five years later our citizenship. And in fact, just before we got out our citizenship, so almost 10 years after we moved, we had to America, we moved to Southern California in close to LA and became active right away there too. And I became citizen, in fact, before Helen, even though we had applied in the same time, because that was the year where Reagan gave amnesty to the legals. So they took front place and all the people who were in the pipeline got behind the naturalization of the illegals. So he got a little bit more delayed by a few months.
(19:54):
And within less than a year of us becoming citizen, we had elections. We have always agreed two years. And one of our Northern California friends that we had helped there asked him to run for state assembly. Ellen said, that is totally crazy. We just moved here. We don't know anybody hardly. I just became a citizen. How do you want me to run? They insisted he did run. He had an amazing run. We had a group of volunteers, incredible and a lot of support. He came second in the field of seven and they were all the political head locally. One was the mayor of the next city, the other one was a county commissioner. So they were all well-known and established people. He was the nobody and just became citizens. But we had an incredible group of volunteers. So at the time we had become citizens, so then we could get fully involved.
(21:03):
And we got involved with the Republican party where we got to be delegated to state convention. And from then on, I don't think there's a state convention I have missed throughout the states. We have been, and then we belong to all local groups. I created several Republican groups locally, Republican businesswomen. We had California Republican Assembly where I created also locally a chapter. So we're very involved locally with politics and that was good. But that was still quiet times at that time we did, we were activists, but there was, except we saw still during that time, California turn from red to blue. And that's why we had the C R A was conservative groups among the Republicans. And we could see there was incredible fight at every G O P convention because you had the rhinos who were really in fact holding the party. And we started losing city after city and then the assembly and then the Senate and then the governor. So we really saw how you turn the country and how weak Republicans country contribute to that loss. So we moved at that time to Colorado because for business reason for Helen, he was asked to go there and it was a red state. And again, in seven years we saw, and they had the blueprint, Colorado did the blueprint to turn state to blue. And I had that blueprint. I showed it to everybody and people didn't want to think at that time. It was serious.
Jenny Beth Martin (23:09):
And there's a book on it now if people want to read about what happened there.
Suzanne Guggenheim (23:13):
Yes, but people would not believe it. I had a lot of friends both. I knew the governor and his wife very well. I knew all the senators and state assemblymen and our congressmen was very good, but they did not believe it was possible. And that blueprint starting from the precinct channel, that was just, and it happened. So we moved then back to California, and California was already starting to be really bad. And then that's when we went to Texas for freedom. So we had searched the best state to go to and we decided it was Texas because that was still a red state and it was low taxes and there were good airports. So that's how we landed in Texas. And that was pretty much the end of the good times, I would say, or what we thought good times, because we were like all American citizen, you elected every two years your congressman, your state rep, your state senator, and they told you all the things you wanted to hear, and they made the promises that they were going to do all those things. So you trusted them. You thought that's really
Jenny Beth Martin (24:42):
What they were
Suzanne Guggenheim (24:43):
Trying to do.
(24:45):
And so the rest of the time, while you would still be active because you could see what the left was doing. And I was of course very in tune to what happened in education. And they were already in California when Valerie, my daughter was in school, I kept fighting. They started removing, replacing Christmas vacation by winter vacation. I said, that's not right. And everybody, no that just because you don't want to shock, the people would not accept to see the truth that was glaring in their eyes. So all along been very attuned, but then of course came the Obama. Yeah, Obama was elected and we saw right away, we all did the change and what that meant.
Jenny Beth Martin (25:38):
And we'd already seen George W. Bush break his promises and we saw tarp. That's right. And we saw the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailouts and bank stimulus and whatever else was going on in 2008. And McKean, he suspended his campaign to go back to Congress to vote the exact same way that then Senator Obama did on tarps. So we were already fed up
Suzanne Guggenheim (26:05):
Before and in the prior
Jenny Beth Martin (26:08):
Anymore
Suzanne Guggenheim (26:09):
Was the last one of who we did not want. We did not want McCain. We ended up having to support him. And he's taking Sarah Palin to deceive us, was the main reason he got as many votes as he did, but we knew we were on a very bad track even if we had him. But then of course we inherited or we got Obama, and that's when we knew that things were to turn very quickly. And that's where you launched the tea party And I was, I don't know how, at least I heard the call. I don't know how, because it was just the fate that I heard that call.
Jenny Beth Martin (27:00):
Yes, but you were so politically engaged and I think that the people who were tech savvy and politically engaged wound up being on that first call.
Suzanne Guggenheim (27:09):
But even to call from Centine, I don't know how I heard it, but I heard it and I say, yes, we need to do something. And then I heard your call and I say, okay, let's go. And I was in that time north of Houston in a small suburb called The Woodlands. And so I started in fact, through Facebook to say, we need to do something is anybody. And that's how I encountered the people from Houston to say Yes, going to have a tea party in Houston. And I say, I want to help. So I started trying to recruit locally in the Woodlands and everybody had something, oh, I have a doctor's appointment, I have a hairdresser. The only two that went were myself and my daughter. So we went there, but we helped already before we did a lot through social media and we brought the sound system, we brought tables, we brought flyers and everything we could, but not people. That's too far one hour away. Oh my god, that's too far. So we did that first tea party and that was amazing. People felt the feeling of we were just three hundreds, which was a lot and not a lot, but it was incredible, the feeling on that day. And people who didn't know each other, most of us, most of them found it through social media and a little bit of hearsay.
(28:50):
But when I came back from that event right away I say, we need to do something locally. It's not going to work. Even if we go once, we need to do that all the time, not just once. And you'll launch a call right away for April 15th. I say, we need to do it here. People just don't want to go somewhere else. The Houston group, of course, the Houston Tea Party got mad at me because they say, you are destroying our unity. You're going to have nobody but you removing the chance of having a unity in all the area. I say, I'm sorry, but I truly feel that's what we need to do.
Jenny Beth Martin (29:36):
And that's the difference between the people who live inside of the big metro city versus the people who live in the suburbs and they just don't Well, they don't want to drive to the suburbs. That's right. And the suburbs usually don't want to drive to the
Suzanne Guggenheim (29:48):
Want to drive to the city, not
Jenny Beth Martin (29:49):
On a regular basis basis.
Suzanne Guggenheim (29:52):
So I was alone with my daughter. So I started through Facebook to say, we are going to create a tea party here. And I had one person who contacted me that was fantastic. We suddenly doubled, right?
Jenny Beth Martin (30:09):
That's right.
Suzanne Guggenheim (30:10):
One post we doubled
Jenny Beth Martin (30:12):
A hundred percent growth.
Suzanne Guggenheim (30:13):
That's right. And then I got a third one that was 50% more. So then I say, well, we need to find a place to do our tea party. So we went to the park and rec. We had found a park that looked pretty nice to do that. So we say, okay, we would like to have a tea party there. So first they say, okay, you need a deposit, but how many people do you think you're going to be, oh, I say, oh, we'll be at least 200. See how many are you right now? Well, we are three. And you think that in a month you're going to be 200? I say, yes, absolutely. So we started the meeting and at that meeting, I don't know where they came from. I posted it of course on social media, but we had at least 15 or 20 people arrive that I didn't know.
(31:15):
And we made a board. Somebody said, we need a board. I said, okay, let's do a board. And somebody, I said, I'll be a treasurer. And she started in passing the hat. And so we got out of that meeting with a board, a treasurer and everything, and we started preparing for our tea party. We grew pretty fast there. I had a mailing list that kept growing every day. We got new people and we started weekly meetings in the restaurant, and I think it was IHOP at the time and the day of, I had an amazing group. We had people who took care of security, people who took care of the stage, entertainment, the sound.
(32:09):
It was really, I had an incredible team. But I remember even the morning of the event, Ellen asked me, how many you think you're going to be? I think we might get to 2000. And I was conservative in what I was thinking, but I think I knew he would say, I say, I think you're crazy. I don't think you should put your hope that high. I say, well, by the response I had, by the feeling I get when we go even to businesses, with businesses, posters in every business. We had an incredible chance. One of our members was a printer. He printed for us everything we wanted. We had all the posters, we wanted all to, and you knew
Jenny Beth Martin (32:59):
How to do posters. You learned that in uni in
Suzanne Guggenheim (33:02):
Paris. That's right. And we gave them to all the businesses. We had flyers. He did a booklet for the event, color booklet with every speaker and everything. We were so blessed and all that complimentary. It was just incredible. So we got a lot of help, but it turned out that we gathered 7,500 signatures at the entry of our Wow, that's amazing. We blocked all of the thousand hundred
Jenny Beth Martin (33:36):
Freeway. Yes,
Suzanne Guggenheim (33:38):
People parked over a mile away on both sides, and people blocked on the freeway. Were posting on Facebook, I'm glad we are stopped because I know they're all going to the tea party. So it was really an incredible success. And we had business support. We had some people like somebody with nicknamed Mattress, Mac, Jim Mcbe that helped at every single event we had. But the feeling at that meeting was just incredible. People all arrived. We had families and they all had made big posters and they were all saying finally, we are not alone. That was really what was recurring all the time. And we can do things we can express, we can fight together. The feeling of liberation that we gave to everybody was incredible. And so that was the first one. And at that time you say, we are going to do the 10 10.
(34:47):
I said, we do the 10, 10, 10 tea parties by 2010. And we did it. We did every single one and our group kept brewing. We kept having weekly meeting pretty quickly. We had a headquarter in the woodland. That's why I get the idea that you need. And I had that in Paris because I think if you don't have a place where people can come, where you can have meetings, you don't really exist. So I was always very focused on doing that very quickly in all the groups I had. And the Woodlands Depart grew incredibly. The last big rally we did was in, well it was in 2010 and the April one, and we rented the Houston Race Park. We had 17,500 people there.
(35:49):
It was a real show. This is the show. So we did it because we kept doing like you have been doing all along, educating people on what is happening, what people can do, that they have to get engaged and that they can have an impact. That's really what was always the focus is through people that they matter and that they can do something behind just voting beside, I mean, just voting at the election, that's not the only thing because unluckily that does not go very far because our elected official, once they are in Washington DC or at the state capitol, they forget about all their promises and they do whatever is convenient. So we really, through the Tea Party, were able to empower people and make them feel that they were we the people, we are the power. We have the power and we will regain it.
(36:56):
So after that, I moved, as you know, to Texas, you mean to Corpus Christi? Sorry? To Corpus Christi for business because we had decided after Obama got elected, seeing what was happening that had decided to retire. But we said, where resident leave to government eat our retirement money is through Wall Street that's crashing and through taxes let us invest in a small family business. So at least if we lose our money, we lose it ourself. We have nobody else to blame. And that's how we found the business in Corpus Christi. So of course, as soon as I arrived, I joined the local Tea Party. It got pretty rough. In fact, when I tried to join that Tea party because they excluded me from their Facebook page because I had posted something in favor of Ted Cruz, which before his first primary. And I was told, you cannot do that first anyway. You don't live here, so you cannot post something on our website. I said, well, I'm the leader of one of the tea parties in the Woodland and it happens that I'm moving here next month and I'm just buying a house, so I'm going to live here. Oh yeah, but you cannot post that. So anyway, it was pretty much under the hand of the Republican party and whoever was an incumbent had to be protected. So it didn't start too well. But then luckily it evolved. I don't back up so easy.
Jenny Beth Martin (38:50):
No, you don't.
Suzanne Guggenheim (38:52):
So anyway, I continued for quite a lot of years in fact, and then I moved from inside Corpus Christi to the island where we are right now and created the coastal band tea parties. So where I had more freedom because the last event that had made me resign from and decide to do another one was that during the primaries, the last primaries I was told that refused to endorse for the primaries because that did not always feed the incumbents and people who are favored by the parties. So that's when I decided to regain my independence on the island. So we created one and that's how we decided to grow it in the island is a little bit a special place where people don't like not only to go from the suburb to the city, they don't like to go over the bridge that's called O T B. We don't go O T B. So I told people, okay, if I do hear a tea party and the Republican women, will you come? Oh yeah, yeah, but we don't want to go on tv, the
Jenny Beth Martin (40:14):
Bridge.
Suzanne Guggenheim (40:15):
So that's how we started and grew and luckily got support pretty much from all the community was it was from the Republican party itself or at least some elected official I would say. And were able to develop our activities have been very active since then, and people recognize the importance of activism. We are in a place here where participation is pretty much the double of what it is in the rest of the county. And it is because we keep telling people you need to go vote and it does have an impact. So that did make quite a difference.
Jenny Beth Martin (41:11):
So what would you tell people who are just starting out in activism today? So we have people who are, they weren't part of the Tea Party movement probably because they were in high school when we were starting maybe college and now they have kids and they're joining groups like Moms for Liberty or Moms for America or some of these other groups. What kind of advice would you give to them?
Suzanne Guggenheim (41:38):
Well first I would tell them don't get discouraged because that's the main thing. People get very discouraged and have the impression there's nothing we can do. Government is too corrupt and everything is getting corrupt. Wherever you look, your big tech is corrupt. Big pharma is corrupt. Big companies are corrupt. What can we do? We are just our little self. Well you can do. It's not going to be easy. It's not going to be quick, but we can and we have to do it. So don't get discouraged, get involved, get committed and do things. We have to get educated first. Find out what's happening really besides the area that was your first interest. Generally people get involved because they are pro-Second Amendment, they are pro-life. They have an issue that is dear to them or they were waken up by Covid. So they have something that touch them.
(42:44):
But once people wake up, they start seeing the same phenomenon everywhere else and that's when they really understand that they need to do something. So don't get discouraged, get educated and be proactive. Come and help. Don't just come at a meeting but become a real volunteer so that you can really have an impact. So that has really been a little bit our line. And that's why for us it's so important to have a headquarter because our commitment was we will always be open and you will always have something to do when you come here and they do.
Jenny Beth Martin (43:30):
I know you do. I was here last night and you definitely do and you're educating every single time and making sure they're up to date on what the issues are. So I know that you give 'em something to do. I was here last night, I spoke, your room was completely packed and you've got four different groups that come together. So you've got the local Republican
Suzanne Guggenheim (43:51):
Conservative women. We changed the name
Jenny Beth Martin (43:54):
Conservative women, tea Party,
Suzanne Guggenheim (43:56):
Tea Party, Trump and Club that's now Save America and the Republican group. We also have in fact fifth one, which is the Tea Party, the Patriarch Prayer group.
Jenny Beth Martin (44:12):
So you're bringing all of these groups together and they have a slightly different focus, but they realize that an overall we have a similar, we're trying to reach the same goal. And you mentioned just now what you would recommend to new activists. One of the things that I heard, so I spoke last night and one of the things that I heard you discussing with everyone that I think the entire audience should hear about, you've got your people making phone calls to voters right now and then they're going to be block walking. So what are you doing with that program?
Suzanne Guggenheim (44:46):
So we have at every election, two cycles of block walking. We have a pre-election block walking where we focus mainly on recruiting volunteers. So what we do then we bring brochures about our group and we have some about election integrity and things like that. So we bring those brochures and what we do different of generally all the Republican group, instead of doing just high propensity Republicans, we do every single door. We go door to door and we either knock on the door or distribute depending on the time of the day. And some volunteers like to talk, some don't. So we tell them whatever you're comfortable with. But the goal, we have almost 10,000 household on the island. So we distribute at every single door. We cover the whole island. We have a binder with how many people in every street. So people come, I always say you start with your street first unless you don't want to do your street.
(46:10):
Then you start with the next one and then in larger circle and you go around and around your street and you every day you do a new street around it. So that's the first cycle. The second cycle is the one corresponding to the election, whether it's the primary or the general election. During the primary, we were always the only group here and in this county to endorse candidates. So we have a vetting process. We started with 15 and now we have almost 30 people on our vetting committee. We sent a very detailed questionnaire to all the candidate. Many don't like it saying, oh, it's intrusive. We say, yeah, we know. And that's on purpose. We want to know you. We don't want to just ask the question that everybody ask and you know what we want to hear, we want to get to know you and we will not publish the result, but we want to know exactly who you are. What kind of questions do you ask the affiliation?
(47:25):
Who have you ever belonged to a union? Who have you supported in the past? Who did you give money in the past? What's your budget for the election? How do you intend to get volunteers? So we go very much in depth in personal question that they're not used to get and they finally answer. They generally are reluctant a little bit. How truthful are all the answers? I don't know. But it looks like altogether we get pretty good answer, some refuse, and that's fine For me, no answer is an answer. So until our endorsement is done, we support all the Republican candidates. Once the endorsement is done, we only support those that we have endorsed so that it makes it worth our endorsement. And then we do a lot, we have a voter guide that we distribute during the early voting. And on election day we take advertising in the newspapers to put our voter guide and we distribute it.
(48:44):
Of course, that's our second cycle at all the houses. So same we start our election cycle before the endorsement we started as soon as the end of the filing period. When we know the candidates at that time, until we have done our endorsement, we accept all the yard sign, all the flyers of all the different groups and we block walk everybody. Once our endorsement is done, as I said, we shift only the endorse candidates and then our endorsement guide goes to everybody, all the 10,000 people. So that has a big impact and we have had incredible result. 80% of the island is now voting Republican. We have 60% of participation instead of the regular 30%. And it impacts all of our area because those votes in that quality of vote, in that proportion of participation shifts the balance in the county. So it has had a big impact.
Jenny Beth Martin (50:02):
And do you think that you're handling activism a bit differently than other groups similar to yours, whether it's a tea party or Republican club? I know oftentimes it's usually left to the candidate to campaign and the groups will get us involved.
Suzanne Guggenheim (50:22):
That's right. None of them has ever done what we do. The Republican party sometime for the general election does not get involved at all in the primaries. And for the general election, we maybe do one or two block walking during the whole campaign season. We do it all the time and we do it systematically. And we don't do it just on the island. Of course, the island, I always say we need to do it first because we want to do it fully because because of the numbers it impacts everybody else. But then we have members throughout the county and even out of the county from neighboring counties. So then we give them material to go and do it also in the area. So we do it all the time, but we were the only one that does it systematically, not just once or twice during the season.
Jenny Beth Martin (51:17):
Do you know how many of your endorsed candidates win? Have you calculated
Suzanne Guggenheim (51:21):
That? Pretty much all of them. Last primaries at the last primaries, we lost two or three and that we really did want and that were Texas Supreme Court of Appeal and Texas Supreme Court. And then luckily we lost them to candidate that were very weak and that were supported by the governor with a lot of help and a lot of money. And that was our worst losses, one or two state positions we lost. But pretty much all the rest we always won and the general election we've done also very well.
Jenny Beth Martin (52:10):
That is great. Well, I think that we've learned a lot about you, a lot about your history and a lot about how you've taken the lessons in your life, which is quite an amazing life, Suzanne, and continued. And you've pretty much been an activist since the day the doctor told your mom. The Americans have landed, I mean from the moment you were born. So you have been involved in some sort of activism
Suzanne Guggenheim (52:42):
And it's true. And from the time I went into the university, I realized that I needed to really get active, but it is truly, and I was more than many will do their whole life. But it is really when the Tea party started. And I remember saying it's like I have a calling, I have to do that. And I know I did it and my husband and my daughter helped a lot at the beginning, but then they got pretty upset that I spent so much time on it. And it was instead of taking care of them, which it was and it was not. But it just that feeling that it had to be done. And I would not sleep if I felt I did not do what I feel needs to be done so
Jenny Beth Martin (53:38):
Well. Your shirt says, pray for our country and God bless America. And I think that there are many of us around the country who felt called, who felt compelled. I have certainly felt that way. And I felt when the country shut down over covid the same, I could not. I was being called to do something and I knew that I was using the gifts and talents that God gave me and that I had developed throughout my life and that I had to use them during that time. And that's what you've done. And I think that's what many people around the country feel right now. And I hope this reminds them and lets them know they're not alone. They're not crazy to be active. It's a hard road and we don't always have winds, but we can't stop.
Suzanne Guggenheim (54:32):
And I think that coal has, and for many of us expanded it to realizing how much we need to return also to our Christian values. I was raised a Catholic, but it was not the center of my preoccupation. And I remember when we started in 2020, in fact, to have revival groups and all that, and I had a lot of pastors and all that. And I remember doing that first opening prayer the first time and say, how can I, of all people have been raised as a Catholic, Catholic, don't lead prayers. You listen to Priest does it? How can I of all people do an opening prayer, but I feel there's a need to do this. And I was so grateful to all the pastor to join in and help us do that. And we did that for months every weekend because you feel that your country is going in a place you don't want it to go. And you have to do everything that's in your power to stop the sleep.
Jenny Beth Martin (55:52):
That is right. And I think that we've seen that from people who are Christians and also from our Jewish patriots as well. Tea Pretty Patriots was co-founded. One of our co-founders is Mark Meckler, and he was Jewish and we've had some amazing Jewish people who have stepped up and have been incredibly active as well. And I think that they have gone back to their faith as well. So it is something that the whole person, and it takes all of us to be able to save this country. Well, thank you so much, Suzanne, for being part of this and telling us your story and sharing it with Americans and the people who listen to the Jenny best,
Suzanne Guggenheim (56:38):
But also thanks to you because without you, the Tea Party movement would not have done what it has done and still does and influence the politics of the country and hopefully help to save it. So thank you.
Jenny Beth Martin (56:54):
Well, thank you. And I really appreciate that. And I couldn't have done it without you and your board and all the people who have helped you and helped the entire movement along the way. So thank you as well.
Narrator (57:06):
The Jenny Beth Show is hosted by Jenny Beth Martin, produced by Kevin Mohan and directed by Luke Livingston. The Jenny Beth Show is a production of Tea Party Patriots Action Patriot. For more information, visit tea party patriots.org.
Jenny Beth Martin (57:26):
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