Jenny Beth sits down with Connie Hair, the Louisiana State Director for the State Freedom Caucus Network. Connie is a rock star who served as Congressman Louie Gohmert's Chief of Staff in Washington, DC for years. She is a conservative warrior and her efforts to build the State Freedom Caucus in Louisiana's legislature is having a tremendous impact.
Jenny Beth sits down with Connie Hair, the Louisiana State Director for the State Freedom Caucus Network. Connie is a rock star who served as Congressman Louie Gohmert's Chief of Staff in Washington, DC for years. She is a conservative warrior and her efforts to build the State Freedom Caucus in Louisiana's legislature is having a tremendous impact.
Website: https://lafreedomcaucus.substack.com/
Twitter: @ConnieHair @JennyBethM
Connie Hair (00:00):
I am going to get better and we, the Freedom Caucus, are going to get better at putting the tools in the hands of the people who care about this country, who love this country and want to see us succeed.
Narrator (00:14):
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 (00:47):
I'm Jenny Beth Martin with the Jenny Beth Show, and today I have a very special guest. She's a friend and she is a strong conservative. Her name is Connie Hare. I first met her when she was a
Connie Hair (00:58):
Congressman
Jenny Beth Martin (00:59):
Louisie Gilmer chief of Staff, and today she's the state director
Connie Hair (01:03):
For
Jenny Beth Martin (01:04):
Louisiana for the State Freedom Caucus Network. Connie, thanks so much for joining me today.
Connie Hair (01:09):
It's great to be here. Jenny Beth, I'm loving seeing you. It's been a while
Jenny Beth Martin (01:12):
And in your home state like where you grew up, right? Amen.
Connie Hair (01:15):
Oh yeah.
Jenny Beth Martin (01:16):
So it's really good to be here in Louisiana. You've shown us around, made sure that we are eating really well
Connie Hair (01:22):
Fed,
Jenny Beth Martin (01:23):
And you are back in Louisiana after being in Washington DC You were Louis' chief for how many
Connie Hair (01:30):
Years? 12 years. For 12
Jenny Beth Martin (01:32):
Years. And I still
Connie Hair (01:34):
Have my hair,
Jenny Beth Martin (01:36):
Which is more than he can say exactly, but in fairness, I dunno that he had it when he started in that position. So I'm not quite sure about that. But he really is one of the greatest congressmen, in my opinion of all time. I love, and you were so lucky to be able to work for him.
Connie Hair (01:56):
Yes, I was. He is the kind of legislator that he is thoughtful. He reads the bills, and once he makes up his mind, you can't change it. No one can change it. Not John Boehner, not Paul Ryan, not anyone, not Jim Jordan, because he will never vote away on a bill that he cannot, from his heart explain to his constituents, and he always could. And that was the secret to success. No one understood that about Louis. He always could explain even the tough votes, why he voted the way he voted. And so that was the secret to his success. That's why he was so popular with the people.
Jenny Beth Martin (02:41):
And he wasn't in it to a mask, read wealth or to move up in political power or whatever else might
Connie Hair (02:51):
Motivate people Congress
Jenny Beth Martin (02:53):
To be there
Connie Hair (02:54):
Every year.
Jenny Beth Martin (02:55):
And he slept in his office too. Yeah, he did. When he slept, which wasn't very often. Not in
Connie Hair (03:00):
DC
Jenny Beth Martin (03:01):
Especially when you're reading all the bills, you don't get a lot of time. But I think that it is amazing that now that he's no longer in Washington DC and I miss him there as much as you, I don't even like going to Washington without being able to go hang out with the two of you. But now that he's no longer there, you're here. And this is so cool what you're doing here. Talk about what the State Freedom Caucus Network is
Connie Hair (03:28):
And what it's doing
Jenny Beth Martin (03:29):
In Louisiana and in other states around the country.
Connie Hair (03:32):
Well, the State Freedom Caucus Network was put together by the same people who formed the Freedom Caucus at Congress. Justin Ette, who you know well, he stood up the Freedom Caucus at the house and he left the federal government to form this network of states where we helped the state legislators. What most people don't understand is the state legislators for the most part are part-time. They are in Louisiana. They make a whopping $17,000 a year, and they have to be in a job where they can leave that position for however long the session is that year or the special sessions or the veto override sessions in Louisiana, the house doesn't even have offices. They have a desk on the floor. They don't really have staff. They have a budget of $23,000
Jenny Beth Martin (04:26):
A year
Connie Hair (04:27):
For all of their staff and their office space in their district and everything.
Jenny Beth Martin (04:32):
You
Connie Hair (04:32):
Can't hire a lawyer or a legislative staffer for that kind of money. So a lot of the conservatives, all of the conservatives were flying blind. When you have the rhinos with the levers of power and they all get lawyers to read their bills, the last speaker even gave the Democrats five lawyers, but the conservatives had no one. They have to take the word of fellow legislators who might be on the committee that that particular bill is on. They're not on that committee, so they don't know the nuts and bolts of it. So what the Freedom Caucus is about is giving them professional staff for the first time. And that's what I did. I came here, started drinking out of a fire hose when the session started. I broke down, read all of the bills. I did a bill breakdown on all of them, and I made recommendations on the next days bills and why it is I was 3, 4, 5 o'clock in the morning sometimes getting the vote recs out to the legislatures, but they've never had that.
(05:37):
And how can you vote on something when you're not afforded the ability to even understand what you're voting on? And you have to take leadership's word for it, which they don't necessarily have your district's interests at heart. They're juggling many political balls. And we've all seen that in Congress, and it's even more sad here on a state level when you don't even have an office and even basic minimum staff that you do in Congress. You know what I'm saying? So they were floored when they saw what a professional staffer could do and hand them every day so they could understand what they're voting on. And it is just been the most rewarding experience. I love these people here. I grew up here. I love Baton Rouge, I love Louisiana. I've always loved it, and I think it's a very unique time when we have a new incoming governor, Jeff Landry should, for all intents and purposes be our next governor. I say that with great hope for the future of Louisiana because as we've seen it in the attorney general slot with him, he has backbone. He stands up, he does what's right, and it comes from a principled set of values, not preaching to anyone but core values that made this country strong. The problem that we face today is most people don't know what liberty and freedom are.
Jenny Beth Martin (07:05):
Yes or
Connie Hair (07:06):
True, Connie. It's how you go about keeping them
Jenny Beth Martin (07:09):
Well. How can you keep it if you don't even know what it is
Connie Hair (07:11):
Exactly. So that core set of principles is what has always undergirded freedom and liberty. And we taught that in schools. We taught that to our children. We taught that to the community. Doesn't happen anymore. And I believe it's by design. It's been a long slow march through the institutions for Marxism, and we're now seeing very seriously damaging fruits of that effort. And the state legislatures are particularly vulnerable because they don't have, they're understaffed, underpaid, they don't have any. So that's what the Freedom Caucus plans to do around the country. We're in probably 15 states by the end of this year, and we plan on growing until we have all of them.
Jenny Beth Martin (08:01):
I think that that is truly amazing. Now, in defensive seat governments, it's good that they're not overpaying the legislators and you want to keep the, we are in favor of small governments, so that is not a bad thing. It is difficult though, if you're paying them that for part-time legislature, and then you have a governor who calls multiple sessions, so it winds up turning into a full-time job. That salary is very difficult for anyone as a full-time, full-time position. Or if they're running a business, they could potentially lose their business because they're here all the time. So it takes a lot of risk to be able to step up and do that. But setting that part aside, not having the researchers and the people who can understand how to write a bill, how to understand what a new bill means and how it's affecting other parts of the state code, that it's really important information if you're going to vote in an intelligent manner.
Connie Hair (09:07):
And the fact that most of these people come with just the enthusiasm and the just glowing, okay, now I'm here to make a difference and to become solus disillusioned so quickly because you aren't taught even when you walk in the door, the legislative process, which I mean, I'm just a bill and I'm only a bill and I'm sitting on Capitol Hill. That was a great video, but that's in theory how it's supposed to work. And when you are faced with the reality of the machinations behind the scenes, it's eyeopening and disheartening. Some people become afraid and just go along with, oh, I'm just going to do what leadership tells me. Well, that's where you get corruption. That's where you get the process. Not working for the people becomes about protecting your political machine. And it's a shame that that's been going on for a hundred years in Louisiana. It's never been more ripe for a change, though, at least in my lifetime than it is right now because Jeff Landry offers great promise. The Freedom Caucus is out there. I mean, we made quite an impact this first year, 19. People have never stood up and voted against their leadership, the budget, busting a budget. Nothing ever. I mean, people back in DC when they say, oh my gosh, y'all got all of you and more with you. It was like,
Jenny Beth Martin (10:41):
I can't believe it. Because usually that's Louisiana. In dc you're lucky if you get four or five or 20 out of 40 or 50 to do what you expected.
Connie Hair (10:53):
It was fabulous. So it was a real shot in the arm. And when they saw what came at them after they made that vote, and then the people were able to see what happened with the retribution, because the last day was chaos. And when they passed the budget busting bill, like two days before a Signy die, Signy die here is by constitutional mandate. That's the Latin term for adjourning with no set date to come back. They had to be out June 8th at 6:00 PM That was a lesson in what not to do in the legislature. They were trying so hard in the day and a half that they had to retaliate against the 19 that they were reading manifests that just said, okay, Bossier City. Well, the Bossier City people didn't vote for us, so we're pulling everything. They pulled the repair, this contracted repair of a bridge over the Mississippi River. They were pulling projects like that without even knowing what it was. They just saw a line item that said for the person they were trying to punish. So they pulled the funding that it was insane. It took 11 days to figure out what amendments affected what
Jenny Beth Martin (12:19):
Part
Connie Hair (12:20):
Of what bill, not the permanent effect of what the amendment did, just to figure out what amendments went to what page and affected what segment of what bill. It was complete and utter chaos. And it just, oh, the shockwaves that went through this state when you had things like a million dollars for a dog charity in the budget, but they took $500,000 out of fixing badly needed roads. And
Jenny Beth Martin (12:54):
I think what, Sue, I hope that people, one thing that after having been here for a couple days, and I've done several different interviews with people in Louisiana now, I hope that the voters understand that if you didn't get the
Connie Hair (13:07):
Repairs
Jenny Beth Martin (13:08):
That you needed for your roads and bridges and your community, you can't be angry at the people who voted against that bill. You got to be angry at the people who voted for the bill, who were willing to hose you and your local community and bridges and roads rather than the people who were standing up for you. The ones who voted no, those 19, they
Connie Hair (13:27):
Were the ones
Jenny Beth Martin (13:28):
Who were with you. They weren't the ones pulling the bad stuff out. That wasn't them. It's the people who voted for it.
Connie Hair (13:34):
They were the heroes in all of this. They stood strong and said, because what people are missing here is that a lot of it is that they ended up spending almost $2 billion more when they busted the caps. And that was money. That was because of Covid, and that was money because of a half of 45 cent sales tax increase that's supposed to sunset in two years. Well, they want to spend it all like drunken sailors. And that was an insult to drunken sailors. I mean, it's all on video on the Louisiana Legislature's website. You can see that last day, the last hour of the last day is a lesson in what not to do. But most people don't understand that that is money. That wasn't a surplus. That's we're going to have every year because of some great governance that was leftover covid money that wasn't spent, that should not have been then spent. And then it was also that 45 cents sales tax that's going to sunset. So they were wanting to do things that were recurring spending in this budget. So you're not going to have that covid money coming in anymore. You're not going to have that 45 cent sales tax they want to keep at the big spenders, but it just showed that it wasn't needed in the first place,
(14:52):
And you've got some real problems in Louisiana. So throwing money at it, as we've all learned with everything in government, is not the solution. So it was a spending orgy of just bankrupting what was sitting there that could have all responsibly been put into, we have pension funds in this state that we are paying tens of millions of dollars a year in interest alone, that we could have paid off one of them. And they didn't do it. They wanted to spend it on band uniforms for colleges. And when you look at what was spent in that orgy after we finally found out two weeks after it was voted on, what was in it, it was shocking some of the things that they spent on. So it should have been responsibly done. And that's what the Freedom Caucus led the movement to do was to spend that on debt that would've freed up money every year now that you have to do even more. So it was a real shame, but I'm very proud of the Freedom Caucus for being the agent of change that brought about that vote that it's going to resonate. And now that we have an incoming governor, prayerfully, if Jesus doesn't come back before this, well,
Jenny Beth Martin (16:18):
And if everyone who's listening actually goes to vote, so if you live in Louisiana, you have to vote because it's not a done deal until you vote. So vote,
Connie Hair (16:26):
Vote, vote, vote, vote like your life depends on it because it does. This state's life depends on it. We have people moving out of the state left and right because there's no jobs. It was shocking. Moving back here, I lived in one of the most expensive areas in the world to live Washington DC area. My car insurance was twice as much. Here it is $2,000 a year for my car insurance here. That's because we don't have tort reform. I know that those are bad words, but you have to have responsibility in anything you do. When I moved here, my house insurance was twice as much. It was $2,000 a year. Then the most expensive area in the country, one of them. That was stunning. When I moved to Louisiana, I had to pay sales tax again on my car, on my car, $1,500 just to get a license plate.
(17:28):
That's shocking. How are you going to get people to work here, move here and work when the first hit they take is thousands of dollars to register their car? Because if I would've bought a car here, I could understand repaying the sales tax on my car. But that is insane. That is insane. So I have great hopes for the people coming in with the Freedom Caucus, the people that the Freedom Caucus Pac has endorsed. When I saw that list, I went, oh yeah, we got it. We got a great, you can't just join the Freedom Caucus. You have to be invited and you are background vetted if you have ever held office, we look at every vote. I'm telling you,
Jenny Beth Martin (18:09):
One of
Connie Hair (18:10):
The strangest things I've ever done was when going through this session with the Freedom Caucus, I had to make an Excel spreadsheet of how every member of the Freedom Caucus voted on every bill. It's the unity spread it's called. And every proposed current office holder, I had to do a spread on how they voted. Now, they will do all of that before they will look at that and research even further back before they even invite someone to come into the Freedom Caucus. You have to be the ones that are going to stand, plant the flag and say, take your best shot.
Jenny Beth Martin (18:47):
Right. Well, and the fact is, we need that so desperately at the state level, and we need to know that we're not going to win in Washington DC and have the change that we want to affect in Washington DC if we don't have more people in Washington DC who understand what happens and how the legislative process works so that they can change what's broken.
(19:14):
And so having these networks at the state level is so very important because there are kind of two schools of thought sometimes in the grassroots movement and just in constituency world, so not elected official where it's either you have lifelong politicians or you're just brand new and you've never run for office. Well, someone who's been in office for years does not necessarily mean that they are a bad person or that they can't vote the right way and protect liberty and learning how the process works at a legislative level. So you can go to Washington DC and withstand the pressure in DC is so very important. And some of the strongest members in Washington DC of the House Freedom Caucus are people who actually have been elected before. Like Louis was a judge. Andy Biggs was. He was the speaker of the house in Arizona. So they know how things are done and it makes it easier to get there and withstand all of that pressure. So this helps prepare people and sharpens iron.
Connie Hair (20:26):
It's a farm team and in some respects for Congress to bring up legislators who understand the process. The left beats us on process every time we get out there and we spout all of the right principles,
(20:41):
But they beat us on process. We have to know how things work, what the legislative tricks that can be played, what's in the bill, and how it can be changed, and how we get the changes we want and need in that bill to make it something that's palatable. That's something that doesn't grow government. If you don't know that you can go down to the floor and offer certain amendments or what the process is to throw a gum in the works until you get someone to pay attention, you can't win. You have to know process, and you have to have the guts to actually stand up when everyone's groaning.
Jenny Beth Martin (21:24):
Freedom
Connie Hair (21:25):
Caucus. Freedom Caucus on the floor. That was a big thing because when someone would stand up with a principled stand, everybody started Freedom Caucus. Freedom Caucus. But you know what? That's a badge of honor.
Jenny Beth Martin (21:38):
That's right.
Connie Hair (21:38):
It is
Jenny Beth Martin (21:39):
It a badge of honor. Is there anything that is equivalent of the State Freedom Caucus network on the left? Have you encountered anything like that?
Connie Hair (21:50):
No, I haven't. But the left, they populate the bureaucracy.
Jenny Beth Martin (21:57):
Oh, okay.
Connie Hair (21:58):
So it's hard to, even as Donald Trump found out, even when you get good policy through even getting them to enact it at the bureaucracy level. So here we have had instances honestly, where the bureaucracy that writes the bills here, they're all old lefties leftover from the Edwin Edwards days. The joke I told earlier, they will intentionally write bad bills for the conservative issues and the conservative members. So when the bills get to committee, everybody can make fun of them and how they're unconstitutional
Jenny Beth Martin (22:41):
And
Connie Hair (22:41):
They don't know what they're doing. I mean, that's all intentional.
(22:45):
But when we have the Freedom Caucus people to look at the bills and to help get bills authored, and they do that at the national level, they will do that for the State Freedom Caucus to make sure that you have a lockdown bill on the things that are really important in your state. And one of them that was really messed up intentionally a couple of years ago was for the children's being sex change surgeries on children. We call it the Child Mutilation bill here. And it was laughed out of committee because they had done such a poor job intentionally of drafting it for the member who was bringing it. So I think it's really important to have professional people
Jenny Beth Martin (23:31):
For
Connie Hair (23:31):
These people to count on and to know that their efforts are not going to be belittled, they can't be, they're serious efforts and that these people are equipped to do what they need to do. When you have the bureaucracy like the left does, they hold your hand all the way through. You don't have to be on your own. You're not on your own. You've got the entire network of bureaucrats helping you. That's not the case with conservatives. We usually are the ones that are, who are doing building businesses and working in our communities and employing people and stuff. They're less likely to go into government. So it's harder.
Jenny Beth Martin (24:12):
So what are the things that surprised you the most as you began this in Louisiana?
Connie Hair (24:19):
Well, state government and state legislatures, the way they do, it's completely different than Congress. They actually go from the start to the end and take every bill through a committee. They assign it to a committee, every single bill. What that didn't happen in Congress.
(24:40):
Of course, the little, I'm just a bill and I'm only a bill sitting on Capitol Hill. You always thought it did, but it didn't, doesn't here it's more personal. I mean, every bill comes is read in and then it's assigned to a committee. Now whether it's brought up, they bring every single one up, but they do all their little machinations to involuntarily refer it to another committee and another committee. And that's how they kill it here. And it is never brought to the floor because it's hung up in committee. So it was just completely different the way things are done here. But it is easier in a lot of ways to get into the face of your person because they're more local. And I love more local government. I wish everything was at the state level. And it was back to just a very few things being under the purview of the federal government because our individual states have different needs, wants and desires, but they're all undergirded by constitutional principles. So that's why when you have things like states, they govern marriage states, govern driver's licenses, states govern things that are more personal to the people, but I would argue a lot more things are more personal. We don't need a department of education in the federal government.
Jenny Beth Martin (26:06):
No,
Connie Hair (26:07):
No. It should be state level. And then again, within those states as we're learning here, it should be parish level or county level. If you're not Louisiana, that is closer to being transparent to the people. And so I think that that's very important. So that was something that was very exciting to be here and to be a part of that. People, good hearted people down here really want Louisiana to do better. We're 49th or 50th in economics, in growth in education. And it's all simply because self-interested people are spending the state's money and doing the things that empower the people who give them money. Like the teacher's unions. We don't necessarily have that much of a teacher's union problem in Louisiana. The problem is that we have had bad leadership for decades, and we have not done the things that would allow parents more control and competition in schools that would have better outcomes. We have some really, really seriously challenged areas like New Orleans
Jenny Beth Martin (27:30):
That
Connie Hair (27:32):
How do you deal with that mess because they aren't even trying on a local level to have the process empowered by the parents and the people. I know it's much easier to raise your kids when the government does it for you, but you won't like the outcome.
Jenny Beth Martin (27:53):
No, you won't like the outcome. But I think that oftentimes it's not so much that parents are looking for the government to raise their kids, it's that the parents are having to figure out how they're going to make ends meet. So if you have a state that is in severe economic trouble or it doesn't have the major growth that is going on in surrounding states,
Connie Hair (28:14):
It's
Jenny Beth Martin (28:15):
Harder for parents. So it isn't so much that they want the school to raise them, they're just doing all that they can to make sure they're providing for the basic needs of the kids. When you don't have a lot of upward mobility, that becomes more difficult for those parents.
Connie Hair (28:31):
Yeah. I mean, I don't want to throw them under the bus, but the path of least resistance when you're trying to deal with those things is usually what happens. And you're not going to like that outcome.
Jenny Beth Martin (28:42):
And
Connie Hair (28:44):
I think people were so shocked when they saw what their children were being taught during covid when they did online, that it just is started something just at a visceral level for parents to go, that is not okay.
Jenny Beth Martin (29:00):
Don't hurt my kids. You're not allowed to hurt my kids. And that's what's happening. They are actually harming kids at this point. They're not protecting kids.
Connie Hair (29:10):
We have a hospital in New Orleans that is transitioning minors through the L G B T Q, and they are locking parents out.
Jenny Beth Martin (29:21):
I hope that those kids, at
Connie Hair (29:22):
Some point, 13 years old or higher, the parents do not get access to their medical records. We're going to fix that next year.
Jenny Beth Martin (29:30):
It has to be fixed. And then the kids who've been harmed from this are going to have to sue at some point. They're going to have to sue the doctors and the nurses create and the governments and the counselors and school systems who are harming them because that's what's happening. And I've talked to some of the girls, young ladies now who went through that process and are now back to understanding that they really are girls and the physical and mental problems that they've been through. All I want to do is just I'll do whatever I can to help you because you have been abused so much. I don't want to be part of the abuse. I will just do what I can. It makes me so angry on their behalf.
Connie Hair (30:13):
We had a few of them come and testify here, and we did actually get the bill through and it passed. It was vetoed by the governor, but we overwrote.
Jenny Beth Martin (30:21):
It's good that you overwrote it and shame on the governor. Yeah, shame him.
Connie Hair (30:25):
Shame, shame, shame. Because these things are irreversible.
Jenny Beth Martin (30:31):
And
Connie Hair (30:31):
You cannot let a 13 year old child make those kinds of decisions. They can't vote. They can't buy a gun.
Jenny Beth Martin (30:39):
They can't drink alcohol, they can't buy Sudafed. I mean, there's so many things that they can't do,
Connie Hair (30:45):
But they can make the kind of decision to alter their physical body in a way that based upon some crazy notion that they can be another sex. And then you tell them that you can give them a physical appearance of something that they're not doable. You will never take a little boy and make them into a little girl or vice versa. You won't. And it's very sad to confuse these children and to be led down that path. So that was one of the things I was very proud of that actually got through. And we fought through. We forced a special session. It's election year. People were too afraid not to do it. And we got that one, that veto overridden,
Jenny Beth Martin (31:33):
That is so good that that happened. And we just need more like that. We need the courageous votes and the votes that will make a difference. And the votes to get the government out of the way the government is causing some of these kids. And the policies the government has created is causing these kids to be confused, somehow.
Connie Hair (31:54):
Agreed.
Jenny Beth Martin (31:55):
And they need to get out of the way.
Connie Hair (31:57):
Agreed. And I think next year you're going to see in Louisiana, if we do get the governor that most of us vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote. If we do get Jeff Landry and everyone has to get out there, crawl through broken glass to go vote for him, I will be. Then what we need to do is just some basic fundamentals. Money follows the child in school. I think that's going to be crime here. Crime is out of control. I have a friend, I move back here, lifelong friend, he has been carjacked three times and arm robbed four times on the streets of New Orleans.
Jenny Beth Martin (32:34):
Wow.
Connie Hair (32:36):
I mean, it is insane that number one, that he's still alive. God love him. Can you imagine being arm robbed four times and carjacked three times if it happened once. That so
Jenny Beth Martin (32:47):
Impactful. Yeah, that would move. I'd be like, that was one time too many going to find somewhere else to live.
Connie Hair (32:54):
No, but that's how bad New Orleans is. Thousands and thousands of cars are stolen every month. It is crazy.
Jenny Beth Martin (33:03):
Well, and that's part of why your car insurance goes up as well.
Connie Hair (33:06):
That is exactly it. And the rest of it is because of lawsuits and our billboard lawyers, God love 'em. They got to make a living. But we got to look at this realistically
(33:17):
About the impact that it's having. I think that if somebody's at fault, they should have their socks suit off like the doctors who are transitioning children. I'm not against a good lawsuit, but I just think that there are so many things that need to be fixed here, and I think that we have a great opportunity to do it next year starting with the education. Because I'm telling you, when you have businesses looking at where they're going to relocate, when you don't have a good education system for their children, how are you going to attract people to move here or just start a business here or big industry? To me, they're moving out to places all over the south, not Louisiana, because we have a Democrat governor. We have had a Democrat governor for eight years who has completely destroyed literally everything. Incentive for anyone to want to move a business here.
Jenny Beth Martin (34:07):
So money, follow the kids, fix the education problem. Crime insurance.
Connie Hair (34:14):
Yeah. Insurance is a huge problem here because you were talking about struggling to make ends meet. Imagine having a $4,000 a year and that's with no tickets, no accidents between your house in your car.
Jenny Beth Martin (34:31):
You're
Connie Hair (34:31):
Paying $4,000 a year in insurance.
Jenny Beth Martin (34:33):
It's almost $500 a month. Yeah, yeah.
Connie Hair (34:35):
That's a car note,
Jenny Beth Martin (34:36):
Right?
Connie Hair (34:37):
Okay. You can't have a healthy just atmosphere when you're saddling people with that much cost out of the gate. How are you supposed to raise a family
(34:49):
When you're paying that much just for insurance? It's not that there aren't reasons behind it. I'm not saying that the insurance companies are coming and reaming everybody. No. There are a lot of things, hurricanes. There are a lot of things that happen here, but there's also a lot of unnecessary reasons why this and crime is a huge part of it. So crime is something that soon to be, hopefully Governor Landry will be addressing strongly. He understands that he's a former cop, the ag, so that will be a big, big, big step forward. A lot of it has to do, we have Soros, das here, big one in Shreveport, which has now become one of the top 10 most dangerous cities in the United States. We will be looking to be able to enforce the law, and if people aren't going to enforce the law, then there are repercussions.
Jenny Beth Martin (35:50):
Right.
Connie Hair (35:50):
Okay. So enforcing the law is probably paramount to that effort. I don't want to speak for Governor Landry, but I know that that law enforcement is going to be a big deal. I don't know if most people probably don't know this, but when Katrina happened and New Orleans was so devastated, they found out that almost half of the New Orleans police force did not exist. That's how corrupt it was.
Jenny Beth Martin (36:17):
Wow. Yeah, they did not exist. So the money, where was the money that peed? It
Connie Hair (36:23):
Was paying people who weren't police officers.
Jenny Beth Martin (36:25):
Wow. Yeah.
Connie Hair (36:29):
The level of corruption.
Jenny Beth Martin (36:33):
It is stunning.
Connie Hair (36:37):
Yeah. But no one went to jail for that. Well, the governor, excuse me, the mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagan did end up going to jail, but not for that. There are things that have to be changed here, and I think that we are finally going to have the people with the knowledge, the experience, the courage and the expertise to stand up to all of this garbage. Imagine. Could you imagine taking a paycheck as a cop? And you're just not one.
Jenny Beth Martin (37:14):
I'm saying I just don't,
Connie Hair (37:17):
I don't understand that, Jim.
Jenny Beth Martin (37:19):
I don't get it. I mean,
Connie Hair (37:22):
I would be afraid. I would go to prison. I'm going to get caught.
Jenny Beth Martin (37:26):
Well, that's what happens when people don't enforce the law, but when the people who are taking the money are the ones who claim to be enforcing the law and they're not. I don't know what you do. No.
Connie Hair (37:35):
Yeah, you put them in jail. I just think we're about to have a comeuppance here and it's long overdue. And the people in Louisiana are so good and friendly and welcoming and hospitable, and they work hard.
(37:52):
We don't need this garbage. They don't deserve to be treated this way. And I think it's a lack of information in the legislature. It's a lack of information about everybody thinks he's a great guy. But no, let's look at, I'm going to show you how they voted. That's what we're going to make sure you know about these legislators. Part of what the Freedom Caucus does when we recruit people to run for office and you're running against a fellow Republican, it's because of his voting record. I can't tell you how many legislators came up to me. I can't believe I didn't get an invitation to be in the Freedom Call. I got the most conservative, I'm the most conservative member of the legislature. No, you're not. And they're like, yes, I'm the most conservative. You tell me where I'm not conservative. I said, have you looked at your voting record?
Jenny Beth Martin (38:44):
That's
Connie Hair (38:44):
Why you didn't get an invitation. Your voting record, they don't lie. Your voting record doesn't lie. So that's our standard. And so we're going to get a new level of candidate and we're going to get a new level of accountability for the office holder. If you are voting in a way that you are telling your people you're not voting, we're going to show you,
Jenny Beth Martin (39:11):
We're
Connie Hair (39:12):
Going to show you votes.
Jenny Beth Martin (39:14):
That's very good. Yeah. The average person in Louisiana wants to follow the voting records. Are you guys posting this on a website anywhere for the average person to check it out?
Connie Hair (39:29):
We will be. I got here in February. You
Jenny Beth Martin (39:34):
Had to get it all up and going. I was drinking from a
Connie Hair (39:36):
Fire hose trying to break down all the bills before the legislature went into session in March, April. It was insane. So right now, I'm in the process of getting better process in place before we have the, I'm doing the Unity spread as I go along. Now at the end of session, I had to go back and do that whole spreadsheet of how everyone voted. That was insane. So we're getting a better process. I don't know that we'll be doing everybody, but we'll be doing the people who are key players,
Jenny Beth Martin (40:12):
People
Connie Hair (40:13):
Who claim to be conservative and ran as a conservative. I think I'll be paying special attention to those
Jenny Beth Martin (40:21):
Folks. And maybe even that part isn't as important as just making sure that people understand these are the bills we're watching the most closely, and here's why we're watching and what we're looking out for.
Connie Hair (40:31):
And here's your person who said that they supported this. We got people flat out lying on the,
Jenny Beth Martin (40:36):
Well, they're the most conservative people, of course,
Connie Hair (40:39):
But they're flat out lying about where they still on the bill.
Jenny Beth Martin (40:42):
They said,
Connie Hair (40:42):
Well, I was on that bill. Well, no, you're not. There's two people's names on 'em and they're both Freedom Caucus members. Your name is not
Jenny Beth Martin (40:47):
On it. You did not
Connie Hair (40:48):
Support that bill. So I mean, just flat out outline. I'm getting ready to write an article about it on some of them. I'm not kidding you. It's just flat out line because people don't know where to go and dig on the website and find it. So eventually, yeah, we'll have a lot of things there, but we have LA Freedom caucus.com
Jenny Beth Martin (41:09):
Goes
Connie Hair (41:09):
To our CK and we put up our press releases there for now. We will have a lot of different things going on as we process forward. It's going to change. It's going to be a moving, growing entity. I have got people I'm trying to attract to come here from the Nationals. I've talked to you about one of them. And to be able to give that level of professionalism to all different levels of this, because it takes a lot of different things to put an effort together that not only gives legislature and the support they need, and they can take those vote recommendations and hand them out to their colleagues and say, look, this is why this is important. That's all one operation. But the rest of it, at least from the Freedom Caucus level, is getting the messaging out and getting the information out to
Jenny Beth Martin (42:09):
The
Connie Hair (42:09):
Public on all of that. And that's a whole nother level of thing. That's the ledge and the Comm shop and all of the different things. And remember, these people don't have the money to hire
Jenny Beth Martin (42:20):
Your personal staff staff and they don't have the staff. So I think what you're doing is amazing. I mean, I think you've already done amazing things and the opportunity to help inform the constituency in the state and help improve bills so that we help fix what's wrong with the Louisiana.
Connie Hair (42:41):
It's
Jenny Beth Martin (42:41):
Very important.
Connie Hair (42:42):
Well, there's a separate entity that is the Louisiana Freedom Caucus Pac,
Jenny Beth Martin (42:47):
And
Connie Hair (42:47):
They're doing a lot of the vetting of candidates. You're not promised to be a Freedom Caucus member. If you get an endorsement from the pac, you still have to go through the vetting and the invitation and be voted in by the current members, by the way. But it's incredible. People are already asking for who are your slate? And they go to their website. We get all the time, I need to know who the Freedom Caucus is going to be. So I know who to vote for and well, we don't know who they're going to be yet. They have to go, if you're elected, you have to go through the process. But here, the people who are made public, and you do not have to be public, by the way. And it was kind of advantageous this year. We did not announce only the leadership announced, and that was Alan Al was our president and still is our chairman, excuse me. And Bar La Day is the secretary treasurer, and one of the guys who is Larry Freeman, he's running for judge. So he's abandoning us.
Jenny Beth Martin (43:52):
Well, we need good judges in this country.
Connie Hair (43:54):
He's a great guy and really smart, and I just, we're going to miss him terribly. But what we also had the ability to do a few faints and reuses and things, they didn't know how many of us there were.
Jenny Beth Martin (44:10):
And
Connie Hair (44:10):
So that worked to our advantage. But all of them are out now. They've all stepped forward proudly. I'm a Freedom Caucus member running for office. And of the 39, I think that the Freedom Caucus Pac has now endorsed, that gives an entire tray of people to go and interview and talk to. Most of those are the new people too. That's not the current office holders. Most of them are not current office holders.
Jenny Beth Martin (44:41):
That's really important. So if you're listening and you live in Louisiana, make sure you're checking that out before you cash your ballot, cash your vote on election day.
Connie Hair (44:52):
Early voting starts the 30th of September and it goes for a week. And then we have Voting Day is October 14th. That is our jungle primary. And the hope and prayer is that some of our really, really good conservative stalwarts can get through. So everybody needs to get out and vote can get through in that first round so they can get out and help others across the finish line.
Jenny Beth Martin (45:22):
That's very important.
Connie Hair (45:24):
So we need all of our Republicans, our independents, all of our conservatives out there voting and vote. There's no tomorrow because there isn't
Jenny Beth Martin (45:32):
Including voting for a very conservative candidate for governor.
Connie Hair (45:36):
Yes, Jeff Landry. Now, I just love Jeff. There's several candidates I could live with, but Jeff's a unique opportunity.
Jenny Beth Martin (45:45):
He is, and he's strong, and he's been willing to stand up.
Connie Hair (45:51):
We've seen him at every level. We've seen him in Congress, we've seen him, Jenny Beth, we've seen him everywhere, and he has always been the same.
Jenny Beth Martin (45:59):
And
Connie Hair (46:00):
You can't say that about most politicians. That was why we love Louis so much. Never changed. You could always count on him. You knew how he was going to vote. You knew what he was going to do because he would tell you and he never changed.
Jenny Beth Martin (46:14):
And you may not even necessarily agree. When you have people like that, you may not always agree with the way that they vote, but you can respect them because you understand that they're firm in their convictions. I can even respect people on the other side of the political aisle who are that way. I may not respect what they're standing for,
Connie Hair (46:36):
But I
Jenny Beth Martin (46:36):
Can respect the fact that they are strong in their convictions. They believe it. It's the people who are just, they just sort of go, whichever way the wind blows that drive
Connie Hair (46:45):
Me.
Jenny Beth Martin (46:45):
Yeah.
Connie Hair (46:46):
Yeah. And that's killing this country right now. It is. This is blatant, but not to the degree that they'd sacrifice everything else in the world to better themselves. And that's who most of these people are. Your Chuck Schumers, your power Hungry Nancy. I would put John Bainer in that category. Paul Ryan. I would put, it's not just Democrats. There's Republicans out the wazoo. I would put on that,
Jenny Beth Martin (47:15):
Right,
Connie Hair (47:16):
That list.
Jenny Beth Martin (47:16):
And Peter Schweitzer's written great books about this.
Connie Hair (47:21):
It's not that it's unknown, but now is the time to stand up and do something about it. We have more information we've ever had today. I mean, can you imagine when you were starting Tea Party Patriots, if you had all the information that we have today, how much further along you would've been out of the gate? We have no excuses now.
Jenny Beth Martin (47:41):
Right?
Connie Hair (47:42):
Okay. Everything's online. So I know we don't have time always to go in and dig through people's voting records. That's my job. But I am going to get better and we, the Freedom Caucus are going to get better at putting the tools in the hands of the people who care about this country, who love this country and want to see us succeed, not the ones that are trying to destroy it in any manner they can. I mean, you know that,
Jenny Beth Martin (48:14):
Right?
Connie Hair (48:14):
You've seen it firsthand.
Jenny Beth Martin (48:16):
Sadly, I wish I hadn't.
Connie Hair (48:18):
Yeah, I know. It's kind of hard to come back from that, isn't it? It's, it just got to change issue.
Jenny Beth Martin (48:23):
And in fact, there are times when I think that I've learned a new level of hell, like a new ringing of hell when I
Connie Hair (48:30):
Dante.
Jenny Beth Martin (48:31):
Yeah. I am just like, oh, wow. It's even worse than I thought. Here's another whole layer of it. But you can't just get overwhelmed with the bad. You have to understand it exists. And sometimes it's pure evil what you're looking at, like the child mutilation. And then you have to go, okay, I'm going to do everything in my power to fix it. It might just be casting the vote for the right person so that you get the right person elected or researching it or making calls to the members of Congress or your local or state elected officials
Connie Hair (49:02):
Are arming, like we're doing, arming people with information so they know how to make the proper decisions.
Jenny Beth Martin (49:09):
And there's so many different opportunities for activism and engagement, but you can't let the bad discourage. You have to let it become a force that motivates you for good.
Connie Hair (49:23):
What I think a lot of people have lost sight of by design, by our corrupt education system, we are a self-governing people, self-governing,
Jenny Beth Martin (49:33):
Governing,
Connie Hair (49:34):
And citizenship comes with responsibility. If you aren't out there learning about how you're going to vote and voting and working in the process, then you're not going to have a successful government around you because in self-governance, it's a representative government. So I'd say pretty much the government we have right now represents the laziness and lackadaisical attitudes of a lot of our people. And we've got to fix that too, because if you don't step up to the plate to do what you have to do to keep citizenship, meaning something to keep your government reflecting who your people are, you have to do a little bit of work to find out who's going to be that person that's going to do that, then that's on you too. So it is a process that everybody, and I want to make it as easy as possible for people to get out there. And I mean, I like to crawl down in the sewer, find out what's down there. I don't want to take you down there with me. I'm going to come up and I'm going to tell you what I saw. And so people can make a better informed decision. And I can always explain. I'm not sure the other side can, but we're going to find out.
Jenny Beth Martin (50:55):
Well, I'm very glad that you're willing to do that, and you're doing all you can to help explain it and expose it and to educate people.
Connie Hair (51:03):
Yeah.
Jenny Beth Martin (51:03):
Connie here, thank you so much for spending time with me today.
Connie Hair (51:06):
Oh, I loved it.
Jenny Beth Martin (51:07):
And tell me the website one more time.
Connie Hair (51:09):
La freedom caucus.com.
Jenny Beth Martin (51:12):
So folks, go to la freedom caucus.com, learn more about what the Louisiana State Freedom Caucus is doing, and be sure if you're in other states to check out what the State Freedom Caucus is doing in your state. Connie here, thank you so much for spending time with me today. I'm Jenny Beth Martin. This is a Jenny Beth show.
Narrator (51:31):
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. For more information, visit tea party patriots.org.
Jenny Beth Martin (51:51):
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 on whichever platform you're listening to. If you do these simple things, it will help the podcast grow, and I appreciate it very much.