In this episode, Jenny Beth Martin sits down with Andrew Roth, President of the State Freedom Caucus Network, to discuss one of the most pressing issues in America today: stopping non-citizen voting. Roth explains how state-level Freedom Caucuses are fighting to secure election integrity, expose fake Republicans who block reforms, and build momentum for the SAVE Act. From victories in states like Missouri and Wyoming to ongoing battles in places like Montana, this conversation reveals how grassroots activists and lawmakers can work together to ensure that only American citizens vote in American elections.
In this episode, Jenny Beth Martin sits down with Andrew Roth, President of the State Freedom Caucus Network, to discuss one of the most pressing issues in America today: stopping non-citizen voting. Roth explains how state-level Freedom Caucuses are fighting to secure election integrity, expose fake Republicans who block reforms, and build momentum for the SAVE Act. From victories in states like Missouri and Wyoming to ongoing battles in places like Montana, this conversation reveals how grassroots activists and lawmakers can work together to ensure that only American citizens vote in American elections.
Twitter/X: @AndyRoth @JennyBethM
Website: https://statefreedomcaucus.org/
Andy Roth (00:00):
85% of Americans agree you should show proof of citizenship to register to vote, and they only want Americans voting in American elections. This is Democrats and Republicans agree on this,
Narrator (00:13):
Keeping our Republicans 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.
Andy Roth (00:45):
Today I'm joined by Andy Roth, who is the president of the Seat Freedom Caucus Network, and we're going to be talking about only citizens voting. Thanks so much for joining me today, Andy.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:54):
Thanks for having me, Jenny Beth,
Andy Roth (00:56):
So your group is doing some amazing work at the state level when it comes to ensuring that only citizens vote in our elections. Tell us about that.
Jenny Beth Martin (01:05):
So for people that don't know about the State Freedom Caucus Network, basically we are the farm team for the House Freedom Caucus in dc. The House Freedom Caucus is the conservative North star in Congress, but the states don't have that. And as we saw with COVID, with non-citizens voting, there are a lot of state issues that impact people directly, like very, very directly. And most people don't know who their state rep or their state senator is, but there are a lot of lawmakers, conservative lawmakers in the state capitals who all they need to do is get organized and focused and they can fight for our freedoms and our values. And before we had the network, they didn't have those resources, so that's why we created the network. Right now we're in 13 states. We started in Georgia. It was our first one.
Andy Roth (01:59):
Charlie Spur?
Jenny Beth Martin (02:00):
Yeah, Charlie Spur, Colton Moore. And then the most recent one was Maryland. So we are not just in Red States. The goal is to get into all 50 states. So we're in 30 or 13 and we want to get into all 50, but we've had enormous success on all sorts of issues. But when it comes to non-citizen voting, I think it's been one of our crown jewels in Wyoming, our Wyoming Freedom Caucus took over the State House. They passed a bill to ban non-citizens from voting. The left predictably filed a lawsuit saying that it was unconstitutional. And just yesterday a judge struck that down saying that they don't have any standing because what are you going to do get an illegal to claim as your plaintiff to say that they deserve to vote. So that's a success. Our Missouri Freedom Caucus was able to put it on the ballot in 2024 that passed, so only citizens can vote in Missouri.
Jenny Beth Martin (03:06):
We did it in Arizona, we did it in South Carolina, we did it in Louisiana. The one problem that we had, and we're going to tackle this again, and in Montana, Montana's a red state, you would think that this would be easy. But a dirty little secret that not a lot of people know is that when if you are a liberal that supports non-citizens voting in our elections and you want to run for the state legislature in a red state like Montana, you don't put a D after your name, you put an R after your name, and then you get elected and vote like a liberal. And so our Montana Freedom Caucus called for a special session for one specific purpose to ban non-citizens from voting in their elections. And the way special sessions work in Montana is that the entire legislature has to vote to say whether they want this special session or not.
Jenny Beth Martin (04:02):
And in a Republican super majority in Montana, they said they did not want to do that despite the Montana Freedom Caucus pushing it. And the reason why is because a lot of Republicans in Montana are Democrats. They just have an R after their name. But the silver lining is that the Montana Freedom Caucus has made everybody in that state aware of what happened. And they even have called them the nasty nine. There are nine states senators, and they got the state Republican party to censure the nasty nine. And they have even said that they can no longer be called Republicans in the press or identified as Republicans. So we've outed the bad guys and there's the dirty dozen in the State House. So the nasty nine in the state Senate, the Dirty Dozen in the State House, we've exposed them. So now all we have to do is either defeat them in the elections next year or just make it incredibly painful for them to vote against this the next time we bring it up.
Andy Roth (05:10):
Well, it doesn't make sense that even if they are a liberal in Montana or even if it's a Democrat,
Jenny Beth Martin (05:17):
You would think
Andy Roth (05:18):
This is an 80, 85% issue. 80, 85% of Americans agree you should show proof of citizenship to register to vote, and they only want Americans voting in American elections. Democrats and Republicans agree on this. So you would think even if they are liberal, they'd want to vote for it.
Jenny Beth Martin (05:37):
You would think, and this is why what you're doing is so valuable is that it requires education. Because if the liberal Republicans or the Democrats don't hear about it, their instinct is to just follow the marching orders of what their leadership tells 'em to do. And right now, the leadership in the Democrat party is saying, we have to oppose this, and that trickles down from DC into Montana and all the 50 states. And so I think what we need to do, and what I think we're successfully doing is we just need to educate the voters more about what's happening. And even though we did lose in Montana, we did expose them. So it's working. We just have to do more of it,
Andy Roth (06:25):
And we have to go back and try again in Montana. But it is very important. And I think there were five members, Democrat members of the House, the United States House of Representatives who voted for the Save Act or at least voted for it the first time it went up, and they should be applauded and thanked for doing that. I think it's very important, and we forget this all too often in politics, that when you can find an issue that you agree on, even if you don't agree in the party, then you work together on that issue and then you work together on other issues or work against the issue. I think it's just very important to keep an issue focused rather than people focused.
Jenny Beth Martin (07:06):
I totally agree, and the one thing that I would say is that if you don't know who your state rep is or your state senator, find out even if they are a Democrat, you need to know who they are and make sure that they understand this issue. And I think what we're doing as a coalition is absolutely valuable to that point.
Andy Roth (07:25):
Yeah, I think that it's extremely important, and in fact, when your state reps should know you, I understand that they represent sometimes 10 or 20,000 people, maybe even
Jenny Beth Martin (07:38):
Less.
Andy Roth (07:39):
It may more, it may be less, but if it's 10 or 20,000 people that's not, they should basically know most of the people in their district and they should be going and knocking on doors and getting to know the people when they're running. And then you should be able to get their cell phone and reach out to them, don't abuse it, of course, and always be polite and respectful, but have conversations with them about issues that matter to you.
Jenny Beth Martin (08:02):
No, that's exactly right. State reps and state senators are very accessible because they aren't professional politicians. If you call a congressional office, you hope that the office hears your voice, but they're getting hundreds and thousands of other people calling in as well. A state rep, if they get 10 calls from their constituents, they're actually going to listen and respond. And state senators the same way. It's underappreciated how accessible that they are.
Andy Roth (08:37):
And there are people oftentimes who you wind up seeing at the grocery store or at other events. In fact, Charise, who is a friend of ours, we were doing a retirement party for one of my employees who recently retired and she into somebody else at the grocery store and invited her to come to the retirement party. So you actually, it's true that you'll meet them just going about your daily life because that's how accessible they are. Unlike congressmen who are in Washington DC and they're only home for the weekends
Jenny Beth Martin (09:11):
And
Andy Roth (09:13):
Their appointments are normally booked even when they're home.
Jenny Beth Martin (09:15):
State lawmakers are part-time legislators. I mean, they're citizen legislators, they have full-time jobs, they have families. But when they're in session in the legislature, it is very easy to reach out to them, email, phone, whatever, and say, Hey, this is a very important thing for me. I hope that you're mindful of it, and they'll respond.
Andy Roth (09:35):
Yeah, it's amazing. So in the seats, you need to go back in Montana and do more work there.
Jenny Beth Martin (09:44):
What
Andy Roth (09:45):
Are the other seats where either may be more work to do at the state level for only citizen voting?
Jenny Beth Martin (09:50):
Well, basically all the states, except for the ones that I previously mentioned, but we've got great opportunities in South Dakota. We've got Idaho, there's Oklahoma, there are a ton of states, and we're only in 13, so there are 37 other states that need to pay attention to this. And we're hopeful that we can get into states like Kentucky, Texas, Florida, Ohio soon. But the key here is just reach out to your state rep, your state center, wherever you live, and make them aware of it. If enough people call, then they'll make it a priority in January when it comes up again, because all the state legislatures typically meet in January. Some only are in session for a month, sometimes two months. It's very rare for a legislature, a state legislature to go longer than four or five months. So the window of opportunity for us right now is January in the winter and the early spring for us to do something. And the other thing is it's an election year, so this is a great issue for state lawmakers to talk about before they enter into their primaries.
Andy Roth (11:06):
Yeah, that's very true. And so catching them in the late summer and fall gets them ready to take that action in the winter months. Now one other thing that your group did, you did a letter right in support of the SAVE Act?
Jenny Beth Martin (11:22):
Yeah, so basically we have, like I said, 13 state freedom caucuses and that is made up of 200 state lawmakers, state reps, state senators. They basically quarterbacked the letter and it basically said, we are state lawmakers and we are urging Congress to pass the Save Act. And not only did our 200 members sign it, but we encouraged all other lawmakers to sign it as well. Interestingly enough, out of the 50 states, there are approximately 7,500 state lawmakers and we got 1100 of them to sign the letter, which is one out of seven. So we've got a lot of work to go, but one out of seven lawmakers in the country signing this when not a lot of people know who their state rep or their state senator is. A lot of people don't know this issue. I think it was a testament to how important this is that we got that many people to sign the letter. And here's the thing is members of Congress, they do listen to their constituents, but they also listen to their state reps too, because those state reps represent constituents. And so when you hear state lawmakers talking on behalf of their constituents to their member of Congress saying, please pass the Save Act, I think it's very powerful. So what we were able to do with that letter I think is fantastic. And frankly, every state lawmaker in the country should sign it all 7,500 of 'em.
Andy Roth (12:58):
Absolutely, they should. So maybe we can get more to sign the letter as we're going through on the bus tour, as well as getting individual citizens to sign the petition supporting the Save act.
Jenny Beth Martin (13:09):
Amen.
Andy Roth (13:09):
That would be a good secondary call to action for us.
Jenny Beth Martin (13:11):
Yeah, I
Andy Roth (13:12):
Think we just added something to our list. Well, and then your group, the State Freedom Caucus Network is going to participate on the bus tour, the only Citizens Vote bus tour to help make sure that we're bringing awareness to the issue, trying to get the Save act attached to must pass legislation in dc.
Jenny Beth Martin (13:30):
Yeah, and the time window is short, and I kind of like that because the members of Congress are going to be back home during the bus tour. The tour is going to stop off in several of our Freedom Caucus states like Arizona, Louisiana, Maryland, South Carolina. Our state lawmakers are going to participate, they're going to help rally the voters. We're going to help energize the public about what's going on. I think it's fantastic. I think the timing's perfect and I think we can do it.
Andy Roth (14:01):
Very good. Well, I'm so thankful that you're going to participate in it. I love the work that you guys are doing on the citizen only voting issue, and maybe in the next few months we can come back on and talk about other issues that you guys are working on so that we can find areas where activists can get involved there.
Jenny Beth Martin (14:20):
Absolutely.
Andy Roth (14:21):
Thank you so much for joining me today, Andy.
Jenny Beth Martin (14:23):
Thanks for having me.
Narrator (14:24):
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.
Andy Roth (14:44):
If you like this episode, let me know by hitting the light button or leaving a comment or a five star review. And if you want to be the first to know, every time we drop a new episode, be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications for whichever platform you're listening on. If you do these simple things, it will help the podcast grow. And Ida really appreciate it. Thank you so much. I.