Heartland Journal Podcast
Heartland Journal Podcast EP228 Michele Reneau Interview & More 7 16 24
Joining us is Michele Reneau who is running for Tennessee State Representative District 27. Michele is committed to Defending Faith, Family, and Freedom as core values that have shaped the foundation of our state. As a constitutional conservative, Michele will support policies that strengthen families and uphold individual freedoms. This includes making TN uncomfortable for illegal immigration, preserving the right to bear arms and ensuring policies that affirm parents have the freedom to make decisions that best serve the welfare and future of their children. Michele will advocate for the principles that have made Tennessee exceptional, securing a brighter future for generations to come. For more info visit https://www.electmichele.com If you like what you hear make sure to subscribe to the show and share it with your friends. You can find us at http://heartlandjournal.com
- Duration:
- 1h 5m
- Broadcast on:
- 16 Jul 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
[music] Welcome to the Heartland Journal's podcast. With your host, Steve Abramowitz, editor in chief of partlandjournal.com. Hello, y'all. Welcome back to the show. I'm Steve Abramowitz, and this is the Heartland Journal podcast. We are focusing on our nation today with always an interesting person making a positive change in our community. Welcome to our people-to-news, right interview people who are making an impact and are lovers of truth. Today, we are talking with special guest, Michelle Renau. Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it. Thomas Pains, September 12, 1777. That from Michelle's campaign website, electmichael.com, one L. That'll be in show notes. She's running for Tennessee State House with a commitment to God, to the people of Tennessee District 27, and to the Tennessee and U.S. constitutions. District 27 spans from Lookout Mountain, Lookout Valley, Red Bank, Signal Mountain, Hickson Saudi to Amabre Mountain. Mrs. Renau grew up in South Carolina. Her father served in the U.S. Army for 26 years, where he met her mother in South Korea. Her mother worked as a seamstress in a rug factory. Her mother showed her the importance of knowing Jesus. That faith in God has been a cornerstone in her life ever since. In 2004, Michelle, wife of a Navy chief of chief petty officer, Chris, served in the U.S. Navy for 10 plus years, and as the wife of Navy chief petty officer who served in two deployments during operation and during freedom. After leaving the Navy in 2009, Chris and Michelle accepted a job offer in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Michelle and Chris relocated to Signal Mountain where they are currently raising their five children. Hello, Mrs. Renau, how are you today? I'm doing great. Thank you for having me. Great. Well, friend of the show, Brandon Lewis said, "Get to know Michelle Renau." So here we are. Welcome to the show. Five kids. Wow, that is an overtime job every day. How is campaigning going, juggling the family life? Well, one of the beauties of having a large family is that I believe that many large families, I've witnessed at least, really run things very differently and often a lot more efficiently. We've raised our children from a very young age to be very independent, to have a lot of individual responsibility, and that has played out as they've gotten older. So my three oldest are ages 10, 12, and 14, and they take a brunt of the duties that maybe in a smaller family, the mother is responsible for, because I want to raise them to be responsible adults that when they leave my house, they already know how to do some basic skills, like feed themselves, do their own laundry, and all these things. So we started teaching that to them when they are roughly two years old, they get their first task, which is unloading dishwasher. By the time they're six and eight between the six and eight, they're doing their own laundry, washing it, drying it, putting it away, and by the time they're 10, they are all learning to make dinner, being able to follow recipes, and my oldest now makes meal plans for us for the week. So we, they just have a lot of, there's a lot of integration in our family with the household being part of making things run smoothly. So while I am campaigning, my two younger ones are in a camp or some sort of school right now, but then my older ones, they have various activities with friends, and then they are helping sort of rally behind mom and dad and helping out, but it's going really well, and it's really showing me that they are for the task to help out not just now, but they understand that sacrifice is a family that we are committing to for this process, and they are, they're really just showing up. That's great. Hopefully by the time the driver's license to show up, it'll get even easier. That's right. And these days I have to ask, are they public school private or homeschool kids? So we have done all of the above, but the most recent that we left, that we have been in for the last four years has been a homeschool cooperative type situation. They're, I have kids that actually go to three different schools because they're just the age range from five to 14, but next year they are starting a full-time private school. We have done homeschool. That was my least favorite experiment. I just wasn't that mom. I loved it. My kids didn't love it, I guess. And then we did try public school. My first, my older two struggled with some of the changes going from a Montessori style school. So we just learned that each kid learns differently and needs a different environment, and that we have found some environments that are more adaptable for them, and we're really blessed to live in a great community. That's great. That is great. Can you tell us for those from Middle and West Tennessee and the rest of the country, actually, that listened to the show about the demographics of District 27? What makes it Tennessee? What makes it so great? Well, what makes it so great first is just it's a gorgeous place to live, like many parts of Tennessee. But I love about it is how close to the city we are, but then we also have the beauty of sort of the rural areas. We actually have lived on a farm for the last 10 years, but we're only 25 minutes from the city. And so we love sort of the idea of being so close to Chattanooga to be able to enjoy all the things the city offers, but then sort of have the peaceful life of farm life and how we want to -- for our children to experience some of the aspects of gone life that -- it's a hobby farm. You know, the responsibility and some of the work ethic that comes with raising them on the farm. We love that we can have the best of both worlds here. As far as the demographics, it is -- at least of District 27, it widely varies depending on where you are at. I mean, we certainly have the city, which is much more dense. We still have a lot of rural area in my district, even in the town city that I live in on Signal Mountain. We have the town of Signal Mountain proper, which is a little bit more dense. It's still suburban, I would call it, but then just a few miles over where our farm was. I mean, I have -- I can see we had like seven or eight neighbors on our street that was a mile long, so it's just widely varies depending on where you are in the district. Okay. So walking and knocking on doors, volunteers and endorsements, how is organizing the campaign going? Well, the Grassors candidate funding is -- and staff are definitely very different from maybe a well-funded campaign, but my volunteers are absolutely amazing. We have -- gosh, probably about 120 people throughout the district, and some have a lot of friends that are just outside the district that are invested in Tennessee there. I would call citizen activists who are regularly calling on legislators and concerned about what's going on in our state, but we have those folks to avoid doing just very different things. I mean, if we try to find what people want to do and employ them to get engaged in the campaign, at the level that they are comfortable with and at the time that they're comfortable with. The -- I mean, there's definitely campaign fatigue is real. It is definitely hard work. It is very applicable, certainly in the campaign process. But it has been a really fun learning experience just to kind of see all the different aspects of the campaign, and it's certainly as a grassroots candidate, a lot more management that I do, I feel like, but I have some really strong volunteers who are taking on different aspects of it that I can kind of delegate to, but I do feel like everything kind of comes initially through me just because we're all -- we're all laypeople. We're not political experts, but I do feel like we've done a great job and we've won a great campaign, and I have an awesome cabinet that I kind of relay my core questions to, and we just sort of work through them on what we think is the best way to approach whatever gets thrown our way. Yeah, and a well-funded candidate or a well-known name, this doesn't matter so much, but I hear you had some signs stolen or vandalized. Is that right? I mean, every sign counts. That's dollars out of donations. So it's not fair. It's not nice. Is that true? Yeah. Yeah. Gosh. I have seen -- I can't count the number of signs that we've lost. It has been -- it seems like this proportioned high number of signs compared to other signs that I see still up and around, and I'm not sure if it's foul play with children being you know, just -- or maybe teens or kids being mischievous or if there's something more sinister, they're what I did have one incident where someone was found with one of my signs who does work for my opponent and there was a police report filed with that, but you know, political games like this, it's just one of those things for me I've got so much to do. I have to focus on what's important. I feel like we can get distracted by some of these things, so I just try to move forward and know that my supporters and folks who are -- who really want to know the truth. They are -- I just feel like they are -- they are 100 percent behind me and they are looking for ways to help and they are looking for ways to disseminate the message to help me get more support and while it's no fun to lose signs because they are expensive, we did purchase some more signs, but a lot of it was because we just had so much support with the people one and more signs, so you know, we did -- that was actually a catalyst for it, but it has been a lot, I went ahead and ordered more so that I would have opportunities to replace missing signs. >> Very good. And early voting has begun. Patsy Hazelwood is your opponent. She isn't just any one of the 95 of the sentiments, she's the chair lady, she says on her placard of the most powerful office in Nashville, the finance committee, they write the checks for all the things that people want to do to make their cities and towns better. What activated you to want a first time run for office and take on someone like an incumbent like that? >> Well, as my dad used to say, everybody puts their pants on one leg at a time. And for me, I just feel like as I have witnessed more of what's going on in Tennessee legislature and paid more attention to her record, particularly after 2020, like many people begin to pay more attention to what was going on. I just felt like time was of the essence that I felt my duty to challenge and incumbent who I believe does not represent my values or even the Republican Party platform in many cases. But for me, a seed was planted much sooner. When I moved to Chattanooga, I got involved with local farmers, I just love procuring food from folks, knowing that folks right here in my community who are growing it and probably put a little bit more love into it than maybe a conventional farm. And so I got involved with these folks, and as a result, I started a food co-op. And in 2016, shortly after I started that food co-op, which was set up as a private membership association, the Tennessee Department of Ag really trespassed and came into my co-op after I told them this is private, you know, please leave. And he said, well, you can't do this because you're dealing with food and you don't have a proper license. So with that, I felt like because I believe there is a difference between the public domain and private domain, I wasn't willing to let that go. And we went through some administrative hearing off the record administrative hearings with the Department of Ag, and I ended up taking my concerns to the Tennessee legislature and found Senator Nisley, who many people know as sort of a farmer senator. And I just said, I just don't believe that I'm doing anything wrong because of how I set up this food co-op, and he agreed with me and said, let's codify it. So we helped, we wrote a bill, we had some input for some other folks who have done this in other places, and I went to Nashville in 2017 and testified in both the House and the Senate committee hearings for that bill. We had the grocery lobby come out, we had the Department of Ag come out, forget what other lobby group came out. But we were eventually able to come to a compromise where we did move forward in committee and we were able to pass that bill nearly unanimously with only one person who voted, who did not vote for that bill. So that was really my first entry into sort of legislative activity, and at that moment someone said to me after testifying, you ought to run against your representative, she's not conservative at all. And I thought, well that's really a funny suggestion because at the time I had three small children, but I think it did plan a seat, I didn't know it at the time, it was something I totally did not have another thought about it, but I guess I think in hindsight as I look back through the sort of the journey and then all the COVID stuff and just learning more about her record and time, for me, I just couldn't believe that she hadn't been primary before because as I learned about her record, it was very clear to me that I did not feel like her voting record reflected the conservative values. And because of my work with farmers, there was a bill in 2019 where she tried to repeal the Tennessee her chair, which is the only way you can obtain raw milk in Tennessee without owning your own cow. And I have a lot of farmers in this area that was kind of one of my primary missions when I moved here and got hooked up with a nonprofit education foundation was a lot connecting farmers to consumers specifically for raw milk and educating folks on the benefits. And that bill would have hurt so many small farmers who depend on that income for raw milk and then consumers who depend on that new treatment and food for a variety of health reasons. It's not for everybody, but these folks go into it being fully informed of the risks of the benefits and then they make a decision on wanting to pursue that. So that was another sort of ding, so to speak early on before, that was before I really started regularly paying attention to what was going on in the legislature. And I really, I have to give Brandon Lewis credit because of his Tennessee conservative news that really let me see a lot more of that. And then I ended up digging myself going back into the record and looking at looking for other things that I care about and just wanted to know what were some other bills outside of, you know, pre 2020, whenever he started that. She's definitely a favorite of the Rhino report in 2022. She beat her opponent, an independent named Michael Potter 70 30, pretty big landslide. What do you think changed with her that that might make signal mountain want to change? I just, so, and let me go back to the last race, Michael Potter was an independent candidate who actually withdrew his name from the ballot prior to the election. So he did not really campaign. I think he, what I had read, I actually did try to reach out to him, I knew we didn't get to connect, but he was upset about some of the things that happened during COVID and that was why he decided he wanted to run. But then because of some, I can't remember if it was a job issue or a health issue, he withdrew from the ballot. So he took 30% of the vote with his name withdrawn from him withdrawing. I think there, there is a sentiment of folks who generally speaking do know Patsy's record and are unhappy with it or unhappy with her for a variety of reasons. As I've been knocking on doors, there are folks who have said that she's unresponsive or they didn't get a response on something that was super important or maybe be redirected to the proper party who could help with certain issues. So I'll just, all that to say that as far as why would signal mountain want to change, I think that people don't know what our legislators are doing. I mean, so I think that with the knowledge of here is her voting record and that's my goal is just, I was told two years ago when I did, I tried to run two years ago, I was protested on the ballot and I was taken off, but I was told that a conservative cannot win this seat, that the district is very moderate. And I just felt like, that's not been my experience, like as I'm meeting people and talking to people. Like people still, Republicans are still conservative in their values, all across the board. You certainly have some moderates here, but I just feel like people deserve to know the truth and then they can make a decision on how they want to be represented. And this is what I think this race is going to do. Do we really have a moderate Republican district? I don't know. We're going to see here in just about two weeks where the numbers really lie, but I know talking to people, I do feel like people who are very upset to learn different aspects of a voting record that they felt that that was not acceptable. Now does everyone feel that way? August 1st, we'll find out. I will say she ran unopposed every time since 2018 against a Democrat, 6535. So that's three election cycles. She's won unopposed and a Democrat doesn't really count because it would have conned red no matter what and the COVID years have voters seen a change in her as she worked her way up to leadership that you think you would have done differently? Is that, I guess, how COVID was handled? I don't know that most people in my district necessarily think that there is an issue with COVID. This was a very polarizing issue here. So I don't think that is necessarily a factor for people in this district at all. There are certainly contingent of folks where medical freedom is very important. But overall, I'd probably say it's 50/50 here. So Tennessee has been considered one of the most fiscally conservative states with a triple A rating and the navigated COVID recession pretty well compared to, say, California and cities like Seattle, let's say. Nashville is big, but you live near Chattanooga, more conservative East Tennessee. What are the concerns of East Tennessee that might be different than tourist heavy Nashville? As far as the fiscal stewardship of the city, an area where you are more rural, more conservative versus say tourist heavy Tennessee, Nashville. Yeah. I think that the biggest concern that I've heard from folks as far as money goes is property taxes. We are seeing them increase greatly here. And my perspective on, and I'm still a political newcomer, I'm still learning a lot, but just my 30,000 foot view and kind of still being new into this, what I see is that I feel like municipalities are raising taxes because they're not doing a good job of managing the budget in the sense that they are accepting grants for maybe some pet projects. And then the grant ends and then the city has to figure out how to fund it themselves and then some property taxes are going up. Here's one example that I see, I don't know if this is exactly why, but it's just one potential way that these taxes, why these recent taxes are going up, aside from inflation. The city of Saudi Daisy received a grant for license plate readers. There was not a vote on this. They just decided they were going to accept the grant for it and install these licensed plate readers. Well, my understanding is that grant money is up, but then the city now has to figure out how to pay for that. I suspect that if people, if you went and polled the city, the residents, I think they would probably say, well, I didn't vote for license plate readers. I don't feel like we need them. And they would probably say, give them back because we would rather, we don't feel like we need that and we would rather not have our taxes go up. There's probably certainly some inflation in there, but I do think there are a lot of pet projects like this that often smaller cities accept, and then when the grant money is up or the funding is run out, the city has to figure out how to pay for it. There is another smaller bedroom community city where talking to some residents there, the mismanagement of city funds, they feel like has come from hiring people that are unnecessary, big purchases like a police vehicle or two police vehicles when maybe there's only one officer on duty at a time, there's just some mismanagement going on. I think that overall people would like to see some sort of property tax cap so that the cities are forced to managing their budget better and they cannot go above a certain percentage, aside from maybe regular inflation. Well, let me listen to this show when I was reading your bio, your intro and your bio and the intro, their ears probably perked up because I've said it a million times and I go on national other shows and I say that word all the time, those two words, and it's out there in your district, Red Bank, Tennessee. Overnight on the whim of the county council, real estate tax went from $1.10 to $1.67 for every hundred bucks. That's a 52% hike. So you would be in favor of a statewide property tax cap like California's Prop 13, two percent max per year. It was so economically successful for housing sales there for my whole life, 50 years. It was also deemed constitutional by the US Supreme Court, so not a problem and passed by the most liberal governor ever before the current one, Jerry Brown. So would you like to see that by partisan issue passed if you were in Congress? Yeah, absolutely. And the citizens and constituents I've talked to would like to see that as well. I think one concern on the proper tax cap is how do we keep the cities or counties from just raising it 2% or whatever that max is every year? And I think we could probably solve it better than 25 years and one night. 100%. Yeah. I do think we could probably also do whatever that let's say it's 2% a year but then maybe an 8% cap over a 10 year period. So they're not raising it just because but we have some sort of cap on it where they have to really think, okay, do we really need this this year in case we need to raise it next year? So there's some sort of other additional parameters on it. It prevents farms from being sold off generational wealth theft. There were a few bills on the docket last session that were targeted at another issue. The slow while trying to slow the flow of illegal immigrants to Tennessee. What are your priorities on the illegal immigration? I am so compassionate for these folks who want to come to America as a as a daughter of a legal immigrant. My mom told me her whole life, he said, I just wanted to be an American like it was just this dream for her and for her it did come true. She my mother when he was serving the US Army there. And so I understand why this is such a powerful draw for people to want to come here. This is the greatest country in the world. At the same time, I think that we have to really look at a couple things. First, the state of Tennessee by offering these entitlements to illegals, we are violating federal law and we take an oath as a representative, I would be taking an oath to the Constitution. And we cannot pick and choose the laws we're going to obey. We should absolutely honor them through. And by even like I know one, the DACA, the illegals getting the in-state tuition are these DACA kids who have gone through the public school system. And so the reasoning is that when they've already gone through a school system, they're here that they should go ahead and get in-state tuition. I think these are the type of incentives that encourage illegals to want to drop their kids off here sooner because if they can start school here early and then go through the system, then they would have that benefit. And so I do think that Tennessee does not have accurate numbers on what these entitlements are costing us as far as what we're giving to illegals, whether it's the education or food stamps. We're not even considering what the impact is on affordable housing. A lot of rentals and houses in our area, people are telling me they recognize the demographics have changed. And those are the houses that used to be that the first time homebuyers would buy. Now they're taken up as rentals and then people who would normally purchase their first home at a lower price point, there's just not anything available. So I think there are bigger, aside from the lack of housing here, we have this additional pressure point of immigrants, illegals, who are here meeting a place to stay, obviously, as well, taking up some of that affordable housing. But I feel for the need to not allow them to be here and then to also potentially not to be savages in the sense of not educating them, but at the same time, we are obligated to Tennessee taxpayers. And we have children still 25% not able to read at the third grade level when they're coming out. And that's tragic that teachers, as I'm talking to them, as I'm knocking indoors are so frustrated. They love their job, but they cannot do their job well when there's multiple languages in the classroom. I talked to one teacher who she left the teaching field, and she said at one point, she had 11 different languages in her classroom. That's mind boggling to me. I mean, I asked, how did you teach, you know, and then the students who speak English, how do you manage a classroom like that? And it's virtually impossible. And so this is why, one reason why I think that some of our children are struggling and maybe not getting their needs met, and it's not, and in my district, it's not a district wide issue that certainly there are certainly pockets of certain areas that see a greater immigrant population. And one teacher, you know, she told me that one of the kids gave an essay and they had to bring an interpreter in to for him to tell it, and he told his border crossing story. I mean, it's clear. These are kids who are coming across the border, and it's certainly, I understand, it's new to their own, but at the same time, we have to draw a line someplace. Yeah, it's not fair to the kids who can't get into those seats. And of course, 11 languages in one hour a day, what are you supposed to do? So all right, shifting gears, Memphis is important for West Tennessee, but crime is out of control. A state senator from there is trying to get rid of a soft on crime DA. By you, a chief of police was fired and in trouble for corruption. What are your feelings on the law and order issue for your area? The DEI policy was just, it was a really bad hire when we were hiring based on demographics and we had a really great police chief prior to that. And I feel like Chattanooga had made some great progress. Previously, I came from a city where 30 years ago in Charleston, South County, it was much like Chattanooga was maybe 15 or 20 years ago, where there was still a lot of room to grow in our economy and the, gosh, when I first moved here, I just remember being so devastated that there wasn't as many fine dining restaurant choices because we came from Charleston, South Carolina, which is the culinary mecca of the southeast outside of Atlanta. And we just enjoyed that, the aspect of Charleston, but that's changed here and we have that. A lot of people have told me they are fearful to go into Chattanooga at night. And so I wonder if, we have noticed when we go out to Dine, my husband and I have a date night every Friday night, and we always go into Chattanooga and we've noticed how slow it is. I don't know if it's people are afraid to come down there, if it's a money issue because if people aren't spending money and being more conservative, but we have noticed even the traffic change in the evenings down there may just be because maybe we're older and we don't go out late. I'm not sure. It's about five to thirty, six o'clock dinner people, but we have noticed in that shifting. Public safety is such a, it's an integral piece that one of our responsibilities, the government, if we're going to say, you know, list them, that is super important. And when people don't feel safe, we're going to lose that on a lot of things, especially in Chattanooga with it being a heavy tourist city. And this is something that if people don't feel comfortable to come here, we're going to lose a lot of our base income in the economy here. So there are a couple of issues that police officers have told me about here. The city of Chattanooga, particularly police officers are underpaid compared to their counterparts in the highway patrol or even the county shared our office. That actually reduces recruitment and it's hard to hire people. That's of all the places that need excellent police officers here, the city of Chattanooga is one of those places. I hope that we can reconcile that and figure out what the city needs to do in order to be able to pay them better, but that we can recruit quality officers and make sure they're getting the training that they need to be able to perform their jobs well as well as return home safely to their families. So we had a, we had a useless special session last summer. Hopefully if you win, you never have to take that extra two to three months away from the kids at home, but it was about guns. What are your second amendment protection ideas that could also reduce crime in the state? Our local GA here, I love her perspective and it's really just to educate people. One of the things that she put out was that there was actually a billboard campaign she did that many crimes are gun crimes involving guns were stolen from vehicles. So she said, don't leave your guns in the car. There's a kind of a problem with that because then we have all these places that say you cannot bring your gun in here. So I either have to, you know, take it back to my car or choose not to go into a place. So there's some interesting juxtapositions in this issue where yes, let's educate people to not leave them in the cars, but then we have businesses and places saying you can't bring your gun in here. So I think we have to figure out how we can allow folks to, and businesses, I certainly understand if a business wants to say you can't bring a gun in here, I feel like that puts the liability on the business should something happen. And if I have to go put my gun in a car and I am, something happens to me between the business and my vehicle and I am unarmed because I was trying to obey the rule. So I'm the one that's penalized, there's not, there's so many factors in the issue of being able to protect ourselves that I think we get into the argument about. But the real crux is criminal don't obey laws, it's the law-abiding citizen that needs to have the most protection because every story I read, I feel like, not necessarily here in Tennessee, but in other places, it's always the good guy with the gun because the police officer, they cannot be there everywhere and there's a thing, police are only minutes away when second matters, that's not a knock on police, they just can't be there that quickly. And so it is the law-abiding citizen who ends up oftentimes who is prepared and who is practiced that does quote unquote save the day or certainly can deter or intervene in a situation that otherwise could become tragic. Yeah, the only quick fix would be that the businesses would have to stop violating our Second Amendment right and allow us to bring it on there and not say it's trespassing because they're the ones actually breaking the inalienable right of our Second Amendment to carry versus the bad guy even who breaks into our car where it shouldn't have been there in the first place. All right, so you're a faithful person, we are the strictest state of the 50 for abortion now, ever since Roe versus Wade was turned over. The left wants to say we are against women because IVF and contraception should be banned, they're saying that that's what we want. I don't think that. Do you think there is a Republican attack on women reproduction rights still? You know, I feel like this is such a war on words that we're in when we talk about abortion. I certainly believe that women should have access to contraception if you want it, you can get it. My understanding is Obamacare allows you to get it. I think women should be responsible for themselves when it comes to reproductive health. We have so many more options today than we did or that I knew about maybe 20 years ago. Certainly not against it. When it comes to abortion, some of the things that I think are going to come up in this next legislative session, they're always the desire to expand when abortion is allowable. But as a mother of five with one child who was adopted and having a father who was also, he was born in 1947 in an unlikely or unideal situation and was given up for adoption. I wouldn't be here today if abortion was available then I don't believe because I believe that his birth mom would have chosen that because in that time and age, it was shameful to be an unwed mother and so I think that would have likely been her course of action. So I feel like when we talk about what the responsibility of a state is, it is to foster a culture of life and our Constitution does say that it is for us to protect life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, I do believe that that encompasses all life but when it comes to somebody's exceptions that I think are coming down the pipe, one thing I would like people to consider is that when we talk about abortion, we're talking about this assembling of a human life in a very cruel way. I've watched how an abortion is performed and there are often cases where maybe someone says a mother's life is in danger, we certainly want a mother's life to take precedence if that's the mother's wish. I think a doctor, I haven't heard of a doctor who said I couldn't help a mother, I feel like with all of today's technology there's no reason medically speaking why a mother's life should be in danger and that they couldn't help the mother first and then if the baby miscarries as a byproduct of that saving, there's certainly no, I don't believe the doctor is held liable for that because his responsibility is to the mother unless the mother says otherwise and I've heard cases of that with cancer patients where the mother says I want you to save my baby and I'll cost not me because I'm going to die anyway but if the result of the baby is going to be death anyway, for example in the case of birth effect or fetal anomaly, why do we have to have an abortion? Why can't we deliver a baby? That way the baby has dignity, the baby can be delivered whole and it would be, gosh it just the process of what an abortion does to the mother emotionally and mentally, I feel like we could remove sort of some of the mental emotional baggage with that and give the mother closure in some of these cases where the baby's death is imminent anyway whether the baby is delivered full term or not but maybe they could, if they didn't want a caretful term, we could just do a delivery versus having an abortion that I think a mother, whether they want admitted or not, I do believe there is some emotional baggage that comes with that. I think that we just, always are trying to make this about reproductive care or reproductive health and I think there are so many ways to prevent pregnancy in advance that we're really trying to circumvent just the earlier discussion of what we can do if a woman wants to be responsible for her reproductive health versus making it be an afterthought, we look at the number of abortions that occur. It most definitely feels like that it often can be used as a reproductive, what's the word? It's birth control. Yeah, abortion. Birth control, right, birth control rather than afterwards. And I think about the number of people who wish to adopt for every one family, I think there's 26 people who want to adopt a baby and not that we want to create a baby factory or whatever, I just feel like if women knew what their options truly were, then they could make a choice that would give another family an option and they could feel good about that choice. Wouldn't be easy necessarily, especially if there was some sort of trauma that occurred before, I just know that there are so many wonderful stories of women who in my case, my birth grandmother, we met her like five years before she died and she was overjoyed to meet my father and know that he had a good life and that he had children and she actually had never forgiven herself for giving up her baby or maybe just for how this, I don't know that we didn't get the intimate details of what happened, but she carried a lot of guilt with that and I've really felt like when she passed away, I think she had complete peace being able to see the end result that he lived a good life, he went on to have children and that she did something good by giving him up for adoption, even though the circumstances weren't ideal for her and I think that there's something really beautiful about passing that life on. I think the culture war that we're in wants to discount that all life is valuable and that we put a woman's gosh and it's so hard to say because I get it, when I hear a story of a woman who chose life, it brings me to tears because I feel like if I were in her position, maybe if I was a teenager or whatever and I was in a situation, I don't know that I would be brave enough in my youth to make the same decision, I'm so overcome with emotion for women who make that choice and in our sacrificing to give life despite whatever. There was an organization I support here in Chattanooga and I heard the story recently of a woman who done it, she was pregnant with twins and she said, "I don't know if I can do this, I don't know how I can provide diapers for one baby let alone two." This organization helped her, she decided to have her twins and her twins now are 16 months old and she's never bought a single diaper and these are ways that we can help women in practical ways, the way that they might fear, which I think finances are a lot of it, well we can really rally around moms and dads to be able to make a choice that ultimately, the women that I have heard their testimonies say was the best decision they made, even if it was a little hard early on. Alright, well so you are up against a powerful incumbent, most incumbent statistically do win their re-elections, sad but historically true. Do you have some internal polling giving you confidence, you can pull it out and then you go up against Kathy Lennon, Hamilton County School Board in 2016, any thoughts on her campaign issues versus yours? We do have some polling, I am cautious and trusting polling numbers because so much can happen in two weeks, I certainly know that incumbents are very powerful, the establishment is also powerful and wielding their influence, but I feel like there is a lot of ways to win an race against an incumbent, it's not necessarily just winning, we certainly have our eye on the prize to win the seat, but one thing that I said I said out early on is that if we can make a difference to get people to pay attention to what is going on, that's one win and I think by putting Hazelwood's record out there, people are saying oh I had no idea and how do I learn more about this, I think that's one win. Secondly, I do think that even if we come close, I think it's going to speak volumes to the rest of the Tennessee legislature that our constituents, when we elect you as a Republican we really do want you to uphold the Republican Party platform. We have a lot of compromise and negotiation to the middle and I feel like with the Republican super majority, there is no reason to do that, we should be passing fantastic laws here that match our platform so easily, but I feel like I certainly have watched in committee a lot of great bills die and I'm floored that that's occurring in a Republican super majority. Every Democrat could stay home and we would still be able to pass every bill we wanted to pass, but that just doesn't happen. So I think that if we can speak that message to legislators that a people really do want conservative representation when we elect you as a Republican, but also I think another aspect is I hope it encourages people to challenge their elected officials that we need to rise up a generation of people who get back involved in civic life and who are paying attention that who actually go into this for service, they will serve some time and then return back to private life, but we need more people to engage and get in the process in order for that to happen so that we don't have long-term career politicians who stay in and get a little too comfortable with whatever it is, whether it's the lobbyists money or power or whatever it might be that draws people to stay for such a long period of time. Like there is sort of a sentiment in the Republican Party, at least it is here, I assume it is maybe another place is that you shouldn't run if there's an incumbent, you should wait till they're done and I was asked that question yesterday, you know, Representative Hazelwood likely would not run again, she is in her mid-70s, why wouldn't you just wait until she finishes? And for me, I'm not looking for a new job, I have a great job, I love being a mom, I love being with my family and I don't need a career, I just really believe this is the right thing to do. It's not if anyone individual seats, it's your district seat, it's the state seat, it's not her seat, so that's right, I hope whoever said that to you knew that they were not making much sense. Alright Mrs. Renaud, thank you so much for coming on here, we are at the end, so tell everyone how they can find out more, maybe join your campaign, of course donate and what are the three words at the bottom of your sign behind your head, their faith family and freedom? Defending faith family and freedom, there you go. My website is electmichow with 1L dot com, and you can find me on Facebook at electmichow Renaud as well as Instagram and Twitter, Facebook is probably the most common way people connect with me as far as social media, on my website you can go to electmichow dot com and click on join team Michelle if you would like to get engaged in the last couple of weeks and help us get the word out. Great, well thanks again and hope to have you come back on as a Assemblyman, Assemblywoman. Thank you. Hey Steve, what do you think of our guest? Michelle Renaud. Well, when she said a PMA at the very beginning to help people get raw milk, I thought, okay, she's the gal that I will support because, and then she had to go and fight the legislation. That's bonkers. To be honest, a private membership association means that government cannot do anything. If I want to sell tainted mushrooms to my friends, it's all with to ourselves, we're not selling it to anybody else, but apparently your legislative people down there don't know this for your departments. Over there. Yeah, that happens for sure. I'm sure there are some farmers that said, hey, we don't like that competition and she had to fight the good fight. So it's one of those weeks, those of you who follow me on rumble probably saw my emergency podcast that I did, you can go check that out at Heartland Journal Rumble after the events of Saturday, and I'm just going to do a brief little Stephen Steve on that, but only four American presidents have ever been assassinated. Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy. And they all have one frightening theme in common. Let's listen to clip number one. Four United States presidents have been assassinated and all four had something in common. Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy were the victimized commanders in chief. Conventional wisdom is that honest Abe angered many southerners whose economy in large part revolved around the legalization of slavery. And what could Abraham Lincoln's murder have to do with the assassination of James Garfield 17 years later in 1881 or the shooting death of President William McKinley in 1901? And what could possibly be the common thread that connects all three of these historic leaders' killings to the infamous 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy? After all, Kennedy's murder was nearly a hundred years after the Lincoln assassination. The beloved JFK was credited with highly important civil rights advancements helping black Americans. Could this be the linking motive between his murder and Abraham Lincoln's? Racial tensions, of course, were also raging during the McKinley and Garfield presidency. Were the perpetrators all fueled by racism? There were also grave matters involving foreign policy that angered many Americans during each of these president's terms. Both presidents McKinley and Garfield had major international crises brewing white before their assassinations, but also core to it all is one common thread—money. Our government so simply is run on the basis of money and how and who issues and controls it is as much a founding building block as the First and Fourth Amendments. They are and shall rough child of the powerful banking house of rough childs and sons. Infamously said, "Give me the power to create a nation's money and I cannot who makes its laws." President Lincoln, President Garfield, President McKinley, and President Kennedy all died for the same reason, and it has something to do with life. Of course, it had to do with money, right? Like Calvin Coolidge said, "The business of America is business." Great book, by the way, diary of an economic hitman, bringing up the speed on modern day global money making a post JFK. You can also make money selling tickets or download by a download about presidents getting assassinated. What is your designation? Condor, one level, level of damage, everybody. Dr. Lap, Janice Ray, Harold, everybody is dead. Condor is an amateur, it's lost, it's unpredictable, a good fool of profession. I work for the CIA. I am not a spy, I just read books. We have games, we play games, whatever. Seven people kill. I'll need your help. Have I ever denied you anything? Do you believe Condor is really an endangered species? Don't expect too many mistakes from this man. I was Sydney Pollock's post Watergate thriller with excellent performances of Robert Redford and Fay Dunaway captures perfectly the paranoid tenor of the times and is in times of state supervision still as relevant as ever. I've got sick reading signals here. Chris McRee is on its way down to four and five are still together. Where did he go? I said he was brave, did he say it or did you say it and he picked up on it? Come on, think. Shit, I said it. Goddamnit, you see that's why I have rules. That goes on to the Pintero. You think the mob uses devices like this? I don't know what that means, it's like a lo-jack only, two generations better than what the police have. And what does that mean? You speak English? Obviously not that well. Kind of a jerk, aren't you? That means the NSA can read the time off your fucking wrist watch. All right, enough of this bullshit right now. You either shoot me or tell me what the fuck is going on. Take stairs. Who call the perimeter? Coming in my signal. The national security agency conducts worldwide surveillance, facts, phones, satellite communication. The only ones in the country, including the military, could possibly have anything like this. Why are they after me? I don't know, I don't know. I don't want to know. Here they come. I thought these sat-dishes would scramble their signal. Control. This is their what? Repeat coordinate. 105 Chambers Avenue. You're transmitting. They still have a signal on you. Your collar, your belt, your zipper. Get rid of your clothes. All up. You're supposed to do it. Nothing. I got to watch these show, Steve. I got to watch these movies. The great Gene Hackman, I should be charging for these promos, but that's the great Gene Hackman as Brill gives lawyer Robert Dean, a young Will Smith, a lowdown on who is destroying his life, the NSA in Enemy of the State, 1998, which if you know your movie history is actually a sequel to a movie called The Conversation with Gene Hackman, which is even crazier than that. So there you have that. Number four. Prawn, here. Here it is in the sense of light of day. The people who are voting. There is an election. The democratic processes work. The only sour note, they won't end up with the person they voted for, it would be the President of the United States. But we can celebrate the process. The democratic process, which we called so dear, will have worked efficiently, effectively. Everybody's ultimately going to be satisfied unless somebody discloses indiscriminately, willy-nilly, in which case it will appear that democracies in the shithouse and by tomorrow evening, Delacrogh will be non-existent. Now is that your motto? America votes, a leader is chosen, but one thing could disturb this beatific vision. I just want to be truthful. Perception of legitimacy is more important than legitimacy itself. That's the greater truth. Don't fuck with our democracy. Don't undermine our way of life. You want to know what's at the heart and soul of every American? They believe their vote counts. Now you want to tell them that's not true, but what? But the results of the election will be wrong. One candidate will win because of computer error. He will. Yes. I'm telling you. Based on what? Yes, I'm guessing. Listen, this is your project, Elmer. If you want to tinker with it for future elections, not only your prerogative, I encourage you, the Delacrogh voting system is your baby. Your perfectionist, bless your heart, I support you 100 percent, you want to make it more perfect. But do it alone and with an eye to the future, because it is the future that interests us, now is the past. As I understand it, there's no problem. The touchscreen voting machine glitch scenario in which a computer program error can elect the wrong person as suggested by Laura Linney to Jeff Goldblum in the 2006 movie Man of the Year. Perception is legitimacy, he says. That was 2006, folks. Now is the past, he said. No problem. I do miss Robin Williams, who does star in that. Last one, the phalanx view, a superb drama about one man's paranoia that turns out to be total, incredible fact ranks among the best political thrillers starring Warren Baby. It is the conclusion of this committee that Senator Carroll was assassinated by Thomas Richard Linden, the committee wishes to emphasize that there is no evidence of any wider conspiracy, no evidence whatsoever. These people were killed, and whoever killed them is going to try to kill me. If you qualify and we think that you can, we're prepared to offer you the most lucrative and rewarding work of your life. This story is going to mean more to me than $10,000. Feli, you don't know what this story means. Phenomenal movie. Yeah. Sorry for the rumble reviewers, we missed out on live, but you wouldn't have seen it anyway, but you should definitely check those movies out on your favorite downloading system, and stay tuned for my whole-to-the-day. Yes, sometimes fiction is fact, isn't it folks, but trying for my quotes for the day, these are actually were said once upon a time, but before I share, I remind everyone to subscribe to Heartlandjournal.com, it is exploding. Use your favorite browser, go to Heartlandjournal.com and type in your email and zip code and we'll deliver news right to your inbox for free. And if you don't like it, there's an unsubscribe button, but I think you will. It's pretty cool. All right, our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude, Harry S. Truman. The soldier, above all others, prays for peace, or is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war, Douglas MacArthur. The brave men living in dead who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here, Abraham Lincoln. As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them, John F. Kennedy. That is it for this episode. Thank you, Michelle Renau, for throwing your hat in the ring. With five kids at home, you certainly aren't a sunshine patriot. Campaigning is hard and winning and being in Nashville three hours from home for four months will be harder in 100 degree heat. But good luck. Tennessee needs patriots like you. This is goodbye for now. I'm your host, Steve Abramowitz, editor in chief of Heartland Journal.com. See you all tomorrow. Peace in our time and definitely glory to God. Instead of a song, let's go out with a clip from back to school, 1986, when I was a freshman in high school and impressionable young mind, professor Ferguson loses it during a discussion of the Vietnam War, professor Ferguson, Sam Kinneson, deceased, rest in peace, comedian that yells at Rodney Dangerfield, deceased, rest in peace, comedian with Ron Williams to speak up. Mr. Vince, in the last 20 years of American history, now can someone tell me why in 1975 we pulled our troops out of Vietnam? The failure of beatenimization to impact their support caused an ongoing erosion of confidence in the various American but illegal Saigon regimes. Is she right? Because I know that's the popular version of what we know in there. I know a lot of people like to believe that. I wish I could, but I was there. I wasn't here in the classroom, hoping I was right, thinking about it. I was up from my knees in rice paddies with guns and it was going up against Charlotte, slung it out with me, oh pussies like you, we're back to your party and putting headbands on doin' drugs, listen to me goddamn feet, love 'em, oh, no, oh. Hey, my professor, take it easy, will you? I mean, these kids, they were in grade school at the time, and me, I'm not a fighter, I'm a lover. Well, I didn't know you wanted to get involved with the discussion, Mr. Halper. But since you want to help, maybe you can help me, okay? Even the thing we had about 30 years ago called that Korean conflict, yeah, where we failed to achieve victory, how come we didn't cross the 38th parallel and push those rice eaters back to the great ball of China, and take it apart for a quick break, and no deal back into the fucking storage river, help go, tell me, why, say it, say it. All right, I'll say it, 'cause Truman was too much more pussy-wimp, to help me come up, go in there, and pull out those coming bastards. Good answer. [MUSIC] Any of you's or opinions represented on the podcast are a personal and belongs solely to the creator and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the creator may or may not be associated with in a professional or a personal capacity unless it's strictly stated. [MUSIC] So, y'all saw it, shots rang out, they tried to kill a former president, the news proved themselves once again to be not on the side of good, not on the side of light. They came out and immediately said he fell down and pops were heard and this and that. People typical when we had our local folks wanting to be able to say that, hey, it's all good, but here's what I could do, and if you care what I have to say, you can listen. All I could think of was what if that bastard was successful and Donald Trump was dead today. So, what would happen to this great country of ours, the one that I go on air every time and ask for blessing even though we don't deserve it. We don't deserve Donald Trump, a guy who's a multi-billionaire, has a beautiful wife, a brilliant child who's got his whole future ahead of him and yet they're willing to jail to find him, try to bankrupt him, now murder him, whoever they are, it doesn't really matter. The point is if he had died by an inch yesterday, where would America be? Nowhere is where we would be. We would be a completely lost, headless country that doesn't deserve God's blessings, just like we don't deserve Donald Trump to be quite honest, so all I got to say is to anybody on the left or in the media or online who thinks this was staged or this is funny or this is political, you need to seek help, you need to get off of social media, you need to ask Jesus's forgiveness, you need to understand that chaos and communism and socialism are responsible for the murders and deaths and tortures of more people than any virus God has ever sent this way, Spanish American flu, the Bludonic plague, COVID, nothing. Feminism, socialism, this dream, this nirvana that you all think is such a wonderful thing is a lie and if you want to live in a lie, fine, do it by yourself at home in the dark in your mother's basement and leave the rest of us alone, us who just want to live lives, be concerned parents and watch our children grow and maybe we'll be blessed to have grandchildren who can continue this democracy, this republic that is the greatest thing to ever happen on this earth in the history of mankind since Jesus told about 13 people that he was God, okay? So if you want to go on to campuses like UCLA and make a mess and shout from the heavens and not shower and pee in a cup, don't because antifa and BLM and all of these political organizations that spurned out of acorn that came from a communist book, Saul Alinsky's book dedicated to Lucifer, leave us out of it, go to Cuba, go to Venezuela, go to hell and leave us alone and I say I've got to tell you right now, if Donald Trump does not make it to the finish line and change this country back, we will not be blessed, we will no longer be able to say with a straight face God bless America and I do not want that, anyway, thanks for listening, God saved Trump, he's going to be with us, they're going to put extra protection on him, we won't have to deal with that again and if we're lucky, he will clean the stables, he will turn over the tables and we will get ourselves back to a country worthy of his name by a man who sacrificed now everything for us, we don't deserve it but thank God he's doing it, amen. 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