Ive a fiveyearold, threeyearold, and now two creerled. And i wanted to make sure they grew up in a safe strong free america. So i have some experience in serving with president bush and being here. I thought that experience would bode well for my district and afe passion for Public Service. So the comflation of all those things the timing seemed to be right. I prayed about it and felt like i needed to do my part in service to our country. Im so honors. What were you doing before you won this house seat . I was president of a Health Care Innovation company that owns a Health System but i didnt run the Health System. I was starting and deprowing a Telemedicine Company in one of the ways we were using telemedicine was to bring Specialty Care in the Population Center where im from to Rural Communities through partnerships with community hospitals. Comblow mentioned george w. Bush. Talk about your experience working for him. Great friend. And mentor and a strong leader and somebody that ostyussly has made an tremendous impression upon me as a young staffer that grew and my ten years of service with him as governor and president got to be an adviser to him in the white house so was there on 9 11. All those things really did impact me and my view of governing and leading and i think he was a strong leader when it cams to national security. I think he understood his first job is to keep the American People safe. And i think projecting strength and exercising our military force responsibly was something that kept the world more stable and kept the American People safer. And so that was something that i talked about during the campaign and would hearken back to jompletwrment buzz as commander george w. Bush as commander in chief. So we talked about that. He is from midland, texas, which is the neighboring community and neighboring district with my district. He actually rain for this seat and the only time he was beat in a political race was in 1978. So theres some interesting history there. But heres a guy especially as governor that was very results oriented. He braut people together. A lot of folks dont remember this but when he was governor the speaker of the house met every week. They laid out a plan for how they were going to move texas forward, solve problems, deliver results for the people of texas and they did it. So as a young impressionable guy that wanted to change the world in politics, i watched a guy work with people of all ideological persuasions and certainly across the aisle to actually do good by the people. I dont think he was as successful and i think that was a regret of his when he came to washington as president. But that was the impression and the influence upon me as a leader. Office and vernors in washington what were you advising him . On agriculture and energy and natural resources. So i would work with the cabinet secretaries on the senateconfirmed political appointments. I would meet with him every week and i would present those appointment of courses to him and make a recommendation. And i did that in texas, too. The difference is theres not a cabinet form of executive government there so they were boarding Commission Members volunteer sts sentence doing parttime governance as opposed to full time secretaries and undersecretaries for this that and the ortsdz. Did the former president give you any advice on how to win the seat that he lost . His best advice was leading by example and what it did to impress upon me how one should lead, how one should govern, w one should approach Public Office. I think he had a tremendous regard for the office of the presidency and so i looked at it with great esteem. I think it was his dad that said that Public Office is a noble calling and Public Service is a noble calling. So i think that was his greatest contribution to me and the tact that he supported me fibblely, he and mrs. Bush financially. He and mrs. Bush meant a whole lot to me. Hes very popular and i think hes become more popular as time has gone by and i think history has proven that his cus and his strong stance on sort post 9 11 policy was actually good for the world and good for america. But hes tremendously popular his own backyard which is west texas. Im honored to serve with him, i consider him a friend and somebody thats shaped my career and perspective on leadership. What are your aspirations here in washington . Just make a dimbs. Make the country safer, stronger more prosperous so that my kids have an opportunity. People ask me all the time will you pledge for this, or that. My pledge is to uphold the constitution. My pledge is to live the best i can to my christian principles and then my pledge is to make decisions that will make this country better and stronger for my children. Thats my pledge. Speaking of your family will they be joining out here in washington, d. C. . They will. Ive got a young family and i live a long way from here. It takes a half a day to get back. So while im going to spend a lot of time in the district i want to be unencombered by family responsibilities. I also dont want to be here all week without my family. I want to be able to go home tuck them in bed read them a story, pray with them, eat with them. So well try to make it as much as possible. I know well make sacrifices but im willing to make sacrifices to do this job. Im not willing to sacrifice my family for this job. So well try to find that balance thats going to take time to learn the rhythm of this new job. But im so excited. And for me, since i was 16 and i wanted to change the world and i knew this was the area, the arena that i wanted to do it in, here it is 28 years later and i have the opportunity. I fole the weight of the election. People say were tired of business as usual. We want to cange the course and culture of washington. Sign me up. Thank you so much for talking to cspan. Thank you. Join us on tuse, january 3 for the opening day of the new congress. Watch the swearing in. And the election of the speaker of the house. Our allday live coverage from capitol hill begins at 7 00 and astern on cspan cspan. Org. Coming up next q a with mark danner. Then at 7 00 we open our phone lines and take a look at todays headlines on washington journal. On q a, marc danner. Your book spiral means what . Mark its a figure that talks about emotion, beginning at the center, going around and around and getting ever farther away from the original center and from the direction youre trying to go. So to me it was this image of spiral, circling, circling, never getting closer to the point, characterized very well our war on terror, that it started and was intended to, like all wars, end itself, somehow finish the job at hand d the violence and its act that continued on and on and that i thought was a vivid representation for what weve been doing now the last 15 years. How many wars have you actually seen up close . Mark thats a good question. I wrote about Central American wars but i was there afterwards. I covered the bosnian war, the ball kahn war the balkan wars which were several wars and the politic