so you try to pick them up quickly as possible and not be too judgmental about the fact that you cannot get to the end of your to do in this job. and that's uncomfortable feeling for someone like me every time i go to bed. i know there are three or four things that i didn't get to and. i tend to beat myself up about that and you just can't do that. that's where burnout comes. having this neverending to do list that, you beat yourself up for. so you just got to, got to exhale you got to in mark alford is the republican representing missouri's fourth congressional district and one of nearly 80 new house members in the 118th congress. he told c-span his conservative roots growing up in texas and his life as a television reporter. texas, florida and missouri before running for office. for 35 years, i was in the news media. i'm a recovering reporter, you might say. i knew from the age of nine that i wanted to be a storyteller or a professional storyteller. so everything did was geared towards that in high school and college, my first tv job in covering the texas state capitol as a political reporter for affiliate in waco, i was in several major television markets. dallas covering politics. i never thought that i would actually be in politics someday. but i know now that this was god's calling for me, that he gave me this talent voice that i honed over 35 years, and now i'm able to to use for the american people in our district, more importantly. how did you that at age nine? my uncle was an anchorman quite famous in oklahoma city and i always looked up to him. i admired him. one of my other heroes had a very young age was walter cronkite. and then another hero of mine was johnny carson. and i'm kind of a i guess, a amalgam of, those three individuals, their styles their interview adaptations, their i guess some some ways mannerisms. but it's just it's about communication and as a professional communicator, all those years, i was able take part in a lot of interesting i was able to interview a lot of people. i did a short internship at the white house in 1989 with when president reagan was there and bill plante was and i just i knew that i wanted to do something other than tv at as we got into it, i didn't know what and this is really a gift from god that i'm able to do this. what did those men do in your in your opinion, you wanted to do as well? i mean, what how did they how did they impact you as a kid? and as you were growing up? i think communication, television is a combination of things. it's not just information. it's entertainment. and a lot of times when you're in television news, you look at entertainment as a dirty word. entertainment mainly to keep someone engaged. and that's what i wanted to do. and i that in public speaking as well to keep engaged so that you can come convey ideas and try to really sway people to your point of view in a lot of ways, not necessarily in the journalism field. but now in politics, when you are engaging with someone, really trying to convince them that your way is right and perhaps they need to look at it a different way. and that's that's what i'm doing. you called yourself a recovering reporter. what did you mean? well, i think i have seen over my career in television and in journalism, journalism kind of take a turn. i think that came about with the advent of cable. i remember when i was in high school, college. cnn came on to the scene. bobbie battista. and at first it was very neutral cable news over the became more slanted than a lot of ways because they had so much time fill. when we were back and i was growing up, we had maybe one or 2 hours of news to fill a day and we have 24 hours of black work to fill. and so you have to fill it with something. so i think cable news out early on that the most strident voices that were really out there brought in the viewers that, brought in money and it kept the audience growing. and as that happened it kind of rarified to one way or the other. far left, far right. and i think that's where we are today. and we need to get back to the middle. we need to have some sort reform in journalism. and i know that the government can't have any part in that because it's not constitutional. but i do think we need to get back in journalism and just telling stories, not being an advocate for one side or the other, but just telling the truth. why did you decide to run for this seat? i was frustrated early a couple of years ago. i really started getting frustrated with the way that the news was going. as a lifelong conservative, and i was always fighting from the inside. try to bring balance, context and perspective to our news product. i really felt like i had a fiduciary responsibility that the viewers weren't just but they were clients and i had to give them the truth no matter what. the longer i did that, the more i did that and i was pretty well read. i watched a great consumer news and so i was able to to things to our news product over 5 hours a day, 24000 hours of live television in over 23 years. and so i, i was frustrated when this seat opened up. vicki hartzler my predecessor, a great woman, decided to run for the u.s. senate. my wife and i talked about it, and we thought, this is where really god was leading us to be a voice for the people. and i the biggest miracle, i think a bigger than moses parting the red sea was that my wife agreed to this and she on board 100%. in fact, coming up tonight, she she loves being a part of this, a journey that we're on where do your conservative roots from? i think mostly my dad. in fact, i don't have with me today, but i typically carry around my copy of the constitution. he gave it to me before he died and. it's underlined like a little old lady's king james bible with all these notes. i had it on the floor the morning that we were finally sworn in. and i think it 1232 and i held it in one hand with my other hand over my heart, kind of an homage to him. he really me. i think the principles of what the constitution is, is is the basic foundation of our country. and we need not from that to have liberty and freedom. security. are there other in that constitution from him. yes. any that out to you. accountability is written on the top. if there's anything i want to be as accountable to our voters and live up to the the honor that they have placed in me. i think one of the odd things that i'm still trying to get used to is on letterhead and everything. it says. the honorable mark alford thomas laugh at that, but then i realized the honor is not placed in mark all for the honors placed in this seat. i'm merely a steward of this seat, just like vicky hartzler was. and before her, ike skelton. and there's going to be someone, me. but in the meantime, i'm going to do the best that i can to be the loudest, most consistent, unwavering voice i can be for our voters, our constituents,