Dragging our feet a little bit. But it is because it has been such an energetic event. Having the Vice President with us. Having key white house officials and of course President Donald Trump address cpac. Was that spectacular or what . But i have the great honor to be here with the rising stars, just some of the rising stars in the conservative movement. Let me tell you, these three individuals who are up here, get to know them. They are such a critical part of our conservative movement. They are doing things at the state level. They are fighting for conservative principles. And they are here to talk about their experience in the conservative Movement Leadership positions in getting the conservative message out. Without further ado, i will introduce them and we will move into the discussions. Next to me i have state senatoragy ellis from wyoming. A mother of three elementary and preschool aged children. She was elected to the wyoming senate in 2016. A warm round of applause for state senator ellis. Then attorney general patrick morrissey. Elected for the state of West Virginia in 2012. He has been one of the most active attorney generals in the country fighting federal overreach by filing lawsuits and submitting briefs before the u. S. Supreme courts on a number of issues including protecting the Second Amendment and defending state jobs and our valuable energy resources. Lets welcome attorney general morrissey. And last but not least, a fellow floridean, mary thomas. She was a 2016 republican conservative candidate who sought election to the u. S. House of representatives to represent the second Congressional District of florida. And she is also a member of the nrccs Young Guns Program in 2016 and also a lawyer and we are so glad to have mary thomas with us today. So to start, i will ask each of you, what made you a conservative . We will start with you affie. Sure. My parents are both navajo and they grew up on the reservation. They were at a boarding school in utah where they were taught trade skills and afterward my dad learned how to well and he got a job in jackson hole, wiley homing. So he and my mom started their family there. Wileyhoming. So he and my mom started their family there. For me when i started paying attention to poll success is when we ahad a ban on snowmobils in Yellow Stone National park. It highlighted to me how devastating federal overreach can be if left unchecked and so that really started opening my eyes of bad things that can happen. And you shared that when you were on your campaign. What made you decide to run . A big part of my reason for running, i looked at state legislation in wyoming. We have some of the worst numbers for women in the country. We had the risk of having no women serving at all. I felt it was important as a mom to make sure that voice was represented particularly given our States Education challenges with boom bust economy and declining revenues paying for our Education System. Wonderful. You want to share your experience . What made you a conservative . Sure. I think i started at a very early age following politics. I had a very keen interest in tp when i would watch the growth of government i would think that would constrain moral choices by individuals. So that started to motivate me at a very early age. Then, before i ran for office in West Virginia, i saw what the federal government was doing to our way of life in the state. When you look at obama care, when you look at wart on coal, all these regulations would put so many people out of work and constrain freedom. And so i was really motivated to get engaged because i thought that Big Government meant less freedom and actually was not respecting the inherent right of individuals. Thats what ive tried to fight for over the last four years. Mary . I would say it is my parents. Im first generation american and they came to america from india under 1972. When they came, they just really had their educations. But they knew in this country, unlike any other country in this world, if they worked hard, they would be able to be asuccessful. Thats what they did. They started a successful Family Business they built from the ground up and successful biotechnology company. They taught us about fiscal responsibility. About the importance of family. About loving our country and being so grateful to be here and be citizens of this great country. They are my foundation. I think [ applause ] theres so many out there who are who you know, they kind of think about this idea about running for office or taking their conservative passion and to the next level. And so you all have gone to the experience of running and campaigns. What do you think it takes to win . Well, im happy to start. I ran against a longserving democrat in wyoming and wiley oeming is one of the reddest legislatures in the country so the at time there were four democrats in our legislature. I ran against one of them and defeated him. It was hard, doing an aggressive door to Door Campaign and communicating with voters about things i wanted to work on and just a lot of hard work. What message worked for you . Again back to the education thing, wyoming, we are very dependent on mineral extraction industry. Over the years we have seen a lot of challenges in federal regulation that inhibits to use our resources. That trickled down to our Education System that is largely funded by those resources. We are in a difficult area of needing to meet tough challenges. Wyoming, we have one of the richest education models in the country. We spend 16,000 per student compared to other Rocky Mountain states in the area, they spend around 10,000. It is mindful to be respectful of how we spend public dollars before we impose new taxes on our businesses, industries and familyes. Thats an important first step. Attorney general, share with us one story or one Campaign Story when you were on the trail. Well, i can tell you, one of the things that happened in the last race after we spend the last four years really following lawsuit after lawsuit against president obama. I wasnt perceived very well by the past white house. You said you didnt get any of your calls returned either, rig right . Thats right. One thing can i say, it is a lot better to work with this add mip strags than the last. Going back to the issues of coal in terms of what this administration tried to do, it is so important for people know when you have a president or candidate for office like Hillary Clinton who indicates they want to put coal miners out of work, that get people motivated to their bones. And they are really excited to go out and be active. And i think building upon the last comment made, one of the things you have to do is just articulate what are the reasons why you are running, and why your values relate to the people, citizens of your state. We tried to do that everyday because the one thing they knew, is that unlike other politicians who would simply say, well, im not for obama or im not for hillary, i tried to say, we were going to do something substantive, file lawsuit and win and help change our way of life for the better in the state. And thats why i think its important for conservatives to be those who act, not just talk and not spew out rhetoric. Thats a great point. It is this idea of action. Being a doer. That sound very similar it President Trump. President trump had the second largest vote tally in the country. Wyoming may have been first. But when you get 68. 6 , the reason he did is because we spoke to their hearts and minds. These are people who were crushed by the power of the federal government. I think President Trump offered a much more compelling vision and thats why people really reacted very well to him. Mary . You went through this grueling campaign. You ran for congress. Tell us your experience. Well i think it was great. I got to meet so many great people and the district i ran in Second District of florida is a very rural and agricultural district. Part of the heart blood of our country. Small business owners, farmers, cattle ranchers and one of the things i think was so important in my campaign is that we traveled every single day over 2,000 miles plus on our car every single week to meet with people and good out to their dairies. I rode horses. I herded cows. I learned about their businesses an families and what was impacting them. It is what the country feels as a whole and why President Trump got elected because people were tired of washington not prep accidenti representing the people of the country. Not just the regular everyday people like me and all of the people in our district. Now you did not win that election. You lost by narrowly lost by 1 , a thousand votes. This is a case study. How do you think that played out in this dynamic cycle especially in your particular race. Every group out there supported me including the American Conservative Union with your husband and dan snyder and everyone was so, so helpful. Freedom caucus, maggies list, all of these groups. But in the end, what happened, i believe, is there was a little bit more money that the other side had and they attacked us even though we were clearly the conservative candidate out there. But i think one thing that is important is if you take the chance and you run for office, you should never give up. You always have to be persistent and that is one thing that we did on our campaign. I actually after my race, i converted my Campaign Office into a trump for President Office and my husband and i yay [ cheers and applause ] so we ran his most productive north Florida Field Office and we have people from all walks of life. Democrats, republicans, independents, who would come in. There was a man who even rescheduled his eye surgery so he could make calls. And thats what people felt in the passion. So we can never give up. There is always a fight out there that we can fight. Even if we dont lose even if we dont win our particular race we can always participate in the movement. I think part of it is obviously building out name recognition as well. Sometimes you dont win the first time. You win the second or third time. I think you look at President Trump where he didnt spend very much money obviously he was outspent by Hillary Clinton yet he had such a strong message and such a strong movement. That i think it absolutely made the difference. So here we have the media, fake news in some cases, and the left constantly you all clap whenever they say fake news. Fake news. [ applause ] there you go. Were getting attacked. Conservancy has been attacked for generations. How do conservatives survive this . Go ahead. I was going to say, fwiirst thing, you have to have a thick skin. . West virginia we have major fake news outlet and im not afraid to say it. You have to be willing to stand firm with your principles and continue to do the right thing even though you have the newspapers and your opponent lie about everything that you do. We probably had over 150 above the fall pit pieces in the first four years. Why . Because i was a conservative and i would not back down. And i think the key thing is to have a thick skin but also build alliances. As the attorney general of West Virginia i thought that our voice would be magnified if we worked with 15, 20, 25 states on a lot of the litigation. Because that way when they are looking at youre litigation, it is not just you as individual attorney general. It is potentially half the country. A lot harder to attack when you come as a team. And thats what we tried to do. [ applause ] affie . Facts. Hard work. So many times where i think it is easy to name call and have cute hashtags that stick. But we have to have strong facts and start communicating those facts in a very effective way. And a lot of the devil in the details of the policy youre working on dont fill well into small hashtags so maybe we need long hashtags. I dont know if they can fit within the kicharacter limit of twitter. But yes. Were you attacked during your campaign . No, not really. Those people in miami are so nice. He are very nice. I would say no, not by media but as we fake difficult challenges in wyoming we make difficult budget choices because we like most families in this country live by a budget. When you dont have revenue you have to make msmart tough choics where you will cut. We are receiving criticisms but we have to hold fast in our message that if you want us to raise taxes we can do that. But if you want us to live within our means, then thats the main date we have been given. Mary . I was attacked by the liberal media. But as affie and general morrissey said, i think we were dag newspaper panel, they said i was supported by special Interest Groups. And acu helped me. Club for growth. Senate conservatives fund. I told them, i just gave it back to them. Well the groups that support me, if you call the constitution a special Interest Group then i guess thats special Interest Group that supports me. Thats fantastic. Im a fox contributor. So we get tough questions. But we dont it is always so it is such a respectable debate. My sweet husband who has been on all these other networks and i used to do the other networks beforehand, it is rough. And it is about the tough skin. But i tell them during the election cycle he would say be did you watch my hit . I would be like, no. I sass so petrified of like the fact they were going to call him all these awful names on air and i just couldnt watch it. It is just too painful to watch. But he kept going on. So you cant ignore it. You just it is good to go on these channels and you know, write and if you have a strong opinion of something get it out. Get it out to your local papers. Thats what social media is about. Get it all out on facebook. Express your opinions. Dont stay quiet. You have to speak up. This is the only way you can educate families and your community. A retired physician, culpepper, he writes all the time and it is about impacting your local politics in a lot of ways. I encourage you, since im from the media world, to use your avenues. Now with social media it allows you to get out the conservative message. I want to move on to now were in charge. Conservatives are in charge. In so many states. Obviously at the National Level with President Trump being the leader. Now we have to govern. And i think governing is the hardest part. How do you stay connected with the grass roots . Affie . This is my first time serving in the wyoming legislature. We did a 40day session, it will be communicating with voters in my district to be very transparent about bills theyve contacted me with and providing a thoughtful explanation. Again, i think our country needs so desperately some thought and well reserved responses and not just canned statements. I have made a commitment to make sure when i communicate with pi voters, there will be facts and no gameplaying. I love the idea you bring up facts. This is to all of you. Fact check. Figure out your source of information when you write or say anything. Have you it back it up with where you got this information. I think it is critical. Now days people just retweet and send it over and because you know, your cousin mary sent it to you so you just no. Read it and make sure that it is not fake. Because you dont want to be accused on the other side either. Attorney general . A couple different things. I think it is important to keep engaging the people. And one of the things i did after i took office in 2013 i had a series of town halls. We ultimately did about 75 town halls across the state of West Virginia. Another 60 different public meetings. So when the news media would start to lie about a particular issue, people would would good to the meetings would know the opposite because they could hear firsthand what was going on. Between that tool, getting out on social media and getting to a lot of the friendly news outlets. Every news outlet is not fake news. There are some. It is important to work with the ones who are going to be fair to you. Right. Mary . I think you just have to continue to stay in touch and thats what ive done with all my supporters. Even during the campaign. Everyone had my cell phone number. So they had direct access to me. I think thats what we want from our legislators. You might not always be able to get back to them very quickly. Even though i didnt win the race there are still people calling me to ask for advice. I was one of governor rick scotts attorneys. They asked for advice with state issues as well. We have to actually care about people and their families and their lives. An it makand it makes a big difference. I always get someone saying, can someone from your staff i dont have staff. Its me. I check my email and call. I do both. So to do a round robin here, what advice do you give conservatives out there, that you think, its important for them, if they are looking to become the next rising star of the conservative movement. I think the best advice i continually get is clear calm heads will always prevail. Keep your head about you. I would say that most important thing is to know work very hard, but know that one person can make a difference. And in West Virginia, we started something. Really powerful. I was the only republican in West VirginiaState Government for the first couple of years in my term of office. If you start to build and you stick to your principles, work hard, you build a team, theres no telling how much you can accomplish. Little old West Virginia slaughtered president obamas Clean Power Plan with the help of 27 states, 150 groups, demes, republicans, consumer groups, labor unions, did that because we had an idea and saw it through. Mary . Just as mr. General morrissey said, i think we need to stick to our conservative ideals. Bu but we need to be active. On Election Night as we were feverishly watching, waiting for Election Results to come in we saw President Trump tied with hillary in florida. Until the last second we had volunteers making phone calls, knocking on doors and every little bit made a difference. Our volunteers made a big difference in electing President Trump. Well our Founding Fathers just came through the door. Thank you for being here. Thank you so much for writing the constitution, for fighting for our rights, for ensuring that our conservative principles live on. God bless our Founding Fathers. Our patriots. We want to thank you all, you are the rising stars. You are so much the core of the conservative movement. We admire the work that youre doing at the state level. We want to thank you all for being here. You are all our allstars as well. We will just wrap up. Thank you so much. Later on our companion network cspan, Journalist Bill press interviews Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold who reported on druonald trumps businesses and charitable trusts. Thats at 11 00 p. M. On cspan. This weekend cspan city tour along with Comcast Cable partners will explore the literary life and history of san jose, california. Saturday at noon eastern on book tv. Hear about Silicon Valley, home to many of the Worlds Largest hightech corporations including google, facebook and apple. Tech Business Reporter ethan baron of the mercury news talk about the success and challenges Silicon Valley has had on san jose and the region. Silicon valley is booming. Absolutely rampant. And that raises the possibility that things will go in the other direction and as they have in the past. Then author larry gerstan talks about his book, not so golden after all. If you know anything about california, and im a native born californian, you know this state is so topsyturvey. Like a roller coast are gone bad. It can be a boom state economically, one year it can be in the hole. 30 billion the next. We will take you to the beginnings of san jose. It was moved fromity original vacation to this location here, in downtown san jose. And the adobe we see behind us is the last remaining structure of that pueblo built in 1797. Then go inside the Lick Observatory home to one of the largest refractor telescopes in the world. Astronomy in the late 1900s when Lick Observatory was conducted, this tell cope when constructed was the largest of its kind in the world in 1888. Watch cspan city tour of san jose, california. Saturday at noon east enon cspan 2s book tv and sunday afternoon at 2 00 p. M. On cspan 3. Working with our cable affiliates and visiting cities across the country. More from c spak now. Urging new communits to get out the conservative message. Thank you very much, thank you. Well, good afternoon. Since it is after 12 00 now. Thank to you matt schlapp, certainly mercedes. Your attendees in your third day, thank you for coming from all part of the country. I am privileged to serve as Republican Study Committee chairman. I rely simply not on my long history of political pedigrees, but rather on my own real Life Experiences as a pastor