Good evening, and welcome to the National Archives. Im the archivist of the United States, and it is a pleasure to welcome you here this evening, whether you are here in person, joining us on youtube, or a special welcome to our friends at cspan. We present tonights program, meet the better half, in partnership with the u. S. Association and former members of congress. We thank them for their support. We have been doing this for six years now. Great to have you with us. Look forward to six more. Before we get started, id like to tell you about two other programs coming up next month, actually this month. 6, we will february talk about the new book jeffersons daughters. Lives. S into their ll beruary 16, we talking about the book Chocolate City a history of race and democracy in the nations capital. To learn more about these and all Public Programs and exhibit, check out archives. Gov and you can sign up at a table outside to receive it by email. Another way to get more involved is to become a member of the National Archive foundation. The Foundation Supports the work of the agency, especially the education and outreach activities. Their applications for membership in the lobby. Has ever been turned down for membership of the National Archive foundation. And theonal Archives Center for legislative archives preserves the Historical Records of the u. S. House of representatives and the u. S. Senate, but even those voluminous records cant tell the full story of congresss operations. We cant overlook the importance of persontoperson relationships, not only between members, but within members families. Family members give tremendous support to those in Public Service. Back in the revolutionary era, john and Abigail Adams shared their thoughts in scores of letters, now preserved by the adams papers, now available online. There is a mutual love and concern a family as well as the ideals of a struggling munition. For example, in february, 1776, john wrote, i send you from your pamphlet, common sense ,and i will send as many papers and pamphlets as i can as long as i stay here. Abigail responded, i am charmed with the sentiments of common sense. i want to know how these sentiments are received in congress. I say there is no difficulty procuring a vote for independence. The days adams times, or weeks between letters has been reduced it to instantaneous correspondence. Lets now hear from our panelists on carrying out public duties. I welcome to the stage christian english. Hes currently the president of the former members of congress auxiliary and a past president of the republican congressional spot. He served in congress froor 14 years, representing the Third District of pennsylvania. He spent the first seven years of his congressional term living and working in the district of his hometown of yuri, pennsylvania erie, pennsylvania. After retiring from education, she spent the next several years traveling to and from the congressional district. She graduated from lake erie college, majoring in french, and received a masters degree in english. Anshe taught High School French and english for 15 years, and was then coordinator of the High School Gifted program. Ladies and gentlemen, christianity bush. [applause] thank you, david. Andas a great introduction, for the many years of Partnership Involving the National Archives in the former members of congress. First, a quick word about the association. Of former members of congress in the organization that i represent as president of the former members of congress auxiliary. The auxiliary consists of former members. We bring together a Bipartisan Group of over 600 congressman and senators who Work Together on a wide variety of projects. We strengthen the work of the Current Congress by promoting a deeper understanding of our democracy and encouraging Public Service. If you would like to find out more about our project and collaboration, please visit our website. Tonights panel is an example of smcs work to engage the public in a conversation about issues that affect our nation and our democracy. In the partisan era, where tweets and soundbites drive new cycles and politics is seen as an unkind profession for the powerhungry, it is important to step back and remember that our elected officials and their family members make selfless and ground decisions to enter the public eye and dedicate time for serving in public office. Here to moderate our discussion tonight is dr. Laura brown. Dr. Brown serves as a Board Advisor and director of the graduate school at political management at George Washington university. She is a distinguished writer, dedicated scholar, and acclaimed expert on politics. We also have two congressional couples, congressman Donald Manzullo and his wife, frida, and Russ Carnahan and his wife, deborah. They will be joining us tonight. I know both of the couples and can attest that they are wonderful people and that you were going to have a very interesting evening. The welcome. So, let me say thank you to our wonderful National Archives. Thank you to the former members of congress. And to the family members who are here with us and their spouses. Thank you for being here tonight. I am very excited about the conversation. I think we will get to share a little bit about about something i think is really important. Politics is about people. Dore are people who extraordinary Public Service, and committing time and energy to this life of politics and Public Service. I think we have a lot to hear about and learn tonight from these families. Thank you so much again for being here. To share who is here on the stage with me because it is exciting. We have former member of the house Russ Carnahan, a democrat. He served in the house for eight 20052018. Founding partner of the current hand and carnahan law firm. , freedom and solo fredazanola manzullo. She was in michigan and earned her bachelors in english. Very interesting background. She worked in medical technology for many years. Manzullo,o donald how long did you serve . Don 20 years. Lara next to him i worked for him. Lara right. He ran for president. Don he did. And you served as a republican, 20 years. Is a wonderful selection of individuals who have given time, energy and being in congress, serving constituents and being with their political parties. Im hopeful everyone will reflect on and share with our audience. Takes a lot of work to run a campaign, it takes a lot of work to get elected and to serve in office. What i am interested in is, how did this begin . What were some of the conversations you had with each other about, do i get in . What district do i run for . Should i run for a lower office . How did you decide that congress was it and that you wanted to make part of your life be part of washington . Freda, you start. Dating, donwe were was honest enough to say to me he was practicing law in a small in a small town but he always dreamed of being a member of congress. I i have to be honest and say would like to run for that seat. And i thought, no the incumbent will stay there forever. I thought it was a safe bet. To then she was encouraged run for senate, which left an open seat and donald said to me, if i do not run now somebody who runs often will stay in for 20 years. So he felt like this was his opportunity. Were 1 yearold, threeyears old, and fiveyears old. So i was not particularly interested in getting involved with our kids being so young. But this was his dream. How can you as a wife say you dont want your husband to fulfill his childhood dream . So i went along with it. But actually, don had never run for Political Office before. Don i had run for the school time in illinois at the was defending the most notorious murderer in the county. It was a court appointment. Bad timing. [laughter] don good for the opponent debra i think i knew russ was going to run for local office from the moment he cut in on his best friend who is dancing with me. It was a Young Democrats event in kansas city. He said hello. As my fatherinlaw used to say, its a genetic defect in this family. President of my college on democrats in columbia, missouri. Columbia college. Russ was statewide president of Young Democrats. He was in moscow at the time at the university of missouri. He was in law school at the time at the university of missouri. So we connected. It kind of throws you to say, he has from a political family and i was involved in political committees. But to say yes, im going to commit. What if we win, then what . To lose but it is a very difficult decision to make because what if you do when . In illinois at my girlfriends bridal shower and i got this call from rocks and he said, and i got this call said, i needd he to talk to. We had been redistricted one block. Said, oh my gosh. Can you just give me 24 hours to get home . Let me finish this. My friend and her mother were listening like, what is he doing and how . He said, what is 24 hours, people are going to jump into this. He said, i need to start making calls tonight. I said, ok. Lets go for it. That is just kind of how you have to roll sometimes. Opposite me ask an question. How did you feel when you were running and you were in the campaign. You say thatwould freda was most helpful and most supportive . Ross i came home from the law office in a town of 30,000 with the family raising beef cattle and we got married, she thought i was a safe bet. This guy is going nowhere. Don i bought this free book on how to run for congress. She said, what does the book safe . Friends, 100your of them, each give you 100. Silence. On wire whension it to run. Idea what i was doing. Wast 47 of the vote which extraordinary. Went on to beat me lose to the first of a credit to hold the seat in 100 years. Showedeally extraordinary support because i had to make up my mind whether or not to run. Notid, freda just tell me to run. System. Ut of my she said, i am not going to stand between you and your boyhood dream. So, freda did an extraordinary lift taking care of the kids. Throughout the entire congressional district. Freda was my chauffeur, like every congressman has today. One family was coming back from about an hour and a half away. We were china to stay awake by trying to remember the names of the state capitals. People inthing only politics do, right . Was a family affair. When we first started, don wanted to do this. He printed off all of this literature at his law office and we put it in this little wagon and went to a festival with our kids. But he clammed up when we got there. He said, i just do not know that i can walk up to people and andt introducing myself tell them what we are doing but hours on who was fiveyearsold no. I was the first time so he was fiveyears old. He just started going up to people and handing the pliers and saying, this is my dad. Fascinating some stories. A lot of the starts came from wives who were willing to say, guess what . My husband is running for congress. Would you be willing to help with his campaign . So that is how it started these traditions. So i am curious. Mrs. Carnahan, what about you . How did you deploy your campaign on the trail . Her, i had met always been involved in my dads campaigns. When i was eightyearsold he was running for the legislature and i remember going on this or a van for carnahan. They had a flatbed truck with loudspeakers that went from town to town on weekends. Tothat was my first exposure politics. I had been the scheduler in grassroots campaigns and i had that introduction. I did not really think i was necessarily going to run for office myself. Fact, in 2000 i was trying to talk debra into running. I told her, i will be your Campaign Manager. She declined and eventually i reenter we practiced law together. We worked on campaigns together. Andad a good understanding she was always my sounding board people. S, four you are approached by so many people and competing pressures and decisions. I always knew that i was going to get the straight information from debra. You might not like it sometimes but that was really so important to me throughout the work that i did. Is so moving on, you win. Now what. You move to washington . Do you keep the children at home to bring them to washington . Can you afford washington . Huge questions i think every family confronts because i think people say, like in the what docandidate now . [laughter] sometimes when i go back and look at pictures of the election went on first one, when he won the general election that was know that was the primary. But when one that general election we just look astounded. We look happy. We look overwhelmed. Pictureook back at that , i think, you did not have a clue what you are getting into after that night. For thecame onentation, we only knew another couple and it was because a friend of ours had moved from illinois to michigan between the primary election and the general election. They befriended peter, who was running at the same time. Peter had children pretty much the same age as our children and so we met peter and his wife in michigan about one month before orientations. In fact, the rnc called our friends that night when we are having pizza at his house to ask for money for the parting and he said, you wont believe who is in my house tonight i have a newly elected member of Congress Sitting right here. Did notht, porcaro, he know that being friends with as he was going to get calls for the rest of his life from the republican party. S don freda was homeschooling the kids because it was easier. A big shout out to the archives and library of congress, our kids had an extraordinary opportunity. They got to see the actual documents. I remember one time we were at the library of congress and one docent, it was not a it was one of the directors reached up, and he pulled down George Washingtons primer. He handed it to the children. Speed. Barely but because of the archives, we spent a lot of time here in the theives and the kids got most extraordinary education that i think anybody could get. Those documents. In day i was sworn in back they openede here, the doors early and let us in. To see the emancipation proclamation. We were from lincoln illinois yes. We came to see that and later on when they newspapers interviewed don, they asked him what was the most important thing that happened during your swearing in days and he said, it was going to see the emancipation proclamation. There and saw the muchture and thought, how did he sacrificed to do the right thing. You hoped you would have the courage to do the right thing for your district. Lara great story. Thank you for sharing that. Decision. Tough i was born and raised in alexandria, virginia. I was fifth generation. All of my family was here. I got to missouri because i wanted to be a journalist. That is another whole story. Then going to law school. That is what took me out to columbia, missouri. In a place andre they were like, mom we do not want to move to washington. Onegotiated with them that child would leave his school later and then start. My eldest had it the worst, he had to leave for his high school in his junior year. We moved to alexandria after the first apple years and they got to graduate from my high school. I liked that because so much of my Childrens World has been in missouri, which was my new home, but they had not spent a lot of time out here. So i really felt it was a positive thing for us to be around cousins and and send uncles and grandparents and history. Difficult because if you or livedthe district in alexandria or fairfax county, expensive schools and homes. We were paying to mortgages. It seemed like we were always broke. Were paying these to mortgages. My kids were like, when we ever of any money . Im like, we have two houses. It was held on me because i wanted to come to washington, i wanted to be here. I was helping to set up the office, helping to determine the hiring. We were doing all of that together. Month out about once per i think. Then it was also still on the bench. So i would have to leave my bench. Sometimes when the boys moved here i stand on the bench for a while i stayed on the bench for a while. Sometimes we would see each other night airport and he would be like, hi babe hi babe ld be like, later we would Work Together and take meetings together. I eventually retired my. Udgeship it is hard. My youngest son will probably just hate this, but andrew was going to school, middle school. Home and cry at night and say, mom i miss my friends. I feel like i am at camp and i am never going home again. They dont get to go back home and see their friends as often. Russ was going almost every weekend and i was going, but they were away from everything they knew. I think was pretty rough on them for a while. As its good example of just how deeply personal it is in how you juggle. To make things more complicated, you have political pressures. Is worried, if debra moves the kids to washington and are they can do think she is gone washington . You wont be in the district anymore. You are balancing all of this stuff. At the end of the day you have got to do what works for your partner and your kids and your family. You figure it out. There is no one model that works. You have to figure out what works. I think the reason the propelled us in the decisionmaking and policymaking here was that i saw when he came , he instantlyays started working. He worked friday, saturday, sunday. Then monday you turn around and go back. Want to talk to when youre out. If you is at a ballgame, his kids were standing there going, dad when they were here, he would maybe get home by 7 00 or 730 attendedmaybe something at school. Getlt that was a way to more quality family time. I agree wi