Building Relationships and Making History: A Congresswoman’s Journey from Red to Blue and Beyond

Congresswoman Hillary Scholten, uh,
freshman from Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Uh, I flipped a seat from red to blue.
Had been held by Republicans for 50 years.
Wow. Um,
and now working to. To hold it.
I’d be the first Democrat, uh,
ever re elected to. I just put that seat. Well,
you know, it.
It really matters to be from a place, right?
People trust who they know,
and building relationships over the course of a lifetime really,
really makes a difference.
So people in my district are willing, uh,
to put people over politics as we talk about,
and vote for the person, not the party.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So it makes. It.
Makes it a big difference.
Haha, Mr.
Minx.
Haha. Gesture.
And I saw Governor Wall’s using that as well.
We just heard from him in there,
and he was saying, oh,
people say, you know,
you got a connect, a lot of connections. You.
You know. And he said, no, I.
I have relationships that I’ve built over time.
I think it’s something that.
That we have, that we can offer.
There’s a realness and an authenticity that transcends a lot of this,
you know, BS right now in American politics.
Yeah. And.
And people are hungry for it.
I’m the first mom, uh,
in. In history to represent my part of the state, and.
And that is a. I thought my wife was the first mom in history.
Oh, you mean your state to represent My, my, my,
my, my.
The first mom in history to represent my part of the state in Congress.
And it means a different perspective, right?
You’re connected to caring for your constituents
in the same way that you care for your own family.
We need more women running every area of our lives.
Thank you. Every city,
every country. And more moms!
More moms! More moms!
How old are your kids in Congress?
They are 14 and 12. Can we say hi to James and Wesley?
Yeah. Hey, James.
Hey, Wesley.
Is there. Thank you.
Is there one thing in this, um,
convention that’s particularly,
uh, stuck out to you emotionally?
Something that just hit you really hard that you keep thinking about?
Oh, I, I,
I can’t. I can’t get, uh,
our awesome leader, uh,
Hakim Jeffrey’s speech from last night out of my head.
Uh, taking us to church, uh,
with. With Psalm 30,
talking about joy coming in the morning.
We have lived a dark era of American politics,
and we’ve watched Trump try to take us back there.
Um, you know, and,
and he quoted that verse and,
and talked about how, uh,
you know, weeping may last for a night,
but joy comes in the morning.
And how we’re gonna get there.
Walking us through our weekly plan,
right, of planning, uh,
on. On Sunday and, uh,
you know, Sunday through Saturday, working,
working these next 75 days.
Samantha thought in that my wife,
Always says with the diet routine conversation.
Yeah, yeah,
I’m starting on Monday. No, no,
you start right this second. You start today.