 Now, thank you, if Deborah would come up, I know a lot of you know Deborah Medina from her 2010 gubernatorial race that I mentioned, but you know, I mean, what can you say about a woman who has done so many things? She was, of course, her most important achievements are, of course, nursing and being a mom, which are both exceedingly important things, but then she's run a business, she has run for governor, and like I said, gave the vile Rick Perry a run for his money. Now, her and her husband, Noe, have a wonderful sort of farm-to-table restaurant in Bistro in Wharton called Provision. So please, a round of applause for Deborah. I appreciate the opportunity to come and talk to you guys today. Jeff's been very kind to invite me back, and I've often thought I'm not sure what exactly I have to say that might be of meaning to such a distinguished audience. So I appreciate the work that y'all are doing around the country. I know that we've got people here from Texas, but also from all around the United States. And I think as much as I've tried to step away, there is no stepping away. I appreciated some comments that we heard from Ron Paul recently where he talked about how important it is to continue to reach the remnant. And maybe that's our job today, and as you look around the room network with the folks in this room, Jeff asked me to talk about the unfair media experience during the gubernatorial race that's been almost a decade ago. And I think we have to start by saying the media is always unfair. It's always going to be unfair. It's unfair to everyone, and it's not our friend, and it's never going to be our friend. So our challenge is really to look at how we interact with one another and how we continue to perpetuate this message of liberty and fan that flame. And I've got to come back to the thing, you know, most of what I believe about the proper role of government, I've got to attribute to sitting under the tutelage of Congressman Paul for years. And I think most of you in this room would find that to be true, but his challenge was always to study, to learn. In that context, I met a man from northeast Texas named David Simpson, and we had the privilege of working together for a number of years, and David served two terms in the Texas House, and David quoted David Crockett. And he said, always be sure you're right, and press ahead. Always be sure you're right, and go ahead. And I think the thing that grieves me most often is when I look to my right and my left and I see my friends championing things that are wrong. Do you know the difference between policies that promote a free and prosperous society and those that destroy it? Are you sure, are you sure that that thing you're trying to get attention for is the right way to move to protect your society and to give it the opportunity to be prosperous? Are you out there championing things that will destroy it? And so often, our friends, we were having a discussion at our table about the right and the left. I said, forget about the left, fix the right. Fix the right. We have people in this state and in this country that we are applauding and they are destroying us because we don't know what it takes to create and promote and protect a free market and a free society. We don't know the difference. Crockett, be sure you're right, and then go ahead. And so in 2009, I got a call from a friend of mine who happens to be here today. I'm not sure, Margie, if I should still call your friend after all you put me through. But Margie said, Debra, we got to have somebody to run for governor. And I thought, man, I'm just a farm girl. I don't have any business on that stage. But as history would have it, and I think that's where we are today, we don't know how many are in this remnant that are one day going to have that opportunity to continue to carry that message. And that was really all that we were able to do was carry a message. And it got some attention. But as we begin to consider, and as my family and I begin to consider for several months, did we undertake this task? I began to focus on, what do I know about the state and leading the state? And our campaign had three primary issues, property rights, gun rights, and sound money. And if we fast forward that, there are things that are happening today in this state as a direct result of that work. But gosh, I traveled all around Texas and met with some of that private media. Jeff, as you talk about, the big legacy media is a privately owned company. And I said to them, y'all are going to host a debate. I'd very much like to have an opportunity to articulate my views on that stage. And they said, well, Debra, we like it. But I mean, you know, we're a private company and we have advertisers and they demand audience share and you're not probably going to have enough credibility for us to give up some of that stage time to someone like you. And I said, well, I just want the game to be fair. If you have criteria for getting into your debate, I'd like to know what those criteria are. And if this campaign clears those hurdles, then I expect a place on the stage. And if they don't, they don't. We left that conversation. This was probably August or September of 2009 and went over to the public media station. And it was real interesting. I had no idea that they hosted a debate, a statewide televised debate. No problem. You're going to be in that debate. And I said, well, that's interesting. The CBS guys told me I wasn't going to be in their debate. Why do you think I'm so credible that you're already telling me I'm going to be in your debate? And they said we had a legitimate campaign and they could see that we were the real deal. And we were going to be in the debate. And of course, our invitation to that debate never came. And it was the result of that very alternative media, the early stages of meetup and Facebook and the various ways that we have of communicating with one another, that there were activists around this state who put pressure on the media to include that woman. And I guess it didn't hurt us any that Senator Hutchison said she thought we should be on the stage. But ultimately, we didn't get that invitation until just a few days before the debate. And it was because we had a team around us who said we are right and we're going ahead. And they pressed hard, pressed hard for that opportunity. And I think that's a challenge to you as well, whether you are doing as Russell Bennett is doing today, committed to the idea that private property ownership is fundamental to a free society. He continues to press for the elimination of the property tax in this state, the elimination. I don't think anybody was talking about elimination of property tax before the 2009 guvatorial campaign. We had a few folks that were brave enough to talk about maybe capping it at some point, but nobody said eliminated. And today that's a real conversation in the Texas legislature. It wasn't the last session. It is going to be again in this session. So we're a decade down the road from that. We also pressed for expansion of gun rights and we're still a long way from where we ought to be on that. But we're closer, we're farther along the road than we were a decade ago. And we didn't get to talk about it in the campaign a whole lot, but we certainly wrote the bills. Rick Cunningham, I don't know if Rick's here today, but Richard Cunningham was part of our economic policy team back then. And he developed the idea that we needed to go bullion depository in the state of Texas. And we have that today because of the work of that campaign. So there were three things that we, we had no idea where they were going to go. But those three things were the backbone and they were the things that caused folks across the state of Texas to push and demand a presence on the debate platform. And I never understood why that should make a difference, how it should make a difference, if it should make a difference. Certainly our ability to communicate in the movement, the movement of people who are concerned about true limited government and true liberty has to be undergirded by the support of the alternative media because the legacy media doesn't get it and they are not our friend and they are not here to help us. They're here to control us. It is that alternative that earned us finally that place. Maybe it is that alternative that helps our friend on the furry network continue to have an opportunity to use that platform. The people who had worked in politics, and I had not really, I mean I'd worked at the local level, but I didn't have any real understanding of what it meant to be on legacy media and what difference that made until that first debate. So we do a campaign August, September, October, November, December, early January, first debate is coming and consultants are telling me, you know, you're never going to do well in the election unless you can get on the debate stage and it doesn't look like that's going to happen in a week or 10 days before we get noticed that in fact you are. And now be sure you're right takes on a whole new meaning, right? Now, oh my gosh, how am I going to get on a stage with a man who has been the governor of the state of Texas for over a decade who spent his entire adult life with access to public policy and resources that I've never even been close to? How am I going to debate that individual? How am I going to stand against a Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison who before she became a long-term U.S. Senator was the treasurer of the state of Texas, was a political reporter, had done, had spent a lifetime in public service. How am I going to debate that? And my biggest concern probably wasn't embarrassing myself but in stumbling for those people who had courageously championed the ideas that we were championing in that race, taking the unpopular stand in front of their local media and in front of their local political leadership to say these are the things, the right is not doing right and we have got to work on this and those are the ideas that we want to see discussed, get up on that stage. And Penny Freeman who was working with me at the time had to pull back some of those politicos if you will that were around me and say leave her alone, she'll be okay. And I took time to study, please God help me be sure that what's coming out of my mouth is truth, that it's right. And I walked off of the stage that night and the man that met me said out of the park. I'll never forget that moment, he said out of the park and I said, he was real tall and I said who? Who hit it out of the park? And he said you did and I thought really? Really? We raised more money that night, that night from the end of the debate to midnight than we had raised in the prior nine months combined. It's that important that you have access. It's incredible to me that you can travel all over the state, you are but a drop in the bucket. And when you're just talking to one another, there's a whole world out there that's not hearing that message. So as much as we feed each other in the alternative, we have got to be courageous enough to go ahead and get on the stage with truth. But first, be sure you're right. You cannot study and listen to and be influenced by that media that is working to control you. You have got to go back and study and test your ideas and be sure that they're right. And I think that's an everyday process. Every time you get up to take a position on a policy issue, to take a position in your church, in your community, with your school board, with your building inspector, with your health department inspector, you be sure you're right before you tolerate. Oh my gosh, I'm not in politics, but I'm fighting the Texas Department of Health because they are wrong on what they're trying to force us to do in our business. We're not folding. I'm not giving them an inch. I'm not giving them an inch in the way I homeschooled my kids. I'm not giving them that inch. I'm fighting back. And you have the opportunity to do that, don't buckle to those big government positions that steal your freedom. But you've got to know what they are. You've got to recognize them when they come at you, however they come at you and pick your battles and go ahead. And go ahead because there's a remnant that we're teaching. There's a legacy that we're leaving and we may never be a majority. But by golly, we're doomed if we don't continue to feed the remnant. And in order to do that, we have to study. Be sure you're right and go ahead. And I encourage you to do that. I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you today. Thank you very much. Thank you, Jeff.