By Deb Patterson
InkFreeNews
NORTH WEBSTER — Kosciusko County Republicans heard not only from the Indiana State Republican Chairman Anne Hathaway, but also from Attorney General Todd Rokita and State Rep. 2nd District Rudy Yakym at its annual Lincoln Day Dinner. The dinner was held Thursday, May 2, at The Owl’s Nest with over 200 attending.
Hathaway was the keynote speaker sharing some of her experiences with the Lugar Series and growing up with politically active parents.
As party chair, Hathaway stated, “Not one job that I’m going to ask you to do or that we’re going to ask you to do,I that haven’t done myself … I understand that the party needs to be from the ground up, not the top down … I want to make sure we’re doing it well and we’re not taking it for granted.”
She talked about her first campaigns, learning, understanding and the importance for citizens to get involved, to make change.
Since being elected as state chairman on Aug. 30, she has been working on building the party up and focusing on being prepared for elections. “Indiana is a state where Republicans take for granted how successful we’ve been … we have to keep fine tuning, working, building and bringing people in.”
Hathaway said Kosciusko County is a model for other counties throughout the state as demonstrated Thursday seeing how it brings people together and brings people in.
She stated how she has been working on getting opponents for offices where there never have been opponents before. “We need the competition … instead of assuming people might get appointed. We then started to think about the tools we needed our tool kit .” Communication, getting information out early and talking points are in the kit.
Another area being worked on is a victory plan — raising money and getting out the vote. “We’re such a Republican state, I’m a little worried about intensity this year. If you listen to the national prognosticators, people are saying that people are not going to vote in 2024. That they’re not excited. That there’s no enthusiasm this election. They don’t like either presidential candidate and they’re worried. That’s really important to all of us to pay attention to. There is going to be more fraud in this election than ever before across the county … we need to make sure that we turn out all our Republican voters, get to the polls … if we don’t turn out it’s going to have serious impact.”
She asked local Republicans to vote absentee or early vote. “We have a lot of low intensity voters and we’re going to have to spend extra time knocking on doors, calling people, giving rides to polls. I firmly believe the margin of victory is in the grassroots work we do …”
Hathaway talked about the state convention, which will focus on the party mission – to have a safe, secure and transparent election as well as a timely convention with fun. She is also focusing on the national convention, which she is the chairman.
“I worry so much that we have been so complacent. We can’t. We have to stay diligent. We have to stay focused. We have to use the tools that are in the tool kit and I just can’t tell you how important it is for me, for you to know that I may be your state chair, but I’m your partner. I’m standing shoulder to shoulder, hand to hand, to make sure you have everything you need in order for us to win in November.
Antisemitism Addressed
Yakym stated confidently it is only six months away that for once and for all President Joe Biden will be fired. “It cannot come fast enough. After only three years, Americans are worse off. We have less money in our pockets because of inflation. Look around the world. Our adversaries no longer fear us or respect us. Our allies are being attacked because of the weak leadership coming out o the United States of America and it’s the weak leadership that we see even here on the home front that has allowed the rise of antisemitism to take place on college campuses. You can clearly see the radical left agenda no matter where you look on college campuses.”
He noted several college events at Columbia and George Washington universities. “This behavior cannot be excused. It cannot be tolerated.”
Visiting Israel recently the one concern the prime minister, president and military leaders had was the antisemitism on U.S. college campuses. He related visiting the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem and seeing that when antisemitism was allowed to rise in places that made it culturally acceptable to slaughter Jews during the Holocaust. “We can never allow that to happen again and that is why one of the bills that I’m carrying in Congress right now will take from colleges and universities. If they allow antisemitism on their campuses, we will defund them. We will no longer send American taxpayer money …”
He also spoke about the southern border, hearing concerns locally of how fentanyl coming in from the border is killing kids, a nearby county that is seeing one death a month from fentanyl and recently in Marshall County the largest cocaine bust in the county’s history, said to have come from the drug cartel who are controlling the southern borders. He stated under Biden, border crossings are adding new records every month and President Barack Obama had one-sixth the border crossings that Biden has had.
He concluded with recognizing those veterans present and the mental health crisis of veterans. He related where one veteran was told it would be 60 days before he could get an appointment. “Our veterans deserve to get the care they earned while serving this country. Our veterans went to war for us. They deserve a federally elected representative who will go to war for them.”
AG’s Office
Rokita talked about the work of his office during his term.
“We’re drinking from a fire hose a lot of days, but we’re winning most of our cases,” he said. He noted a 100% win rate on jury trials.
He stated people “need to have a secure influence … You see it on our TVs every night, talking about what’s happening on our college campuses, you’re seeing our country attacked, our very way of life attacked every day. I fight against that for you in court every week … it starts at your family. It starts at your church. I’m not asking you to get into fists to cuffs with anybody, but you gotta have the conversation about saving this country. You gotta understand social issues are not just social issues, at their root is an attack on our economy, free enterprise system”
The evening also included candidates and/or representatives in uncontested and contested races an opportunity to speak before those gathered. Most offices from U.S. Rep. 3rd District down to county races were represented.
