The forgotten men and women of America made history in 2016 when they elected Donald J. Trump president of the United States. They saw him not as a politician but as someone to take on the establishment and political elite, which had trampled over struggling Americans for decades to enrich themselves instead.
“For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost,” President Trump said in his inaugural address on Jan. 20, 2017, echoing the cries of millions of hard-working, patriotic Americans seeking change.
Trump did what he said he would do as commander in chief, bucking the tradition of presidents before him who bowed to the special interests that funded their campaigns and the federal bureaucrats who control the levers of power.
Despite agenda-driven claims from media pundits, liberal think tanks and establishment politicians, the former president accomplished more for the American people in four years than any president in my lifetime.
Trump built hundreds of miles of border wall and drastically slowed illegal border crossing. He made our country energy independent. He cut taxes and empowered American workers. His economic policies created our lowest unemployment rate in 50 years while significantly raising the income of middle-class families. He demolished ISIS and started no new wars. He put America first and made our country great again.
But we no longer have leaders who put Americans first. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris don’t care that the average American today can’t afford a home in 99% of the country, that two-thirds of the middle class is struggling financially, that people are going into debt to buy groceries, or that nearly half of citizens can barely pay their bills.
The Biden-Harris administration has instead allowed millions of illegals to flood into our country while providing aid to them, increasing the fiscal burden of the border crisis on American taxpayers. They also pushed for Title IX changes allowing boys in girls’ sports and weaponized the government against concerned parents and pro-life advocates.
Despite repeated assertions from liberal politicians and media outlets that the Left is American democracy’s savior, Democrats disenfranchised more than 14 million Americans when they gave Biden the boot and crowned Harris. She has since stated that “freedom is on the ballot” in November.
What she’s not telling America, however, is that her definition of freedom is much different than ours. To her, freedom means a mandatory gun buyback program, banning fracking, decriminalizing illegal immigration, instituting racial reparations, and kicking 180 million Americans off their private insurance plans.
While this might play well in California, most Americans want no part of this radical agenda. Her current campaign is backing away from these absurd proposals, proving that like so many politicians in Washington, Kamala Harris doesn’t believe in anything.
The party of drag queen story hours and open borders is now trying to paint President Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, as “weird.” This line of attack is nothing but smoke and mirrors.
The 2024 Republican platform offers common-sense solutions to the problems Biden and Harris have created. It vows to stop the migrant invasion, rebuild our broken and dangerous cities, preserve the American dollar’s supremacy, cut taxes for workers and seniors, and unite our country.
President Trump has a track record of success. Kamala Harris is an unaccomplished career politician and failed “border czar,” while her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is an extremist who supports giving driver’s licenses and free college tuition to illegal immigrants. Four more years of a radical leftist agenda will do irreparable harm to the fabric of our country and the institutions that make it great.
Tennessee is united behind the former president because we know another Trump administration will make the Volunteer State more prosperous. Red and Blue states across the country should stand with us as we advocate for economic strength, strong borders, law and order, and an American dream that’s affordable and achievable again.
State Rep. Clay Doggett, R-Pulaski, represents House District 70, which includes Giles and part of Lawrence and Lincoln counties. He served as a delegate for former President Donald Trump at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
