Hour 1 with Heidi Ganahl - 12-31

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Ladies and gentlemen in this corner from the University of Colorado.
Thirty years in Lorraine, fighting for truth, justice and the
American Way.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Danchplas. Wow, Happy, Happy New Year's Eve. This is Heidi Ganol.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
I'm filling in for Dan this afternoon. Wow, it's been
a crazy year. Who knows what we can expect in
twenty twenty five. We're gonna have some fun talking about
that today. We're also going to revisit some of the
top stories from twenty twenty four. And we've got Congressman
Oh gosh, Congresswoman Lauren Bober calling in at four thirty five.

(00:46):
Super excited to talk to Lauren, find out what's going
on in one of our favorite towns.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Do you see you just kidding.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
Anyway, I'm sure there's lots of drama she can fill
us in on, and also talk to her a little
bit about her new district, which is my district. She's
my congresswoman, and the difference between representing CD three, kind
of how things are shifting.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Excited to talk to her more about that.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
So one thing I did today was I asked my
Rocky Mountain Voice staff. So we have a news organization
Rocky Mountain Voice. We're unabashedly right of center and we
don't apologize for that. We want a different perspective than
the liberal media that's out there. It's a website, it's
a newsletter. We're constantly updating the news. We have a
great team of writers, over thirty citizen journalists across the state.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
And then our editor.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Brian Porter, who actually made the news this year when
I brought him on board to help me launch Rocky
Mountain Voice. He was the president of the Colorado Press
Association and Jesse, you're not going to believe this, but
the Colorido Press Association forced Brian to resign because he
went to work for me leading Rocky Mountain Voice.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
That doesn't seem quite right, does it. No, it was terrible.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
It's like so much for diversity of thought and allow
for different opinions. And Brian's a great guy. He always
tries to give a balanced view of the news, and
they couldn't take it. They couldn't stand the thought of
a conservative guy or a guy representing a conservative news
outlet representing the top of the Colorido Press Association. So whatever,

(02:19):
But that story actually made the list of top stories
with Colorado Times Recorder, which is basically a Democrat paid
I call it a fake news outlet. It's just basically
around up do hit pieces on conservatives in Colorado. But
today it popped up that it was one of the
top stories for Colorado Times Recorder.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
What do you think about that?

Speaker 4 (02:43):
I mean, I'd like to say it surprises me, and
that the Rocky Mountain what's it gulled again?

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Rocky Mountain voice? Oh that's the Colorada Times Recorder. Is
the Democrat version.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, I'd like to say it surprises me, but it does.
Nothing they do didn't surprise me anymore. I know, I agree.
I agree.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
Maybe twenty twenty five will be they'll wake up and
realize the error of their ways. I doubt it, but
let's see what happens. All right, I am going to
go to my first caller about what's going on in Colorado,
what happened in twenty twenty four, and what is going
to happen in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Lacy, welcome to the show.

Speaker 5 (03:21):
Can you hear me, guys?

Speaker 2 (03:22):
I can hear you all right?

Speaker 4 (03:24):
Perfect?

Speaker 5 (03:24):
Hi, guys, hought you doing good?

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Happy New Year, Lacey.

Speaker 5 (03:28):
Happy New Year. Yeah, I wanted to talk to you
guys a little bit about Trump winning. This is obviously
one of our biggest stories. He added five hundred thousand
gen z to the electorate and a lot of that
is due to the work of organizations like Turning Point
USA and many other youth organizations. I was curious what
you guys thoughts were on that.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yeah, Lacy, I think that was a big part of it.
And on the ground as I'm out and about meeting
voters across the state, I really saw a lot of
energy with young people, whether it was at Colora Christian
University hosting a table there and talking to voters, or
see you Boulder Colora College. All over the state. It
was really neat to see the energy. And I know

(04:08):
you're pretty involved in the youth movement here in Colorado.
What needs to happen to get more youth involved in
twenty twenty five, in the elections, in the just the
overall political process.

Speaker 5 (04:20):
I think, in all honesty, so I'm the co chair
of the Young Republicans for Colorado, I think we are
really noticing a shift, especially for young men, and that's
felt Rode, not just Colorado, but all fifty states. I
think we need to go to the places where Democrats
has been going for for so long. Obviously, these college
campuses are starting to be a really big thing for us,

(04:42):
but you know, sporting events, getting comfortable with having uncomfortable conversations.
I was always told do not have political conversations at
the dinner table, and now we need to be having
those conversations at the dinner table. Guys at frat parties
are starting to talk about Trump and all sorts of
fun stuff. But I think making politics fun is really
what Trump did in twenty sixteen, twenty twenty and twenty

(05:04):
twenty four, this whole span of time. And because he's
made it so fun for people to get involved, we
need to have the old guard of the GOP to
somewhat understand that times are changing. We need to update technology,
we need to really engage with this new gen z
vote and their podcast or whatever it may be. It's

(05:26):
time to turn over a new leaf, follow in in
line with Trump, really update what we're doing. That way,
more people will come over to our side, because conservatism
really is cool again. It's borrow phrase.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
I love that.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
I love that, and I say that all the time,
like we've got to make it fun to be conservative
again in Colorado and having events showing up places we
don't typically go or talk about politics is perfect and
so Lacy. It sounds like one of your favorite stories
of twenty twenty four was the gen Z involvement in
electing Donald Trump. What what's your prediction for twenty twenty five.

(06:00):
We've got a lot of important school board races, We've
got a GOP chair election. Like what's going to happen
with politics in Colorado in twenty twenty five around the
youth vote?

Speaker 5 (06:11):
Oh, I think in Colorado a lot of good things
are happening. Colorado Federation of Young Republicans we have thirteen
individual chapters and we're looking to be around fifteen here
in the next few months. But we're going to be
pointing heavily at these school board races and obviously working
with organizations like Road to Red, which you've been helping
us with, Heidi, so we can try and get in

(06:33):
some of those school board races because it's important where
kids are learning. We're young enough this gen Z vote,
we're young enough to remember, especially some of the older
ones like myself from twenty seven, what it was like
to actually play in the yard not be a iPad kid,
not being told boys can be girls and girls can
be boys. We need to start taking a more intense

(06:54):
look at education, but having people that are slightly older
but young enough to remember gens obviously and how a
US fight. I think El Paso County's Young Republicans has
done a bang up job of getting involved in school
board stuff, and we're going to.

Speaker 6 (07:08):
Continue to do that.

Speaker 5 (07:09):
I think you're going to see some big changes with
school board shakeups because parents are tired, but also, you know,
the siblings my age, we're kind of sick and tired
of you know, our cousins, our younger siblings being taught
anything but the truth. It's frustrating and we're going to
fight to take it back.

Speaker 3 (07:24):
That's great, Lacy, thank you so much for all you're doing.
We really appreciate it and would love to stay in
touch and keep hearing about all the great stuff gen
Z's doing in Colorado to turn our state around.

Speaker 5 (07:35):
Of course, thank you so much.

Speaker 6 (07:36):
Heidi, Happy New year, through your year.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
Got a few hours left. So right before I talked
to Lacey, I was I was mentioning. I asked the
Rocky Mountain Voice staff what their top stories of the
year were that were covered on Rocky Mountain Voice, and
they gave me a few a few ideas. One of
them was what happened with Jenna Griswold and the whole
debacle around the bios League past and the Libertyitarian Party

(08:02):
actually suing Jenna Griswold's office for the leak and the
cover up. And I thought that was really brave and
bold what they did. I was very, very excited about
them standing up for what's right. So way to go,
Libertarian Party. You're going to be a force in twenty
twenty five.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
I know it.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
Follow Brandon on Free State Colorado. He's got a great
show that he puts out on x and YouTube. Another story.
We heard all kinds of things about wolves all year.
If there ever was evidence needed for the rural urban
divide in Colorado, look no further than the release of
the wolves.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
That was a hot topic.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
And you know, I think livestock raisers are standing up,
they're speaking out, rural communities are speaking out. I think
as the calendar turns to twenty twenty five, there's going
to be a possibility of all of them banding together
and really pushing back against this. Another thing, of course,
was the Aurora Gang's situation, and Aurora really made the

(09:02):
national scene. You heard Donald Trump talk about it at
the rally he had here in Aurora. And the gang
that you never heard of, that Kyle Clark never heard
of in Jared Police thought was in Danielle's imagination. Danielle
Jurinsky's imagination. She's on the Aurora City Council. That made
national news in twenty four it was the Venezuelan gang trend.
De Aragua I hope, I said that right. They brought

(09:23):
a lot of attention to the issues coming from the
border and the problems with an open border and how
they don't necessarily just affect border states. Colorado became a
border state this year. So it's going to be really
interesting to see what happens when President Donald Trump starts
tamping down on the illegal and violent immigrants and pushing

(09:44):
them out of the country back to where they came from.
What is Jared Polis going to do. What is Mike Johnston,
the mayor of Denver, going to do. They've said they
will stand strong for those folks. Are they willing to
go to jail to do so? That'll be really interesting
to see. Before we go to break, one more story,
I'll talk about Tina Peters trial. All eyes this year
turned to Mesa County in twenty four as the trial

(10:06):
for the former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters took place.
She was found guilty on three counts of attempting to
influence a public servant, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, and
officials contact. And the ironic thing is that Jenna Griswold
with her bios leaks password. Actually, I mean, shouldn't she
go to jail if Tina Peters did too, I don't

(10:28):
know something to think about. Or Tina Peters should have
a relook at her situation because it seems awfully extreme
that she was given a nine year sentence and Jenna
Griswold was given a slap on the hand.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
That does not seem fair at all. So let's go
to a break.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
When we come back, we'll talk more about twenty twenty four,
what happened, the crazy stuff that happened this year, and
what's happening are going to happen in twenty twenty five.
This is Heidiganall filling in for Dan cap Well. Hello Colorado,
it's Hidi Ganall filling in for Dan Kaplis this afternoon
on a cheery New Year's Eve. I hope you have
big plans tonight. You can have a lot of fun.

(11:05):
It's going to be a fun year. I can feel it.
Things shifted in the last election for those of us
that it turned out the way we wanted it to.
President Donald Trump is going to fire things up across
America along with Doge. We've got Elon and Vivek working
on that in RFK Junior ready to take on big

(11:25):
Pharma and big Egg. And we've got Tulsi ready to
take on the security apparatus of our government.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
It's going to be so fun to watch.

Speaker 3 (11:34):
We got another firecracker here in Colorado, a friend of mine,
Richard Holtorf. I believe Richard's on the line, Jesse Is
I am hello, Hello Richard? How are you today?

Speaker 4 (11:46):
I'm wonderful house my good friend, Heidi.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
I'm good, I'm good.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
I'm ready for a new year, clean slate. Richard, what
the heck's going to happen in twenty twenty five? You're
down at that crazy capital and getting ready for a
new session.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
What's your prediction?

Speaker 4 (12:02):
Well, You need to remember that I ran for Congress
and was unsuccessful. So my last day is today as
a state legislator. I am going to be turning the
reins over to another representative. But I will tell you
that the predictions for twenty twenty five. We are in

(12:23):
a very unique and exciting time and I am pumped
up about the future because, let's be honest, the East
coast and the left coast elitist failed to recognize that
woke is dead and Middle America is done with Wolke goodness,
we are done Colorado, most of Colorado is done, but

(12:46):
we are pretty far left. We are a blue state
and that is you know, sick to your stomach blue.
And Colorado needs to realize that a Middle America is
done and Colorado needs to follow Middle America on the
truck train one hundred percent.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
Well, Richard, now that you're free as of tomorrow or
what time like midnight tonight with the new year, you
can speak freely and not be held as a representative
like you can just have a little more leeway.

Speaker 4 (13:16):
Well, let's be honest, Tidy, I've always spoken very freely
and taken a lot. This is true of leeway and
I'm not going to not say what needs to be
said when it needs to be said to whom it
needs to be said to. And that's with any party
or any person in politics. I'm really excited about to change.
But here's what I predict, and Colorado with the tip

(13:40):
of the spear for the progressive left Democrats. So let's
be honest, they're trying to cook this sauce up right
now in Boulder County. Up in Boulder, Colorado, the progressive
left is going to claim to their agenda. They're not
letting go. Let's be honest. I really believe that they
are going to try to in twenty twenty five and beyond,

(14:01):
they're going to try to repackage and reimagine their leftist
agenda and see what they can say. And so we
need to realize.

Speaker 3 (14:10):
That, Richard, don't you think that Polis more than ever now,
if he wants to run for president, has to keep
Colorado as blue as possible. So it's the shining example
for all the progressive policies for the rest of America
that he's the guy to take it to the rest
of the country.

Speaker 4 (14:25):
Do you agree, Oh, I would think that part of
the political strategies. Would definitely be trying to put that
in the in the in the special sauce if you will,
that the Democrat progressive left Democrats are playing. You know
that politics is so tenuous. We don't know if Polis
is going to have a chance. Last year, Jill Biden

(14:47):
came to Colorado and everybody to see the governor and
to talk about Colorado issues, allegedly, and I said, I
said fully on that that's not why Diamond is here.
I mean, not Jill Diamond, exc'us me Biden is here.
She's here to talk to Poulis about what's going to
happen with the presidency and how it's not his time yet.

(15:08):
I called that out six or eight months ago, and
so that's what happened. Nobody talks about. Everybody was fool
thinking they're talking about education, in which they weren't, and
Paulus is just waiting for his time. But he's got
this kid in California, the California kid that really wants
to be president. So there's a tug of war between

(15:29):
two arguably of the most progressive left states in the Union,
Colorado and California. So we don't know how that's going
to shake out. But I think Polis is very patient.
He might try to play his play this next cycle,
or he might wait for a subsequent cycle. He's got
plenty of time. If you think about how old Biden was,
the old man in the mountain that couldn't find his

(15:49):
way home.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
Yeah, I think it's going to be our job as
Conservatives with a platform to call out Polis constantly. And
I've been trying to do it the last couple of
years since I ran against him.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
I learned a too much about his wily ways and
his lies.

Speaker 3 (16:03):
And I want to keep that hot, like, keep talking
about it so that Dana Perino and the rest of
Fox News doesn't think he's the you know, the best
thing since slice bread to the Democrat Party to bring
on and counteract the Republican kind of narrative. And it's
so frustrating that everybody thinks he's such a libertarian when
he's the exact opposite. And we've got more bureaucracy, more taxes,

(16:25):
more just control by the government in Colorado than we've
ever had before.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
It's just insane.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
It's it's suffocating, and one of the things I'd love
to see in twenty twenty five is just everybody calling
out the Democrats in Colorado for their bs and their
narrative that they're libertarian, their moderate. They're not. They're totally progressive,
and the things they're going to do in the legislature
in the next couple months are going to just I

(16:51):
don't know, it's going to be disgusting.

Speaker 4 (16:54):
Let's talk about that a little bit. But let's realize
that polis is a is a great shape shifter. He
can change, he can more, he is a master at that,
and he can also tell really good lies and make
him believable. So we're gonna have to deal with that.
That's not going away. Let's talk about Colorado now that

(17:14):
you've brought it up, because this is really important. You know,
we realized some political gains. We've got a few seats
in the House, a few more seats in the House.
We're up to twenty two, I believe now, but we
had twenty four when I started in twenty twenty. So
we still are in a minority position. And the Senate's
gained a seat or two, but they're still in a
minority position. Crads control if they still have the super

(17:37):
excuse me, the trifecta of power. Rather, they don't have
a super majority anymore. But here's what's going to help
the Democrats. And now we're gonna get into a little
bit of a chess here, political chess. Colorado right now
has a significant budget shortfall. They're talking about over a
billion dollars or up to a billion dollars or more. Now,

(17:59):
we raised the state budget from twenty six billion to
forty one billion in the half a decade I was
at the state House. The governor expanded government. He increased
FTE and you know that's full time employees, and grew
state government. We all the time said, hey, Colorado, fiscal

(18:20):
conservatives like me said, hey, what happens when the economy turns?
What happens when all this money isn't there anymore?

Speaker 2 (18:28):
Richard, we got to wrap up last few seconds. Ready, Yes,
it goes fast, doesn't it.

Speaker 4 (18:34):
Well, I'll tell you what. Well, I will tell you
it's going to help the Democrats look better because they're
not going to be due able to do all the
crazy stuff they want to do, because they're going to
be fiscally constrained by the budget. And we need to
point that out and highlight that my friend.

Speaker 3 (18:46):
Well, thanks Richard, thanks for weighing in. Follow Richard on Twitter.
I'm sure he has a lot more to say. This
is Hidi Ganal filling in Dan Caplis. We'll see you
in a minute.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
Well, Happy Happy New Year, Colorado.

Speaker 3 (18:55):
It's Heidi Ganal filling in for Dan Caplis this afternoon.
We're wrapping up twenty twenty four and we've got a
fun twenty twenty five ahead. I feel really good about
the next year. I think it's going to do a
lot of amazing things for our economy and the border,
our safety, all kinds of good stuff. With President Donald
Trump in office, even here in Colorado, I think we'll

(19:18):
benefit from some of those decisions he's going to make.
And one of the movers and shakers, one of the
people in Washington, DC that's always making a difference, is
our own Congresswoman Lauren Bobert.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
Lauren, Welcome to the show, Heidi.

Speaker 6 (19:31):
It is so great to be on with you. I'm
glad you're filling in for Dan today.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
Thank you and Happy New Year.

Speaker 6 (19:38):
Happy New Year.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
Are you in DC or are you here in Colorado?

Speaker 6 (19:43):
I am enjoying as much of Colorado as I can
We have an extremely busy legislative schedule this year for
twenty twenty five, and I will be in DC a lot,
So we have a ton of weeks before we're there,
three four five weeks at a time, and so every
moment that I could be in Colorado, I'm going to

(20:04):
take advantage of that.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
Well, I hope so, because man, DC, it's quite intense,
and you do a great job, Lauren. You fight for us,
You try and stick up for all the things we
want around policy and for Colorado, our water rights, our farmers,
our ranchers. Tell us what's different now about representing CD four,
if anything is different versus CD three, And what are

(20:29):
your key issues you're going to focus on while you're
there this year?

Speaker 6 (20:33):
Yes, well, you know folks are still asking, you know
why I moved to the fourth district, And I said
last December that there were three reasons I was moving
to Windsor. My boys and I we needed a fresh
start in a new home. And we've made this house
a home over this past year. And this would also
help keep Colorado's a third district in GOP hand and

(20:57):
I would be able to continue fighting for Colorado in Congress.
Now we heard a lot of people laughing last January
saying that that would never happen, But I haven't heard
from those people lately. Of course, Yes, we were able
to secure the third District, and Congressman elect Jeff Hurd

(21:17):
is going to do a fantastic job. I speak with
him regularly about the policies and the third District and
just the little individual communities from Lake City in Wairfino County,
UH to of course Grand Junction in Mesa County and
Peblo and so much more. And I'm just happy to
bring the things that I've learned from the third District

(21:40):
over to the fourth. The coalition that I formed there,
we're expanding them and growing them here in the fourth
as well. To protect our farmers, our ranchers, our agriculture industry,
our energy industry, and just as you were mentioning too,
we need to secure the border and keep our community
and get our communities safe again. And that's going to
be a top priority in the first quarter in Washington,

(22:02):
d C. So we're going to work on a lot
with border security and safety.

Speaker 5 (22:07):
UH.

Speaker 6 (22:08):
And you know President Trump has talked about getting those
who are already on a deportation list out first the
criminal aliens out of our communities so they could be
safe and we don't have to worry as much as
we have about our children's safety and our safety. And
then of course in that as well, we're also going

(22:29):
to be tackling energy policy and it's going to be
huge for Colorado. I've worked on a lot of energy
focused policy in Washington, and I'm going to continue that
effort as well bring back those good paying jobs to Colorado.
There's a lot of legislation I've worked on for economic
improvement and development here in Colorado, from my Plublo Jobs

(22:52):
Act that we'll create at least one thousand jobs with
Publo Plex, and and then even my most recent bill
passing out of the House and the Senate and on
its way to be signed into law, my Convey Act,
which allows the City of Clifton and Mesa County to
purchase a plot of land that's on the BLM disposal

(23:14):
list and they will have an opportunity to develop that
land for more economic growth in in Clifton, Colorado, which
will of course create jobs and so much more.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (23:26):
There's many issues I'm working on, from from zip code
designations to the national topics of of free speech and
holding government accountable and cackling our spending. So in all
of this, from the third to the fourth, I'm going
to continue that fight. And you know, the legislative work
that I do doesn't always make the front page of

(23:48):
the Denver Post, but it is my top priority because
I was sent by the voters of Colorado to have
an impact on policy, and that is my favorite thing
to bring not only the issues that Coloraden's are facing,
but even the solutions provided by Colorados put pen to

(24:08):
paper and get those in committee and passed out of
the House and ultimately signed into law.

Speaker 3 (24:16):
So, Lauren, what advice have you given to Jeff Crank,
Jeff Heard, and Gabe Evans, who are all new Congressmen
from Colorado? And that's so cool that we have an
even slight now for and for what do you tell
them about like their first days or how to acclimate.

Speaker 6 (24:32):
Yes, so, all three of our new congressmen elects, they've
been to freshman orientation and we've been having multiple conversations.
I'm so happy for all of them, especially Gabe Evans.
And you know, all of us advocated for Gabe Evans
to get a solid committee assignment on Energy and Commerce,
and this is huge for a freshmen to get a

(24:55):
committee assignment like this, and we worked really hard to
ensure that he would do that because he is in
one of the most vulnerable seats that we have and
I want to keep that in GOP hands. And so
in all of this, it's about policy working together. How
can we blend our districts. The fourth District touches all

(25:18):
of these districts, and so how can we blend our
policy and make sure we are doing right by our
entire state and our country. And we've worked a lot
together in putting a plan to present to the Trump
administration on keeping space Command in Colorado Springs. That is
going to be really important for Colorado and not only

(25:39):
our economy, but I would say even politically, and when
we're talking about getting our fiscal affairs in order in Washington,
d Sea, we don't need to spend billions of dollars
moving space command to a state like Alabama when we
could keep that right here in Colorado, where we're already
doing such a fabulous job with space Command. And so

(26:03):
we've been working together on that. And then of course
our forest, our forest isn't something that each of us
have in our districts, However, it impacts all of Colorado's
About eighty percent of our municipal water in Colorado comes
from our national forest, and if we have unhealthy forests,
and we'll have unhealthy watersheds. So all of us working

(26:23):
together to have proper forest management and get our forest
healthy again will help our state's most precious resource, our water,
And that's always a top issue. So when they're going there,
of course, I'm introducing them to folks and ensuring that
they're in the right meetings and the right places. And
I'll even give props to Congressman Greg Lopez, who did

(26:45):
a fantastic job in the few months that he was
there in Washington, DC. He did everything he promised he would.
He was a strong voice for the fourth District and
he was in very important meetings ensuring that the fourth
District was represented during his time there. So we have
a great team here. I don't think Greg Lopez is

(27:07):
going very far. He'll still be involved in many issues
and so at many levels. And you know, if we
could just bring our folks together as much as we can,
that's going to be so important in the next two years,
because I think we can even broaden our base and

(27:27):
secure these seats in the midterm election in two years
as well.

Speaker 3 (27:32):
That's great, Lauren, And I think one of the dust
ups a little bit was Lopez and Lambert didn't vote
with the decision to extend the debt ceiling, and so
that brought up a lot of conversation in Colorado about
you've got to stick with Trump, like, give Trump one
hundred days, give him his time and follow his lead,

(27:55):
you know, don't push back, don't cause fights where we
don't need them. How is the ten like, how is
the sense back there around doing that? Or is there
going to be a lot of fracturing with the speaker's
race and upcoming decisions.

Speaker 4 (28:07):
Sure?

Speaker 6 (28:08):
Well, first of all, I don't criticize their no votes.
I completely understand why they would vote against that. That
was a tough piece of legislation to support. So not
only was there one hundred and ten billion dollars of
disaster relief and other things that were completely unpaid for.
It just more deficit spending, but also it was another

(28:29):
continuing resolution. Greg Lopez said, I'm never voting for a
continuing resolution, and then the debt limit. This is something
that we wanted to take care of in the first quarter,
and President Trump had a vision to get it done.
And I did vote to pass that and support President
Trump in it. But I don't criticize those no votes

(28:50):
that took place. Now, Ultimately, the debt ceiling was not
included in the CR and so when it came down
to it, you know, Greg and I we did not
vote for that, that final Continuing Resolution for many many
issues that it contained. But I do think that things
will be better in the next Congress. We all get
sworn in on Friday on January third for the for

(29:13):
the one hundred and nineteenth Congress, and I'm hoping there's
not a fracture for the Speaker's race. Now, I know
that that sounds could sound odd coming from me because
I was one of the twenty who challenged Speaker Kevin McCarthy,
and that was four days of a very public, transparent
debate that we were having. This is something that we
had conversations about for months and months prior to the

(29:37):
actual vote, and unfortunately it unfolded on the House floor.
But also in that time, we weren't pressed to deliver
a mandate of man date that the people have given
President Trump. And so if we're wasting four days, you know,
I've seen a lot a lot of days wasted in Washington,
d C. On less, and we were able to get

(30:00):
some fundamental policy changes done there in the House of Representatives.
And I spoke with the Speaker today. He wants to
keep our rules package the way it was, the one
that we fought for. There may be a couple of
minor changes that I think that we can all recognize
our very slim majority and agree on. But we don't

(30:22):
have time to waste. We cannot put in jeopardy President
Trump's inauguration or the electoral College results that those get
certified on January sixth. Every presidential election, it's always on
January sixth, and we cannot slow down any momentum that
President Trump has. And so I'm hoping there's not going

(30:43):
to be too much of a scene there on January
third with the Speaker. President Trump has endorsed Speaker Mike Johnson.
And you know, he had a tough year. He wasn't
this isn't something that he's aspired to do. He wasn't
begging to be Speaker. But our speaker was vacated, and
he was the man who could get the votes, and

(31:04):
now he's been He's had a one seat majority for
most of his time as Speaker, and that's not very
easy because in the Republican Party we do have freedom
of thought and we express it.

Speaker 4 (31:15):
And so I.

Speaker 6 (31:18):
Hope folks are recognizing we still have a very slim
majority and we all need to work together to deliver
what the American people demanded and then mber fifth election.

Speaker 3 (31:28):
So, Lauren, that's awesome, and I'm very optimistic about that too.
I think people are going to give Donald Trump a
lot of grace on his policy as cabinet pits, et cetera.
To wrap up, we've got a couple of minutes left.
Tell us what a day in the life is like
for you, Like, what is your actual day as you
go through?

Speaker 6 (31:45):
Look like, Yes, Well, when I'm in Washington, d C.
The days start very early, and you know, we have
a lot of meetings and committee hearings and then of
course constituent meetings. My office is always open to constituents,
and I try to take as many of those meetings
as I can personally. Other times I'm running around the
Capitol and on the House floor and voting and doing

(32:07):
other things. And so I have a very good staff
in Washington, DC who helps facilitate those meetings as well.
But also it's being on the phone with folks back
here at home as well, making sure that I'm still
in touch with them. Even if I'm in DC for
four or five days or more, i still have a
pulse on Colorado and what's happening here. And then of

(32:27):
course in the district. I mean, I'm driving hundreds of
miles at a time, hours and hours, you know, and
it's always worth it. Colorado is so beautiful. I do
think that maybe a lot of mental health issues may
stem from traffic. I'm definitely starting to see, like, yes,

(32:49):
the connection there. But you know, it's so great to
show up into these individual communities and hear from folks
and then also just let them know what's happening in DC,
how we're advocating for them, how we're fighting for them,
and I'm just honored to do it. Of course, I'm
still a mom. And one thing that I'm so grateful

(33:10):
for our move to the fourth District and something that
the fourth District of voters have allowed is for me
to still be mom as well. I have my four boys.
In fact, this week, I've had my grandson with me
since Christmas Day, and I'll have them for a few
more days as well. I have all of my boys together,
and so I'm grateful for the time that i can

(33:31):
still be mom and grandma at the same time. And
so in all of this, I'm always looking for a
solution to a problem, Heidi, That's why we get involved,
right We're tired of sitting on the sofa complaining, and
we want to be the change that we want to see.
And so I'm happy to do that each and every day.

(33:52):
And I am so excited for President Trump to rightfully
return to the White House and have the House and
the Senate major so we can actually accomplish what he
has planned out and promised to be American people. And
I just want to remind folks President Trump would not
be able to get as much done during that times

(34:14):
from twenty twenty to twenty twenty four as he will
be able to in these next four years.

Speaker 3 (34:20):
Got it well, Lauren, thank you so much for all
you do, your fight. You're I mean, you're just a
warrior for Colorado and for all the principles that we
care about most, and your family's beautiful. I hope you
have a wonderful New Year's Eve and a great start
to the new year.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
Give him pack out in DC.

Speaker 6 (34:38):
Thanks so much, Heidi. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and
Maga is right around the corner.

Speaker 3 (34:44):
All right, we'll talk soon. This is Heidi Ganal filling
in for Dan Caples. We'll be back right after the break.
Now that's some rock and roll music to get us
going for New Year's Eve. This is Heidi Ganal. I'm
filling in for Dan Caples. Ready to wrap up twenty
twenty four and focus on a great year ahead twenty
twenty five. We just have a couple minutes before the

(35:05):
next break, so I wanted to kind of just go
through pretty quickly some of the stories that are really,
I don't know, sticking out for me on twenty twenty four.
But would love for you to call in or text in.
The call in number is three zero three seven one
three eight two five five, or you can text Dan
the word Dan to five seven seven three nine and

(35:26):
I'll read your texts and I'll also have you on
if you want to call in and talk about twenty
twenty five. Or twenty twenty four. Some of the crazy
things that happened in the last year. Obviously, Donald Trump
was shot. That was nuts and obviously changed the trajectory
of the race.

Speaker 2 (35:41):
I believe Biden was out.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
Kamala Is in veniceuilin Gangs, Gabe Evans won, and CD
eight Hurricane Helene Diddy was arrested. B Nix came in
to play Dion Sanders got the Buffs a great season.
This is Heidi Ganal filling in for Dan Kaplis. We'll
be right back to talk more after the break.