July 8, 2025 • 30 mins
Chris Ager, a West Point graduate and former U.S. Army helicopter pilot, served as New Hampshire Republican Party chairman from January 2023 to early 2025. A resident of Amherst and program director at BAE Systems, Ager has held roles like Hillsborough County GOP chairman and Republican National Committeeman, leveraging his organizational and fundraising skills to bolster the party’s infrastructure and secure significant Republican victories in the 2024 state elections.
Ager has publicly identified as pro-life, emphasizing this stance during his 2020 campaign for Republican National Committeeman, where he praised then-President Trump’s support for pro-life principles and highlighted his own efforts to remove Planned Parenthood from local schools. While leading the NHGOP, he focused on a fiscally conservative platform and labor outreach but stepped down as chairman in December 2024 to pursue other party roles, remaining committed to New Hampshire’s “First in the Nation” primary and addressing federal race challenges.
Thank you for watching The Ever-Living Podcast, a heartfelt space to share the stories and voices of women who champion a culture that values and protects life. Each episode we seek to empower, offering connection, hope, and strength through the journeys of those who work and pray for this cause. Crafted for women seeking purpose and community, we welcome you to join us in cherishing every single heartbeat.
Ager has publicly identified as pro-life, emphasizing this stance during his 2020 campaign for Republican National Committeeman, where he praised then-President Trump’s support for pro-life principles and highlighted his own efforts to remove Planned Parenthood from local schools. While leading the NHGOP, he focused on a fiscally conservative platform and labor outreach but stepped down as chairman in December 2024 to pursue other party roles, remaining committed to New Hampshire’s “First in the Nation” primary and addressing federal race challenges.
Thank you for watching The Ever-Living Podcast, a heartfelt space to share the stories and voices of women who champion a culture that values and protects life. Each episode we seek to empower, offering connection, hope, and strength through the journeys of those who work and pray for this cause. Crafted for women seeking purpose and community, we welcome you to join us in cherishing every single heartbeat.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to ever Living, a podcast about valuing life here
on Earth and for eternity. We are your life loving
hosts Cindy and Jessica. Every week on ever Living, we
create a space for sharing the stories and voices of
those who work in pray to create a culture that
(00:29):
values and protects life here in New England and beyond.
Welcome to ever Living.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, Hi Cindy, Hi Jessica, how.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Are you doing. How is your vacation?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
It was very nice? Yes for those I don't know
if you mentioned it on the other episodes, but I
was in Europe. I was in Italy and France for
the last two weeks, so yeah, it was really great.
The beginning was a little rough. We did have a
delay with one of our flights getting to France, and
that kind of messed some stuff up a little bit.
(01:04):
We wound up having to like we're supposed to fly
to Paris, but then because everything kind of got messed
up with the delay, we had to fly straight from
Dublin where we got stuck to Rome through the book
another flight, but the trip, the trip got better.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Okay, so did you skip Paris?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah, yeah, it's a very long story. Honestly, but basically
we only traveled through Paris, so I saw the Eiffel
Tower but from the train.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Okay, well, I guess there's an another reason to go back.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, my mom already wants to go back. She's like,
she's like, would you go with me instead? I'm like, sure,
are you paying? But hopefully someday. So it was great,
we had a great trip, got better. So how about you?
How have your last couple of weeks.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Been pretty interesting? I guess just yeah, summer is kind
of a different pace of life, so finding different things
to do.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
So being off from school and everything, you're like, you're
like my roommate because she's she's a teacher and she's
she's off now and she's she's trying to find new
hobbies I think for the summer.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
So yeah, well something new today as we get to
interview someone new on our podcast. He is the former
chairman of the Republican Party in New Hampshire. Let's welcome
Chris Ager. Yay yayh Chris.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Hello, I'm really happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah, thank you, thank you for being here with us.
How are you doing.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Great? Great? Just can't wait till the fourth of July
festivities and a beautiful summer ahead of us.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah. Yeah, no, it's been. It's been nice so far.
I feel I feel like it's been. The weather has
been holding up and it's been really warm this week,
which has been really nice. So yeah, yeah, but yeah,
so could you you know, as Siney mentioned, you're the
former chairman of the Republican Party in New Hampshire. If
(03:16):
I'm correct, you served from twenty twenty three to twenty
twenty five. Is that the correct period of time?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Pretty close? It was January, Yeah, January twenty three to
January twenty five, or no, January twenty four to January
twenty sixth. So, okay, elections are in January right after
the election elections in November, that's right after. It's kind
(03:49):
of confusing, but that I don't even know what you get.
We think an election cycles.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, it's like the year is
always off from that. But awesome, Well could you tell yeah,
could you tell us so obviously that's wonderful. Could you
tell us the audience a little bit more about yourself? Maybe,
how what led you to you know that position, things
like that. Your background?
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Yeah, so I was born in Washington, d c grew
up there. Our families from there, and my dad was
a union labor just like a railroad union guy, and
my mom stayed at home and we had nine kids
in the family, so you know, I was always around kids, family, siblings.
Went to West Point and it was in the army
(04:37):
a little while. I came to New Hampshire and I
was in politics a little bit locally, and then I
got away from it for about ten years, and then
I came back into it because I was a little
bit concerned about what's happened at the national level, especially
when President Obama was in office. And then I just
kind of worked my way up the system, you know,
town chairman, county chairman, national committee man, and then I
(04:58):
ran for a party chairman. When I was done with
my two years, I decided not to run for re election,
but I'm still active in the party and we did
very well the last election in twenty twenty four at
the state level, so super majority in the Senate picked
up picked up twenty some seats in the House and
the governor by a big margin. So you know, we
(05:20):
we have a pretty good Republican state House, the only
state house controlled by Republicans north of South Carolina along
the east coast, so it's you know, we're kind of
holding on. You know, sometimes we think we're holding on
by our fingernails, which means when you get into political
issues that are that are difficult, we've got to negotiate
(05:42):
through through those, you know, with conviction. But we've got
to be very savvy. And that's the art and nature
of politics. And that's why a lot of people don't
like politics, is you know, you've got to make that
compromise sometimes to stay elected or else everything goes terribly
wrong with the other side.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
It's very impressive that how many seats you guys picked
up in the last election. I actually I'm very familiar
with one of them. I door knocked for Sam Farrington.
He's in i think Rochester, one of the Rochester districts,
and he flipped. He was one of those seats that
flipped in New Hampshire. He's pro life. So love what
you said about convictions and things like that. I read
(06:26):
that in an article from twenty twenty three is a
quote from you. You said Republicans should stop trying to
appeal to people in the middle. We're not going to
be democrat light that is no way to win. And
I was just wonder if you could elaborate a little
bit more on.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
That, Like, yeah, so I said that as a party
chairman and as a party we really have to stand
for something. And you know, it doesn't mean do something
stupid either, you know it. You know, sometimes you've got
to you've got to negotiate after you see how the
lay of the land is. But you've got a stand
(07:00):
for something. And if you stand for something, then you
can solidify your base of support and then you don't
ignore the voters in the middle because you need some
of them to win. But you try to convince them
of why what you're doing is a good and right thing.
And if you can convince them that what you're doing
is a good thing, then you can get them to
(07:23):
come over, even if they didn't initially agree with you.
And so it's kind of the art of convincing people.
And the other thing, voters like people who stand for something,
even if they sometimes disagree with you. You know, they like
that kind of person who stands for something. And you know,
abortion debate, it's very very difficult based on our demographics,
(07:47):
and so you know, how do you thread that needle
and stay true to your convictions without committing political suicide.
And so it's a very difficult thing. I'd love to
talk about some specifics about what we did in twenty
twenty four because it was controversial with some of our
pro life friends, but overall it was very successful. And
(08:13):
you know, we live in a state that is the
second lowest in church attendance, right behind Vermont. And if
you look at various polls, the polls, you can create
a poll to tell you what you want to hear,
but most of the polling that I've seen, the kind
of independent polling not done by a party or advocating,
(08:35):
said that about between about between sixty six and seventy
five percent of people self identify as pro choice over
pro life. That's a stunning number up here in the Northeast.
And so how do you then promote what you stand
for when you have a demographic that's self identifies with
(08:59):
the code name of the opposite side. That doesn't mean
that they agree one hundred percent pro choice, but that's
how they identify. So what kind of terminology do you use?
How do you approach it and maintain conviction but still
win elections? And very very very tricky thing up here
(09:22):
in the Northeast especially.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yeah, it may It may take convincing people that to
be pro life is to be supportive of women, is
to want to seek women's empowerment and support them if
they choose, if they choose to be mothers, to help
them with that.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I think what Cindy said was interesting about, you know,
convincing you know that, yes, being being pro life is
being pro woman as well. But I also think, like
what you said about being pro choice when people identify
as pro choice, and I'm curious what you what you
have to think about this. Do you think that that
maybe is just because maybe the Democrats kind of control
(10:06):
the narrative on this issue, that maybe people aren't as
pro choice as they think they are. Like, pro choice
just sounds nice because it sounds like pro liberty, pro freedom.
But would you argue that maybe more people think that
there should be some restrictions on abortion at some point,
(10:29):
at least that say their pro choice.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
I believe there are a lot of people who identify
as pro choice, but they say, well, I personally don't
like abortion. I think it's wrong, But I don't want
to tell somebody else that you have to do what
I believe, and you know, that's a very difficult moral
(10:52):
position to be in. You know, how do you say,
I disagree with it, but it's okay if you do it.
So I think a lot of the pro choice self
identified pro choice people really if they're giving given an alternative,
that it articulates it clearly and says, hey, you know,
today we have a twenty up to twenty four weeks
(11:15):
a pregnant woman can have an abortion for any reason, whatsoever,
fifteen weeks or nineteen weeks or seventeen, you know, some
number that we can put some medical information, you know,
and say, hey, at this point, generally that baby has
certain characteristics. Twenty four look at maybe it's earlier, but
(11:37):
we have to you have to explain that to people
and say, hey, there's a reason we're not just trying
to walk down a slippery slope in your view, towards
you know, banning all abortion. It's like, well, this makes
sense if we explain it to people and say, you know,
we're not trying to be onerous on these expectant mothers.
We care about them. You know, we could see some
(12:01):
changes in our state law. I don't think the elector.
It's ready for it right now, but I think shortly
in the next few years, they will be. The other
thing we have to do is we have to shift.
We have to shift to a message of caring for
(12:23):
the mothers and the babies. And in this last legislative session,
we were able to add into the budget bill something
called the Mom and of Us, which were a lot
of separate issues that helped moms and babies. So it
(12:46):
wasn't just about creating a law to restrict abortions. It
was helping mothers and babies.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
The policy initiatives that you put together in the legislator
the legislature were things that weren't really budget heavy, so
they really cost a lot of money, and you informed
those decisions by going and visiting pregnancy resource centers and
seeing what they do. Is that basically what you said.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Yeah, visiting the resource centers was critical.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
That's wonderful. I think you know pregnancy resource centers. I've
gotten to work with them a bit as well in
my role, so I work for Students for Life, That's
what I do my day job. I'm their regional coordinator
for New England. So I've gotten to work with them
pregnancy resource centers a lot, and as a student even
we were able to work with them to bring data.
(13:35):
The local one to me had a resource fan that
we were able to bring to campus to I went
to Yukon and we brought that van to campus to
provide like free ultrasounds and pregnancy test to students. So yeah,
I think like the resources that they have to offer,
advertising them, I think creating a positive image of pregnancy
(13:57):
resource centers is such an important thing to do as well,
because in so many states they've been attacked for really
not often a very good reason. So yeah, I think
that that's I think you brought up really good points, Yes,
kind of shifting the Overton window of you know, public
opinion on the issue of abortion and giving an actual
(14:18):
reason why, you know, sharing fetal development markers with people,
but also supporting mothers and babies through policy, especially policy
that doesn't cost a lot of money. I think that
that's awesome. Another question I had for you, just kind
of on the note of like shifting shifting public opinion
(14:40):
on the issue, and I know you said, you know,
you didn't feel that the electorate's ready for it now,
but maybe over the next couple of years shifting the
issue of abortion. I just, I guess wanted to get
your thoughts on this. So New Hampshire Cornerstone they surveyed
New Hampshire voters and found that sixty sixty four percent
(15:01):
of New Hampshire voters and sixty one to sixty two
percent of undeclared voters, so independent voters actually believed that
we should support protecting life at fifteen weeks, that there
should be a restriction on abortion, you know, after fifteen weeks.
And I just thought, I think that those numbers are
really interesting, and I was just wondering, like what your
(15:22):
thoughts are on that, and how you believe that should
inform campaigns in the future, and how you know Republicans
run for office in the future and especially on this issue.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Okay, yeah, So I'm very familiar with the data orbital
poll that Cornerstone did. I read the whole thing and
the exact questions. The same day October twenty third, twenty
twenty four, right before the two weeks before the election,
Planned Parenthood released a poll from UMass loll. They had
(15:57):
the exact opposite headline of Cornerstone, So their headline was
that sixty six percent of likely voters a pose a
fifteen week abortion ban. Cornerstone had roughly the same thing,
sixty sixty five percent or sixty seven percent supported fifteen weeks.
(16:19):
So I looked, I dug down into both polls. Both
organizations misled the public with their headlines both so you
can't really trust the poll interesting the summary put out
by the organization. They're pushing what they want people to believe.
(16:40):
So I call them push polls because you're pushing opinion.
You're pushing opinion instead of reporting. So what actually they
asked was, you know, do you support restrictions on abortion
between fifteen weeks and the moment of birth? Well, yeah,
a lot of people that because they're thinking third trimester.
(17:03):
They didn't say, do you support moving from twenty four
weeks to fifteen? They didn't say. They didn't ask that question.
They said from fifteen to birth, playing parenthood did the
exact same thing in reverse, and so that their question
was more of do you think there should be you know,
all these restrictions, do you think there should be total
(17:25):
restrictions after fifteen weeks? And people said no, And so
both sides twisted polling to get the answer. They wanted.
We do polling because we want to understand the issue,
not to push it. Our polling says sixty percent anywhere
between sixty to seventy five percent self identifies pro choice,
(17:51):
but that most people in the state, about two thirds,
support the twenty four week third trimester restrictions, and so
we've got to move that over to window down. It's
not at fifteen weeks that is outside of the over
to window today. We got to move it there by
explaining to people the other thing, if we banned abortions
(18:13):
in New Hampshire today, there would still be abortions if
we just voted a state law, because Planned Parenthood and
other organizations have already said they would pay for women
to go to other states to have abortions, and New
Hampshire's kind of small. We're surrounded by pro abortion states.
Seventy miles is the furthest you have to go if
you draw in New Hampshire, the furthest place from a
(18:37):
state that offers abortions seventy miles. So we do have
to do more than make laws. We have to change
the culture and we have to help these women so
that they don't feel compelled or forced to get an abortion,
we need to support them and help them so that
they can choose the right decision.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Are I mean, I definitely agree that it's a combination
of changing the culture and changing laws as well. Personally,
I'm a firm believer of like you know, Obviously, I
understand you have to have you have to have the
ability in the legislature to do this, and you have
to have the voting to be able to do this.
But I'm a firm believer in you know, Okay, yes,
(19:23):
like you said, like, even if abortion was banned in
New Hampshire today, abortions would still happen. Personally, I believe
that regardless though we shouldn't we shouldn't support the state
shouldn't support abortion, right, So, like, even if abortions would
still happen, if we had the ability to end abortion
(19:46):
in New Hampshire through policy, okay, yes, abortion motions might
still happen, and that's where the culture part comes in.
But I'm just a firm believer in, like the state
should the state should not have laws that support the
killing of preborn children. That's my my thoughts on that.
But yeah, I definitely I do agree with you though
that there's there's definitely a lot to do in terms
(20:06):
of changing the culture. I've noticed that as well and
the work that I do. I work I often on
campus in New Hampshire at un H and st Anselm,
especially at you and H. It's he's interesting, you know,
hearing students' perspectives there, and there are a lot of
a lot of students that we do need to change
(20:27):
their mind and share with them the truth and what
abortion actually is and and also fetal development and really
explain that in in depth as well. So yeah, but
I guess another question I had for you is about
lightly just again about language. You mentioned that when Cornerstone
(20:53):
and that other organization that put out a headline you know,
gave polls polls show basically show you opposite, right, that
most people were thinking of the third trimester of how
they they opposed abortion in the third trimester. I guess
my question to you is what is your thought on
(21:14):
changing like often these a lot of pro life laws
things like that are written in terms of weeks, right,
fifteen weeks. What is your do you have any thoughts
on using trimester language right? So, like you know, banning
abortion after or restricting abortion after the first trimester, for example.
Do you think that there's any what are your thoughts
(21:37):
on that. Instead of using trimesters instead of.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Weeks, we decided last year to use six months instead
of twenty four weeks. Twenty four weeks was in our
state law, but people, you know, when they think twenty
four weeks, they okay, they couldn't couldn't totally understand it.
So we went to six months because you think six months, oh,
(22:02):
that's six out of nine months. That's most of the
way there. Six months is what we thought people could
understand better than twenty four weeks. When we talk about
our state law, we also talked about trimesters, and we
did a focus group of young women because women under
forty voted abortion was their top issue. The rest of
(22:23):
the electorate it was not. So we had a little
focus group and they agreed six months was what they
understood the best, that could convey the message the best,
and so months was what we went with. We thought
third trimemester most people just don't support abortions there, but
(22:48):
our focus group thought that months months was a better
way to portray the timeframes.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Okay, yeah, I've always thought it's interesting that the weeks
is used, you know, because like, I think that that's
really interesting that the focus group said six months made
the most sense because exactly a lot. I think a
lot of people think in terms of months, and I
just think it's so interesting. I think language has so
much to do with, you know, how we portray our
ideas and how we get the message across. So yeah,
(23:19):
but we're getting kind of close to the end of
our time now. But I guess I guess one more
question for you. So obviously, nowadays, sometimes I think things
tend to be very like divided politically, and people especially
around like the life issue. Sometimes people think about, oh,
(23:41):
that's just politics, that's just a political issue. I stay
out of that. So I guess, just like, how can
people today can think constructively about politics and approach politics? Yeah,
as it seems that things become more controversial, if controversial,
and people just say, I don't want to talk about politics,
how would you recommend that our listeners and the average
(24:03):
person just approach these issues and have these conversations with
their family and friends.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Yeah, and to maintain our friendships or build friendships, and
two just be you know, loving to everyone no matter
who they are.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Yeah, I think we have to, you know, keep the
Overton window in mind when we're when we're talking in public,
and you know, if we're too far away from where
the mass of the people are, then they're not going
to listen. So that's one and the other is, you know,
we have a lot of personal freedoms in this country
and a tremendous amount of freedom. But with the freedom
(24:44):
comes responsibility, and we've got a responsibility to people. And
you know, I'm pro wife even for bad criminals. I
used to be support to death penalty. I no longer
do that, you know, So having a conviction in that
you're not preaching to people, but you're explaining, you know,
(25:05):
why you believe what you believe, and not yelling at
somebody when you disagree with them, you know, just you know,
listen to them and then try to give good arguments.
And when we're having a discussion, we have to listen
to the other side and make good arguments, but try
not to be too harsh or judgmental on them because
(25:26):
then they'll shut down and quit listening.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Yeah, I would agree that that's super important to you know,
know our audience, know who we're talking to, and love
the people in front of us that we're talking to,
even if they have a different opinion than us.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
I think that's is that all we have time for today.
I think that's a good place to stuff.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Jessica.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Do you have a Bible verse to share with our listeners?
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yes, yeah, I do. But yeah, thank you, Chris, thank
you for being here with us. We appreciate your perspective
and everything. But yeah, I do have a Bible verts.
So I picked Matthew six thirty one through thirty four
from the Gospel of Matthew, and it says, so do
(26:14):
not worry saying what shall we eat, or what shall
we drink? Or what shall we wear? For the pagans
run after all these things, and your heavenly father knows
that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and
his righteousness, and all these things will be given to
you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, and
(26:37):
tomorrow as for tomorrow, will worry about itself. Each day
has enough trouble of its own. And I picked this
because I think that this is just a really good
verse for anyone, but especially a woman maybe who's facing
an unplanned pregnancy and is faced with all these things
how will I take care of my baby, how will
I how will I feed them? How will I clothe them?
(26:58):
And just trusting the Lord that the Lord will provide
those things in that Yeah, He's bigger than all of
those things. And yeah, and we'll provide. And there are
so many resources out there that can provide those things
to women, especially you know Christian resources out there. So yeah,
that's my Bible verse for today. How about you, Cindy.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Okay, I chose from Second Corinthians for sixteen from the
ESV Bible. So we do not lose heart. Though our
outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being
renewed day by day. For this light, momentary affliction is
preparing for us in eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
(27:44):
as we look not to the things that are seen,
but to the things that are unseen. For the things
that are seen are transient, but the things that are
unseen are eternal. For we know that if the tent
that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a
building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens. For in this tent we grown longing
(28:06):
to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed, by putting
it on, we may not be found naked. For while
we are still in this tent, we grown being burdened.
Not that we would be unclothed, but that we would
be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be
swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for
this very thing is God, who has given us the
(28:27):
spirit as a guarantee. So we are always of good courage.
So that's from Second Corinthians. Just a reminder that this
what we see is kind of temporary, and what is
eternal is unseen, and that God is preparing that for us,
(28:50):
that eternal life, so to not lose heart about.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
So I love that.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
All right, great, well, thanks for joining us today, everybody. Hope.
Uh we got to hear what we were supposed to hear.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
And thank you. Sorry connection stuff now words, it happens.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
It happens. Yeah, thank you for coming on, and thank
you for what you do with Chris and to thank
you help help people in New Hampshire. So well, we'll
see you next week. Everybody.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Thank you for listening to the Ever Living podcast. If
you have scripture questions or things you'd like to share.
Please feel free to email us at ever livingpod at
gmail dot com. Also make sure to follow us on
Instagram at ever dot living podcast. And if you like
this podcast, please make sure to subscribe and share with
(29:58):
a friend and give us a five star review. See
you next week. May God bless you and be very
near to you, and may you be ever living
Welcome to ever Living, a podcast about valuing life here
on Earth and for eternity. We are your life loving
hosts Cindy and Jessica. Every week on ever Living, we
create a space for sharing the stories and voices of
those who work in pray to create a culture that
(00:29):
values and protects life here in New England and beyond.
Welcome to ever Living.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, Hi Cindy, Hi Jessica, how.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Are you doing. How is your vacation?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
It was very nice? Yes for those I don't know
if you mentioned it on the other episodes, but I
was in Europe. I was in Italy and France for
the last two weeks, so yeah, it was really great.
The beginning was a little rough. We did have a
delay with one of our flights getting to France, and
that kind of messed some stuff up a little bit.
(01:04):
We wound up having to like we're supposed to fly
to Paris, but then because everything kind of got messed
up with the delay, we had to fly straight from
Dublin where we got stuck to Rome through the book
another flight, but the trip, the trip got better.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Okay, so did you skip Paris?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah, yeah, it's a very long story. Honestly, but basically
we only traveled through Paris, so I saw the Eiffel
Tower but from the train.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Okay, well, I guess there's an another reason to go back.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, my mom already wants to go back. She's like,
she's like, would you go with me instead? I'm like, sure,
are you paying? But hopefully someday. So it was great,
we had a great trip, got better. So how about you?
How have your last couple of weeks.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Been pretty interesting? I guess just yeah, summer is kind
of a different pace of life, so finding different things
to do.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
So being off from school and everything, you're like, you're
like my roommate because she's she's a teacher and she's
she's off now and she's she's trying to find new
hobbies I think for the summer.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
So yeah, well something new today as we get to
interview someone new on our podcast. He is the former
chairman of the Republican Party in New Hampshire. Let's welcome
Chris Ager. Yay yayh Chris.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Hello, I'm really happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah, thank you, thank you for being here with us.
How are you doing.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Great? Great? Just can't wait till the fourth of July
festivities and a beautiful summer ahead of us.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah. Yeah, no, it's been. It's been nice so far.
I feel I feel like it's been. The weather has
been holding up and it's been really warm this week,
which has been really nice. So yeah, yeah, but yeah,
so could you you know, as Siney mentioned, you're the
former chairman of the Republican Party in New Hampshire. If
(03:16):
I'm correct, you served from twenty twenty three to twenty
twenty five. Is that the correct period of time?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Pretty close? It was January, Yeah, January twenty three to
January twenty five, or no, January twenty four to January
twenty sixth. So, okay, elections are in January right after
the election elections in November, that's right after. It's kind
(03:49):
of confusing, but that I don't even know what you get.
We think an election cycles.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, it's like the year is
always off from that. But awesome, Well could you tell yeah,
could you tell us so obviously that's wonderful. Could you
tell us the audience a little bit more about yourself? Maybe,
how what led you to you know that position, things
like that. Your background?
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Yeah, so I was born in Washington, d c grew
up there. Our families from there, and my dad was
a union labor just like a railroad union guy, and
my mom stayed at home and we had nine kids
in the family, so you know, I was always around kids, family, siblings.
Went to West Point and it was in the army
(04:37):
a little while. I came to New Hampshire and I
was in politics a little bit locally, and then I
got away from it for about ten years, and then
I came back into it because I was a little
bit concerned about what's happened at the national level, especially
when President Obama was in office. And then I just
kind of worked my way up the system, you know,
town chairman, county chairman, national committee man, and then I
(04:58):
ran for a party chairman. When I was done with
my two years, I decided not to run for re election,
but I'm still active in the party and we did
very well the last election in twenty twenty four at
the state level, so super majority in the Senate picked
up picked up twenty some seats in the House and
the governor by a big margin. So you know, we
(05:20):
we have a pretty good Republican state House, the only
state house controlled by Republicans north of South Carolina along
the east coast, so it's you know, we're kind of
holding on. You know, sometimes we think we're holding on
by our fingernails, which means when you get into political
issues that are that are difficult, we've got to negotiate
(05:42):
through through those, you know, with conviction. But we've got
to be very savvy. And that's the art and nature
of politics. And that's why a lot of people don't
like politics, is you know, you've got to make that
compromise sometimes to stay elected or else everything goes terribly
wrong with the other side.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
It's very impressive that how many seats you guys picked
up in the last election. I actually I'm very familiar
with one of them. I door knocked for Sam Farrington.
He's in i think Rochester, one of the Rochester districts,
and he flipped. He was one of those seats that
flipped in New Hampshire. He's pro life. So love what
you said about convictions and things like that. I read
(06:26):
that in an article from twenty twenty three is a
quote from you. You said Republicans should stop trying to
appeal to people in the middle. We're not going to
be democrat light that is no way to win. And
I was just wonder if you could elaborate a little
bit more on.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
That, Like, yeah, so I said that as a party
chairman and as a party we really have to stand
for something. And you know, it doesn't mean do something
stupid either, you know it. You know, sometimes you've got
to you've got to negotiate after you see how the
lay of the land is. But you've got a stand
(07:00):
for something. And if you stand for something, then you
can solidify your base of support and then you don't
ignore the voters in the middle because you need some
of them to win. But you try to convince them
of why what you're doing is a good and right thing.
And if you can convince them that what you're doing
is a good thing, then you can get them to
(07:23):
come over, even if they didn't initially agree with you.
And so it's kind of the art of convincing people.
And the other thing, voters like people who stand for something,
even if they sometimes disagree with you. You know, they like
that kind of person who stands for something. And you know,
abortion debate, it's very very difficult based on our demographics,
(07:47):
and so you know, how do you thread that needle
and stay true to your convictions without committing political suicide.
And so it's a very difficult thing. I'd love to
talk about some specifics about what we did in twenty
twenty four because it was controversial with some of our
pro life friends, but overall it was very successful. And
(08:13):
you know, we live in a state that is the
second lowest in church attendance, right behind Vermont. And if
you look at various polls, the polls, you can create
a poll to tell you what you want to hear,
but most of the polling that I've seen, the kind
of independent polling not done by a party or advocating,
(08:35):
said that about between about between sixty six and seventy
five percent of people self identify as pro choice over
pro life. That's a stunning number up here in the Northeast.
And so how do you then promote what you stand
for when you have a demographic that's self identifies with
(08:59):
the code name of the opposite side. That doesn't mean
that they agree one hundred percent pro choice, but that's
how they identify. So what kind of terminology do you use?
How do you approach it and maintain conviction but still
win elections? And very very very tricky thing up here
(09:22):
in the Northeast especially.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yeah, it may It may take convincing people that to
be pro life is to be supportive of women, is
to want to seek women's empowerment and support them if
they choose, if they choose to be mothers, to help
them with that.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I think what Cindy said was interesting about, you know,
convincing you know that, yes, being being pro life is
being pro woman as well. But I also think, like
what you said about being pro choice when people identify
as pro choice, and I'm curious what you what you
have to think about this. Do you think that that
maybe is just because maybe the Democrats kind of control
(10:06):
the narrative on this issue, that maybe people aren't as
pro choice as they think they are. Like, pro choice
just sounds nice because it sounds like pro liberty, pro freedom.
But would you argue that maybe more people think that
there should be some restrictions on abortion at some point,
(10:29):
at least that say their pro choice.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
I believe there are a lot of people who identify
as pro choice, but they say, well, I personally don't
like abortion. I think it's wrong, But I don't want
to tell somebody else that you have to do what
I believe, and you know, that's a very difficult moral
(10:52):
position to be in. You know, how do you say,
I disagree with it, but it's okay if you do it.
So I think a lot of the pro choice self
identified pro choice people really if they're giving given an alternative,
that it articulates it clearly and says, hey, you know,
today we have a twenty up to twenty four weeks
(11:15):
a pregnant woman can have an abortion for any reason, whatsoever,
fifteen weeks or nineteen weeks or seventeen, you know, some
number that we can put some medical information, you know,
and say, hey, at this point, generally that baby has
certain characteristics. Twenty four look at maybe it's earlier, but
(11:37):
we have to you have to explain that to people
and say, hey, there's a reason we're not just trying
to walk down a slippery slope in your view, towards
you know, banning all abortion. It's like, well, this makes
sense if we explain it to people and say, you know,
we're not trying to be onerous on these expectant mothers.
We care about them. You know, we could see some
(12:01):
changes in our state law. I don't think the elector.
It's ready for it right now, but I think shortly
in the next few years, they will be. The other
thing we have to do is we have to shift.
We have to shift to a message of caring for
(12:23):
the mothers and the babies. And in this last legislative session,
we were able to add into the budget bill something
called the Mom and of Us, which were a lot
of separate issues that helped moms and babies. So it
(12:46):
wasn't just about creating a law to restrict abortions. It
was helping mothers and babies.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
The policy initiatives that you put together in the legislator
the legislature were things that weren't really budget heavy, so
they really cost a lot of money, and you informed
those decisions by going and visiting pregnancy resource centers and
seeing what they do. Is that basically what you said.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Yeah, visiting the resource centers was critical.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
That's wonderful. I think you know pregnancy resource centers. I've
gotten to work with them a bit as well in
my role, so I work for Students for Life, That's
what I do my day job. I'm their regional coordinator
for New England. So I've gotten to work with them
pregnancy resource centers a lot, and as a student even
we were able to work with them to bring data.
(13:35):
The local one to me had a resource fan that
we were able to bring to campus to I went
to Yukon and we brought that van to campus to
provide like free ultrasounds and pregnancy test to students. So yeah,
I think like the resources that they have to offer,
advertising them, I think creating a positive image of pregnancy
(13:57):
resource centers is such an important thing to do as well,
because in so many states they've been attacked for really
not often a very good reason. So yeah, I think
that that's I think you brought up really good points, Yes,
kind of shifting the Overton window of you know, public
opinion on the issue of abortion and giving an actual
(14:18):
reason why, you know, sharing fetal development markers with people,
but also supporting mothers and babies through policy, especially policy
that doesn't cost a lot of money. I think that
that's awesome. Another question I had for you, just kind
of on the note of like shifting shifting public opinion
(14:40):
on the issue, and I know you said, you know,
you didn't feel that the electorate's ready for it now,
but maybe over the next couple of years shifting the
issue of abortion. I just, I guess wanted to get
your thoughts on this. So New Hampshire Cornerstone they surveyed
New Hampshire voters and found that sixty sixty four percent
(15:01):
of New Hampshire voters and sixty one to sixty two
percent of undeclared voters, so independent voters actually believed that
we should support protecting life at fifteen weeks, that there
should be a restriction on abortion, you know, after fifteen weeks.
And I just thought, I think that those numbers are
really interesting, and I was just wondering, like what your
(15:22):
thoughts are on that, and how you believe that should
inform campaigns in the future, and how you know Republicans
run for office in the future and especially on this issue.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Okay, yeah, So I'm very familiar with the data orbital
poll that Cornerstone did. I read the whole thing and
the exact questions. The same day October twenty third, twenty
twenty four, right before the two weeks before the election,
Planned Parenthood released a poll from UMass loll. They had
(15:57):
the exact opposite headline of Cornerstone, So their headline was
that sixty six percent of likely voters a pose a
fifteen week abortion ban. Cornerstone had roughly the same thing,
sixty sixty five percent or sixty seven percent supported fifteen weeks.
(16:19):
So I looked, I dug down into both polls. Both
organizations misled the public with their headlines both so you
can't really trust the poll interesting the summary put out
by the organization. They're pushing what they want people to believe.
(16:40):
So I call them push polls because you're pushing opinion.
You're pushing opinion instead of reporting. So what actually they
asked was, you know, do you support restrictions on abortion
between fifteen weeks and the moment of birth? Well, yeah,
a lot of people that because they're thinking third trimester.
(17:03):
They didn't say, do you support moving from twenty four
weeks to fifteen? They didn't say. They didn't ask that question.
They said from fifteen to birth, playing parenthood did the
exact same thing in reverse, and so that their question
was more of do you think there should be you know,
all these restrictions, do you think there should be total
(17:25):
restrictions after fifteen weeks? And people said no, And so
both sides twisted polling to get the answer. They wanted.
We do polling because we want to understand the issue,
not to push it. Our polling says sixty percent anywhere
between sixty to seventy five percent self identifies pro choice,
(17:51):
but that most people in the state, about two thirds,
support the twenty four week third trimester restrictions, and so
we've got to move that over to window down. It's
not at fifteen weeks that is outside of the over
to window today. We got to move it there by
explaining to people the other thing, if we banned abortions
(18:13):
in New Hampshire today, there would still be abortions if
we just voted a state law, because Planned Parenthood and
other organizations have already said they would pay for women
to go to other states to have abortions, and New
Hampshire's kind of small. We're surrounded by pro abortion states.
Seventy miles is the furthest you have to go if
you draw in New Hampshire, the furthest place from a
(18:37):
state that offers abortions seventy miles. So we do have
to do more than make laws. We have to change
the culture and we have to help these women so
that they don't feel compelled or forced to get an abortion,
we need to support them and help them so that
they can choose the right decision.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Are I mean, I definitely agree that it's a combination
of changing the culture and changing laws as well. Personally,
I'm a firm believer of like you know, Obviously, I
understand you have to have you have to have the
ability in the legislature to do this, and you have
to have the voting to be able to do this.
But I'm a firm believer in you know, Okay, yes,
(19:23):
like you said, like, even if abortion was banned in
New Hampshire today, abortions would still happen. Personally, I believe
that regardless though we shouldn't we shouldn't support the state
shouldn't support abortion, right, So, like, even if abortions would
still happen, if we had the ability to end abortion
(19:46):
in New Hampshire through policy, okay, yes, abortion motions might
still happen, and that's where the culture part comes in.
But I'm just a firm believer in, like the state
should the state should not have laws that support the
killing of preborn children. That's my my thoughts on that.
But yeah, I definitely I do agree with you though
that there's there's definitely a lot to do in terms
(20:06):
of changing the culture. I've noticed that as well and
the work that I do. I work I often on
campus in New Hampshire at un H and st Anselm,
especially at you and H. It's he's interesting, you know,
hearing students' perspectives there, and there are a lot of
a lot of students that we do need to change
(20:27):
their mind and share with them the truth and what
abortion actually is and and also fetal development and really
explain that in in depth as well. So yeah, but
I guess another question I had for you is about
lightly just again about language. You mentioned that when Cornerstone
(20:53):
and that other organization that put out a headline you know,
gave polls polls show basically show you opposite, right, that
most people were thinking of the third trimester of how
they they opposed abortion in the third trimester. I guess
my question to you is what is your thought on
(21:14):
changing like often these a lot of pro life laws
things like that are written in terms of weeks, right,
fifteen weeks. What is your do you have any thoughts
on using trimester language right? So, like you know, banning
abortion after or restricting abortion after the first trimester, for example.
Do you think that there's any what are your thoughts
(21:37):
on that. Instead of using trimesters instead of.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Weeks, we decided last year to use six months instead
of twenty four weeks. Twenty four weeks was in our
state law, but people, you know, when they think twenty
four weeks, they okay, they couldn't couldn't totally understand it.
So we went to six months because you think six months, oh,
(22:02):
that's six out of nine months. That's most of the
way there. Six months is what we thought people could
understand better than twenty four weeks. When we talk about
our state law, we also talked about trimesters, and we
did a focus group of young women because women under
forty voted abortion was their top issue. The rest of
(22:23):
the electorate it was not. So we had a little
focus group and they agreed six months was what they
understood the best, that could convey the message the best,
and so months was what we went with. We thought
third trimemester most people just don't support abortions there, but
(22:48):
our focus group thought that months months was a better
way to portray the timeframes.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Okay, yeah, I've always thought it's interesting that the weeks
is used, you know, because like, I think that that's
really interesting that the focus group said six months made
the most sense because exactly a lot. I think a
lot of people think in terms of months, and I
just think it's so interesting. I think language has so
much to do with, you know, how we portray our
ideas and how we get the message across. So yeah,
(23:19):
but we're getting kind of close to the end of
our time now. But I guess I guess one more
question for you. So obviously, nowadays, sometimes I think things
tend to be very like divided politically, and people especially
around like the life issue. Sometimes people think about, oh,
(23:41):
that's just politics, that's just a political issue. I stay
out of that. So I guess, just like, how can
people today can think constructively about politics and approach politics? Yeah,
as it seems that things become more controversial, if controversial,
and people just say, I don't want to talk about politics,
how would you recommend that our listeners and the average
(24:03):
person just approach these issues and have these conversations with
their family and friends.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Yeah, and to maintain our friendships or build friendships, and
two just be you know, loving to everyone no matter
who they are.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Yeah, I think we have to, you know, keep the
Overton window in mind when we're when we're talking in public,
and you know, if we're too far away from where
the mass of the people are, then they're not going
to listen. So that's one and the other is, you know,
we have a lot of personal freedoms in this country
and a tremendous amount of freedom. But with the freedom
(24:44):
comes responsibility, and we've got a responsibility to people. And
you know, I'm pro wife even for bad criminals. I
used to be support to death penalty. I no longer
do that, you know, So having a conviction in that
you're not preaching to people, but you're explaining, you know,
(25:05):
why you believe what you believe, and not yelling at
somebody when you disagree with them, you know, just you know,
listen to them and then try to give good arguments.
And when we're having a discussion, we have to listen
to the other side and make good arguments, but try
not to be too harsh or judgmental on them because
(25:26):
then they'll shut down and quit listening.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Yeah, I would agree that that's super important to you know,
know our audience, know who we're talking to, and love
the people in front of us that we're talking to,
even if they have a different opinion than us.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
I think that's is that all we have time for today.
I think that's a good place to stuff.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Jessica.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Do you have a Bible verse to share with our listeners?
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yes, yeah, I do. But yeah, thank you, Chris, thank
you for being here with us. We appreciate your perspective
and everything. But yeah, I do have a Bible verts.
So I picked Matthew six thirty one through thirty four
from the Gospel of Matthew, and it says, so do
(26:14):
not worry saying what shall we eat, or what shall
we drink? Or what shall we wear? For the pagans
run after all these things, and your heavenly father knows
that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and
his righteousness, and all these things will be given to
you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, and
(26:37):
tomorrow as for tomorrow, will worry about itself. Each day
has enough trouble of its own. And I picked this
because I think that this is just a really good
verse for anyone, but especially a woman maybe who's facing
an unplanned pregnancy and is faced with all these things
how will I take care of my baby, how will
I how will I feed them? How will I clothe them?
(26:58):
And just trusting the Lord that the Lord will provide
those things in that Yeah, He's bigger than all of
those things. And yeah, and we'll provide. And there are
so many resources out there that can provide those things
to women, especially you know Christian resources out there. So yeah,
that's my Bible verse for today. How about you, Cindy.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Okay, I chose from Second Corinthians for sixteen from the
ESV Bible. So we do not lose heart. Though our
outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being
renewed day by day. For this light, momentary affliction is
preparing for us in eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
(27:44):
as we look not to the things that are seen,
but to the things that are unseen. For the things
that are seen are transient, but the things that are
unseen are eternal. For we know that if the tent
that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a
building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens. For in this tent we grown longing
(28:06):
to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed, by putting
it on, we may not be found naked. For while
we are still in this tent, we grown being burdened.
Not that we would be unclothed, but that we would
be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be
swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for
this very thing is God, who has given us the
(28:27):
spirit as a guarantee. So we are always of good courage.
So that's from Second Corinthians. Just a reminder that this
what we see is kind of temporary, and what is
eternal is unseen, and that God is preparing that for us,
(28:50):
that eternal life, so to not lose heart about.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
So I love that.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
All right, great, well, thanks for joining us today, everybody. Hope.
Uh we got to hear what we were supposed to hear.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
And thank you. Sorry connection stuff now words, it happens.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
It happens. Yeah, thank you for coming on, and thank
you for what you do with Chris and to thank
you help help people in New Hampshire. So well, we'll
see you next week. Everybody.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Thank you for listening to the Ever Living podcast. If
you have scripture questions or things you'd like to share.
Please feel free to email us at ever livingpod at
gmail dot com. Also make sure to follow us on
Instagram at ever dot living podcast. And if you like
this podcast, please make sure to subscribe and share with
(29:58):
a friend and give us a five star review. See
you next week. May God bless you and be very
near to you, and may you be ever living
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