Movement and inspired many. Including myself, to treasure the founding principles and the history of america. I walked through it as my wife angela and boys were thrilled to do again as a reminder of the trials that president reagan faced. How we lead our nation through with purpose and principle. And the character he brought to the nations highest office. When i was coming of age and that 1980s, and Ronald Reagan was in the white house, the president and i shared a favorite tv show. Family ties. Michael j fox plate Alex P Keaton and was the first time anyone had seen a conservative character portrayed in a positive light in the media or on television. Alex p keaton with his baby boomer parents and worked into his pickup lines. President reagan was apparently such a fan he offered to guest star. It was the age of reagan. And being conservative was not only end, it was cool. Not only in, it was cool. Reagan was the man considered to extreme for the nomination in 1976. And the same man who one reelection with 49 states and 1984 without ever breaking faith with the conservative cause. He did not know how good we had its. We did not know how good we had it. I think it is important to note in 1964 very goldwater did not lose that election. Barry goldwater did not lose that election. It took 16 years to count the votes. [applause] president reagan showed us the way. No pale pastels meant no ambiguity. A shining city on a hill. Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem. Tear down this wall. In other words, love of country, fate, and family. Respect for freedom and free enterprise. And Strong Defense of american exceptionalism. To date the answer to the question what does the Republican Party stand for is harder to answer but it is a question we must have a really good answer for because the Republican Party is a party worth fighting for. For me and i will start with a pretty basic question, why am i a republican . The answer is pretty simple. I was raised that way. The values were instilled in me right from the beginning. I was raised in toledo, ohio. My dad was a cop, my mom stayed at home. My grandparents lived pretty much down the street. We were midwestern and middle america. Family was everything and the center of our lives, so was faith. My family believed in a patch on the back and when absolutely necessary a little lower. [laughter] we respected rules and authority. There was never any talk of political parties. Most of my family and the people around the School Community where we grew up, probably either voted for or admired john f. Kennedy. But there was a sense that america was great and the future was bright. Eventually, my mom moved out west with my siblings and me. I probably cast my first vote ever for president reagan in 1984. I started my career in southern california. It was still very much reagan country and angela and i loved it. We also saw it change before our eyes. Wally never contemplated Public Public service or politics, while i never contemplated Public Service or politics, i saw the influence politics can have a life, people and our country. In california it wasnt for the better. I saw policy statebystate. For better or worse. Rules, regulations, taxes and what they meant for businesses, workers and entrepreneurs. To date we all see a clearly. Ideas have consequences and policy matters. There is a lot of bad ones being put into place at the federal level that are having significant negative economic and cultural impacts. Americans do not like it. As it relates to the Republican Party, that means we are going to win elections this fall. Good for us. But lets be candid. We are going to win because the other side is an competent. They are in charge and the federal government is seen as corrupt. That is bad for americans. But yes, lucky for us. Now we have to figure out where republicans and conservatives conservatism are going to go and how we best govern. That is much harder for us. It is worth reminding ourselves the point of winning elections is not just to win elections, it is to govern with conservative ideas that preserve the American Dream and improve the lives of regular americans. There is no doubt our party and our nation struggle for direction and purpose. America has always been a land of hope and hope combined with action has resulted in this nation we so love. We are the party of lincoln, born in the last battle of the american revolution. Our great civil war. The issue they were trying to settle was the one Thomas Jefferson posed in the declaration. We hold these truths to be selfevident, that all men are created equal. So the issue remains today. On the one hundred 50th anniversary of the declaration of independence, Calvin Coolidge rightly proclaimed if all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made the on these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual. No rule of the people. I said earlier the Republican Party is worth fighting for. It is because there are people today on the left with very different ideas. Who call our founding documents obsolete. One popular writer recently called the constitution trash. They wanted to rewrite our founding dates and what our founders demonized and erased. They do not want equality. They would like to divide us up i identity and pit us against each other. Push back is necessary. Some of reagans persuasion can guide the way. It is and his farewell address reagan reminds us ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind that truly reversed the course of government. And with three little words, we the people. We the people telling governments what to do. It does not tell us. We the people are the driver and the government is the car. And we decide where it should go. Sadly, this is not where the Republican Party is today, at least at the federal level. I believe a dangerous strain of Big Government activism has taken hold and for liberties sake we need to fight it with every fiber in our being. A focal point of conservative politics is defined more by attitude and anger than a commitment to a specific set of ideals. A growing segment of todays conservatives are just as happy bossing us around and telling us and businesses how to lead our lives. I look at the party and worry that candidates are more defined by their attitudes than the policies they propose. Yes, a good many small Government Conservatives have morphed into bullies. People who are very comfortable using government power to Tell Companies and people how to lead their lives. It is a perilous place for us to be. Because once you adopt that mentality, that government knows best and is going to tell you what is acceptable for how to live your life, or how to treat employees, we are sharpening the knife the left will eventually use on us. My friend, governor of tennessee puts it this way. I am a conservative. I am just not angry about it. We cannot beat the left by becoming like them. When did grievance resolve anything . We are the happy warriors. We need to present a clear alternative, embrace the founding documents, persuade on the proper role of a limited government. That is a much better place to be then proposing more intrusive, more aggressive government. Being bullies is not the path. Clearly, neither is being royalists. We are a nation that shows constitution over king. It is best we keep it that way. For the american creed and the constitution to survive, we need to stay true to conservative principles, needed to get our priorities straight, we must look forward not backward, and we need to confront the issues that actually matter most to americans. So what should the Republican Party stand for . What should conservatism represent . What are we trying to conserve . And has been said if you want to learn something new, read something old. Truth is, it is right in front of us. In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. President reagan reminded us and his first and all girl the federal government first and all girl first inaugral. That is of half. Madison wrote that the powers granted to the federal government should be few and defined. Those granted to the states should be numerous and indefinite. We rightly talk a lot about the first and second amendments. We could also revisit the ninth and 10th amendments. Reagan understood that. Republican governors of today understand it. Yet many in washington including our own party dont. States rights used to be a bad term. It meant segregation or separate but equal. But we have fought those battles. No serious person wants to revisit them. They have been won. The federal government tries to do too much and does most of it poorly. So how about they focus on fewer things like defending the border , securing our nation, a coherent Foreign Policy while enforcing the law equally and reforming our finances and social safety net to allow for continued opportunity. And leave the rest to the states. I can practically hear the wheels turning in your heads right now. Do see, this is the best you have got . Ducey, this is the best you have got . Let me make the case for why it is plausible. First, for nearly a century, the transfer of power from the state to the federal government has been a hostile takeover. Congress and the president have continuously usurped authority the founders reserved to the states. In the last two decades as the congress has become largely dysfunctional, more and more it has been by executive order and regulatory agencies where people call the Administrative State or the nonconstitutional Fourth Branch of government that has taken over. And all this time, was happening, the third branch of government the judiciary, sat by and let it happen. It was called judicial restraint. Legislators applauded its because there is no check on their power. I believe with this court as currently constituted, that is about to shift and shift noticeably and abruptly into something called judicial engagement. The act of judging. Because after all, it is the judiciary that decides what the constitution means and what is ultimately unconstitutional. For the first time in nearly a century, i believe the Supreme Court is going to act decisively and application of the constitution to reign in the regulatory leviathan on that threatens to strangle growth, opportunity and individual liberties in this country. All you have to do is read the wall street journal editorial page and you can see the lineup of federal agencies that are about to get spanked, slapped down and reversed. The federal trade commission, the department of justice, the department of labor, the securities and exchange commission, the Environmental Protection agency, the department of education, are all likely to lose highprofile cases in the next several years that will fundamentally change the balance of power within our own government. There is a reason Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett are on the Supreme Court. And this will be a time i believe when the men and women meet the moment and make lasting change. We are on the front end of major historic change and governance and the ultimate beneficiary will be in the states, the people, and the cost of federalism. Our constitutional rebalancing of power. A second reason i believe federalism is an answer to our circumstances is this. There is very little in American Government that is effective these days but there is one place where there is working functioning governments. In the states. And among the governors. Every single governor knows we can do a better job serving our constituents without dealing with the bureaucracy and micromanagement that comes from the federal government. I dont need to be told i the department of transportation that infrastructure money is available for roads in arizona but it comes with strings attached. It needs to be roads with bike lanes and light rail and electric charging stations. And oh, by the way, dont you dare modernize or privatize your highway rest stops. Every governor in america knows what needs to be done with roads in our states. We are far better stewards of money and connect with more urgency than the feds could ever dream of. The best thing about governors is we communicate with each other and share ideas without the rancor you see an d. C. If there was a wildfire in california or colorado i am on the phone with gavin newsom or jared polis. Governors meet throughout the year and speak and confidence and ask questions and share Lessons Learned without it being leaked to the press. Think about this. When was the last time you saw two governors et al. Each other on cable news attack each other on cable news . It rarely happens. [laughter] you would be amazed to hear republican and democrat governors sharing in private what they learned regarding floods, wildfires and other natural disasters, about how to keep the feds from nationalizing our guard units, about dealing with civil unrest just to name a few. There is a seriousness about governing that you cannot find in washington, d. C. Today. If there is to be a solving of problems in america, it is much more likely to come from the states and local communities than it is the congress. So, let it begin. A third reason for faith and federalism comes from the fact that states compete against each other. We try Different Things and outcomes are apparent to the voters. Best practices can be reapplied. Bad ideas can stop after one state unsuccessfully tries it. It has been my experience that our country rarely solves a problem. We innovate out of them. Justice Lewis Brandeis called the states laboratories of democracy. He set us state may if its citizens choose serve as a laboratory and trite novel, social and economic experiments without risks to the rest of the country. Reagan claimed if the pilgrims had landed on the west coast they would have never bothered to discover the rest of the country. [laughter] yes, we have an almost perfect clinical science experiment going on right here on the west coast. For two decades, arizona and california have generally been headed in opposite directions with growth in the gap between the two states accelerating dramatically. One state has become a no growth nanny state, simultaneously mandating all cars be electric by 2035 and also telling citizens to not charge their cars in the afternoon because the power grid cannot sustain it. This magnificently beautiful place with 840 miles of coastline, estate that invented movies and computers a state that invented movies and computers. It is all because of bad policies and port leadership sustained and compounded over multiple decades. And then, there is torn neighbor arizona. Nextdoor neighbor arizona. Lighter regulation, growth, opportunity and personal safety and where people and companies are moving to in droves. There is an exodus from the golden state. Americans are voting with their feet. The conservative ideas applied outside of washington dc are winning and it is not even close. There is why i believe it is happening. Conservative states have better policies, policies that are working for everyday americans. There is far more freedom and opportunity these states and there is a sense of priority for personal safety in our states. Along with educational toys, educational choice. Parents have a real say in childs education. Consider what we have been able to do and arizona in just one estate without the help of the federal government. The american civics act so that no kid graduates high School Without knowing at least as much about history and government as immigrants who become citizens. Universal licensing recognition so that when a worker moves to arizona from any state they do not have to spend countless hours and thousands of dollars being relicensed for a skill they already have. We want people to be able to begin earning a living immediately. Improved trade relationships with mexico despite our unprecedented Border Security focus and the rhetoric. On both sides. Telehealth, first in the nation so you can see your doctor regardless of where you are. And Universal School choice for every child. First in the nation. Arizona funds students, not systems. [applause] with these successes, imagine what arizona and other states could you with their dollars on a tethered from the strings and handcuffs of the federal bureaucrats. The real way to drain the swamp, to break up the d. C. Cartel, to tear down the Fourth Branch of government, the Administrative State, is to let the states compete. What are we afraid of . Voters and legislate legislatures will reward better ideas. They will hold governors accountable for bad behavior and decisions. Ask andrew cuomo. And citizen reagans time for choosing speech he told us the story of two men talking to a cuban refugee. We do not know how lucky we are, one man said to the other. How lucky you are, the refugee explains. I had someplace to go. As reagan put it in that sentence, he told us the entire story. If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth. It remains today. There is no place we would rather be where we would not be here tonight. Most of us can say unflinchingly we remain the single greatest country and the history of the world. There is much talk about defending democracy these days. That is all well and good. Yet we must remember we are a constitutional republic. A form of democracy. One intended to distribute power broadly and specifically outside of washington dc, fr