Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman
Washington, DC
As Prepared For Delivery
Thank you, Ed for
your incredible leadership. No one
deserves more credit for last year’s victory than Ed Gillespie.
I am humbled by
your support, honored by your faith in me, and together we will work to
see
that the gains our Party made in 2004 translate into further success
this year
and in the future.
One hundred and
fifty years after our party was first first founded, the party of
Lincoln
stands at our strongest point in a century.
Our President,
George W. Bush, is the first to be re-elected while his party expanded
majorities
in the House and Senate since 1936.
He is also the first President of either party to win a popular vote
majority since 1988.
George W. Bush
received a larger percentage of the popular vote than every Democrat in
the
20th century, except Lyndon Johnson and FDR.
For the first time
since exit polling began, Republicans comprised the same portion of the
electorate as Democrats. And since
the last presidential election, conservatives have increased their
proportion
of the electorate by nearly 20%.
And all of this
occurred in a year when voter turnout increased to the highest level
since
1968.
As the President
promised, this was not a lonely victory.
Our Speaker, Denny
Hastert, leads the largest team of House Republicans elected on any
election day
since 1946.
Our Senate
Majority Leader, Bill Frist, added to his Senate margin. The last
time there were more
Republicans in the U.S. Senate was 1930.
Republicans hold
the governorships of 28 states, including the 4 largest. You can
drive across our nation today
from east to west and north to south and never leave a state led by a
Republican governor.
Most amazing of
all, we won this victory in a year when Democrats outspent Republicans
on
politics by $113.6 million.
There’s a word for
this kind of a victory: it’s
called a mandate.
You don’t win a
mandate unless you ask for one.
And the first way our campaign was historic was that President Bush and
Republicans up and down the ballot told the country exactly what they
wanted to
do and asked for the American people’s support.
Nearly everywhere
the President traveled, he talked about why he wanted a new term:
To pursue the
terrorists abroad so we are safer at home; to promote democracy and
fight
injustice in the lands where terrorists are recruited.
To reform the tax
code: we won’t create 21st century
jobs with a 20th century tax code.
To save Social
Security so it’s there for today’s generation and for our children and
grandchildren. To allow young Americans, regardless of their income,
their
education, and their station in life, the choice to save and create a
nest egg
to pass along to their children and grandchildren.
To appoint strict
constructionists to the courts who understand the difference between
legislating from the bench and interpreting the law.
To promote a
culture of life, where the weakest and most vulnerable are protected,
where
every child is welcomed in life and protected by law.
To promote
marriage and be sure that government stands on the side of strong
families.
To make health
care more affordable and available by empowering patients and helping
small
businesses join together to reduce costs.
To expand the
elementary education reforms to high school so that a high school
diploma means
real achievement and real opportunity.
To discourage
frivolous lawsuits that raise the cost of health care, destroy small
businesses
and make everything we buy more expensive.
Our victory was
historic, and it was a mandate, because the President and Republicans
up and down
the ballot offered a clear agenda for reform.
And the American
people said yes in record numbers.
The second way our
campaign was historic was how and where we communicated this clear
choice.
If you watched
broadcast TV or cable, listened to talk radio, urban radio, Spanish
language
radio, farm radio or radio traffic reports, surfed the web, talked with
your
neighbors, answered your door, opened your mail, answered your phone or
worked
out at a public gym, chances are you heard from Bush-Cheney ’04.
And you probably
heard from us more than once.
The 2004
Bush-Cheney campaign recognized that the days when the American people
had just
a few choices for news and information are over. We embraced the
new media, and the old, with our campaign
message.
Third, our
campaign was historic because it was fueled by the motivation and
commitment of
millions of Americans.
President Bush’s
leadership has made Republicans the party of the grassroots.
Since President
Bush’s inauguration, we’ve:
·
registered 3.4
million new voters
·
received support
from 1.8 million first time small dollar donors (including 765,000 in
2004
alone)
·
recruited 1.4
million volunteers and team leaders and 7.5 million e-activists.
These
volunteers are not just signing up.
They’re taking action:
·
102,000 calls
into talk radio shows
·
411,989 letters
to the editor
·
69,000 personal
letters to targeted voters
·
467,000 voter
registrations via the web
·
9.1 million
volunteer door knocks
·
total of 27.2
million volunteer phone calls.
Because of this
historic campaign and historic election, we now have an historic
opportunity.
Our party can
continue to earn the majority status we’ve won in the past 2 elections,
and
continue to expand our support even further.
These are 4 steps
we can take to cement these victories into a durable Republican
majority.
Our victory was
first and foremost a victory of ideas.
Step one is to enact the ideas we ran on and the American people
endorsed.
President Bush,
Speaker Hastert and Majority Leader Frist will confound the cynics and
do in
office exactly what they pledged during the campaign.
We must make sure
that promises made are promises kept.
Our leaders cannot
accomplish this mission alone.
Just as they didn’t win on November 2 by themselves, they need our
help. Let’s put these supporters
and activists to work for the agenda they championed last year.
Let’s use the
tools that produced victory on election day—regional media by state
parties,
volunteers calling into talk radio, writing letters to the editor, or
attending
town hall meetings, petition drives urging action, bloggers separating
fact
from fiction, surrogates on cable television, citizenship Sundays to
help
accomplish this agenda for America.
As we give voice
to this bold agenda, let’s continue to make sure that we’re attacking
problems,
not people. Changing the tone in
politics requires both parties to show personal respect as we disagree.
We must also look
for ways to work together and promote greater participation and more
public service. That 10 million more Americans voted in
2004 than in 2000 is a great tribute to both parties.
While I don’t know
who my counterpart at the DNC will be, I think it’s important for the
chairmen
of America’s 2 great parties to promote more participation and public
service.
I hope that the
DNC chairman will together join me in visiting schools across America
to
encourage young Americans to vote, volunteer and participate in
politics.
Step 2: GOP must continue to stand for Grow Our
Party. In 2004, this meant
deepening our base by turning out additional conservatives and
Republicans,
while also broadening our appeal to swing voters.
The
Bush-Hastert-Frist agenda provides numerous opportunities to broaden
and deepen
the party.
When we push to
save Social Security, we have an historic opportunity to bring more
young
Americans into our party. If
you’re 30 years old or younger and you care about a secure retirement,
the
Republican party has a plan for you.
When we debate who
should sit on the judiciary, we have an opportunity to deepen the GOP
by
registering to vote men and women who attend church every week but
aren’t yet
registered voters.
We can bring new
African American faces and voices into our party when we debate whether
faith
based organizations should have a seat at the table and whether public
schools
need to be more accountable and parents need more choices.
We can deepen the
GOP by identifying and turning out Americans who vote for President but
miss
off year elections and agree with our work for a culture of life,
promotion or
marriage, and belief in our 2nd Amendment heritage.
And we can bring
new Latino doctors, accountants and teachers tired of frivolous
lawsuits into
our party as we debate lawsuit reform.
Step 3: Continue to recruit and support the
best candidates up and down the ballot.
The volunteers and
tools used to re-elect the President in 2004 are now ready to help
Republicans
up and down the ballot in 2005 and 2006.
Historically since
World War II, the President’s party loses 7 Senate seats and 19 House
seats in
its second midterm election.
With 28 governors,
some of whom are retiring, we must also defend many state houses.
2006 will provide
a difficult challenge, but remember what George W. Bush has taught
America and
the world. In his first 4 years in
office, George W. Bush faced challenge after challenge, from September
11 to
corporate scandals and a recession he inherited.
But rather than
complaining or laying blame, he responded by seizing the moment,
transforming
challenge into opportunity.
Politics was no
different. By seizing the moment,
and transforming challenge into opportunity, we made history by picking
up
seats in our first midterm election.
We must take on the challenge of 2006 by treating it as an opportunity.
We must look also
beyond the next election. The 2008
Presidential election occurs in 1,385 days or roughly 33,240 hours—not
that I’m
paying close attention.
George W. Bush’s
success in 2004 was partly the result of the planning we began in 2001.
The party building for the 2008
election begins today.
Tomorrow’s
national leaders are today at the state and local level. And the
state legislative leaders who
in 2011 will draw the maps are today our volunteers and local activists.
Let’s find them and train them and
support them.
Step 4: we must institutionalize our grassroots
efforts from 2004, and improve them.
Over the coming months, we’ll assess exactly what worked on November 2
and how we can do even better.
We should take
nothing for granted, and continuously assess the best ways to find and
register
new voters, ID and mobilize Republicans who don’t always vote, persuade
independents and discerning Democrats, and turnout our supporters.
Every election should be a testing
ground for the best political practices.
We must empower
and train our millions of volunteers and e-leaders. Voter
registration should be a year round, permanent
program, not just something that’s done for a few months before a
Presidential
election. Citizen Sundays should
occur every week, not just leading up to an election.
The volunteer
deployment on Election Day needs to occur every day. We must
master early and absentee voting.
The goal of this
effort: Republicans must acquire
and maintain a technological advantage in the tactics of politics.
Liberal columnist
E.J. Dionne said that: “While
Democrats used old-fashioned mobilization techniques—think of them as
Turnout
1.0—Republicans were already at Turnout 2.0.”
The Democrats know
this and will work to close this gap.
We must spend the next 2 years getting to 3.0
Enact and
articulate our reform agenda.
Deepen and broaden the GOP so we’re growing our party. Work to
elect the best candidates in
2005, 2006 and 2008. Go from politics
2.0 to politics 3.0.
If we can
accomplish these four goals, the Republican Party, the dominant party
in
America in 2002 and 2004, can continue to earn our position in the
future. And in so doing, we will help
accomplish great things for our nation.
It wasn’t so long
ago that people were more cynical about what we do—folks who said that
politics
don’t matter much any more, that the days of great political parties
were over,
that you really couldn’t make much of a difference.
I disagree. To the cynics and the skeptics about
the importance of politics, of the power of free elections, I say look
around
the world.
Just weeks ago,
the people of the Ukraine loudly and clearly proclaimed something that
George
W. Bush often says: freedom is not
government’s gift to man. It is
God’s gift to every man, woman and child in this world.
Back when Ronald
Reagan spoke truth to power and demanded that Mr. Gorbachev tear down
this
wall, few would have predicted that the then captive Ukraine would be
the place
where the world would be reminded of the power of freedom.
Many doubted
Reagan then, just as many today deride President Bush’s commitment to
freedom
in Iraq and across the Middle East as wishful thinking. But the
Ukraine is not the only unlikely
place that freedom has found a home.
Just before the
Ukraine’s elections, the people of Afghanistan voted to elect their
leader. In a nation where just a
few years ago, women were stoned to death for going into public, they
participated in free elections in record numbers.
And just last
week, the Palestinian territories elected a new leader, again by
democratic
process, not backroom decisions by corrupt elites.
Later this month,
Iraqis will test freedom as they vote in free and fair elections for
the first
time in decades.
While the desire
for freedom is worldwide in scope and possibility, people who seek
freedom have
long looked to America for leadership since our nation’s founding.
They have looked
to leaders like Abraham Lincoln who spread freedom across our nation by
ending
the evil of slavery.
To leaders like
Martin Luther King, Jr. who made sure that America fulfilled Lincoln’s
promise.
To leaders like
Ronald Reagan, who brought down the Berlin Wall without firing a shot
and
helped free 400 million people from the gulags of communism.
And to leaders
like George W. Bush who today fight to preserve and defend freedom by
fighting
terror abroad and expanding opportunity at home.
Why is the party
of Lincoln and Reagan and Bush at our strongest point in a century
today?
Why do we stand at
this moment of enormous responsibility, and amazing possibility?
Why at this moment
of importance to America and the world have majorities of Americans
entrusted
our leaders with the White House, the majorities in Congress and most
governorships for 2 elections in a row?
We waged historic
campaigns. And yes, we also
presented the best candidates.
But most
importantly, because the party of Lincoln and Reagan and Bush has held
true to
our founding principle of freedom.
So let us move
forward and hold high our banner of freedom. Amidst the smoke and
sounds of political battle, let us
never fail to look to our banner for guidance, inspiration, and
direction.
The Republican
banner of freedom shows the way.
That is our
cause…and this is our moment—to build a safer world and a better
America we
need an even stronger Republican Party dedicated to freedom.
And that’s why we
need all of you more than ever.
T.S. Eliot wrote
that politics is too important to be left only to politicians.
This is a team sport. Only by working together for the cause
of freedom can we create the future that our conscience demands and the
country
that our children deserve.
With
your help, and with freedom as our fixed star, we will seize this
opportunity
that history has provided to us, and the nation, and the world and
future
generations will thank us for this effort.