Secretary Of State Election In Georgia With Congressman Jody Hice – Every position in the Government is important, and the office of Secretary of State is no different! Join us today with Congressman Jody Hice to hear about this upcoming election in Georgia.

Air Date: 04/26/2021

Guest: Congressman Jody Hice

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

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Transcription note:  As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

 

Rick:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture, This is  WallBuilders Live, where we’re talking about the hot topics of the day on policy, faith, culture, elections, all of those things, but always looking at them from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. We appreciate you joining us today. Be sure to visit our main website, wallbuilderslive.com, where you can get archives of the program, you can learn more about us, as the host here on the program, which by the way, there’s three of us: Tim Barton, national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders, David Barton, America’s premier historian, and our founder of WallBuilders, and I’m Rick Green, a former Texas legislator and America’s Constitution coach.

Check us out at wallbuilderslive.com.  And while you’re there, consider coming alongside us, supporting us financially, supporting us with prayers, supporting us with basically being a force multiplier, where you literally take our programs on the website, and you send them out to your friends and family. So you’re kind of like a marketer for us. But what you’re doing is you’re helping other people get the truth that we share on this program every day. So you can contribute, you can pray and you can share those things.

And I know when I say contribute, a lot of times, some conservative audiences think well, you know, I’m already donating here, I’m already donating there. Let me just tell you. When you invest in WallBuilders Live, you’re investing in freedom. Every dollar helps us to reach more people with these truths, to equip them, inspire them, give them the tools they need to make a difference in their communities.

David and Tim, we couldn’t do this program if it weren’t for the donors across the country. They’re the ones that make this possible. We’re listener-supported program, so we want to say thank you to all of them. And then say to all of our listeners that do enjoy the program, maybe haven’t ever given before, please consider doing that could be 5 bucks, could be 5,000 bucks, whatever it is, you’re helping to expand our reach as a radio program.

Tim:

Yeah, there’s no question that we could not do all that we do if it weren’t for partners coming along the way: for people that pray for us, that financially contribute to us, that are involved in sharing the material and helping get the word out about the truth, the history of our nation from the biblical, the constitutional, the historic perspective. And so unquestionably, the partner support we have along the way is vital for what we’re doing. And it’s also worth noting that in the midst of you know, some people say man, I already give so much to so many places. If you’re doing that, God bless you, and keep given where you believe you need to be given and that’s awesome. We’re not trying to talk you out of any of that kind of stuff.

There are some people on the other side of the aisle who go now wait a second, you just need to pray and trust God and let God bring you provision. And we do. We pray and trust God and let him bring provision, but God often uses people to bring provision. There are many, many, many accounts in the scripture of God using people to bless the prophets, to bring provision; God using people to help restore food or in the famine or whatever the case might be. And so it would be a little shortsighted to think that we’re just going to pray and let God do all the work as if God doesn’t utilize people as part of the resources along the way to make a difference. Where in Scripture we know Matthew 25, whatever you did for the least of these my brethren, and you did unto me. Well, we’re supposed to be the ones engaged and involved in the process.

And so as we already mentioned, for those of you who are already giving, man, God bless you. Thank you for being part of the fight, giving to WallBuilders, or giving to other organizations making a difference. I’ve mentioned many times in the program, there’s a lot of organizations that I give small contributions every month to because I believe in what they’re doing. They’re making a difference in culture. They’re reaching college kids. They’re on university. They’re on national radio. And I want to support people that are making a difference. And so it big picture, if you’re supporting lots of people, that is awesome. If you’re not supporting WallBuilders right now, we’d certainly ask you to consider becoming a partner with us here at WallBuilders to help us as we are making a difference in the nation.   

Rick:

Well, guys, our topic today is going it’s one of those offices, it’s just a riveting. I mean, people every year get more excited about this campaign in their state than any other office. No, it’s not governor. It’s not US Senator. It’s not Congressman. It’s not state rep. It’s Secretary of State. I mean, doesn’t that just cause the music to start and people to stand up and cheer? And it’s… No, no,

David:

Who are you and what do you do with, Rick?

Rick:

I get a kick out of the fact that nobody pays any attention to Secretary of State. They think it’s not important until this last election and all of a sudden Secretary of States, center stage in the presidential race, almost like you guys remember 2000, right, when I forget her name now that was Secretary of State in Florida and every day on the news reporting the recount there in Florida for the presidential race. So suddenly became important than kind of like Secretary of State did here. So let’s talk about these offices like Secretary of State that too often we ignore when in fact, they’re a huge part of the process.

Tim:

Well, guys, one of the things we’ve talked about before is one of the blessings of some of the shutdown and some of the blessings of COVID is that in the midst of a Constitutional crisis, all of a sudden people are starting to learn the Constitution again. In the midst of sometimes political turmoil, people are starting to pay attention to politics again.

And especially, when you look at Secretary of State, Rick, as you mentioned, right, I mean, before we had some of these political crisis on some level, or some of these accusations of voter fraud and some of these voter irregularities, first of all, people didn’t know who their Secretary of State was, by and large, certainly, they did not know the role of Secretary of State.

Well, what does that person do? And why does he even matter when we have a governor and we have these state legislators, we have US senators and congressmen? We don’t even know what a Secretary of State does. One of the great things happening right now is there is a real education for many Americans, as they recognize, we have said for many, many years that it is important that we are involved in local elections, because getting the right kind of people will make a difference if they will uphold the biblical principles and constitutional values, etc.

This is what we’re seeing with Secretary of State. And some Secretaries of State stood strong and did the right thing and some just Kowtowed and they acquiesce to outside forces and pressure, and they went and changed voting laws and just so many issues and problems. Again, I think one of the blessings is a lot of people now are recognizing the importance of this position.

And you know, saying a lot of people are now recognizing the importance of this position, there certainly were some people who knew how important this position was. And some people on a very far left extremist side, I can think of a specific person in general, who knew exactly how important the Secretary of States were, because this person spent an awful lot of money to try to get a certain kind of philosophy represented in those Secretary of State positions.

David:

Yeah, I want to back you guys up about 20 years, because some of this was stuff that I was directly involved with. Of course, Tim, he’s talking about George Soros. And George Soros is the multibillionaire who puts billions into elections across previous years. And so one of the things he does is he normally gets involved in big elections like presidential and US Senate and House, but he also goes down into state elections where it deals with process.

And for a number of years, he had what was called the Attorney General project, where he was recruiting folks of his philosophy, which is very Marxist, very left, and get them in at state Attorney Generals because they really uphold the enforcement of state laws. And if they decide not to defend a law, or to go to court and challenge something, or to take on a federal law or not take it on, you get a lot of, that’s the chief law enforcement officer right below the governor and you get a lot of leftist move if you’ve got an attorney general who’s that way.

He also had this last couple of elections, he’s gone after district attorneys at the county level, and has been very successful in getting them put in. So these guys were out there and they don’t want to prosecute the rioters that are destroying stuff and tearing down statues and tearing down buildings and burning businesses, no prosecutions there. Matter of fact, they’ve made it really clear in several cities that they’re not going to prosecute any drug crimes of any kind; no matter what kind of drug it is, we’re not going to prosecute that and nothing on the moral issues and nothing for prostitution or anything else. So what happens is they stop prosecuting laws at the county level. And this is happening in some of the bigger counties across the United States.

Well, another project that he had was the Secretary of State project, and in that Secretary of State project, you go man, that is such a down ballot race, nobody cares about that. That’s all about process. Let me take you back to 2004. Two of the people that won in the Secretary of State project he had, one was the Secretary of State of Washington State, and one was in Minnesota. And it just so happened in Washington State, they had a gubernatorial election with a Republican named Dino Rossi, and Dino Rossi, he ran, they counted the votes, and he was declared the winner.

And the Secretary of State said wait, wait, wait, we need to recount, he recounted, he’s still the winner, did a recount. And they recounted enough times till they finally got the other candidate had at that point he certified the election, Dino Rossi lost. Now he kept winning all the time until they kept recounting and they kept recounting to tell he lost and is gone. Same thing happened in the US senate in Minnesota. Norm Coleman was the US Senator up there, he was reelected, and they had a recount, he’s still reelected, they had a recount, he still reelected and he kept recounting until Al Franken finally won and they declared Al Franken the winner. So it’s a kind of thing where that they keep kind of playing with the rules and recount until we find enough stuff where we can throw out enough votes to get you out. This is important stuff.

This is where one individually essentially trumps what the voters do in that entire state. And George Soros had the, if you will, the wisdom to look ahead and say he knows every position in government is important. And some of these overlooked positions we need really need to look at. So we saw these positions come to light in recent elections. We saw it in Arizona. We’ve seen it in Georgia. And one of our friends in Congress, Congressman Jody Hice who has a very, very strong record, is a great guy in Congress really defends constitutional and conservative values, strong Christian, was a pastor before he got in Congress, he’s on some of the top committees in Congress has said, you know what, we’ve got to have a good Secretary of State, and I’m going to be that person.

So he is actually now going to run for Secretary of State for Georgia, because it really does matter. You want to count all the votes according to the rules you want. The rules followed when you have an election. You want people having confidence in the election. And that’s what Georgia needs. They were so embarrassed in this last election. They were so embarrassed about what happened.

So Congressman Jody Hice, we thought it’d be fun to talk to him about what’s happening for him, and what he’s looking at in this upcoming race in Georgia.

Rick:

Well, it’s really, really good news for Georgia and for the country to have somebody like him running for this office. We’re excited about it, hoping more people will do that across the country and take these positions that typically are not at the top of everybody’s minds when they go into vote, but need to become something that we really pay attention to and get good people to run for.

Quick break, we’ll be right back with Congressman Jody Hice. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

AMERICAN HISTORY

This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. Founding Fathers John Adams and Thomas Jefferson originally worked closely together but later became ardent opponents. This troubled Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration, who knew both of them very well.

In the Bible, 2 Corinthians 5:18 tells us that God has given each of us the ministry of reconciliation. Dr. Rush believed this and set out to bring the two back together. It took a while, but Adams and Jefferson once again became close friends. And looking back on his role in helping bring about this reconciliation, Dr. Rush stated, “It will give me pleasure as long as I live to reflect that I have been in any degree instrumental in effecting this reunion of two souls destined to be dear to each other and motivated with the same dispositions to serve their country though in different ways.”

For more information about Dr. Benjamin Rush and his other remarkable achievements, go to wallbuilders.com.

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us today. Our good friend Congressman Jody Hice from Georgia back with us. Jody, always good to have you, brother. Thanks for some time today.

Jody:

Great to be with you. Thank you so much for having me.

Rick:

Well, man, I know you’re running back and forth between votes and just want to, as always, thank you for your service. And people don’t realize we’ve got a lot of good people there. They just see the negative from the federal government right now. But a lot of guys like you that are, man, I mean finger in the dike there, standing in the gap for us. And so I know it’s a tough fight right now, and day in and day out, probably difficult to be there, But we just thank you, man, we appreciate you, and thank you for standing firm for truth.

Jody:

Well, thank you so much. And you know, you’re exactly right, there are some awesome people here. Not enough, you know, we need some others. But we’ve got some folks here who are really standing in the gap for America and for our Christian values. And it’s an honor to be up here with so many warriors. And it’s good to be in the battle. But we’ve got a lot to do.

Rick:

I don’t know how people do it without faith. As a pastor, you obviously are grounded, and that’s got to help you with even just perspective on the whole thing. And you’ve had to make some tough decisions. Really, your state has been ground zero. It’s been the place that a lot of the focus has been on with regard to the elections and the absentee balloting and the legislature now hopefully tightening some of that up and cleaning up some of that. But you’ve made some tough decisions. It looks like you may be going back to run for a different office back home in Georgia, is that true?

Jody:

Yeah. Really looking forward to this. We feel strongly led to step out and run for Secretary of State for Georgia. As you well know, as America knows, we had an absolute disaster in our elections in Georgia this last cycle. And the bottom line is all really the results of some horrible decisions made by our current Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, and just taking on some decisions for which he had no authorization to make to begin with, but in essence, changing election laws in the state of Georgia, and just opened wide the door for all sorts of fraudulent activity and fraudulent voting. And as a result, it was just, I cannot even describe in this brief time the depths of the debacle that it was.

And as a result, the voters in Georgia have lost confidence in the voting system, the voting process there. The election integrity has been stolen from them. And Georgia deserves better than that. America deserves better than that. And so I’m grateful that the general assembly has taken some corrective steps to tighten things up to prevent such fraudulent activity. But now we need someone in the positions Secretary of State to enforce those laws and to make sure that we have free and fair elections, and that the voters of Georgia are confident that their votes are actually going to be counted.

Rick:

And to have someone there that that will not make the arbitrary decision to make up law on their own and consent decrees with the Democrat Party. I mean, that’s essentially what happened. And Jody, you’ve always taken really a jurisdiction approach. Like you said, do I have authority to do this as a congressman, a pastor, as a father? You’ve always been well aware of those jurisdictional lines that too many in politics today do not recognize and don’t ask that question, am I supposed to do this?

So as a Secretary of State, you would clearly ask that same question and say, what’s the authority given to me by the people and by the legislature?

Jody:

Well, exactly. And I don’t know how you deem yourself authority that you don’t have. It’s very clear in the constitution that only the state legislators have the authority to make and change election laws. And the Secretary of State does not have that authorization. I know, Rick, so March, a year ago, myself and the other Republican members of the Georgia congressional delegation had a conference call with Brad Raffensperger, and we were urging him on that call not to send out voter applications for everyone on the voter registration file.

In the first place, he didn’t have the authority to do so. But secondly, it would be a disaster because the registration file is probably 10% inaccurate, which means in Georgia 700,000 people would receive an invitation to get a ballot, and they were illegal voters. And then there is virtually no voter ID with that. But because of the pandemic, he went ahead and unilaterally made that decision. And look what happened. I mean, everything else speaks for itself, what happened in Georgia and the impact that had across our entire nation?

So you’re exactly right. There are rules, there are laws, there are parameters for every position, and the Secretary of State absolutely overstepped his authority. And, again, Georgia deserves better than that. And you’re exactly right, I’m one that stays within the barriers, the boundaries of the law and the job description.

Rick:

And one of the reasons we’re so glad to see you run for this is that too often conservatives don’t pay attention to some of these offices that are more process-oriented than policy-oriented, and the other side has been able to take advantage of that without question. We know you’re a strong conservative. So to see you go into this position, we think is a great signal, hopefully to other conservatives across the country that we need to do more of this. How much of that played into your decision? I mean, in Congress, you’re right there in the middle of the policy fight on every issue. In this position, it’ll be very different. Kind of walk us through your thought process on that?

Jody:

Yeah, you know, I’ve been kind of on the tip of the spear. As you well know, I’m a pretty high ranking member of the Oversight Committee in Washington, D.C. here. And so we have been dealing for a year and a half with H.R. 1, the Federal takeover of elections that the Democrats have been pushing. And so I’ve been a major individual among others fighting against that for a year and a half now since the pandemic started.

And then we saw the elements of H.R. 1 began to trickle into other states and state legislatures. And in some cases, like Georgia, Secretary of State just started adopting some of the principles in H.R. 1. And so that started the process on a national level with H.R. 1. And then seeing what was happening in Georgia, we had that conference call with him over a year ago, and then battling behind the scenes on those issues all throughout, and then the actual election itself, and I’ve just been on the tip of the spear of this issue for a long, long time.

And of course, from Georgia, I was the one who challenged the electoral votes here in Washington, D.C. at that point, and so I kind of being on the tip of the spear. And when the realization of how devastating the decisions were that Brad Raffensperger has made, Rick, to be honest with you, I’m just an individual who wants the right thing to be done, and that just burns in me. And when you see injustice and wrong taking place, it’s just something inside me burning saying, you got to step up to the plate and fix this, you got to challenge this, this is wrong what’s taking place.

And well, we started having people ask us about that. And of course, Dee Dee my wife and I, we just started praying and to be honest with you, it was a very short period of time of wrestling with this. We knew quickly that we just felt that this was, if you will, the next assignment that the Lord had for us to right the wrongs that have been done in Georgia. And I just feel that this is my new mission, new calling to fix what’s been wrong.

Rick:

Well, brother, and we’re not only going to be praying for you, we’re going to be praying for God to raise up more Jody Hices out there. I mean, that’s why we love you: you run to the roar. And when you see that that battle’s needed, and there’s an injustice there and something that needs to be done, you say, here am I Lord, send me. And this is got to take place, not only in Georgia, but frankly, every state. We’ve got to have this election integrity restored, and it’s going to take good men and women stepping up in order for that to happen.

And so you’re setting a great example. And it’s going to be important, not just for Georgia, but really the rest of the country. So, how does this work for you? As a congressman, do you have to resign to come home and run? Do you get to finish out this term, and then come home in the spring? I guess I can’t remember when your primaries are there in Georgia?

Jody:

Yeah, great question. The primaries will take place next May, so a little over a year, and of course, the general will be in November of 22. But I will not have to resign my position here in Congress. Basically, all this does is double my workload between now and then, so we’ve got full time in Congress, full time in the district when we’re home with our constituents, but then adding a statewide race and campaign and all that goes along with that. But, you know, we’re honored to be able to fill out this term, and we will do that till the very last day. But in the meantime, we’ll be spending every idle moment all across the state of Georgia running for Secretary of State.

Rick:

Well, before I let you go, can you update us on H.R. 1, is there any hope of stopping it over in the senate? And what do you see happening there?

Jody:

Yeah, I think it passed the House, as you will now know, it now waits action in the Senate. My gut feeling is that it is not going to get passed the Senate. I don’t think that Chuck Schumer is going to use the nuclear option and do away with the 60 vote threshold for H.R. 1. You know, I’ve been proven wrong before on those types of things. But in my gut, I don’t think he’s going to do that for H.R. 1.

If he does, I’ll just say this, if he does it for H.R. 1, then the floodgates are open, and we’re going to see it with the Equality Act and with the Green New Deal, and with a host of other horrible, horrible pieces of legislation that will come down the pipe. But he’s under a lot of pressure not to alter the institution of the Senate, and we will see whether or not he’s going to keep the Senate, the deliberative body that it historically has been, or if he’s going to change it to just a simple majority rule and say mob rule, not only through the Senate, but over our entire nation at this point. But my gut feeling is no, and that is not only my gut feeling, that’s my earnest deep prayer as well.

Rick:

Well, brother, we appreciate your service so much, and excited about this next chapter in your life and in your service and actually hoping that more and more people will step up at the state level. That’s where we really need to be engaging. And so everybody has a part to play in that. And we’re just thankful for this next part that you’re going to play, Jody. God bless you, brother. Tell your wife howdy from the WallBuilders team, and we look forward to seeing you again soon.

Jody:

Likewise, always great to be with you, and thank you for the incredible voice, you all keep the torch ablaze.

Rick:

Stay with us, folks, we’ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

AMERICAN STORY

Hey, guys, we want to let you know about a new resource we have at WallBuilders called The American Story. For so many years, people have asked us to do a history book to help tell more of the story that’s just not known or not told today. And we would say very providentially in the midst of all of the new attacks coming out against America, whether it be from things like the 1619 project that say America is evil.

And everything in America was built off slavery, which is certainly not true or things like even the Black Lives Matter movement, the organization itself, not out the statement, Black Lives Matter. But the organization that says we’re against everything that America was built on, and this is part of the Marxist ideology. There’s so many things attacking America.

Well, is America worth defending? What is the true story of America? We actually have written and told that story starting with Christopher Columbus, going roughly through Abraham Lincoln, we tell the story of America not as the story of a perfect nation of a perfect people. But the story of how God used these imperfect people and did great things through this nation. It’s a story you want to check out wallbuilders.com, The American Story.

Rick:

We’re back here on WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us. And thanks to Congressman Jody Hice for joining us as well. David and Tim, of course, Jody actually joined us on our barnstorming tour of Georgia back in December and had us out to speak at a church back when he was a pastor before he was congressman. So he’s been a friend of ours for a long time, really cool to see him running for this very important office.

David:

It is important. And I don’t want to even seem like that having a good guy in there he’s going to cook the books in the same way the Soros guys did in the other direction. He’s just going to make sure that conservatives get elected. Now, Jody is a guy who’s going to follow the law and uphold the law. He’s not going to do the consent kind of decree that we saw the current Secretary of State do, where he said, well, I’m going to change the law, I’m going to decide what the rules are.

You want somebody that’s going to vigorously uphold the law and enforce the law and make sure the election is fair and the way it’s executed, and then let the winner win. So this is not something like we’re trying to get somebody in there who’s going to make sure we win. No, that’s not what you want. You want this to be an upright and righteous election. You want it done according to the rules, according to the Constitution. And Jody has proven to be guy with that kind of integrity. He’s going to make sure the laws are followed, and that the legislature has his voice, not individuals like the Secretary of State. He’s going to make sure that the law is upheld in Georgia, and that’ll be really refreshing for people there.

Rick:

Well, it’s definitely one of those to pay attention to. And we want to encourage you to pay attention to these things in your local state as well and also in those local elections. So everybody needs to be involved. It’s going to be a really, really important time over the next two years to get faith back in our election process. And you can be a part of that solution. Be sure and take one of our Constitution classes to learn more about that. And be sure to visit wallbuilderslive.com today to share these programs with your friends and family. Thanks so much for listening today. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live.