Renee L. Ellmers: “Thank you so much to my colleague from Washington, and thank you, Mr. Speaker, for allowing us tonight to come as…”

“Thank you so much to my colleague from Washington, and thank you, Mr. Speaker, for allowing us tonight to come as Republican women to speak out to the American people. I came to Washington as one of the new freshmen here, and I am very honored to be part of this group. We are a group of women who believe in our country. We believe in the right of every American to achieve. There are no guarantees, but if you put your mind to it and you work hard, everyone can achieve. I, too, came from a family that was not wealthy. My parents did not really see the value in a college education. I am a second generation American here in the United States, and I am first generation college educated. I basically put myself through college and nursing school with many different jobs. I became a nurse, and I have been a nurse for over 21 years and am very happy to be so. I am a wife and a mom. My son, Ben, is 16 years old. When health care became such a huge issue in this country and when our President spoke about changing it, the best health care system in the world, I knew that that was not only going to be detrimental to health care but also the economy, because it is such a large portion of our economy. So I put myself forward to run for office, because I believed that if you are going to change things in Washington, you have to change Washington itself. So here I am, proud to be serving with these great women.…”