LAKE CHARLES, LOUISIANA
AUGUST 29TH, 2019
JOHN HOLLAND
Holland was taking the campaign to the southwest now, a place where he needed to run up the numbers to be in contention. Lake Charles was a big city that related a lot to what Holland's primary message focused on, with a lot of energy jobs and infrastructure problems.
"Lake Charles, all of you are here because you know how important this election is for the future of our state. Just recently Governor Long has graciously accepted the support of open socialist Levi Murphy. He has advocated for socialist policies that we all know for a fact would be paid for through even higher taxes. The fact is Louisiana is starting to fall apart. Just in this city is the Calcasieu Bridge, which poses a huge risk of collapsing. How can our Governor claim to have made advances in infrastructure when a major bridge in this very city is breaking? How many lives have to be risked for this man's political rhetoric?
Our bridges are falling apart, our railways and ports are in bad condition, and yet Governor Long continues to claim everything is fine. I want to get to work on day one to fix our railways, our ports, our roads, our bridges, our waterways, our pipelines, so we can get our economy moving, our exports flowing, and our people can be confident the bridge they're driving on won't collapse from under them. Nobody deserves to have to fear if the bridge they're driving on will fall apart with them on it because of insufficient repairs. Governor Long may be fine with that, but I am not.
Many workers in Lake Charles work in petrochemical and oil jobs along the Calcasieu Ship Channel. At the national level, Democrat politicians are saying that loses all of these jobs and leaving people on the streets is fine for the sake of dunking on conservatives. Governor Long is failing to protect these jobs, plain and simple. We need a government that will work to protect and grow these jobs so our working people of Louisiana can put food on the table. Let's put an end to this system of encouraging trial lawyers to shut down entire industries for their own profits. Businesses deserve relief from the constant attacks that only serve to hurt job growth for Louisiana. Curb the excess regulations and open up the markets to exploration and competition again.
We need to support small businesses in this state. Lake Charles is a center on this side of Louisiana for small business, and I intend to keep it that way. Let's stop tearing down businesses with the system we have in place right now and create a free and competitive economy that works for everyone, not just the Washington elites. I have a plan to slash the wasteful bureaucracy wherever it may be so we can give relief to taxpayers who need it, and get businesses to come back after fleeing the state because of the excessive taxation. That is what we need to do to bring jobs back and put more money in people's pockets.
Let's create a new opportunity for the energy industry to grow jobs and make our economy stronger than what we're being left with. We have an abundance of natural resources that could put Louisiana on the map if we just started utilizing them right. We can build our state into an energy powerhouse if we get our act together and start producing, and that goes for not just traditional sources of energy, but new ones as well. A diverse and innovative economy is a strong economy, so let's get our economy to be diverse and innovative so we can find new and good-paying jobs.
We need to have a new economic vision for our state. We need to protect and create new jobs, not destroy them over politics. We need to invest in school choice and better education so our next generation can be equipped to lead this economy into the future. The Long government has decided that throwing money at a wall and hoping that fixes the problem has led to enormous spending with no positive trade-off, and the taxpayers are the ones footing the bill. Instead of wasting more money on big government programs that don't work, we allow charter schools to prosper and help lead our education into the future. Focus our public education spending in places where it actually works and where it's actually needed, and let Louisianans make their own decisions. I will also invest in early childhood education so our children will have a head start in their bright futures. We can make our education system better, but we can only do it by allowing choice and intelligent spending where we need it.
I promise all of this because I have a record of actually getting things like all of this done. When America was hit by the great recession, I helped lead a bipartisan team to protect Louisiana's jobs and local businesses who were in danger. While Long was busy sitting in Congress, I was working to make sure Louisiana could survive an economic crisis. That is what real leadership looks like. That is what real reform looks like. This is our chance to make Louisiana not the murder capital of America, but the jobs and growth capital of America. We can accomplish all of these goals only if we take back our government from incompetent leadership. Let's win this election and get to work! God bless you all! Thank you!"
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