00:00the senator from Michigan. Mr. President, I rise today to deliver my maiden speech.
00:07This is a proud and personal moment for me to represent my home state of Michigan as a junior
00:12senator alongside Gary Peters and to follow in the footsteps of legendary senators like Debbie
00:19Stabenow and Carl Levin. This maiden speech has been a long-standing tradition in the Senate.
00:25Every junior member gets to deliver in their freshman year their vision for their state
00:30and what they plan to do in their time in office. Thank you to my colleagues from both sides of the
00:37aisle who have joined me and to my great staff and my interns, even my niece who came in.
00:43If you remember nothing else, I want you to remember two things. First, nothing is more important to me
00:51than the state of Michigan. I'm a third-generation Michigander. For me, Michigan is where it all
00:57started. Everything I've done in my life, everywhere I've gone, everything I've done, everyone I've
01:03met, it all started in Michigan. It's where I learned the values that still shape me today.
01:09Community. Putting your head down and working hard. Taking care of your neighbors when they are in need.
01:15Nothing matters more than my home state. So this speech is my love letter to the state of Michigan.
01:23To stand here and represent the state that I love on the floor of the U.S. Senate is the greatest
01:27privilege of my life. Second, my goal for my time in office is to address what I believe to be the
01:35existential threat of our time to my state and to all Americans. The threat of a shrinking middle class.
01:42Now, I'm a national security person by training. I'm what's called a 9-11 baby. I happened to be in
01:49New York City on my second day of graduate school when 9-11 happened. I was recruited into the CIA
01:55right out of grad school and I served three tours in Iraq alongside our military before serving at
02:00the Pentagon. I served proudly under presidents, both Democrat and Republican. I've come face to face
02:08some of the greatest threats facing our country, but I believe in my bones that the single greatest
02:14threat today to our national security is not coming from abroad, but coming from the very real threats
02:20that come from that shrinking middle class. So my goal as a senator is to deliver for Michigan's
02:27middle class, to expand it, to secure it. That mission is personal. Michigan is where my family achieved
02:34that very American dream. My great-grandfather at 13 years old came through Ellis Island not speaking
02:41English. He ended up starting a meat company, moved to Michigan, and built that business and built an
02:49iconic hot dog that Michiganders have enjoyed for 60 years. Michigan has been the place where hard work
02:57means something. It's where the middle class was literally invented, where you could work at an auto
03:02plant and afford the car that you were building. That was a revolutionary idea at the time. It
03:09shouldn't be revolutionary now. So as a U.S. senator, my highest priority is to help make Michigan a place
03:15where that American dream is achievable again. Today, too many middle Michiganders are falling out of that
03:22middle class. Too many families can't get in at all. I live on my family farm in Holly, Michigan. Growing up,
03:29I was surrounded by families whose path to the middle class ran through Michigan's factories,
03:34our farms, our small businesses. We are people who build things and grow things. People proud of
03:40their role in manufacturing Americans' future. Our cars, our tanks, our food. People who, like my
03:47great-grandfather, were prepared to work hard for success and often achieved it. But over the years,
03:54I've watched younger generations of those same families live a very different story. Parents
04:00can't provide for their kids what was provided to them. That fishing cabin up north that dad had,
04:07the son can't have. A trip to Disneyland? Can't do it. Across Michigan, there are so many families who
04:14feel like hard work doesn't seem to be enough anymore. No matter what your political views are,
04:21it is just a fact that the middle class has shrunk over the past 40 years.
04:26And I've seen firsthand what happens next. When people feel like they can't get ahead,
04:32when they can't provide for their kids what was provided for them, they feel anger. They feel shame.
04:38They lose their dignity. And they look for something or someone to blame. In a multi-racial,
04:45multi-ethnic experiment in democracy, people end up blaming people who don't look like them,
04:52or speak like them, or pray like them. I've seen this up close and personal, how that kind of anger
04:58and suspicion can tear communities apart. If you want to understand how we got to this moment in our
05:06politics, this angry, vitriolic, polarized moment in American history, all you have to do is understand
05:13that shrinking middle class. So even among today's chaos, especially now, there are things we have to
05:21do, simple things, to bring back that middle class and make it thrive. This is my North Star.
05:29It will guide my work in the Senate. Okay, so how do we do that? Our government certainly needs to
05:36change. I don't think it's hard to understand that our government is not working for a majority
05:42of Americans, not just Republicans, Democrats as well. And you have to hear that loud and clear.
05:48Fundamentally, I believe that government needs to get back to the basics. No one cares about your
05:54trick plays if you don't have your fundamentals right. Government needs to set the conditions for
05:59success. And Michiganders and Americans need to work hard to achieve that success.
06:06These basics are jobs that pay you enough to save every month, healthcare you can actually afford,
06:13a home you can call your own, schools that prepare our kids for the workforce, energy to power our lives,
06:20an environment we can pass on to our kids, and safety and security from fear. That is it.
06:28First, on jobs. We need job creation for Michigan's middle class to create the jobs of the future.
06:36Imagine that the middle class is basically a ship at sea. For the better part of 40 years,
06:41it's been taking on water, and now we're about to hit a Category 5 hurricane in the form of artificial
06:46intelligence. Artificial intelligence has the potential to change our economy more than the
06:52internet did. Think about that. Productivity will go up, jobs will be gained, but jobs will also be lost.
06:59Maybe not Michigan jobs at first. Entry-level college jobs like paralegals or accountants are
07:06probably first on the list, but change is coming and we need to be ready. Job creation in the era of
07:12artificial intelligence means supporting our small businesses. Small businesses employ half of all
07:18Americans. They are intrinsic to the American dream. It's about betting on yourself. And we need to own
07:26the fact that it is hard to start and succeed as a small business. We need to make life easier for
07:31Michigan small businesses. Second, we need to bring critical industries and critical supply chains back
07:38home to the United States. Michiganders understand this better than most because of what we do,
07:42our manufacturing. No foreign country should ever have a veto on our economic security.
07:49We should always make critical items here in the United States, and I want to bring as many of those
07:54jobs and industries back to Michigan. And finally, let us say it very clearly. We need an immigration
08:01system that actually works and is keyed to our economy. Immigrants are critical for our labor shortages
08:09in our factories, in our hospitals, in our firms. More than that, we are a nation of immigrants.
08:16I'm standing here today because my great-grandfather left fear of persecution and death at 13 years old
08:23and found a place in America. So we need an immigration plan that brings legal, vetted immigrants
08:30into our countries, keyed to our economy, sometimes more, sometimes less. And we need to have border
08:36security that literally makes sense. Without immigrants, there is no America. And without immigrants,
08:43our economy will not thrive. Second, on health care. Is there anyone in America who thinks health
08:50care is working? Is there anyone in America who thinks we are paying too little for health care?
08:57Is there anyone in America who is missing the groundswell of anger because we cannot provide
09:02the health care we need to our parents and to our children? Few things are as fundamental.
09:08There are just, in my mind, few systems as broken as health care in America in 2025. And we all know it.
09:15That's why I ran for office in the first place. Of all my time spent in war zones, in dangerous places,
09:26nothing was harder than my mom being diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer when she did not have
09:31insurance. There is nothing worse than that desperate feeling when your parent, that first parent to get
09:39sick, needs emergency tests and emergency surgery. And the same moment that you are fighting to get those
09:45things, you are struggling just to fill out the paperwork so she won't go bankrupt.
09:52We are at a breaking point. We must change our health care, and this is as good a time as any.
09:59Every American deserves access to health care they can afford, regardless of your job,
10:03regardless of your income or your age. So I support a nationwide public insurance plan at a
10:09reasonable price for every American. Second, we've got to be able to afford the medicines that we are
10:16prescribed. Is there anyone who thinks that we are paying too little for our drug prices? We need in
10:23every part of our health care system to be able to negotiate the price of our drugs. It's like Costco.
10:29You buy in bulk, you get a lower per unit price, and we are prohibited from doing that across the
10:35country. Why? Because I have never seen an issue in Washington more polluted by lobbyists and corporate
10:44PAC donations than this issue. I have never seen an industry with more control over elected leaders
10:51than on the issue of health care. Right now, I am one of six senators who doesn't take corporate PAC
10:57money. Six out of 100. It should be 100 out of 100. The middle class does not have a lobbyist,
11:04but they sure have the leaders that they elected. On housing, there is nothing more foundational to
11:12the American dream than having a home of your own. It is as fundamental to us as Americans as apple pie.
11:19Right now, the average age of a first-time homeowner in America is 40 years old, completely different
11:25than in generations before us. This is not a good story. Today, we could declare in this body a housing
11:32state of emergency. We need four million units of housing built in our country. That's a national
11:39strategy, yes, but I want Michigan to be ground zero for responding to the urgency of that need.
11:45On education, we need schools that actually prepare our kids for the future.
11:51So much of what we were able to do as a middle class was because people could afford the education
11:55in front of them. If you wanted to go to college, you could. But in Michigan, you wanted to work with
12:00your hands, succeed, go on, become rich. Only if you had a high school diploma, you could do that.
12:08There were job options for you. We need an obsessive focus and reorganization of our job training
12:15federal programs. We have 17 different organizations doing job training. It's broken. We need to focus on
12:21trade schools and apprenticeships and an education system that prepares us for what is coming.
12:27On energy. We all know we're using more energy. Every single one of us in this room right now
12:32are using more energy than we did 10 years ago. Modern life is demanding it. But supply isn't meeting
12:38demand. And Michiganders are seeing that hitting their wallets every single day. If you don't plan now,
12:44it's going to get worse. Rolling blackouts and brownouts in a decade. And what I'm asking for
12:52is not a renewable energy plan or a fossil fuel plan. It's an all of the above energy plan. Natural gas.
13:00You can't do it without it. Nuclear. Batteries. Renewables. Solar. Hydropower. New stuff that's in
13:06creation right now. We need all of it. And we can't be willing to scrap certain energy because it's woke.
13:14Anyone who disagrees with that is just scoring political points and doesn't give a damn about
13:18people's electricity bills. On the environment. I'm committed to protecting the environment,
13:25especially our water. In Michigan, clean water and the Great Lakes are not partisan. It's our heritage.
13:32It's in our blood. No single Michigander lives more than six miles away from a lake or 82 miles from a
13:40Great Lake. We all know the sound of water hitting the beach or how the light looks up north. Our water
13:46is why people raise their kids in Michigan. And sharing that legacy with our kids is the dream
13:52that every Michigander has. We have the responsibility of being the stewards of the Great Lakes.
13:59So when our water is threatened, when our kids are poisoned, when they can't swim in contaminated lakes,
14:04it's not just a health issue. It's a security issue. Lead, PFAS, invasive species in our Great Lakes.
14:12These are threats to us as Michiganders. And it's my job to fight these threats.
14:16And last, can we just say that climate change is upon us? 20 years ago, it was theoretical. Now,
14:22Michiganders understand that extreme weather is real. It is here. They feel it in their pocketbooks.
14:27We have to mitigate it. We have to accept it. And we have to be ready to prepare ourselves when we
14:33have these crazy ice storms, these crazy once in a generation tornadoes, and move on. And not exclude
14:41people because they don't want to talk about, you know, woke policies. Safety and security, finally.
14:48Every Michigander has the right to live free from fear, to feel safe in their own homes and in the
14:54country they love. That's what got me into public service in the very beginning, right after 9-11.
15:01Shootings in our schools and our businesses are a threat to our lives. Our government and our
15:06computers, our personal data, shouldn't be hacked. Neither should our cars or our homes. And we should
15:13get to know and understand, always, who is coming across our border. We're a border state in Michigan.
15:18Every country in the world has the right to know who's coming inside its borders.
15:23So in the Senate, I'm going to spend my time protecting American citizens as I have always done.
15:29For that, we need the best military in the world. One that understands the threats that are coming
15:35around the corner, not just the threats of the past. We need to be able to control our own fate.
15:41That means not letting our national debt be controlled by countries like China. And we need to understand
15:47that to make people safe in America, we need a strong leadership role in the world.
15:52Because the next 100 years are either going to be dominated by the United States of America or by
15:56China. And while we make mistakes every single day, and I will own that, I served in Iraq and I saw it
16:02close up, I will take American leadership over Chinese leadership any day of the week.
16:08So, in conclusion, let me just say that we all know, everyone here knows, that we're going through
16:17an extremely tough time in American politics. We know that when people look back on this period in
16:23history, they are going to say that was the moment that Americans were turned against each other,
16:28when neighbors turned against each other. But it is not the end, and it is not always going to be this
16:34way. As Michiganders, we understand how to survive bad times by rallying together, by helping one
16:41another, by living up to our Midwestern values, and getting back into the fight. As elected leaders,
16:48and certainly as a senator, I have a responsibility to chart the path through the dark tunnel and into
16:53the light, not by just complaining and whinging that it's all bad, but by charting a strategy from
16:59beginning to end, on how we get through this moment. And we will. For God's sakes, people,
17:06the Detroit Lions are going to win the national championship and the Super Bowl, and they were
17:11in the toilet for years. So, it is my privilege to stand on behalf of my state here. It is the most
17:19important thing I've ever done. It is the most impactful thing I will ever do. It is my job as that
17:25next generation of leader to change the course of this place and this country. And I commit to you,
17:32I will not let you down. Thank you very much, and I yield back.
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