The Iowa caucuses are quickly approaching, and a key issue that’s being discussed is congressional term limits. Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate, Ron DeSantis, has vowed, if elected President to use the bully pulpit of the office to make term limits on Congress a reality once and for all. In a recent post on X, formerly Twitter, he announced his plan of having state legislatures catalyze the process by issuing calls for a term limits convention. He’s not the only presidential candidate talking about congressional term limits, former South Carolina Governor and United Nations Ambassador, Nikki Haley, and tech entrepreneur, Vivek Ramaswamy, have also been calling for term limits and have signed the Presidential pledge. Hi, I’m Holly Robichaud, and this is Breaking News on Term Limits.
Congressional candidates of all party affiliations are continuing to see widespread support that congressional term limits have with voters, and they’re signing the US term limits pledge in record numbers. The pledge states, if elected, they will co-sponsor the US term limits pledge. This past week, an additional 11, that’s right, 11 congressional candidates signed the US term limits pledge. With a record number of candidates signing the pledge for the 2024 election cycle, that number will increase even further and may, by election date, be the highest number ever. Legislative candidates across the nation of all political strides are seeing the popularity that supporting term limits has with voters. This past week, we saw an additional 16 2024 legislative candidates sign our pledge. Weekly numbers are surging. Why is this happening? Because people like you who support term limits moments and the power at the ballot box.
In the United States Senate, there are two words people don’t wanna say, term limits. Senate Joint Resolution 2 sponsored by Senator Ted Cruz was introduced at the start of the current Congress in January, yet it continues to languish with no hearings or votes scheduled on it despite the widespread support it has received among all Americans. Well, it’s about time, finally, Louisiana Senator, Bill Cassidy, has agreed to co-sponsor our resolution. As mentioned at the top of the show, on the Republican side in Iowa, Presidential candidates are openly making term limits a key issue. It’s also happening on the Democratic side. In New Hampshire, in the Democratic Presidential contest, Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota started discussing term limits as well. In Tennessee, there’s a growing media push to make that state the next state to adopt the US Term Limits resolution.
Aaron Dukette, our Central Regional Director, has been making the media rounds discussing how Tennessee is on the cusp of adopting our resolution. Let’s hope they join the growing number of states passing the US Term Limits resolution.
Hey, I am so glad to be joined by Arizona State Senator, well former State Senator, Steve Kaiser. And it’s unusual that a state senator is a state chairman for US term limits. Elected officials, term limits, they don’t always agree, and so we’re so glad to have him as part of our team out in Arizona working to pass our resolution. So glad you could join us today.
Thank you, Holly. I’m really excited to talk about this topic, something I’m passionate about and excited to get more people passionate about it.
So why is term limits so important to you as a former official? Most officials don’t like the word term limits, they fear it, so why? You’re kind of on the edge here, right? And why are you different on this?
I think it goes back to the fact that we should be a citizen legislature, number one, first and foremost. I think the legislative bodies or any kind of powerful position has the potential to corrupt individuals, and the longer you stay in that kind of environment, the harder it is to avoid that. And so I think having a natural refresh is important for those reasons, and also just to get fresh set of eyes on complex problems. So a lot of times, if you’ve been looking at the same problem for year after year after year, it’s hard to find new creative solutions for that, but if you come in from the civilian world, basically, and you become a legislator or a congressional representative, you have new fresh set of eyes on the same problem and you’ll be able to resolve those issues. ‘Cause ultimately that’s the job is to solve problems and you don’t want stale eyes on it, you want fresh eyes on it.
Yeah. Now, why did you decide to get involved with US Term Limits?
Because it’s something I believe in, and I feel like because being an elected representative and advocating for term limits, that’s a powerful stance. I think it is, ’cause it goes against the natural instinct of someone who is in office because their job is to get re-elected, and so if you have somebody that is in elected office and recognizes and can advocate and speak on how important it is to have a natural recycling of legislators to have that citizen legislature, I think that’s more powerful.
Now, do you think if we were to pass congressional term limits, would that start to restore people’s faith in Congress?
I think so, yeah. I think it’s a step in the right direction. I don’t think it’ll do it all by itself, but it’s one of those things that the public is just calling out for. They really are disappointed and frustrated, and they wanna see a refresh in there and they realize how much power incumbents have on getting re-elected. And really, we want elected representatives to be beholden to the people that put them there, and the longer you stay in office, the more power you have to stay in control, and you don’t need to be listening as much to the people that send you there year after year. So you have upsets every once in a while, but it’s very rare, and so term limits would really help keep that refreshed, especially in Congress.
Keep it updated, right?
Yeah.
Now, how do people in Arizona feel about congressional term limits?
The people of Arizona are very supportive of term limits for Congress. They’re just as frustrated as most other citizens in other states, and so every polling we’ve done and seen, and when I talk to folks, that’s the number one thing that they wanna see is, let’s get a natural recycling happening in Congress.
All right. Well, I thank you for making time in your busy schedule to help us, not only as the state chairman but being on our show today. And so thank you so much. I’m glad that you could join us.
Thank you for letting me be a part of this effort. And thank you for all that you do, Holly, I really appreciate it.
Well, thank you.
Before we get to our Corrupt Politician of the Week, we gotta do an update on Bob Menendez. The gold bar seized by the FBI when he was arrested were actually stolen in 2013 from a New Jersey businessman. Stay tuned on more corruption. Now, it’s time for the Corrupt Politician of the Week, and our corrupt politician this week is North Dakota Senator, John Hoven. First elected in 2010, he served 10 years as governor before being elected to the United States Senate. The New York Times reported that he purchased $300,000 to $600,000 in oil and power company stocks in 2019 while he was a member of two energy-related committees. His excuse, he forgot to move the holdings into a blind trust. Yep, he just forgot.
Guess what’s right around the corner? National Term Limits Day. It’s never too early to begin ordering from our store and start thinking how you can make February 27th National Term Limits Day special. We need your help to get the word out. While the professional politicians in DC continue to block us, we’ve got the momentum, we’re on the cusp of passing in Tennessee, but we still need your help. We’ve got the momentum, we need you to get involved. Please go to termlimits.org and get involved today. Sign up to be one of our key volunteers, we need your help and be sure to share this program with your friends and family every week. This is Holly Robichaud for US Term Limits, Breaking News. I’ll see you next week.