Amy Sinclair - Iowa's Senate Majority Whip

Every single one of them said Colin don't do this. I couldn't get any of them to publicly support me or even really privately support people laughed at me when I was going door to door I had to tell myself that I'm ready no matter who tells me that I'm not welcome to elected officials of America Our journey to interview an elected official in each of the 50 states Find out what motivated our officials to run the adversities they overcame and what we need to do to work together again Do you think politics is only for a select and chosen few think again Hello everybody. I'm James Pidola. I hope you're doing well long-time no chat For those listening that aren't local to Delaware I went off on a political venture myself and ran for state auditor It didn't work out but a good experience nonetheless But anyway for this episode I spoke with Amy Sinclair a Republican state senator in Iowa She has an incredible story she grew up with parents who never registered to vote and without telephone service She gave birth when she was 19 and during her first campaign against a popular local farmer her brother passed away She was told by her own party chair that she wouldn't win Yet she overcame all that to become the youngest county supervisor in Iowa She served three terms before becoming a state senator and after we spoke she became the majority whip in the Iowa Senate caucus So to check out the timestamp of my questions and check out the show notes Please go to elected officials of america.com/episode39 And if you enjoyed this episode and have a quick second after please share it out on social media. Thank you Senator Sinclair, thank you so much for spending some time with me on this lovely Wednesday afternoon In Iowa how are things going for you today? It's it's a beautiful day And I also couldn't be better thanks for inviting me to join you. Oh my pleasure my pleasure So looking into your history. I pulled up an old radio interview I think from your first election and to the state Senate Where you mentioned one of your first memories is of the 1980 presidential election and seeing the votes come in for Reagan and Carter And how exciting that was for you. Did you think about when I'm granted you're around five years old But did you see yourself running for office at that point? Not at all actually I grew up in a very very a political family My father died in 2002 never having registered to vote and my mom at 83 still hasn't In fact, she she asked me just about a year and a half ago. What does it you do again? So politics wasn't something that that I that I lived and breathed so having that memory of the Reagan Carter election results coming in and being excited by that I'm not sure what prompted that You know even even on into Growing up into high school into into into adulthood Being an elected official was never something that I aspired to I was I was asked to run for a local office for the Wayne County door to supervisor so that so that the guy My friend said to me nobody should be on a ballot unopposed You're gonna lose, but nobody should be on a ballot unopposed His asking is the only reason I ever even entered into the the political scene What was your background that caused that person to ask you and who was the person that asked you? Sure, um his name is Claud Neal and he had previously run for for the Senate in My district where I live He was he was the chair of the Wayne County Republican Central Committee And I had I had shown up at my very first caucus the night before and and just jokingly um Had had introduced myself as his next senator. I really was just Being snarky because the poor guy had just lost his two years prior had lost the His election and and and he had been kind of mean to me when I worked in the newspaper um I really didn't have a background for it just uh I lived and worked and raised kids and and uh Was a member of my community pretty active and in a local library and and the local school where my kids went it wasn't He just he just wanted a name on a ballot. Huh honestly, so how was that first race for Wayne County board of supervisors? I didn't know what I was doing but I knew that That my family lived what most families live, you know, we're we're working and and where We're raising our families and we're paying taxes and and we're being good contributing members of society and it struck me um that Everything that happens in government affects every facet of that life of that of that American dream life that that my family was leading and and So that was a message that I conveyed You know the message was of of smaller government and less intrusion and and and embracing the family farm and the lives of the people who live in a rural area here in Iowa and It went well. I won um Did you ran against a Democrat or was that a I ran against a Democrat who had had served three terms and was and was a very popular local farmer I shouldn't have won Claude was right. I should have lost But something about that just about that message of of taking ownership of of our own governance resonated with people Was there ever a very dark time for that campaign when you thought Claude is right. I'm not going to win. I'm just going through the motions here it's honestly, so my uh My youngest older brother was killed that summer and I had almost stepped away from the the campaign just because You know you take your priorities and and you do what's necessary and and for me it was necessary To to help my family through what was a huge tragedy um and so I really didn't think as much about the campaign as maybe I as maybe I would have otherwise Probably the darkest moment because I was expecting to lose probably the darkest moment was when um on election night I was I was sitting there at the courthouse watching the returns come in and I wasn't losing and and I thought to myself Oh my gosh. I don't know what I'm doing now. I have to govern um and so it was a A bit of fear um, I just thought I was holding my elected official accountable To to his job through the election process And then I found myself in a position where I was that elected official and needed to do the job and do it well There was a great quote in the house of cards where uh, I forget who said it but um It was basically saying that somebody running for office is kind of like a dog running after after a car And when you win and you catch up to the car. It's like what do I do now? What do I do with the car now? Yeah So what how did you get over that oh crap? I won. What do I do? Honestly, I I did it like I did everything else in life. I I Took the next um month and a half prior to taking office. I took the next six or eight weeks or whatever it was Started going to to the to the board meetings every every opportunity I had I I did research on the budget I started looking at the boards and committees that that the board of supervisor directs from a from a regional perspective and I I educated myself that I think that's the best thing you can do is be as educated as possible about what you need to do um I I I requested a meeting with the county auditor who had actively campaigned against me So I knew that I needed to I knew that I needed to build bridges there as well as with the with the other two supervisors on the board Who were having this this 28 year old girl come in and replace this guy that they had worked with for for a long time So I tried to build those relationships first and and get as much knowledge as I could How do you think you were treated as the young female that shouldn't of one? Honestly very well. You know that there are There are a lot of of women who say that that that that they find themselves discriminated or disparaged. I have never in in any political sense felt that at all I was immediately accepted my ideas were were embraced um I was given great advice. I remember at the time I was the youngest serving county supervisor in the state of Iowa serving with like the third oldest county supervisor in the state of Iowa You know, he was he was well into his 80s and and um by the time I took office I had turned 29 uh He kind of took me under his wing. He was a Democrat and we got along very very well Um, we shared books and and history but he took me under his wing and I will never forget him saying he would say great things to me all the time But one of them uh has probably guided me through all of the political work that I've done He said never tear down offense until you know why it was built um And so every time that I would I would come to him with some idea for how we might advance wangin county Uh, I would remember Exactly him saying that you know, you know what fences are re tearing down and why were they built and and how will us undoing them uh affect future So you did two terms on the county board and then your senate seat was newly created from redistricting I'm guessing Can you talk about the process of how you became one of the three Republican candidates? Sure um So the same gentleman Claude Niel who had uh who had called me and and asked me to be his loser for county supervisor Called me up as senator McKinley who who I replaced as senator McKinley was announcing his retirements on on wh radio um He called me and and he said uh Are you listening to the radio and you know, I wasn't I was making dinner or whatever it was the that I that I was doing just as mom of boys and and and And I said no, I'm not listening why what's what's going on? And he said he said senator McKinley is retiring It's now time for you to be my senator and you won't lose um And I got kind of stepped back because I again politics has had never really been Necessarily what I what I wanted to do with my life. I never wanted to be a politician Being on the board of supervisors wasn't political for me. It was taking care of my community But stepping into into the state level legislature You know, suddenly that becomes political and so it you know, I sat down talked with my family about it um And we came to the decision that that I was going to run I was it was kind of providential that not only had Claude done that but a couple of days later After I'd made my decision, but hadn't made it public um A good friend that I hadn't spoken to for probably five years called me up out of the blue and and he said hey He was have you heard about this senate see it and I said I said yeah, why? He goes well, what are you thinking? I said I was kind of thinking about running He said good count me count me on the team. I'm on board um And then a couple of other friends had had done the same thing and it was it it seemed the right time to step forward And do the same things for for the state of Iowa for district 14 that I had done for Wayne County Become educated about the issues and and take the bull by the horns and make the positive changes that That my district directed me to to to do so despite there being three people in the primary You got over 60% of the vote. What would you attribute to winning that so handling? um I think it's important in in any political endeavor in any endeavor in life if you will I think it's important to build relationships that the let people understand that That you're passionate about what you're doing That you that you're willing to make the sacrifices to make the things happen and that you Make a connection with the people that that are a part of the process I door knocked I drug my poor children out door knocking um my my my husband was was phenomenal in that process We knocked on Dores every single day of the week except for Sunday We chose to leave people alone and let my family regroup every Sunday But we knocked on doors we we had phone calls we we Built a team of people who had the same vision I had I remember one night getting a phone call at a basketball game Just after I had announced my candidacy and I'm you know you you answer every call when at that time again building the relationships And I stepped out of the basketball game um And answered the phone call and the guy on the other end uh his name is Scott McLean But he's he was from Oceola never heard of him didn't know who he was he introduced himself and he says I've got four questions for you Um, I said okay, you know, they're thinking they're gonna be policy or and he asked me for very pointed philosophical political questions And I answered them as honestly as I could because again I I think you need to make the connection and get to know people honesty is is really how you My gosh politicians and the and the penchant for for being perceived as liars. I can't I can't tolerate that um So in and everything I wanted to do I wanted to be as honest as possible I answered his four questions as honestly as possible and and like like Chris had a couple of weeks earlier He said I'm on your team count me on board It was that kind of connection that I was making with with the people who mattered in each of the in each of the precincts and counties that I that I serve I think is what really put me over the top um I have a great deal of respect for for the other candidate to put their name on the ballot absolutely But at the same time I I understood that I was the best candidate for the job um and I did everything I could and and was necessary to win Did the other candidates work as hard as you? You know it's hard to it's hard to answer that um I live in my World and I try to do my thing and be the best me I can be and so it's hard for me to To say that they weren't doing the same things being the best sure them that they could be but I just think I outworked them for sure What you just said how you believed you were the best candidate would you have had that confidence had you not been on the county board of supervisors previously? You know probably not I think I mean that's that's part of of what made me the ideal candidate for the position You know, I'd lived on a family farm. I I've been active in in we had cattle and and uh so so private business of my own I Was at the same time as being on the board of supervisors I was also the business office manager for a local privately owned business and and uh You know saw all the the direction that you had to take with with the reporting that comes from an ag industry The the the the taxes and the the reports that you have to file and all this stuff where government interacts with private industry So we had agriculture and private industry and putting that piece of of understanding local government into the mix and already understanding that that interaction between state government and local government and the people that that both are there to serve I think really did make me the ideal candidate in addition to to those other life experiences that I had already had You said after We're done with this you're going to speak to some fresh candidates What would you say to them if they don't have political experience and they're concerned They might have a great resume But just because they haven't been elected. They don't feel that confidence. What would you say to them about that? About why they should still run and how they can still win like you did I often speak to to potential candidates and and From from both sides of the aisle because I think it's important again I fully believe what what Claude told me that first time I ran that nobody should be on a ballot unopposed I never have been I've had one primary where I was unopposed and I fully believe in that in that accountability of elections I think that's how a democracy a republic that we have stays healthy and vibrant and and focused on the people that it serves Is through that accountability of elections And so I speak to to members of of any party who are considering running for office I often share with them all of the practical things that you might share You know, it's going to be hard work. You've got to work really hard. You've got to invest your time talent and your treasure It's not it's not just This I tell them they've got to have their family on board that that they can't do this alone I tell them all those practical things But I also share with them the the same thing that's um So I mentioned Chris who called me and asked me if I was running before I'd ever announced He ended up being my communications guy for my for my first campaign and We got into a ritual we would um, I would call him anytime before I had to make a public appearance I would I would call him and and ask him advice talk through the issues whatever Take your pick, you know, we would we would just talk through it and at the end of every single conversation Chris would say to me aims because that's what he calls me. So he says aims just be you And and that's that's the advice I share everyone You know what you bring so much talent and experience to the table Talent and experience that no one else has And if and if you believe strongly enough that you're even having a conversation with me about running for office If you believe that strongly then you are qualified to do the job You've you've lived a life and you bring things that nobody else can bring And you need to capitalize on those on those unique qualities about you that nobody else has so so that's my biggest piece of advice always is is to be genuine and honest and not try to be something that they aren't What was the learning curve for you once you entered the state center steep steep starting over essentially or no you know what and and I think I think that's Those those six years because it was the middle of my second term on on the Wayne County Board of Supervisors when I was elected to the Senate So those six years that I served in local government I kind of had an idea of how the process worked that that a lot of other people walking into the into the legislature do not have And and I think that did help me it made my learning curve a little less steep but but yeah I've the analogy has been that that's Your your first your first session in the legislature is like trying to get a drink from a fire hose and that's just it's it's over Well-meng in in every conceivable way It's physically exhausting. It's it's mentally draining. It's emotionally trying It's it's everything that that you can imagine that it's going to be and then multiply that times at least 10 Did you have any Personal habits whether it's an exercise routine or meditation that help get you through the stress of that learning curve? So I am I'm I'm physically active. I I I have a pretty strong faith. I have a good network of people who support me and yeah I took advantage of all three of those things and and you're exactly right when when you ask what I what I tell other candidates I say that make sure you remain physically active if you aren't already get that way and make sure you eat right I said the other thing you needed to make sure you do is stay connected to your faith in your family Up until this year you were the you're Of 29 Republican senators and the Iowa State Senate you were the only female right now you have doubled in size and there are two of you um What does that say about the GOP that only two 29th of the senators are female? The conservative women are smarter than they put themselves into these positions Um, well, you know we say that um when I was elected there were there were four women out of 24 uh Two of them retired. They had served in excess I believe of of 20 years both of them and so they had retired and the third one was elected to to the US Senate Um, I think that speaks volumes about Iowa's GOP and our attitude towards women we have Starting with me. I am the majority whip. I hold what is that number three number four position and congratulations on that um, yeah, and and and I take it and I do my job just like I do any any other job We also have a female governor. We have a female speaker of the house We have a female auditor we have All kinds of of women engaged in the process. It's just awkward there right now. I had been the only the only woman in the senate um I think I handled it okay One of the issues that you're you're quite passionate about is abortion Um, and you speak from experience in the sense that you've seen it from both sides of the spectrum your mom had you when she was 40 and then you had a son when you were 19 um One of the things I'm trying to do with this podcast is see how we can come together as a country again and whether You know, we president Trump won't be the president forever But we'll still be divided on social issues whether it's the second amendment or on abortion when we're talking about these sticky issues How can we have a conversation where we can remain friends and cordial and work together still The two you mentioned are difficult because they are they are philosophical ideas ideals that That don't have a lot of middle ground. Let's just let's just be honest um I take the issue of life Because I don't talk about it as an issue of abortion for me if we're talking about abortion. We're talking about regulating A procedure That's not what it is to me and it's and I've been accused of being a religious zealot and keep that out of It's not it at all We are talking about For me the foundational issue of our entire republic We are talking about Either the the that individual person that smallest minority Whether or not they have the same rights to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness that any other individual does And it's hard it's hard to to accept the fact that This unique DNA this unique heartbeat this unique person with all of the potential of a newborn baby Just because it hasn't been born yet doesn't have the same rights and liberties that the child who who has exited the womb has Um, I and I believe that that wholeheartedly about every single human being whether it's it's a person with intellectual disabilities or whether it's a person with With physical development issues or whether it's an elderly person every single human being Every single unique individual has the same rights to those individual liberties as every other person And if we are going to be honest about the purpose of government the purpose of government Government is to defend the rights of the minority And the honest truth is that the individual is the smallest minority And if we aren't doing our if we aren't doing our job in defending the rights of the individual We aren't doing our job and and the rest of what we do as a legislature doesn't matter It doesn't matter so how do we convey that so that we're bridging the divide? I think that's how you convey issues like that you talk on on the on you talk about the issues Dispassionately if you will Um on the facts on the basis of reality not emotion not feeling We need to talk about whether or not is is this a human being If it is Then that human being has the same individual rights as any other human being When you find the passion that you have in that belief Met by somebody on the opposite side of the ideological spectrum Are you able to work together on other issues? Yeah, absolutely. No problem. Absolutely. I How do you how do you then? How do you personally when somebody doesn't believe what what you just said? How do you Get yourself in a mind frame to still work with that person. I I do my job and and my job goes beyond defending a single issue And while I feel that's that's the foundational issue of course um, we still have a job to do on other issues as well. I I I've worked with senator herman quorum box since I was elected I have been on the education committee when I was when I was elected He was chair of the education committee We had an unpleasant encounter online or it's online. We had an unpleasant encounter in floor debate My first few weeks in office Which made me a better senator by the way He's he's not pro life. He does not believe as I do on on the issue of life and and yet Senator quorum back came to my son's wedding this past fall And he we worked together on some language in in a bill this year. I promised him it would it would get done that I appreciated his contribution and it the We made it happen There are even even though we don't agree on that issue It's important to develop that relationship that means you understand your both human beings with lives and responsibilities And that also you have other things that must get done as well and I think that's the best way to To take that on is is to understand that Is to be understanding of other people's opinions and be able to work around them even though you you passionately disagree Do you think we've lost some of that in today's and the National school when I have when I walk into when I walk into public forums and have to have state troopers available for my protection Yeah, you know what that's scary. I serve rural Iowa There is no reason. I should have to have police protection Because you disagree with me politically It's insane the level of instability that that we've reached um I don't understand it. I truly don't um And and gotten even to the point where where people refuse to be friends with someone who is is politically or ideal ideologically misaligned with them and and that's I Will never get to that to that point ever you touched on it earlier when you were talking about you know seeing the humanity of people What else can we do to when we disagree with somebody but we still need to work with them? What can we do? How can we do that? Is it taking them out for a beer? Sure, I mean, and I don't know if you've been to downtown Des Moines, but we've got tonight. We've got some great I can make some recommendations Yeah, you know what talk with them Get tonight get to know them as a human being Get get to know that that they live and and believe the way they do for reasons For reasons that are different than the way that that you live and believe I don't think you change hearts and minds with without understanding that Without seeing other people as people um, I've I've I've got some history in education and and um I participated in in an educational training. Oh my it's been a long time ago getting old um But it was related to it was related to kids and and the statement was That you need to have a child's heart If you if you're if you're going to work in his head and if you don't have his heart you've got no business messing in his head um You have to build a relationship with people and understand the most people in order to deal with those with those bigger things that are That are outside of of your your level of agreement What do you think the biggest lesson you've learned from your time and office whether it be the state senate or the county board biggest lesson um I'm sure most of them aren't good I learned some new swear words um Probably the biggest lesson I've learned is is that I'm not always right And that it's okay to admit when you're wrong It's okay to change your mind How do you do that without being called a flip flopper by your constituents as an elected official? Well, how do you do that you you share the reasons why um probably one of the biggest things that that I've seen and That I've evolved within myself is is around the issue of texting and driving um I am a Republican, but I have libertarian tendencies um So so you know for me texting and driving I'm thinking holy cow just leave me alone. Why do we need another law? And then I started getting all of the statistics and the data about how texting and driving was killing people was damaging property the purpose of laws Is is to be a mediator when your individual liberty intersects with my individual liberty and you texting and driving Can intersect in in serious ways other people's individual liberty you can rob them of their life and their property in their pursuit of happiness and you have no right to do that Um, so I I had originally been just stop stop making stupid laws. It's distracted driving. It's already illegal I changed because I I started to understand that people weren't equating it to distracted driving weren't understanding that it was already illegal And they needed to be told to cut it out to stop damaging other people So that's probably the biggest issue that that I voted on those sides of that issue um And and and those are the reasons why because I just started understanding it as as That intersection of individual liberties Stepping outside of politics. What do you think the biggest personal challenge you've overcome is? Oh my Could it put I mean could it potentially be giving birth at 19? That that was that was difficult, you know I don't I don't look at challenges as as hardships I look at them as as those parts of life that have made me who I am So to say I've overcome a challenge. I don't know that I have um, I grew up poor and you know you always hear that from politicians. I believe yeah, I was so poor You know, I I literally grew up in poverty um My my family did not have a telephone in our home We lived on on on mud road not gravel not it was it was mud and when it rained I didn't leave home without walking um I I don't know that I had a pair of shoes that someone else hadn't worn until I was in sixth grade and I had in my feet were bigger than all of my siblings um So all of the all of the things that that life has brought me I haven't looked at them necessarily as challenges They were just life and they were meant to be lived Yeah, you being a mom at 19 scary stuff, you know um But otherwise I I look at that I look at those at those things that came at me as as a way to become a better me You might have mentioned it already in terms of understanding why the fence was built in the first place But what is what is some of the best advice you've received perhaps not related to politics Probably the advice that it that affects me the most in my day-to-day living is is that advice from Christ or see to just be myself to be honest in genuine um and and to make sure that that in everything I I Am not presenting someone I'm not I would also say that and it's it's politics related, but it carries on out in in the rest of my life um The the situation that I described with Senator qurmbach where I went to debate and I was totally unprepared Do you know what I learned from that he didn't tell me that but do you know what I learned never ever go into a situation unprepared ever I wasn't a Boy Scout. I had to learn it as an adult, but it was a good lesson to learn Senator Sinclair, thank you so much for your time today my pleasure. Thank you Thank you for listening everybody. I'm James, but I'll help you enjoy that Again to check out the show notes. Please go to elected officials of america.com/evisote38 and until next time take care You