- Derrick Van Orden: Hey, everybody, it's Congressman Derrick Van Orden.

I've had the pleasure of representing you in Washington, D.C., for a little over three years now, but because of all the garbage they send out in these flyers and newspaper ads and on the Internet and whatnot, I don't think you really understand who I am.

So, I just wanna take a couple minutes and explain to you my background, and then maybe you'll understand why I feel so strongly about serving in Congress and protecting and defending the United States of America and our wonderful Constitution.

I was raised in abject rural poverty by a single mother.

We had to move in with my grandma until my ma could get her feet underneath her.

We had food stamps when it was actually a stamp that you took to the grocery store and stuck it on a card to get food.

We had subsidized lunches and government cheese.

I dropped out of high school when I was 16 years old, and I've been supporting myself financially since then.

I joined the Navy at 18.

I wound up doing 26 years and retired as a United States Navy SEAL senior chief with multiple combat tours.

I have the distinction of being the longest-serving enlisted member of the United States military to ever get elected to Congress in the history of our country.

I've worked with my hands my entire life.

My wife and I, Sara Jane, have been married for about 34 years, and last week we had our 12th grandchild, and we have our 13th and 14th on the way.

And that is what this election is about.

It's about the future.

It's about giving our children and grandchildren a country that they can take pride in, that they wanna raise their children and grandchildren in.

And we are at a precipice right now in our nation.

There are people that want to fundamentally change our system of governance to socialism, and that does not comport with the American Dream.

It simply does not.

Let me tell you some of the things that we've done in Washington, D.C., to help our fellow Americans.

We got the biggest tax cut in the history of our country.

There's no longer a tax on tips for the folks that are working when we're watching the Packer game or the Brewer game in the tavern.

There's no more tax on overtime for someone that wants to pick up an extra shift on a manufacturing floor.

And our seniors who built this nation are no longer paying taxes on their Social Security.

We permanently got rid of the death tax, which has caused so many of our family farms to close, because they simply cannot afford to pass the farm on to the next generation.

Under the Biden administration, there was, on average for his entire time in office, over 200,000 illegal aliens entering the country every single month.

In the last 19 months, not a single illegal alien has been released into the United States.

Not one.

And that's incredibly important.

Why?

Just this year, there's over 22,000 Americans that will not have to attend the funeral of a loved one because they did not die of fentanyl poisoning.

That is a direct result of us closing the border.

What was my play in that as a member of Congress?

Well, I made sure that the border patrol and all of our relevant law enforcement agencies are fully funded.

Here's something else that you've been hearing about me that's a lie.

I have never bought, sold, or traded a individual stock my entire life, let alone as a member of Congress.

I'm an original co-sponsor on the bill that prevents members of Congress from trading stocks.

So, if anybody's telling you I've been doing that, that's simply a lie.

There's no other way to state that, and that's part of the public record.

Another thing that you should know about me is that I care deeply about our environment in the Driftless region.

That's why I am standing up with my neighbors here in the Driftless to prevent these horrible 765-kilovolt transmission lines coming through this unique area and destroying it for the future.

We must protect our environment so that we can pass it on to our children and our grandchildren.

Here's the last thing I'll say.

I've been working to protect and serve my fellow Americans my entire life, and my service in Congress is a continuation of that.

And if you see fit to send me back to Washington, D.C., I will continue tirelessly working to make sure once again that your children and grandchildren have a fantastic country that they can be proud of and that they can be proud to hand off to their children and grandchildren.

So, with that, God bless you, God bless your families, God bless the state of Wisconsin and the United States of America.

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