I'm a real Marylander, wife, mom and grandmother, and I'm running to be Maryland's next United States Senator because it’s time to bring some new ideas and new people to Washington.
Almost 36 years ago when my husband Mark and I got married, we had five dollars in our pockets – no car and minimum wage jobs. Mark was a laborer in construction, and I worked a variety of minimum-wage jobs. I put up drywall and helped build a golf course. I was a dishwasher, parking lot attendant, maid, and waitress. With hard work, I rose up through the ranks to be the housekeeping manager at a resort. We believed in the American Dream - we were living it.
Mark and I were eventually able to start a small construction company. We learned how to hire good people, meet a payroll, and deal with all of the government rules, regulations and taxes that go with running a small business. We struggled to build our business as we raised our two sons. I also enrolled in college - as a working mom I know how tough it is to be a non-traditional student. At age 32, I finally graduated from Towson State with the highest honors and a degree in Elementary Education. I was so proud to have my kids see me walk across that stage and receive my diploma. They certainly saw how hard I studied to reach that goal.
Like many of you, we and our business got hit hard by the recession. At this point, I wanted to see if I could use my life experiences in business and community service and make a difference. I wanted to make sure that hard-working Marylanders could achieve the American Dream.
In 2010, everywhere you looked there was another fee, tax, toll, regulation, and law. Things needed to change, and I wanted to be a part of it. So I ran for the House of Delegates and won. I worked my way up to where I'm now - the highest ranking Republican female in the state of Maryland. I quickly realized that real change would require collaboration and working together by reaching out to people from different walks of life and different political parties.
In 2014, Marylanders came together -- Republicans, Independents and a growing number of Democrats, were as angry and frustrated as I was about where we were headed, and they took action by voting to elect Governor Larry Hogan. Now, we're accomplishing things -- lowering tolls, cutting red tape, eliminating taxes like the "Rain Tax," and investing in our infrastructure; together we've begun to fix our state.
Now it's time to do the same in Washington.
This campaign is about real Marylanders doing extraordinary things.
I hope you'll join me!
Kathy
