Thank you all very much for this kind Iowa welcome. It's great to be here. I can tell you that this is a great crowd with crowds like this. This is happening all over America right now. I've been on the road for a week.

I've been in Texas, New Mexico helping to recruit candidates so that we can have a night like Iowa had last time where we got three Republicans elected in this state three out of four.

So thank you for sending them. So we really have a chance to win because of what's happening in this room.

But I'm going to walk through just a couple items that I think are critically important and then Dr. Reed's going to come up and we're going to have a little Q&A.

But first I want to say that my first trip to Iowa was actually in 2003 because when I was first elected in 2002,

this guy who I don't know from Iowa comes up to me. We were doing the new member orientation and it was Tom Latham. And Tom Latham says, you know, I'm from Iowa, I'm an ag guy. I understand you're an ag guy. We were both in both an AGR.

And he really mentored me. He became my closest friend in Washington for many, many years. And my first trip out here was in 2003 to speak at what was I think then called the Latham picnic or something.

I think some of you went there because I know I talked a few of you earlier that had been there.

And it was funny when Latham introduced me at his event. He says, you don't have to worry. He's the only guy that's in Iowa right now that's not writing for president. But only because he's not old enough yet.

I don't know if Tom, if you remember that Tom, but Tom, thank you very much. And if we could give Tom a round of applause again. Great, great man. Great family.

Thank you, Tom.

So, went back, I was in Iowa, came here a couple of the times with Tom. And then out in California, I come from the Samoakean Valley.

The left wingers call it drive-through country. They say it stings and it's a bunch of dumb farmers. And you know, what are they doing out there?

But it is what I call the bread basket of the solar system. We grow 300 different crops, almost any crop you've ever heard of.

But we're being punished in California. And we have about 3 million acres in my general region. And over the course of the next 10 years, this is a battle that I've been fighting for many, many years.

But we're going to have to idle about a third of those acres. And you will see, they'll blame it on global warming. But what they won't tell you is is that they're just letting the water in wet years go out to the ocean.

So then when there's a drought, they say, oh, global warming is back. And we're going to have to, and so slowly we're going to have to take this land out.

Well, my brother, back about 15 years ago. So I come from a dairy farm, we grew grapes. And several crops. But my brother comes to me and says, I think I'm out of here.

And I said, what are you talking about? He says, I'm going to go somewhere where they actually like farmers. So he moved to Northwest Iowa, actually.

And then, then my mom and dad would come out and they just said, hey, they actually like farmers out there. So my mom and dad actually live out here also in Northwest Iowa.

So, but it's been great. So I get here, you know, usually once a year. And so my family's been here for three generations came from little islands called the A's or islands, Portuguese islands.

And oh, I want Portuguese person in the background. The only other Portuguese person in Iowa came tonight, other than my family.

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