online at c-span.org. >> democracy is always an unfinished creation. >> democracy is worth dying for. >> democracy belongs to us all. >> we are here in the sanctuary of democracy. >> great responsibilities have fallen to the great democracies. >> american democracy is bigger than any one person. >> freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected. >> we are still a democracy. >> this is a massive victory for democracy and freedom. >> c-span. democracy unfiltered. we are funded by these television companies and more including sparklight. >> what is great internet?

is it strong? is it fast? is reliable? we know connection goes beyond technology. from monday morning meetings to friday nights with friends, the best connections are always there right when you need them. how do you know what is great internet? because it works. we are sparklight and we are always working for you. >> sparklight supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seato democracy. >> up next, new members of congress talk about their early lives, previously careers, their families, and what drove their interest in nning for office. conversation with representative brandon gill of texas, congressman tim moorof north caroli, representative lewis -boss of california, and resident commissioner of puerto

rico. one of more than 60 new members of the u.s. house is republican brandon gill of texas. in college he ran the student newspaper known as the dartmouth review and he has also worked as an investment banker and is founder of the media outlet known as d.c. inquirer. he talks about his career and his early years in texas. than 60 new members of the u.s. thousands republican brendan gill of texas. in college she ran a student newspaper known as the dartmouth review. he's also worked as an investment banker and is founder of the media outlet known as d.c. inquiry. he talks about his career in early years in texas. quickset grew up on the thousand acre cattle ranch. we used angus and bring just beef cows.

i was getting paid six dollars an hour in kindergarten when i was working on the ranch and i was helping my dad do whatever he needed to do on the ranch. you learn the value of a dollar and you learn how to work hard and long. >> you went to dartmouth and did the dartmouth review. what got you interested in that experience? >> i wanted to get involved in the conservative community at dartmouth and the christian community as well. dartmouth is about as secular and liberal a college as you can possibly be. i love dartmouth but we do not agree on everything. i wanted to get as involved as we could. it has a great history. we have had a lot of fun. i really enjoyed it. we stirred the pot a little bit on campus. ruffled some feathers but had a lot of fun doing it. >> banking was part of your experience. tell us about that. >> after graduating i worked in several years, first as an investment banker and then an

equity analyst at a hedge fund for several years. got to experience the private sector. got to work long hours. got to see a little bit of what the real world was like, how global financial system works and what is the plumbing of the global economy. i think it provided a strong foundation for a general understanding of how the world works. >> you are the founder of a website known as d.c. inquiry. what is d.c. inquirer? >> it is a conservative news site i found it a few years ago and i started it specifically to go to bat for president trump and strong conservatives in the media. what i recognized is unfortunately we have a pretty biased media in the united states. one side of the aisle is pre-well covered. you have cnn and msnbc at the new york times and the wall

street journal. all of these news outlets are printing the same headlines. it is in favor of democrats and against republicans. what i wanted to do was balance out that media narrative. we started d.c. inquirer. it exploded within a few weeks. we were getting more facebook engagement than the washington post and it is because the american people are looking for conservative news, they are looking for somebody who is different, not just spouting the same liberal talking points is conveying. a lot of fun there and was able to reach a lot of people with the conservative message. >> you move to texas and ran for this seat. white you make the leap to running for a house seat? >> we wanted to get back down to texas as soon as possible. my wife and i have a 17th-month-old baby.

with the crib in a back closet that she takes her naps it whenever she is around. i never expected to be running for office. i enjoyed the private sector going well. i enjoyed finance and conservative media. when dr. burgess announced he was retiring unexpectedly i wanted to make sure the people of texas 26 had strong conservative representation in washington. i think too often we see conservative districts like 2026 are not represented by conservative representatives so i wanted to make sure that to not happen. we had a brutal primary but we were able to win without a runoff. >> you are 30 years old. there is a quote from you published in one of the local hill publications.

"young people have seen this country run by an older and older generation." unless you're thinking. -- tell us your thinking. >> the america i experience as a 30-year-old is very different than the america a lot of people in washington have experienced. i was born in 1994. for my entire life we have had an economy that is addicted to deficit spending and interest late manipulation. if not had a budget surplus since 2001. we have had an open border almost my entire adult life, including in the early 2000s with a republican administration this has been a crisis my whole life. we have watched as the woke left has taken over every single facet of civil society and shoved all kinds of perverted woke nonsense down our throat.

that is the america i've experienced and i love this country. i love this country but i have no illusions about how hard we will have to fight to take our country back from what the democrats have done to it, whether it is the economy or the border or social issues which have gone further and further to the left we have a lot of work to do and i think that is what i am giving is the fight because we will need it to save this country. >> as a 30-year-old, long-term vision in congress? >> we will see. cannot overstay my welcome but we will see what happens. >> one of more than 60 new members is suhas subramanyan of virginia. he served in the obama white house and spent years in the virginia legislature before coming to congress. he talks about his parents having immigrated to the u.s. from india. a in the late 1970's.

her port of entry was dulles airport, which i represent in congress now. it's sort of her ellis island. when she came it was a very foreign place, obviously. my dad came from india as well. they grew up on capitol hill here the first couple of years in america. my dad went to school here, and then they went to a meeting down in texas in the middle of winter and it was snowing here in sunny and 80. they decided they wanted to raise a family down there. >> what kind of work did your parents do here in d.c.? >> my dad was training to be a physician. he was doing his residency here at howard university. and then he decided to go down to texas and practice. on the black sheep of my family. both my parents are doctors, my sister is a doctor and i dropped my premed in college and here i am now, politician. >> what did your parents teach you about life and about work?

>> they just taught me to work hard. if you are going to do something, just do it really well. my mom would always say, i don't care if you're a janitor, just be the best janitor. i don't know if that was true, but she really instilled hard work and also giving back to the community was important to them. they saw medicine as a way to help people. and i found another way to help people. >> tell us about your education, early work experiences. >> my first job by bussed tables at a mexican restaurant. the kitchen was at the top floor but the barbers at the bottom floor. it was a good workout every day, then i sold insurance on the phone one summer. that was great because you do a lot of phone calls when you're running for office. those are my first couple of jobs. i went to school in new orleans, then went to law school in chicago. i've done most every job at this point but this is the first time i'm doing a congressional job. >> wended politics or thinking

about politics into the picture for you? >> i was not political at all, but my mother was always a pretty strong democrat. my dad was always a republican, in independent republican but he always voted for the bushes down in texas. but when i got to school, i was premed, i was doing what my parents wanted me to do but i didn't have any passions. then hurricane katrina hit the city while i was in new orleans and that's got me interested in public service and community engagement and what led me in this trajectory. >> at what point did you realize you are a democrat? >> i think my mom is more vocal than my dad and maybe she won the debate but i think the democratic party fits my values better. i've always felt like gun violence prevention is important period i cared a lot about the environment and believe that we have to address climate change and it's an existential threat. my mother actually taught me the importance of reproductive freedom. when she came to this country

she was pro-life, but then she actually had patients who needed an abortion because they had life-threatening illnesses or conditions. she taught me that importance of giving women a choice and of freedom. just the democratic party have always been my values. >> he spent time working for the obama white house, what did you do there? >> i was a technology policy advisor. i read a task force that did a lot of things. ai policy and blockchain policy. also did cyber security. i got security clearance so i could do more national security work. anything in the tech world, that task force, trying to help it. >> you are a lawyer and spent time as the virginia senate. what to do take away from that experience in the senate? >> it's amazing how much of a voice people have. one of the bills that i passed in the state senate was actually written by eighth graders. they actually came and testified

on the bill and they ended up getting a past and signed into law even with political opposition. always feel like everyone has a voice and it's my job to give them that power to use that voice. the bill was basically trying to let kids in middle school start a career and technical education class. virginia banned it so these kids got together and said we need to change this, so i brought a bill that reversed that band and they were able to start. i was able to go to the first meeting of their club and others are now starting careers and technical education classes. i have dude -- two daughters, maia and anita they are four and three. i live 30-40 minutes away depending on how much i want to pay in tolls i can get here pretty quickly. i have a great family and they are the reason i do this. >> what do you like to do in your spare time? >> i like playing basketball, watching movies, spent -- spending time at my kids at the

playground. >> i have to as someone who's 38 years old about long-term plans. what you thinking when you think about the future? >> i try to think of the future a couple years at a time. right now i'm looking at making sure i do as good a job as i can for my constituents and for virginia generally, i feel like this is a fantastic state. it's the best state to do business. great place to live at a great place to raise a family. i want to keep it that way and make it better. >> more than one of 60 new members of the u.s. thousands republican tim moore of north carolina. he's an attorney and business owner who served more than two decades in the north carolina house of representatives, including the last 10 as speaker. he talks about his career in state government and what it means for his new role in washington, d.c. >> a lot is about learning people and learning about how to respond to those various means. north carolina is one of the fastest growing states in the country and having the opportunity to serve at the helm

of the state house for those 10 years after serving 12 years before them not as the speaker was a great learning experience, but really the understanding of how to take real-world problems and try to address those through a legislative process, which is what i'm now going to try to do here at a slightly different level. >> can you point to one or two things from your state house service you are most proud of? >> the way we turned our stayed around in 2010 my party took the majority for the first time in 100 some odd years. and we really wanted to try to change the direction of the state. at that point we were one of the highest taxed states in the country, overregulated. all the metrics are running the wrong way. whether unemployment, you name it. we took that and paid off the debt we had with the federal government. fast forward today we are one of the fastest growing states. we cut regulations, we put a lot of capital into construction without acquiring debt and it

has worked out. north carolina is a fast-growing state. i would think that that comprehensive approach to turning north carolina around is the thing i'm most proud of. bikes tell us about your background and your family growing up in north carolina, what was that like? born and raised in the town of kings mountain. i graduated from unc chapel hill, went to law school in oklahoma. came back and practiced law for 29 years. 30 years this year before taking this position. but i have two grown sons, one of whom is in law school himself. very proud of them and i have a great family back home. most of my family is from the area, so i trace my roots all the way back to before the revolutionary war. we actually had a very prominent battle, battle of kings that occurred in 1780 and i trace for direct ancestors to that battle. i tell people, we have been there for 200 years. we haven't been able to afford to leave yet. >> when did you first hear about

the family, its history on the battles? >> over the years as a child, but it was confirmed once i was elected speaker of the house, some of the local genealogy and history folks in my community wanted to really do that in a more formal way, so ran through and have a family tree in the chart. it would go from this column to thus column going through all the individuals in the great-grandfathers and so forth and so on. it's actually on both sides of my family, my mother side of my father's side. >> put that in broad perspective in terms of your own education and evolution and where you are today. >> i came from a very modest family. my father owned a convenience store for years, then got into the furniture business, my mother was a nurse, i was the first want to get a graduate degree of any kind in my family. very supportive family all the

way around. always joked in politics if all of my cousins voted for me i would win the race because i had a huge family back home. the immediate family and the extended family have been very supportive. the point of that being, i am deeply embedded, love my community, that's home, has always been home and will always be home. dishonored for the opportunity to be here in washington representing my community. >> why did you run for this seat? >> it worked out. i knew i was done serving in the state house. i served 22 years, 10 years as speaker. i knew it was time to do something different. i knew i wanted to continue to find more service to do. the districts were redrawn so this became an open seat. i thought i was an opportunity where i could serve. but the thing that weighed heavily on me was being able to see where we had done so many

great things that the state, and what i saw was a need to turn things around at the federal level whether tax or spending regulatory early. you name it. i felt inclined to run. the voters chose to send me here and i'm very thankful for it. >> your interest in politics goes way back to teenage years. tell us about it. >> i was active in politics as a kid in high school and in college and involved in everything, student government in college, law school, when i graduated law school and started practicing law, our county party chairman for a time. i served on the board of governors for the state university system appointed by our legislators to that position. just always had an interest in public service and government, and so, probably never really imagine the opportunity to have this opportunity. >> what is the interest in politics, where does it come from for you? >> that's a good question.

i don't know. some of it must be genetic because my youngest son loves politics and my oldest son doesn't care much about it. neither of my parents were politically involved. i guess it was really when i was in school and getting involved, it became a passion. it's what i was interested in. i just followed it and have been practicing law, there's a little bit of public policy in that. but i always felt like i wanted to do more than just practice law. i wanted to be engaged and involved in representing my community. i think about the question i don't have a great answer other than what i gave you there. >> how would you describe yourself politically? like some conservative. i believe in less government, i believe in responsible government. i believe the government should do what it does well and effectively, for example, hurricane relief in western

north carolina. we need to get it right, we need to take care of those folks but we don't need to be overly intrusive in people's lives. that's the general philosophy, just a traditional conservative. and that's a moniker that i have. >> you are or have been a business owner, correct? >> i was involved in a couple of different businesses. one was a grocery store that had a restaurant. i will never own one of those again. let me tell you that. also, it was a partner in a couple of other businesses. also my law firm. i was with the firm with the partners for a while. i open my own office in 2009 and became a full-fledged business owner there. i know what it means to sign the front side of the paycheck, to have to hire folks at fat people and be responsible, not only for myself, but other employees and making sure they are taken care of. i think it's important that members of congress, there are members here who know what it is

to sign the front side of a paycheck. >> what mark do you hope to make in washington? >> i want to fight for my community. i mentioned about the hurricane helene damage. the amount of damage and destruction that our community suffered in the western part of the district is just unimaginable. we have to help those folks and we are helping those folks. we are getting resources deployed and we are making sure that gets dealt. that is top of mind in terms of for the district. the other thing we have to do is we have to control, in my opinion, the federal spending. as we are doing this interview right now we have a national debt of roughly 37 trillion dollars. that is not sustainable. if we don't rein that in, our children and grandchildren, and their children will be paying for this for years to come. i want to come in and make sure we are providing the services we need to, that we are not overtaxing people and that we

are getting a handle on this national debt that we have right now. those are things that we have to deal with and things i want to be able to go back at the end of this first term to look back and say, it's better now than it was. >> what does family back home think about all this? >> they are excited. i had the whole family here for swearing in day, for opening day. they will be around for the inauguration for the president. they've been very supportive and they have enjoyed it. one thing i think that's very important -- not only my family, but folks from back home. when i know there are folks coming here, for my district, i go out of my way to try to show them around. this is our nation's capital, this is the people's house. so many folks may come here once or twice in their lifetime and i think it's very important when someone comes here that they get a full sense of what it is. my staff will probably tell you that instead of setting a staffer to take a tour, i will

jump up and say, i got this and try to get them as much as i can, whether it's going on the house floor, whatever it is. of course we will have folks here for the inauguration. we will make sure that we take care of them and that these folks know that, one, i want to find a way as much as i can to share this experience at to show the appreciation for the opportunity to be their public servant here in washington. >> one of the more than 60 new members of the u.s. house is democrat of california. she's an engineer who spent several years serving in the california state assembly. representative revis also started a nonprofit to encourage school age girls to pursue careers in the stem fields and she talks here about her own early interest in technology. >> when i was in elementary school in fifth grade, in 1984, a long time ago before anybody had computers at home and cell phones, my teacher had an apple computer in the back of the classroom and taught some of us

how to program it. i thought it was a classroom toy or activity until i got really good at it and she said, you should consider a career in computer science or engineering and i thought, people get paid to do this? i had no idea. and that kind of sparked an interest and led me to continue, and eventually end up at m.i.t., where i studied electrical engineering. >> electrical engineering at m.i.t.. your early professional experiences, what were they? >> i worked for motorola in the chicago suburbs. i worked on automotive electronics. what became onstar for gm, so navigation, telematics within the car. it was an exciting time, this was the late 1990's and i was a hardware engineer, which was a lot of fun back then. >> i want to hear about more about stem education in a moment. you are the daughter of mexican immigrants, tell us your story.

>> my family are immigrants from mexico. i grew up with a single mother. she came to the united states in 1963. in the san fernando valley where i grew up. she just came to work hard. i had other family that was already here and she lived with them. when she got married and had her two daughters, her goal was just to work hard so we would have a better future than she did. >> what other kind of experiences do you remember growing up in california? >> it was a great time to grow up. i loved being in the san fernando valley. i just remember neighbors and family all getting together. back then we had manufacturing in my district, like general motors had a plants, so a lot of my friends parents had good paying manufacturing jobs,

which, unfortunately all went away in the 1990's and really changed our community. >> when did politics become part of the picture for you? >> i've always been engaged. i remember when i first voted in 1992, that was the first year i was eligible to vote for bill clinton for president. very excited, i was the first year at m.i.t.. i got involved in, college democrats and groups like that. i never thought about it as a career until there was opening for the state assembly and my congressman at the time and state senator and others called me and said you would be a great candidate and i told them, i'm not a politician, that's not what i do and they're like, that's why you are perfect. they felt we needed people with the diverse experience in other sectors and that could bring that to policymaking. >> how long were you there?

>> six and a half years in the states assembly. >> what would people remember you for? >> i was chair of natural resources for a few years. working on climate policy for california. as you may know, california leads the world in climate policy. other states, other countries want to know what california is doing because that's where they think everyone else will be headed. it was interesting to negotiate some of those big bills. but i think environmental justice, science and climate change education are bills that i worked on, increasing young people interested in background in stem in our state so they could be the future tech and science leaders. >> you remember the moment you set i'm running for congress? >> yes, i do. my congressman met with me, the former congressman and told me

he was not running for reelection but he hadn't told anybody yet and he was asking, is this something you would be interested in and i thought about it and i said yes, let's do it. i thought i wasn't ready, but are we ever ready? it's been such a great opportunity. when i came for the orientation i was elected freshman leadership representative for my class, so i get to participate in the weekly leadership meetings with our leader hakeem jeffries and others. i never thought i would be at the same table as some of these congressional leaders. it's amazing. >> back tears science and stem brack -- background. you started a nonprofit. tell us about it. >> i started a nonprofit in 2012 called diy girls for do it yourself. it's an afterschool program/summer camp for young girls in my district starting at fifth grade where they are able to do a lot of hands-on tech and

stem projects. the goal is to get them interested in careers in stem and it has worked. the years it existed we have hundreds of girls that are in college right now studying stem. >> i want to ask you about a couple of specific examples of someone who's doing particularly well. who's on your mind? >> i think of a young woman at brown university studying material science and engineering. she was in the very first class of the diy girls program that i used to teach at the time. she was in fifth grade, so she was 10 years old, now she's 20, 21 at brown university, involved in research and internships in different engineering societies. it's so much fun to watch young women like her already engage. this is where they first heard about engineering, in this program. >> how much do you stay in touch with those young ladies and whether they think about what

you are doing now? >> i stay in touch with the young women that were it elementary school students willing started. they are in college or have recently graduated from college. they are excited that they know their congresswoman personally. they often reach out to me for resources, for access to internships, i have one that's in public policy, so she has been one of my interns when i was in the state assembly, so it's a very diverse thing. i think they see a way to change their community and how they could be a part of it. >> aside from some of the physicians here in congress, not a lot of scientists with strict science backgrounds. how does that inform you, what we bring in the conversation in washington? >> i'm an engineer and i have taken lots of science courses, physics and chemistry. i think it's a different way of thinking in the way the solutions that we propose and

how we work with others. we will have to have the right solutions in the beginning, but we continue working until we do. engineering is very collaborative. you work in a team, you don't work alone, and that is my background, that's how i was trained so that's how i feel ready to do in congress. >> how do you like to spend your time when you are not doing congress work? >> i like running, i like hiking, just spending time with friends and family, going out to dinner. just things like that. >> one of more than 60 new members of the u.s. house is pablo hernandez rivera, resident commissioner of puerto rico. he attended harvard and went to stanford law school. he's also the grandson of rough ale hernandez colon who served as puerto rico's governor for three terms, starting in the 1970's. he talks here about conditions on the island and his upcoming work in congress.

>> well the energy crisis dates back to hurricane maria and even before that because we have an outdated infrastructure, and now we face a problem generating energy. these problems were worsened by both functions, and what the people know how with private companies, it is one of my priorities as a member of congress to have million certain federal funds assigned to build an energy grid, but only a fraction is dispersed, making sure that money is released is one of my priorities. >> you have some political figures in your family background. you are the grandson of the former governor of puerto rico, rafael hernandez cologne. what was he known for? >> research from 1972 to 1976, and he states he come back in

1992. he had a tax incentive that develop the islands manufacturing industry, bringing in pharmaceuticals. he's also known for his defense of puerto rican identity and culture, as well as his defense for the puerto rican economy. >> what did you learn from him about politics? >> i learned a lot about values. it is important for you to be honest and to generally care about people's problems and issues facing the island. >> your grandfather was young when he became governor. your 33. >> yes, he was the youngest governor. i mean he is the youngest governor in the islands history, and i'm the youngest commissioner. >> at what age did you realize politics might be a career for you? >> i had ups and downs. i think i first developed

political awareness when i was around six endicott my attention. and then -- six, and a cut my attention, and that in my teenage years, i said, i will never do this and then later in my teens, i said i might do this. so it has been hovering in my mind basically all my life. >> whether other political conversations around the house? >> absolutely, my father ran unsuccessfully for this position 25 years ago. >> and you have entered public service, what is it about public service that drives you? >> it is the ability to have a positive impact on people's lives. my approach to politics is think about the normal. don't think like a political pundit. think about how people conduct themselves daily, what other concerns and aspirations?

and work at facilitating those aspirations. >> what kind of professional experiences have you had? >> i'm a lawyer, i worked here in bc and as a tech policy consultant at a big tech company, and i also worked in the governor of puerto rico's office, and in the u.s. district court for the federal court in puerto rico. >> recently, you penned a piece in the hill publication about puerto rican statehood. another news item to talk about. where is the island on that issue right now and where are you? >> my position throughout this campaign wasn't set of focusing on statehood and status, we should focus on more urgent issues such as economic development, reconstruction, and equal treatment and federal programs or we don't have equal treatment. i think the island is basically split 50/50 on that issue.

we need to maintain and improve that status because i think it would be economically disastrous for the island. now we don't pay federal income tax, therefore, we set our state income taxes very high as if we were paying federal and state. if you added federal income taxes on top of that, you would double the tax, forcing to lower, and bankrupt and already bankrupt state, so i don't think it is fiscally feasible. that said, i think the current relationship needs to be addressed, along with the fact that this congress approves it without meaningful participation. >> puerto rico is a three hour flight. how often do you plan to get home? >> we will play it by ear at the beginning, but right now we are thinking of one weekend here, if there are two weeks of session in a row, we will stay one weekend.

three weeks animal, dr. second weekend. and every time we have district work, we will be on the island. i'm. -- i've been happily married since 2020. we were not high school sweethearts because of her decision. [laughter] we don't have kids yet. we have a beautiful rescue dog named sol, it first openly transgender member of congress. >> from those first moments

after his diagnosis and he and i knew how lucky we were. we knew how lucky and he was to have health insurance. we knew we were lucky to have flexibility with our jobs for him to focus on getting better and me to focus on caring for him, of loving him come of marrying him, and when he found out his cancer was terminal to walk him to his passing. i decided to run for office because i do not believe in delaware or here in the united states and the wealthiest nation on earth that time and ability to get care should be a matter of luck. watch new members of congress all this week starting at 9:30 p.m. on c-span. looking to conquer contact -- looking to conduct members of