On this episode of the Bespoke Parenting Hour, host Julie Gunlock talks to Virginia congressional candidate Tina Ramirez about how Virginia has become ground zero for woke indoctrination in schools and how she plans to turn the state around. Tina and Julie also discuss their shared experience working as staffers on Capitol Hill on human rights issues and why this work made them both more aware and grateful for the unique freedoms Americans—particularly American women—enjoy in this country.
TRANSCRIPT
Julie Gunlock:
Hey everyone, I’m Julie Gunlock, host of the Bespoke Parenting Hour. For those new to the program, this podcast is focused on how parents should custom tailor their parenting style to fit what’s best for their families, themselves, and most importantly, their kids. Today, I am really excited to be joined by Tina Ramirez. She is a human rights advocate, a mother, a small business owner, and now, she is a US congressional candidate in Virginia in the Virginia 7th. Tina, thanks for coming on.
Tina Ramirez:
Thanks for having me. I’m really excited to be with you all today.
Julie Gunlock:
Tina, tell us a little bit about yourself. You have this kind of really, I don’t know, kind of interesting and provocative bio talking about the work you’ve done with human rights, again I always like to talk to moms, but you have considerable business experience, and again, now a US congressional candidate, which we will get into a little bit later, but tell us a little bit about yourself.
Tina Ramirez:
Well, I guess first since we’re here for moms, I have a little six year old girl and she’s just the joy of my life. And actually, I’m a single mother, so for all those women out there, I completely understand how hard it is to be a mom. I mean, it’s a lot of work, so that’s really my first job. But in addition to that, I have had the honor to work in a number of different fields over the last 20 years throughout my career, but primarily in the field of international human rights and helping people that are particularly persecuted for their beliefs and their faith.
And so I’ve worked in about 30 different countries defending the human rights of women, of children, of communities that are getting attacked because of their differences of belief and ethnicity. So in Iraq, Sudan, Nigeria, next month I’ll still be in Iraq. I run a business that I founded eight years ago and my company is called Hardwired Global. And so we go into countries where people don’t have the kind of basic rights and freedoms that we have here in America, and I help them develop legal protections for their basic rights and then also educational programs to infuse a culture of respect for basic rights into their education systems.
And so I get to do that in Iraq with the children in Northern Iraq that experience significant trauma during the conflict there recently, but all over the world. And so I’m a former teacher myself, and I just feel really grateful that I’ve gotten to meet so many people around the world and serve them and help them.
Julie Gunlock:
Well, your work in human rights and especially helping women is certainly needed now, especially with what’s going on in Afghanistan. And we know the atrocities that have already happened to women there, there are viral videos everywhere showing beatings and murders. There was a female police officer, I believe in northern part of Afghanistan who was dragged out of her house eight months pregnant and killed with a screwdriver by a group of men. I mean, and we are going to see more and more of this, so I want to get into why you’re running, but I imagine you are even more eager now to get into Congress given what’s gone on in Afghanistan. You call yourself though an outsider, tell me why that is.
Tina Ramirez:
So I hadn’t been in office before, I [inaudible 00:03:40] probably a lot of your listeners, just a concerned mom that was really frustrated with the things that were happening in our country. Obviously in our foreign policy, because that’s the arena that I work in, but I’m frustrated with what’s happening in our schools, things that our children are learning now, how they’re teaching them, how they’re shutting down our schools and just the lack of civility, the just how so many of our basic rights from being able to express ourselves to our freedom of worship, to so many other basic rights are now being really restricted and affected in a way that we’d never seen in our history.
And these are rights and freedoms that I fight for around the world for people who… I mean, you could only hope and wish for the kind of freedoms that we have. And so to see those rights being trampled on here, being taken from us is very concerning, and so it’s very motivating. But like you said, in Afghanistan the situation is just horrific. My close family member was actually over there recently flying those evacuations, flying out of there for the US Air Force, and so it was very close to home for me.
And it was just tragic when we saw those 13 soldiers lose their lives. But all through that time, I was getting phone calls from humanitarian workers that I knew from Christians that were on the ground that are missionaries and hearing about the people that were in hiding, both Americans, there was one woman that was an American that couldn’t get out with her young daughter, her toddler. And so we were able to help her get connected and ultimately get out, get safe. But the Christians that are there are just… They’re going door-to-door to find them and to kill them, and we hear every day about the young girls that are being forced into child marriages and raped and tortured. It’s horrifying what’s happening there now.
Julie Gunlock:
And I also read some news about them killing young boys, they’re killing young boys so that they can’t resist. It’s absolutely biblical what they’re… I mean, this is barbarism, completely disturbing, but I do think that we need people in Congress who understand what’s going on, understand why human rights are so important and have experience in that. So you are running, like you I’m a mom who felt sort of the call to activism because of what I was seeing in Virginia. And I’m sort of pivoting back to more domestic issues and what’s going on in Virginia, it’s really shocking to me.
I came to live in Virginia about 20 years ago. I chose to buy a house here, I chose to raise my children here, and it is a daily battle in this state to keep my kids away from some of the stuff that they are teaching in my local school. I’m up in Alexandria, Virginia, and the 7th district isn’t so far, you’re above Richmond, I think I’m getting this right, sort of above Richmond, basically between here and Richmond is this district that you’re running for. And the thing is, is that, it’s not any better.
It’s amazing how it’s gone throughout Virginia, because Northam’s Department of Education, Virginia Department of Education is filled with true radicals, political radicals who see it as their job really to radicalize kids. Tell me, you mentioned earlier a little bit, it’s my fault I’m sort of the interviewer and I’m sort of all over the place, but tell us again, one of your motivations here is to run because of, it sounds like as a mother you were concerned about what you were seeing in the schools.
Tina Ramirez:
Yeah. So from running in the 7th congressional district in Virginia, this is the seat currently held by Abigail Spanberger, and it is in the Richmond suburb. So it’s Chesterfield, Henrico, it goes all the way up to Fredericksburg, so just about 45 minutes from you in DC, and then we’re in Northern Virginia, and then it goes south of here as well. So it’s a big district. I actually grew up in Powhatan, which is a rural county right next to Chesterfield, I live in Chesterfield currently, and Powhatan was one of the seven counties in our state that had adopted this inquiry initiative that was promoting critical race theory in the schools.
And so, I mean, for the last year, I’ve been very active with other parents in fighting against what’s happening in Virginia. And really, Virginia is ground zero in our country right now for the radicalization of our children, and it’s unlike anything that…You know, when I grew up in Powhatan, I mean, you know, the biggest thing was we didn’t have McDonald’s in town, life was a lot simpler then. I mean, both my parents were medical professionals, my dad ran a small rural family practice, my mom was a nurse midwife.
I mean, I grew up in a family where you serve others, where we got paid in chickens and vegetables sometimes, right? So life was simpler where we went to church on Sundays and you work hard. I mean, faith, hard work and service to others was just what we learned growing up. And somehow in our country, we’ve gotten to this place where now in Powhatan County of all counties no different than Loudoun County, and in the other parts of Northern Virginia well, number one, they are forcibly indoctrinating our kids in this critical race theory ideology, this idea that that’s really based in Marxism and that’s clear from all of the documents that they are pushing in our schools and I’ve read through all of them that puts people into these classes of oppressors and oppressed based on the color of their skin.
Now, I am a single parent. My daughter happens to be biracial because her father was from Africa, and I’m extremely disturbed that they are teaching our kids to be racist essentially and to pre-judge kids, and to pre-judge others and including their parents. Because what’s happening then is my daughter and I have these conversations she’s only six years old as I said and it’s so confusing for them now, and they ask questions like, “Well, do I need to be darker? Do I need to be, what’s wrong with you mummy?” These are not conversations we should be having, and the indoctrination of our kids in the schools is creating division in our families and our communities and our homes and it shouldn’t be.
We should be able to send our kids to the public schools that we pay for and expect that they will reinforce our values and teach our kids how to think not what to think. And I know as a school teacher that’s what we did. So, I’m just not sure where we’ve gone in our country that the same ideas, I fight around the world are now one’s that I have to fight in the public school system. It’s very motivating, I will tell you that.
Julie Gunlock:
It is very motivating. It can be discouraging though, it feels like, you know, “I’m tired, I’m tired. I just want to be able to send my children to school and not have to worry about these things.” And I was, I was worried about these things. We started to see political stuff even in the elementary school, which you kind of get a sense in many ways that people think, “Oh well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to middle school,” because that’s when a lot of this stuff starts happening. But my husband and I, and of course we live in Northern, Northern, Northern Virginia, which I always like to say, if you went to Sherwin-Williams, there be like the darkest blue on the color wheel, it’s very, very blue.
And it’s not just that, it’s a complicity among the parents. It’s funny up here in Northern Virginia, Loudoun County has been getting a lot of attention for having a really significant pushback. And people always think that… And Fairfax county as well and some other counties, but here in the little city of Alexandria, there’s very little pushback, that’s how sort of dark blue it is. And so, I think the parents who do object are tired because you have to watch for it daily. But I think you’re right, it just is amazing what’s happened to the State of Virginia under Northam and under some of these other districts that flip.
Let’s talk a little bit, I find your district, the 7th district of Virginia to be really interesting. And I know some of the politico folks that tune into this podcast who are also parents will find this kind of fascinating. So this district was held for years by Eric Cantor. So I mean, you know, that was ew. The powerful leadership, he had a powerful leadership position, he’s sort of an established Republican member of the house. You know, he was defeated in a surprise upset by Dave Brat. And what’s interesting is that Brat was much more conservative, he was less of an establishment guy. I mean, there’s all these stories about how he won after spending much less money and not getting any pack money for his campaign, whereas obviously Cantor had a ton of money.
I find all this kind of fascinating. And then Abigail Spanberger comes in. She is hugely to the left, obviously, and I mean, not that Cantor was even, he was a pretty solid Republican on most of these issues, but she voted against Trump’s tax cuts, she wants harsh new restriction on gun ownership, she calls climate change the greatest threat to our economy and our national security, she’s pro-abortion, she fully supports Obamacare. So it’s kind of interesting how this district seems to really have the pendulum swings far in this district. Tell me a little bit about that.
Tina Ramirez:
Well yeah, this is definitely a very diverse district. It’s 70% of the population lives in Chesterfield and Henrico County, so in those two counties, and then, but the majority of our demographic, the geography is actually in rural areas across it, so 70% of the geography is actually rural. So that’s where you get this really huge divide and perspectives across the county. But ultimately it’s a Republican district. It was Republican plus six when Dave Brat lost in a Republican plus three last year when we lost the seat again. And so what we are seeing is that the swing voters really are those women in the suburbs that want a different kind of candidate, I mean, ultimately, and I think that that’s what it requires to win the district.
And we saw last year, 11 of the 15 seats that Republicans flipped across the nation were flipped by strong, diverse Republican women, women that were able to relate to a broad spectrum of people within their districts and really bring people back into basic conservative common-sense principles that you and I will talk about. And so that’s really what we’re seeing, is that the district does want a common sense leader, they want civility in their leadership, they want someone that is going to be able to get things done, roll up their sleeves, get to work for them.
I mean, I hear it every day that they want someone that’s going to work for them, but ultimately think that this past year has been really indicative that Abigail Spanberger is not the right person for the job, because I mean, literally she votes 100% of the time with Nancy Pelosi across the board and on policies that don’t represent us. I mean, I think that probably the biggest indicator of her lack of understanding of the district is that she takes more money than anyone else in Congress from teachers’ unions. And these are the same teachers’ unions that shut down our schools, that have been trying to document our kids and that are pushing Virginia, the State of Virginia under Ralph Northam, Atif Qarni our Secretary of Education, to push equity policies that have disadvantaged Asian students.
And Henrico has a large Asian community, and my friend Asra Nomani up in Fairfax was the parent of a student at Thomas Jefferson High School who has sued the State of Virginia for these equity policies because they lowered the standards for blacks and Hispanics, and then ultimately forced Asians out of [Inaudible 00:16:13] schools, which is just-
Julie Gunlock:
Racist.
Tina Ramirez:
It’s racist and it’s insulting. As an Hispanic female and my daughter’s biracial, my daughter loves math and science. I mean, she is going to be a little engineer someday. And so, to tell her that in order to compete they’re going to lower the standard for her, I would just find it insulting, but it is racist. And ultimately, it violates Title VI, Title VII, Title IX of all the education codes and of the civil rights codes. I mean, these are things that all of their policies from critical race theory to the equity policies are just clearly discriminatory and unlawful.
And so, I mean, I think so that’s the number one issue with Spanberger, she just does not represent her constituents. And a lot of that Asian community were probably more democratic leading voters, but my guess is they’re going to come back to us because they see the kind of just-
Julie Gunlock:
Well, Asra, she’s very heterodox as well. I think there are a lot of people who see, call a spade a spade, it is racist, it’s disadvantaging a certain race of people. It’s common sense, I mean, Virginia Northam’s education center and that’s Charles Lane, I mean these people have completely lost their marbles. And I think one thing you said and what I heard you saying it was interesting was working for the people. Our school board here in my city are so smug and so rude and so terrible, they act with such entitlement at these school board meetings. Just this past school board meeting the chair of the Alexandria Public School, who by the way sends both of her children to a private school as does our superintendent, okay?
So in Alexandria City, the superintendent sends his daughter to a private school, and these public school board chair sends her kids to a private school. It’s astonishing to me that they come in, they ruin the public schools with all this political indoctrination and then remove their own children so they don’t have to deal with it. It is just the ultimate insult, but what’s even worse is that when parents in my community get up to complain, she tells them to sit down, she says I make the rules, the smug indifference to the pain that especially for parents of special needs children and through COVID when parents were begging them to open these schools, and meanwhile, the school board chair and the superintendent both sent their children to open schools.
I mean, it’s just like there’s no limit to the audacity here. And I think that the idea of having public servants really be there to serve the people is lost now for a lot of politicians. And I hate to say that, but it really is on the left. I think that on the right there is more of a sense of that they’re to serve the needs and interests of the people and to take courageous positions and sometimes unpopular positions with the leadership in Washington, because you’re there to serve your constituents. You actually talk about that, you said you’re running to defend American values. What are those to you? What does that mean?
Tina Ramirez:
Yeah. I mean look, there are fundamental values or things that I fought for all over the world. It’s our freedom of speech, of expression, our freedom of worship, our freedom of conscience, it’s our freedom to earn a living and to not have it taken from you. It’s our ability to raise our families and to have authority over our families and not have the state dictate what our kids teach or what our kids learn in schools. I mean, it’s about individual rights, is first and foremost what it’s about, and it’s about really protecting and nurturing the family at the most fundamental level, because they are the first institution in any society, and they’re what sustains and embeds these freedoms in children so that they can then go on and actually be productive members of society.
So those are the values that I believe in, and it’s what I’m fighting in this congressional race. I mean, education is first and foremost because we’ve just seen over the past year when they shut down our schools and denied us our school choice. I mean, many parents like myself chose to go into the public schools, and I mean, we all pay into it anyway, right? And when COVID shut things down, they gave us three weeks to figure out where we were going to go, but in my district, 80% of the parents in the two largest counties decided to send kids back to school but the school boards and the teachers’ union said, “No, we’re not going to.”
And so they don’t have the right to dictate that. And then we send our kids back to school eventually, or me, I put my daughter in a private school because I’m a single working parent, I had to. And I think that the reason a lot of parents are upset right now is because they put us in really difficult positions and it never should have happened that way. And how is it that a private school was able to perfectly operate all of last year without any cases of COVID or anything else and the public schools couldn’t figure it out?
And literally even today, they still haven’t quite figured it out. I think that that shows that our public school system is broken, that it’s not providing our children the education they deserve, that it’s not providing the excellence that they deserve. And when they keep trying to lower the standards, or send kids home, or put more mandates on them, all it’s doing is reinforcing the fact that government thinks it knows better, and I think parents know better.
I’ve raised my daughter for six years, I carried her for nine months, I think I know what my daughter needs to be nurtured and cared for. And I think that’s the biggest value that we’re fighting against. And I can tell you that parents are really upset about this. And obviously we see it in Northern Virginia, but down here in my district we definitely see it, and that’s ultimately what’s going to sway this district next year, is that, Spanberger didn’t help us, she literally was the biggest taker from the teacher’s unions that were responsible for all this and she’s going to be accountable for that.
I mean, she’s going to have to account for that for the lack of school choice that she is providing us because with Northam and his policies, they are just denying us our school choice at every step, whether it’s in the governor’s schools, private schools, public schools, you name it.
Julie Gunlock:
And it really does show just how powerful these teachers’ unions are. There has been news reports, there is evidence showing emails between the teachers’ unions and the CDC. I mean, I love on the left, they are always like, “Fellow the science,” well, am I supposed to follow the science when the CDC is influenced by a teacher’s union? How does that work, right? I actually write on science, I’m extremely pro-vaccine, I’ve written for the Wall Street Journal on vaccines and other publications, I am very very for, but I too am suddenly saying, “You know what? Why this blind sort of adherence to what an agency says when that agency actually takes its orders from the teachers’ unions?”
This is how you get people to not get their vaccines, right? This is how, and again, I’m very pro-vaccine and I hope people do, but I’m really frustrated with this narrative out there that you have to sort of blindly follow the science when the agencies in charge of the science aren’t actually really being fair and also being influenced by something like the teachers’ unions, which we know have influenced also local teacher decisions or rather local school district decisions on masking, and there’s a whole number of things where the teachers’ unions have great sway.
And so, to have a Congresswoman who gets the most money from the teacher’s unions, that needs to be a signal to the constituents that this might not be someone who’s really going to be looking out for you but is beholden to the teacher’s union. Right here in my city, I mean, again, I often talk about the audacity of some of these people and groups. We have a woman running for school board in Alexandria who works for Randi Weingarten, is one of her senior staffers in downtown DC. And if you look at this woman’s Twitter feed, it’s hilarious. She’s constantly retweeting Randi and saying, “Go Randi,” and all this stuff. And I think, “Oh my gosh, now there is a very good chance she’ll be elected here in very liberal Northern Virginia and Alexandria,” but there’s only so much you could do, but it is a reason to fight. It is a reason to fight back and offer people some alternative.
And I’m really glad that you’re running down there because we need stronger voices against the teachers’ unions in Congress, we certainly do. Let me just-
Tina Ramirez:
Well-
Julie Gunlock:
Go ahead.
Tina Ramirez:
I’m a former teacher myself. So I actually always used to withhold my views from the teachers’ union for this very reason, they did not represent my values. And that’s what teachers need to do that, because teachers go into this to serve the children. And the vast majority of them probably don’t believe in all this junk they’re being taught, or forced to teach or to buy into, so they need to stand up against them. And there are alternatives in Virginia, and that’s where I would encourage them to get with the Thomas Jefferson Institute, and to find those alternatives and to take a stand against them.
We have to be United against them, but look, the fact that Spanberger has taken more money than anyone in Congress from the teachers’ union, she votes lockstep with Nancy Pelosi and that this is a Republican plus three points conservative district tells you that we have got to do something different if we’re going to win this district back because this is unacceptable. She portrays herself as a moderate and this fierce independent woman that’s going to go up to DC and do things different, but she’s really just been a rubber stamp for Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, and we need a check on Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi.
We need a check on these policies that are holding your kids, that are disadvantaging minority children because they’re the ones that were left behind last year. I thankfully was able to find additional resources even as a single parent to put my daughter in a private school, but most parents can’t do that. And that is not right, that is not right.
Julie Gunlock:
Well, I mean, I think this year has been a real wake up call to people who normally would’ve said, “Oh school choice, no way, I support the public schools,” and then suddenly people see that they’re legitimately is not… And look, it’s frustrating to me, this cognitive dissidents that I see among liberals who claim to really care about minority populations and then suddenly but don’t think that these people deserve the same choices that people who have more money to move their children out of failing schools. And that is what’s so frustrating to me is that, they say, “Well, we really worry about these minority populations, the learning loss among minorities, but we don’t really want the money to follow them. We want the money to stay with a broken institution,” it is so galling. Listen, I want to pivot… Oh go on, I don’t want to stop you.
Tina Ramirez:
No, I mean that’s why last year I wrote an article or an Op-Ed in the Washington Post, believe it or not, that basically said that the money needs to follow kids to school like their backpack basically. And Gerard Robinson, who actually got the first scholarship tax credits done here in Virginia so the kids would have some other options. He’s endorsed me, he’s an African-American professor at UVA that was in the McDonald administration. I mean, I am completely supportive of school choice, I believe that we should have a lot of choices.
And right now the people that are running our country are not allowing those choices. And Virginia really got the worst statistics on school choice of any state in the nation, so we’ve got to do something different.
Julie Gunlock:
We really do. And to be honest with you, part of the reason is because of Northern Virginia, and I’m talking Northern, Northern Virginia. It’s funny, I grew up in Illinois, so I sort of get this whole like Chicago versus downstate. It’s funny, there’s the joke among Illinoisans that Chicagoans never admit they’re from Illinois, they just say they’re from Chicago, right? And so if you say to someone, “Where are you from?” And they say, “Illinois,” you automatically know they’re from down south or mid-state, right? Because they won’t ever… Chicago, even suburbs of Chicago they’ll never announce, so it’s sort of the same thing, and Cook County, sort of Chicago, that was Illinois politics right there, they were just incredibly powerful urban areas.
Obviously, the Chicago area is a huge part of the population, the same thing here in Northern Virginia, but I think there are just parts of Virginia that are fundamentally opposed to the way in which this state is going. And we really need to put people in office who recognize that and again, have the courage to fight back. As you say, Spanberger is just a rubber stamp to anything Pelosi wants and most Virginians don’t want that. So look, I’m a political person at heart, so I could talk about this, but I want to pivot just really for a little bit to parenting.
You are a single mom. I have to say, I admire single moms so much because my husband, we co-parent, we parent together and we are a mess, we’re a mess and we can’t get it together. So I’m always amazed by single parents, and I think, “Gosh, how do they do it?” So now you’re running for office, I mean, you’re running a business and now you’re running for office, how do you do it? How do you keep all the balls in the air?
Tina Ramirez:
Well, I guess, I mean, first of all, my mother was a single mom for much of my life, so since I was 11, and you know, I didn’t fully understand how amazing she was until I became a single parent and my husband left when I was six weeks pregnant. So my mom, thankfully since she’s a nurse midwife, she was with me through the whole process. And I just can’t tell you how grateful I am for her, but I have a very strong family connections all over. I mean, my family goes way back across Richmond in this area. So I have a large family and they’re very supportive of me, they always have been.
So even over the last six years since my daughter was born, I’ve continued to run an international nonprofit organization and travel to many different countries during my work. And when I travel, my daughter stays with my family and is very supported and I’ve been able to continue doing what I’m doing. But as a single parent, you don’t have the option of not working, so you learn how to be very efficient with your time and reach sources and energy.
And so I think that I probably work twice as hard as some people just because I have to, there’s no other option. And my daughter has kind of learned to do the same thing. So she’s learning that, “Hey, you’re going to have to do some things to help mommy too,” and she’s a trooper. Sometimes she even teaches me my speeches and she tells me, “No mom, you got to say it this way,” and she’s so sweet. I mean, she has such a gentle spirit, when we talk about issues and I explain to her for instance like governor Northam’s comments on abortion or the school policies or critical race theory, and explain these progressive policies to a child and you will have a very different perspective of them.
Because when you have to explain some of these racial policies to a child, you begin to understand just how far out they are. And so my daughter then says, “Well, that doesn’t make sense, shouldn’t we be doing X, Y, and Z? Well mommy, my skin is this color, what does that mean for me?” Like I was sharing at the beginning. And so I think that a lot of my motivation is my daughter. I mean, she has made me see life in a whole different way than I ever did before, and every day I am just so grateful for her. And I don’t want my daughter growing up in a society where she doesn’t have the kind of freedoms that I grew up being able to have and to be able to help people all over the world who were suffering.
The woman I mentioned who was stuck in Afghanistan with her daughter and couldn’t get out, I can’t tell you how many women around the world that I’ve worked with who have had children ripped from their arms or have been… A pregnant woman, Meriam Ibrahim in Sudan that was going to be put to death for apostasy and we helped her get out of prison. And she literally was chained to the floor in Sudan when she had her child in prison but we got her out. I mean, I am motivated every day because I see what it looks like to not have the kind of freedoms we have. And so that’s what I want my daughter to inherit, and I know that like Ronald Reagan said, “It’s not passed down in a bloodstream, you’ve got to fight for it in every generation,” and that’s what we have to do right now.
Julie Gunlock:
Tina, this is such a great conversation. And one thing that I sort of I’ve talked to other staff as we’ve sort of grappled with all of this CRT stuff. It’s very interesting what I hear you saying, because I think in some ways in the United States we have people who, one, I think sort of don’t understand history, that’s a huge problem, but there is also this idea of when I hear people say, “America is the worst country in the world,” it’s like, “I don’t think you’ve traveled. I don’t think you…” And it is interesting because just as a 16 year old I went to another country as an exchange student, which I don’t want to mention which country, but it was shocking how they treated minorities in that country, and it upset me so much.
It startled me so much, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. And then I’ve traveled other places and I’ve seen similar things, which make me very uncomfortable. And it’s interesting because when I hear people say those things and you must also just kind of shake your head in disbelief when you hear these kind of silly things come out, and that’s exactly what they are. They’re just absolute silliness, they’re provocative, they’re meant to shock, or they’re meant to sort of be provocative but there’s no truth in it.
And it sounds so trite and it sounds like I’m, but we really are the best country in the world. And so to see people really tearing it down the way it is, it’s been really heartbreaking. So I’m really excited that you’re running to fight back and also to fight back for Virginia, because I ultimately think Virginia is a wonderful state and it will be wonderful again. A little bit of a rough patch right now, but hopefully with some better people in office, and some better people in the Department of Education, and better leaderships in the state things will get a little bit better. So thank you for running.
Tina Ramirez:
Oh, absolutely. I mean, I am so motivated because like you said, I see what happens when we lose this freedom in the rest of the world, so I’m not going to give it up here. And you know, this seat is one of six that we have to win in order to win back the majority to put a check on Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi. So it is critical of all the seats in Congress this next year in 22 that we win, we have to win this one. And it’s one of the ones that we can win with a different kind of candidate like myself, and that’s why I am so adamant about putting all of my energy into this and doing what we can because I see what’s at stake if we don’t.
I actually worked in Congress, I worked for a member, I worked under Frank Wolf and other members, and Frank Wolf of Northern Virginia. And he was a huge advocate for human rights and religious freedom. And so he actually was the one that recruited me to come work in Congress, and I built a bipartisan caucus to defend religious freedom around the world. And that’s where I got to travel to over 30 different countries and do policy, helping people get out of prison and help countries write better laws. And I realized that we needed to do something different to get at the root of the problem, because we were just responding to conflict, but never you know, preventing it.
And so, that’s why I came out and I started my organization. But that perspective of having worked up there is always a constant reminder to me that there are things that we can do. I know how we can help people, I know how we had individuals, congressmen of integrity like Frank Wolf, like others who really did serve the people and stood up for human rights and religious freedom.
Julie Gunlock:
You know, Tina, what’s interesting is Frank Wolf was wonderful. I used to work for Chris Cox from California and they often would partner on this stuff. You know who they used to also partner with? Nancy Pelosi. She’s been great on.
Tina Ramirez:
Used to.
Julie Gunlock:
Use to be. Used to be great on China and North Korean human rights and suddenly she’s just silent on this stuff, right? And then for her to sort of get behind this idea that America has to be completely… All the institutions in America have to be completely destroyed and sort of built back up and this anti-racist vision of Ibram X. Kendi is so frightening to me, but she knows, she knows what the North Koreans do to those trying to escape, she knows what the Chinese do to those who oppose the communist government. I mean, she knows this.
And so, I will say personally it’s funny because I mean, I loved your boss and obviously my boss was so great on human rights as well, and I actually worked on his North Korea issues, and man that almost sent me over the edge. That was a tough, tough group of issues to work on, because it was-
Tina Ramirez:
Oh, it’s probably the worst.
Julie Gunlock:
It really is. The brutality and horror and torture that you have to hear about if you do those issues. But I will tell you, they were there was this time where you know, Democrats were really active on this human rights issue and suddenly they’ve really fallen quiet. So it’s kind of interesting to touch base on those issues because it’s a sad loss, she was a real champion.
Tina Ramirez:
Yeah. I mean, they’ve lost their way. Unfortunately, I think that’s why so many people on the Democratic Party or people that have been voting Democrat are beginning to recognize that it’s not the party that they grew up with and that it’s time to support candidates like myself that reflect their values far more in independence and others because they’ve been left behind by their own party. And so, we do need to restore dignity and civility in Congress, we need to restore some sense of respect for America’s heritage and our ability over the last several years to have fought and championed these basic rights and freedoms for people around the world that didn’t have them.
And I know from building the caucus, I mean, I was the one that ran North Korea Freedom Week in Congress. I was just on the phone with Suzanne Scholte earlier today who coordinates it with the North Korea Freedom Coalition, and we were the first ones to bring up the trafficking of North Korean refugees through China and to really hit China and all of the violations of human rights during the last Olympics, not just this one, but the last one. And why aren’t we standing up for these things? Why are we not standing up for those women in Afghanistan right now? I did an interview recently, I said, “Where is the women’s march for the women of Afghanistan? Where is the Me Too Movement for the women in Afghanistan?
Julie Gunlock:
Where’s Alyssa Milano? Has anyone seen her? Where’s Alyssa, right?
Tina Ramirez:
Where are they? Because in my human rights book, it’s all about standing up for the dignity of individuals because that is what human rights is based on. It’s not based on Marxism, the kind of stuff they’re trying to teach in our schools. Marxism was what led to the Holocaust, Marxism is what has led to atrocities and authoritarian regimes around the world that are fueling Cuba, that are fueling North Korea, that are fueling China. It is not lead to freedom and dignity for people, only these values that have been ingrained in who we are as Americans have, and we should be proud of that, and we should be standing up for that.
But I’m very just very discouraged and disappointed by how our country has turned its back literally with what just happened in Afghanistan and the rest of the world and our respect for human rights and people and freedom. And that’s what we’ve got to restore, and that’s why this race is so critical and worth fighting for.
Julie Gunlock:
Well, I know you’re not really discouraged because you have so much energy and you are so positive and you make me want to get out there and, okay I almost said run myself, but that’s a lie, I never wanna do that. And I have to say, I am so impressed with people who have the courage, and what discourages me is this idea of good people not running anymore, because when you think what happened to Kavanaugh, right? I mean, I know he wasn’t running for office, but anybody in the public eye I’m like, “Good God, he wants this, right?” But then I talk to someone like you, Tina, you’re just so full of energy and you have such direction in your life and you’re doing such great work and I pray, I hope that everything goes right in your campaign and that we see you up there in Congress. I’m really thrilled to talk to you, I’m always thrilled to talk to another mom, a very busy mom, and I wish you all the best of luck. Thanks for coming on the podcast.
Tina Ramirez:
Thanks for having me, and everyone can find more out about the campaign tinaramirez.com, and I’d love to hear from them personally. It’s a labor of love. I remember meeting a pastor in Sudan once who I had trained and he was going to go back and be persecuted. And I said, “Is it worth it? Am I teaching you something that is worth it? Because I know you’re going to be tortured for it.” And he said, “Tina, they’re going to torture me whether I stand up for what I believe in or whether I sit down. I want to be able to stand up for what I believe in and what you’ve given me is given me the courage to do that, just stand with me.”
And I think when you’re running for government like this, sadly in our day and age like you said, we will be attacked. And I’ve gone into it with full [inaudible 00:41:43], my eyes are wide open, I know that they will attack me, that they will attack my family, I saw it in the last race, and I can’t go to those people that I’ve worked with around the world and continue to encourage them to risk their life for the type of freedoms that they have to fight for and not be able to stand up here where we have the freedom still to do it.
So for all of those people that can come and support me in my campaign, please do and stand with me because it takes all of us together and I will go out there and I will fight for it. And I understand the risk, but we’ve got to stand together. I mean like we’re seeing in the school boards, we’ve got to stand together, and when we do, we will win.
Julie Gunlock:
Well, I tell you, after I have a good cry, I’ll be signing up because it’s very inspirational what you have to say, it’s truly inspirational what you’ve dedicated your life to, to helping others do exactly what you’re doing now, and you really are just a really exciting person to follow, and I wish you the very best. I was going to ask you where you said tinaramirez.com? Is that right?
Tina Ramirez:
Yes. Just www.tinaramirez, R-A-M-I-R-E-Z.com.
Julie Gunlock:
Do you have any other… Are you on Twitter? You’re on Twitter, I know-
Tina Ramirez:
Yeah. It’s TinaRamirezVA on all my social handles.
Julie Gunlock:
Well, this has been a great conversation. It’s really exciting to hear your energy and your excitement about your campaign and what you can do for Virginia, and we certainly wish you all the best. Thanks for are coming on the podcast.
Tina Ramirez:
Thank you so much for having me.
Julie Gunlock:
Thanks, everyone, for being here for another episode of the Bespoke Parenting Hour. If you enjoyed this episode or like the podcast in general, please leave a rating or review on iTunes. This helps ensure that the podcast reaches as many listeners as possible. If you haven’t subscribed to the Bespoke Parenting Hour on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcast, please do so, so you won’t miss an episode. Don’t forget to share this episode and let your friends know that they can get Bespoke episodes on their favorite podcast app. From all of us here at the Independent Women’s Forum, thanks for listening.