Welcome to Mike Clark for Congress.com

Here is the first half of Mike's Speech on a YouTube video thanks to Robert R.

Here is the text to Mike's Kick-off speech. Thanks to all the wonderful supporters who came out and made noise in support of Mike's campaign!

Good morning, and I want to thank each and every one of you for being here this morning... in the shadow of the Carter County Courthouse in Elizabethton.

I wish to particularly thank Mike Lane and his group of dedicated, hard-working Carter County Democrats - men and women - for putting this on, and I know the hot dogs we eat later will be yummy and delicious! Thanks, Mike!

I want to thank my family for being so supportive of the efforts we're beginning to undertake.

You know, as I'm beginning my travels across the First District of Tennessee, one question - well, besides, "Who the heck are you?" - that I keep getting asked is, "Does a Democrat actually stand a chance this November? After all, this is a red state and East Tennessee hasn't elected a Democrat Congressman since, oh, 500 years, or something like that …"

Actually, the last Democrat to go to Washington from East Tennessee was Robert L. Taylor, and he took office in 1878 and was defeated for reelection in 1880 - leaving office in early 1881. That's 129 years and counting since this district sent a Democrat to Congress.

Well, that's why we are here today. We didn't bring the DeLorean from 'Back to the Future,' we can't hit Mr. Peabody's WayBack Machine. We don't have the ability to go back and change the past - we have to create a new future ourselves. Starting here. Starting now.

Can a Democrat win in November? They say we can't. They say the odds are stacked against us. They say Democrats in East Tennessee are disheartened. There aren't enough Democrats to win, they say. Well, let's look at a few other things they said:

They said an African-American could never be elected president … but he was. We made history.
They said we'd never get meaningful health care reform - and we did. We made history.
They say a Democrat can never be elected from the First District of East Tennessee - and we say, let's make some history starting right here. Right now!

I know we can - let's work together let's build this campaign together with energy and that "Yes We Can" spirit - and let's make history in 2010! It isn't going to be easy. It's going to take dedication and a lot of hard work. But we know that. We need to build on 2008, return everyone we can to the polls this November and bring in a lot of new voters too. We cannot let our spirit down. We have to keep it in mind that we have the right values, we have the right views on the issues facing America, and the First District, today. And we have an outlook that is positive, not negative. Republican leader Newt Gingrich says that if and when the GOP gains the majority in Congress, they're going to repeal everything we've worked hard to obtain - not just health care, but in education, the economy, banking reform - back, back, back to the failed policies of the past; the nasty politics of the past.

You can't go back to the future, despite catchy movie titles. You have to move forward, dare to try - we have to fight like our future depends on it. There is no other choice than to reject the failed policy of the past and instead keep moving forward to prepare for the needs of the future. Yes to innovation, Yes to common sense solutions, Yes to America's children!

Our opponent is not a Yes person, apparently. He's hard to reach - forget the open door, he has open line Friday over the telephone. He's says he's all for the future - as long as it restores Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy, includes increases in fossil fuel consumption, cuts spending on education and infrastructure, and leaves women, children, the poor, the sick, the homeless – well, it leaves them holding the phone. Phil Roe has voted 'No' so many times, it is hard to keep count. He's voted against kids, against rural development, against women, against jobs. He's voted against student aid, economic stimulus … he even voted against funding our armed forces for the most partisan, political reason - because the bill also contained a provision expanding the definition of a hate crime. Yes, you heard right - he'd rather argue the point on what constitutes a hate crime than fund our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. He voted against the Stimulus Bill, which contained Race to the Top, the education program recently rewarded to the state of Tennessee to improve education. That's right - he's praised a program he voted against, and would like you to think he's proud Tennessee earned it. But we know better, don't we?

If you look at his record - easily available on the internet, through VoteSmart or Open Secrets, or the Government's own website, Thomas.gov, you can see clearly that - time and again - Dr. No has voted politics over people - party line politics over the citizens of his own district over and over and over, no after no after no after no after no … well, come November 5, let's shout out his favorite word in the voting booth - let's say NO to Phil Roe!

Jimmy Quillen must be laughing out loud at what his GOP has been reduced to - for even that long-time Republican - and we worked to beat him… but we had to admit he knew that his was the work of his district - for Quillen, it didn't matter if he made the network news with silly challenges to presidents - that wasn't what he was there for. He was there to do the business of his people.

See, in the battle between politics and people - people have to win. There is simply nothing else remotely acceptable. Dr. Roe has a record of placing the politics of the Republican party over the average working people of the first district of Tennessee - its not hard to see. He values tax cuts for the wealthy over job growth for the middle and lower class, corporate welfare over the welfare of his constituents. He says "Vote for me, and I won't do anything for you!"

But for us, well - we value the good, honest, decent people of this area. We value the children who will be this nation's future. We see in their eyes all the hopes and dreams we once shared. Dreams forced to close shop when the factories left and the jobs disappeared, when the banks took the house because the insurance refused to pay and that minimum wage job just wasn't enough to pay the mortgage and the medical and put food on the table. Recent studies indicate 18.5 percent of all Americans have withheld food purchases due to economic circumstances. That's not the America we knew as kids, is it? Yet that's the America we're leaving to our children. For us Democrats, it all comes down to what you value. What you value. They’re agenda of repeal will not win them any votes. We know the priorities of the people come down to three things - jobs, education, and the environment. They're all linked. To make this country strong, we need jobs - now! We need incentives - and disincentives - to bring jobs back here to East Tennessee where they belong!
We need a worldwide policy of Fair Wages and an end the exploitation of workers here - and abroad - right now!

We need education for new green technologies and better and cheaper ways to do things. We need a strong, forward thinking environmental policy, a logical policy that protects these wonderful mountains from being raped by bulldozers, protects our forests and our rivers - that helps protect us from the terror of food insecurity by re-educating Americans in how to farm, how to grow their own food supplies and be self-sustaining. We need to build and protect our nutritional security for everyone's future. A nation that cannot feed itself cannot last.

We need to feed our children properly, so they can learn. We teach them the basics of nutrition, then feed them corn dogs for lunch. We need to end that right now! Let's embolden local growers, give them incentives grow again and to sell their food to the school systems at a fair price - encourage anyone with enough space to garden to take part in the process. Let's teach children what we learned as kids - to eat in-season, can enough for the winter … make it part of the curriculum, along with basic economics and a sense of history of the region they live in. We can do that - starting now!

We need to tell outlaw businesses like Massey Energy that the day has come when the American people will not condone the kind of behavior that led to the deaths of those hard-working people in West Virginia - when companies violate the law, they must be punished. And not with small fines - repeated violators like Massey Energy should lose the right to exist when they willfully, continually put the lives of their workers in danger. This cannot be tolerated any longer. End it now!

Standing across the way from a memorial to the fine veterans of this region, I offer this pledge – my office will work tirelessly to help find homes for veterans - and their families - who are down on their luck and can't find their way home. There is debt greater than the one we owe the men and women who’ve risk their very existence for our freedom. We must all be Citizen Soldiers and fight for those who have fought so passionately for us. Starting here. Starting now.

None of the goals I've mentioned today will come easy. Much of what I've mentioned is on the table in Washington, in committees. We just need another voice to help push them through. A voice that considers the needs of the constituents, not the needs of the one-percenters – America’s most wealthy. We need a voice that says Yes to innovation. Yes to progress. Yes to the people of the First District of Tennessee, this glorious hill country we call home.

Today is a beginning. From this day forth let us - like the late Robert F. Kennedy - begin to see things not as they are and ask, 'Why,' but strive to see things as they aren't and ask, 'Why not?' Let us move forward from this day. Join us in the rejection of the politics of No and together let's embrace the possibilities of the future. The possibility of 'Yes.'

They say a Democrat can't win in East Tennessee … well, let's make history in this November!! Starting here. Starting right now. Thank you.

Don't forget - we need your support. If you can volunteer your time, please click on the "Get Involved" link above. If you don't have any time, but want to contribute financially, please click on any one of the "donate" buttons througout the site. We appreciate all the support we are receiving and want you to know that Mike Clark will work hard to be the true voice of the people in East TN.