Change starts with a single step.Let's take ours.

Why are you not running as a Republican?
Why are you not running as a Democrat?
Who will you caucus with?

These questions came up everywhere as I traveled from my home in northern Idaho up and down the District, collecting signatures to get on the ballot in November. They are the right questions. Policies reflect ideology, and with any candidate, you need to know what you are getting.

I am not running as a Democrat because I don't share their worldview. Democrats put the people first and assume the economy will follow. That sounds noble, until reality sets in. The end result of this philosophy has been big government programs, burdensome regulations, and continual redistribution of a pie that struggles to grow.

I am not running as a Republican because the party has abandoned the tradition it once held. That tradition rightly recognized that markets are the most powerful engine of prosperity ever devised, that they require maintenance to function, and that government's job is to provide that maintenance and then stop. Eisenhower called it 'Modern Republicanism.' It built the interstate highway system, the GI Bill, and the research investments that created American technological dominance. But starting about four decades ago, the party convinced itself that tax cuts alone would provide the investment necessary to feed the economy. It doesn't. Rather than invest in the economy and the conditions that sustain it, they lean on borrowing ever greater sums against our future.

I believe that the Republican Party is right to focus on the economy as the engine that drives American prosperity, but that their current policies are working against it. I see government’s role as reducing the obstacles to American inventiveness and industry so that businesses and the communities that support them can flourish. That philosophy leans toward free markets and an openness to world trade. It favors legal pathways to getting the workers we need, while preventing the uncontrolled migration that threatens security and risks overwhelming community resources. It casts aside regulation that prevent the entry of small players into the marketplace and supports regulation to keep the most powerful groups from rewriting the rules to assure their continued dominance. It preserves a safety net, so that a failed venture doesn't become a ruined life. It recognizes that there are some institutions and some investments that a free market won’t support, but the absence of which are themselves obstacles. Here and now, such an investment would be completing broadband access in our rural areas; such institutions would be public schools and rural hospitals. But government also needs to know when to stop. When the tax burden of big government programs makes daily life a struggle, people won’t be able to invest in education, businesses, or their future. When the government grows too intrusive, we lose the freedoms that we cherish. Government’s motto should be ‘just enough.’

A government that supports business success amid thriving communities should be right square in the common ground of what both parties value at their core. But common ground and bipartisan support don't get us very far in today's political reality, which brings us back to the third question: Who will you caucus with?

Today's political reality accepts the idea that the biggest questions — even those specifically assigned to Congress, like whether to take the country to war — are decided unilaterally by the President while Congress sits by. I don't accept that and neither should you. Restoring Congress to its constitutional role is itself one of the central fights I am taking to Washington. In the meantime, Congress still controls the laws that govern daily life — including matters of critical importance to Idaho, like the Farm Workforce Modernization Act and the Public Lands in Public Hands Act. Where you sit determines the influence you have in those decisions. I will position myself to work with those who provide the assertive center — who demand to be heard on every issue, large and small, and push the country back to its constitutional norm.