NORTH WEBSTER - Republicans attending the Kosciusko County Republican Party Lincoln Day Dinner Thursday night got to hear from three speakers.
That’s not including the brief comments from 25 candidates - or their surrogates - who are up for election this year.
While the keynote speaker was Indiana Republican Party Chairwoman Anne Hathaway, she was preceded by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita and 2nd District Congressman Rudy Yakym.
Hathaway said since she was elected Aug. 30, she’s been focused on building the party up and making sure that they are prepared to win the election in November.

    Second District U.S. Congressman Rudy Yakym (R) listens to Ambassador Kip Tom at the Kosciusko County Republican Party Lincoln Day Dinner Thursday at The Owl’s Nest in North Webster. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union
  

“On May 8, we’ve got to pivot our party and focus on winning in November. Indiana is a state where Republicans take for granted how successful we’ve been, and we have to keep fine-tuning and working and building and bringing people in,” she said.
She said she encouraged people to go and run for office and get on the ballot.
“We needed a little competition. We needed to be able to lean in to campaigning for these jobs, instead of assuming that people might get appointed. And as we build our party, we then start to think about the tools that we all need in our toolkit on May 8 and November to make sure we win,” Hathaway said.
She said they’ve also been working on their victory plan and Republicans need to make sure they turn out their vote.
“There’s going to be more fraud in this election than ever before across the country. It’s going to happen, so we need to make sure that we turn out all of our Republican voters, we get to the polls,” she said. “In addition to that, if we don’t turn out, it’s going to have serious impact down ballot. So in order to make sure Republicans from the bottom up are elected this fall, we need to turn out our vote.”
She said the presidential election is no longer a choice. “(President) Joe Biden has to go. And if anybody asks you, and indicates to you that they’re not sure, what you need to tell them and ask them is, ‘Are you better off than you were four years ago?’ And the answer is going to be ‘no.’ It’s absolutely not. We have to make sure Donald Trump wins in November and that we send back Republican members of Congress, we send Jim Banks as a senator, we make sure that we hold on to our Republican statewide elected officials, and that we maintain our supermajorities in the legislature,” she said.
Republicans can’t stay complacent and must be vigilant, she continued.
“We have to stay focused, we have to use the tools we put in the toolkit, and I just can’t tell you how important it is for me for you to know that I may be your state chair, but I’m your partner. I’m standing shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand with you to make sure you have everything you need to make sure we win in November. And I am so grateful for that opportunity,” Hathaway concluded.

    Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita speaks at the Kosciusko County Republican Party Lincoln Day Dinner Thursday at The Owl’s Nest in North Webster. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union
  

After only three years of the Biden administration, Yakym said, “Americans are worse off. We have less money in our pockets because of inflation. Look around the world, our adversaries no longer fear us or respect us. Our allies are being attacked because of the weak leadership coming out of the United States of America, and it is the weak leadership that we see even here on the homefront that has allowed the rise of antisemitism to take place on college campuses.”
He said you can clearly see the radical left agenda no matter where you look on college campuses.
“This behavior can not be excused. It can not be tolerated. It has to be dealt with,” he said.
About three weeks ago, Yakym said he and his wife were in Israel with about 15 other members of Congress. As they traveled the whole country, meeting with Israeli leaders, the number one concern Israel had with the U.S. was the rise of antisemitism on college campuses.
Yakym has been to Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem - twice.
“What you see is, when they allowed antisemitism to rise in places like Germany, it is what facilitated and made culturally acceptable to slaughter 6 million Jews in the Holocaust. We can never allow that to happen ever again,” Yakym stated.
He talked about a bill he’s carrying in Congress right now that will defund colleges and campuses if they allow antisemitism.
“As long as I’m in Congress, I will stand with Israel and I will do so unashamedly,” he stated.
Transitioning to the southern U.S. border crisis, Yakym said when he travels around Indiana’ second district, the number one concern he hears is the “wide-open” southern border.
“I hear this from our mayors, I hear this from our law enforcement, who are dealing with fentanyl that are killing their kids,” he said.
A sheriff in Marshall County told Yakym that they are averaging one fentanyl death per month.
Yakym said President Barack Obama had one-sixth of the border crossings that Biden has had. “Whoever thought we could do worse than Barack Obama? That’s how bad it really is,” he said.
Biden, Yakym said, created the southern border crisis with the stroke of a pen on 64 executive orders.
The third topic Yakym touched on was him standing up for and fighting for America’s veterans.
After recognizing all the veterans at the dinner, he said, “One of the things that we deal with on a day-to-day basis is the mental health crisis that is happening with our veterans.”
Veterans, particularly disabled veterans, deserve to get the care that they earned while serving the country. “Our veterans went to war for us and they deserve federally-elected representatives who will go to war for them,” Yakym stated.
In his five-minute speech, Rokita sent greetings from Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales, Treasurer Daniel Elliott and Comptroller Elise Nieshalla. He said he also was going to run for re-election and would appreciate people’s support.
“I hope you see all the work that we’re doing. We’re drinking from a fire hose in a lot of ways, but we’re winning most of our cases. We have a 100% win rate on our jury trials, and I could go on and on and on, but I promised you I wouldn’t do that,” Rokita said.
He then left everyone with a thought, saying, “You see it on our TVs every night. Ann’s going to talk about what’s happening, I’m sure, on our college campuses that we’re seeing. We’re seeing our country attacked, our very way of life attacked every day. I fight against that for you in court every week. But what can we do?”
It starts with your family and church, he said.
“I’m not asking you to get into fisticuffs with anybody, but you’ve got to have the conversation about saving this country. You gotta understand that the social issues just aren’t social issues. At their roots is an attack on our economy because in a free-enterprise system, it’s the family unit that is the foundation. Because that’s how you pass on personal responsibility. That’s how you pass on your values,” Rokita stated. “So these things that we’re fighting - from the trans-sanity to the mandated vaccines and everything else - that collide, it’s about the family to preserve the foundation of our economy. And that’s worth saving, that’s worth fighting for.”