Happy Thanksgiving

Today, we celebrate the blessings of a people dedicated to liberty.

Our forefathers fled religious persecution to pursue the freedom of conscience in the New World, a bedrock principle we must continue to protect.

As the pilgrims in their November 1620 Mayflower Compact, their very first governing framework, wrote: “[We] solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation.”

A year later they thanked God for his providence, their first harvest, and a new land of opportunity. It was the nation’s very first Thanksgiving.

Despite the many trials they faced, they expressed gratitude for the opportunity to live freely.

President Calvin Coolidge reminded us nearly a century ago: “We have been a most favored people. We ought to be a most generous people. We have been a most blessed people. We ought to be a most thankful people.”

And, we are.

This Thanksgiving, Heidi and I wish you and your family the very best, and may God continue to bless the Great State of Texas and the United States of America.