The Missouri Republican state senator, who is the only female of six Republicans running in the Aug. 6 primary, told RedState why she posted a strong new commercial that shows her firing an AR-15 military long gun.
Advertisement
“The Second Amendment has always been important to me, and that I grew up in horrific domestic violence and then have also experienced it as an adult woman and mother,” said state Sen. Holly Rehder, who serves on the Missouri Rights of Victims of Sexual Assault Task Force and the Statewide Council on Sex Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Children committees.
“I’m projecting the fact that I can carry at any time; protecting the fact that I can protect myself and my family at all times is of the utmost importance to me,” the senator said.
“It has always been paramount in my service as a representative and then as a senator, and so that was why I chose to really just highlight who I am,” she said.
“I’m not somebody that gets pushed around and my years of service has shown that, but then also the protection of our Second Amendment that is so near and dear to my heart for many personal reasons,” she said.
“If it wasn’t known that I have a gun in every room in my house, I may not be here today,” she said. “I can tell you the times that as a child, I watched my mother get beat and have to retreat and be in fear of her life and ours, being able to protect myself.”
Advertisement
Rehder said for many women, gun ownership is essential to their living independent lives. “I mean, that’s incredibly empowering, and it’s something that once I became an adult woman, I made sure that that’s a part of who I am.”
Rehder’s commercial shows her firing the long gun at the “Liberal Agenda” and wearing a tight tee shirt with the words: “FEARLESS,” wearing her ballistic glasses.
In the spot, she lays out her MAGA priorities.
“These days, the radical lifts, open borders, gun-grabbing, China appeasing transgender bullsh#t is everywhere you look. I’m conservative Holly Rehder,” she said.
“When illegals try to hurt our families, China tries to take our land, and trans radicals think it’s okay to mutilate kids. I’ll do whatever it takes,” the Memphis, Tennessee, native said. “Missouri deserves a lieutenant governor who will fight back. I’m always packing, and when I take aim, I don’t miss.”
Rehder said that as a state representative and senator, she has the experience to operate as the state’s lieutenant governor, but her personal story will also inform how she leverages the office.
“For someone like me who had to quit school at 15 to help take care of my family, I understand what it’s like to get out of poverty,” she said.
“I understand how empowering it is to be able to buy my daughter her first Happy Meal out of my own paycheck, and that’s what I want for every Missourian,” she said.
Advertisement
The state senator said she wants all Missouri residents to have the ability to lead independent lives.
“I want them to be self-reliant. I want them to have that empowered feeling of being able to take care of their kids, to be able to buy health insurance at an affordable price,” she said.
Rehder on Biden: ‘He’s not fit to run again, but that means he’s not fit to run our country’
Rehder dropped the new commercial today, but she said she understands there is bigger news coming out of Rehoboth, Delaware, where President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s staff released a statement attributed to him that withdrew him from the 2024 presidential campaign.
The senator wondered if there was something to the timing of the first presidential debate, which Biden’s staff set up before the Democratic National Convention.
“It was suspicious them wanting an early debate to start with,” she said.
“They had to know that he’s struggling with dementia,” she said. “The whole world sees that, and so they knew before putting him on that stage, and he can’t make it through a press conference.”
Reher said the staff did not act in the president’s best interest.
“How was he going to make it through a debate, much less with President Trump, who is exceptional?” she asked.
“It’s just been incredibly bizarre, but there’s no way that his team felt that he was ready for that,” she said. “My read on that is someone who’s just watched politics for the last decade is your team is never going to encourage you to do something that you can’t successfully master.”
Advertisement
Rehder said the question now is about whether Biden should resign.
“He’s not fit to run again, but that means he’s not fit to run our country,” she said.
Now that Vice President Kamala Harris is the presumed Democratic standard bearer, Rehder said Missouri is solid for President Donald J. Trump.
“Not a snowball’s chance in hell,” she said.
“She is just as bad as Joe Biden,” she said.
“She’s been in charge of the border…she is equally as bad, and she will not play well in Missouri — I mean, Missouri has watched this catastrophe unfold before our eyes.”