Social Insecurity

For Immediate Release

Contact: Andrew Horning
Horning for US Senate

March 26, 2024

Freedom, Indiana – Author Andrew Horning is the Libertarian Party of Indiana’s candidate for Indiana’s US Senate seat in 2024.

It is, of course, true that Libertarians oppose unconstitutional, costly and inevitably destructive “government programs” that make up most of what government does to us today.  But when people use that against us, as if we’re who’s wrong, they’re ignoring reality. 

Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid are failing…fast, and badly, as we’ve been warned.  …For decades.  Democrats and Republicans play games with base-pandering rhetoric, but the fact persists:  Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, are failing.  Nobody denies this anymore, yet nobody’s worried enough to fix what literally millions of Americans depend upon for basic living needs?  Even legacy media outlets, the ones who’re gradually conceding that most of Libertarians’ “conspiracy theories” are in fact, truth, are saying that our safety net programs will need to be scaled back in benefits, increased in cost, and will maybe fail anyway, as we add another trillion in USA debt every 100 days, for other priorities that rob us of rights and wealth, as government gains power, corruption, anti-civilian weaponry and secrecy.

The voters our government brings across our borders, may help with the demographic problem of too many retirees per taxpayer.  That’s one of the many reasons our government has been encouraging illegal border crossings since Reagan’s administration.  But the new aliens may not share our priorities, and may not want to pay into a system doomed by our government’s obvious priority of foreign entanglements, foreign aid, endless wars, and relentless spying, lying and crony capitalism here at home.

So, shall we continue to reelect people who rob millions of taxpayers 15.3% of their salary in combined OASDI and HI payroll taxes, as they prepare to stab millions of retirees in the back? 

This is worth repeating: The over-lauded keystones of FDR’s New Deal, and LBJ’s Great Society, Social Security, and Medicare/Medicaid are failing.  And we’re all paying for it, in every way.

While Libertarians rightly disdain impossible political promises, they are still promises.  And we believe in keeping promises.  There are ways to keep promises to citizens, by nullifying our other problems.  Ask me how.

It’s time to stop reelecting this catastrophic Two Puppet Party train wreck.  We need to FIX THIS to avoid genuinely impoverishing fiscal, monetary and social calamity.  NOW!

I pray it’s not only Libertarians who think so.

Liberty or Bust!
Andy Horning

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“‘Relighting the Torch‘ presents a historical and moral picture of our founders’ better ideas, where we failed those ideas, and some proposals for setting things right…for the first time..”

Even the Best Republicans Can’t Fix Our Mess

Freedom, Indiana – Today, Andrew Horning is announcing his candidacy for the Libertarian Party of Indiana’s nomination for Indiana’s US Senate seat in 2024:

Statement from Andrew Horning in announcing his candidacy

I admire loyalty.  But partisan divisions and contempt are tearing us apart. They make us believe we must double-down and reinforce this tribal warfare. 

It’s time to face the truth. Any vote for any major party candidate is a vote for a global puppet show of lobbyists, permanent partisan DC staffers, bureaucrats, bundlers, kingmakers, military industrialists and, increasingly, a relative few wealthy authoritarians scheming global domination and oppression behind the curtain of an unconstitutional, inherently divisive and destructive “Two Party System.” We should be enraged enough by the rising debts, inflation and cost of living, along with loss of rights, wealth, security, health, opportunity, and of course, freedom, that we’d vote it all away. Yet we embolden the status quo’s crony crime ring with our predictable votes of overwhelming approval.

The very best GOP officeholders, like Thomas Massie and Rand Paul, are well-intentioned, but voluntary cogs in a machine bigger than any candidate, bigger than the major parties, and, sadly, bigger than the USA.  The best Republicans (and there are many well-intentioned fine people in both major parties) can only waste our best efforts, money and time. They give us only false hope. They misappropriate our power of peaceful revolution. They waste our votes. We’ve been warned for generations, and not just by Eisenhower or our nation’s Founding Fathers.

Yet there’s no need to detail our culture’s many, vast, fundamental and catastrophic problems, or their surprisingly simple solutions. I wrote a whole book about it, and am offering a free Kindle Edition copy of “Relighting the Torch” from June 5 through June 9.

We have an opportunity to resurrect the best ideas in human history, and to vote away the worst.  We can have peace, prosperity, security, liberty and justice for all, at long last.  But we have to stop voting against ourselves…and for a better way.

The constitutional purpose of U.S. Senators is to be the voice of our sovereign states against the violation of constitutional restraints, concomitant encroachment and abuse of power and loss of individual human rights.  For that fundamental, constitutional, legal purpose, Indiana has not had a U.S. Senator for generations.  But there will be one such candidate for Indiana US Senate in 2024 — me.

Liberty or Bust!

Andy Horning

Freedom, Indiana

horningforsenate.com/

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“’Relighting the Torch’ presents a historical and moral picture of our founders’ better ideas, where we failed those ideas, and some proposals for setting things right…for the first time..” https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BJ46CHG5  

Horning takes on the “Administrative State”

Here’s a Press Release for today, July 4…

For Immediate Release

Contact: Andrew Horning
Libertarian candidate for IN08
thefreedomfarm@gmail.com   

July 4, 2022

Horning takes on the “Administrative State”

Freedom, IN – In previous press releases 8^th District US House Rep. candidate Andrew Horning detailed the inflationary and profligate debt spending of the incumbent US House Rep., the cause of inflation under unconstitutional monetary policy and central banking, and how to fix it.

But as damaging and dangerous as bad money and debt spending are, perhaps more ominous threats to both our economy and liberty are what Thomas Jefferson described as “…a Multitude of new Offices,” and “Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance.”  Or, today what we call, “The Administrative State” of executive agencies that have unconstitutionally acquired executive, legislative and judicial powers all their own.

Horning’s day job is in healthcare, an industry where nearly all the rules are written, judged and enforced by unelected bureaucrats in agencies that have multiplied like rabbits since even before the New Deal.  There are over 400 agencies that have the power to mandate, prohibit, imprison, reward, tax, fine, open and shutter businesses, and, significantly, shoot people.  They spit out laws like machine gun bullets, and, actually, these agencies have actual machine guns and SWAT teams.  Even the HHS and EPA have military assault equipment, body armor, guns and ammunition.  I have to wonder if the Small Business Administration is jealous that their Glocks don’t have silencers…like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has.  Among other agencies that have stockpiled hollow-point ammo banned by the Geneva Convention are the Forest Service, National Park Service, Office of Inspector General and …Bureau of Fiscal Service!  Agriculture, education, even the Smithsonian is heavily armed such that these agencies are now more heavily armed than are the US Marines.

STOP!  This must stop.  And I have a plan to stop it.
Curious?  Ask me!

https://horning4congress.com/

Liberty or Bust!
Andy Horning
Freedom, Indiana

*See “Eight Steps to Success” at https://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2017/12/15/eight-steps-to-success/  and https://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2016/08/31/money-politics-and-central-banks/

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The TRUTH about Excelsior…on Amazon

My brother Greg published a book about three years ago.  I don’t think of myself as particularly competitive, but doggone it, I couldn’t let him beat me!  So I wrote one too.

He also has a website for both his book, and a bunch of stories from my mom (she wrote and illustrated some hilarious stuff).

…Anyway, The Truth about Excelsior is now available in paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0849X45LQ?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860.

I don’t like the way it looks as an eBook, but I’ll likely publish that, too, in a couple of weeks or so.  It’ll be cheaper, of course.

But since some stuff gets lost in the eBook version, I’m resisting it as long as I can.

The blurb is, “Far more than the usual fanciful tale of precocious children, fire-breathing dragons, disastrous monetary policy and World War, “The Truth about Excelsior” offers a unique perspective on today’s cultural madness, and a glimpse into a world of peace, prosperity and …freedom.”

I mean it to be fun, but you know me…I had to insert some serious stuff in there, too.

Anyway, let me know what you think of it…and if you like it, tell everybody, and leave a review!

Just Say No to war with Iran

Freedom, IN – It’s a quote misattributed to pretty much everybody, that “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” The saying is more true and applicable to USA foreign policy than to anything else.

None of our foreign aggressions worked as promised, or even as we’ve been told. Yet we’ve had scarcely a year’s peace since the War to End All War.

And we’ve been getting worse, not better, at finagling foreigners into serving us and our Saudi allies. Does anyone doubt that our interventions in Libya and Syria have been disastrous?  Have we really fixed anything in Somalia, Yemen or Pakistan? When will we be done with Iraq?  Afghanistan is the USA’s longest war, ever…and we’re losing.  What’s the plan? What’s the goal?

We’re sure not fighting for freedom.  Not anybody’s freedom.  And we’re sure not making friends when we blow up their children.

A leaked May 17 memo reveals that the USA government once again intends to replay the same failed script; this time against Iran (again).

The key directive sent to Rex Tillerson is “…that the U.S. should use human rights as a club against its adversaries, like Iran, China and North Korea, while giving a pass to repressive allies like the Philippines, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.”

Let’s think like a human, and not a politician, for a moment.

What actual human beings on the planet would not hate us for our arrogant, armed and deadly games and manipulations?  Why wouldn’t we be creating more enemies than friends with such obvious duplicity?  Does anybody on this planet think they’re the ones who’re wrong, and deserve death?

Is the Golden Rule really so bad?

I’m no pacifist.  I believe in security through strength.  And I understand the theory of “Humanitarian Intervention” (though that’s been irrelevant lately, and it certainly doesn’t work in practice!).

But we’re acting like stupid teenage “swatting” and “knockout game” thugs; not at all like rational adult humans.  We’re acting as though we can use killing force against others with impunity, when in fact, we’ve been hurting ourselves as much as anybody else.

This is insanity.  We’ve got seven “whack-a-mole” wars going on now, and we’re losing our wealth, security, and of course, freedom as a very direct result.

Our armies are protecting military industrialists, bankers/ the petrodollar, and drug trade, not anything We The People should value.  Not freedom; not for anybody.

And we’ve for some time been lobbing missiles and troops and drones at people and nations who, really, are no threat to us.  What will we do when China decides to take Taiwan?  That’s been slowly brewing since 1949, and heating up fast since 2012, when the dictatorship of Xi Jinping made plain that China was already waging war against us and buying up half the world with our consumer’s money, and our governments’ cooperation.  What will we do when Russia decides to take Ukraine?  That’s been Russia’s obvious next move since our broken promises to stop expanding NATO onto Russia’s doorstep in 1994 …then accelerating since at least 2013 …and certainly since 2014, when Ukraine, spurred on by the USA, pushed for NATO membership, pushing Russia to annex Crimea and start campaigns of hacking, subversion and propaganda.
(sorry about the run-on sentence…but isn’t that how our foreign interventions have been working…run-on and on and…)

How long can we be party to the corruption that’s kept Ukraine out of NATO up to now, without some response from Putin, who we know wants the old USSR back?  Not very long, I suspect.  He must know what evil the USA has been working in Ukraine…

We’re headed toward world war, you know.  Don’t know when, but the trumpets, drums and war paint are already on stage.  Will we fight people who can fight back?  Could we afford to?

I propose we just say stop the madness, and give Peace, Prosperity, Security and Freedom a chance.

Liberty or Bust!

Andy Horning

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Quit mortgaging our future, dang it!

Freedom, IN – Of course we need to cut taxes.  I’d vote to end income tax entirely.

But we already know this game. Politicians say that “government is too big,” but then make it bigger. They trumpet the need to cut spending, but then spend more.

And, of course, they sometimes cut taxes (just a little) without fixing the first two things; which means that they’ll later raise taxes, and cut promised benefits.

Nobody likes to pay taxes.  But taxes are a symptom, not the disease itself.  The disease is ungoverned, unregulated, out-of-control politics and all the cost and violence that entails.

Every single one of the other 2018 primary election candidates for Indiana’s US Senate seat are promising more government. Every one of the others promise more fear-aggression-syndrome foreign policy, more domestic militarization, more intrusions into our privacy, trade and personal interactions.

I’m the only candidate promising less.

A lot less. 

I have a plan for Peace, prosperity, Security, Liberty and Justice for ALL, in eight steps.

But the summary is that I mean to cut the corruption, cost, intrusiveness, abusiveness and ineffectiveness of our central government by actually cutting powers, programs, agencies…and people, from that government. I propose establishing a truly federal (instead of our increasingly unitary) government as defined by the authorizing compact.

That is how this is supposed to work. That is still the law, as written and amended.

And I’m the only candidate who’s all about that.

Liberty or Bust!
Andy Horning
Freedom, Indiana

It’s time to talk about our spies

Freedom, IN – ♬♪ They see you when you’re sleeping, they know when you’re awake; they know when you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake! ♩♫

Our US Congress is trying to give its cronies a Christmas present – re-authorization and more funding for the unconstitutional mass surveillance programs we were once told didn’t exist.

I say it’s time for what some might call a “courtesy flush.”  I say it’s time to repeal, nullify, destroy and stomp on National Security Act of 1947 so decisively that it can never take root again.  The corruption and destruction and stench of our lawless, secretive societal saboteurs has grown too great.

Thomas Jefferson wrote “…that knolege is power, and that ignorance is weakness.”

So let’s stop being ignorant about who’s got the real power here, and what they’re doing with it.

The FBI was, from its start in 1935, corrupt, snooping, deceitful, and deadly.  It took some brave thieves to reveal some of the agency’s crimes.  Truman regretted creating the CIA, and Kennedy said he would “splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds.”  The CIA and NSA have been anti-constitutionally spying on all of us, and have repeatedly lied about it…even as they paid journalists, entertainers and clerics to lie on their behalf.

Now, just think about the power of unlimited, unregulated spying, lying, and political immunity, mixed with armed force and the ability to make opposing voices go silent.  Imagine you had the power to find out everything about people, convincingly make up what you don’t find, or make even powerful people, maybe even in our own country, die…without facing any consequences.  

What government on the planet wouldn’t abuse that power? We have good reason to believe that a government that performed medical experiments on school kids, doesn’t even resist abusing it.

Could such knowledge and power actually control our elected politicians?  How about elections themselves?  They have the power to lie, to deceive, to control public opinion, to, in essence, hack our brains and control us.  

This is what people are talking about with the term, “deep state,” or probably more accurately, “shadow government.”

So-called “federal” agencies’ famous rivalries, withholding of data, rejection of congressional oversight, their anti-constitutional actions against citizens, media and foreign governments, and their trampling of local law enforcement really do make them more enemy than friend.

The greatly abused Title VII, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is set to expire December 31.  Of course Congress should let it die and tumble back into the sulphureous depths it came from.

But I further propose we abolish the FBI and CIA, and give their money back to the states and people.  I would reinforce the constitution’s already clear ban on domestic spying, deception and subterfuge, and leave all domestic law enforcement to more local, appropriate units of government, and already-constitutionally authorized courts.

I propose that the US Congress directly manage our foreign spy operations under specific congressional warrants and limitations, including the Geneva Conventions, just as with constitutional funding and declaration of war and national defense (which hasn’t been the case since WWII, BTW).  I propose we make the process and results of FOIA requests more open and complete.

And perhaps most importantly, I propose clarifying that it is a serious crime, eligible for criminal and civil punishment, for agencies and agents of government to withhold the immediate and full release of requested information to congress, and/or in most circumstances as specified by congress, to the public.

“… we want no Gestapo or secret police. The FBI is tending in that direction. They are dabbling in sex-life scandals and plain blackmail. J. Edgar Hoover would give his right eye to take over, and all congressmen and senators are afraid of him.” — Harry S. Truman

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Liberty or Bust!
Andy Horning
Freedom, Indiana

Eight Steps to Success

Here’re my suggestions for Peace, prosperity, Security and Freedom in eight steps:

1. End the cronyism/corruption network and culture.  This is fundamental and critical.  Our government is captured by people and parties who do not share our collective best interests.  So we must bust up the self-appointed, inherently divisive, eternal tug-of-war “Two Party System,” and nullify the recent, unconstitutional, immoral state codes that suppress competition, create classes and sub-classes of citizens, and make taxpayers pay for the promotion of only D and R candidates at the expense of everybody else.  To do this, we need to …vote them out of power.  Not just the individual candidates – the whole power network behind the curtain.  This needs to happen.  And make no mistake…this is not just about the parties themselves, which are really just puppet shows for a much wider, deeper system of cronies that we scarcely see.  We won’t get anywhere trimming the claws of kingmakers, bundlers, lobbyists, permanent staffers and eternal bureaucrats without first replacing the 2-party puppet show and firewall that prevents us from doing the rest of what follows:
2. Stand down our military-industrial complex and global imperialism, and replace it with strong, constitutional national defense.  This of course includes killing the CIA/NSA monster to which Eisenhower also referred to in his famous Farewell Address as the “scientific-technological elite.”  Besides, we’ve been misidentifying real dangers.  China is already in a very effective, winning war against us, and we apparently don’t even know it.  Hopefully their internal problems will lessen the danger soon, because it is the worst, in my opinion, this nation has ever faced.
3. Monetary/banking reform.  Click the link for details.  I wish this could be #1.  It is a fundamental, and currently a terrible, fast-growing problem that’s about to result in massive inflation and turmoil.  The system of monetized debt begun here in 1912/13 has gone global, and is perhaps the biggest enabler of corruption.  But as with #2, it is well protected by the crony system.  
4. Rule of Law.  …Which of course means, kill “The Administrative State” of executive agencies and unelected bureaucrats that have taken unto themselves legislative, judicial and executive powers. This would cut a lot of stuff from what we’re calling “government” today. You may not like some of the cuts; but I’m certain you’d like the end result.
5. No more loaded bills. One subject at a time, and no earmarks/pork.
6. End special classes, special deals for special people – equality under law for all at long last.  This is partially implied/ included in #1, but needs to become a fundamental moral of our society if any real progress is to last.  And it would involve scaling back and phasing out many of the extraordinary powers, rights, perks and immunities granted to politically powerful corporate abstractions.  In other words, we need to stop fearing “Big Pharma,” “Big Ag,” “Big…anything.”  We’re all people here.  We should all be equal under the law.  That is certainly not the case now.
7. Sunset provision/amendment to refine and reduce the number of laws, and keep them few, simple and important so that our rules are:
   1. Few enough to actually know.
   2. Simple enough to actually obey.
   3. Important enough to enforce without exceptions or special classes.
8. Term Limits.  Let’s face it; voters haven’t been doing their part, and there’s no procedural fix for bad choices.  But term limits won’t happen until after voters make better choices.  Similarly, I have for decades favored alternative voting schemes like Condorcet, Ranked Choice or Approval Voting (RCV or AV).  And I definitely love the idea of increasing the number of representatives to better suit our population; and we have the technology to keep them in their districts with more local accountability.  But we won’t get such changes UNTIL we get rid of the politicians who like things the way they are.  That’s why I’m placing term limits last both procedurally, and in importance, because we’ll get term limits only after a sufficient number of people wake up and act appropriately such that we fire the bad guys and, at least for the short term, defuse the huge advantage of incumbency… particularly the power of “committee” rulers based on tenure.   …But after that cultural epiphany and revolution, their kids and grandkids will gradually fall asleep again.♣   That’s just how civilizations inevitably decay and die.  If we’re to delay our self-destruction at least a little, we need term limits shorter than human life expectancy…particularly in the context of tenure/corruption-based power structures.

To summarize, I want to cut the cost, intrusiveness, abusiveness and ineffectiveness of our central government by actually cutting powers, programs, agencies…and people, from that government. I mean to establish a truly federal (instead of our increasingly unitary) government as defined by the authorizing compact.  I want to make living life more voluntary, and much less driven by deceit, tribalism, anger, fear, mandates, prohibitions, and an impenetrable thicket of taxation.

♣A good part of my reasoning for term limits is encapsulated in this quote:  “Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.” ― G. Michael Hopf, Those Who Remain

I believe it takes “strong men” (strong-minded, individualist, non-tribal voters) to fire bums and clean up corruption.  But the “weak men” (look around) who follow will let anything go, and continuously reelect bad politicians…or let the whole system collapse.

They Crossed the Rubicon

For Immediate Release, October 31, 2016

Contact: Andrew Horning

They Crossed the Rubicon

Freedom, IN – What is human history but a litany of warnings? How many cassandric founders, US Presidents and activists warned us about the advancement and corruption of political/crony power against individual human rights?

Throughout all the human history we know, the default human state – the human norm, has been oppression, slavery, genocide and war. Liberty and justice have always been rare exceptions.

Throughout most of our history, and still today, most of “the media,” in whatever form reporters have existed, have been the mouthpiece of power and tribe; agents of propaganda rather than honest town criers.

I thank God for the chaotic angel called Wikileaks. But Wikileaks isn’t enough.

We find out about new “civil” police military tools and techniques (like bomb-bots!) only after they’re used. We learn about the effects of usurpation and trespass like the 2012 NDAA only after fully implemented and working against us.

In electoral politics today, being right is no advantage and being wrong is no demerit.

But you may want to look into my history of being right as I tell you that this is the truth: Our nation is in very, very serious trouble – the kind that people will some day look back upon, and shudder.

We could fix all this.  We could live in peace, prosperity, security, liberty and justice…for all.

But that would mean a very revolutionary change of heart, mind, and action.  No, not in the hearts and minds of our politicians…in us.

I pray for that change every day.  You should too; or pray that I’m wrong about what always comes next.

Liberty or Bust!

Andrew Horning

Facebook www.facebook.com/HorningForCongress/

Campaign Twitter www.twitter.com/HorningCongress 

Blog https://wedeclare.wordpress.com/

Website http://andrewhorning.wix.com/horningforcongress

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We could fix it in a Single Day

But voters, as always, must choose

Freedom, IN – Many feel that our “Major Party” choices on Election Day have been getting worse and worse, while the general condition of our society and individual lives seems to be devolving toward calamity.

That’s true, of course.

But we could fix it if only we’d acknowledge the problem, admit who freely chose this, and realize who’s got the power to turn this around. The fix itself is simple enough, and mostly written-down already.

The most important three steps are:

• Stand down our military-industrial complex and global imperialism.
• Monetary/banking reform.
• End the cronyism/corruption culture.

That’s in reverse order, unfortunately; because as congressmen I could address the first two listed only after voters take a stand against the recent (since the 1970’s), self-appointed and irretrievably corrupt, “Two Party System”…by electing me!

Only voters can topple the two-party-in-name-only, crony network, which has become little more than a front, distraction, protection and marketing group for the finance and militarism elites who run the world behind the Two Party Firewall.

So before we can nullify the unjust, profligate, unconstitutional judgments, agencies, laws and actions which produced the welfare cliff, the horrific cost of healthcare, oppressive lawless bureaucracy, and of course endless war and ever-more militarization, voters must first say something to the ruling elites that they’ve not heard in a hundred years:

…NO!

The other 8^th district candidates have no intention or ability to fix the mess they choose to represent. So, first, voters must vote against that corrupt monstrosity. Yes, it’s good to vote against what’s wrong. To say otherwise is a terrible misunderstanding of the whole point of elections; and that is for peaceful revolution. If they feel that they can vote for me, that’d be great. But first, voters must fire the Two Party System!

After voters fire that shot heard ‘round the world, we can talk about other reforms including:

• Term Limits
• Rule of Law
• End “earmarks” (pork)
• End special classes, special deals for special people – equality for all at long last
• Sunset provision/amendment to refine and reduce the number of laws so that our rules are:
  • Few enough to actually know
  • Simple enough to actually obey
  • Important enough to enforce without exceptions or special classes

None of the preceding is ideological, untested or even new. Most of it is already law.

It’s all in voters’ power to set things right. But first, in order to use their power, they must understand that they’ve always had it, and used it to get to where we are today. And for that to happen, they need to be better informed of their choices, and how elections have been working up to now.

Liberty or Bust!

Andrew Horning

Libertarian for 8^th District US House of Representatives

Facebook www.facebook.com/HorningForCongress/