Mayor Candidates Speak at Republican Women's Forum

Candidate Chris Weir's Speech
Monday March 8, 2010
For the Cleveland Area Republican Women's Forum


Hello, my name is Chris Weir and I am running for Bradley County Mayor.

First, I want to thank each of you for allowing each of us to come and speak with you tonight. I have always been a very proud conservative and a proud republican and it is an honor for me to be here asking for your trust in nominating me to represent the Republican Party as the next mayor of Bradley County. 

I understand and I respect the responsibility that is placed on our party's nominees. I stand ready to not only, fulfill the duties and responsibilities of the office of Bradley County Mayor, but I stand ready to support and promote the values and principles of the Republican Party.

I was born and raised right here in Bradley County, to my parents Jackie and Lynn Weir. I am married to my beautiful wife of seven years Candace. I have two incredible daughters, Kylee - 6 and Ashlyn - 4 and ½. 

I attended Oak Grove Elementary School, Trewhitt Junior High School, and graduated from Bradley Central High School. I have attended Middle Tennessee State University and Penn State University, both to study business administration and marketing.

I have had over a decade of leadership and management experience, controlling inventories worth as much as ½ a billion dollars, and as many as 800 employees at one time. I just recently completed my enlistment in the United States Army with a combat tour to Iraq. 

My family and I attend and are members of Peerless Road Church right here in Cleveland. And the most important thing to me personally, I am a Christian.

Now, this whole campaign experience, so far, has been amazing and very humbling to me. To meet so many people, with so many different stories; it reminds me everyday how important choosing the right leaders really is, at every political level. 

So, let's cut right to it. I guess I am considered the long-shot; the proverbial underdog. I have only a fraction of the money my opponents have and politics as usual tells us, the only way to win a campaign, is to have a good pile of money.

I have never held a public office before, and politics as usual tells us that I should move up the ranks politically, run for something smaller first and learn the "political ropes."

I spent 2009 in the middle of a sand box we call Iraq. The high temperature for the day was usually around 145 degrees and the low for the day was around 144. 

And let me say this, please. I see a lot of attention being drawn away from Iraq and onto Afghanistan right now. Whether you think we should be in Iraq or not, is a whole separate debate; and regardless of where you stand politically, what our soldiers are doing over there every single day is nothing short of a miracle.  I was proud to be a part of rebuilding the lives and securing the freedoms of men and women who needed help. 

I don't care what some new suit in Washington D.C. has to say about our military, I am telling you from first hand experience, our freedoms are being protected by the absolute best and brightest this country has to offer and I thank God everyday we have the soldiers we do; and so should you.

Now like I said, I have been over in Iraq for the past year. Politics as usual says, that I should have been here participating in, what has been called the weekly circus. The battle of favors owed versus favors sought.  Name calling, mud slinging, toys and tantrums. Well, instead, I chose to stand up and fight for what I believed in, and quite frankly I don't apologize for that, politics as usual or not.

Like many of you, I have had to fight back from a terrible loss and a devastating failure. God put me on my face and He forced me to put my trust in Him to stand back up, instead of relying on myself. Politics as usual, however, tells us that the politician is someone who never fails and shouldn't have to experience what thousands of Bradley County residents are facing every single day. 

Politics as usual says we should put our faith in the politician, instead of requiring our politicians to put their faith in God Almighty. 

Politics as usual says that you will ignore the fact that we have been operating from a budget deficit for the past five years here in Bradley County, which means we spent more than we made. 

Politics as usual also says that you don't care that we continue to borrow more and more money, placing our children and their children further and further in debt. And that our leadership stands by and watches.

Politics as usual says you don't care that our children deserve better education, or that that we deserve safer streets and better emergency protection.

Politics as usual says that you couldn't care any less about our county's roads and infrastructure, or even our unemployment.

You see, politics as usual says you don't really care about where any of us stand on any of these issues. All you care about is how many billboards have been bought and how many road signs line the streets up to the voting booth. 

Well, I believe that on May 4^th of this year, we are going to see that not only do the people of Bradley County care about the issues; we will see the people of Bradley County say in one very loud voice, we are sick and tired of politics as usual by the usual politicians.

We are not looking for change we can believe in; we are looking for a difference we can see.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I believe it's time. 

I am Chris Weir, I am running for Bradley County Mayor, and I humbly ask for your support and for your vote. God bless each and every single one of you, and God Bless Bradley County. Thank you.