Guy Reschenthaler

Guy has an extensive history as a Navy Judge and lawyer but has shifted a lot of his attention to more domestic issues as a politician. Infrastructure has been a big talking point for him, though he didn’t vote for the bipartisan infrastructure package because of its price. Perhaps if the GOP takes back the House he can get some of his preferred policies through?

No, that’s not the cover of the new issue of Republican’s Guide To Jan 6, but it sure is how they’re all behaving when asked about the violent (was it?) insurrection (would we call it that?) at the Capitol (the place with the dome?) one year ago. Guy followed many of his fellow R’s by keeping a low profile and issuing zero statements. He did however send out a fundraising email one day prior asking supporters to “stand with him for election integrity.” After just about every election official has proved the past presidential contest to have been above board, it seems that “standing up to election integrity” looks a lot like admitting that you lost. As we learned in T-ball, there’s no shame in that as long as you gave it your best shot.

Guy has had his eyes on infrastructure this year! After writing a letter to the Appalachian Regional Commission’s (ARC) Power Initiative, Guy secured funding for his district to use to construct broadband infrastructure in the area and expand coverage of the unserved and underserved areas of the county. Despite securing this funding, Guy had been critical of other large funding packages involving infrastructure. At one point this year, a group of protesters stood outside Guy’s office to implore him to support President Biden’s Build Back Better plan because it would revamp home caregiver infrastructure. This effort didn’t sway Guy’s opinion though.

Guy was happy to throw his support in voting to pass the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2022. Some of you might remember that some Democrats voted against this because they did not see a reason why to increase funding (a cool $25 billion increase). Guy advocated for many of the provisions related to prohibiting funding with China, protecting Taiwan, and fighting opioid addictions. Are you supportive of the NDAA or did you think funding should not have been increased?

Immigration is sure to be one of the hottest campaign issues for Republicans come next year (which is… right around the corner?? Omg). But, what do you get when you cross immigration with Covid – an even greater crisis! Guy joined 50 of his GOP colleagues in sending a letter to President Biden demanding a plan on how the Dept. of Homeland Security will test every migrant at the southern border. Letting these migrants go untested is, the letter says, hypocritical to the rest of the administration’s Covid standards and requirements. Do you think we can make headway in this double doozy of a crisis?