Michele Bachmann's Record at the State Legislature

Some of you coming to this site lately, aren't aware of this.

To my dear friends:

Today, May 17, 2004, is a momentous day of change for America, but our God is mightier still.

Thank you for calling upon your listeners to come to the Capitol to pray for the final session countdown. We adjourned at 7 a.m. on Sunday in a thunder of confusion and it was all over the issue of letting the people vote on marriage.

The number one story for the end of session was the praying people, their clear pro-family witness for Christ, and their strength of numbers. Over a 24-hour period from Saturday through Sunday, there must have been 500 people at the Capitol. The peoples presence charged the entire dynamic for end of session. Bills were deliberately not taken up because of the marriage issue.

Pro-family people were everywhere faithfully persevering in prayer.

We tried for 21 hours to get the marriage bill on the Senate floor for debate and a vote, but were prevented from achieving that goal. The Senate refused to recognize me when I stood requesting to speak on any bill. Other Senators tried to speak and tried to yield their time to me so I could speak, but the Senate President ignored me and continued to pound his gavel at the desk.

Members from the House huddled around TV sets to watch the Senate proceedings and were stunned that the Senate would purposely and repeatedly ignore a sitting member who repeated requested to speak.

In the end, the Senate Majority Leader moved for final adjournment and ran out the side door of the chamber to avoid meeting the faithful prayer warriors out by the front doors. Once again, I spoke into my microphone, but the majority leaders left the Senate chamber, and the session was over with a thud.

Afterwards, the faithful gathered their signs, we hugged, and they applauded the group of Senators who voted for man/woman marriage. It was 7:30 a.m., Sunday morning, and we had lost the battle, but encouraged one another that our God would be victorious in the end.

Today, we're having a press conference to tell the people of Minnesota to keep praying. Because, as of today, homosexual marriage is legal in Massachusetts and that imposes a real threat to Minnesotas definition of marriage and to our civil and religious liberties.

Sincerely,

State Senator Michele Bachmann