We exceeded our goal of having 50 participants at our annual CouleeConservatives Night at the Loggers game as several dozen patriotic Americans from around the region came together to celebrate Independence Day. Friends from Monroe, La Crosse, Trempealeau, and Crawford counties enjoyed some fellowship while watching our great American pastime and some excellent ballpark food. Thank you all for your attendance and for participating in our 2024 survey as well. And my sincere thanks to John Christy and Tom Bice who meet with me regularly to help work out the details because this wouldn't happen if it weren't for their exceptional teamwork. And thank you to the Logger's staff who were such wonderful hosts especially Dan Kapanke who personally visited with us to make sure our evening was spectacular.

Making it even more special was the participation of Congressman Derrick Van Orden and his family who were celebrating his grandson’s birthday. It was a magical moment when several dozen of us sang happy birthday for him. Thank you Congressman Van Orden for allowing us to participate in that special moment with your family.

Everyone had a great time and our State Senate and Assembly candidates, Stacey Klein (32nd Senate District), Ryan Huebsch (94th Assembly District), and Cedric Schnitzler (95th Assembly District) graciously spent much of the evening with us and enjoyed the festivities. Thank you all so much for your attendance and for some really heart warming conversations. I especially loved the conversation about our Republican candidates seeking positions of power so that they can re-distribute that power back to the people and protect taxpayers from government overreach. That mindset is refreshing to hear from our candidates especially when you compare it to the Democrat mentality of gaining power in order to abuse taxpayers and protect government bureaucrats.

Also in attendance were members of various patriotic organizations such as the USCCA, AFP, Monroe County GOP, La Crosse GOP, and SaveYourRightsCoalition. Thank you all for what you do to make America great!

Most of the people who attended also participated in the CouleeConservatives.com 2024 Election Survey for a chance to win Mark Levin's latest book and I was a little surprised at the results. 75% of those who participated at the game believe that securing the southern border is the most important issue that our nation must address. In some of the national polls I have seen it is the economy and inflation that float to the top of most important issues so it was interesting to see that our southern border is on a lot of minds locally.

A more somber moment was our short celebration of life and moment of silence as we sent up our prayers for the family of Mark Burg. By my recollection this was the first of our events that he was not present at and he was missed. We set a place at the table in his memory and I will always cherish my memories of great conversations with him and his devotion to the traditional American principles that make our nation so special. May our Heavenly Father give his family strength during this difficult time as they mourn their loss.