So if we're talking about entitlement reform, the first thing we do is, look, I have parents in their 80s. We take care of them. I don't want anythin… - Nikki Haley

Many of the women in this book were firsts. The first to be prime minister. The first to take a stand. The first to fly. Being the first is hard. It can be lonely and isolating. There is no road map, and people assume something is impossible simply because it hasn’t been done before. These women are leaders because they paved the way for the women who came after them. We walk in their footsteps and leave a well-trodden path for the women who come after us. As you read these pages, remember we have the potential to make life better for others. In our own small way, we can inspire, mentor, and encourage other women to do great things. So, don’t hold back. Don’t be silent. Don’t give in to fear. Be bold. Be adventurous. Be yourself. There will always be people who want to tell you what you can do and what you can’t. What is possible and what is not. I know because I have encountered those people throughout my life. Some of them were well meaning. But all of them wanted to limit my potential. Your potential is limitless. Your life — the life you want — is worth fighting for. So, fight.

The values that sustain Iowa are the bedrock of America. Yet President Biden is hard at work undermining them. He’s weakening our country – economically, culturally, and spiritually – at the exact moment we need to be strong. And he’s destroying the pride that inspires each generation to defend our freedom, which is an urgent necessity in the face of Communist China. President Biden and his party have even spread the lie that America is racist. Take it from me, the first minority female governor in history: America is not a racist country.

To those outside of our state the flag may be nothing more than a symbol of the worst of America’s past. That is not what it is to many South Carolinians. The statehouse belongs to all of us.