Terri Hasdorff is a Results Driven, Christian Conservative candidate running to represent the 2nd Congressional District of Alabama in U.S. Congress.
Alabama Roots
As a life-long conservative Republican raised in Montgomery, Alabama, Terri grew up learning the importance of family values. Her father, a veteran who worked at Maxwell Air Force Base for over 30 years before teaching U.S. history at Troy State University, and mother, who worked for the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs, taught her the value of community, faith, and service. Terri attended Trinity Presbyterian High School, became a Christian in the seventh grade, and is a member of First Baptist Church in Montgomery.
Witnessing the ravages of socialism
As an Alabama high school student, Terri was chosen to travel to the Soviet Union as part of the first Alabama delegation for the People to People student exchange program. She was shocked to see the oppression of Russia’s people by their unaccountable communist leaders and their lack of choices and freedoms that most Americans take completely for granted. The experience at such a young age shaped her worldview and deepened her love and appreciation for her country.
The recent rise in socialism coming from the fringe left should be deeply troubling to all, but Terri sees it for what it is: replacing God with Big Government and freedom with tyranny. Terri is passionate about protecting America and she will fight to preserve free market capitalism and the other freedoms that Keep America Great. America is the greatest land of opportunity the world has ever known, because Americans are free to practice their own beliefs, speak their own minds, protect their own lives, pursue their own dreams, and enjoy the fruits of their own labor. Socialism directly opposes the American dream.
Leading Reforms & Draining the Swamp
After graduating from Samford University in Birmingham, Terri felt called to public service. Inspired by the Reagan Revolution and by the subsequent fall of the Soviet Union, she started in the White House Office of Public Liaison in the Bush (41) Administration where she worked with faith leaders from across the country. She then went on to serve on Capitol Hill, where her most meaningful assignments focused on two things – cleaning up the swamp and keeping Big Government and Washington, D.C. elites from discriminating against faith-based organizations on the front lines of fighting poverty.
Much like President Trump taking on the D.C. swamp today, Terri’s first job on Capitol Hill was helping former Speaker Newt Gingrich drain the Congressional swamp. As part of the senior leadership team of the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) for the U.S. House of Representatives, Terri and the team immediately went to work reforming the broken and often unaccountable financial systems and taxpayer-funded operations of Congress.
For example, when decades of old furniture belonging to the Congress - and thus the American people - was discovered sitting in a dusty warehouse in Washington D.C. with no purpose, Terri and her colleagues did something truly outside the box: they held a yard sale on the front steps of a federal government building and auctioned everything off! After cleaning out the warehouse and closing it down, the savings to the taxpayers totaled $235,000 per year. But that was just the beginning. Terri & the CAO team pushed for the first independent audit of the U.S. House of Representatives since 1789. This audit shined the brightest of spotlights on Congress, unleashing historic changes and reforms that resulted in remarkably improved accountability and transparency of the core operations of the people’s House, saving taxpayers approximately $184 million per year or over $4.4 billion to date! These unprecedented results were recognized as one of the top 100 reforms in American government and remain a model for other governments around the world.
While on Capitol Hill, Terri also worked to advance conservative policies on such key issues as immigration, veterans rights, healthcare reform, Social Security, and children and family issues. Terri was a senior advisor on the Charitable Choice language, which continues to protect faith-based organizations against anti-religious bias and bigotry in federal funding decisions today. Holding government accountable and fighting for Christian conservative values and policies is exactly what Terri will do when she is elected to Congress. We can trust her to be a reliable ally to President Trump in cleaning up the swamp and getting things done legislatively in Congress to benefit Alabama’s hardworking families.
Faith in Action
After fighting for conservative reforms on Capitol Hill, Terri returned to Alabama to build the first Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives for the Governor of Alabama. She worked to bring resources and grant opportunities to nonprofits and faith-based organizations across our state. Terri established and chaired the first Alabama Statewide Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Alabama Citizen Corps Council, and she worked closely with the Alabama Children’s Trust Fund and the Alabama Department of Human Resources to help with child welfare issues. Terri established the first-ever Alabama Faith-Based Substance Abuse Task Force and worked to build collaboration, better coordination and the sharing of best practices with the faith-based substance abuse treatment and prevention organizations across the state. She also served as Chair of the Alabama Women’s Commission and helped launch the 211 system in the State of Alabama. Due to its success, the Governor’s Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives was cited by the White House as a model for other states to follow.
Terri was then asked to serve as the Director of the USAID Center for Faith-Based & Community Initiatives (Bush-43), where she headed up America’s efforts to empower the world’s poorest people through partnering with grassroots poverty fighters.
Terri continued to help the poor both at home and abroad through Convoy of Hope, where she helped bring food, water, and much-needed relief in times of disaster to impoverished communities around the world and right at home in Alabama. Convoy of Hope provided critical assistance to families in the Florida Panhandle after the catastrophic storms of Hurricane Michael, and to the families in Tuscaloosa after they were struck by one of the worst tornadoes in U.S. history.
While New Orleans residents waited days and weeks for government responses during Hurricane Katrina, Terri worked with faith-based groups to provide millions of dollars of immediate aid and recovery to people in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. When the federal government was struggling to provide aid to the far stretches of Africa during the Ebola crisis, Terri saw how organizations like Convoy of Hope were able to steer critical supplies into areas where no one else could, thanks to local trust and community involvement that made them the best partner for the job. Just as she witnessed the failings of a nation’s sole reliance on a Soviet government, Terri saw repeated proof that private charities and private citizens respond far better than government alone. As our Congresswoman, Terri will utilize faith-based and private-sector partnerships to solve problems and empower people.
Standing with President Trump to Move Alabama Forward
Terri strongly supports President Trump. She will support his efforts to drain the swamp and will bring her background and experience to stand with him to rein in Big Government.
One of Terri's top priorities has been to bring jobs to the 2nd District - serving on the Jobenomics Montgomery Advisory Board. She has a passion for growing and diversifying Alabama’s economy, and she will continue that fight as our Congresswoman.
The Economy, Business and Jobs are Terri’s top priorities. She wants to leverage partnerships and replicate best-practice examples that are working in other states. With the median household income in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District 24% lower than the national average and the poverty rate for the State’s Capital, Montgomery, currently 81% higher than the national average, we can and will do better. Because small business is the engine of Alabama’s economy, we must empower more small businesses to grow. Right now, Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District is not producing enough small, micro, and startup businesses to remain competitive. Terri will fight to change that and will bring more resources to the district, including rural broadband, while addressing the challenge of schools that are failing to educate our children. She will firmly defend our Second Amendment, secure our communities by helping President Trump finish the wall, and will fight the radical left’s obsessive push to take away our freedom of speech and religion.
That is why we need Terri in Washington. Many candidates claim they support President Trump and will drain the swamp because they are outsiders. Over and over we have elected these candidates only to be let down when they join the swamp and become part of the problem. Terri fought the swamp and delivered results- saving taxpayers billions and solving societal problems through innovative, outside-the-box ideas. She believes as Christians we are called to serve others, and that belief has driven her to get results her entire life. This type of drive and experience are exactly why she is the best candidate to bring home wins for the people of the 2nd Congressional District.
Endorsements
Dr. Frank Wright - Press Release
General Tom McInerney
“Terri Hasdorff has been a tremendous partner in our fight against substance abuse. She is a valuable ally to our organization. We greatly appreciate her servant leadership, compassion and ability to get things done.”
- Gary Blackard, President and CEO of Adult and Teen Challenge USA
“Today I am proud to endorse Terri Hasdorff for Alabama's 2nd Congressional District. Terri is the only Republican candidate with the integrity to stand up for her District’s Maxwell/Gunter Air Force Base and Fort Rucker. The brave men and women in our military and our veterans who served make it possible for all of our families to live in safety and in peace. She believes in peace through strength and has the experience and skill set we need to represent Alabamians in this new decade.”
- Major General Bob Dees
“It’s been said that people with integrity have nothing to fear, because they have nothing to hide. This perfectly describes my friend and colleague Terri Hasdorff. With her strong commitment to excellence and personal integrity, and her demonstrated career of effective service, Terri stands heads and shoulders above those who seek elected office largely as a means of gain. I have known Terri almost 25 years, and I am honored to give her my personal endorsement. In my judgment, the good people of Alabama will find no more capable, dedicated, and faithful individual to represent them in Washington, D.C. than my very good friend Terri Hasdorff.”
-D. James Kennedy Ministries CEO
“Terri Hasdorff has been preparing her entire life for the opportunity to serve all the people of the 2nd Congressional District in Alabama, most recently learning the skills needed to be effective, when elected, in representing your values to move this nation forward. Terri is a person of the greatest integrity; her word is her bond. She will work to bring more jobs to the district, to improve education for all children, and to support traditional values. I am delighted to give Terri my personal endorsement.”
-Dr. Linda W. Smith President of D. James Kennedy Center