Congressman Lance Gooden and State Senator Bryan Hughes were welcomed to Mineola by the Rotary Club at the weekly meeting and lunch on Monday, Dec. 2.

As the guest speaker of the meeting, Gooden spoke on his time and experience in Washington D.C. and shared his theories on the presidential impeachment, the U.S./Canada/Mexico trade agreement, and what he believes needs to happen to see change in Washington.

Gooden is a staunch supporter of President Trump and has appeared on CNN to combat what he considers fake news media about the President. Gooden says his experience with Trump has been nothing but positive. “Trump is very nice, gracious and down-to-earth. He is the same person in real life as on TV. He knows what’s going on in the districts and is appreciative of the support in this district and county.”

As Congressman Gooden heads back to D.C. for committee meetings, he says most of the talk is centered around impeachment which he believes the Democrats will try to drag out through January or possibly longer. He says the Democrats don’t want the impeachment to go to the Senate too quickly where they could lose control of the process.

“Watch for action in the judiciary committee. The expectations before Thanksgiving was that the Democrats would vote on impeachment and send it over to the Senate a week before Christmas to coincide with the government shut down date. They were hoping to convince the president to sign the agreement to keep the government running in exchange for a US/Canada/Mexico trade agreement that the Democrats have been holding up.”

As the impeachment is drawn out into the beginning of next year, Gooden predicts that the impeachment process will be halted by the frontrunner of the Democratic presidential race, giving House Speaker Nancy Pelosi an out to stop the process before it goes to the Senate.

Gooden’s theory is that the Democrats will oppose the president on everything he tries to do in an effort to get him out of the White House in the next election. He believes that if history repeats itself, the American people will punish a Democrat-run Congress rather than punish the president when nothing gets done, and President Trump will be reelected in 2020.

Gooden says that immigration, the budget and prescription drug prices are the big issues for which he is fighting.

“If I could wave my magic wand, we’d come up with a real plan for that,” said Gooden. If he could get what he wanted in Congress, a real immigration plan would be passed. Gooden says its unreasonable to think that every single person in this country without legal status should be sent back to their home country, just as it is unreasonable not to secure the border in some way.

“The happy medium would require the far left and the far right to cooperate and that’s not happening,” he said.

Gooden was elected in 2018 to represent Texas’ 5th district in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is a member of the House Committee on Financial Services where he serves as the Vice Ranking Member on the Housing, Community Development and Insurance Subcommittee. He is serving a two-year term and is up for reelection in 2020.

He has drawn a democratic opponent, as has Hughes, also seeking his second term in the senate after serving Wood County as a state representative.

Prior to joining the U.S. House of Representatives, Gooden served three terms in the Texas House of Representatives and spent 10 years working as an insurance broker and risk management consultant.

Gooden and his wife Alexa, along with their two children, make their home in Terrell where he grew up.