How Konni Burton got active, helped elect Ted Cruz and became an rockstar State Senator

This week, we’re talking with my State Senator and long-time friend, Konni Burton!

Konni will tell you that the most important parts of her bio are that she is foremost a wife, mom and life-long Christian. Next to those is the fact that she’s a native Texan!

She and her husband Phil have two incredible daughters, Tori and Faith.

We’ll cover her political background in depth during our talk so I won’t give away too much now but Konni’s journey from grassroots activist to State Senator is a case study in how we need more citizen leaders to grow.

Konni is widely regarded as one of the most conservative members of the Texas State Senate and has been awarded a number of legislative awards from both fiscal and socially conservative organizations.

I’m proud to count Konni among the alumni of my training and have loved getting to know and work with her over the nearly 8 years of our friendship.

Links from the Podcast:

Connect with Konni via her Website, Twitter or Facebook!

Important Time Stamps and Descriptions

[00:00] Podcast Intro

[00:26] Sen. Konni Burton Bio

[01:31] What was your political life before the TEA Party Movement?

[04:03] What got you involved with the TEA Party here in North Texas?

[06:39] Give us some history of your relationship with Sen. Cruz and helping get him elected in 2012

[09:53] What did Cruz’s 2012 race teach you about running for office?

[12:43] At what point did you shift from helping others run for office to consider running yourself?

[14:45] Running against Wendy Davis: The advantage of starting early!

[17:24] How did you go about kickstarting your campaign and getting things rolling?

[22:00] What factored into your choosing your consultant and campaign manager?

[24:53] The importance of agreeing on First Principles with your staff

[26:39] What did your campaign’s ground-game look like?

[30:37] How did y’all leverage your early campaign start to build your ground game?

[33:14] Don’t be afraid to run as a strong conservative!

[35:53] What advice do you have for conservatives thinking about a first run for office?

[38:08] Outro