Bailey: The 2025 Municipal Elections Were A Wake Up Call For Republicans

By Melissa Bailey, NH Journal

I grew up listening to classic rock and, like a lot of people, I’ve always loved Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’.” There’s a line in the song about a girl who “loves Jesus and America too.” Not long ago, it was simply a heartfelt statement of faith and patriotism. Today, the same radical leftists who just voted for socialist Zohran Mamdani suggest that loving our country and being a Christian — simply loving Jesus — is a threat.

Let’s be clear: That’s a lie. It’s completely backward. America was built on Judeo-Christian values and moral conviction. That isn’t radical — it’s the foundation of American freedom. It’s the very basis for the government that our Founding Fathers designed, a nation anchored in God-given rights, not government power. The Declaration of Independence states it plainly: “All men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.”

Meanwhile, in our country’s iconic New York City, newly elected Mayor Zohran Mamdani proudly proclaimed in his victory speech, “I am Muslim. I am a Democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this.”

It’s time for us to wake up. We can’t be silent any longer. While we’ve sat on the sidelines, the radical left has filled the void. It’s time to stand up and fight back.

For too long, a loud and angry minority has tried to shame Christians into silence — calling us names, mocking our faith, and telling us to “stay out of politics.” Meanwhile, they had no problem pushing their far-left values into government, media, schools, and corporate America. They replaced truth with ideology, faith with moral relativism, and patriotism with division.

Instead of fighting back, many Christians found it easier to stop engaging in public life. Maybe we didn’t want conflict. Maybe we thought politics was too dirty or divisive. Maybe we believed that if we kept our heads down and focused on our families, our faith, and our communities, everything would work out. But silence has a cost — and we’re paying it now.

Our silence helped pave the way for Mamdani’s rise to power in New York City. Lady Liberty welcomed him with open arms, and now he seeks to rot the Big Apple from the inside. In the very city that gave us Times Square, the beating heart of American culture, and Wall Street, whose free-market engine lifted our nation and much of the world out of poverty, he is pushing Marxist economics and socialist ideology. Mamdani’s own public beliefs threaten religious liberty, free speech, and individual rights — the very foundation of our nation. The very freedoms we cherish here in the Granite State.

We proclaim “never forget.” But I guess “never” means far less than a generation — only 24 short years from blindsided attack to willing surrender. The radical Islamic extremists who launched the largest terrorist attack in our nation’s history should have taken a page from Mamdani’s playbook: Smile, play nice, take advantage of American goodness — and destroy her from the inside.

I mourn for those lost on 9/11. I mourn for New York City. We should be ashamed. We should do better.

This is a call to action. If we truly believe that our rights come from God, then we must also believe we have a responsibility to defend them. You don’t protect liberty by staying silent. You don’t preserve the Constitution by sitting on the sidelines. And you don’t defend biblical values by hiding your faith when the culture tells you to.

Our nation is at a crossroads. We can surrender to the cultural decay we see around us — or we can stand up, step forward, and get back in the fight for faith, family, and freedom.

Engaging in government is not about building a theocracy. It’s about protecting the freedoms that allow all Americans — of any faith or no faith — to live without tyranny. Christians are not called to be silent — we are called to be salt and light. That means getting involved. That means speaking truth.

If you’re a Christian reading this, I’m asking you to do more. I’m asking you to act. Vote. Volunteer. Speak up. Support candidates who share our values. And if God puts it on your heart — run for office yourself. We’re not here by accident. We are here for such a time as this.

New Hampshire is worth fighting for. America is worth fighting for. And with courage, conviction, and faith, we will restore this nation. It’s time to put on the armor of God and stand firm. It’s time to protect what our Founding Fathers boldly established, what generations of Americans have bravely defended, and what we are called to safeguard and carry forward for our children and grandchildren — our beautiful beacon of freedom. Our America.

Melissa Bailey is a conservative Republican candidate for Congress in New Hampshire’s First Congressional District. Bailey resides in Bedford with her husband Ryan and their three children. She wrote this for NHJournal.com.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.