The following is a speech that Ann Romney gave at the Republican National Convention on August 28, 2012.
ROMNEY: Hello! What a welcome.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you. And thank you, Luce.
I cannot wait to see what we are going to all do together.
This is going to be so exciting!
(APPLAUSE)
Just so you all know, the hurricane has hit landfall and I
think we should take this moment and recognize that fellow
Americans are in its path and just hope and pray that all remain
safe and no life is lost and no property is lost. So we should
all be thankful for this great country and grateful for our
first responders and all that keep us safe in this wonderful
country.
(APPLAUSE)
Well, I want to talk to you tonight not about politics and
not about party. And while there are many important issues that
we will hear discussed in this convention and throughout this
campaign tonight, I want to talk to you from my heart about our
hearts.
(APPLAUSE)
I want to talk about not what divides us, but what holds us
together as an American family. I want to talk to you tonight
about that one great thing that unites us, that one great thing
that brings us our greatest joy when times are good and the
deepest solace in our dark hours.
Tonight, I want to talk to you about love. I want to talk
to you about the deep and abiding love I have for a man I met at
a dance many years ago. And the profound love I have and I know
we share for this country. I want to talk to you about that
love so deep, only a mother can fathom it. The love that we
have for our children and our children's children.
And I want us to think tonight about the love we share for
those Americans, our brothers and our sisters, who are going
through difficult times, whose days are never easy, nights are
always long, and whose work never seems done.
They're here among us tonight in this hall. They are here
in neighborhoods across Tampa and all across America. The
parents who lie awake at night, side by side, wondering how they
will be able to pay the mortgage or make the rent.
The single dad who is working extra hours tonight so that
his kids can buy some new clothes to go back to school, can take
a school trip or play a sport so his kids can feel, you know,
just like other kids.
And the working moms who love their jobs, but would like to
work just a little less to spend more time with the kids, but
that is just out of the question with this economy.
Or how about that couple who would like to have another
child but wonder how they will afford it? I have been all
across this country and I know a lot of you guys.
(APPLAUSE)
And I have seen and heard stories of how hard it is to get
ahead now. You know what? I have heard your voices. They have
said to me, I am running in place and we just cannot get ahead.
Sometimes, I think that, late at night, if we were all
silent for just a few moments and listened carefully, we could
hear a collective sigh from the moms and dads across America who
made it through another day, and know that they will make it
through another one tomorrow. But in the end of that day moment,
they are just aren't sure how.
And if you listen carefully, you'll hear the women sighing
a little bit more than the men. It's how it is, isn't it? It's
the moms who have always had to work a little harder to make
everything right. It's the mom's of this nation, single,
married, widowed, who really hold the country together. We're
the mothers. We're the wives. We're the grandmothers. We're
the big sisters. We're the little sisters and we are the
daughters.
You know it's true, don't you?
(APPLAUSE)
I love you, women!
(APPLAUSE)
And I hear your voices. Those are my favorite fans down
there.
(APPLAUSE)
You are the ones that have to do a little bit more and you
know what it is like to earn a little bit harder earn the
respect you deserve at work and then you come home to help with
the book report just because it has to be done.
You know what those late-night phone calls with an elderly
parent are like, and those long weekend drives just to see how
they're doing.
You know the fastest route to the local emergency room and
which doctors actually answers the phone call when you call at
night, and by the way, I know all about that.
You know what it is like to sit in that graduation ceremony
and wonder how it was that so many long days turned into years
that went by so quickly. You are the best of America.
(APPLAUSE)
You...
(APPLAUSE)
You are the hope of America. There would not be an America
without you. Tonight, we salute you and sing your praises!
(APPLAUSE)
I am not sure if men really understand this, but I don't
think there is a woman in America who really expects her life to
be easy. In our own ways, we all know better. You know what,
and that's fine. We don't want easy. But the last few years
have been harder than they needed to be. It is all the little
things, the price of the pump you could not believe and the
grocery bills that just get bigger, all those things that used
to be free, like school sports are now one more bill to pay.
It's all the little things become the big things. And the
big things, the good jobs, the chance at college and the home
you want to buy just get harder. Everything has become harder.
We're too smart and know that there are no easy answers, but
we're not dumb enough to accept that there are not better
answers.
(APPLAUSE)
And that is where this boy I met at a high school dance
comes in. His name is Mitt Romney and you should really get to
know him.
(APPLAUSE)
I could tell you why I fell in love with him; he was tall,
laughed a lot. He was nervous. Girls like that. It shows the
guy's a little intimidated. He was nice to my parents, but he
was also really glad when they were not around.
(LAUGHTER)
I don't mind that. But more than anything, he made me
laugh. Some of you might not know this, but I am the
granddaughter of a welsh coal miner.
(APPLAUSE)
He was determined -- he was determined that his kids get
out of the mines. My dad got his first job when he was six
years old in a little village in Wales called (inaudible).
Cleaning bottles at the (inaudible).
When he was 15, dad came to America. In our country, he
saw hope and an opportunity to escape from poverty. He moved to
a small town in the great state of Michigan.
(APPLAUSE)
Michigan!
(APPLAUSE)
There he started a business, one he built by himself, by
the way.
(APPLAUSE)
He raised a family and he became mayor of our town. My dad
would often remind my brothers and me how fortunate we were to
grow up anyplace like America. He wanted us to have every
opportunity that came with life in this country, and so he
pushed us to be our best and give our all. Inside the houses
that line the streets in downtown, there were a lot of fathers
teaching their sons and daughters those same values. I didn't
know it at the time, but one of those dads was my future
father-in-law, George Romney.
(APPLAUSE)
Mitt's dad never graduated from college. Instead, he
became a carpenter. He worked hard and then he became the head
of the car company, and then the governor of Michigan.
When Mitt and I met and fell in love, we were determined
not to let anything stand in a way of our future. I was
Episcopalian, he was a Mormon. We were very young, both still
in college. There were many reasons to delay marriage. And you
know what, we just didn't care. We got married and moved into a
basement apartment.
(APPLAUSE)
We walked to class together, shared the housekeeping, ate a
lot of pasta and Tuna fish. Our just was a door propped up on
saw horses, our dining room table was a fold down ironing board
in the kitchen. But those were the best days.
Then our first son came along. All at once, a 22-years-old
with a baby and a husband, who's going to business school and
law school at the same time, and I can tell you, probably like
every other girl who finds herself in a new life far from family
and friends with a new baby and a new husband, that it dawned on
me that I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into.
(APPLAUSE)
Well that was 42 years ago. I survived. We now have five
sons and 18 beautiful grandchildren.
(APPLAUSE)
I am still in love with that boy that I met at a high
school dance and he still makes me laugh.
I read somewhere that Mitt and I have a storybook marriage.
Well, let me tell you something. In the storybooks I read,
there never were long, long rainy winter afternoons in a house
with five boys screaming at once,
(LAUGHTER)
and those storybooks never seemed to have chapter's called
M.S. or breast cancer. A storybook marriage? Nope, not at all.
What Mitt Romney and I have is a real marriage.
(APPLAUSE)
I know this good and decent man for what he is. He's warm,
and loving, and patient. He has tried to live his life with a
set of values centered on family, faith, and love of one fellow
man. From the time we were first married, I have seen him spend
countless hours helping others . I've seen him drop everything
to help a friend in trouble, and been there when late-night
calls of panic come from a member of our church whose child has
been taken to the hospital.
You may not agree on Mitt's decisions on issues or his
politics -- by the way Massachusetts is only 13 percent
Republican, so it's not like it's a shock to me.
(LAUGHTER)
But -- but let me say this to every American who is
thinking about who should be our next president. No one will
work harder. No one will care more. And no one will move
heaven and earth like Mitt Romney to make this country a better
place to live.
(APPLAUSE)
It's true -- it's true that Mitt's been successful at each
new challenge he has taken on. You know what, it actually
amazes me to see his history of success being attacked. Are
those really the values that made our country great?
(AUDIENCE MEMBER): No.
ROMNEY: As a mom of five boys, do we want to to raise our
children to be afraid of success?
(AUDIENCE MEMBER): No.
ROMNEY: Do we send our children out in the world with the
advice try to do OK?
(AUDIENCE MEMBER): No.
ROMNEY: And let's be honest. If the last four years had
been more successful, do we really think there would be this
attack on Mitt Romney's success?
(AUDIENCE MEMBER): No.
ROMNEY: Of course not. Mitt would be the first to tell
you that he is the most fortunate man in the world. He had two
loving parents who gave him strong values and taught him the
value of work. He had the chance to get the education his
father never had. But, as his partner on this amazing journey,
I can tell you Mitt Romney was not handed success. He built it.
(APPLAUSE)
He stayed in Massachusetts after graduate school and got a
job. I saw the long hours that started with that first job. I
was there when he had a small group of friends talking about
starting a new company. I was there when they struggled and
wondered if the whole idea was just not going to work. Mitt's
reaction was to work harder and press on.
Today, the company has become another great American
success story. Has it made those who started the company
successful -- made them successful beyond their dreams? Yes, it
has. It allowed us to give our sons a chance at good educations
and made those long hours of the reports and homework worth
every minute. It's given us the deep satisfaction of being able
to help others in ways that we could never have imagined.
This is important. I want you to hear what I am going to
say. Mitt does not like to talk about how he has helped others
because he sees it as a privilege, not a political talking
point.
(APPLAUSE)
We are no different than the millions of Americans who
quietly help their neighbors, their churches and their
communities. They don't do it so that others will think more of
them. They do it because there is no greater joy . Give and it
shall be given unto you.
(APPLAUSE)
But because this is America, that small company which grew
has helped so many lead better lives, the jobs that grew from
the risk they took have become college educations and first
homes. That success has helped scholarships, pensions and
retirement funds. This is the genius of America. Dreams
fulfilled, help others launch new dreams.
(APPLAUSE)
At every turn in his life, this man that I met at a high
school dance has helped lift up others. He did it with the
Olympics when many wanted to give up. He did it in
Massachusetts where he guided the state from economic crisis to
unemployment at just 4.7 percent. Under Mitt, Massachusetts'
school for the best in the nation. The best.
(APPLAUSE)
He started something that I really love. He started the
John and Abigail Adams scholarship which gives the top 25
percent of high- school graduates a four-year tuition-free
scholarship.
(APPLAUSE)
This is the man America needs.
(APPLAUSE)
This is a man who will wake up every day with the
determination to solve the problems that others say cannot be
solved, to fix what others say is beyond repair, this is the man
who will work harder than anyone so that we can work a little
less hard.
I can't tell you what will happen over the next four years.
But I can only stand here tonight as a wife and a mother and a
grandmother, an American, and make you this solemn commitment.
This man will not fail.
(APPLAUSE)
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