State Rep. Jena Powell, R - 80th district, speaks to a large crowd packed The Light on the Hill venue outside of Casstown for the She Prays She Votes 2024 Concerned Women for America (CWA) rally Tuesday night, on July 23.
Kathleen Leese | For Miami Valley Today
By Kathleen Leese
For Miami Valley Today
CASSTOWN — A large crowd packed The Light on the Hill venue outside of Casstown for the She Prays She Votes 2024 Concerned Women for America (CWA) rally featuring a variety of speakers including Penny Nance, CWA CEO and president, and State Rep. Jena Powell, R – 80th district, as well as other speakers.
The event which is part of a nine-stop bus tour through Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Arizona, Nevada and Montana, was an effort to get conservative Christians registered to vote and to polls on Nov. 5. CWA, which was founded in 1979 by Beverly and Tim LaHaye, has seven core issues on which they focus. They include defense of family, sanctity of human life, religious liberty, education, sexual exploitation, national sovereignty and support of Israel.
Nance is a graduate of Liberty University and previously worked as a staff assistant for a Georgia Congressman as a lobbyist for CWA. She served on former President Donald Trump’s Life Advisory Council and serves on the Board of Trustees of Liberty University. She also is the author of, “Feisty and Feminine: A Rally Cry for Conservative Women.”
Nance told the crowd CWA is “the nation’s largest women’s policy organization” and also boasts 300 Young Women for America chapters,and is designed to equip young women to be the rising generation of Christian conservative women to protect and promote Biblical values and conservative principles on campuses and in communities. She spoke about Senator and Vice Presidential Candidate J.D. Vance, noting she asked him take the candidate survey and he did.
Nance also touched on other issues, telling the crowd, “300 per day drop dead (from) fentanyl” and there are currently 80,000 illegal immigrants in Ohio.
“If there’s no God, you become your own god,” Nance said. “We serve a big God. We know the author of truth.”
Nance turned to the November election and spoke about the importance of voting, saying, “Ohio matters. You need to register to vote. We’re happy to do voter registration tables in your church lobby. It’s legal.”
Nance said, speaking about American children, “We cannot leave it to the world to teach them (values). They’re not getting that in a lot of churches.”
Nance said she visited the Holocaust Museum in Israel, which she said sits on a hill.
“Six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. It wasn’t that long ago. There are people alive today who were in concentration camps,” she said, adding that the Children’s Memorial of that museum honors 1.5 million babies who died in the Holocaust and the names of the children and their ages are read. She said it was apathy that led to the Holocaust, a lack of concern for what was happening.
“We are an apathetic church today,” Nance said. “We’ve got to tell what’s true. Tell them God loves them. Jesus said, ‘No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”
Powell, also addressed the crowd, discussing her fight to keep boys out of girl’s sports, and said when she began her fight on that issue, she was she was told she was ‘chasing a problem that doesn’t exist.’ Democrats would say there’s no difference between boys and girls.’”
Powell said she refused to stop fighting and she kept reintroducing it; at one point, a 65-year-old Democratic State Representative became so upset with her over the issue on the House floor, he “literally broke an antique desk.”
In January 2024, the Save Women’s Sports Act was passed into law, and Powell said it was only “after five years of hard work. At the end of the day, there is a biological difference between boys and girls.”
Powell said she has already been asked about whether she would support Vice President Kamala Harris in her presidential race because she is a woman.
“We vote not based on gender, not on age, but we vote based on our values found in the Word of God,” Powell said, noting she believes electing a female president will become an issue. “They are going to push this in the public square.”
Powell touched on pro-life issues and said, “Life begins at conception and we want to protect it. That truth is found in the Word of God.”
She encouraged those present to “vote based on values,” adding that CWA is “really good at getting out the vote. Women have a lot of power in the community and in our churches.”
Also speaking at the event were members of the Young Women of America (YWA), including 17-year-old Hannah Faulkner, who is among the top 10 in motocross and is the host of the Hannah Faulkner Show on Rumble. She spoke about the breakdown of the family and told the crowd, “What’s oppressive, is feminism.”
Another YWA ambassador, Kristen Rodrigues, spoke about Christian values and told those present, “your voice matters.” She encouraged everyone to vote, “if you’re sick of the evil … attacks on the unborn.”
Madison Hess, another YWA ambassador, said, “This world is not our home; it is temporary. As women, we’ve been given the unique opportunity … to fight for Christian values and our country. We need young women to speak out. We must fight and we must pray.”
Those in attendance received T-shirts and other swag items. A number of organizations had displays at the event including Miami County Right to Life, CWA and YWA, Don’t Mess With Our Kids, Miami County Liberty Group and Students for Life.
Following the rally, Nance told Miami Valley Today, “The trajectory of our nation will be decided on Nov. 5 … sanity needs to return to our country.”
She said there are 64 million evangelical women in the United States and “You’ve got to vote your values.”
The writer is a regular contributor to Miami Valley Today.
