From WKYX:
U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao is on the campaign trail for her husband, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Chao made a stop in Paducah Thursday where she spoke at the Women to Women Luncheon at the Carson Center. Chao says McConnell has dealt with many issues affecting women during his 24 years in Congress. Besides working on child care and Medicare issues, Chao says the Senator has helped keep taxes low so women can create their own businesses without having to dip into their savings to get started. McConnell also helped establish a breast cancer-cervical cancer detection program that helps women detect these diseases early because prevention is the key. McConnell is currently in a tight Senate race against Democratic Challenger Br uce Lunsford. The two are set to debate October 23rd at Kentucky Dam Village State Park.
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Labor Secretary Elaine Chao says her husband, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, is concerned about how much you are paying at the pump for gas and has a plan to help the country become energy independent. McConnell wants to allow offshore drilling, find alternative sources of energy and use new technology to find ways to conserve and find other sources of energy that are not fossil fuel based. Chao says Democrat Bruce Lunsford, who is challenging McConnell for his Senate seat, is not for drilling. She says Lunsford is for higher gasoline taxes, which will raise gas prices even more. Chao says the Democrats in Congress will not pass McConnell's bill because when they came into power in 2007, they put a moratorium on all offshore drilling of oil shale. But due to recent public outcry, Democrats changed their minds and agreed to new areas of drilling. Chao was campaigning for McConnell Thursday in Paducah and spoke at the Women to Women Luncheon at the Carson Center.
U.S Labor Secretary Elaine Chao spoke in London Monday, asking Laurel Countians to support the "entrepreneurial spirit" of America as well as her husband, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Chao spoke during the London-Laurel Chamber of Commerce's Women in Business dinner Monday evening, sharing a little about her life story -- from arriving in America as part of a cargo ship, to becoming the nation's 24th Secretary of Labor.
She also attended a meet and greet reception at the north London Hampton Inn hosted by the Laurel County Republican Party, where she talked about McConnell's reelection campaign and the presidential race.
"This is going to be a tough, tough season for Republicans," she told the crowd, "and I think when you are talking with your various friends and neighbors, and they want change, we need to ask them, 'what kind of change are you talking about? What kind of change do you want?' ... We need to be very careful that we're actually opting for the right kind of change."
Chao was born in Taiwan, where her parents had fled from mainland China after the country's civil war in 1949.
"My parents grew up in war-torn China, alternatively running from the Communists or running from the Japanese," she said. "Throughout their teenage lives they never, ever had security, and their lives were constantly in turmoil."
Her parents dreamed of coming to America, "a land of opportunity," and her father went first, sending for his wife and children three years later. Chao, then 8 years old, and her mother and siblings arrived aboard a freighter as part of the ship's cargo.
"For a young 8-year-old kid like me, at the time it was great fun, you got to roam the whole ship," she said, "but then I think about my mother, a young woman of 27 at that time, for her to be the only female on that ship with three young children, how frightening that must have been."
The family was reunited in America, but times were initially tough. Chao said her family lived in a one bedroom apartment, and her father held three jobs.
"And yet we were happy because we had each other, we had hope, and we believed in the promise of America," she said. "For those who are willing to work hard and plan ahead and be very determined, good things are likely to happen. We need to preserve America and preserve this entrepreneurial spirit."
Chao told those in attendance that the November election would come down to a decision between "one side that really does believe the government should take care of everything from cradle to grave, and there's our side, that believes the government does not create jobs, the government creates an environment through which all of us are able to fulfill our dreams."
Chao certainly fulfilled hers, obtaining her MBA from Harvard Business School in 1979. She came to Washington D.C. as the deputy administrator of the Maritime Administration in the U.S. Department of Transportation. After notable positions as head of the U.S. Peace Corps and chief executive officer of the United Way of America, she was appointed Secretary of Labor in 2001, becoming the first Chinese American and first Asian-American woman appointed to a president's cabinet.
McConnell, who is running a close race with Democratic challenger Bruce Lunsford, has been in the senate for 24 years, and Chao said his seniority means "clout and influence" for Kentucky.
"It doesn't make sense to trade him in for a rookie who is only a few years younger than he is who will never accumulate the seniority because of his age," she said.
She also said McConnell was devoted to Kentucky and his family.
"When we got married, he said, 'We're going to go home to Kentucky every single weekend and we're also going to visit my mother every Saturday.' And I thought to myself, 'you know, a man who's that good to his mother is going to make a good husband,'" she said.
