{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.young.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/young-honors-rex-early-on-senate-floor/", "Young Honors Rex Early on Senate Floor", "2022-11-17", "2022", "2022-11", "Republican", "Senate", "IN", "Todd Young", "Y000064", "www.young.senate.gov", "toddyoung", "https://www.young.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.) spoke on the Senate floor about the life and legacy of Rex Early, who passed away last week after a long battle with illness. Rex was a Marine and longtime community and political leader in Indiana.\n\nTo watch the full floor speech, click here.\n\nRemarks as prepared for delivery:\n\nLast week, Indiana lost a legend and America lost a true original.\n\nRex Early died Friday at age 88 after a long battle with illness.\n\nRex was a lot of things in life. He was a Marine. He was Chairman of the Indiana Republican Party. He was a candidate for governor. He was one of the few people in Indiana you had to go see if you wanted to run for public office.\n\nBut he will be remembered mostly for his sense of humor. His way with words.\n\nMany of his stories and Rex-isms can be found in his book, \u201cIt\u2019s a Might Thin Pancake That Don\u2019t Have Two Sides.\u201d\n\nAfter being stationed in Japan in the Marine Corps, Rex went to Indiana University on the GI Bill. He married his sweetheart Barbara and they moved to Indianapolis.\n\nRex said that when he first went to register to vote in Indianapolis, the Ward Chairman said, \u201cDo you want to be a precinct committeeman? The last guy just went to jail.\u201d Rex said \u201cSure,\u201d and that\u2019s how he got involved in local politics.\n\nRex said that one of the highlights of his career came during Ronald Reagan\u2019s presidential campaign, when Rex hosted an event at his home for the future president.\n\nRex said he was considering hanging a plaque that read \u201cOn May 4, 1980, Ronald Reagan used this bathroom.\u201d\n\nBut as Reagan left his house that day, Governor Reagan told Rex, \u201cAll those people were wrong.\u201d\n\nRex said, \u201cWhat people?\u201d\n\nAnd Governor Reagan said, \u201cAll the people who said you had no class.\u201d\n\nSo Rex decided not to hang that plaque in his bathroom.\n\nThe Republican Party in Indiana today has enjoyed long period of governing success, helping our state become one of the best run and most fiscally sound in the nation. And you can trace that success directly back to work Rex Early put in in the early 1990s.\n\nOne of Rex\u2019s 19 Rules of Politics was \u201cYou might be important, but the number of people who will attend your funeral will be dictated by the weather.\u201d\n\nDon\u2019t think too highly of yourself. Don\u2019t become \u2013 as Rex would call you a \u201csophisti-suck.\u201d\n\nBut I disagree with him on his point. Rex\u2019s memorial service was well-attended. Not because the weather was good.\n\nBut because he made an indelible impression on everyone he met.\n\nSemper Fi, Rex.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:38:01Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.young.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/young-honors-rex-early-on-senate-floor/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8469088934361935, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}