Daily Reporter Staff

Bryan English found himself "just showing up and volunteering" on the political front about five years ago. As he found the opportunities to be endless if he simply raised his hand and said, "I'd be happy to do that," he also realized a new career.

English graduated from Spencer High School and married Amy (Berven) English, his high school sweetheart from Milford, on June 8, 1992. The then-newlyweds attended the University of Sioux Falls, where he graduated with a fine arts degree in photography and sculpture.

During their collegiate years, English recalled approaching a fellow university student he respected about his interest in political science. The upperclassmen discouraged him from pursuing it because, as English reiterated, "I come from Spencer, Iowa, nobody knows who my parents are and I'd never been involved in politics. ... So, I bought what he said and stayed on my track."

Following college, Bryan and Amy English trekked to Wyoming, where they directed a Bible camp for a couple summers. The couple eventually moved back to Spencer, where he served as an associate pastor at First Baptist Church for six years. During this time, the two had their three sons: Wyatt, Isaac and Burchon.

Mike Hartwig, the vice president of Iowa Family Policy Center (IFPC) in Des Moines, presented English with a copy of Tom Minnery's book, "Why You Can't Stay Silent" while he was employed by the church. In his book, Minnery challenges Christians to engage in the culture and use their God-given gifts to be positive influencers.

The young father responded by attending the Clay County Republican Party's convention and helping with the district's party platform. Soon after, English found himself serving as secretary on Iowa's GOP platform committee.

While things seemed to be moving along smoothly for the English family, Bryan can distinctly remember becoming tired while turning on the news and seeing things that were contrary to his convictions.

"I told my church that I needed to get involved in the battle for good public policy and that I was afraid if I did that in front of the pulpit the way that I was motivated to do it, I might get myself into trouble," he recalled. "So I resigned at the church, and wasn't quite sure where I was going to land."

Within two weeks, he was helping state Sen. Mike May with his campaign. Through the course of May's successful politicking, English met U.S. Rep. Steve King several times. After May's win was announced, the new Spencer campaigner was invited to lunch with King in Storm Lake.

"The congressman and I had so much in common, as far as our personality and our motivations. We had just a phenomenal time during lunch talking about public policy, the future of the country and the future of the state. We were just in agreement on so many things," English said.

That was 3 1/2 years ago.

English took over as King's district representative on Jan. 3, 2005, the first day of the 109th Congress. He scheduled to go through initial staff training on Jan. 20, 2005, in Washington D.C., which marked President George W. Bush's second inauguration.

At the time, the Republican Party was in the majority in Congress.

"That first session of Congress was a lot of fun," English said with a smile. "On the pro-life front, for instance, there had been a lot of legislation proposed. But because we had a pro-life Congress and a pro-life president, we were able to pass the partial-birth abortion ban. That was one shining thing to come right out of the box; but we had the environment to do things like that then."

While all of King's staff members, according to English, are "committed conservatives," church-going, pro-life, pro-marriage and pro-Constitution individuals, English noted the congressman also looks for people with a background outside of politics to work with him.

"With my work when I came on as a district rep, my first primary responsibility was to work with faith-based and community organizations," he said. "...We were a little older than your typical congressional staff at the time, and part of the reason for that is he was looking for people with real-world experience outside of government and politics."

English chuckled as he acknowledged there is no in between with how people view King: They either really, really love him or really, really don't.

"The things that motivate me are good policy as it relates to family, education and marriage. The things that I brought with me from my ministry background, those were the things that I wanted to see preserved in law. The things that I was raised to believe are consistent with statements of our founders, their interpretation of the Constitution that they wrote. I haven't found a place where traditional Iowa values, traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs are in conflict with the founders of the country," English said. "The problem is there are some folks in Congress now who are in conflict with those principles and with the founding of the country. And in Steve King, I found somebody who was willing to step up and take the hits to say, 'America's a great place.' ... Those are the kinds of things that really drew me to him: The common belief that what made us great in the first place needs to be preserved."

English, meanwhile, was promoted to serve as one of King's policy advisors in January 2007. In this role, the 34-year-old Spencer father of three worked to keep his boss in touch with what was happening and with how things at the national level were perceived in Iowa.

When asked what specific policies had his input included, English replied, "The policy that comes out of the office is Steve King's. He looks to his staff for advice and perspective, but he's incredibly sharp. And when his name goes on something, he really takes ownership of it."

He continued, "When the immigration debate was so hot and heavy last year, there was some concern that the bill that included construction of the wall and enforcement of our own current immigration laws would interfere with case workers, relief agencies and that sort of thing. ... The congressman was very concerned that we make sure to preserve the ability of people of faith to do what God called them to do. So, we looked through the legislation to make sure there were exemptions for people in those positions to offer basic human assistance.

"He had this public image of just being out to build a wall, and that was all he cared about. In private, I knew that he was being very cautious to make sure the law was written to take care of people. I was impressed with that, and I got to play a little part of it."

While English acknowledged he enjoyed being a part of discussions involving "anything to promote traditional marriage," "anything pro-life" and the immigration debate, he predicts the immigration debate will happen again because "the problem is still there." He also relayed that King is not only committed to life, but that every individual should be allowed to pursue liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and in that order.

As English became friends with King while working on his staff, he began to recognize him as a "down-to-earth, regular guy who got tired of watching what was going on in Washington, decided to climb down off his bulldozer and run for office. He's also very sincere and genuine," English said of King. "...He's just like you and me: He's trying to do the best job he can, and he has guiding principles that he makes his decisions on."

But following a recent two-to-three month period of contemplating a career switch, English marked his last day in King's Spencer office on June 3.

"I could have gone on doing what I was doing for Steve King for a good long time and enjoyed every minute of it," he said, "but that would have been selfish. And, I think my kids have probably given enough at this point that I need to make some choices that are better for them. My job in Des Moines will allow me to stay involved in public policy, hopefully make a difference in the state we'll leave to my kids and other kids, but most importantly, I'll be home for dinner almost every night."

English will mark his first day on the job as the IFPC's new director of public relations Monday. He's looking forward to being able to focus more on Iowa's public policy now in this position.

"The things that motivate me to get out of bed and do what I do every day are really under attack. In Iowa, we had a judge in Polk County (Robert Hanson) take it upon himself (in August) to overturn the law of the state of Iowa and issue marriage licenses to people of the same sex. I, obviously, have a disagreement with that," English said. "...My new employer, obviously, has been out front on working to preserve marriage. Marriage and life, those things have not been great in Iowa for the last 1 1/2 years. I look at public policy as it relates to the family, and I see an environment that's increasingly difficult to continue to raise children that would believe and pass on what we would call traditional Iowa values. The core culture of this state is being actively undermined and changed to be something other than what I grew up with. And I don't necessarily think that's because the overwhelming majority of folks in Iowa have changed the way they see the world; it's just that the politics have changed."

"The spending that's come out of the last two years of the Iowa Legislature with our new governor, (Chet Culver), is equivalent in dollars to all eight years of (former Gov. Tom) Vilsack and the last four years of (former Gov. Terry) Branstad put together," English added. "So, as we change what I would say are our social norms, we're changing what is normal in society -- and we're spending way more money than we can ever sustain. The fight for me now is in Iowa. And that's a component of why I'm making the change that I am professionally: As much as I enjoyed doing what I did for the congressman, the battle that needs to be fought is right here in our own backyards. We've got to get control of our own state government, because it's just not representing the people well."