“I want to end the drama and petty disputes,” adds the leadership contender.
She and Robert Jenrick are about as far apart as they were when we started doing head-to-head questions two months ago.
Whoever emerges as successful will face a serious problem. How do you sell free-market policies to an electorate that, recoils in alarm from the only possible cure, namely lower spending?
As a young couple, we trust his focus on the issues, his record of results, and his clear and calm command of the solutions that this country needs.
One aspect about this latter stage of the race is the psychology behind how Jenrick and Badenoch have tried to persuade members to put the cross in their respective named box on the ballot.
Her bravura performances as Shadow Housing Secretary, putting Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to the sword, have already shown that she can take the fight to Labour.
As Housing Secretary, his White Paper on planning would have delivered a Conservative home-ownership project of a scale not seen since Macmillan.
Both Badenoch and Jenrick are navigating this post-liberal landscape and their debates are not market versus state control but about identity, community and the preservation of social order.
The Conservative Party leadership campaign has been a breath of fresh air. We have seen soul searching, admissions of fault and visions for the future. And each candidate has played an important role in that.
She is authentic, clear-sighted, and also has the scientific and analytical mindset needed to identify why the machine is broken and what is needed to fix it.
If the Conservative Party continues to act as if the Faragists are a minor irritation, pride will be maintained but the election lost.
For what the words are worth, the Labour soul soaring sought for by replacing “Daffodils” with red roses, has fallen flat.
She has consistently stood by her convictions on the key issues of our time. Even when it was not popular with the establishment political class, the Civil Service, or her opponents.
Though it may be hard for some to believe, the public are not only largely disinterested in the issue of the ECHR, but non-supportive of departure.
She has sensibly avoided specific prescriptions and promises, correctly judging that they will follow from the deeper thinking the party must do on the British state and what it is for.