Latest / Breaking The Meta / No Money, No Party, No BS: Independent Candidate Christopher Ajluni on Fixing a Broken System

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No Money, No Party, No BS: Independent Candidate Christopher Ajluni on Fixing a Broken System · Breaking The Meta

• Breaking The Meta: Arizona is the type of place where, you know, left or right or whoever you are, you better be doing your job. That was the most important thing. And that is not happening right now because, and this is so important. Yes, we know it's a mess, but the reason is because corruption has been legalized in this country. It is a hundred percent legalized. ⁓ you Hello everyone. And welcome to Breaking the Meta. I am Mike Winson. Today we have a very special guest. They are running for Arizona's first district. His name is Christopher Agelone and we're excited to have him here and talk about what he hopes to do in Arizona's first district. Hello, Christopher. How are you doing today? I'm doing wonderfully. How are you doing? I'm doing great. I can't wait to, ⁓ to hear about you and what, and what you, ⁓ your platform to start. Let's. If you could just give us a a little bit about you and just your history and then what, ⁓ what made you decide to run for Congress in the first place? Because in 2026, that feels like a crazy thing to do. Yeah, no, I feel crazy sometimes, but, ⁓ that's okay. I think we all do in this day and age. Um, yeah, I'm, I'm originally from Iowa. moved to Arizona about eight years ago and really love it now. That's just my home, my own house there. Um, I've worked in the financial industry for the past 15 years and, uh, in school, did, uh, biology cell biology. So I have a scientific background. Um, but now, uh, that I've been kind of in the, you know, world for 15 years and 20 years now I'm like out, I've seen things. I'm 36 years old, going on 37. And I've even, I've been to like a war torn territory before I've been to Lebanon and was bombed during the 2006 war there. Wow. I've had a lot of unique experiences. My family is Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian. And for instance, like I worked for 10 years as an autopsy technician in Iowa. So I've done a lot of different stuff like that. And then also I've been talking to the American people for the past 15 years in my career because that's what you do in financial services, right? You're trying to help people navigate the financial world, which is often tough. They don't really teach us a lot of the stuff in the financial world. And so I've been helping people do most of the boring stuff with that for the past 15 years. But it's given me a really interesting, I have like all these weird experiences and I think that I'm just in a position where I've seen a lot of what people are facing on a daily basis, just like as far as like bills and stuff like that. I've helped people try to like lower their payments throughout their, their house payment and things like that. ⁓ So I've done a lot of things that have just put me at that forefront and allowed me to see what people are going through. And I think that I have a unique opportunity to sort of speak truth to the people that are in power and let them know that we're feeling a lot of weird things right now ⁓ that You know, the experience of the worker is changing rapidly under our feet. And so that's like one thing I really focus on is, is matching that AI revolution with sort of a worker revolution. I'm an independent, so I'm nonpartisan. I don't have a party. I think it's really important that we kind of, at least if not like get away from party, cause I mean, parties are just a fact of life, but it just really ticks me off when I watch. a vote on C-SPAN and then the independent column is empty. There should be a number in there, I think. And I think that the people are calling for that. I'm hearing all kinds of statistics like independent registrations across the country are up. In my personal district, in city one, we have about 30 % or even more than that independence. And in Arizona, that's a real thing. There's a lot of people registered independent and lots of times you don't even have an independent on the ballot you can vote for. I'm trying to be that, that unique voice. And I was listening to your show. think it was actually the movie, the most recent one. And I was just getting jacked up about the person that was there because he was making the point that, ⁓ you know, we'd need a bit, we need to this election kind of rein in power from the really, really wealthy people in the country. And I think people feel that. And so I got excited because I'm like seeing these candidates pop up that really have no business running. And it seems there may even be precedent for that. ⁓ was listening to that, my God, that professor out of Boston, she does like a podcast that's really, she does a lot of them. But she was just explaining how in 1850, this kind of happened. And like there were a lot of wealthy interests that took over and made it so that the people running were bought and paid for, just like we see today. there was a swell, like a groundswell of just these unknown candidates that came about. So I want to read more about it, but it was an interesting thing that she, that she compared to today. So that's where I'm from. So I've definitely talked to a lot of pretty amazing people already that haven't even gone live yet. ⁓ if you got excited about the people that you've watched so far, wait until you see some of these other people, it's, it's pretty amazing what's going on in this country right now. ⁓ but So just to give people kind of an idea on your district, as you've walked around, as you've talked to people in the first district in Arizona, what are those pain points? What are the things that most of the people are talking to you about that they're struggling with, that they need fixed, that they're ⁓ looking for the government's help on in regards to? Yeah. You know, since we have such a split district and there's so many different opinions and it's a lot of people that by and large, like they're working hard. Like we have a pretty high median income. It's like $90,000 in my district. Um, and so a lot of times, like the biggest thing that people want is, know, where's my money going? Like, where's my tax money? Like what, what's the point of that? Cause I'm paying a lot of it. And, um, that's what we say. And I think that. When you kind of see some of the waste and things that are going on, like especially like today they were voting on a bill to double the funding of ICE. And I just, I think that people are getting sick of it and they're seeing that their money is not being well spent. And it's, it's also a situation where, you know, they are just basically manufacturing consent for things that we have no, nobody was interested in getting done, you know, that they're They're making things like this sort of Greenland thing. And it's causing even my ⁓ representative David Schweiker came out and was like, there's just no reason for this. there, you know, we have the ability to refurbish bases up there that are, that we've left. Like there's just, it doesn't make sense to attack a NATO ally and ruin NATO, you know, so many things, but that's just one thing where I think like our, people are getting sick and tired of it and fed up with it. And they just want to see the country operate better. They want to see more money in their pocket and they want to see, you know, our ideals come out in our policies, I think. Sure. ⁓ So some of the stuff you were saying kind of really leads into the next question. Things like accountability have been non-existent in our politics, both state and federal. We've got a president who's pretended that he is the most transparent administration and president of all time, even though we know that's not true. ⁓ Can someone say Epstein-Faust? That being said, what does accountability look like for you in regards to how do you keep yourself accountable to your constituents? How do you see accountability looking for Congress in general going forward? Yeah. I mean, I think that we're living in such like a different time, even than just a few years ago. You know, ⁓ the level, like look at this podcast even like look at the technology that we have to be able to meet with voters, meet with the media, meet with anybody really like that needs us. And what you see is that they're not doing that at all. Like they're not taking advantage of it in the slightest. They're not holding town halls. Like that's a huge thing across the country. It's really big for me because there's really no way to get in touch with David Triger. It's just so hard to like get in front of that guy. I have a couple of times and I think that's part of the reason that he's decided to leave the race actually, just to be honest, but he's going for governor now here. that's what I did as far as accountability. mean, This is a place where, and I'm just going to use the CD1 example just because it's such a good example. I have really been motivated to run. It's personally very difficult to do it, but I have been so motivated because it's such a good example. The guy who's sitting there, Schweiker, he has had, I believe, $160,000 or $170,000 of fines from the ethics committee in the house over the last six years. He's been in office since like 2013 or something like that, or 2012. And the whole time has been talking about fiscal responsibility and we've gone up $13 trillion in debt as a country. So I think like on an account, like the word accountability is like totally gone from Washington right now. And that's something that my voters in my district really, really care about. I think they want things to be well spent. Arizona is the type of place where, you know, left or right or whoever you are, you better be doing your job. That was the most important thing. And that is not happening right now because, and this is so important. Yes, we know it's a mess, but the reason is because corruption has been legalized in this country. is a hundred percent legalized. You can basically do anything. And if you have a couple million dollars, you will be either let out of prison, cause that's probably where you are. If you've been doing something that's heinous. or you will be able to just like use your wealth to get out of it. And that happens because our Congress is bought up like this. ⁓ That happens because the presidency is bought up like this. And that happens because the Supreme Court is bought up like this. ⁓ It's just a situation where essentially what they've done is disenfranchised the votes of the people. So the accountability doesn't have to be there to the people. Because all the representatives that we have do is take whatever we're talking about, whatever ideas that we want to see, they put it in their messaging, they put it in their campaign stuff. And then when they get there, they go to call time. So they go to call their donors, call people who are going to give them money. If they don't do that, they will become like a lame duck person in their party. And they'll be primaried right afterwards because you're not playing along with this big money mousetrap that they've set up. ⁓ and that's where we really need people like me, like we, and I hate to say that, like I, frankly, like I said, this is a burden. This is something that is going to take me out of the things that I was building in my life. ⁓ but it's so necessary because again, we just, we, if you think that the people in charge will do it themselves when they are incentivized to be corrupt, if they will fix it and bring back accountability to this country, you are. You must be so drugged up. I don't even know what you're taking, but it must be some serious stuff because that's good stuff. We find ourselves. Yeah. It definitely is. Again, this is why I say this is one of the reasons that that we've decided to do what we're doing and reach out to so many people. Your what you are saying, this message is a very. consistent thing from everyone that I'm talking to that's running. it's absolutely amazing and wonderful. it's one of those really exciting things to experience talking to you guys. really like the everyday people. Like I know people are tired. I know people hear every day like a new piece of crazy news. And I actually don't think all of us, the people that we're talking about are asking a lot. Like we are asking for... consideration, go and just look up these people when it's time, because all of us have to do the work first of getting there and help us get there. really consider, that's what I've been telling people, the main thing that I want to leave everybody with this election cycle is consider the unfunded candidates. Those people could be our last gas weapon against the corruption that we're seeing every day. It's staggering levels. mean, the New York times is having fun with graphics on Instagram where they were showing dollars, like bundles of dollars and how much the Trump family had made from their office since being back. And each dollar was like the average income for like a household in the United States. And they were just falling from the sky in the graphic. And it's just like. You know, I don't have a super awesome calculator where I can just verify that right this instant, but it's clear. It's clear that there is a huge benefit financially to what he's doing. And all they can do is stay silent. Like all the Congress can do is apologize for this. And so whether it's Epstein files or whatever issue is upsetting you, somebody paid for this and they are getting what they paid for, whether Venezuela. someone paid for that, they are getting what they paid for. And it might not even be, like you saw some of the oil companies, you know, kind of balk at that whole plan. It might not be everybody's on board, but some, mean, somebody's getting a benefit for that. they're probably not going to be. Speaking of Venezuela, ⁓ obviously this last year has changed the place of the American ⁓ American society, America, America, when it comes to the world stage, not just obviously Venezuela, but Greenland, all of these tariffs, the, the back and forth with tariffs between all of these different countries. don't know where it's going to end, but you can't, there's no doubt that America will not be at the table in the same way that it was at the table before this administration came into power. How do you see America's place in the world moving forward? Yeah, that's a really good question. And I think if you're an American and looks like you're around my age, so I'm going to just assume. So if you're young like me, we grew up being told the best part of America and being explained how being an American is something to be proud of. And it's something that even if we did get it wrong at some point, which we did, there's many times where we get things wrong. ⁓ I think that even with that, the good things that we do can outweigh that. And it's not solved, like it's not, we haven't had the definitive like, ⁓ America was good or America was bad yet. ⁓ I don't believe so. And for me, I think that moving towards a more perfect union for me, means that with regards to like foreign policy, that we get more towards the good things that we output into the world. We see more democracies abroad. We see the people that are, you know, demonstrating in other countries empowered. And I think that when you look back over our history, that has happened sometimes in places, especially that are ⁓ under the control of people that we disagree with. But When it's places that it's people that we either agree with or do business with, we're much more quiet. And so what I would like to see is that we embrace the better ideals, the better, ⁓ you know, attempts by Americans to influence the world, ⁓ by like vaccine technology or by like being able to export a little cube of peanut butter that can feed somebody and take them from the brink of starvation to, they can make it throughout their life. They can get back to a situation where they can get themselves on their feet. So there's a lot that we can do. I mean, just with space technology alone, you can see not only how we can collaborate with the world, but how we can bring incredible awareness of when we're going to see disasters and things like that. so America has this promise. You know, we're a competitive country. full of a bunch of different people who all can work together. I look at collaboration like it's the top level of human evolution. That's when we're collaborating together, all together and peaceful. That's the type of thing that really is like we are doing what we're supposed to do here. But so, okay, I'm going to get back less high level. So for me, I would like to see us renew our partnerships that Because like our allies, in my opinion, make us so much stronger than just us by ourselves. Like I think America is very strong. I look at our military, look at what they were able to do just technically in Venezuela. It was really impressive. Technically what they did in Iran was really impressive with with being able to hit facilities underground. So I mean, they have that we know they have that we know they're probably so far ahead of us. We don't even know what they have. But We got to use it in a good way and we got to combine that strength with the strength of our allies. And to the end of like international world order, whatever you want to call it, the whole point of that is to lessen the likelihood that we have huge catastrophic conflicts between countries. And, ⁓ that's what I will push for. You can see it in my foreign policy. You can see it in anything that I do. ⁓ I don't think we should be a colonial power at all. I think that we should definitely. enforce like a good trading atmosphere with the help of other countries. But, you know, think about it. Like, I like to vacation. You're big traveler. Do like to go on vacation? I like to when I can. Yeah. I like to when I can too. To me, the idea that we cannot go to, like, there are so many countries that are like off the list that you just wouldn't really think to go to as a tourist because it's kind of dangerous or you can't go there. Personally, I'm from one of them. My family, like I told you, my dad's family is Palestinian. literally do not go. I have gone to Lebanon, to Syria, where I'm from, but I do not go to Palestine because I know that I will be discriminated against. We shouldn't do that. should, everybody should be able to visit Jerusalem and have a great time and do their religious stuff, whatever religion they're from, and be able to get out of there. ⁓ You can't go to Ukraine right now, right? You can't go to Eastern Europe. It's just not a good time to be there. ⁓ It's crazy. Like there's so much history there. There's so much to see and to experience. My aunt is Ukrainian. and I think that what has happened to that country is just so sad and it's not like just under the last eight years either. mean, they've been doing this since Obama, like I remember Crimea and I remember all that stuff. So this is this long-term thing that's going on, you know? And I think that the only thing that's been standing in the way of that really is our ally ship with. Europe. So to see them kind of just like bulldoze that and like act like it's not helping or something like that to me is just, it's just like such a betrayal. And I grew up really respecting the people in world war II and what happened there and the ability of them to stop fascism. And so it just feels like, you know, how can you do that to those guys unless you don't appreciate what they did? I think the only thing that ⁓ personally, and I'm interested in your perspective on it, that I see as being difficult regards to all of that. Because I agree in the sense of, I think that's where we need to get to again. ⁓ This presidency has shown, I believe has shown our allies that things like treaties or trade deals or all of these other things, ⁓ they can get taken away with a snap of a finger. what these deals that they agree on don't mean anything in the end. And I think that's where we may have a problem because if we get a different president in in 2028 who cares about our allies and cares about these relations. Who's to say four years after that, someone doesn't come back in and do the exact same thing. And who's going to want to be, who's going to want to put that kind of work in. So I'm interested in your perspective on that issue that I see. Yeah. I mean, I, I look at it like it is a systemic problem. Like we have a systemic problem that is not just going to go away. Like I know everybody likes to talk about Trump or whatever. It is not just him. We have had immigration problems for. decades. ⁓ My friend who is Canadian got deported to Canada in 2009 and had to spend two weeks in federal prison. Now granted he wasn't like taken by masks, masked people in the middle of the night or something like that. But he had to spend two weeks in federal prison. There were people that had been there for years that had no ability to get back where they were going. You know what I mean? Like there was a lot wrong with it. They dropped him off on the border. His dad had to figure it out. But these problems are systemic, right? And our allies are probably extremely, you know, obviously extremely worried, right? We're at the point of having a big trade war with our closest allies about an unnecessary grab of territory. Like that's a problem. But the problem can be solved. And I think that's, a lot of people think it cannot be solved, right? They think like we're a train off the rails or something like that. I don't think that. I think that it can be solved, but it, it. is mandatory that the people demand from our institutions what they have sort of told us our whole lives they are about. Like they have to be reliable. They have to be ⁓ following the rules. They can't just decide that the president is going to take powers directly from the Congress that are very clearly the Congress's powers and they should be doing something about that. Right? Like the Congress should be acting. They're not because of the systemic issues. And the way that I boil it all down and the reason I think it's really important for me to run, because a lot of people are running on this issue or that issue, or they're like, you know, using this energy that we have, but there's no clear path that they're going to. My clear path that I'm going to is getting money out of politics and getting it so that our values, like whatever voters support. have to be listened to so that there is that accountability. And if it's working right, like if we can get it working that way, then the treaties will matter. Then when we make a partnership, a trade deal, that will matter and we will be honest. No, that's our, that's what we say. That's what we do. All this stuff. There's other stuff that's been going on for a long time that we haven't been doing that we should be doing like abiding by the international criminal court, like making sure that when we use war tactics, we are using war tactics that everybody has sort of agreed on. I mean, I don't know if you heard this, but they, they apparently use a civilian aircraft to hit some of those Venezuelan boats or wherever, which seems totally unnecessary. Like if you have a battleship and they have a fishing boat or whatever, feel like whatever's like, you're going to win that fight. You don't need this million aircraft. But I was really upset about that because there's lots of civilian aircraft that have been downed in the middle East and Asia. And that just is one more way that we're endangering people. Right? Like. When we get more sophisticated, when we get more civilized, we should make people safer. having potential civilian aircraft getting shot down is literal, it's just so bad. It's exactly the opposite of things that we should be doing. And I feel like that's about so many issues. It's crazy. So I'm sorry if I talk so much because I'm just, there's no sign big enough, my man. The purpose of this is to let people learn about you and what you stand for. So feel free to talk about things. Let's do a little bit of future casting. you know, November comes around, you get voted in. January 2nd comes around, you get sworn in. What's the first thing that you do? The first thing I would do is submit bills to alter the system of campaign finance or support bills that will get what I want done with campaign finance reform. ⁓ I'm also submitting bills to change the posture of the United States relationship towards Palestine to one of incentives instead of one of restriction. Because right now in the US code, if you try to go give money to the Palestinians to organize their lives, you are going to get sanctioned. You are literally not allowed to do that. The United States will no longer trade with your country and there's different... ⁓ organizations with the UN that are totally under attack right now, that are basically the infrastructure for Palestinians. And I know that one may seem like a really far away issue, but it happened through our money and our weapons and our advisement. So we have to think about that issue. Another thing I would do is immediately move to get universal healthcare for all of Americans, because what I believe is that we have had the wealthy in this country. siphon off the money from the middle class and from anybody else that basically is not in the 1%. And ⁓ it's happened each crisis, right? When 2008 happened, people lost their houses. Guess who bought them? The most wealthy people among us, the most wealthy entities. Now, I'm not talking about your rich neighbors, or I'm not talking about a couple blocks away, there's a bunch of people that live in super nice houses. Not talking about that. I am talking about entities that are giant corporations that are buying up real estate like crazy. ⁓ I'm talking about ⁓ people where they are manipulating our cost of our medicine and the cost of care. And that kind of stuff has left us in a very stressed out position as a middle class. I'm in the middle class. I work, I go to my job. I ⁓ have investments, I have a house, I'm trying to build equity and get my house going. So I'm right in the middle of all this. And, you know, we all feel stressed, extra stressed, two jobs, gig economy, right? Like everybody is working, trying to just get a little edge on everything. And so I'm submitting bills that are going to directly affect them. that universal healthcare is so important because it would shift some of that money that's been siphoned away back to us. If they can make just like a quick determination, and get things done, which is the thing, like if you boil away everything else with Trump, that's what his supporters like. He gets around the bullshit. He goes out and just does whatever he says he's going to do. That's the attitude that the progressive movement that we've been talking about today has, that we will push the envelope to get things done for people, to change their lives in a meaningful way, because that's what we're missing. That's why we're all pissed. That's why we're all ready, because those things aren't getting done because of the money that's behind these politicians. Even if they're the nicest people, you could have the nicest candidate. like I'm running one of the people that I may run against who's on the Democratic ticket is like a ER doctor, like great guy, like all that kind of stuff. But man, you could be the best dude ever if someone gave you millions of dollars to be able to run. And the last I heard, you know, he raised, he had to raise, I think the Democratic party raised like $14 million for my seat. Just the Democrats. When you do that math, I mean, that is scathing math. And you know that there's even if again, you're the best person in the world. There's no way you can avoid having that kind of tab. ⁓ I was having at an event with Rashida Tlaib from Detroit, Michigan, from Dearborn. She came down to Arizona. There's a big Palestinian community in Arizona. But the first thing she did, not even in her speech, the first words out of her mouth were, I need $5 million to be relevant. That's the first thing she said. And that's like a district that she's coming from where, you know, that's, that's going to be a least favorable district for her, but not even relevant. I talked to another woman, I believe I'm going to get this wrong. I want to say she was in Georgia or Florida and she's like a decorated veteran has been in very high level security clearance running a less corporate campaign, you know, not corporate campaign. veterans groups wouldn't even talk to her for her endorsement because not enough money. They don't think that she can win. So that's what kind of crap I'm talking about. If you, if it, if it takes millions, we just don't have a real democracy here. Like we don't have a real Republic. This is a incorporated, like this is a company and I don't think that's really what we all think of this. place. Like I think there's so many good things that happen here where you see the American dream realized and they're fewer and further between, but we can make them more numerous if we apply pressure on the powerful and if we demand that our candidates are not these bought and paid for surrogates, you know, for lobbyists. It just doesn't make sense. I've even gotten word lately that Like lobbyists will text the people on the Arizona legislature floor and you can see them get the text and then go and give a speech or like go and make a motion. So it's just gotten really, really like way worse than, know, Elon Musk. I don't remember if you remember this, you know, I must, when he was showing up with those checks to the Supreme court elections in Wisconsin, that's supposed to be a nonpartisan position. do the math on that one for me. Nonpartisan. Yep. No, you're right. For anyone who is listening here, get got to this point. What's one or two things that you want to make sure that no matter, no matter what they've listened to up into this point, what are one or two things that you want them to come away with about you and your campaign? You know, I, grew up in Des Moines, Iowa. I am as American as it comes. Like I am just blood, sweat and tears this country. I want to see it do well. I want to see the people here have the best opportunity possible. And I frankly think that our workers should have the best benefits. Our infrastructure should run the smoothest and be the easiest to get things done. I just went to the post office to send mail and the cost to send mail was the same as an hour of minimum wage, federal minimum wage in this country. So you have to work an hour if you want to send a piece of mail and that she clarified the lady who was nice at the USPS clarified that that was the lowest that it could be. So depending on how many ounces or whatever, it could be more. So things are out of whack. You can find it in so many different pieces of information. And my argument, sole argument, if you've got this far, this is what I want you to hear. The argument is that this is happening. due to the moneyed interests that have taken over our politics. And it's way out of control compared to what it ever was. If you remember politics in the nineties, it was boring. They did not go so sensational. They did not raise as much money to run. It was more respectable. There were still a lot of moneyed interests in there, but man, at least after Citizens United, it has become a totally different game. It's way, way further than anybody ever gave it credit for being able to get. Just goes to show JD Vance is in the Supreme Court right now arguing as a lawyer. They are arguing to try to make no limits to donations for parties. That's basically what is happening right now. So we have to go the other way. We have to rein it back in. If you're a millennial like me, or even if you're not, mean, I am a young person, but I am so sensitive to issues that are affecting older Americans like elder care. mean, nobody talks about. Like, elder care is a disaster. Half the people are being sent across the state. Their family has to watch them. Their family has no time to watch them. There's no money for it. When I was doing long-term care insurance back like 10 years ago, the cost that we assumed for long-term care insurance, this is if you go to a nursing home or you go to like an assisted living facility, the cost that we assumed per month was $7,000. So we were assuming that these people would need $7,000 to pay for the care at that age with no income off their retirement savings, which by the way, pensions have been removed, right? They've taken those away from workers. They've replaced it with a 401k, which so if the market is 2008 or COVID, when you decide that you need to retire and you need that, or let's say you're halfway through retirement, you can't go back and get a job at 76. Half your retirement savings gone. So. They are leaving old people out to drive. They are leaving young people out to drive. We are all growing up with less of a chance to buy a house and complete the American dream compared to our parents. And, and we can solve it. Like we have the resources to be able to get ourselves back on our feet, to make it so that if I, I love driving across the country, to make it so that if I drive across the country, I don't have to worry that one of the states I'm going to go in is not going to have good roads. Like that's crazy. I shouldn't have to worry about that. I could barely get out of, I went to Mississippi this year because there was a young man who was lynched. His name was Trey Reed in Mississippi. I want the second autopsy on that. ⁓ and I went there and as I was driving across the state, I had to like go to Memphis. Coming back to Arizona from Mississippi just to charge my electric car. So there wasn't the infrastructure that I needed to get where I was going the fastest way that I should. And I should have that. In 2026, I should have the ability to go anywhere with a type of car that does better things for the environment than the alternative. There's so many things that are important right now. And if any of that is resonating with you and you're listening to this, remember that there's people out there that want to do something about it. So go out, find those people in your area, support us ⁓ and reach out to me if you have a question or there's something I can do. I am a transparent guy. I would love to help. If there's anything I can do, I, besides this run a charity. That's why I'm up here in San Francisco. ⁓ so, and then my job is to help people when things go wrong, ⁓ cause I do insurance right now. So, you know, I, I try to be as helpful as I can. If I can help you, I will try to help you, but please help us try to help this country because it's just so important this year. I mean, I, I, know we say that all the time, but. I just think this year is a, it's a real big one. The executive power that has been seized needs a check. And the, the other institutions have said, whatever, even the press, right? Even everybody is going along with it. So the people are the last check. We have to step up this year. If someone was trying to find you to learn more about you, or that wants to help financially with your campaign. Where could they do that? So I don't take money, but I take volunteers. I will come to your business and have an event. I'm like restaurant or whatever it is. I'm happy to help promote anybody in my district. I'm happy to come and do events where I physically help in the district, but I don't take any money. If they want to get involved, they can just go to my website. It's just my name, christopherajlone.com. My last name is tough, but it's only six letters. So don't get that in there We'll put it in the description below so people can can easily find it. It's AJL you and I so Christopher is just normally spelled and then AJL you and I calm you can go on there you can volunteer it even breaks it down into which neighborhood because if you're volunteering you're volunteering in my district only the signatures in my district are Accountable and I'll leave you this too for an independent in my state for federal Congress, we have the highest signature requirement to be even be on the bound. if you are hearing this and you're in the district, just remember I'm free option. You don't have to give me any money. I don't want a sense. I want your help. I want to get out there like Zoran Mamdani did with tens of thousands of volunteers and cover this district and let people know that people are real pissed and that we want to see a change in the country and we can do it together. I know that is something that everybody gets freaked out about with no money, but there's several of us, no money candidates or open source candidates. Have you interviewed any of the other open source candidates? Not yet. I'll connect you guys. There's a guy, Anthony in Florida. There's a guy, Winston, who's up in New Jersey, who are both running for Congress also and ⁓ staying under the $5,000 limit for the FEC guidelines. shows. that we are what we say we are. Because you have to report that. Or that's fraud, you you can't, you gotta report what you're paying. So it shows people, right? ⁓ It should be a badge of honor that we have. Hey, we're not gonna take money. We are gonna listen to our constituents. We're gonna listen to our neighbors. We're gonna be present in the district. I live in the district. Something happens in the district, I'm in real trouble. That house is like my whole life. So it's not just, like we... Are people that are regular people that want to do something to fix what we're seeing right now. And I think that's, that's the biggest thing I can say is go find an open source candidate, go find a no money candidate that you can support and let's get some better things done in this country. Christopher, thank you so much for spending some time here and letting us get to know you. It was really awesome. I look forward to seeing ⁓ what happens throughout this entire, this, your entire campaign ⁓ for anyone else that. has listened this far. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. If you don't mind hitting all those buttons, subscribe and follow and all that stuff. It really helps us out. It makes it possible for me to keep doing what I'm doing here. Just in case you are new to Breaking the Meta, we are a podcast that is about having hard conversations, not sticking with the status quo, breaking that status quo. And we firmly believe that all people, no matter your race, religion, gender, or identity, deserve rights, respect, dignity, and safety. And that is something that I will continue to fight for. for as long as I'm here. ⁓ Again, Christopher, thank you. Thank you everyone for listening this far, and we'll see you next time on Breaking the Meta. Bye, guys. Thank you so much.