Latest / Breaking The Meta / He Exposed His Own Mayor's Corruption — Now He's Running for Congress | William Compton
Transcript
- Breaking The Meta: ⁓ found out that our former mayor with all the evidence I gathered was stealing taxpayer funds and we had him federally indicted and paid every single cent back that he stole from the city and from the taxpayers in this rural city. Hello everyone. And welcome to Breaking the Meta. am Mike Wins. And today we are sitting down with William Compton, who is running in Kentucky's second district for the house of representatives, excited to sit down and find out what he's going to do, or at least hopes to do for his district. William, thanks for being here today. Thank you for having me. I'm so glad to be here. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's for that one. But anyways, let's talk about you here, not, not James Comer. ⁓ To start off, can you give everyone just Talk a little bit about you so people can get an idea of who you are and then also why you decided to run for Congress in the first place because for a lot of people in our community, the first thing we hear when someone says, I want to run for Congress is, are you crazy? Yeah, exactly. So a little bit about me. I'm 32 years old. I have lived in Warren County, Kentucky my entire life. Grew up actually on the Warren County, Edmonton County line. Very rural part of the county. If you hear the stereotype of rural America where you hear banjos in the distance, that was a reality where I lived. You could literally hear them outside on my porch. Grew up there on a small farm with my family. My dad, he was a self-employed parking lot cleaner and landscaper. My mother, she was a telemetry technician at one of the hospitals in Warren County. Went to school in Warren County at a school called Warn East High School. graduated from there, love being in music, love being a band student where I played multiple different instruments, wanted to teach it. So went to our local university in Warren County called Western Kentucky University, home of the Hilltoppers, and got my teaching degree there where I went through playing a euphonium, which is a baby tuba. Yes it is. And ended up getting that degree and During all of that, I was working at McDonald's as a swing shift manager, 40 plus hours a week. And it was very enlightening going through that program and working 40 plus hours a week. I graduated in 2016 and about a week before school started for the fall of 2016, I got a phone call and had an interview. And at the high school I grew up in, they started a string orchestra program and I was the first ever director of that program. Wow. And I've been there serving my community for the last decade. It feels weird saying decade. And so I've been out there teaching and lived in Bowling Green during the start of my career. But about four years in when tenure was on hindsight and I knew I was going to get tenure, I decided I needed to buy a home and found this house that I'm currently living in in Plum Springs, Kentucky, which is just right outside of Bowling Green. It's one of our small unincorporated cities. And got there about a year before COVID started happening. happened. During COVID, I started looking up about our city commission here in Plum Springs, realized that they were doing nothing for us. Reached out to the mayor at the time, got a very nasty response from him. And so in the 2020 election, I filed as a riding candidate and was elected to that city commission. And that kind of propelled me into politics. Found out at the end of that term, I had been gathering evidence for my first two year term and we elected a new mayor in 2022. Found out that our former mayor with all the evidence I gathered. was stealing taxpayer funds and we had him federally indicted and paid every single cent back that he stole from the city and from the taxpayers in this rural city. that kind of, again, that propelled me up to this U.S. Congress seat. You know, if it happens here, we know it's happening in Washington. We need someone who's going to go up there and fix that. ⁓ That was, and sorry, the background, my husband's playing games. And so that is one of the first reasons that got me to run for this seat. And I've had a lot more reasons kind of pop up throughout the campaign. And two big ones have kind of stuck out since then. ⁓ My students and my grandmother. And with my students, I had a young lady at the end of last school year who was so excited about being a park ranger. She got accepted to UK and was so excited. That was her passion. And when the current administration cut funds to our national parks, she was devastated. She was worried about her future. Will I have a job in the future? I'm going to college. Am I going to waste four years of my life, spend all this money and just be left out in the dust? And that hurt seeing the students. I see them fifth grade through 12th grade. And so they're my, they're my kids. And knowing that that's the kind of future we're leaving for them is, just devastating. ⁓ They deserve better than what they got. then my grandmother, she is one of tons of people across this district, across this nation that a couple months ago got a letter in the mail that said her healthcare prices were rising. She's on social security. has to go to the doctor multiple times a month, take handfuls of medicine. She's lucky if she has $100 in her bank account at the end of the month. She's terrified. She doesn't know how she's going to pay her bills if they keep going up, along with grocery prices. And that hurt me a lot because she was always my rock. She's always the one that stood by me, told me I could do anything I wanted. And in her golden years, the year she should be spending time with her grandkids, her great grandkids, enjoying life, she's worried about whether or not she's going to be able to go to the doctor to stay alive. And those are the two big reasons now why I'm running. So it's kind of shifted a little bit and it made a little more personal, but they deserve so much better. you go around Kentucky, obviously you talk to people in your class. You talk to people just in your community, but when you go around and you interact with people as you're campaigning, what are the common pain points that you are hearing about? What are the common problems or the common things that your district needs the government to be helping with? One that's on everybody's mind, a majority of the time is healthcare. The rising healthcare costs. The ⁓ fear of our rural hospitals closing vital services or just closing down altogether. ⁓ Everyone in this nation, whether you're rich, whether you're poor, whatever gender you are, whatever race you are, you're going to need healthcare. And people are forgoing vital healthcare, vital ⁓ pieces of medicine that they need to survive because they can't afford it. And that's the biggest issue on everyone's minds. When I need to go to the hospital, am I going to go bankrupt? Am I going to have to put out an extra loan on my house just to get the healthcare I need to live? So that is the number one issue. And then I also see a lot of people worried about things like grocery store prices. And again, rightly so, we're seeing prices still continuing to increase. I have had lots of conversations with people in the grocery store who wearing a MAGA hat or wearing information that says they're a Democrat or independent or whatever. Everybody is saying the same thing. These prices are too high. It's getting hard to afford it. It's getting hard to make ends meet. Those are the two issues that consistently come back up in this district. Now we're also seeing issues like affordable housing. making sure that we can buy a home, first time ⁓ homeowners, making sure they can afford that at a lot earlier age. Right now, the average age is about 49 years old. So that issue is popping up. ⁓ The issue, we still have a lot of people who are concerned about reproductive healthcare in this district. And so there's a whole bunch of issues that just kind of jump around in that third place. It's just near and dear to everybody's hearts. What is it like running as a Democrat in rural Kentucky? It's interesting. Most. So you can always spot who are the Democrats when you start talking and you say, ⁓ I'm a Democrat, their face lights up like, ⁓ another Democrat in rural Kentucky. And they get so excited. But when you speak to someone who's an independent or Republican, the response at first, when you mention that you're running as a Democrat candidate is always like they step back and, you're a Democrat. I don't know if we can support you. And so I never lead with that when I speak to people. I always lead with the things that I know everyone can rely on. And I've had many Republicans, many MAGA Republicans look at me and go, you know what? When I found out you're a Democrat, you're a pretty smart Democrat. I would vote for you. Like, thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah. But we all have things that affects everybody. It shouldn't be, oh, you're a Democrat. I'm always going to vote for you. Oh, you're a Republican. I'm always going to vote for you. It's absolutely. Are you going to help us? Yeah. And have you noticed that the the pain, those pain points that you're talking about are making them more open to interact with you, even though you are a Democrat? ⁓ yes. ⁓ yeah. A couple of years ago, when I first was on the city commissioner of Plum Springs, I would knock, I knocked every single door in this city, multiple times. And as I've continued to do it, I'm having more responses from Republicans here, especially that are willing to sit there and on their front porch talk to me for, ⁓ I had one conversation that was almost three hours long. My goodness. And we were talking like we were best friends. Yeah. But they know that I'm there to listen. I'm there to fight for them. And it doesn't matter to them that I'm a Democrat anymore. And so we're seeing that a lot more with Republicans and independents in this district. Good. Obviously, accountability is an issue in general, especially with our current government as a whole, whether you're talking federal or state in many cases. What does accountability look like to you? How do you expect to be held accountable to the people of your district? And how do you even see accountability to Congress looking, you know, in the future? So to me, accountability means, and it kind of goes hand in hand with transparency, in my opinion. So it means always being open with your constituents, always being readily available and being there to listen to them. That way, if you do fall off, they're there to call you out on it and you not get mad and you fix it. ⁓ That's another big thing with this campaign. My business cards, everybody in the district, everyone that has my card has my personal phone number because I believe they should be able to call me. at 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock at night. I might not answer, I might be asleep, but they should be able to call me. And when I get to Washington, if I vote on something that they don't agree with, they should be able to call me and go, hey, listen, I don't agree with that vote. Here's why could you reconsider or find a way to fix this? And to be able to listen to their viewpoints. That's what accountability in my mind is a representative should be. Always being open to the people. and letting them voice their opinion to you and just listen and follow what they're saying. One of the things that I noticed as I was looking through your page was also having to do ⁓ with veterans and things of that nature. Obviously, ⁓ rural America is one of the biggest givers to our military, which in turns gives the most veterans. ⁓ While Obviously, I see from this that you want to help veterans, which we absolutely need. What I specifically am interested in ⁓ talking about is how you see and how even the people who are veterans that you're interacting with see what's going on with the United States on the world stage, specifically things like Greenland and Venezuela and the tariffs that are kind of destroying our 80 year alliances to some extent. Obviously, we aren't going to be in the same place that we were at the table, regardless of what this current administration thinks. Our place has changed no matter what you're seeing steps happen. How do you see, how do even the people that you're talking to see what's going on and see the future of the United States on the world stage? Yeah, so many of the veterans I speak with in which my district, actually have Fort Knox in my district. we have really big veteran population here. A lot of those veterans, especially our older ones, they are angry at a lot of things that they're seeing or scared or a mixture of both. They've been to war. They know what war is like. And a lot of veterans have told me they're afraid that war would come to America, they're afraid of that. And they said, you don't want to see that. You don't want to see that happening here. We also have a lot who are mad because they served our country and at the time they served greatest nation in the world, respected by everybody. And I've had many veterans tell me we're a laughing stock now. I served it when I dreamed it is the joke of the world. And, and again, these are retired military men and women who put their life on the lines, been shot at multiple times, and this is what they're feeling. So that that's kind of what I'm getting from the older veterans. The ones that I speak with that are currently in the military. They're just, they're kind of shell shocked with everything going on. They of course are following the commands. lawful commands that they're being given. But they, a lot of them, just they'll look at me and go, I don't want to go to war. I don't want to have to go overseas and fight for this. I don't think this is right what we're doing. And they are just hoping we don't get thrown into a conflict that causes that. That's kind of what I'm hearing throughout the district though. Yeah. So I want to future cast a little bit. ⁓ You get through primaries, you get through general election, January 2nd comes around, you are sworn in as a congressman for the second district of Kentucky. What's the first thing that you do? The first thing I do is I put forward a piece of legislation to repeal the one big, beautiful, or as I like to call it, bullshit budget bill. And specifically, getting rid of the healthcare cuts in that budget bill. And I will say, I have to admit, there are parts of it I do agree with, especially dealing with our farmers and agriculture, but healthcare is my big issue from that budget bill. ⁓ We need to repeal those. We're starting to see the effects from it slowly trickling in. And that's where earlier when I mentioned the healthcare prices rising, the rural hospitals closing vital services, that's because of this budget bill. And so that should be priority number one, repealing at least the healthcare cuts from there, from that. And then the second thing I'm going to do is over the next couple months, pieces of legislation that I'm going to present to the people in my district and get their feedback on before I'm inaugurated on January 2nd. And that way I can go in with handfuls of bills. that everybody in the district already knows about that we can go on ahead and start passing, trying to pass. And I already have one of them created and it has to do with our public schools. So pretty excited about that. But just getting the people involved in the process, making sure that they know what legislation I'm going to present on day one. I'm interested in asking because for a lot of other people, other candidates that I've talked to ⁓ that are farming communities, they're struggling with a lot what's going on. So I'm just interested what part of the farming and agriculture in the Big Beautiful Bill were you good with and how is that? Maybe some of us are misreading it or is it something that just happens to help people in your area, which isn't a bad thing, by the way, if it helps your area. The thing I liked about it was the increase in the prices. If like, let's say we had a drought or a massive rain, the increase of prices for the farmers that we're paying out to them for the disasters for their crops. That was a big thing that I truly thought was a good thing for our farmers. We don't need to take that out at all. Gotcha. because obviously the fact that a lot of farmers aren't able to sell their crops right now as a whole for completely different reasons is not the good thing. I just wanted to make sure I understood what part was good. yes, I'm okay. And I'm understanding of that part. just didn't want, I could see people that are farmers hearing that and going, wait a second, what is he talking about? Life sucks for us right now. This isn't okay. Yeah, like the tariffs and everything. We have soybean farmers in my district that are struggling right now because of the tariffs, because of what this administration is doing as a whole to our small farmers and our farming businesses. I don't agree with that 100%. But now making sure that if there's a disaster and they have to help you with your crops, the fact that they increased how much money on the specific crops is perfect. I'm so glad they did that. Gotcha. Okay. Perfect, love it. ⁓ Obviously also things like division are something that we're dealing with a lot in this country. Whether or not the division is in our own heads or a reality, you can have that conversation. There still is the reality that at least in Congress, in public, the two sides aren't working together at all. How do you see yourself going into something like that? with the knowledge that even in your own district, you are going to have to support and represent people that potentially disagree with you and you may disagree with them. Yeah, going into the Congress knowing there are going to be people who I disagree with. I know that and I'm going to disagree with them on many different topics. I think What we're seeing now is the lack of the ability to just sit down and have a conversation and to come up with an agreement that both sides can benefit on and can agree on and move forward with. Right now it's, it's both sides are going, I'm right. No, I'm right. And we're not going to do anything because we want to keep power. And that's not how I operate. ⁓ I am very good in the city commission. reaching across the aisle with my Republican colleagues to get things done for Plum Springs. And I'm going to take that to Washington. You know, I can, I'll be able to go out there and I'll be able to have conversations with them to pass this legislation. Now I'm not going to do it in the way that's been done in the past where you add on this slush to a bill, but We just need to sit down and work together. We're all Americans. It shouldn't be a battle between us. And that is the big thing that we're lacking is just having that unity across aisle or across the aisle. So going in, not holding any grudges against anybody. Cause that's a good way to start off on a bad note and just working together. Well, I'm glad you can do it because I'll be straight if I was in Congress, I'm not sure that I could have a civil conversation with James Comey if he wins again and was in the Congress. Just and that is why I am not one of those people that's going to be running for Congress because I couldn't do it. ⁓ So for anyone who gets this far and has heard everything you said, if you were if you were to pick one or two things that no matter what they heard up until this point that they wanted to, that you wanted them to remember about you and your campaign over everything else. What, what would those one or two things be? say the biggest thing is I'm just like every other Kentucky and every other working American. I just want to move our nation forward. I want to help our children have a brighter future, help our senior citizens have an amazing time in their golden years and help everyone working in between enjoy the life with their family and not have to always worry about having a job, working two or three jobs, paying bills, being able to enjoy your life. That's the biggest thing. I cannot argue that at all. ⁓ William, thanks for coming in here and sitting down with us for a little while, letting us get to know you a little bit. If anyone wants to find you and find out more about you and support you, where can they do that? The easiest place for them to do that is visit my website at www.WilliamCompton.com. You can go there. All of my social media is attached to that website. I am also on almost every single platform that you can think of. We have big talk, Instagram, Blue Sky, Twitter, Facebook. a little bit of every everywhere. So ⁓ all of the handles are at Compton for KY24. ⁓ Don't go out there and check us out. Yeah. And we'll put we'll put links down in the description below. So it'll be easier for people to find again. William, thanks for hanging out here and letting us get to know you a little bit for everyone that's listening. Thank you for listening this far. If you like what you heard from here, please consider subscribing and hitting all those buttons down below. It helps us out at breaking the meta, it makes it possible for me to keep doing what I'm doing here and interviewing more people. For those of you that don't know, the meta is all about having hard conversations, breaking that status quo, and making sure that all people, no matter their race, religion, gender, identity, get rights, respect, dignity, and safety, and it's something I will continue to fight for no matter what. So again, William, thank you. And for everyone listening, we'll see you next time on Breaking the Meta. Bye, guys.