Latest / Breaking The Meta / "Gun Owner. Deer Hunter. Democrat." — Indiana Candidate Nate Stout Is Breaking the Mold
Transcript
- Breaking The Meta: I'm a deer hunter, I'm a gun owner, and I'm a Democrat. ⁓ you Hello everyone and welcome to Breaking the Meta. My name is Mike Winson. Today we are sitting down with Nate Stout, who is running for the 38th district in the Indiana House of Representatives. Hello Nate, how are you doing today? I'm doing great, how are you? I'm doing so good, I'm doing so good. I'm to talk to a lot of amazing people and I'm looking forward to talking with you. So let's start out with ⁓ who you are. a little background on yourself and why you decided to run for office in the first place. So I decided to run because I just, I'd seen enough. That is a pretty common thing. I surprised. Yeah. So I've spent my life in corporate America. I've worked for some really great brands. I worked for Callaway golf for 11 years. I worked in the fishing business with Johnson outdoors for almost nine. spent the last year in hospitality and I've always believed In the American dream, I believe that if you work hard and you do what you say you're going to do and you show up that good things happen. And, ⁓ I've tried to live that, ⁓ the best of my abilities. But as I traveled the country and would come back home, you know, I even lived in California a couple of different times, but I love Indiana and the institutions that made me who I am and gave me the opportunities that I've been able to have. All of those institutions are under attack. Public education is the number one thing. That's why I'm growing on the hardest because if you don't have an educated community, your opportunities are shrunk significantly. And it's shocking to me how over the last, I don't know, 15 years, I don't believe we're given the same respect to educators that we used to. so when that's always been an issue for me, but when the development of a battery plant, expansion came knocking on my door. started calling my local representatives very hard to get a hold of. And the more, the more I uncovered, the more I'm like, you know what? I should stand up and do something because I think there are a lot of people that feel the same way that I do, but politics has been such, it's just the bar has been so low in terms of the way we talk to each other. I want to change it. We're all people. I live in the country. I'm looking outside right now. I love watching the deer walk in the backyard because guess what? I'm a deer hunter. I'm a gun owner. I'm a Democrat. So that's me. you, talked about a little bit because obviously education you said was, was something that was big for you, but, what are the kind of, what other things are constituents telling you when you go out and talk to them? What are those pain points? The things that they, that they're really looking for the most in your district? You know, you hear affordability a lot, especially when it comes to our utilities. And there is a direct correlation between the infrastructure required for some of these big projects. And people don't realize that the community ultimately pays. We pay upfront. We get little riders added to our electric bill. get, if you look at your utility bills, whether you have NIPSCO, Duke, whatever, all of these fees. There's handling fees, there's all these miscellaneous charges. And that's a big one that comes up and, but it's all interconnected. ⁓ How has things like the ACA subsidies going away, the SNAP benefit ⁓ changes that started this year, have those affected your community very much? Absolutely. ⁓ Starting with, you know, even at the SCA 1 bill, that has impacted all of our ⁓ communities. And District 38 is made of a lot of similar areas. You know, there's a lot of small towns, 2A, single A high schools in these communities. But yeah, they, and I will say this too, Hoosiers, especially country people are pretty proud. And it takes a lot for them to admit that they need assistance. ⁓ so it doesn't come up as often as you would think because, but when you look at the numbers, there's no question that the impact is coming and ⁓ it's maybe it's not quite fully recognized yet, but the signs are there and people are noticing. Yeah. One of the other issues that comes up a lot ⁓ that as an issue with a lot of voters, a lot of constituents, regardless of the side of the aisle you consider yourself on, is this idea of accountability or the lack thereof when it comes to politicians. How do you see being accountable? What does accountability mean to you? think accountability means accessibility. I'm more than happy to have a conversation where we may not align on a certain subject. wild to me, the number of discussions I've had about private versus public education and the entitlement that people feel to a private education, subsidized private education is, know, shocking. Like I said, it's hard for me to comprehend, but I think, you know, in general, the base is they haven't had anybody that they can reach. My own personal example, All I wanted to do was find out what were the tests done to the current water, you know, levels that before we go down this road of sending water clear back across Howard County, it took the guy two and a half months to return my call. And the only reason he returned my call is because I testified at a Tipton city council meeting and, you know, go to the city council or to texting him and then to have him call me. That's unacceptable. So accountability to me is accessibility because I'm fine to have a conversation about a difference of opinion. one thing that I'm also hoping to do is to just bring down the tension and the rhetoric of we're all people, we're all doing our best. ⁓ Even if the government was run perfectly, we're all going to have hardships. ⁓ the commitment that I can make is At a minimum, you'll be able to talk to me on the phone when I can get to you. That's not going to be two and a half months. know, speaking of bringing down the tension, you know, whether or not we actually are as different as sometimes we feel when it comes to Republican, Democrat, progressive, or conservative, we know that there are overlaps, but there is that feeling still from a lot of people that we are divided. How has it been going around and talking to people that may have been historically conservative, historically Republican, when they find out you may have a D next to your name, when they find out they're talking to someone who is not who they would historically consider even voting for? Yeah, well, I think the last few years, could, somewhere around the 20, 16 era. People started to draw judgments about what they thought it was to be a Republican and what was being shown on the stage. just, before we jumped on here, I shared a story with you that I had a registered Republican call me and say, you know what? When you actually dig into it, Republicans in Indiana haven't been fiscally conservative. If you look at county by county, the amount of funds ⁓ the, you whether it's to promote business development or whatever, we're out of money. ⁓ In Howard County, we're gonna have to ⁓ spend 130 million. Now, here's the other thing. When I first heard about this jail, this $130 million jail, it was like 110 million. So just in like six months, we've gone from talking about a $20 million swing. Now I get it, ⁓ big numbers, they kind of feel made up. You start getting into the millions and people just kind of glaze over. But I'm fiscally conservative. Extremely. Like in my own, the way I live my life and I plan on being that way in terms of writing legislation because ⁓ the idea that Republicans are managing the budget, you know, they're bragging about this surplus right now in Indianapolis, yet every community like Tipton, Delphi, Flora, Rusheville, Rossville, they all have to make cuts. because of SCA one, you know, I'm very fortunate to have a house that I'm going to get a property tax cut on up to $300. But the budget shortfall that that created for communities across Indiana, I would be more than happy to say keep, keep the 300. I'd rather have, you know, a sustainable community. ⁓ obviously it, you know, your legislature, has been run for a while by Republicans, right? Yeah. Yeah. So in the house, they've had a super majority for 13, 14 years. And I believe at the state level, haven't, we haven't had a democratic majority in the Senate since 1978. I was born, they'll let the gray fool you. I was born in 1981. That was 40. That was, I, yeah. I don't know if I'm going to leave this in. But I just, want to ask you to guess when I was born. I would guess because you asked me, there's something to it, but I would say you're in your mid to late thirties. I was born in 78. Wow. So you're gosh, you're older than I am. Good for you. Good for you. Leave it as in this is the kind of stuff people need to see. What kind of things do you feel that, that the people of Indiana, specifically the people of your district want to see different in how the legislature is run compared to how it's being run now? Well, you just using maybe it's a little recency bias, but I think transparency is a huge thing right now because of the onslaught of battery plant expansions, data center. What we saw with House Bill 1033, that was the Basically, and I've heard this, it's gotten legs again, but it's supposedly going to die in the Senate, but it was going to give government the ability to deem land as not suitable for ag. So therefore they wouldn't even have to have a public hearing or anything about rezoning for a major plant like that. They want to continue to, you know, collect the control. And I think. We've had 20 years of people that, know, cause one thing I have learned too, a lot of people don't realize how important state house representatives and state senators are. Like they make all everything happen here locally. Yes, your county commissioners and your county boards and your cities can, can have an impact, but the overwhelming majority of the impact is coming from, from state legislator and people don't know their districts. No. Using, using the. ⁓ You know, Howard County is example, cause that's where I live. side of my district where the battery plant is already established with J1. We have a new 700 acre rezoning request to be zoned as industrial. And the way that it was rolled out and, know, obviously I don't blame people that are in real estate and stuff like that. mean, everyone's trying to make money, but, but the way in which they do not. and ⁓ Everything's good. We're both Republicans. So everything's going to be fine. Right. But people are finding out what they say and what they do are two different things. Yeah. Also, I'm sure you've probably seen the news, but as someone who grew up in Indiana, what are your thoughts about the bears potentially moving to your state? You know. I'm sorry, I just I saw that I was like, wait a second. What if there is any opportunity for us to subsidize? the wishes of rich people will make it happen in Indiana. I'll give you a good story. Because I say that most big team sports facilities, as you probably know, end up being paid for by the citizens. We front load everything. We are the deposit on all of these economic development deals. People, again, people are starting to wake up to that too. But when Governor Braun had the ⁓ helipad installed at his mansion, which by the way, What, when did the mansion not become good enough for you to live in? Yeah. Like if I were ever lucky enough to become governor, don't know. That's an aspiration of mine. You didn't write. I'm living in the governor's mansion. I that's what it's for. But I asked my, my legislator about it. And he said, it was only like 3,500 bucks. That was his response. My tack. Guess what? I care about every dollar that we see. And 3,500 bucks is not a small amount of money. don't care who you are. but that's the attitude and that's, you know, I would love to see the, you know, the financial side of things. I'm not sure why it was carried so swiftly because I care a lot about those people up in that Northwest Indiana. It's a very vulnerable population. So it'll be interesting to see what they do with that development and, and ultimately how we fit the bill. It was just wild that that happened. ⁓ So I want to do a little future casting if you don't mind. let's say November 3rd comes around, the election happens, you win, congratulations. ⁓ January hits, you are sworn in as a representative of the 38th district. What are the first things that you do? Well, the first thing that I do is I network. I have been in business for my whole career. fails leadership in the last, you know, 12, 15 years to think just like we talked about a few minutes ago with the rhetoric. I'm going to go talk to each one of these people. Face to face introduce myself, ablish common ground and start getting back to Indiana could be an example for what the rest of the country should be. ⁓ I believe that power, you know, what's that saying? Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts. Absolutely. Yep. So you could make that comparison to who's been in charge of the government longer, right? Whether they're Democrats or Republicans, the same people have been making legislation in Indiana for 40 years. I want to make sure that I'm introducing myself, getting that common ground established between my friends across the aisle. Because I'll tell you, as a guy who worked in the golf industry and the fishing industry and as an active outdoorsman, there are a Most of my friends identify as Republicans. so that's the first thing that I would do is to start to build the relationships. We've got to build relationships to provide a better future for Indiana. think redistricting was an example that Indiana is different. not, you know, being loyal to a party or a product ultimately could get you in trouble if you're not paying attention. Yeah. And I think, I think Hoosiers, they're more interested in what works and not what the letter is behind the candidate. Yeah. We definitely need to work our way out of identity politics as fast as humanly possible, in my opinion. Agreed. So, for all the people that have listened to this far, have heard everything that we've talked about up until this moment. What... are one or two things that no matter what you would want to make sure that anyone listening comes away with knowing about you and your campaign. that I want people to know that I'm a real person. I'm a dad. I've been through a divorce. I understand a lot about life. I've had a lot of life experience from growing up in the Pilgrim Holiness Church to the Wesleyan Church to, you know, kind of looking, you know, faith is important to me. And I'm just a regular guy. I feel incredibly lucky for the career that I've had. feel incredibly lucky for the kids that I have. And I don't know when we got so distracted with the national headlines. again, Indiana could be a shining example of what happens when we all just, level set bygones be bygones. And we got to start moving forward in a way that's going to benefit the majority of Hoosiers, not just the ones who know how to pull the the political ⁓ streams behind the scenes. Yeah. Nate, if someone wanted to learn more about you, support you, whether by volunteering or donations, where could they find you? So my website is Hoosiers2ElectNateStout.com. I know that's a mouthful, ⁓ but it was intentional because, you know, I'm committed to staying in the game. No matter what the outcome is in November, I'm going to work my butt off to make that happen. ⁓ but I'm also active on all the social media channel. I started on Tik Tok to be honest. Okay. and I actually met my social media manager via Tik Tok on the road while I was walking, cause I was just walking and talking, filming Tik Toks. And she's like, I think I follow you. ⁓ so Nate for 38, ⁓ that's my, it's district 38. I became Nate. went from Nathan to Nate. ⁓ around that time when Warren G was regulating. I don't know if you remember that song, but I became Nate from then on. So Nate for 38, if you Google that, you'll find everything that you'll want. Awesome. ⁓ Nate, thanks for sitting down with us and letting us to get to know you and what you hope to do for the people of Indiana, especially the 38th district. I appreciate it. Awesome. Thank you so much. Yeah. And for everyone that's listening, thank you so much for listening to this point. Please consider hitting. like and subscribe and all that stuff down below. makes it possible for me to keep doing what I'm doing, which is interviewing some amazing candidates like Nate who want to do things, who want to break the status quo, ⁓ fix problems that we've got that want to be held accountable in office, something that we've been screaming about for years and years and years. And when you're in situations like this, what people like Nate need is visibility and name recognition. That's how they get past the fact that they're not raising hundreds of tens of millions of dollars to do what they're doing so they can get on, you know, TV everywhere. So please like, subscribe, share this, watch his stuff, watch my stuff. It increases the chance that people in his district will see him. So please consider doing that. And for people that don't know about this podcast, just so you know, ⁓ breaking the meta is about having hard conversations and necessary fighting to break the status quo. And also the idea that all people, no matter your race, religion, gender, or identity deserve rights, respect, dignity, and safety. Nate, thank you again and for everyone else we'll see you next time on Breaking the Meta. Bye guys.