Latest / The Chuck ToddCast / BONUS EPISODE - Can Josh Turek Flip An Iowa Senate Seat From Red To Blue?

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BONUS EPISODE - Can Josh Turek Flip An Iowa Senate Seat From Red To Blue? · The Chuck ToddCast

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Speaker 1: so use that code. So about six months ago, when
1:42
Speaker 1: Josh Turik, who is now the Democratic nominee for US
1:45
Speaker 1: Senate in Iowa, was first deciding to get into this
1:49
Speaker 1: race in Iowa, I interviewed him on this very podcast.
1:54
Speaker 1: We talked last November, and it was really sort of
1:56
Speaker 1: a what I call my James Stockdale sets of question
2:00
Speaker 1: who are you? Why are you here? Type of get
2:03
Speaker 1: to know you candidate interview and a little bit of
2:05
Speaker 1: a biographical conversation, but also sort of where he stands,
2:10
Speaker 1: you know, sort of the basics the basic things that
2:12
Speaker 1: anybody wants to know of a US Senate candidate. But
2:16
Speaker 1: it's just that who are you, get to know you,
2:20
Speaker 1: why are you in politics a little bit about his
2:22
Speaker 1: background as a paralympian. We have a little bit on that,
2:27
Speaker 1: but given that there's now a lot more attention on him,
2:31
Speaker 1: his candidacy, and the fact that Iowa is probably arguably
2:36
Speaker 1: ground zero for the battle of the midterms, right with
2:39
Speaker 1: three hotly contested House seats, an open Senate seat that's
2:46
Speaker 1: very competitive, and an open governor seat that's very competitive.
2:49
Speaker 1: If Democrats want to be a national governing party again
2:53
Speaker 1: and want to want to claim a blue wave successful year,
2:58
Speaker 1: it begins in Iowa, right if they are If Iowa
3:02
Speaker 1: turns blue, you can absolutely classified twenty twenty six as
3:07
Speaker 1: a wave. And if it does, it's going to be
3:08
Speaker 1: in the backs of candidates like Josh Turck. So with that,
3:13
Speaker 1: enjoy this conversation of getting to know the new Democratic
3:16
Speaker 1: Senate nominee in the state of Iowa. Josh Turck. So
3:23
Speaker 1: joining me now is one of the most decorated Olympians
3:27
Speaker 1: in Iowa history. Josh Turik is candidate for the US Senate,
3:31
Speaker 1: but born with spina bifida, he ended up making a
3:36
Speaker 1: name for himself in playing professionally wheelchair basketball, earning a
3:43
Speaker 1: gold medal as the leader of a US Olympic team
3:47
Speaker 1: at the Paralympics, and he's now a politician. Not the
3:51
Speaker 1: blazing a trail that, frankly is actually not a first
3:54
Speaker 1: time trail when it comes to that people. Certainly we've
3:58
Speaker 1: had our share of athletes go into politics. Josh is
4:03
Speaker 1: from the western part of the state. It's the state
4:05
Speaker 1: I'm the least familiar with council bluffs. He will correct
4:08
Speaker 1: me if I'm wrong, which also means he's sort of
4:11
Speaker 1: in that weird no man's land. How much Iowan, how
4:14
Speaker 1: much Nebraskan, which I'm gonna give my hard time about.
4:17
Speaker 1: But with that, let's talk a little bit about your
4:22
Speaker 1: campaign and who you are. Josh Turk. It's nice to
4:24
Speaker 1: meet you.
4:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, Chuck, thanks for having me first. I'm gonna have
4:28
Speaker 2: to correct you on I'm not an Olympian. I'm a Paralympian.
4:32
Speaker 2: I'm a four time Paralympian, time gold medalist.
4:36
Speaker 1: The Summer Olympian, I mean, it's part of the Olympics,
4:39
Speaker 1: isn't it all the you know? I mean, well, the
4:43
Speaker 1: Summer Olympics is the largest sporting event on Earth in
4:46
Speaker 1: terms of total athletes and total countries. In the Summer Paralympics,
4:50
Speaker 1: which immediately follows the Olympics, is the second largest sporting
4:54
Speaker 1: event on Earth. And I'm a very proud Paralympian and
4:58
Speaker 1: two time gold medalist. And then and the other correction is,
5:01
Speaker 1: you're right, I am a politician, but I really would
5:03
Speaker 1: define myself as a representative.
5:05
Speaker 2: A politician can be a bit of a pejorative, no,
5:08
Speaker 2: And I get that.
5:09
Speaker 1: I mean just like journalists could be a bit of
5:11
Speaker 1: a pejorative these days, right, you know, or a member
5:13
Speaker 1: of the media, if you will. But let me start
5:16
Speaker 1: with Eric. You know, if let's start with your life
5:20
Speaker 1: as a professional athlete. You know, you're born with spina biffita.
5:25
Speaker 1: You didn't probably think as a kid you were going
5:27
Speaker 1: to be a professional athlete. Walk me through that.
5:29
Speaker 2: Yeah. Sure. I was born and raised in Council Bluss, Iowa.
5:33
Speaker 2: Council Bluss is a very working class community. Sixty five
5:36
Speaker 2: percent of my community lives at or below the poverty line.
5:40
Speaker 2: I grew up to a large family, three sisters, one brother,
5:44
Speaker 2: and we grew up with a lot of economic struggle.
5:47
Speaker 2: We went to the Goodwill for our clothes. We shared clothes,
5:50
Speaker 2: went to the free summer lunch programs. There were times
5:54
Speaker 2: where my mom put our grocery bill on the credit card.
5:58
Speaker 2: So certainly somebody is familiar with a lot of economic
6:00
Speaker 2: struggle of what a lot of people are going through
6:02
Speaker 2: right now, both in Iowa and around the country. And
6:05
Speaker 2: then I was was born with my condition. I was
6:07
Speaker 2: born with a condition called spina bifida. This was due
6:09
Speaker 2: to my father's exposure to agent orange and Vietnam. I
6:13
Speaker 2: had my first suit do you.
6:15
Speaker 1: Directly do you is that's a direct fact that this
6:17
Speaker 1: has been directly yeah, responsible, Yes.
6:21
Speaker 2: It's one of the few times where the government has
6:24
Speaker 2: had to admit culpability. When when I was younger, we
6:28
Speaker 2: were part of of the lawsuit and did the DNA testing.
6:31
Speaker 2: And yet because of that, actually receive my health care
6:35
Speaker 2: that is related to my spina bifida through the.
6:37
Speaker 1: VA and so so yes, and that's for Lily, right,
6:41
Speaker 1: that's for life. You're on trycare for life because of that.
6:44
Speaker 2: That is correct, anything that is directly related to my
6:48
Speaker 2: to my spina bifida. So in my spina bifida, I
6:50
Speaker 2: had my first surgery at one day old. I had
6:53
Speaker 2: twenty one surgeries before I was twelve, almost all of
6:56
Speaker 2: which took place at Shriner's Hospital because it was the
6:59
Speaker 2: only way that my family could afford to do it.
7:01
Speaker 2: So I'm certainly somebody that a deeply personal way, I
7:04
Speaker 2: understand the importance of affordable and accessible health care for individuals. Thankfully,
7:10
Speaker 2: for me, I found wheelchair basketball at a young age.
7:12
Speaker 2: I went to an adaptive sports program in Omaha, Nebraska,
7:16
Speaker 2: and it exposed me to all kinds of adaptive sports.
7:19
Speaker 2: And I come from a big sports family. Actually, both
7:21
Speaker 2: my mother and sister were basketball players and went on
7:24
Speaker 2: to play professional basketball. And really that was what I
7:27
Speaker 2: was struggling. Legitimately, I was somebody that was bullied so bad.
7:30
Speaker 2: It's hard enough to go through life well as a
7:32
Speaker 2: kid with economic struggle, but then you had a healthcare
7:35
Speaker 2: struggle and it was difficult for me and was bullied
7:39
Speaker 2: so bad. I actually I left public school for a bit,
7:41
Speaker 2: but it provided me. It provided me really social setting
7:45
Speaker 2: and everything that I needed to be able to be successful.
7:49
Speaker 2: Because of wheelchair basketball, I was ultimately able to get
7:52
Speaker 2: a college scholarship along with the help of vocational rehabilitation.
7:56
Speaker 2: Had it not been for wheelchair basketball, I don't think
7:57
Speaker 2: I would have even gone on to college. And I've
8:00
Speaker 2: had a very successful collegiate career in wheelchair basketball, scored
8:04
Speaker 2: over four thousand career points and sixty three points in
8:06
Speaker 2: a game, which are still records at my school. And
8:09
Speaker 2: then I had the opportunity to do something that I
8:11
Speaker 2: didn't even know existed, which was professional wheels for basketball,
8:14
Speaker 2: which doesn't exist in America. It only exist over in Europe.
8:17
Speaker 2: So spent some time over there.
8:19
Speaker 1: Where did you live in Europe? Or where the various
8:20
Speaker 1: Where was your franchise? Where was Yes? I was able
8:23
Speaker 1: to play in outside of Milan, Italy. I played in
8:26
Speaker 1: the south of France, which was an amazing opportunity, and
8:30
Speaker 1: then played in Madrid, Spain and in Billbospang.
8:33
Speaker 2: Those were the places. Let me played.
8:35
Speaker 1: Let me ask you, and maybe you've I don't know
8:37
Speaker 1: if you've thought about this, but why has Europe been
8:42
Speaker 1: on the forefront of Why don't we have this in America?
8:48
Speaker 1: And if you think about it, the first women's professional
8:51
Speaker 1: basketball leagues were all in Europe. Weren't here? Have you?
8:56
Speaker 1: I'm just curious why it's to me too, ad that
9:00
Speaker 1: you had to leave America to go pursue the stream.
9:03
Speaker 1: Why do you think we don't value it here.
9:07
Speaker 2: I think that our sports can be very masculinely driven,
9:12
Speaker 2: and I think the European ideal for sports is more
9:16
Speaker 2: open to the idea of female sports and to adapt
9:20
Speaker 2: to sports in a way that that for whatever reason,
9:24
Speaker 2: you know, the American paradigm on sports is just dramatically different.
9:28
Speaker 1: It is.
9:28
Speaker 2: It's it's much more inclusive in that sense. In America,
9:32
Speaker 2: it was a struggle for us just to be able
9:35
Speaker 2: to get a handful of individuals just to come in
9:37
Speaker 2: and watch us, if you're like family and friends. And
9:40
Speaker 2: yet when we're over and we're able to get in
9:42
Speaker 2: front of thousands and thousands of folks, So it's a it's.
9:45
Speaker 1: Just a different culture, yeah, I mean, it's a.
9:47
Speaker 2: Totally totally different sports culture. And it was an amazing
9:50
Speaker 2: opportunity to be able to to live in experience, especially
9:54
Speaker 2: as a poor kid from from Iowa that had gotten
9:56
Speaker 2: his bachelor's degree in history. It was an amazing opportunity
9:59
Speaker 2: to be able to see these places I had only
10:01
Speaker 2: been able to read about in history books, and to
10:04
Speaker 2: be able to you learn so much about yourself and
10:06
Speaker 2: about others and societies and social safety nets when you're
10:09
Speaker 2: when you're living overseas, and yeah, it was.
10:11
Speaker 1: It was an amazing opportunity for me. How's your Italian
10:16
Speaker 1: a death, Probably it's better than mine, So don't worry
10:20
Speaker 1: whatever you.
10:21
Speaker 2: Say my Spanish, My Spanish is good.
10:24
Speaker 1: Uh.
10:25
Speaker 2: My wife is Dominican by by birth and Spanish by
10:28
Speaker 2: passport and met her when I was playing out in Madrid,
10:31
Speaker 2: and so certainly that one is is pretty Vanish, a.
10:33
Speaker 1: Little bit better than Italian. Right now, what you learned
10:35
Speaker 1: one more man's language, though you should be able to
10:38
Speaker 1: understand all the other thing. So to turn to politics
10:43
Speaker 1: if you weren't a politic.
10:45
Speaker 2: The one thing I want to I want to cover
10:47
Speaker 2: on this is we we didn't get to it. I
10:49
Speaker 2: did end up the highlight of my basketball career was
10:51
Speaker 2: being a four time Paralympian and two times. Yeah correct,
10:56
Speaker 2: and especially we're a basketball nation, but we had gone
10:59
Speaker 2: twenty eight years without winning gold and so we went
11:02
Speaker 2: from nineteen eighty eight all the way until twenty sixteen
11:05
Speaker 2: without winning a gold medal, so some I'm really really
11:07
Speaker 2: proud of. That was the way I ended my career
11:10
Speaker 2: was with winning back to back gold medals.
11:13
Speaker 1: So that was the end of my basketball career before
11:15
Speaker 1: we jumped to you. Actually, your next it is you
11:18
Speaker 1: had such success in that phase of your life, how
11:23
Speaker 1: hard was it to walk away?
11:26
Speaker 2: Not hard at all. Actually, for me, from the very beginning,
11:31
Speaker 2: the goal was just to be able to represent my
11:34
Speaker 2: country and one Paralympics and to maybe have the opportunity
11:37
Speaker 2: to win one gold medal was always the goal for me.
11:41
Speaker 2: So the fact that I was able to represent in
11:43
Speaker 2: four Paralympic games and win two gold medals, ultimately Father
11:46
Speaker 2: Time is undefeated too. By the time I got to
11:49
Speaker 2: my last Paralympics, I mean right that the athlete is
11:52
Speaker 2: unfortunately we have to die to death, and we spend
11:55
Speaker 2: tens of thousands of hours at trying to become great
11:59
Speaker 2: and become an expert field and then it gets taken
12:01
Speaker 2: away from you. But by the time that I got
12:03
Speaker 2: to that last Paralympics, which was in Tokyo twenty twenty,
12:07
Speaker 2: which ended up being twenty twenty one because of COVID,
12:09
Speaker 2: I knew that that was going to be the last
12:11
Speaker 2: basketball game that I ever was going to play. And
12:14
Speaker 2: I was really really clear too that I wanted to
12:15
Speaker 2: have as successful of a part B of my life
12:18
Speaker 2: as my part A was, and my Part A was
12:20
Speaker 2: pretty successful. So it was beautiful actually because in Tokyo,
12:23
Speaker 2: I knew that was going to be the last games
12:25
Speaker 2: I ever was going to play, so I was able
12:27
Speaker 2: to smell the roses a little bit and appreciate it.
12:29
Speaker 1: Being the How what was it like to watch to
12:33
Speaker 1: be a spectator in twenty twenty four.
12:36
Speaker 2: It's one of the only times actually that I missed it, truthfully,
12:41
Speaker 2: you know, and because because there's so many of those
12:43
Speaker 2: guys that are still on that team that I'm very
12:45
Speaker 2: very close with. You develop a genuine brotherhood with these
12:48
Speaker 2: guys that you go through so much struggle with. But
12:51
Speaker 2: it was beautiful to be able to see them they
12:53
Speaker 2: actually won. It was the we became the first team
12:55
Speaker 2: to ever win three gold medals in a row, So
12:58
Speaker 2: I was it was amazing to be able to watch
12:59
Speaker 2: them and support them as I was going through It
13:02
Speaker 2: was nice.
13:03
Speaker 1: Actually, it was kind of cathartic for me.
13:05
Speaker 2: I'd watch a little bit of their games as after
13:07
Speaker 2: I was going out knocking doors and crawling stairs trying
13:10
Speaker 2: to win my reelection.
13:12
Speaker 1: Right, So tell me about the decision to go into politics.
13:16
Speaker 1: Was there other fields that you were contemplating, and you know,
13:22
Speaker 1: Why what drew you to the political space.
13:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, two things. One is I've been a director
13:29
Speaker 2: of a nonprofit organization for ten years and what we
13:32
Speaker 2: do as we provide free summer camps to disabled kids
13:35
Speaker 2: and adaptive spurts opportunity just to be a role model
13:38
Speaker 2: to that community and to be able to give back.
13:40
Speaker 2: When I finished with my basketball career as well, I
13:42
Speaker 2: got certified and what's called an assistive technology professional. So
13:46
Speaker 2: I was federally certified to be able to assist, to
13:51
Speaker 2: assess and provide mobility devices, manual wheelchairs and power wheelchairs
13:55
Speaker 2: for individuals with disabilities. And I was working with children,
13:58
Speaker 2: I was working with newly in individuals. But where I
14:01
Speaker 2: was really spending the vast majority of my time where
14:03
Speaker 2: with individuals with progressive conditions, conditions like muscular dystrophe and
14:07
Speaker 2: lou Garrig's disease. And what we were showing was every
14:11
Speaker 2: single day we were dealing with unnecessary denials and delays.
14:14
Speaker 2: And what we were showing internally is since Iowa and
14:17
Speaker 2: Nebraska had privatized their Medicaid system, a one thousand percent
14:21
Speaker 2: increase in denial rate. I thought that this was fundamentally
14:25
Speaker 2: wrong and immoral and that somebody should do something. I mean,
14:27
Speaker 2: it's literally maximizing profits off the backs of the most vulnerable.
14:31
Speaker 2: I mean, in the case of als, oftentimes it's eighteen
14:34
Speaker 2: months or even shorter from assessment. All the way. These
14:37
Speaker 2: people don't have time for denials and delays. And then
14:39
Speaker 2: I had found out that Iowa had never had a
14:42
Speaker 2: permanently disabled member of the legislature, even though we're a
14:47
Speaker 2: state of one hundred and fifty years. In a governing
14:49
Speaker 2: body of one hundred and fifty members, We've got one
14:51
Speaker 2: in five islands are either blind, death, intellectually disabled, or
14:54
Speaker 2: physically disabled. And I thought to myself, this is probably
14:57
Speaker 2: why we're seeing these barriers to healthcare and te employment
15:02
Speaker 2: is because of the complete and total lack of representation.
15:05
Speaker 2: And although I was out in very red western Iowa
15:08
Speaker 2: and they said, Josh, you can't win as a Democrat
15:10
Speaker 2: out here, I said, I'm going to do this the
15:12
Speaker 2: same way that I've done with my basketball career, try
15:14
Speaker 2: to win gold medals. I'm going to go out and
15:16
Speaker 2: I'm going to outwork my opponent every single day. And
15:19
Speaker 2: that's what I did for me. That meant going out
15:22
Speaker 2: every day. Ryann orsheine hot or cold and dragging my
15:25
Speaker 2: wheelchair upstairs to have conversations with Republicans and independence because
15:29
Speaker 2: it didn't work any other way.
15:31
Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting for you to say that about
15:33
Speaker 1: Iowa because given that Tom Harkin, the former senator, and
15:37
Speaker 1: Bob Dole were basically the godfathers of the ADA Act,
15:41
Speaker 1: and in fact, I mean, look, when I was growing
15:44
Speaker 1: up there, it weren't very many ramps. You know, I
15:47
Speaker 1: had an elderly grandmother who we were constantly lifting a
15:51
Speaker 1: chair and all this stuff. I mean, I don't think
15:53
Speaker 1: people realize as and we are a long way away
15:57
Speaker 1: from everything being accessible for somebody who needs to use
16:00
Speaker 1: a wheelchair these days. But to think where we were
16:03
Speaker 1: in the seventies and eighties compared to where we are today,
16:07
Speaker 1: it's because of an Iowa senator and a Kansas Senator
16:11
Speaker 1: from each side of the aisle. And there was a
16:15
Speaker 1: lot of momentum for that. And it does feel as
16:17
Speaker 1: if even the that the EIGHTYA feels like something that
16:22
Speaker 1: hasn't it sort of hit a wall a little bit.
16:24
Speaker 1: I imagine you have a lot of opinions about the ADAI.
16:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're certainly correct. I mean a handful of things there.
16:30
Speaker 2: One is he's a good friend of mine now, but
16:35
Speaker 2: he really is my political hero is Senator Tom Harkin.
16:38
Speaker 2: And this, in truth is one of the reasons why
16:40
Speaker 2: I'm doing this is this is his seat that is
16:42
Speaker 2: up now after twelve years, you know, thirty years he
16:45
Speaker 2: was our Iowa senator and now it's been held by
16:48
Speaker 2: a Republican for the last twelve years. And myself, in
16:52
Speaker 2: so many disabled Iolands, so many disabled Americans, I'm only here.
16:57
Speaker 2: All the opportunities that I've been given for occupationally or
17:02
Speaker 2: educationally is only because of the work that Senator Harken
17:05
Speaker 2: and Congressman Tony Coeo and as you said, Bob Dole
17:09
Speaker 2: ended up doing on the American with Disabilities Act. They
17:11
Speaker 2: literally provided me in so many disabled Americans and on
17:14
Speaker 2: ramp on a society to be able to be successful.
17:17
Speaker 2: And one of the reasons why I'm doing this is
17:19
Speaker 2: because here in Iowa, we deserve to once again have
17:23
Speaker 2: a senator that is going to fight for the people,
17:26
Speaker 2: and fight for the middle class, and fight for social
17:29
Speaker 2: and economic justice, and fight for these social safety nets
17:32
Speaker 2: that have allowed me to be successful in my life. Medicare, Medicaid,
17:35
Speaker 2: social security and not just look out for billionaires in
17:38
Speaker 2: large corporations. It really is, I'm only here because of
17:41
Speaker 2: Senator Harkin, and I want to be able to continue
17:43
Speaker 2: his legacy and champion and carrying that flag and fighting
17:47
Speaker 2: for the people and fighting for healthcare.
17:49
Speaker 1: It's possible that our friend Tony Coelo might even be
17:53
Speaker 1: listening right now. He's somebody that I've known a long
17:56
Speaker 1: time in politics and very I mean, look, this is
17:58
Speaker 1: the past was ultimately one of the most passionate things
18:01
Speaker 1: he worked on. I know that. And and uh, he's
18:05
Speaker 1: very sensitive. I mean I would get grief from him
18:07
Speaker 1: if he ever thought I wasn't giving somebody, you know,
18:11
Speaker 1: if I if I wasn't giving a benefit of doubt
18:13
Speaker 1: due to some sort of physical issue, you know, whether
18:17
Speaker 1: it was somebody with a with a verbal issue or
18:21
Speaker 1: something with their physical traits. And uh, he's a I
18:26
Speaker 1: consider him a longtime friend, and I imagine you he's
18:30
Speaker 1: he's filled with advice.
18:31
Speaker 2: I bet in your campaign he absolutely is. And I've
18:35
Speaker 2: been I've been grateful to to be able to have
18:38
Speaker 2: now a friendship with with both Congssmen Coeo and and
18:41
Speaker 2: and Senator Harkin. And this is this is This is
18:44
Speaker 2: certainly one of the reasons why I'm doing this is
18:45
Speaker 2: to continue on that legacy. One of the things that
18:48
Speaker 2: Senator Harkin talks about is one of the beauties of
18:50
Speaker 2: the American with Disabilities Act is that not one Nickel
18:53
Speaker 2: actually went to an individual with a disability. Is all
18:57
Speaker 2: it was doing was just evening the plane field. It
19:00
Speaker 2: was just providing an equality of opportunity to individuals. And
19:05
Speaker 2: that's what certainly, that's what we're fighting for.
19:08
Speaker 1: It was equal access, not equal outcomes. Equal access. That's right,
19:12
Speaker 1: that's correct, you know, which seems to be I mean,
19:14
Speaker 1: this is you know, it's it's one thing you know
19:18
Speaker 1: in those that that physically have things that they have
19:23
Speaker 1: to overcome, but then there are you know, this is
19:26
Speaker 1: the same conversation we're trying to have about immigration, you know,
19:29
Speaker 1: the same conversation we're trying to have about any body
19:33
Speaker 1: that's trying to live a free life, right and wants
19:38
Speaker 1: to have equal opportunity, equal access, not necessarily equal outcome.
19:43
Speaker 1: Can you what do you think is the hardest part
19:46
Speaker 1: of convincing, because I do think when you explained to
19:48
Speaker 1: anybody left or right that it's about equal access, not
19:51
Speaker 1: equal outcome. Nobody's against equal access, you know, it's the
19:56
Speaker 1: equal outcome conversation that becomes the debate about all.
20:00
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. The way that I would say that is
20:07
Speaker 2: when I'm out there. I represent the reddest district that
20:10
Speaker 2: is represented by a Democrat that was won on election day.
20:12
Speaker 2: So Trump won my county by twenty points. I represent
20:15
Speaker 2: two communities in the Iowa Legislature, Carter Lake, which Trump
20:19
Speaker 2: won by eighteen points, and my hometown of Council Bluffs,
20:23
Speaker 2: which he won by ten points. And I was able
20:26
Speaker 2: to win by nearly six points, you know, about fifty
20:29
Speaker 2: percent better than any other Democratic Do you think it's
20:32
Speaker 2: Trump voter? The Turrek Trump voter is someone that Here's
20:37
Speaker 2: what I would say is that the one thing I'll
20:39
Speaker 2: give credit to Trump for is that he accurately addressed
20:42
Speaker 2: that the status quo was not working for the average
20:45
Speaker 2: American and is seeing a hallowing out of the middle class.
20:50
Speaker 2: And the Turrek Trump voter is maybe what they would
20:53
Speaker 2: be a common sense voter to some degree that felt
20:56
Speaker 2: like the Democratic Party had shifted away too much focusing
21:00
Speaker 2: on culture war issues, or didn't feel like it was
21:03
Speaker 2: looking out enough for the middle class or the average
21:07
Speaker 2: American and whereas for me, I'm a common sense prairie
21:11
Speaker 2: populace much like Senator Harken. And when I'm out there,
21:15
Speaker 2: what I'm talking about are the kitchen table issues. It's
21:17
Speaker 2: the way that I was very disciplined about that, both
21:20
Speaker 2: not only in my legislative races, but in this senate
21:22
Speaker 2: race of talking about that. This what matters the most,
21:26
Speaker 2: is the kitchen table issues. It's about affordability, it's about
21:29
Speaker 2: driving down cost a livable wage, it's about affordable housing,
21:35
Speaker 2: it's about affordable healthcare, pharmaceuticals. We have some very specific
21:39
Speaker 2: issues to Iowa too that I would talk about. We
21:41
Speaker 2: were number one in public education and now we've precipitously
21:44
Speaker 2: dropped to the middle of the pack. So I would
21:46
Speaker 2: talk about public dollars belonging to public schools, talk about
21:49
Speaker 2: doing something about our cancer rates. In Iowa were the
21:52
Speaker 2: only state with the growing cancer rate, second highest rates
21:55
Speaker 2: to only Kentucky. And I would talk about the need
21:58
Speaker 2: for clean air and clean water, because that's something certainly
22:01
Speaker 2: something that touches everyone, regardless of where you sit on
22:04
Speaker 2: the political spectrum, doesn't matter Democrat or Republican, And those
22:08
Speaker 2: are the things that I talked about, and I think
22:09
Speaker 2: that there were some voters in there, certainly because of
22:12
Speaker 2: fourteen percent over performance that that resonated with. But I
22:16
Speaker 2: think that the way that we can once again win
22:18
Speaker 2: elections in state like Iowa is through genuine economic popular
22:22
Speaker 2: the MO what I call Perry populism.
22:30
Speaker 1: So I've had some interesting conversations with a couple of
22:33
Speaker 1: with the South Dakota. Former South Dakota Democrat is running
22:37
Speaker 1: for the US Senate now is an independent. I had
22:40
Speaker 1: Rob sand on this podcast a few months ago and
22:44
Speaker 1: he said something. I said, why are you running? You know,
22:47
Speaker 1: he talked about the problems of the Democratic brand and
22:50
Speaker 1: I'd say, so, why are you running as a Democrat?
22:52
Speaker 1: And he said, well, if there was another way, maybe
22:54
Speaker 1: I would run as an independent, but this is the
22:56
Speaker 1: most viable way to get on the ballot, the South
22:58
Speaker 1: Dakota Independent. And it made the case he said, the
23:01
Speaker 1: reason he's running as an independent instead of a Democrat
23:04
Speaker 1: is that there are some people that won't listen to
23:06
Speaker 1: his pitch if they find out he is a D
23:08
Speaker 1: next to his name, And the minute he doesn't have
23:10
Speaker 1: a D next to his name, he's suddenly having these
23:13
Speaker 1: conversations with a whole bunch of voters going yeah, I
23:14
Speaker 1: agree with you, Yes, I agree with you, Yes, I
23:16
Speaker 1: agree with you. Does the D next to your name?
23:19
Speaker 1: What happens when somebody says, Hey, I like what you're saying,
23:22
Speaker 1: but why do you have a D next to your name?
23:23
Speaker 1: What's your answer to that? Yeah?
23:27
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm really really clear of why I have
23:29
Speaker 2: a D next to my name. I'm always reminded of
23:33
Speaker 2: the quote from John F. Kennedy when he said, you know,
23:35
Speaker 2: why are you a liberal? Why are you a Democrat?
23:37
Speaker 2: And it's because I believe in looking forward, not backwards.
23:41
Speaker 2: That I believe in and I care about people's jobs,
23:44
Speaker 2: about people's health care, about people's schools. This is why,
23:49
Speaker 2: ultimately I'm agrammer. I say that I have two north
23:52
Speaker 2: stars politically. The first is a quote from Franklin delan
23:55
Speaker 2: to Roosevelt, which I think is the greatest president of
23:57
Speaker 2: the twentieth century and also the only disable president that
24:00
Speaker 2: we've ever had, and he said that the test of
24:03
Speaker 2: our progress of a society is not whether we add
24:05
Speaker 2: more to those with abundance, but whether we have enough
24:08
Speaker 2: to those with the least. And then the other would
24:10
Speaker 2: be Matthew twenty five forty, which is, you know, as
24:13
Speaker 2: Jesus said, what you do to the least among you,
24:15
Speaker 2: that you also do to me, And that, to me
24:18
Speaker 2: is the essence of what a democrat is. Is that
24:21
Speaker 2: we care about people's schools and jobs in livelihoods and healthcare.
24:26
Speaker 2: And that is really really clear of why I'm a Democrat.
24:31
Speaker 2: I don't think necessarily that Iowa is like these other
24:35
Speaker 2: states and that you get out of the urban communities
24:38
Speaker 2: and the term democrat or democratic is a pejorative. I
24:42
Speaker 2: think we have a very, very long history of being
24:45
Speaker 2: a progressive state. Third state to legalize gay marriage. I say,
24:49
Speaker 2: I have a.
24:49
Speaker 1: Friend of mine that refers to Iowa as the organ
24:51
Speaker 1: of the Midwest. We used to do that about ten
24:55
Speaker 1: years ago. A little less so lately, given that it
24:58
Speaker 1: has been a little less purple, although I I still
25:00
Speaker 1: think Iowa just was uniquely open to Trump at a
25:06
Speaker 1: period of time when this economy was just transitioning. I
25:10
Speaker 1: suspect Iowa was going to go back to its swing
25:12
Speaker 1: swinginess pretty soon.
25:14
Speaker 2: I mean, we could certainly get into one of the
25:16
Speaker 2: reasons why Iowa has shifted more than almost any other
25:19
Speaker 2: state over the last ten years, and there's.
25:21
Speaker 1: No state with more Obama to Trump counties, no state.
25:25
Speaker 1: They're all at eastern Iowa. It's fascinating.
25:28
Speaker 2: You are absolutely correct. But here here's what I've said.
25:32
Speaker 2: I've said that Iowa is a common sense state that
25:35
Speaker 2: has masqueraded as a red state. And for you, you
25:39
Speaker 2: have to remember that for thirty years we had we
25:41
Speaker 2: voted for Senator Harken, and that he ended in twenty fourteen.
25:45
Speaker 1: That's not that long ago.
25:47
Speaker 2: But even more recently, in Trump's first midterm twenty eighteen,
25:51
Speaker 2: we won three of the four congressional seats, and we
25:53
Speaker 2: were only three points away from winning every single one
25:56
Speaker 2: of the congressional races. And I actually feel even more
26:00
Speaker 2: energy and excitement right now for chance, particularly in the
26:02
Speaker 2: rural communities which they have just been absolutely decimated and
26:05
Speaker 2: betrayed by the tariffs, and where the commodities prices are.
26:09
Speaker 2: You go to even more recent history, twenty twenty two,
26:12
Speaker 2: we were only one point five percent away from having
26:15
Speaker 2: three of our six state wide officials being Democrats. That
26:18
Speaker 2: means the average Iowa voter went in there in twenty
26:21
Speaker 2: twenty two and voted for three Democrats and three Republicans.
26:24
Speaker 2: We are not a red state. We're a common sense
26:26
Speaker 2: state that has masqueraded more red than what we actually are.
26:30
Speaker 2: And because everything has perfectly aligned and we needed about
26:34
Speaker 2: ten things to happen, but the fact that we've got,
26:36
Speaker 2: for the first time since nineteen sixty eight, an open
26:40
Speaker 2: Senate race and an open governor's race and two open
26:42
Speaker 2: congressional races. I really do believe that Iowa is the
26:45
Speaker 2: center of the political universe in twenty twenty six, and
26:48
Speaker 2: you are going to see the state shift.
26:51
Speaker 1: I've had some say to me, let me curious what
26:54
Speaker 1: you think of this, And I'm probably playing to the
26:57
Speaker 1: crowds on this one, which is the Iowa Democratic Party
27:00
Speaker 1: got a little too Demoinish and not enough everywhere else
27:04
Speaker 1: that it was almost too concentrated in Des Moines. Do
27:07
Speaker 1: you accept that premise? Do you think that was part
27:09
Speaker 1: of the problem over the last decade.
27:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that the not not only in Iowa,
27:14
Speaker 2: but I think nationally, I think the party has has
27:17
Speaker 2: lost touch with the plights of real Americans, or the
27:22
Speaker 2: middle class or just the average worker.
27:24
Speaker 1: We're all real America. The way, I always get a
27:26
Speaker 1: little sensitive to that. In fairness it's like Americans in
27:30
Speaker 1: rural America. But I think what you're trying to say
27:32
Speaker 1: and what I would say when I would say this
27:35
Speaker 1: and I got in, I'd fall into the same trap.
27:37
Speaker 1: So I didn't mean to which is it's really rural
27:41
Speaker 1: America that Democrats just stopped showing up in, and it's
27:45
Speaker 1: showing up. This is why they've been alienated from rural America.
27:49
Speaker 1: It's not that they've like, if you'd show up, they'd
27:53
Speaker 1: have no problem. But this is where I think micro
27:55
Speaker 1: targeting and the quote efficiency of use of dollars. Well,
27:58
Speaker 1: there's more Democrats in the rabat to get out the
28:01
Speaker 1: got to get out the base vote. And you're like, yeah,
28:03
Speaker 1: but if you shave three points in rural America, then
28:06
Speaker 1: you have a better shot at urban America, putting you
28:09
Speaker 1: over the finish line.
28:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that that has certainly been a miscalculation. First,
28:14
Speaker 2: I would say two things. I would say, you know,
28:17
Speaker 2: having done this and winning in very, very red areas,
28:20
Speaker 2: I say that the right candidate, with the right message
28:22
Speaker 2: and the right work ethic, you can win in these
28:24
Speaker 2: red environments. Because I've got the electoral experience that i've
28:28
Speaker 2: I've done it, and the quality of candidacy can't be understated.
28:34
Speaker 2: On that. I would also say that part of the
28:37
Speaker 2: calculus is we do need candidates that are going to
28:40
Speaker 2: be willing to go out there and go into all
28:43
Speaker 2: ninety nine counties and go into all these small communities.
28:48
Speaker 2: I think for far too long here and Iowa, over
28:50
Speaker 2: the last ten years, we've had candidates say, well, we're
28:52
Speaker 2: going to maximize turnout in Polk County and Johnson County
28:55
Speaker 2: and Lynn County, and that's how we're going to win.
28:57
Speaker 2: But ultimately, we're a rule state, and it may not
28:59
Speaker 2: make a fun mental difference in the outcomes in the
29:02
Speaker 2: state house races, but we've got to trim the margins
29:05
Speaker 2: and we've got to get out there and we've got
29:07
Speaker 2: to talk to Republicans in these in independence in these
29:10
Speaker 2: rural communities and explain why we're different. But we certainly
29:14
Speaker 2: can do that. I mean, we have the opportunity. In
29:17
Speaker 2: the messaging. I've been able to prove it.
29:19
Speaker 1: You've you've already sort of touched on this issue that
29:24
Speaker 1: I sort of discovered in twenty gosh, I think it
29:29
Speaker 1: was it was I did a whole I think it
29:31
Speaker 1: was in twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, we went
29:33
Speaker 1: out to eastern Iowa to talk about sort of what
29:36
Speaker 1: happened to you know, where did all the Democrats go
29:39
Speaker 1: in eastern Iowa? And I was in Decora and in
29:43
Speaker 1: some of these towns, and most of what we heard
29:46
Speaker 1: was simply, you know, the only Democrat that showed up
29:49
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty was Pete Buota Diche. You know, nobody
29:51
Speaker 1: else did. And you're like, well, no, wonder he overperformed, right,
29:54
Speaker 1: you know. Now there was sort of a comfort level
29:56
Speaker 1: for him. He was already a Midwesterner, so there was this,
30:00
Speaker 1: you know, and he was sort of a fish out
30:02
Speaker 1: of water in South Bend. And when you start out
30:04
Speaker 1: as thinking of yourself as a fish out of water,
30:07
Speaker 1: you sometimes overwork, right, And so he went to all
30:09
Speaker 1: these places. But the other thing I discovered was there
30:13
Speaker 1: was a lot of bullishness that, well, Democrats are going
30:15
Speaker 1: to be able to make a comeback because of what
30:17
Speaker 1: was happening in the schools. And it comes to the
30:20
Speaker 1: sort of the choicification, I guess of public schools all
30:25
Speaker 1: over the country. I was sort of following a blueprint
30:28
Speaker 1: that Florida has in some of these other states in
30:31
Speaker 1: the South. And the problem that I think Texas Republicans
30:35
Speaker 1: are running into Iowa Republicans are running into is school
30:38
Speaker 1: choice sounds great, but when you live where the closest
30:42
Speaker 1: school is thirty is within, you know, the next closest
30:44
Speaker 1: school is thirty miles away, what choice do you have?
30:47
Speaker 1: And so suddenly you're not fixing my school, but you've
30:49
Speaker 1: given me choice to go find an alternative thirty miles
30:52
Speaker 1: away or I have to homeschool my kids. Walk me
30:57
Speaker 1: through the choicification of the Iowa public school system right
31:00
Speaker 1: now and how it did work and how it's working
31:02
Speaker 1: at the moment.
31:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is certainly it was a point of personal
31:07
Speaker 2: pride for all Iolands. We were number one in.
31:10
Speaker 1: Education always Massachusetts, in the east, Iowa and the Midwest,
31:14
Speaker 1: and I think it would be like out west. Those
31:16
Speaker 1: were always the three big, you know.
31:18
Speaker 2: Great states for public schools, you know, and this is
31:21
Speaker 2: why people were moving here. Our test scores were the
31:23
Speaker 2: highest in the nation, and we prioritize that even when
31:27
Speaker 2: we put out our state quarter, it was it was
31:30
Speaker 2: about the quality of our education. And now, unfortunately we
31:34
Speaker 2: have seen a precipitous drop and now we're down to
31:38
Speaker 2: the middle of the pack on this issue, depending on
31:40
Speaker 2: the metric you're using, twenty six or even thirty two,
31:43
Speaker 2: what's the drop we.
31:44
Speaker 1: Spend it on testing, it's un testing and all across the.
31:47
Speaker 2: Boardest yeah, yeah, test testing scores predominantly is where you're
31:50
Speaker 2: seeing it. But one of the reasons is because we're
31:52
Speaker 2: no longer prioritizing this or fundingness. We now spend twelve
31:55
Speaker 2: hundred dollars less than the national average per pupil in
32:00
Speaker 2: Iowa and in the Iowa legislature. Unfortunately, now with what
32:03
Speaker 2: we've seen with vouchers. Last year, we gave our public
32:06
Speaker 2: schools a two percent increase and we gave our private
32:09
Speaker 2: schools a forty four percent increase in funding. And in
32:14
Speaker 2: what you're seeing is you're seeing rural schools that are
32:16
Speaker 2: legitimately struggling and closing, and it, I mean, it's it's
32:23
Speaker 2: very very serious. When these rural communities you only have
32:26
Speaker 2: really four pillars of these rural communities, and that would
32:29
Speaker 2: be your rural pharmacies which are closing. And then you're
32:33
Speaker 2: seeing rural schools closing due to the lack of funding.
32:35
Speaker 2: And we're giving private schools and there are no private
32:37
Speaker 2: schools in these rural communities.
32:38
Speaker 1: No, And what you potentially do is you almost incentivize
32:43
Speaker 1: some bad actors who try to open up sort of
32:47
Speaker 1: you know, essentially government funded private schooling where they get
32:51
Speaker 1: tax breaks and all this stuff. They grab the money
32:54
Speaker 1: and they don't give your kid a good education and
32:55
Speaker 1: there's nobody there to make sure they're following the rules.
32:58
Speaker 1: Or you get parents start homeschooling and and it and
33:03
Speaker 1: that's hard, you know. I think many a parent wants
33:06
Speaker 1: to do that well, and in a dream world in
33:08
Speaker 1: some ways, somebody, you know, but it's not as easy
33:12
Speaker 1: as you make it out to me. And I admire
33:14
Speaker 1: those that do it, but it's hard.
33:17
Speaker 2: It ain't easy, absolutely, and there are so many rule
33:21
Speaker 2: communities now that are struggling with this. And and and
33:25
Speaker 2: even more egregiously is that we can't audit the schools
33:30
Speaker 2: and so there's there's no regulation on what they teach.
33:33
Speaker 2: There's no regulation in terms of it. It's your tax
33:35
Speaker 2: dollars being used there. You go your your your tax dollars.
33:38
Speaker 2: And yet then there's there's no standard on on testing.
33:42
Speaker 2: They can spend the money how they want, They can
33:44
Speaker 2: spend it on pupils they can spend it on football
33:48
Speaker 2: equipment if they want. And then most most egregiously for me,
33:51
Speaker 2: is there's no discrimination policies in place, and so if
33:54
Speaker 2: a kid needs an i e. P. Where he has
33:56
Speaker 2: a visible disability or whatever his situation is, the private
33:59
Speaker 2: schools can say no, sorry, we can't take you, which
34:02
Speaker 2: just puts that onus more on the public schools which
34:04
Speaker 2: are having less and less funding, right and department.
34:09
Speaker 1: This is one thing people always ask, what does the
34:10
Speaker 1: National Department of Education do help public schools with the
34:16
Speaker 1: funding so that they can provide services to students who
34:20
Speaker 1: may need some extra help in order.
34:21
Speaker 2: To get particularly with those with disabilities and special education.
34:25
Speaker 1: It's always been a foundational support. So you get rid
34:28
Speaker 1: of this and where's this kind go? I mean, I
34:30
Speaker 1: hate to be politically cynical about this, but I think
34:34
Speaker 1: this has opened the door to having a different conversation
34:37
Speaker 1: in rural America than Democrats have been having over the
34:39
Speaker 1: last decade.
34:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I mean this is just kind of unfortunately
34:45
Speaker 2: a perfect storm in these rural communities where you're just
34:49
Speaker 2: you're seeing young people not stick around. As I was
34:51
Speaker 2: saying before, you've got four pillars in these rural communities.
34:55
Speaker 2: You've got the rural pharmacy. That's an interesting issue, you're right,
34:58
Speaker 2: I mean rural pharmacies a they're being hurt by the
35:01
Speaker 2: by the PBMs. And then you've got your public your
35:04
Speaker 2: schools which are closing because of the lack of funding,
35:07
Speaker 2: and we're putting the funding towards the private schools you're
35:09
Speaker 2: only in the urban areas. And then you've got rural hospitals.
35:13
Speaker 2: And in a place like Iowa, you've got two and
35:15
Speaker 2: five is ones in the rural communities that are on Medicaid.
35:19
Speaker 2: In the last five years, we have closed thirty one
35:22
Speaker 2: nursing home skilled nursing facilities in rural hospitals due to
35:25
Speaker 2: lack of reimbursement and lack of funding. It is really
35:29
Speaker 2: hurting these these communities. Then you exasperate that with what
35:33
Speaker 2: we're seeing on the tariffs and the commodities prices, where
35:35
Speaker 2: these you know, we're losing our family farms and you're
35:38
Speaker 2: seeing farm suicides and foreclosure rates that are going up.
35:41
Speaker 2: I mean, really is moving us into almost a a
35:45
Speaker 2: second farm crisis of what we saw in the in
35:47
Speaker 2: the nineteen eighties.
35:48
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, where are you on tariffs because I think that
35:52
Speaker 1: you know, in Iowa famously, you know, you know ag
35:56
Speaker 1: tariffs were you'd be in one some some politicians to
35:59
Speaker 1: be in one side of the aisle for against all
36:02
Speaker 1: tariffs on agg because that was such a huge export.
36:05
Speaker 1: But then on manufacturing you'd have you know, particularly a
36:08
Speaker 1: Tom Harket might be for some of these tariffs. Maybe
36:10
Speaker 1: it's on washing machines or dishwashers, because those things used
36:14
Speaker 1: to be made. You know, there was a time that
36:17
Speaker 1: certain towns were known not by their name, but by
36:20
Speaker 1: the plant. Right, Oh, it's a make tag town, right,
36:23
Speaker 1: you know you'd have that, or oh it's a popcorn town,
36:26
Speaker 1: or it's a popcorn popping plant. And where are you
36:32
Speaker 1: you know, do you think all tariffs are bad? When
36:35
Speaker 1: are there tariffs that are out there that you support?
36:39
Speaker 1: Where do you put yourself on the issue?
36:42
Speaker 2: No, I would tend to agree with you. I mean,
36:43
Speaker 2: certainly not all tariffs are bad. I think you can
36:45
Speaker 2: make the argument that at least in the manufacturing sector,
36:49
Speaker 2: to have some level of parody or competition, they can
36:52
Speaker 2: be valuable. But certainly, what we're seeing right now with
36:54
Speaker 2: this chaotic terriffs, where you know you're seeing shifts from
36:58
Speaker 2: from day to day, and one day it's one hundred
37:01
Speaker 2: percent tariffs, and they have really really hurt the gag communities.
37:06
Speaker 2: And that's being doubled down where Trump's giving forty billion
37:10
Speaker 2: dollars to Argentina to bail them out so that the
37:12
Speaker 2: Chinese can buy their soybeans. Meanwhile our farmers are left
37:16
Speaker 2: there to hold the bag and they're upside down on
37:19
Speaker 2: their soybeans. It really really is hurting our bag communities.
37:23
Speaker 2: And I think that when I'm out there and I've
37:25
Speaker 2: been out to a lot of farms, we're hearing farmers
37:27
Speaker 2: that are really really concerned that we've already lost a
37:31
Speaker 2: majority of our family farms and what few remain out there. Yeah,
37:35
Speaker 2: suicide rates are three times higher than what they were
37:38
Speaker 2: over the last two years. Foreclosure rates are double what
37:41
Speaker 2: they were last year. It's moving us towards the farm crisis,
37:44
Speaker 2: and this has been a self inflicted womb due to
37:47
Speaker 2: this chaotic nature of the tariffs. I believe that tariffs
37:50
Speaker 2: should be as the founders of the Constitution, intended with
37:53
Speaker 2: the power of the legislature and much like the power
37:56
Speaker 2: of the purse.
37:57
Speaker 1: So one of the things that frustrates long time Iowans.
38:00
Speaker 1: Is the idea it's a shrinking population state, right that
38:03
Speaker 1: the I remember when when you know that there have
38:06
Speaker 1: been multiple governors who said, you know, my goal is
38:09
Speaker 1: to you know, I'm during the heyday of the public
38:12
Speaker 1: school system. Hey, we're educating all these kids and they're leaving.
38:16
Speaker 1: You know, they're they're leaving the state. They're not staying.
38:20
Speaker 1: What's the what's your plan to get more folks to
38:23
Speaker 1: want to stay in Iowa? What's the job what's the
38:26
Speaker 1: job market look like the next thirty years in Iowa?
38:29
Speaker 1: And and what is what should Iowa be an investing
38:32
Speaker 1: in to make it to make it such a because
38:35
Speaker 1: it's always been seen as a pretty livable, right, it's
38:37
Speaker 1: a it's a very livable place to moin in particular.
38:41
Speaker 1: You know, if you're looking for a small city but
38:43
Speaker 1: want city life, the Moin's about as affordable place as
38:47
Speaker 1: you can live in the Midwest. But what's the next
38:51
Speaker 1: what are the next thirty years of jobs look like
38:53
Speaker 1: in Iowa? Because I do think Iowans are nervous about
38:55
Speaker 1: the future. Yeah, they they certainly are.
38:59
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, where the only state in the last one hundred
39:01
Speaker 2: years and hasn't doubled in population size. And even for
39:05
Speaker 2: the young people that we have, oftentimes we're educating them
39:08
Speaker 2: and then they go on. The first thing is we've
39:11
Speaker 2: got to start going the right direction, particularly in rural communities.
39:14
Speaker 2: As I said, you know, we've got to have a
39:16
Speaker 2: healthcare system in place. We're basically dead last right now
39:19
Speaker 2: in Iowa for every single economic metric. I mean, for
39:23
Speaker 2: all intents and purposes, we're already in a recession. We've
39:26
Speaker 2: seen a six percent reduction in GDP. We're forty ninth
39:30
Speaker 2: in terms of economic growth, forty eight out of fifty
39:35
Speaker 2: in terms of individual purchasing in economic growth. By every
39:40
Speaker 2: single healthcare metric, we're basically dead last. Rural hospitals, obgyns,
39:45
Speaker 2: mental health providers, mental health reimbursements. You have to have
39:49
Speaker 2: these systems in place to want for this to be
39:53
Speaker 2: a livable situation as well, if you want people to
39:56
Speaker 2: move here to Iowa. So I agree, it's a beautiful
39:58
Speaker 2: state when all around the world, I love Iowa. It's great,
40:01
Speaker 2: Iowa nice, it's it's affordable even uh you know, it's
40:05
Speaker 2: an amazing place. Uh, but you've you've got to have these
40:09
Speaker 2: systems in place from education and healthcare, and also what
40:12
Speaker 2: we're seeing with some of these uh social issues where
40:15
Speaker 2: we've moved to a six week abortion ban and in
40:18
Speaker 2: some of these culture war issues where we've we've just
40:21
Speaker 2: not made this state very welcoming to to a lot
40:25
Speaker 2: of individuals. And you know, it's interesting with what we're
40:28
Speaker 2: doing on immigration as well, it's made it made it
40:30
Speaker 2: less welcoming to to immigrant communities.
40:39
Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting with with Iowa and how it's
40:42
Speaker 1: gotten sideways some cultural issues. Is that, you know, my
40:46
Speaker 1: father grew up the you know, the Midwest Methodist, which means,
40:50
Speaker 1: you know, I always joke Methodists are you know, people
40:54
Speaker 1: who are Christians but don't want to talk about it,
40:58
Speaker 1: you know, but but you know, meaning like, you know,
41:00
Speaker 1: your faith is your faith. You don't wear it on
41:02
Speaker 1: your sleeve. What you wear on your sleeve is your values, right,
41:06
Speaker 1: It's you know, your values is being good to your neighbor, empathy,
41:10
Speaker 1: things like that. And yet there's this perception that i
41:14
Speaker 1: was a very religious state. And yet I did see
41:17
Speaker 1: something recently that compared to the rest of the Midwest,
41:20
Speaker 1: it is actually has the least it's on a downward
41:25
Speaker 1: trajectory of people that go every week to some sort
41:28
Speaker 1: of religious service. What have you discovered out there campaigning statewide?
41:35
Speaker 2: I mean, most states are on a downward trajectory in
41:39
Speaker 2: terms of that, but I still think that I was
41:42
Speaker 2: is a religious state. I think the most recent numbers
41:45
Speaker 2: I had seen was sixty five percent of Violins still
41:48
Speaker 2: a ten church on a regular basis, or would define
41:51
Speaker 2: themselves as Christian or members of religious organization. And certainly
41:57
Speaker 2: that's something that I'm going to incorporate in this campaign.
42:01
Speaker 2: I'm somebody that has born and raised and proudly spiritual
42:05
Speaker 2: and when defined myself as a Christian in the true
42:08
Speaker 2: sense of the word. And I'm going to go out there.
42:11
Speaker 2: There's three things that Republicans that have I feel like
42:14
Speaker 2: they've had a stranglehold on that they're not going to
42:17
Speaker 2: be able to use against me. The first is hard work,
42:20
Speaker 2: because every single part of my story, from overcoming economic situations,
42:24
Speaker 2: the healthcare situations that I've gone through, also to win
42:28
Speaker 2: Gold Medals, but then even to win my election in
42:31
Speaker 2: a very very deeply read district, going out there every
42:34
Speaker 2: single day and dragging my wheelchair upstairs has been about
42:37
Speaker 2: hard work. The second is I think that Republicans have
42:43
Speaker 2: felt like they've been able to have a stranglehold on patriotism.
42:46
Speaker 2: And I'm someone that is deeply patriotic. I love Iowa,
42:49
Speaker 2: I love my country. I have proudly represented the United
42:52
Speaker 2: States in four Paralympic Games and won gold medals, and
42:55
Speaker 2: so I don't think they'll be able to use that.
42:57
Speaker 2: And the third is, as we were talking about with this,
43:00
Speaker 2: is on spirituality or on religion. I feel like there
43:02
Speaker 2: has been this push that if you're a Democrat, you
43:06
Speaker 2: you cannot be religious or spiritual, if you're Christian, you
43:09
Speaker 2: must have to be Republican. And I'm going to go
43:12
Speaker 2: out there and actively talk about, you know, Matthew twenty
43:15
Speaker 2: five forty and that the true message of Jesus is
43:19
Speaker 2: taking care of the most vulnerable in society and the
43:22
Speaker 2: poor and the elderly and the disabled. That's one of
43:24
Speaker 2: the main reasons why I am a Democrat.
43:27
Speaker 1: Let me go through a few questions that you're look,
43:30
Speaker 1: you know that could get weaponized against you. Fair, unfair?
43:34
Speaker 1: The issue of transports and access, what what what should that?
43:42
Speaker 1: What's fair to the trans community when it comes to
43:45
Speaker 1: access to organized sports thru school college, et cetera. I mean,
43:49
Speaker 1: I say this and I feel like you actually have
43:52
Speaker 1: a in some ways have a better you know, you
43:54
Speaker 1: benefited from having access for adaptive sports. So what's the
44:00
Speaker 1: right I don't know if there's a right answer. What
44:02
Speaker 1: do you think is the right way to think about
44:03
Speaker 1: this issue? I mean the first is I think we
44:06
Speaker 1: need to be empathetic on this issue. I mean, the
44:08
Speaker 1: children that are involved in this, they're they're really in
44:11
Speaker 1: a no win situation. Is somebody that you know has
44:13
Speaker 1: gone through a lot of bullying and adversity in my life,
44:16
Speaker 1: you know, being different with the disability.
44:18
Speaker 2: We need to recognize that, you know, sports is a
44:21
Speaker 2: unique area of dedicated a lot of my life to this,
44:24
Speaker 2: and we certainly need fairness and involved in this. However,
44:28
Speaker 2: I would say that, you know, I have personal experience
44:31
Speaker 2: with this. I actually I wanted to try out for
44:34
Speaker 2: my team in high school and play basketball, and yet
44:38
Speaker 2: there was an equipment rule that prevented me from being
44:40
Speaker 2: able to play. And yet it was not my congressman,
44:45
Speaker 2: or my mayor or my senator that was making the
44:48
Speaker 2: decision on this issue. It was the sports governing bodies.
44:53
Speaker 2: And so my position on this is that this should
44:55
Speaker 2: be decided by the sports governing bodies and.
45:00
Speaker 1: Politicians shouldn't be involved in this conversation.
45:02
Speaker 2: I don't.
45:02
Speaker 1: I don't.
45:02
Speaker 2: I don't think my position is the United States centered
45:04
Speaker 2: I should be involved in this, that it should be
45:08
Speaker 2: Should a high school principle have to make sports governing bodies?
45:12
Speaker 2: I don't think it should be left up to local control.
45:14
Speaker 2: I think you leave it up to sports governing bodies.
45:17
Speaker 1: Socialism versus capitalism? You know the the excitement that the
45:22
Speaker 1: progressives have about the victory of Zoon Mamdani, he's a
45:25
Speaker 1: self described democratic socialist. There's the every political party claims
45:32
Speaker 1: they're a big tent when they have people in there
45:34
Speaker 1: that that they that not everybody agrees and I get that,
45:38
Speaker 1: But where are you on socialism versus capitalism? And I
45:40
Speaker 1: ask a plurality the most recent NBC News poll, it's
45:44
Speaker 1: a poll that I'm very familiar with, and I know
45:46
Speaker 1: it's really well done. Democrats were the only group that
45:51
Speaker 1: had a net positive rating on socialism and a net
45:53
Speaker 1: negative rating on capitalism. A why do you think that is?
45:59
Speaker 1: And where do you put yourself on that spectrum?
46:01
Speaker 2: Well, I would define myself as a capitalist. I think
46:04
Speaker 2: capitalism is the greatest vehicle ever devised by man to
46:07
Speaker 2: be able to generate capital. However, it's very inefficient at
46:10
Speaker 2: being able to divide that that capital. So I'm certainly
46:14
Speaker 2: not a las Fair capitalist. I think that you know,
46:19
Speaker 2: you need a regulated capitalism and a progressive taxation rate.
46:24
Speaker 2: I mean, honestly, when something's been fascinating to me, again
46:27
Speaker 2: representing very red district, and you talk, I'm not talking
46:30
Speaker 2: most exclusive to Republicans, they'll this whole entire MAGA movement
46:34
Speaker 2: make America great again. Well, what they're talking about with
46:36
Speaker 2: that is they're talking about America post World two, arguably
46:40
Speaker 2: at our zenith. And I'm sure and preach it the
46:43
Speaker 2: choir to you on this, but when you're talking about
46:46
Speaker 2: America post World two nineteen fifties, you're talking about the
46:52
Speaker 2: where we had the most amount of union membership and
46:56
Speaker 2: the strengths of our unions, and the unions built the
46:58
Speaker 2: middle class. But we also had the most aggressive taxation rate.
47:01
Speaker 2: That was when the highest earners were paying a marginalized
47:04
Speaker 2: tax rate of ninety one percent, and during the Eisenheard administration,
47:07
Speaker 2: and the largest corporations where we're paying fifty one percent,
47:11
Speaker 2: and we've eroded that. We are literally living through a
47:14
Speaker 2: second Gilded Age right now in this country. And it
47:17
Speaker 2: has I mean all the way back to John Edwards
47:19
Speaker 2: when you talked about we're living in two Americas, the
47:21
Speaker 2: haves and the have nots, and it was a bit of.
47:23
Speaker 1: Had That speech is funny when you think about that speech.
47:27
Speaker 1: He gave an four and oh eight constantly and being
47:29
Speaker 1: in Iowa and right you heard it a million times.
47:32
Speaker 1: We all heard it. You know, we live in two Americas.
47:34
Speaker 1: We are now, we are living in it's more I
47:37
Speaker 1: was just going to say the speech. Weirdly, it's more
47:38
Speaker 1: resident now than it was then.
47:40
Speaker 2: If you make over one hundred thousand dollars right now,
47:42
Speaker 2: I think you're feeling pretty good.
47:44
Speaker 1: And especially a little money in the stock market, you're like, hey,
47:46
Speaker 1: this is great. My savings is working for me. But
47:48
Speaker 1: what if you don't have savings?
47:49
Speaker 2: That's right, but you can't have a more disconnected The
47:54
Speaker 2: disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street can't be more clear.
47:57
Speaker 2: And it really is the haves and the have nots.
47:59
Speaker 2: And there's too many people right now in Iowa right
48:02
Speaker 2: now that are in the have not section that are
48:04
Speaker 2: struggling just to keep food on the table and pay
48:08
Speaker 2: their bills, and struggling with affordability of healthcare and pharmaceuticals
48:13
Speaker 2: and all of it. And this is what we need.
48:15
Speaker 2: We need a genuine prairie populist. And you know, we
48:18
Speaker 2: used to have prairie populous We no longer in the
48:20
Speaker 2: US that have those because we don't have senators from Iowa,
48:23
Speaker 2: in the Dakotas in Nebraska. And we need somebody that's
48:26
Speaker 2: going to go out there and fight for the people.
48:29
Speaker 1: The issue of climate change is something that's really important
48:32
Speaker 1: to a certain subset. Look do I think it should
48:36
Speaker 1: be important to a large subset of help, but but
48:38
Speaker 1: politically it's important to a smaller subset these days. And
48:43
Speaker 1: I'm sure you're getting plenty of advice that says, hey,
48:44
Speaker 1: don't you know these issues, these are not these are
48:48
Speaker 1: not front and center. And yet I think rising electric bills,
48:52
Speaker 1: the data centers that are that are going to be
48:54
Speaker 1: going online, that are going to impact our ability to
48:57
Speaker 1: that are basically going to a competition for electricity, which
49:01
Speaker 1: is inevitably is going to raise rates. Is there a
49:06
Speaker 1: way to be sort of to to mitigate the damage
49:10
Speaker 1: coming from extreme weather and at the same time not
49:12
Speaker 1: look like you're coming out against the economy.
49:15
Speaker 2: If you get my drift, I think, like with most things,
49:18
Speaker 2: how I define myself as a common sense I mean, one, yeah,
49:21
Speaker 2: certainly climate change exists, and it's and it's happening in
49:24
Speaker 2: where you may see those effects most most directly is
49:30
Speaker 2: actually in the yag communities and where we're seeing.
49:32
Speaker 1: The southwest Iowa. The flooding, you know, one hundred year
49:35
Speaker 1: floods that come every couple of years.
49:36
Speaker 2: It's it's it's it's the flooding, it's the extreme heat.
49:40
Speaker 2: And then when you're seeing these rain showers which which
49:44
Speaker 2: are just coming down in torrents and knocking down the
49:48
Speaker 2: road crops, it is affecting us in a very very
49:52
Speaker 2: serious way. And also Iowa we have always been a
49:56
Speaker 2: leaders in renewable fuels, renewable energy. We have second most
50:00
Speaker 2: amount of our energy grid that is from renewable energy,
50:04
Speaker 2: the most of the vast majority of that is through wind.
50:07
Speaker 2: And I think that there's a way where we can
50:09
Speaker 2: address this without uh without stifling growth or innovation or
50:14
Speaker 2: or the economy. And certainly one of the best ways
50:17
Speaker 2: is certainly through that through through wind energy and continuing
50:20
Speaker 2: those incentives and subsidies through the through the federal government,
50:24
Speaker 2: certainly at the state level.
50:25
Speaker 1: Two, being a US senator means you're going to be
50:28
Speaker 1: dabbling more in foreign policy than the campaign itself will
50:30
Speaker 1: be about. And I imagine if a foreign policy issue
50:33
Speaker 1: comes up, it's going to be the issue of Israel.
50:35
Speaker 1: Where are you on US support for Israel?
50:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean certainly, I'm hopeful that we're going to
50:43
Speaker 2: see a peaceful end too that I think we're all
50:47
Speaker 2: hopeful for that. What has happened there in Gaza has
50:51
Speaker 2: been horrific. The amount of loss of life into civilians,
50:55
Speaker 2: into and to children. Uh, it really has been horrific.
50:59
Speaker 2: I think that Israel certainly had the the right to
51:03
Speaker 2: defend itself, but I think that now the response is certainly,
51:08
Speaker 2: by any metric, been disproportionate. And I think that we
51:12
Speaker 2: need to make sure that any sort of support or
51:16
Speaker 2: arm cells comes with the insurance that we're adhering to
51:20
Speaker 2: international law.
51:22
Speaker 1: You put a little more a few more guardrails on
51:24
Speaker 1: arm sales.
51:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, I particularly put particularly on offensive weapons.
51:30
Speaker 1: And as Ukraine our fight, what would you say to
51:33
Speaker 1: somebody is that our fight and If it is, why
51:35
Speaker 1: is it our fight? In your in your words, I.
51:39
Speaker 2: Think it's I think there's certainly a distinction there. I
51:41
Speaker 2: think that what's happened is they they have been invaded
51:45
Speaker 2: by but an authoritarian regime with with Putin, and I
51:50
Speaker 2: think that that is one of the examples where we
51:52
Speaker 2: should probably stand in in in and fight with them
51:57
Speaker 2: and uh, because that that is, that is a distinc
52:00
Speaker 2: they have. That is a sovereign country that has been
52:02
Speaker 2: invaded by a foreign power, and that is that is
52:06
Speaker 2: an area where we should support.
52:09
Speaker 1: One that might be a little closer to home. College sports,
52:14
Speaker 1: it is gone through dramatic changes. Iowa was on the halves.
52:19
Speaker 1: I worry that Iowa State, where my grandparents both got degrees.
52:22
Speaker 1: By the way, are their Cyclone alums they might be
52:27
Speaker 1: have nots because they're in one conference and Iowa was
52:30
Speaker 1: in a super conference. There's always been this talk that
52:35
Speaker 1: Congress is going to have to get involved. Do you
52:37
Speaker 1: think they need to? And as somebody who's you know, look,
52:42
Speaker 1: you know, one side of the state loves their Hawkeyes,
52:44
Speaker 1: the other side of state loves their Cyclones. But the
52:46
Speaker 1: fact is Iowa State is is essentially getting punished because
52:52
Speaker 1: Texas left the Big twelve? Is there a role here
52:56
Speaker 1: for the Senate? And do you think there should be?
52:59
Speaker 2: Maybe I'm I'm I'm torn. I maybe sports should be separate.
53:04
Speaker 2: But I do know the history of the NCAA. You know,
53:06
Speaker 2: one of the reasons why that was created was just
53:08
Speaker 2: because of with football. We are seeing all all the
53:12
Speaker 2: violence in the you know, unfortunate even loss of life early.
53:16
Speaker 1: On the trying to Teddy Roosevelt, it basically was created,
53:19
Speaker 1: you know, by ted in order to.
53:21
Speaker 2: Say that that is exactly correct. I mean what we're
53:23
Speaker 2: seeing with the the NIL I mean this, this has
53:26
Speaker 2: just turned into the las A fair there and there's
53:28
Speaker 2: no regulation, and I think honestly that they missed an opportunity.
53:33
Speaker 2: You know, my brother and sister both played professional able
53:35
Speaker 2: body basketball. My sister had a brief cup of coffee
53:38
Speaker 2: with the w n b A, and so they were
53:39
Speaker 2: they both were four year starters. My brother Nebraska, my
53:42
Speaker 2: sister at L. Robert University, and they honestly, they struggled
53:46
Speaker 2: just to have money, just to do their laundry. And
53:50
Speaker 2: we missed an opportunity there to find some happy medium
53:55
Speaker 2: where we could at least take care of our athletes,
53:57
Speaker 2: or at least that they had some level of control
53:59
Speaker 2: over their image and likeness. But what we're seeing now,
54:02
Speaker 2: which is millions and millions of dollars dumping into this
54:06
Speaker 2: and no guardrails and no regulation. Uh, it may be
54:09
Speaker 2: a need for for the Senate or for the government
54:11
Speaker 2: to get involved.
54:13
Speaker 1: Do you get a sense that Iowa State, basically partisans
54:17
Speaker 1: are nervous that that you know that suddenly you know,
54:20
Speaker 1: if Io and Iowa State can't play every year because
54:23
Speaker 1: of the financial demands of the Big ten that want
54:25
Speaker 1: them playing in other games like that, that is something
54:29
Speaker 1: that's really good at tick Off Islands.
54:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just it's it's it's interesting. It's almost I
54:34
Speaker 2: feel like our college sports has almost moved into what
54:38
Speaker 2: we're seeing with with our country and our economics, where
54:42
Speaker 2: we've got a handful we've got a handful of these
54:44
Speaker 2: and with football in particular, it's the SEC and it's
54:48
Speaker 2: the Big ten that are the haves and they've got
54:50
Speaker 2: all the TV money and those are just going to
54:53
Speaker 2: continue to generate more and more.
54:55
Speaker 1: It's kind of a monopoly. It's not even a meritocracy.
54:58
Speaker 1: It feels like a monopoly. And that's of course, what
55:02
Speaker 1: we're seeing here with AI and and what we're seeing
55:04
Speaker 1: with the big tech in the moment correct.
55:07
Speaker 2: And I mean look again to get back to us
55:09
Speaker 2: talking about the second as being in gilded Age at
55:12
Speaker 2: least one hundred years ago. In the first guilded Age,
55:15
Speaker 2: we had legislators that stood, that stood up to this
55:18
Speaker 2: and to the Rockfellers and the Vanderbilts and and the
55:21
Speaker 2: JP Morgans, and we broke up standard oil, and we know,
55:25
Speaker 2: we recognized that these monopolies were no good for society
55:28
Speaker 2: to have one percent controlling all the economic wealth. And
55:31
Speaker 2: out of that Gilded Age we ended up coming up
55:33
Speaker 2: with Franklin Delan and Roosevelt and the New Deal and
55:36
Speaker 2: you know, the advent of social security and social safety
55:38
Speaker 2: nets for individuals. I'm hopeful that this is an opportunity
55:42
Speaker 2: here for us in this country, and particularly in this
55:45
Speaker 2: upcoming election, for us to make that shift and to
55:48
Speaker 2: to actually have more people that are going to be
55:52
Speaker 2: genuine populous. They're going to fight for the middle class
55:55
Speaker 2: and fight for economic populism, and we can change our country,
56:00
Speaker 2: all right.
56:01
Speaker 1: Totally easy questions for you know, he's got the best.
56:05
Speaker 1: Who's who's going to be the best college basketball team
56:08
Speaker 1: from Iowa this year. Who's going to go the furthest
56:10
Speaker 1: in the tournament? I would probably guess the Hawk guys.
56:15
Speaker 2: Is that That's.
56:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, Iowa State doesn't have as good of a ball
56:20
Speaker 1: club this year.
56:21
Speaker 2: Oh they may, they they may. It's but I'll say
56:25
Speaker 2: who I think is going to go furthest in the
56:27
Speaker 2: in the tournament? I think the Hawk guys. However, I'll
56:29
Speaker 2: say this, Drake Man. Oh Man, They've they've had they've
56:33
Speaker 2: had good results with at least making the tournament, which
56:35
Speaker 2: is Drake and.
56:36
Speaker 1: You and I. There's some pretty good supposed mid major
56:39
Speaker 1: teams right now, That is right.
56:40
Speaker 2: I mean half the battles just get into the tournament.
56:42
Speaker 2: I mean that that has been also interesting too with
56:45
Speaker 2: this shift in sports on the on the football you've
56:49
Speaker 2: seen more of, but have and have not actually on
56:51
Speaker 2: the basketball side of things, I think you can make
56:53
Speaker 2: the argument where some of these teams, because you're seeing
56:56
Speaker 2: guys that are going in there and they're just staying
56:58
Speaker 2: one year and then they're entering the train anthropolo or
57:01
Speaker 2: the better athletes are going off to the NBA, I
57:03
Speaker 2: think you can make the argument that some of these
57:05
Speaker 2: mid majors that are able to keep their guys for
57:07
Speaker 2: three or four or five years. They're able to compete
57:10
Speaker 2: in an interesting way against these you know, the haves so.
57:13
Speaker 1: Seniors, four year guys that grow up together for four
57:17
Speaker 1: years in the same program. One hundred percent. I'm a
57:19
Speaker 1: wich A gw S matters. That's that's our plan, that's
57:22
Speaker 1: the gw blueprint. That's how they think we can we
57:25
Speaker 1: can be the next you know, the next Gonzaga, the
57:27
Speaker 1: next Wichita State right right, that can pop in there.
57:31
Speaker 1: Let me get you out of here on this. What's uh?
57:34
Speaker 1: On the NBA level? Who's your favorite basketball player to watch?
57:37
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm I'm a big fan of Jokich, what he's been.
57:41
Speaker 1: Able to do. You like that, you like the the
57:43
Speaker 1: the high IQ player, right, I just.
57:48
Speaker 2: Kind of like unicorns. I just like watching anything at
57:51
Speaker 2: the very highest level. I'm a shooter, you know. I mean,
57:54
Speaker 2: I think I had said to you, I in my
57:56
Speaker 2: collegiate career, four thousand career points, sixty three points. Uh
58:00
Speaker 2: So that was always my skill set. So watching somebody
58:03
Speaker 2: like Steph Curry that has been able to master that
58:06
Speaker 2: that unique skills.
58:08
Speaker 1: The mayor Fred Hoiberg, right he was a big shooter
58:11
Speaker 1: back in his day.
58:11
Speaker 2: Yeah that's right, Yeah, of course.
58:13
Speaker 1: But I mean it's like theseus that are able to
58:16
Speaker 1: do it in.
58:16
Speaker 2: A in a very unique way at a high level.
58:19
Speaker 2: In Jokich, particularly with his physical appearance, you know, as
58:24
Speaker 2: he's just kind of lumbering down the court, but the
58:26
Speaker 2: level of coordination that he that he has it really
58:30
Speaker 2: is it's it's sensational.
58:31
Speaker 1: I really love watching him. It's such a high flying sport.
58:34
Speaker 1: To see him not get an inch off the ground
58:36
Speaker 1: is fantastic. It's my favorite. I love that. Who's your
58:40
Speaker 1: goat for the NBA? Yeah? Who do you put in
58:44
Speaker 1: the goat? Do you have a goat? Do you have
58:46
Speaker 1: a hot take? Goat between Jordan Lebron I got a
58:50
Speaker 1: hot take that involves Magic Johnson. But that's my hot take?
58:54
Speaker 2: Or you know, well, here I will tell you my goat,
58:56
Speaker 2: but I'll tell you my Mount Rushmore. My my goat
58:58
Speaker 2: without a doubt is Jordan. I mean, as a kid
59:00
Speaker 2: watching growing up watching him play six championships, six to zero.
59:05
Speaker 2: But I also think you can make the argument for
59:07
Speaker 2: someone like Bill Russell eleven championships in thirteen years. I
59:11
Speaker 2: don't know, if we'll ever see anything like that Wilt Chamberlain.
59:15
Speaker 2: I mean, if you just look at the individual stat lines,
59:18
Speaker 2: he averaged fifty points in a season, scoring over one hundred.
59:22
Speaker 1: Was one of the greatest volleyball players of all time
59:24
Speaker 1: as well, by the way, without a doubt.
59:25
Speaker 2: I mean, this was a guy that for a season
59:27
Speaker 2: actually averaged more minutes than even an NBA game has.
59:31
Speaker 2: He averaged like forty eight point three minutes in the game.
59:35
Speaker 2: Those would be those would be the ones that would
59:38
Speaker 2: be up there for me.
59:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Josh, this was great. Good luck out there.
59:43
Speaker 1: I mean, are you any question quickly hit me up.
59:48
Speaker 2: What do you think about Iowa? I mean, like you,
59:50
Speaker 2: I mean, you're you're You're as close to this as
59:52
Speaker 2: is almost anybody. You're seeing this unique opportunity that we've got,
59:56
Speaker 2: you know, first time since nineteen sixty eight, open governor's race,
59:59
Speaker 2: open race, two open congressional races. In Trump's first midterm,
1:00:03
Speaker 2: we won three of the four, and we've got a
1:00:05
Speaker 2: great candidate with somebody like Rob sand that is similar
1:00:08
Speaker 2: to me in terms of leaning into the middle. What
1:00:11
Speaker 2: do you think about IOW and us being the center
1:00:12
Speaker 2: of the political universe or this being a fundamental change
1:00:15
Speaker 2: in our electorate.
1:00:16
Speaker 1: Well, I think it is one of those where if
1:00:20
Speaker 1: if the Democrats want to be a national party, and
1:00:22
Speaker 1: I would argue that they've not been a national party
1:00:24
Speaker 1: since Obama and the and the sort of the got
1:00:29
Speaker 1: taken over by a consultant class that got I've always said,
1:00:33
Speaker 1: you know, analytics was a you know, the the analytics
1:00:38
Speaker 1: revolution that hit politics and sports and all this stuff
1:00:41
Speaker 1: where people let data drive decisions. Sometimes data can be exclusive,
1:00:46
Speaker 1: meaning it excludes people because it's efficiencies that analytics is
1:00:51
Speaker 1: looking for. Well, we found out the efficiencies of baseball
1:00:55
Speaker 1: made the game suck, and so we had to like
1:00:58
Speaker 1: get a and the efficiencies of polis actually made got
1:01:02
Speaker 1: rid of persuasion. We start the art of persuasion. Iowa
1:01:06
Speaker 1: only works with persuasion, right. It's why the caucuses, I
1:01:10
Speaker 1: think are such a unique thing and why Iolands took it. Seriously.
1:01:14
Speaker 1: I'm sorry the Democratic Party only views Iowa through an
1:01:18
Speaker 1: identity issue, and I think that is what offended some islands.
1:01:23
Speaker 1: I really believe that that when the Democratic Party nationally said,
1:01:27
Speaker 1: you know, I was too white, Well, what do you
1:01:30
Speaker 1: think that said to the residents? You don't want us
1:01:33
Speaker 1: in your club, Okay, and then you wonder, oh, well,
1:01:36
Speaker 1: now I was out of range. Well you just told
1:01:40
Speaker 1: eighty percent of the population you didn't want them involved
1:01:43
Speaker 1: because they were too white.
1:01:44
Speaker 2: It was a.
1:01:45
Speaker 1: Strange and I know that isn't I understood what the
1:01:48
Speaker 1: DNC was trying to say. But anyway, look, I'm I
1:01:53
Speaker 1: think that if not now, when, right, if the Iowa
1:01:56
Speaker 1: Democrats can't make a comeback in this environment, under these circumstances,
1:02:01
Speaker 1: with everything that's there, right, if it doesn't happen, the
1:02:06
Speaker 1: party's brand is even in worse shape than I thought.
1:02:09
Speaker 1: I look at Iowa as this test if the Democrats
1:02:13
Speaker 1: are and I most look, I'm a believer. I live
1:02:16
Speaker 1: in history, so everything is cyclical, right, It just is.
1:02:20
Speaker 1: You know, Harkin first got elected in the seventy four
1:02:23
Speaker 1: Watergate class, right, and it was Iowa had a very
1:02:25
Speaker 1: Republican reputation before then. And that's sort of when when
1:02:29
Speaker 1: sort of the Iowa Democrats started to get more competitive.
1:02:33
Speaker 1: But it is a if there isn't success this time,
1:02:39
Speaker 1: then it is not your fault or Rob's fault, or
1:02:43
Speaker 1: the fault of the folks on the ground. It really
1:02:45
Speaker 1: is the national brand, right, if you can, if you
1:02:49
Speaker 1: can rebrand an Iowa Democrat is something that isn't associated
1:02:53
Speaker 1: with the national party. I think you have a boxer's
1:02:56
Speaker 1: chance because if you but you have to show up
1:03:01
Speaker 1: everywhere in the beauty of Iowa. Is it's kind of expected, right,
1:03:04
Speaker 1: the ninety nine counties, the fact that everybody that covers
1:03:08
Speaker 1: Iowa politics, even if you're not from Iowa, you know
1:03:10
Speaker 1: there are ninety nine counties. Do you know how many
1:03:12
Speaker 1: other states people know that they're the number of counties
1:03:15
Speaker 1: are in that state outside of people that live in
1:03:17
Speaker 1: that state. Nowhere, right, Iowa has it. And so I
1:03:21
Speaker 1: do think, you know, for whatever reason, you just had
1:03:24
Speaker 1: a and I think if you look at the leadership
1:03:26
Speaker 1: of the Democratic Party, it's too coastal. Right. It wasn't
1:03:30
Speaker 1: that long ago that the Democratic Party was first that
1:03:33
Speaker 1: had a Senate Democratic leader from South Dakota, and then
1:03:36
Speaker 1: it was replaced by a Senate Democratic leader who was
1:03:39
Speaker 1: born and raised in rural Nevada. Like literally the towns
1:03:42
Speaker 1: are outside of Vegas. There are five of them that exist, right,
1:03:45
Speaker 1: I'm being a little facetious. So you know, this is
1:03:48
Speaker 1: one of those things where literally the Democratic Party left Iowa.
1:03:53
Speaker 1: Iowa didn't leave the Democratic Party, and we'll find out
1:03:57
Speaker 1: if Iowans are open to this version of the party.
1:04:00
Speaker 1: But I look at it, I think what's happened with
1:04:03
Speaker 1: the schools and the funding cuts. I hear it from
1:04:07
Speaker 1: a lot of my friends in rural Iowa about how
1:04:10
Speaker 1: you know, even if culturally they were supportive of the
1:04:14
Speaker 1: idea of private schools and there was the skepticism of
1:04:16
Speaker 1: the public schools, the way this is work doesn't work
1:04:19
Speaker 1: for people, right. Ultimately, people want their local school to
1:04:22
Speaker 1: work and they want to have a say over their
1:04:24
Speaker 1: local school, right. They want both things. So look, I mean,
1:04:29
Speaker 1: I'm I'm biased. I've spent a lot of time in Iowa.
1:04:32
Speaker 1: My wife worked in Iowa. You know, we both care
1:04:37
Speaker 1: about the state a lot. Like I said, I got
1:04:39
Speaker 1: more family buried in Iowa than any of the state
1:04:41
Speaker 1: in the Union. So I've always taken pride on what
1:04:45
Speaker 1: sort of a bipartisan state it's always has been, and
1:04:47
Speaker 1: it was always a point of pride. My father's was
1:04:49
Speaker 1: a big conservative, grew up in Waterloo. It was a
1:04:51
Speaker 1: point of pride that Iowa was this swing state. That's right,
1:04:56
Speaker 1: because Iowan's worry about the person at the party and
1:05:01
Speaker 1: there was always that there was a bit of a
1:05:02
Speaker 1: there was always pride in that the independent streak of Iowa.
1:05:06
Speaker 1: So look, I'm a I'm bullish in theory, but you
1:05:10
Speaker 1: got to have good candidates.
1:05:13
Speaker 2: Without a doubt. This is one of the things that
1:05:14
Speaker 2: I've learned representing, you know, such a red district, is
1:05:18
Speaker 2: this comes down to right candidate, right message, and that
1:05:21
Speaker 2: message is genuine economics. Yeah, and in the right work ethic,
1:05:26
Speaker 2: I think you can win and we do. I mean,
1:05:28
Speaker 2: we're basically dead last by every single economic and healthcare metric.
1:05:31
Speaker 2: And as you said, this is a huge opportunity, but
1:05:34
Speaker 2: it's a lot of responsibility we get this right because
1:05:36
Speaker 2: if we cannot win in this environment, then this state
1:05:39
Speaker 2: may be gone for a generation.
1:05:41
Speaker 1: And uh, because if Republicans can win in this environment,
1:05:45
Speaker 1: then then they're going to govern for quite some time.
1:05:48
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know if you've spent much time
1:05:50
Speaker 1: with Mike Franken in the race he ran, you know,
1:05:54
Speaker 1: he was just totally uh. I mean, you want to
1:05:58
Speaker 1: talk about identity Polas just eliminating him from consideration by
1:06:03
Speaker 1: the National Party, and it turned out he was the
1:06:05
Speaker 1: stronger candidate because he won the primary despite the national
1:06:08
Speaker 1: party supporting somebody else. So what I would say is
1:06:11
Speaker 1: be careful when that when you think the national parties
1:06:13
Speaker 1: on your side, they don't always make the smartest decisions.
1:06:16
Speaker 2: That's fair. And the other thing that you said that
1:06:18
Speaker 2: one hundred percent agree with is that we've got to
1:06:20
Speaker 2: make our own identity of what is an Iowa Democrat.
1:06:24
Speaker 2: I think that one of the one of the advantages
1:06:26
Speaker 2: that like a state above us in Minnesota has had
1:06:28
Speaker 2: is they've been able to make the distinction with we
1:06:31
Speaker 2: are the farm and Labor party. And I think that
1:06:33
Speaker 2: if we had that ability to say we are the
1:06:35
Speaker 2: party of the American class, that John middle.
1:06:38
Speaker 1: Who says you have to keep the name Iowa Democrats,
1:06:40
Speaker 1: who says you can't become the Iowa Democratic Farm Labor
1:06:43
Speaker 1: I mean, I you know, I've had a few people
1:06:46
Speaker 1: ask me this and I'm like, yeah, I you know,
1:06:49
Speaker 1: rebrand if the part if the Democrats are going to
1:06:51
Speaker 1: be a coalition party, and most look, we're we're a
1:06:55
Speaker 1: country two parties. Nobody goes to the store and only
1:06:59
Speaker 1: takes and there's only two choices of T shirt sizes
1:07:02
Speaker 1: extra small and extra large right, Like the idea that
1:07:05
Speaker 1: we try to squeeze everybody into two parties is absurd.
1:07:08
Speaker 1: We probably should be a four or a four party system.
1:07:11
Speaker 1: I think it would frankly sort of ease the ease
1:07:15
Speaker 1: some of the tension inside both parties. You know, where
1:07:19
Speaker 1: you have these giant where the tent is so big
1:07:21
Speaker 1: it rips a hole in the middle right, And that's
1:07:23
Speaker 1: kind of what I think has happened to the Democrats.
1:07:25
Speaker 1: You've got these pro democracy extra Republicans on one side,
1:07:29
Speaker 1: and you've got the Bernie Sanders democratic socialists on the other.
1:07:32
Speaker 1: And they only agree on one thing, Trump is bad
1:07:34
Speaker 1: for democracy. Other than that, they've got nothing else in common.
1:07:38
Speaker 1: That's a tough coalition to win with on bread and
1:07:41
Speaker 1: butter issues. And I don't know why other state parties
1:07:44
Speaker 1: haven't actually followed the lead of Minnesota. Now Minnesota, there
1:07:48
Speaker 1: used to be separate parties. There was a Democratic Party
1:07:50
Speaker 1: and there was a Farm Labor Party, and then they merged.
1:07:53
Speaker 1: That's sort of the history of that. But I've been surprised,
1:07:55
Speaker 1: Like if I were an Idaho Democrat, I just rebranded
1:07:58
Speaker 1: the party the Idaho Freedom Party or something, you know,
1:08:01
Speaker 1: where you know sometimes words you know, are words you
1:08:05
Speaker 1: don't use anymore in certain locations. Okay, move on, your
1:08:08
Speaker 1: ideas can still work.
1:08:11
Speaker 2: It is interesting, though, because I think we're seeing a
1:08:13
Speaker 2: schism actually on both parties. I mean, the Democrats, as
1:08:15
Speaker 2: you indicated, are but you also see this amongst classical
1:08:19
Speaker 2: conservatives and also what is a maga Republican and so well, it's.
1:08:24
Speaker 1: The same divide, you know, Josh. That divide existed before.
1:08:29
Speaker 1: It just was so dormant during the Cold War. The
1:08:32
Speaker 1: isolationist wing, you know, which was borderline xenophobic back in
1:08:35
Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties, and they were like, hey, we're not
1:08:38
Speaker 1: going to get involved in other people's wars. And they
1:08:41
Speaker 1: were the ones that held the Americans back from participating
1:08:44
Speaker 1: in World War Two until it came to our shores. Right,
1:08:47
Speaker 1: we wouldn't have gotten involved until it hit us, because
1:08:51
Speaker 1: that Republican party was more trumpy in the FDR era
1:08:55
Speaker 1: than Eisenhower, right, and then the Eisenhower to Romney run
1:09:00
Speaker 1: of Republicans. They were all sort of internationalists, and and
1:09:04
Speaker 1: yet they're the Yeah, they're I don't think they're dead,
1:09:07
Speaker 1: they're just in hibernation at that wing of the party.
1:09:10
Speaker 2: I enjoyed this.
1:09:11
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for good to get to know you.