Latest / Breaking The Meta / He Flew B-1 Bombers in Afghanistan. Now He's Running to Flip Texas | Evan Hunt for TX-3
Transcript
- Breaking The Meta: Hello everyone and welcome to Breaking the Meta. name is Mike Winson. Today we are sitting down with Evan Hunt, who is running for Texas's third congressional district. Hello, Evan. How are you doing? Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): Good afternoon, how are you? Breaking The Meta: I'm doing great. For those of you that are listening, at the time of this recording is just two days after the primaries at Texas. So it's been a wild time around here right now. We're speaking to Evan. He luckily for him did not have to worry about it for here, but that means that he's gonna be there in November and we need to get the word out about him. So I'm excited to sit down and talk with you right now. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): Yeah, thank you so much for having me on. Breaking The Meta: So to start out, ⁓ learn just a little bit about a little more about you and why you decided to run in the first place. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): Yeah, okay, thank you. ⁓ again, my name's Evan Hunt. I am a 20 year Air Force combat veteran. So I ⁓ joined after 9-11. I was a senior in college and I was gonna go to law school and I just decided I wanted to serve my country. So that took me down a bit of a rabbit hole in the military. ⁓ very rewarding experience. I was a backseater on B-1 bombers, a weapon systems officer, so on that airplane. Flew combat missions in Afghanistan, did mission planning for Iraq during Operation New Dawn, and eventually started transitioning off of active duty into the National Guard when I had younger children. So I was full-time National Guard and then part-time National Guard and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel who Breaking The Meta: Okay. Yep. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): was the commander ⁓ of a maintenance group. ⁓ I also am a business person. I've been leading business development teams for tech companies for over a decade now. So traveling around the world, briefing government officials, briefing other business people, helping American technology companies compete. ⁓ And I'm also a McKinney family man. I've got Breaking The Meta: Mm. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): know, kids in the public schools. So I'm passionate about public schools. My mother was an educator. And look, all of that is to say my experience with living all around this country and serving on behalf of this country around the world in both the business and military capacity is that what makes America great is not uniformity or compliance. It's freedom. know, the freedom to say what you want to say, to love who you want to love, to worship how you want to worship and to be who you want to be. And I think that freedom is under threat right now. ⁓ I wasn't planning to run, but I was so upset about everything basically as soon as Trump got elected again. It was a bit of a table slap moment with my wife and my family. And we just decided to step up and run. We didn't really know what we were getting into last April, but it's been incredibly rewarding. And the last thing I'll say about third district, just because I didn't mention it, is third district is actually one of Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): the most educated, one of the most affluent, one of the fastest growing districts in the entire country that is not represented by a Democrat. So it's a Republican stronghold that hasn't been represented by Democrats since 1968, but it's also highly flippable. Breaking The Meta: ⁓ What are, as you go around and talk to people, what are the pain points? What are the things that most people talk to you about where they need help from the federal government? Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): Yeah, so I think I like to talk about rebranding the Democratic Party back to its Texas roots, back to being a big tent party of the 99%. I'm not alone in saying this. You heard James Talarico say this and other leading Democrats these days. ⁓ that part of that means being peaceful and patriotic, being welcoming and forgiving, but also focusing on winning issues. As I travel around, like I said, I've been doing this since April. It's pretty apparent that health care is a winning issue. People are. Upset about the cost of health care. ⁓ It's pretty obvious that it's a it's a failure of this administration to fix it. And. You know, sure, you cannot like the ACA subsidies, but to rip the rug out from under Americans. and cause everybody's healthcare to spike without having a better solution is irresponsible and probably immoral. ⁓ So, I mean, I just say nobody should be a cancer diagnosis or a medical emergency away from bankruptcy in America. And everybody agrees with you. mean, even conservatives agree. So that is a winning issue. And it's a very real issue in third district because ⁓ we've got emergency care centers shutting down. Breaking The Meta: Yeah, yeah. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): People are sort of unhappy with some healthcare access and certainly healthcare cost. ⁓ And so. Frankly, just us as Americans, we should be able to solve that problem. There's lots of money to go around, it's just getting spent in the wrong place. So I talk about healthcare. ⁓ I talk about immigration. ⁓ I believe that strong borders is a bipartisan thing. So Democrats should just lean into strong borders. Breaking The Meta: Absolutely. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): at every possible chance counter the perception that we're here to defend illegals. That's not the point. But what we do want to do is treat people with dignity and respect and not be chasing fifth graders through streets, not be zip tying children and ⁓ allowing a bunch of people to get rich off of semi-permanent detention ⁓ and deporting people without due process to places like Seacot, right? mean, just beyond the pale. And most of that is about not having masked federal armed agents in our streets. We've kind of forgotten that the way to catch criminals, the way to catch the worst first is by empowering local and state police departments to do their jobs and catch criminals. And if those criminals are undocumented, then absolutely, we should find ways to ⁓ first hold them accountable for their crimes and then B, deport them. ⁓ But this whole thing has gone Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): pretty backwards and when you have this type of discussion, most people will agree. Breaking The Meta: We also probably need to update our pathway to citizenship as a whole, ⁓ which hasn't been touched in probably what, 30 years or more? Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): Totally agree, totally agree. Yes, yes. And that's pretty bipartisan too. mean, administrations on both sides have wanted ⁓ bipartisan pathways. We have a lot of people that, ⁓ look, you have American citizens whose parents came here illegally. So we don't want to deport American citizens. We have to find some way to encourage ⁓ otherwise law-abiding people to have lives here. And part of that is our immigration system just in general over the years has become, it's been too easy to come here illegally and too hard to come here legally. So to me, it needs reform on sort of both ends. It needs to be really hard to come here illegally and it needs to be made more accessible to people that want to come here legally, not just like Trump's gold card. If you're rich, you get in here. Like rich does not equal moral. Rich doesn't even equal law abiding. So. Breaking The Meta: Yep. As we as we know from the people at the top right now. yeah. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): Love. Exactly, right? It's about the Epstein class. So, ⁓ okay, the last one is public schools here in Texas. Really, really big issue in Texas because Greg Abbott has waged a war on public schools. ⁓ They've pushed this school choice universal voucher program, which basically transitions an incredible amount of public taxpayer dollars to private institutions. And those private institutions are not held to the same standard as public schools. So our public schools have like a 600, 700 page regulatory code. Private schools here, the regulatory code is three to five pages. So, you know, they can deny you for how you worship, for the color of your skin. They don't have to have the same standards. It's just a mess. And unlimited voucher programs have been proven to be a mess in states like Florida already. And sadly, we're copying. ⁓ all the wrong examples. Well, just say about that is, you you talk to real educators and you start to learn it's not really about education at all. It's about power. So we are the local ISDs, the folks that we represent, that represent us, that we vote in and we can vote out if we're unhappy with, they control the schools. But if the schools get starved for funding in Texas, if they get ⁓ basically not solvent, right, too much in debt, Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): then the Texas Education Agency at the state level can roll in and take over. That means Greg Abbott, instead of your local school officials, and his billionaire donors get to decide whether or not 10 Commandments are hanging in your schools, whether or not teachers can start teaching the gospel instead of teaching history, you know, it's all these things. So those are the three big winning issues. The last one that everybody's pretty upset about is the Epstein files. Breaking The Meta: Mmm. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): Now probably the war in Iran, but I talk about healthcare, immigration and public schools. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. One of the other things that I think is pretty both-sided in terms of frustration, especially when it comes to our elected officials, is the idea of accountability or the lack thereof when it comes to them. It's been shown again and again, and I think the Epstein files put a huge beam of light on that lack of accountability, too. But it's been a problem since before. How do you see accountability? How do you see being held accountable by the people of your district? Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): Yeah, so there is a ⁓ terrible amount of apathy and distrust of all politicians, but especially Congress. you know, think we sort of have to collectively, candidates have to do their job, win over hearts and minds, talk to people. But we also need to make commitments that help earn people's trust back. So I've signed a pledge, term limit pledge. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): So there's a group called Take Back Congress, BAC, and it's all about accountability. ⁓ Lots of Democratic candidates have signed up. It's about term limits. So what I say is six two-year terms for the House, two six-year terms for the Senate. There are other pushes. There's a big term limits pledge, which is three two-year terms, but to me that feels really short. It feels like you're in, you're out, even if you're a great congressperson, even if people are happy with you now, you've pledged to leave after six years. Six years is hardly enough to get anything done. So I think 12 years is the right mix. I'm also not really interested in making the House of Representatives weaker when it's held in comparison to the Senate or to the judicial branch or to the executive branch in particular. So when I talk about government reform and Congress, I want to do all of it in the context of holistic reform because otherwise you make Congress people even weaker and their ability to represent their constituents even weaker. So this comes up with things like ⁓ no stock trading. This is another pledge that I took. ⁓ The details of that pledge are yet to be decided. And again, like I'm all for no day trading for Congress people, but I want to make sure the Senate's held to the same requirement. In fact, Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): I'd like to make sure the president is held to the same and so is the Supreme Court. So let's collectively as a government earn back people's trust. ⁓ Another thing that is really a concern for folks is ⁓ foreign influence. So I've just decided I won't take any ⁓ foreign. aligned PAC money. It doesn't matter if it's a PAC or Iranian PAC or anything in between. That's just a way of me assuring my constituents that I will put America first in that regard. And that's part of a bigger issue, which is really the influence of dark money and billionaire money in our politics, in our judicial system. And I tend to, I mean, I want to overturn Citizens United. That's another pledge I took. That's a pretty difficult thing to overturn, but I think we need to start working in that direction because it's, things were always bad, but after 2010, if we all look at it, things started getting worse and worse. And I'm up against a guy, the guy I'm running against, Keith Self, second term incumbent. He takes money from every foreign influence pack you can imagine. He takes money from billionaires like Elon Musk. Breaking The Meta: Amen. Yeah. Yeah. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): He ⁓ signed a term limit pledge and then backed out of it. Right. He thinks Trump's first hundred days are the best hundred days in presidential history. He spreads rumors about, ⁓ about the spread of Sharia law in America. And he started this anti-Sharia caucus. So it's just, yeah, I'm trying to do my part to say, Hey, look, you know, we, we need to. Breaking The Meta: Of Wow. Yeah. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): We need holistic reform. It's not just Congress, it's everybody. Yeah. Breaking The Meta: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, 100%. Texas as a whole, even though if you look at the numbers, is actually a pretty purple state, but when it's come out to voting, at least it's been a very red state. And your district obviously got gerrymandered to add more Republicans into it. What has been your experience going around and talking to people, especially after everything that this administration has done, broken its word on Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): Yes. Breaking The Meta: pretty much every promise it's made, the fact that things are getting more expensive, the loss of healthcare, et cetera, et What has been the experience talking to those Republicans that may have been lifelong conservatives? Have you noticed at least a more opening to have a conversation in a way that probably wasn't there a year and a half ago? Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): ⁓ a hundred percent. So, I mean, I have disaffected Republicans, disaffected Christians that, ⁓ have joined my campaign. They're some of my best volunteers, best community organizers, cause they're so upset. I have people that have come up to me and said, Hey, I'm, I voted for you and I haven't voted for Democrats since 1980. ⁓ Breaking The Meta: Mm. Yeah. Wow. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): There is change here and it's not just about me. It's about everybody on the ticket. ⁓ Part of it's just because it's hard for Republicans to say they're conservative. So the definition of conservatism has morphed, right? I say I'm surprisingly conservative. I want local government control. I don't want federal agents in my streets. I don't want President Trump calling my elections. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): I want Congress voting on wartime actions. I say I want fiscal responsibility. You don't have to have a completely balanced budget, but we should be working toward a balanced budget and instead the deficit's out of control. Breaking The Meta: The Pentagon should not go eight years without passing an audit. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): 100%. I, you know, I talk about the big, beautiful bill, how almost none of it really makes the lives better for normal Americans. So I think what's happened is politics is more and more divided. There's almost no middle ground. Every candidate that was a middle ground candidate got completely schwacked in this, in this election. So, ⁓ you're either in the Trump MAGA Christian nationalist camp, Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): And that has a strong base in Texas. Like you can just, you can win on riling up that base. ⁓ Or you're in the, I'm so upset about what's happening in our country camp that I've just got to vote for the other person. The challenge Democrats have is ⁓ somehow, somewhere along the line since Ann Richards, the last great Democrat governor, Democrat became really unpopular in Texas. So the Democratic Party actually has low an approval rating, if not lower than Trump. And in Texas, that approval rating is kind of even worse. It comes with a lot of MAGA talking point nonsense about how Democrats are the party of the party that wants to put a boy on your girl's sports team, the party that wants to defend illegal immigrants, the party that doesn't want voter ID, you these types of things that aren't true, but a lot of Texans believe it. So the job here is to just be very upfront that we're rebranding and that MAGA is not conservative. MAGA is, it's not, you know, what I say is the parties are constantly changing and the Republican party is nothing like the Republican party of 10 years ago. In fact, it's not conservative at all. And the Democratic party is changing because we can back to the needs of the real people. That's what we need to do to win. Breaking The Meta: Sure. Yeah. Yeah. My biggest hope is that if anything good will come of this, we will get rid of identity politics. We may never fully get rid of it, but if we can start caring more about policies and people and not the parties, I think this country will be a so much better place. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): Yes. Yeah, it's really a shame that ⁓ I've heard teachers talk about this, right? They're like, think about what being a teacher is. Like your whole job is to take a diverse group of students and make them feel included. So, you know, our diversity and our immigrant heritage and our welcoming nature, that's what makes America great. I mean, a lot of people seem to have forgotten that all of a sudden, but certainly that makes us great. ⁓ Unfortunately, I think Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): it was leaned into too much and there was a violent reaction in the other direction. So we, this really comes about where we're focusing and ⁓ we're focusing on the wrong 1%, right? We're focusing on less than 1 % is transgender. I mean, I just tell people usually, Usually I just say there are plenty of co-ed bathrooms to go around. Co-ed locker rooms. If you want a co-ed sports team, I bet the parent of a transgender kid would start one. This is a non-issue. This is a complete issue meant to divide us, right? I talk about, you know, with Muslims. Muslims are less than 1 % of the population. But Keith Self would have you believing that they're staged to have a revolution and implement Sharia law across America. mean, so this is really about focusing on 99 percent, like what do most people care about? That's what that's what the job of representative is actually supposed to be. We're supposed to be sticking up for the 99 percent in the face of big business interests, right, in the face of the special interests and making sure that we represent the people. And that has really gone the wrong direction. Part of it's because we don't incentivize. politicians the right way, part of it's because people are so apathetic they don't even vote. So no wonder we're ruled by the extremes, only the extremes vote, only the extremes donate. But we've got it, that gives me some hope because people are not as apathetic as they were. Regular people are involved, regular people are upset. They're so upset that they stand out in the rain and the freezing cold in Texas to protest. And that means that we can turn our politics around. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Since the end of World War II, the United States has really been at the forefront of the world. Been at the head of every table, been in part of every conversation. We were it. ⁓ In this last year, ⁓ this presidency, this administration has pretty much destroyed that ⁓ with tariffs, Venezuela, Greenland, NATO, leaving the WHO. And now a war with Iran for whatever the 10 or 15 reasons that have been told to us may be. ⁓ Regardless of what this administration is telling itself and telling us, we are no longer at the head. We are probably going to be lucky if we're even invited to the table because of the lack of trust from some of our closest allies. My question to you is where do you see Americans, America's foreign policy moving forward under this new reality that some of our closest allies, countries that we have done trade deals, et cetera, with for decades, ⁓ no longer can even trust our word? Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): Now that's a great question. ⁓ I always say the greatest generation made this incredible sacrifice for us to become the number one nation in the world. And we've held that position of responsibility since World War II. And so if you start messing around with the world order too much, you start pissing off allies, you start driving foreign businesses to go work with China instead of America. You start needless conflicts that affect multiple partners. There's only one place to go and that's down, you know? So I get very nervous and this is part of the reason I'm running. I got very nervous. I think really that meeting with Zelensky. with when he was in the Oval Office and Trump and J.D. Vance were belittling him and sort of telling him he needed to be thankful. That was just, I didn't even recognize my own country. So, and as you know, that was just the beginning. I mean, since then we've pissed off Canada and everybody in between. What's amazing to me is how many MAGA Republicans I meet that think the opposite. They think that we are even more respected than ever before. And I just tell them they need to travel more because we're a joke right now. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): So in the long run, I think we can recover as long as we ⁓ vote in a sane and eloquent leader who sets the right example again quickly. And we take back Congress to really ⁓ hold the president accountable. But we are doing some damage that I think it will take a long time to recover from. mean, if you think about China, who's really our our peer competitor. ⁓ They have a hundred year plan. So they are very consistent. They're very easy to go do business with, especially if you're closer to China than you are to America. ⁓ People have sort of done business with us because we're supposed to be the democratic moral nation. So they perceived us as more consistent. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): and less of a threat and I don't think that's true anymore. I think we're playing into China's hands. China's going to say, look at this ridiculous democracy. They elect these people that just tear up trade agreements and start over and start wars and I think we're going to be recovering from this for a long time. I hope we recover. We have to put the right people in charge to recover. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Let's do a little ⁓ future casting. So November 3rd comes around and you win. Congratulations. ⁓ January 2nd comes around and you were sworn in as representative of the state of Texas. What are the first things that you do? Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): Thank you. So yeah, the things I'm really passionate about as the first things to do are things that have directly affected us here in Texas. So there are some easy things that need to be fixed. I I wanna sponsor a bill that bans out of cycle partisan gerrymandering. Should be done once every 10 years with a bipartisan census across the country. Because I think it's killing our democracy. ⁓ Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Yep. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): I would support federal legislation to ban unlimited school ⁓ vouchers because limited school vouchers in the form of certain disabled families or special needs families make total sense, but that should be held at a local level. What most people don't understand is these school voucher schemes cause a war between local governments and state governments. and the special interests get in there and it's about people making money and transitioning public to private wealth. So that would be an easy one. ⁓ I think that ICE should be dismantled and rebuilt from the ground up. I mean, we're always going to need a border authority. I think that ICE, even the name has lost the public trust. It'll never recover. Time to start over. Time to unmask these folks that ⁓ have been violating due process and Breaking The Meta: Mm. Yep. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): Let's see, I would continue to push for the release of the unredacted Epstein files and holding people accountable for that coverup. I want to make sure that, frankly, I think the authorization for use of military force that was signed after September 11th, that has given these expanded war powers to the president to just bomb willy-nilly. And I was a bomber guy, right? ⁓ I think it's been 25 years. It's time to roll that back and, know, the president needs the power to respond, but this is too loosey goosey. ⁓ And so I would like to roll that back and put some firmer legislation in that allows Congress to do their job as the entity that by the Constitution is supposed to authorize war. Breaking The Meta: Absolutely. Evan, so for everyone that has listened this far, heard everything that we have talked about up until now, what are one or two things that no matter what you would want them to come away with knowing about you and your campaign? Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): my campaign slogan is service before self. ⁓ It was convenient because my opponent's name is Keith Self, but I, ⁓ ⁓ would be my campaign slogan anyway, because I believe that government service is the why I was in the military should ⁓ about giving back to your community. ⁓ Like JFK said, know, ask not. Breaking The Meta: It's like you planned it. Yeah. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): what your government can do for you, ask what you can do for your government. I think we need to, ⁓ re-instill this, this notion of service before self in, our culture again. So much of the example set by Trump and modern Republicans right now is all about winning at all costs. No matter who gets hurt, no matter who gets lied to, it's winning, it's owning the other side. And it's a sport. It's like the Superbowl. And I think, Breaking The Meta: It's a sport. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): it is ripping apart the soul of our nation. And so I'm just a small cog in a very big wheel. I'm trying to fight in my little foxhole and there are no guarantees it's a hard race to win here, but it's going to take all of us to get back to the America that our ancestors marched for and fought for and the America that I went to war for and the America that I want to leave to my kids. Breaking The Meta: Mm. For anyone that wants to learn more about you and support you, whether it's through volunteering or donations, where can they find you? Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): Thank you. So electevenhunt.com is my website. yeah, I'm Elect Evan Hunt on all channels. I post almost every day. We're on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. ⁓ We do an email campaign so you can subscribe to the email campaign. And I do not like just asking for money. I like to provide real content. So my promise is you'll get emails with real content and perspectives. ⁓ I value donations, but I value your voice more than anything. So if you can spread the word, like, follow, share, this is a grassroots movement. So I appreciate your support. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. And this is why I'm doing this whole process. This is why I've been interviewing so many amazing people just like Evan. So for everyone listening, whether, obviously like and subscribe because it helps me do what I'm doing, but also it helps people like Evan and all these other amazing people that are running for office that are trying to do it right, that aren't taking PAC money, that are trying to break the status quo and fix problems that we've been screaming about for decades in some cases. They need visibility, they need name recognition, and that comes from when you're not taking millions of dollars from PACs, means watching videos like this and sharing it with people. So if you know people in Texas, if you just know people in this country, watching this and sharing it increases the chance that people in Evans District will see him and know his name when it comes to voting. So please watch. like, subscribe, do all the things, whether it's mine or their content itself. It's both extremely helpful. ⁓ And for those of you, huh? Yeah, it really does. It really does. And this is free. You can watch this for free. It just takes a little bit of your time. So please help out. And for those of you that might be new to this podcast, just so you know, Breaking the Meta is all about having hard conversations when necessary. ⁓ Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): Absolutely. Absolutely. Your voice matters, you know. Thank you. Breaking The Meta: fighting to break the status quo and the idea that all people, no matter your race, religion, gender or identity, get rights, respect, dignity and safety. Evan, thank you again for spending time with us. I really do appreciate it. And for everyone else, we'll see you next time on Breaking the Meta. Bye, guys. Evan Hunt (TX-CD3): Thanks Mike, I appreciate you. Thank you.