Latest / Breaking The Meta / U.S. Senate Candidate Julian Beaudion Explains His Vision for South Dakota
Transcript
- Breaking The Meta: Hello everyone and welcome to breaking the meta. My name is Mike Winson. Today we have a very special guest. He is running for the U.S. Senate in South Dakota. His name is Julian Bo Duan. Did I say it right? Please tell me. Yes, I got it right. ⁓ And I'm really excited to sit down with him and talk about ⁓ what he hopes to do for the state of South Dakota. Hello, Julian. How are you doing? I'm doing good, man. How are you? I'm doing great. can't wait to, I can't wait to sit here and learn about you and what you hope to do for your state. ⁓ Would you mind starting off by giving us a little bit of a background on who you are and why you decided to run for office in the first place? Yeah, absolutely. Again, thank you for just opening up your platform for me. South Dakota is one of those states where we consider ourselves to be a flyover state. We don't get much attention. And so, you know, this is certainly something that I'm grateful for. for not just for you, but also for your viewers. So thank you. ⁓ My background is in law enforcement. I originally am from Louisiana, never thought I would be in law enforcement. ⁓ Situations happen, life happens, you know. ⁓ My goal ultimately was to go into the military. That did not pan out for me. And so law enforcement was the next thing, next opportunity that came in front of me. I took full advantage of that. ⁓ Serving my community and following in the footsteps of my mom and my dad. My mom is a retired nurse with the VA system. My father is, before he passed away, was a retired educator. He was a math teacher, high school math teacher. And so just seeing them live a life of service and following in that service type ⁓ atmosphere that my family had set the example for was certainly something that I was more than welcome to step into that role. So spent 13 and a half years as a state trooper here in South Dakota. then became the Biden nominee for US Marshal for the state of South Dakota. Eventually, with some work that I had done in the community and also in law enforcement, I was recognized by former President Barack Obama as one of the 100 most influential leaders across the country and had the opportunity to graduate from his Presidential Leadership Academy last year with the Obama Foundation. And now, of course, taking up the mantle to run for US Senate against Mike Rons. So just because it's Very interesting. As someone who used to live in the North and then moved down South, what brought you from Louisiana to South Dakota? Because that is about as different as you can possibly get. ⁓ it is vastly different. ⁓ And listen, so I'm sitting here right now, my wife and I own a restaurant. And I'm sitting here right now at our restaurant and I look outside. And it has a snow in probably a good month, but there's still ice on the ground. how cold it is outside. But what brought me here was originally my mom actually retired with the VA. She took a retirement job here in Sioux Falls, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. That retirement job was also with the VA here in town. ⁓ And so I was in college at the time, tore my ACL plan into mirror basketball. came up here to have surgery. was back in the old days. I say the old days, I'm not too old, but where, you know, there was this in-network, out-of-network type coverage. And if you didn't live in the network, you had to travel to be taken care of. I was in that situation to where I had to travel just to have my knee repaired. And so when I came up here, it was gorgeous. And I say my mom tricked me into staying here because she brought me here in the summertime. And the weather was perfect. Everything was green and colors everywhere. It was just remarkable. So I made the decision to have my girlfriend at the time, who's now my wife, come up and I ended up tricking her into staying because I did the same thing my mom did to me. Darn nature, it gets you every time. But then we actually started to really open up our eyes as young folks to see what the opportunity was here. compared to what it was in a state like Louisiana at the time. And it was quite different than what we had ever experienced. as 17 and 18 year olds, we were able to step forward and open up our first business, which was a cleaning service and started cleaning restaurants across the city and just became, you know, entrepreneurs, so to speak, before my career law enforcement. And so it was definitely something different, something challenging and unique. But something that we welcome the opportunity to thrive in this community. So I just have to ask, because I saw the sign behind you that says French Quarter, what kind of a restaurant is it? So it is a Cajun restaurant. My wife is a chef. so we brought a unique flair, of course, here to South Dakota. We're the only Cajun restaurant in city of Sioux Falls. But we also, it's Black History Month right now. It'd be irresponsible of me not to pinpoint this out and hype my wife, my wife up, to speak. Heck yeah. She owns the largest black owned restaurant in the entire state. Wow. This has been a tremendous accomplishment for her. ⁓ We just continue to grow in our development, not just in entrepreneurship, but every step of the way we make sure that we're giving back to the community some kind of way, because we wouldn't be here without. Well, I would feel... ⁓ ⁓ Wrong in my in my being sitting here and talking with I didn't say ⁓ What's the name of the restaurant? So anyone who listens in Sioux Falls can come and check out some Cajun cooking Yes, one daddy's Cajun kitchen is the name of the rest. I love that name. That is a great name Okay. Well if I'm ever in Sioux Falls, I'm definitely checking it out too. So thank you. Thank you so what Kind of as you've been going around, obviously you've lived there, so you're obviously experiencing it too. But as you go around and talk to, ⁓ the people of South Dakota, what are the kinds of issues that they, that they, ⁓ that they're having? What are those pain points that a lot of people in South Dakota are feeling that they hope you as a Senator could help them with? You know, I'm going to say something that seems so trivial and so simple, but it legit. is the number one concern of people is that they have just simply been forgotten. know, their voice is not heard any longer. So my opponent is Mike rounds and he has not traveled across the state in a long time, not as a Senator and not as governor either to do town halls or really listen to the voice of the people. And I have made it a point to go out into these communities who haven't seen. their representative in quite some time and do some town halls. My goal is to do 25 town halls before the end of the election in November. and I am now at about 15 town halls done. ⁓ so we're ahead of the, we're ahead of the game. I might have to up that, that number a little bit. ⁓ but absolutely not. at every single town hall, that is something that I hear, man, I am so glad that you are here because we haven't seen anybody in years. And it's just so good for someone just to hear my concern. so that very first town hall, I had this preconceived notion that I would walk in and, you you know, as someone running for office, you, sometimes you, have this like, I'm going to use the word egotistical mindset sometimes where you walk in and you say, you know what? I'm the fixer of all I can do this and I can do that. ⁓ and I was humbled very, very quickly. by just that statement to say, man, I'm glad someone is here to listen. And so really quickly that first town hall and every town hall afterwards became listening sessions for me to sit back and say, I also need to take a step back and not put out any policy initiatives because these are not my ideas. These are going to be the ideas of the people that I am putting forth when I'm in the United States Senator. And if I'm going to represent them properly, I need to listen. North Dakota or South Dakota. don't know why I said North Dakota. South Dakota. That's our little brother. That's true. South Dakota, obviously, in many ways is looked at as a Republican state. Regardless of whether that is actually true. There's definitely some good discussion that could be had about whether or not anyone that identifies with either side actually has most of the same views on a lot of things, whether it's affordability and just ability to pay your bills, etc, etc, etc. What has it been like going around when you have interacted with people that consider themselves Republicans and see a D next to your name, ⁓ things like that. What has that experience been like? Well, I'll go back to the town halls ⁓ because at each of those town halls, we've seen Republicans sitting in the front row, ready to speak a piece of their minds because although they have representation in DC and even in the state legislature, they have still found themselves to be unnoticed and unheard. And so what I found is actually it's more welcoming than anything else. ⁓ South Dakota, yes, we are uniquely positioned right now as a Republican state. You got John Thune, of course, as the Senate Majority Leader. ⁓ You got Mike Rounds on one of the most important committees, which is the Armed Services Committee. ⁓ And then you have, of course, former governor of South Dakota, Christine Ohm, sitting as the secretary of DHS. And so it seems like It seems like South Dakota is well positioned for Republicans to just continue in power. However, I want to remind everyone that just about 15, 16 years ago, South Dakota had three Democrats in those seats as well. We had two Democrats as senators, and then we also had Stephanie Hearst at Sandlin as our lone congresswoman. And Tom Daschle as one of those senators sat in the same seat that Tim Johnson was in as the leader. And so we have to remember that we have been a flip-flop state. We're not necessarily purple, but we have certainly been a flip-flop state when it comes to federal government and federal politics for quite a while. And what we see is historically anywhere from 15 to 20, excuse me, every 15 to 20 years, you'll see that power shift. Well, guess what? We're in the power shift situation now and we're about 15 years in to remove those individuals from the seat and flip ourselves back blue when we talk about federal government. And then of course we... State government's so different right now. We only have about seven Democrats that are sitting in the seat in state government, and that's a whole nother struggle in and of itself. I feel the need to, cause you mentioned her, former governor Kristi Noem, what has been, what has been the reaction of the people of the state of South Dakota to Kristi Noem and what she's been doing as the secretary of DHS? Yeah, it's a, it's a mixed bag to be honest with you. And, ⁓ man, we have folks here that have just not been impacted by what she's doing yet. And the excuse that I hear, ⁓ now, however relevant it is to them and irrelevant it might be to someone else. It is what it is. It is an, it is an excuse. And I want to be clear about what I'm, what I'm about to say here. The excuse that I'm hearing is that, ⁓ we're not Minnesota. That's happening over there. As, as if. I don't live in Sioux Falls, which is 15 minutes away from the Minnesota border. Right. You know, those are still our neighbors. Those are still human beings that are being treated inhumanely by someone who was supposed to be protecting and serving. And I took an oath as a state trooper to make sure that I'm doing things the right way and treating people as human beings as I am protecting and serving and enforcing the laws. And I expect nothing less. As a matter of fact, I expect more from our federal officers. has no business in Minnesota. Christy Noem has no business sitting in the seat that she is in. She is completely irresponsible in governing the way she is governing. ⁓ And we have to act now to get her removed. So that's my opinion on things, but you asked me what the people of South Dakota were thinking right now because they haven't been impacted. Honestly, they don't see too big of a problem with the things that she's doing in Minnesota. Now, I will also give you a caveat to that. We are split in our state by the Missouri River. And we say, you know, for some reason we feel like we're two different states. There's East River and there's West River. And the Western side of the state is mostly ranchers. Eastern side of the state is mostly farmers. And what we've seen on the Eastern side is that our dairy farms have been heavily impacted by immigration and the things that are happening with DHS right now. Now, of course, it looks different than it does in Minnesota. However, we've had... three dairy farms closed down. And that's a big impact for a state that has less than a million people living. And so you talk about, you know, what is to come if she stays in that position, that could change the entire landscape of farming and our largest economic driver in this entire state. Well, I don't want to give Kristi Noem any more, any more platform on here. So let's... Let's move on to some let's move on to a little bit more about you and what you hope to do. ⁓ One of one of the one of the things that I've found, regardless of what party you associate with, whether you're progressive or conservative, independent, whatever, is this idea of accountability or lack thereof when it comes to ⁓ all of our politicians, state and federal. What what does the idea of accountability look like to you? What does it mean to you to be held accountable by the people of the state if you become Senate? And how do you see your role as a Senator in terms of accountability in the government? Yeah, think accountability for a government system looks a lot different than what it looks like for a candidate or even someone who's elected into that position. I hesitate to call them leaders because They're just elected officials. A lot of them are not true leaders. But that looks quite a bit different. So let me maybe break it down for you a little bit. I'll start on the candidate elected official side. For me, what that looks like is being accessible. And I talked about how my opponent has not been accessible to people in a long time. And so how can you hear the needs and the concerns of people, even if they have concerns about you? How can you hear those things if you haven't made yourself accessible? So I have actually vowed to continue these town halls after being elected and to make sure that I am doing one at least once per quarter. each, each congressional break, ⁓ when I am back home, I am still in the middle of the people hearing their voices and making sure that I am accessible digitally as well. We live in a digital era. ⁓ and so of course, through social media, there's ways that you can, you can still engage with folks. And so. You know, if there's a mechanism in which I can allow myself as a U.S. Senator to get on and do virtual town halls or virtual listening sessions in between those quarterly and person sessions, I will certainly make myself available to that. In addition, once you're elected, I think you have the responsibility to, number one, see if you can serve on an oversight committee to make sure that the government and the system is working for the people. But in addition to sitting on an oversight committee, you need to make sure that the citizens in your state have oversight of the oversight committee. Because what we don't think about is the type of folks who are sitting on those committees right now. so I know you don't want to give Christy Noem any more platform, but let's look at ICE and let's look at the oversight that's happening right there. Right? ⁓ The individuals that are positioned on the oversight committee that have power over DHS or the purse strings of DHS, they're all friends of Donald Trump. They're all friends of the current presidential administration. And so if we as citizens are supposed to be the one building the government to look like us and to work for us, we should have oversight of that committee too. Now, what that looks like as a structure for government systems, I don't know. ⁓ You, you you asked for my opinion on it, which is why I'm giving you that. So yes, I don't have the answer, but I will give you what my opinion is for sure. Absolutely. Well, and obviously all of these things are stuff that we as a, as a society need to have conversations about and work through. It's no such thing as an easy answer, unfortunately, especially as long as people are involved. Yes. I was always, my parents always grew up telling me, uh, life would be so much easier if there weren't so many people in it. Sometimes that's true. It ⁓ feels that way at least. another direction ⁓ that I would like to ask you about is ⁓ this administration has been in power for a little over a year now. Regardless of what they say, our place in the world has been for, maybe not forever, but at least for a while. changed. Our place at the table, our respect by other nations, our allies, etc. have been drastically changed because of choices made by this administration, whether you're talking the tariffs or Venezuela or Greenland or a myriad of other things that this administration has decided to do. How do you see this country moving forward in regards to our places at the table, how we get trust back with these allies that we have, in some cases, broiled that kind of trust with, knowing that there is a possibility that even if we, let's say, you're still a senator, 2028 comes around, we get a Democratic president. And then four years after that, it's someone else who thinks just like this current administration that can snap fingers and do the exact same thing again. What, do you see as our foreign relations, our, you know, our place in the world moving forward after what's going on? So all the things that you mentioned, whether it's the Terras, Venezuela, Greenland, they have one thing in common for this current administration and it's to make more money. ⁓ We understand that capitalization, of course, is at the center, at the core of what our country has been built on ⁓ and how important it is for us to continue to grow and continue to maintain power, which is important. I think that's a really important conversation that people should open their eyes to. ⁓ However, what we have seen in the history of putting capitalization first is also making sure that we do not dehumanize people while trying to gain power. That's something that's vastly different with this particular presidential administration. And I think, I haven't had any conversations with foreign leaders. I'm not gonna go out in the book and tell you that I've talked to one foreign leader and I haven't, right? I've never talked to any other foreign leaders, but I think they have their eyes open to say, if they're treating their own people like this, what makes you think they wouldn't treat us like this, just to gain more power, just to gain more money? ⁓ And so... Because that has been broken, I believe what needs to happen is that America needs to make a place to humanization. And so I would actually compare somewhat the similarities of what capitalization looks like right now to what it looked like during enslavement. I'm not comparing the two situations. I'm just comparing the capitalization of things to where you use humans to profit, point blank period. And that's something that we have to 100 % get away from. We have to put humans first and it's people over politics. I've said this a million times throughout my campaign, going through, you know, these town halls is that that's the first thing on our list. You can ask me about the policy platform when it comes to Medicaid and Medicare, which by the way, I'm for healthcare for all. ⁓ You can ask me about my stance on education. You can ask me about all those things, but in all of those policy thoughts. Humans come first and money is always going to come second, third, fourth, fifth. It's not going to be my top priority ⁓ moving forward. So. Well, since you brought up Medicare and all that stuff, I might as well ask about that. How. How is things like the ACA subsidy cuts and the big, beautiful bills cuts on things like SNAP and Medicare, think, I forget which one. One of them that is cutting, that it will be affecting people towards the end of this year. How is that going to affect the people of South Dakota? So, before I give you kind of that impact, because we've already started to see some of the impact even before the cuts have gone into place. Just because I think some of our rural communities are preparing for what's to come or what they believe is to come. want to... point out to the viewers that we have an opportunity to flip both the House and the Senate. And if we do that, those cuts can be reversed. So because they have not been put in place yet, those cuts can absolutely be reversed. So we need to make sure that we are honing in on these elections and preparing ourselves to flip the seat so we're not impacted by exactly what you're talking about. ⁓ Now, to answer your question, I want to make a comparison between the COVID years for rural health and the current administration and their impact on rural health with what I call the big disaster has been. ⁓ So in this state, we saw 10 % of our rural hospitals closed down during COVID. And that's for a lot of reasons. But one of the main reasons is the Biden administration sent some infrastructure money to South Dakota. Christie Noem actually sent that federal money back. didn't use it until hospitals were forced to shut down. to the point to where we have now zero OB-GYN clinics in rural areas in our state. They all have to travel somewhere to an urban center to get health care. Now in this administration, now that's the impact of COVID. Now in this administration, we have seen an additional 15 % of those rural hospitals and clinics closed down. The Trump administration has had a bigger negative impact. on rural healthcare in South Dakota than COVID did. So I just want, I want people to just understand how big that is again, in a state that has less than a million people. We don't have many options to start. ⁓ And so my plan is to make sure that we're introducing the bill to reinvest in our healthcare system, to bring more traveling nurses in, to be able to upstand the infrastructure, to be able to get those rural healthcare systems back on their feet, and then start training people right here in South Dakota to stay at home after college. and work in their own Congress. One of the issues that I hear a lot from a lot of people that I talk to, especially in regards to Congress, is this idea that it feels like senators or members of the House of Representatives work more for the president than they do for the people that they work for. Did you say you hear that? Well, I feel that too personally. Okay. I just, I want to just be respectful for the fact that I'm not the only one saying this that I'm getting from other people. ⁓ yes. Cause I'm on that page too. I feel that as well. I'm sorry. Go ahead. So what, what does, in your mind, what does a properly functioning Congress look like? Properly functioning looks like someone ⁓ being elected that's responsible to the people first. And not to the president. I actually think that we should be having more conversations with the citizens in our states than we do with other government officials. ⁓ The president of the United States should not have the ability to stand up and, you know, in front of the media say that we need to federalize elections. Right? That belongs to the states. And if, in fact, we are truly going to give power back to the people, The people at this point need to be rising up against that because literally our constitution gives us a voice through our vote. And the president is attempting to take that away from us by federalizing election systems and taking that power out of the hands of the state. So what I mean by all of that, maybe just to kind of compress it down, is that truly, just because you're elected into a position doesn't mean that you have power. And so the thought process of our current elected officials has to change to say, I'm not the one in control. You are. ⁓ Now, again, what that looks like tangibly, I don't know, because we have so many folks in office, both Democrats and Republicans, who have forgotten that and who have forgotten it for a long time. And so they do take their, they do take their leads from whoever the president of the United States is, whether it's a Trump or a Biden or an Obama, it doesn't matter. And they've completely lost the way of the people. And so going back to what a pledge looks like, it looks like a promise putting the power back into the hands of the people to say, I'm not doing what I want to do. I'm not doing what Trump wants to do. And listen, I've also said this a lot, but I want to say this in front of your audience too. The first time I do something that the people in this state do not want me to do, you have the right to get me out of that seat. You have the right, you have the responsibility, morally and ethically. to get me out of that seat. And so right now, that's what we're doing with Mike Rounds. We are going to responsibly remove him from the seat of USMF. Love it. Totally agree. 100%. ⁓ I want to do a little future casting. you get through this entire year, November 3rd comes around. ⁓ You are elected Senate to the United States Senate. ⁓ January comes around, you get sworn in. What is the first thing that you do? First thing I think we have to do is make sure that we're looking at the things that other states have done right. So I'm going to give you an example of like a Maryland and an Illinois. ⁓ Those states have reinvested in their state departments of education and they've seen two things happen. And these are two things that we want as citizens to be able to live in. We want to live in a safer and smarter community. Well, because of their reinvestment and their additional investment in their departments of education, they have seen high school graduation rates increase, but they've also seen crime rates decrease. Maryland, for example, has seen the highest, or excuse me, the fastest rate of decrease in crime over the last five years. They literally cut their crime rate in half because of reinvestment in their department of education. That's the future of what our country looks like. My opponent is actually the author of the bill to dismantle. the department, the federal department of education. Um, and so the very first thing I think we need to do is protect our kids, protect our next generation of leaders, protect our next generation of workers. And we need to invest and reinvest additional resources in the department of education. That's one A. I know you asked me for one thing, but I'm going to give you one B as well. I've been told, I've been told that, Hey, listen, you're gonna, you're going to get into the United States Senate. Chuck Schumer is going to sit you down and have a meeting with you and tell you what you can and cannot do. And I'm telling you right now, I don't care what Chuck Truman says because I don't ask him to Chuck Truman. I ask it to the people of South Dakota. So outside of reinvesting in the Department of Education, I am going to fight to make sure that our rural healthcare system is well taken care of by proposing Medicaid for all. And so what that looks like, it looks like again, reinvesting federal dollars in rural healthcare systems and simultaneously having a farm bill on the table that invests in our farmers, our ranchers. And so that their communities are taken care of by protecting snap benefits, by protecting AI benefits, by protecting them from data centers coming into their communities. All of those things should be on the table right now. And there's not even a conversation about what that bill looks like. That is irresponsible for our government. It's irresponsible for the leaders of the state. And so I will have to correct those two wrongs simultaneously. Well, as someone who is not a huge fan of Chuck Schumer either. I'm all for, that is something that we need and something we need a lot, which is one of the reasons ⁓ that I started this whole project of interviewing so many amazing people such as yourself that are running in districts or states where they feel flown over, where they feel ignored by ⁓ the parties, if not the many people in the media, et cetera. ⁓ Anyone who's listening, especially in the state of South Dakota gets this far and has listened to everything that you've said. What is one or two things that you want to make sure that they come away with understanding about you and your campaign? That I am a people first leader and that I want to take care of our neighbors first. I want to listen before I speak. I want to make sure that our platform is built on what you tell me it is built, it should be built on. And I want, you know, folks to understand that it's okay to change your perspective. We have lived in a generation right now where our presidential administration has been able to tell us what to think. And we just kind of go with whatever they tell us. Again, I'm not just putting this on the Trump administration. I'm putting this on... know, previous presidential administrations in the past. Not only is that dangerous for society to be able to think the way a leader thinks, I think it's dangerous to democracy and it's dangerous to the power structure of our country. I'm proud to be the most powerful country in the entire world. And in order for us to keep that power structure, that means that we have to live by what our constitution requires us to live by. And that's putting the power right back into the hands of the people. But that starts with us being able to think for ourselves. Just because one person tells you to do something or one person gives you their opinion doesn't mean you have to follow that. What is realistic for you? What impacts your life? And then you tell that elected official what you want them to do. And so that's what I want people to know is that I'm not, I know I've said this several times in this conversation, I'm not going in there with my own agenda. It's the people's agenda that I have to fight. If anyone wants to learn more about you, or support you in any way, where can they find you? Well, please, please, please support. That's certainly something that's necessary to move this campaign forward. I'd also just kind of say that Mike Rounds typically is not a very strong fundraiser. It's not going to take us the tens of millions of dollars to win a race like it would in Texas or California. It'll take us maybe two and a half to three million dollars to win this race. So it's not a heavy load if you really think about it. But you can find me on all social media platforms at Julian4SD and at the four spelled out F-O-R. And then my website is Julian4SD.com. just like supporting you monetarily and supporting all of these candidates monetarily is vastly important. The other thing that's necessary is name recognition and visibility. And that's something that all of us can do when it comes to any of the people that are watching these videos. watch them all the way through, like them, share them with people. ⁓ I can tell you as someone who's interviewed many people right now, it brings a lot of hope to see so many amazing people, veterans, mothers, fathers, doctors, restaurant owners, the whole gambit of people that love their country, that want everyone to not just live but thrive. It we have allowed, we have allowed bias in some cases inactivity as much as activity to get to the point where we're at. If we really want the kind of change we want, it's going to take work by all of us. for anyone watching this, please not just help out Julian, but help out all of these candidates that are running by supporting, supporting if you can, but at minimum watching and sharing their content because it really, it does help. It really does help. ⁓ Julian, thank you so much for joining me for this time and letting us get to know you and what you stand for. I really do appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely. And thank you again for the platform you provided. Absolutely. And for anyone who ⁓ has watched this far, thank you so much for doing it. Please hit all the buttons, like, subscribe, all that stuff down below. Helps me out, makes it possible for me to keep doing what I'm doing. For those of you that are new to this channel, ⁓ Breaking the Meta is all about having hard conversations when necessary, breaking that status quo. making real change and understanding that all people, no matter your race, religion, gender or identity deserve rights, respect, dignity and safety. ⁓ So I look forward to talking with all of you. Julian, I look forward to seeing what the future holds for you and this campaign. And I hope to have another interview with you, congratulating you on becoming the next US state senator for the state of South Dakota and for everyone else. We'll see you next time on Breaking the Meta. Bye guys.