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2026 Watauga County Meet the Candidates - Dr. Virginia Foxx - US House - NC-5 · Mind Your Business - A Podcast Series produced by the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to this special election edition of Mind Your Business.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm David Jackson.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: The Boone Area and Blowing Rock Chambers of Commerce are proud to host our annual Meet the Candidates Forum in conjunction with the 2026 General Election.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: While the Wataga County Board of Education and Board of Commissioners and races for the State House and Senate were conducted as part of our in-person forum at the Appalachian Theater back on October 1st, candidates for U.S.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: House, Watauga County Sheriff, and Watauga County Clerk of Court were interviewed individually.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: This episode features our conversation with Dr.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Virginia Fox, the incumbent Republican candidate for North Carolina's 5th District of the U.S.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: House of Representatives.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: You have been at this for a little while.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: What uh just to kind of start out, what keeps you running for office?
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: What keeps me running for office is the positive impact that I have not only on the community but on individuals.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: When people ask me, you know, what is your greatest achievement?
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I say that greatest achievement comes every day.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: When we are able to help a constituent get an accomplishment with the federal government that he or she has not been able to do.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: I was in Hiddenite the other day for their festival, and uh the staffer who was with me does IRS, and I don't know how it came up in talking with a booth person, but the booth person said something, and I turned around to Gabe and I said, What is the greatest um uh return we have gotten from the IRS for a constituent?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, I thought it I heard it was$174,000.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, actually, about two weeks ago, I was able to get for a constituent over$800,000 that was owed to him that the IRS had had for a year and a half.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so what while I did not do that personally, I employ a staff that understands that I will go to the ends of the earth to help a constituent who is right.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: That constituent was right.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Gabe stayed on that until he got that money back for that person, and so that's what we do in our office.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I personally respond, I answer all my own mail because I want to know what my constituents are saying to me, and I do my best to make sure that every person gets a full answer to their questions.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I went a little further down at the the booths, and a couple were front representing, they had a real estate business.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: I went up and introduced myself.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: They say, Oh, we know you.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: When our daughter was in the sixth grade, you spoke to her class, and she came up to you and told you she was interested in government.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: You called her on her personal cell phone, which she gave you, you talked with her, you encouraged her, you nominated her for West Point.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: She is now serving in the intelligence service.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: So, what I do is try to give a lot of personal support to people in addition to my legislative work.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm pretty unique in that, David.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: There aren't other members of Congress who do that.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: I can tell you that.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: I meet with every constituent that comes to DC.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: I will go to extraordinary means to do that.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: Most members won't do that.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: The staff will meet with them, but not members.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I like to do what I think the public thinks a representative should do.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm pretty unique in doing that.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this next question plays into that personal experience a little bit.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, a federal review council appointed by the president has recommended some changes to the FEMA process.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, as you see the impacts of what Haleen did to this region, do you support the changes that have been suggested?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: And how would you make sure that communities like this are able to properly finance, if you will, disaster recovery in the future?
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um three days after Helene hit, I was at the the day after Helene hit, I was on the road surveying the damage.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: Three days after Helene hit, I said FEMA is totally broken, and it the people there are incompetent.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: I kept meeting with FEMA people.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: We met, I met several times, I spoke to people on the telephone.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I was extraordinarily disappointed in FEMA, and I'm still disappointed in FEMA.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: I think FEMA needs to make a lot of changes.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: We don't have time in this interview to go through all of those, but some of what FEMA says it cannot do, which is, I'll give an example.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: One meeting that I was having, this was in Avery County, because at that time I had Avery County.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: We were calculating how much they would pay for a motel that pay for 180 days, I believe it is, for a motel room.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: That adds up to a lot of money if the motel room costs$200 a night.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: But they'll only pay uh, what is it, um,$46,000 to replace a house?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: I can't remember the exact number, so don't hold me to it.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's somewhere, maybe$54.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I said to the person, why can't we combine monies that FEMA's willing to pay someone to make it a reasonable amount of money, for example, to replace a house?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: You can't replace a house for$46,000.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: And we had some good friends who'd lived in their house for 50-some years.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, we can't do that.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: Why not?
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the rules won't let us do it, or the statutes won't let us do it.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: So what FEMA needs to do is come to Congress with uh proposals on specific things that are related to statutes and that are related to rules, and let us work together to change those.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: It still hasn't done that.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: I'm still working with them to see what can be done.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Also, I've heard from you yourself, David, about things that should be done that would set us up for long-term um fixing.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: What I am frustrated by so much by FEMA is that it will do short-term fixes, but not look for the long term.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: I asked Soil and Water Conservation, who came out to our place to look at it.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: We lost our driveway during FEMA.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um and the Watauga River's banks now are four times as wide as they were before FEMA.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: And what I'd like to see is a long-term approach to this, what can be done instead of a short-term approach.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: I've asked the soil and water conservation people in Boone, and the young woman there has given me a proposal, which I'm going to talk to the governor about, and say, governor, is there a way that we with FEMA can say, all right, let's spend uh a proper amount of money, perhaps not on everything, but do pieces at a time that fit long term.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: If you travel on 105 right below our house, there was a huge washout of the road.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: The DOT has gone in and they're tearing out, they've torn out the road and they're putting in proper sized culverts.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's the kind of thing I'm talking about.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: Don't just repair it, replace the old culverts, which are going to cost again create a damage and cost more money.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe we'd have to replace them seven or eight times.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: Let's do it right, even if it cost a little extra money.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you mentioned Governor Stein, and before I ask this next question, I do want to thank you on behalf of all of us here and just how unified the North Carolina Congressional delegation has been throughout all of this, working with not only the governor, but the General Assembly and other state agencies to make sure that that there is unity among the ask as it comes to Congress and other federal partners.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Governor Stein, of course, has asked Congress for$10 billion additional dollars for Halene recovery funding, a lot of that focused on housing, water systems, roads, and assistance for local governments.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Do you support that request and what is necessary to get this type of package through Congress at this time?
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: Well, most likely what would be necessary to get that package through Congress would be in a year-end spending bill.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's very unlikely to get a standalone bill passed, although we have passed standalone um bills for um disaster recovery in the past.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: And we the bill we did uh initially for Helene, I believe, was in a package of other bills.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um I yes, I have talked to the governor on several occasions.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: I think what needs to be done is we need great specificity on what that money will be spent for so there can be proper accountability for the money.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, David, I believe in that for every every penny of taxpayer money that's spent.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: I want accountability for it.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so much money has been wasted through FEMA, um, as I've alluded to before.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I support helping North Carolina just like we have helped other places.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Housing is a great issue.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think there's enough money in the world to do water and sewer that needs to be done throughout the country.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's an issue everywhere.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: But we really do need to bring our water and sewer plants up to date.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: They don't need to be in the floodplain, they don't need to be where they're washed out, even by a small flood.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot of work that needs to be done.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: And um we don't need to be fixing places that, again, can be destroyed another time.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there has been some uh there have been a few significant wins here lately for the region when it comes to federal funding, and I point specifically to EDA grants that are tied into to some of the disaster recovery funding.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: That is a a helpful but also a very competitive process as well.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um from your position in Congress, how would you continue to can to keep telling the story of this region to make sure that as those types of applications and other opportunities come up, that people understand uh what was lost and and kind of like you were saying earlier, um, that you're rising back to a level that was stronger than it was September 26th, 2024.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um yes, and we uh my district director in the boon office is there to write pro uh letters to support proposals.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: We're there for every single proposal that people want to send in.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: What we like to do is to have information.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: He gets information.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: I like to have information too.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's better if we don't have short deadlines.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um I personally like to see facilities or see the projects being worked on if at all possible, then I can write what I call a non-vanilla letter.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, members of Congress will write letters, it's easy to do that, but I like to see the project so I can put a little passion behind my letter and say, and say, I I understand this project, I have seen it, it is worthy of being spent, uh being uh funded.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: Now, let me tell you, my philosophy is the states and counties should not be begging the federal government for money.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: That money should be staying in the states and in the hands of the of the individuals.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: We tax too much at the federal level.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: We should not be begging for that money.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's the money that belongs to local taxpayers and local governments.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I am very strong about our not letting more of our money go to the federal government than to be parceled out by bureaucrats who may or may not know what is the most important thing to do.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: I know that your district is a rather large one and covers some areas of the state that are a little different than Western North Carolina, but your roots here help you understand the lens of what the economic structure of this area is.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: As we consider not only Helene recovery, but some of the other economic factors in inflationary costs and uh gas prices rising in a tourism-dependent economy, how do you take that message back to Washington to let other folks know among your colleagues that this region has some of those same challenges that everybody else is dealing with?
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Added to that, though, a fairly significant Helene lag that still exists.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: Well, when people ask me how are things going, I said, well, we've had a lot of recovery, but guess what?
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: We need people to come and visit.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: I say that every time.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: That the small businesses that depend on tourism need people to come and visit.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: Some people think we are not really open.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, talking about Helene is a double-edged sword.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so a lot of people think, well, should I go or should I not go?
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I encourage people to come and visit all the time.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the gas prices, I truly believe, are a short-term issue.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they were actually higher uh under President Biden.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't hear as many complaints about it then as we do now.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: But listen, I pumped my own gas.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: On my way in here, I pumped my gas, I put in my speedy rewards card, and it said, no, that doesn't work.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I didn't get my 20 cents off.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: I was not happy that I didn't get my 20 cents off that I earned at the grocery store.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I gotta figure out why it didn't take my speedy rewards.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I only put in two gallons till I can get that straightened out and get my 20 cents.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: There is nobody who is more frugal than I am.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: Look, I shop early on Sunday mornings to try to get the bargain meat.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: I go to Goodwill, I go to thrift stores.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm the most thrifty person you'll ever meet, and I'm not happy with the prices as they are, and go back to how this area is going to recover.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: We'll eventually recover.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's tough, it's very tough, and I know that.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: But the people who come here to live have to deal with a lot of different things as it goes deals with the weather.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: And people just have to be prepared for some of that.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: But yes, I encourage people to come here, spend their money, and then go home.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Speaking of uniqueness to the area, many high country employers and crew, including Christmas tree farms, ski resorts, restaurants, hotels, construction crews rely on seasonal and immigrant workers, often through legal visa programs.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: How do you intend to continue the conversation on balancing immigration enforcement with employers that need a legal, reliable workforce?
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: And what changes do you see, if any, to the seasonal worker visa programs that many businesses up here use?
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a strong supporter of seasonal visa workers.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, my attitude is that we should make that a lot easier for businesses.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: I uh fight against the increase in the prevailing wage.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there are lots of things that I have done over the years.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: I believe that if there is a job anywhere in this country that an employer cannot fill with a native worker or somebody here, then that person should be able to recruit from wherever.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: The person should be brought here legally, the employer should pay the taxes on their wages, the employee should pay the taxes on their wages, they can stay here as long as there is a job for them and they do everything legally.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm much more open to that than many Republicans are because my family for many years, we ran we had a Christmas tree farm.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: When we started that, we could hire students from ASU during the summer and in the fall.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: That doesn't happen anymore.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: Students won't work.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm a big believer in being able to bring in people at a much less cost than is being done right now.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: And again, as long as somebody comes in legally, works legally, and does everything right, as far as I'm concerned, they can come back and forth across the border, whatever that border is, south or north, and work here if there is a job and you cannot hire somebody locally.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: Our birth rate is down in this country.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody knows that.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: We hit a cliff 20 years, uh, 18 years ago, so there are not a lot of young people to work.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm extremely aware of the demographics.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: I know that people are retiring and that we have a lot of jobs open for that.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm in favor of that.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if you're gonna ask a question about education.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: If you're not, I'll say something about that.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: You are asking?
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, then I'll stop there.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um switching before we get to education.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the Blue Ridge Parkway and other national forests around here are obviously the backbone of our tourism economy, and we are very appreciative of what has just been completed with uh um uh Great American Outdoors Act work.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: That work is now complete in the area, and the parkway is open at at just the right time.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um there has been discussion from the U.S.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Department of Agri Agriculture about the proposed rescinding of the roadless rule and the balance there between logging about 152,000 acres of North Carolina's natural forests that include land along the parkway.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Proponents say that's about wildfire risk and mitigation.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: There are opponents that are concerned about the impact on water quality, scenery, tourism.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: Where do you stand on this this issue and how would you protect the parkway and the economic benefits from it throughout the region?
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we are blessed to have the parkway here.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um a friend of mine, Chip Perry, has given me four books about the building of the parkway, which I have not read, but I I need to read it because it was a very political thing when it started.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people don't know that.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I supported the Great Outdoors Act when it passed.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um I am a conservative, but I do believe that we should spend money to preserve and maintain all of our national parks.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: If Tom and I ever have a chance to go anywhere, that's where we go, is to national parks.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: I believe in them all over the country.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: Ours, Blue Ridge Parkway, is either the first or second most visited park in the country, and it deserves a lot of support.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: We need billions of dollars to bring the parkway up to speed.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, when Tom was in college, he worked on building the uh campgrounds at Cone.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't think anything's been done to support them since then.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: I get a lot of complaints out of Allegheny County about the road, about the pavement being fixed.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, I'm a big believer.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: This issue of the roadless um the The access to the parkway.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: Dealing with the park service is probably the most difficult thing I do in my job in dealing with government agencies.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think we're going to get a half a mile road paved that I've been working on for 20 years, um, near bamboo.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: I have literally been working on that for 20 years because the Park Service has been so recalcitrant on getting that done.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, we'll get it done.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: But uh it's gonna be really tough to figure out a way to protect the parkway and also get those trees out, reduce the risk of wildfires.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: Tom and I have been worried about that for many, many years.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: I'm extremely worried about it now with all these trees down from Halene, uh, and what that's going to do.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know the answer to that.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: There was an open comment period that just recently closed.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: People wrote to me.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: I said, please write and get your comments in.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: On those comments periods, everybody should always write because the agency has to respond to every single one of them.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what to do in that area.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's going to be a delicate balance between keeping the areas the way some people want them, but also making sense to get some of those trees out of there and some of what's down out of there.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: The the last of the prepared questions here focuses on education, like we mentioned, and we get to this in the form of a conversation that you and I have had before about the value of um work-based learning, apprenticeship programs like we see with Rise Cobwell Watauga, uh, other options that exist beyond just the four-year pathway.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: What's the federal government's role in supporting the notion that that children or those that are gaining some sort of credential in whatever pursuit or whatever age they might be, that they've got a clear pathway to that.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: So they can uh have the experience to understand the profession that they may want to be in and can get a great opportunity in starting that.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, to be consistent with what I've always said, the federal government has no role in this.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, federal the word education is not in the Constitution as an enumerated power for Congress and the federal government.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: However, the federal government is involved and has taken money from us.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so as long as the federal government has some involvement, then I will try my best to direct that involvement where I think it should be.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, I've been involved in setting up apprenticeship programs since 1969.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: In 1969, my brother was a senior uh in Avery High School, and he said to me, I don't want to go to college, but I don't want you and mom and daddy to be ashamed of me.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it cut me to the quick.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: I had just finished my college degree.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: It took me seven years.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: I graduated in 61, so in 68 I got my degree.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: Tom and I moved back up here.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I said, What do you want to do, Butch?
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: She said, I want to be a carpenter.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: I said, you know, that's a great profession.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: And many, some famous people have been carpenters.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, and Beach, I was working at Beach Mountain at the time.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: And Beach Mountain was desperate for all kinds of skilled professionals.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: I don't use the T-words.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: There are a lot of T-words I don't use.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: And one is trades, because I think that it signifies what my brother was saying.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: We have not respected the people who go into carpentry, electricity, um, drywall, uh, HVAC.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: We have not respected those people like we should have over the years.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: I think we're beginning to respect them now because there's a shortage of them.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: For Scythe Tech just got a major grant or got approved for Workforce Pell.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things I worked on for 10 years, and people might be surprised, I get letters every day saying, introduce this bill and pass it.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, sometimes it takes 10, 12, 15 years.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: I finally got workforce Pell in the Working Families Tax Cut Act.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: And what that does is it provides Pell grants for short-term education programs.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: So students can go to a community college or they can even go into the private sector if the private sector has developed a program that results in a certificate that will result in it being able to go into another long-term, more long-term program.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: So we're moving in that direction, not as quickly as I would like, but but short-term PEL is here.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we used to call it, or workforce Pell is the term it wound up with.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so that will allow students to enroll in courses where they get a Pell grant, and then they be they're able to get a certificate, which allows them to be employed, and then hopefully they will continue to take courses.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: But we all know that you learn how to do your job on the job.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's how you learned it, that's how I learned it.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's what we need to be doing.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: And the federal government is now into that in a big way.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: We need to do more with the money that we have, switching it out more into these kinds of programs.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: Now, you mentioned four-year programs.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, David, they don't even count any more graduation rate on four years.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's six years now.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: And thankfully, people have begun to understand that having a college degree is not a ticket to making a lot of money and to success.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's we need to be going into the middle schools to start showing students what alternatives they have.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: Now, look, I have three degrees.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: I do not denigrate degrees, I just want people to know what their options are.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: I hope everybody ultimately gets a bachelor's degree because you become a well-rounded learner.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: But with everything we've got nowadays, computers, you don't need to go to an institution to do that.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: But we do need certification, and I'm a big believer in that.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: So what happened with my brother is my boss at Beach Mountain knew people in Charlotte with associated general contractors.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: So we got associated general contractors to bring up um instructors.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: We got the um contractors to agree to pay the students a nickel per class.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: Now that was 1969, you got to remember.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: We got Lise McRae to donate the space.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: 17 guys entered into that program with my brother in 1969.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: Three and a half years later, after going to school four nights a week, which to me is the equivalent of a college degree, he got his journeyman license.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: Now it can be done quicker than that, I believe.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: But that's what happened.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: So my early success with that has spurred me all of my career to promote certifications.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: I left Appalachian for a job I dearly loved and went to Mayland Community College and promoted that and said to teachers, please, every nine or twelve hours, can you create a certificate to show what students can do?
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we need in this world.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_01: You can hire a college graduate, and I do regularly, and you do not know if they can read and write.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: But you hire somebody with a certificate, you know what he or she can do.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: A quick aside to that, uh, if if you would permit, um the the conversation around AI is entering into the college work uh or the uh community college space, certificates and and making sure that people are competent in some of those qualities as they enter into a workplace, with with there being more educational connection to AI.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: Where do you see the regulatory conversation coming from?
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: I know that's a hot topic in Washington right now.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: Is this something that you feel the federal government needs to get into to ensure that the guardrails exist not only on the education side, but in all parameters of this particular technology?
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'll just make an analogy that wasn't original, is not original with me.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know who said it.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: But the analogy is that if the federal government had gotten involved with regulating cell phones when cell phones came out, that we'd all be driving around with a backphone.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: I do not, I encourage people not to invite the federal government into your home or into your tent.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm very leery of the federal government getting involved in regulations.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's a it's a great risk to do.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: They can do it at the college level, they can do it at the high school and elementary school level.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I really worry about the federal government doing this.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: The president just announced a group yesterday that met with him at the White House.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_01: They signed an agreement, uh, a moral agreement, they called it, I believe, to self-regulate.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm not one of these people that thinks um that AI will kill us all.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: I don't believe that.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: I think you can unplug machines, uh, and I hope you can, you know, we can always do that.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's a machine, and um you can unplug it, I believe.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um so, but I I think AI can do enormous good.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's already done enormous good.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's helped us with efficiencies, it's helped us root out fraud.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: We have rooted out billions of dollars in fraud using AI.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's helping in medicine.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's how, you know, it's just doing so much.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: There has to be some regulations, but I think they need to be done um outside the federal government.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you for for allowing that that indulgence there.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh before we wrap up, just any closing comments that you've got or anything that you'd like to say to the to the business community out there about uh how you hope to continue to represent them in Washington.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well, um, having run a small business, I can certainly understand um the challenges that are there.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: I go into as many retail businesses as I possibly can and and introduce myself to people and say, hey, uh my family owns a retail business.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we own Grandfather Mountain Nursery.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's a garden center, it also does landscaping, we also grow plants.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's 50 years old this year.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: And uh that's a big achievement.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: I know most small businesses fail after five years.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: It is the toughest thing in the world to do.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm very empathetic to people who go into small businesses, and I'll continue to look for ways to make sure that those businesses get the advantages or are not regulated out of business.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the biggest problem, I believe, with the federal government, more than anything else, is that we put regulations on businesses that then hamper them tremendously.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and it shouldn't, it shouldn't be that way.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I will continue to do that.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I get a lot of ideas from people in small businesses.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_01: The unfortunate issue we have is it's not the laws that create the problems for most small businesses, it's the regulation.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_01: So if people tell me what the regulation is, I can go to the agency and see if something can be done.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: One problem again, and I alluded to this before, is once the regulation gets put in place, it's difficult to get out.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_01: I would also say to people: if an agency is governing them and they say this is guidance or this is a suggestion, then that that agency has not gone through the regulatory process.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: They are not allowed to do that.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I would say to any small business listening to this, if that has happened to you, tell me, and we will push back on the agency.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_01: But if they have not gone through the regulatory process, they are on very shaky grounds in telling a business to do something.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: And that's something you might want to take up in a chamber meeting sometime, David, uh, to see how many people are being asked about or being told that.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Congresswoman Fox, we we thank you so much for your time and your service.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: Something else?
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: And thank you.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and uh just uh appreciate too your willingness to continue to put your name on a ballot.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: I know that's not an easy thing to do in today's time, so we appreciate uh your time and best of luck in the campaign.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much, David, and I appreciate it.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: Serving is a great honor.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: That concludes this special edition of Mind Your Business.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: Subscribers of our podcast will see these full archives for each of our individual candidate interviews, as well as the full archives of our in-person forum, broken down by race, all available on your podcast platform of choice, a benefit of being a subscriber.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: You can also visit BoonChamber.com for a link to our Mind Your Business archives, and we'll have a post on our main page with full access to these archives as well.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks to the staff and volunteers of the Boon Area and Blooming Rock Chambers of Commerce for making this forum possible.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your interest in our local elections.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: We encourage you to cast your ballot and have your voice heard in this 2026 general election.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm David Jackson.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: So long, everybody.