I guess let's start by going back to when this seat was created, what was your
thought process as it was clear the legislature was going to be creating a
new set of maps and there were going to be some realign that's opening up here.
Yeah so I mean it was obviously an opportunity you know throughout my
entire life what happens is I've noticed doors open and doors close and this
was clearly a door that was opening. John Mako was the incumbent at the time he
still currently sitting in that seat but he was drawn out of his area by a
five hundred and thirty-some odd feet and so that opened up the door you know
it's an open seat now. So I talked with my wife you know she's been a
wonderful support system for me throughout my military career and
everything and hey do you want to do this and she's like well you've been
talking about getting involved in politics since before we started having
kids and my son turns 14 next month so that's how long we've been wanting to
do this and you just can't do it in the Air Force at the duty. So the door open
the opportunity was there she fully backed and supported me and so we decided to
just run and go with it. What's that process been like? These you've gone
through a primary not leave one a primary now you're entering a general
election it's an extraordinarily competitive seat. It's been really nice
honestly you know one of the things that I talk about if you go to my website
for an example it will talk about how we've been stationed at many different
places throughout the United States during a time in the Air Force and that
allowed us to see some of the best people that this country has to offer and since
moving here this place is certainly been no exception we've been able to talk
to many people throughout the many doors that we have knocked had some great
conversations with people but there are some struggles and those struggles are
real to people and so we're excited because we're in a position now where we
can maybe serve our community in a little bit different way than what we're used
to but we're still helping people and so it's been an early refreshing through
this whole process. What are the issues that are most important to you in this race?
Yeah I think the big thing you know again from knocking on doors and hearing
from people the biggest thing is the cost of living inflation similar to what
you experienced nationwide but people here are feeling it as well. There was
a recent pull that came out that said three out of five Americans feel like
we're already in a recession so whether we actually are in a recession or not is
kind of up for debate but the fact that people are feeling that way is a very
real thing and so I think that that's certainly important to help people with
that of course the cost of health care we have a lot of retirees as well in our
community so you know looking at what people are getting for Social Security
and things like that and taxation on those things those are some big issues
that I hear over and over again. When you look at what your opponent is going to
try and make the most important issues are you worried about what she's been
into this race or is it just focusing on what you're going to be doing? I'm
mostly just focusing on what I'm doing. My opponent's name is Christy Welch and
I don't know a ton about her I do know that she's gonna bring a pro-choice thing
when it comes to abortion to the table. I am pro-life with a few exceptions such
as rape, incest, or the life of the mother is in danger. I think that that is
something that we really need to to come to common ground on and figure out a
solution so that we can put that argument behind us but yeah that I think
is probably the biggest thing that she'll probably bring the table. I'll let her
answer all the other questions for herself. On that issue Republicans especially
under Robin Boston the assembly really struggled with trying to bring the
different wings of the Republican Party together to try and create a unified
voice on how to approach it whether what exceptions should be there, what
language should surround health of the mother, what qualifies, and eventually
that did leave the Supreme Court is not handling that. But do you think that
Republicans would be able to find agreement within themselves because there
are some that are very hard by no exceptions or some that would see a
certain number of leaks as being an option? Yeah and I think to be fair there's
passionate feelings from both sides of the aisle and every individual has
their own perception on things right and this is a very hard question to answer
as a male as well right and so that's where it becomes super important to go
knock on the doors talk to all the women that are in the 80th district and hear
what they have to say about it. I'm a big proponent of the Ron Johnson approach
I'm sure you've probably heard about that of leaving it up to the voters. I
don't feel like regardless of my personal opinion on how I think it
should go. At the end of the day when you're an elected representative you need
to represent the people that are in your district and so I would recommend
putting it up for a vote and referring them so to speak and then just let the
people decide on if they want to put a timeline on that. What do you think about
the other races up and down the ticket? How will they play out into your race
in terms of the number of voters it brings? How they feel? They're separating
issues somewhere else in the ballot. Well I think the presidential election clearly
brings a lot more voters to the table. Typically in a primary race for example
in the 80th district you'd see historically about a 20% turnout on
people coming out to vote. This particular time around we have the biggest turnout
in the history of the 88th district. Now some of that may be due to a little bit
of the realignments or there may be some other outlying issues but I think that
at the end of the day what that does is that speaks volumes to the traction
that you know people feel passionate right now on both sides of the aisle and
but I think it's a great opportunity for us to get a really good turnout. We
really get us if you look at the numbers people are telling you what they want
right and so again hopefully at the end of this election cycle we win the
election and we're able to be blessed to represent the people here in the 88th
district. When it comes to Donald Trump where do you follow the Republican I
guess spectrum of obviously there's never Trump left the party all the way to I've
always been a big fan of Donald Trump. Yeah so I will certainly vote for Donald
Trump. Do I think that his final word is gospel? No I don't but I think that at
the end of the day we're all conservatives and I think our conservative
value base is what we have common ground on and so I will be voted for Donald
Trump. The eighth congressional you mentioned the primary that had the large
turnout obviously a very competitive eighth congressional. Did you was it
just try to lay low on that or did you have feelings for which one of the
candidates you liked best in that race? As far as in terms of the primary and what
that meant he's obviously Andre Jacques and Roger Roth have a longstanding state
you know rap history and obviously Tony Lee kind of you know from the rest of the
same perspective came out of nowhere and yeah was endorsed by Donald Trump and
that made him more legitimate in that area. Yeah I didn't really back any one of
those people I'm new to politics myself I'm not a career politician this is our
first go-around and what I've noticed is that those are three really good
options for the Republican Party to represent this area and so I was just
excited to see whoever came out as we know that was Tony Wheat and so you know
I'll support Tony Wheat again for a lot of the same reasons I support President
Trump and I'll vote for President Trump I will vote for Tony Wheat as well. Okay
when they look the Senate race is obviously another big one here trying
people in do you think these Tammy Bolton has a history of crossover appeal
she's outrun Democrats everywhere else across the ballot do you separate out
that race in terms of how it might trickle down to the rest of the ballot in
terms of what if she wins here that doesn't necessarily do your your chances?
No I don't I don't think it does so again I'm gonna refer to our door
knocking and one of the things that whether they're you have your far left
and you're far right and I think that those people are typically gonna vote
the way that they're gonna vote a lot of those will be straight tickets but
there's a lot of people that I've talked to particularly swing voters light
liberals like conservatives that they're not necessarily gonna vote a straight
ticket and those are the where I get in really meaningful conversations they
won't vote for President Trump because of just whatever reason right or they
won't vote for Kamala Harris for whatever reason they may otherwise vote a straight
ticket or for the most part but I think that some of the feedback that I'm
hearing is they like that I'm coming and I have them with comments and solutions
I'm not a career politician I'm really in this to kind of help and waiting to
serve the community and they like a lot of my approaches to things and so I'm
hopeful that that will result well for us in the general election. The
robin loss is mentioned repeatedly in past elections how Republicans in the
assembly but Republican candidates have outperformed Democrats who were
20 evers is one that district or Tammy Baldwin has won that district and he
says it's the strength and quality of the candidates it's the approach of the
doors is that kind of the your focus you're taking with those particular
voters who made truth based on who they needed their door instead of a straight
party. Yeah and I think you just hit it right on the head you know and I feel
like I bring a lot to the table I can relate to a lot of different people I
grew up in Iowa in a little town where it's basically agriculture and and
factory work and so it's a it's a not as well economically off area as some of
the parts of the country and that's kind of how I grew up like the shoes falling
off your feet before you get initiated right I remember walking down to the
local Aldi and using my paper out money to help get food so I understand when
people are facing tough decisions especially right now with this economy I
understand those tough decisions but you're literally you're fighting to put
food on your table right I've been there and then I've been in the
military and that gives me a unique perspective from that and then now I'm
here as a business owner and so my life has gone a lot of different ways from
my childhood to now but what that's done is that's molded me in a way to where I
can really relate to a lot of people regardless of what they go on through
and I think that that is being received well from the members of the U.D.A. District.
One of the most important things in the legislature you'd be voting on would be
the budget one of the biggest components of the budget is always public
education given that you homeschool your kids because that's the best for them
how do you approach those questions when you handle it with people at the door
when they talk about public schools as far as the funding or the education
just in terms of your support for public education and the state's investment in
that yeah so I think that we all certainly want to give give our up and
rising generation the best right better than what we had and so I'm all for
funding and making sure that the kids have everything that they need to be
successful I think what we need to do from a legislative standpoint is we
really need to look at how are those dollars equating into results if that
makes sense so you look at some of these schools that are getting a lot of the
money so DePierre for example we just passed a referendum this year 4.75
million dollars for the next five years Milwaukee just passed up 200 is over
to I think it was two hundred twelve million dollars somewhere around there
you know and then that's going to be pulling money from Green Bay to help
fund that about 1.2 million so with all this money that we're talking about
going around places what's the results in terms of when they graduate when they
go to a four-year university a two-year university technical college or if they
just simply choose to enter the workforce you know how is that education
benefiting the overall society how's that education equating so that I think
that that's the things we need to look at is the money equating the results
where do you stand on vouchers school vouchers right at school options yeah I
support I support school vouchers I think that you know in a magic world
I had a magic wand you know you want to just give a big backpack and stuff it
with money and the money goes wherever they kill in school I think parents want
choice of where to send their kids I remember when I was in in high school
I was a basketball player and I really want to go play this other school and I
couldn't do it without having to sit up for a whole year you know and that's a
whole nother conversation but the point is I think is I think parents want
choice for their kids regardless of the reason behind it but I think at the end
of the day what everybody wants is they want their kids to be educated want
them to have financial literacy they'll tend to be able to read have read
comprehension you know reading is the foundation for all other education and
so those are things I think that we really need to focus on when you look at
this market Brown County in general broadly the Fox Valley of the Bible
counties is gaining new momentum but the Wisconsin and nationally is realizing
how important it is as a whole area it comes to statewide politics all the way
down to local politics what what is the message are you is there running as a
team or is it you know you're running on your race and you're going to the
doors are you mentioning other races or only if the person at the door brings
them back how does the fact that it was competitive race the state said it to
multiple assembly seats at Congress obviously all the way up to the
presidential ticket does that work together or they kind of get separated
out no it certainly works together like we talked about earlier in this interview
the general election brings out a lot more voters than a primary election does
and there was I don't know if you've heard about this area the Green Bay area
I'll just call it the whole area it is the battleground or the battleground
states meaning that as Green Bay votes we already know different places around
the state that they're gonna vote red or blue but this will likely decide if
Wisconsin goes red or blue which affects the electoral college I'm the big
presidential thing and I think it affects everything down the ticket but
where my focus is regardless of all that stuff is on my election nothing
matters unless I win this election right here me and my team and so that's
where my focus is obviously years past Republicans have been a lock for
holding the legislature the district maps said there was never gonna be fewer
than 60 districts now it's looking it's it's not built out for Democrats if they
want to actually win the assembly but your race now is can kind of be one of
those that may decide controls the assembly does that bring a little more
pressure or different perspective when you go to the doors yeah I mean I
certainly feel the pressure of that right a little bit but again I think at
the end of the day I think it's important to remind yourself of why
you're running right and and you're really trying to run to serve the
community you know I have my uniform from the Air Force up and I looked at it for
a long time and it was like if I could explain it like a cup my cup was like
it was feeling a little empty on the service side of things and since
throwing my name in the hat and getting out and meeting people in communities
going to events knocking on these doors all these different things that we're
doing that cup is filling back up a lot and I've really enjoyed it and we
really do have some of the best people here in the city district and I'm not
just saying that like I invite anybody to go out knock doors with me meet the
community another thing that I really like is I've had people apologize