In this episode, I sit down with Steve Wright, Republican candidate for Texas Congressional District 35 and longtime law enforcement officer, to talk policy, priorities, and the future of Texas.
We dive into how his 30 years in Kern County, California shaped his views on crime, drug and human trafficking, and why he moved to Texas to push back against progressive policies he believes harm working families. Steve outlines his platform on border security, immigration reform that rewards those following the law, prosecuting cartels, and expanded resources for ICE investigations. We also cover veterans’ care, arming schools with trained security, Second Amendment concerns around red-flag laws, and the need for term limits and accountability in Congress.
From housing affordability and private equity’s impact to restoring trust in Social Security and rebuilding the middle class, this is a candid, working-class conversation about protecting Texas values and fixing Washington. We also talk redistricting, grassroots campaigning, and how Steve plans to reach new counties in the reshaped TX-35. He shares why he aligns with the Freedom Caucus on fiscal responsibility, why bipartisan governing still matters, and how to restore public safety, strengthen families, and uphold America’s founding principles—all while keeping government limited and accountable to the people.
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(00:04:11) Opening from Asylum Studios and show kickoff
(00:05:21) Recap of Sunday Bible study and weekly plans
(00:05:45) Housekeeping and intro to tonight’s guest
(00:09:55) Introducing Steve Wright: background and motivation
(00:11:33) Personal background: heritage, family, faith
(00:12:55) Why leave California: laws, costs, and accountability
(00:18:04) Progressive policies in Texas and Austin concerns
(00:19:29) Redistricting TX-35 and primary landscape
(00:21:28) Campaign strategy, fundraising, and door-knocking
(00:24:35) Working-class representation and party shifts
(00:28:05) Debt, Social Security, and restoring trust
(00:31:49) Private equity, housing, and outsourcing jobs
(00:36:16) Platform focus and pivot to policy specifics
(00:36:53) Human trafficking: border control and prosecutions
(00:41:57) Drug trafficking and fentanyl: walls, tech, and cartels
(00:45:56) Immigration reform: streamline legal paths without amnesty
(00:52:39) Assimilation, dual citizenship, and cultural concerns
(01:01:04) Education, trades, and higher-ed ideology
(01:07:33) Role of government and public safety priorities
(01:17:12) Second Amendment and red flag law skepticism
(01:22:04) Term limits, age, and fitness for office
(01:29:50) Polarization, bipartisanship, and convention risks
(01:32:18) Texas independence talk and state vs federal roles
(01:39:17) Representation, population, and state-first values
(01:39:21) Why Congress, not local: riots, policing, and ideology
(01:44:37) Who inspires Steve: Freedom Caucus and Chip Roy
(01:45:46) Campaign links, socials, and closing thanks
(01:47:39) Host wrap-up: website, mailing list, and sign-off
- Wayne Rankin
- Rosanna Rankin
- Carolina Jimenez
[00:04:12]
Unknown:
Transmitting live from the asylum studios, deep in the bowels of Southwest Texas, it's The Joe Roos Show, the show where we talk about anything and everything, where nothing is sacred, nothing is watered down, and nothing is PC.
[00:04:31] Unknown:
All Alright. Hey, folks. This is Joe Roos, and it is great to be with you guys once again, transmitting live from the asylum studios from the pimple on the backside of Texas, the beautiful city of Eagle Pass, and doing the very best we can to bring you the best quality talk radio we can muster without all the bluster, welcome to the Joe Russo. Alright, folks. I hope you guys are ready for another week. Week. It is Monday, September 2025. It is nineteen zero five hours at the start of this transmission. Well, busy weekend. We had a very busy weekend here at the asylum. I hope you guys were able to catch the show Sunday.
We talked about, dealing with death from the book of Proverbs, our Sunday Bible study show. Hope you were able to catch that. I thought it was a fascinating study, to be honest with you. Not a bad one either, if I do say so myself. We can't do that. Right? That's prideful. We shouldn't do that. God hates pride. So anyway, anyway, got a busy week ahead of us. We're gonna getting started here tonight. We're gonna we have a a very special guest waiting for us in the wings, and, we'll be bringing him on here momentarily. We'll be talking with Steven Wright, who was a congressional candidate for the, Texas Congressional District 35, and we'll we'll bring him on here just momentarily.
But as always, we do have some housekeeping stuff that we need to get done, so we're gonna get right into that. And show and folks, just so you know, this show is brought to you tonight by Ezra Healing. Ezra Healing is a substantial part of the new wellness paradigm currently being born all around the globe. I forgot to put the banner up. There we go. The global citizenry are no longer satisfied with the sick care version of so called health care. Band aid medicine, endlessly treating symptoms rather than root causes must be abandoned as soon as possible. Patient centric care must be the priority. We need to transition to the do no harm model of private care that places humanity at the forefront of real health and wellness care. In this new model, your entire lifestyle is examined and analyzed to promote and support the totality of your body's integrated systems. Ezra Healing is a solutions based health promotion and disease prevention grassroots movement that is always evolving to best serve you and your family. Now for more information on Ezra Healing and all the programs they offer and folks, they offer a ton of programs and a good portion of it's free. Check them out. Go to ezrahealing.com.
It should be up on your website, up on your screen right now. Ezrahealing.com. That's ezrahealing.com. And if you do talk to anybody over there, make sure you let them know that you heard it right here on the Joe Russo, so that they know their money is being well spent. Alright. Also, the tonight show is brought to you by podhome.fm. Now podhome.fm or podhome is the most modern and easy to use podcast hosting platform in the market today. Use it to publish your episodes, enhance your audio, and, of course, automatically generate transcripts, chapters, titles, show notes, and more. And you know what? You can even podcast live. That's right. You can podcast live across all the modern podcasting, apps and platforms.
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They they just recently launched their own, podcast player app, so that's fantastic as well. The user interface is is beautiful. You need to check it out. So podhome.fmpodhome.fm1599 a month after a thirty day free trial. So make sure you try it out. Alright. Also, don't forget to head over to our website, joeroos.com. And when you get over there, open up that contact form and send us over a message. Let us know whatever's on your heart, whatever's on your mind. Any questions, comments, cares, concerns that you might have, any issues, any complaints, if you have an idea for a guest or, maybe a topic for a show, let us know. We're always open for that. So let us know what you're thinking. We'd love to hear from you guys. Now if you don't wanna use the the web form, totally fine by me. You can always email me directly at [email protected].
That's [email protected]. Also, don't forget to look for the support button on the homepage, and remember that this is a value for value show. And all that simply means is that if you've received anything of value from what we're doing here, we're we're asking that you return that value to us in the form of a donation. It could be your time, your talent, your treasure. And, as always, we'll lay out all the different ways you can help support us at the end of the show today. Alright. Well, with all of that said, tonight's guest, Steve Wright, candidate for Congressional District 35.
Steve started in law enforcement some thirty years ago in Kern County California, where he saw firsthand the fallout from progressive policies that emphasized politics over people. He packed up his family six years ago or seven years ago. Is that right? And moved to Texas. And now he sees some of the same policies taking place here in Texas that were taking place over in California. So he decided to run for Congress to fight back and protect These United States from division, low standards in education, and ruin of communities by policies that are absolutely soft on crime. And, something I did not know until just before the show, he's currently serving as a constable over there in current where where are you? Kamal County. Okay. There you go. So he's currently serving as a constable. So, Steve, welcome to the show. It is great to have you here. Thank you for, for being with us, and, this is great. Great to have you here. Thank you very much. Thank you for the invite. Yeah. Awesome. So, opening opening salvo.
So what's something about you that most people don't know but should?
[00:11:09] Unknown:
Well, two things. One of the questions I got asked, during the last campaign, because I'm actually the returning nominee for the Republican Party for District 35, was how is a white guy like me going to serve the interest of the Hispanic population that's down in the San Antonio area? And, actually, I my background in heritage is actually Cherokee Indian. Wow. So you you really can't choose where you're born at. And so my family ended up having to migrate from Oklahoma to, California. That's kinda how we had to get there during the Dust Bowl era. So that's one thing. I'll give you two. Okay.
During high school, because my, stepfather was Mormon during that period of time, I actually had to go to seminary before high school ever started every single morning, all four years, during that period of time. So I have pretty grounded, structured Christian background too.
[00:12:09] Unknown:
Alright. Outstanding. And, so what's your, what's your go to to help you unwind at the end of the day?
[00:12:17] Unknown:
Well, family. I try to sit there. We were fortunate enough to bring both my girls from California before they got interested in their significant other. So they're they're both here. So I try to spend enough time with them, my wife. We've been together almost thirty five years, so we try to spend what little time because she actually is now working again. Two, she was in law enforcement with the same agency over there. So, sometimes I'll I'll click around on social media and and see what's the flavor of the day or flavor of the week. So some of those things.
[00:12:53] Unknown:
That's about it. Alright. Alright. Outstanding. Now now you lived you lived in Kern County, California. You served in law enforcement there for thirty years. What were some of the changes that you saw take place in your hometown and, within California that really made you decide that Texas was the place for you to go?
[00:13:11] Unknown:
Well, California politics, changed dramatically over my thirty year career. You know, some of the basic things in law enforcement where when I started out, you you if somebody was pregnant and they took some drugs and they killed their baby that was inside of them, we could actually charge them early on in the career for for murder. Mhmm. Towards the end of the career, they had changed the laws. So, basically, you no longer were able to hold anybody accountable for doing that because it's a disease, it's a illness. But the to the contrary, you actually were able to charge somebody if a drunk driver were to hit that same female and and kill her or significantly injure her and kill the baby that was inside of her for murder or homicide depending on, which statute you could actually press based on maybe previous DUI history and things like that. Mhmm. But the personal accountability was was significantly going down.
Just endless amounts of cash generation, you know, DMV fees were off the hook. If I were in California right now, the the vehicles that I have registered here in Texas would cost me about $4,000 a year to register them over there, because they're based on, in 02/2014, they they they considered all trucks to be commercial vehicles, whether they were half ton, small quarter tons, all the way up to the three quarter ton. And that was a a money grab, basically, every single year thereafter that that that tax increase for that vehicle to get it registered. Didn't matter what you were using it for, if it was commercial or personal use.
It just the nonsense that that kept integrating state income tax. I mean, that's the big one. That's one of the things that that we were looking at coming here versus there. And all in all, I think when we started our retirement in '21, we got the family over here at 18. So in '21, when I retired after after 30, our annual savings was about $16,000 a year, just cost of living. No state income tax, no vehicle registration fees, the the fuel to fuel those vehicles. Any consumables that we have to purchase, were based off of, transportation costs. They were increased because of, the fuel and things like that. So it's just a a constant power grab and money grab by everything that you could think of. And you could start seeing the writing on the wall, energy costs had I not bought solar over there, and I wouldn't do that here because of how cheap, the electricity is versus over there. But the first summer we had a house built in '14, it cost me about $850 a month during those summer months when we first built that house.
The next summer, we put about $36,000 worth of solar onto that house. And it would cost me about $10 a month because I overpowered it with the intent on doing that. So we still got charged $10 a month to just connect to the the PG and E grid. And now the the public utilities commission over there, is now assessing values based on, ZIP codes. If you live in a higher area, you're gonna pay more money than somebody, that doesn't instead of subsidizing those low rents or or whatever they used to do before. So these are the same philosophies that they wanna they wanna institute here in Texas that we're seeing those red flags. Several years ago when Beto was running for governor, he was wanting to institute a state income tax, but he wouldn't indicate what it is exactly that he wanted to utilize that money for or dedicate those funds for.
I've heard Tallarico kinda saying the same thing, along the same lines. Since now he's announced that he's gonna be running for senate as well. Mhmm. So that that same philosophy is traveling over here. And, by god, we we moved here for a reason, and we don't want California politics here. And some of the things that we saw over there, you know, you start taking over the state seat, and then those things start progressing throughout the rest of the state. Well, they've already taken over Austin. Austin City Council is all progressive now. Mhmm. A lot of the problems that we saw in the state legislature here, this last general session was, a lot of democrat influence into what was going on in the legislature.
So they're trying to do the same things that have been standard over there. They're they're funding homeless, initiatives over here with NGOs, same thing that they were doing up in the barrier in California. There's no accountability. They don't wanna do audits. They don't wanna sit there and allow, people to see how these money, the monies are being spent, the return on investments. They're not concerned with that. So that's the current 35. We we now have a new redistrict 35, which kind of more resembles what people's voting history is for the new 35,
[00:18:29] Unknown:
that we're gonna be running in. Yeah. I was actually gonna ask you about the whole redistricting because, it can be very confusing once they start start breaking these things up. And, now I know that your campaign, we had talked, prior to the show. You you're gonna be running up against several,
[00:18:45] Unknown:
several folks right now. Sure. And, And and it could change before December when, the filing period is over to get on the state ballot. So we'll see.
[00:18:54] Unknown:
Alright. Now how has your campaign strategy changed, from your previous run?
[00:18:59] Unknown:
Well, we have to we it's it's a lot better. So when I ran in '24, I ended up becoming, going through the primary. There was five of us. Went into the runoff in June. We found out basically the August 1 that we had run won the runoff. And we were looking at a 70% demographic of voters that traditionally voted in, for Democrats. Mhmm. The current rep, Greg Casar, and he was my motivation as to why it is that I actually wanted to run against him because of those progressive philosophies that, I don't I don't agree with. They're not good for the country. They're certainly not good for Texas.
And as a result, we were able to have a significant amount of success with the uphill battle. I think we shaved off almost eight points during that, voting period Mhmm. Which showed that people were being more reasonable to, the policies that were being pushed out by people rather than, the politics of the progressive party. So we had a little bit more reasonable voter base. Now we're looking at a three new counties, Guadalupe, Karnes, and Wilson, and then they changed Bexar County, which is still currently in the in the current 35. They took away the downtown area, gave that to District 20.
Those were voters that traditionally vote, blue Democrat, and they opened up a little bit more of Cibolo shirts and Converse, bringing in a little bit more of the military area down there in Converse as well. So the new district is looking like 55, 56% voter base, for Republicans.
[00:20:52] Unknown:
Alright. It it's to me, you know, I'd when you when you talk redistricting, it it it is very confusing. And, you know, I I I get lost in a lot of the details of it. But, but you're running in a district that's largely Democrat. And, and that Currently. Not currently.
[00:21:14] Unknown:
But that Not in the new district. Okay. And,
[00:21:18] Unknown:
well, that kinda goes along with the next question was, you know, what what are the unique challenges that, that you faced in building a grassroots support and how you're going to increase voter turnout?
[00:21:29] Unknown:
I I had a lot okay. So the biggest issue that we had was was fundraising during the last campaign. I think I only generated maybe about $4,500 in donations. But by doing that, we had to shift going, door to door. We did about 3,000 door knocks in in San Antonio. We did we we kinda partnered with Ted Cruz's campaign. We did a lot of door knocking in combination with his campaign that was in areas of 35 at the time. So all in all, I think we knocked on about 12,000 doors, and predominantly, that was me. Wow. I mean, so, you know, we weren't getting a lot of support, down in Bexar County, from volunteers, things like that. So I was down there alone.
Some of the things that we were hearing in in Downtown San Antonio, some of the housing associations I was invited to to come speak at, it's like it's refreshing to hear a voice on the Republican side or the opposing side because the only people that ever come talk to us are Democrats. And one of the ones in in particular that I was at, the actually, she she characterizes herself as a socialist, Tara Castillo. She's on San Antonio City Council, I think District 5. She was there that night. They were they were pitching the new project marble that they have for the new Spurs, stadium. Mhmm. And she was not having what I was having to say, but the board that invited me there was wanting to hear what I had to say.
And so it was refreshing to see the reactions, and the warmth, you know, that that they were the reception that we were getting, while I was down there. So, and and I've heard that time and time again. It's we don't have Republicans that come in to the low income areas and and present their their platforms, their message, and and things like that. So, unfortunately, a lot of those areas are no longer gonna be in the new 35, but the same dynamics and demographics exist for Bexar County, that need to be addressed for those people. And I think some of the warmth that we were getting is that they were looking at my law enforcement background as being working class, blue collar, and the representation that that they wanna see for somebody because we're losing the working class in this country.
And I think over the weekend, I was looking at some of the some of the numbers. And if you look at congress at an entirety, it's less than 2% that have a background of working class blue collar, representation there. So most of the representation are professions, very successful business owners. They have a lot of affluent, backers, donors. And so you're losing the representation if you're wanting to have that for the working class blue collar workers. And a lot of the people that are that are turning away from what used to traditionally be the Democrat party, having the association are looking to find out what Republicans are willing to do or what their messaging is gonna be.
And so I I think I'm more representative of that, and I think that's what kind of, was resounding a lot during the last campaign. I'm I'm hoping that it carries through with this new campaign. And the economic base for the new three counties basically is exactly the makeup for where I was raised at in Kern County with an oil, ag, and ranch atmosphere being predominant for their economic base. So it's important to be able to address those issues in the three new counties that we're gonna be, looking to represent also.
[00:25:19] Unknown:
You know, I think I think the Republican Party is is I think I think working class people, blue collar people are starting to realize that the Republican Party is really the party for the working people at this point. The Democratic Party that there that exists today is not the same Democratic Party that existed in the sixties, in the fifties, you know, when when Oh, really? So it it is it has traveled so far to the left. It has traveled so far to the extreme left that it just doesn't resonate with the average, hardworking, middle class, blue collar worker. You know, the the the type of person that that loves family, loves church, loves loves to work and provide and take care of their families. And, of course, you know, the the working class gets beaten up, you know, taxes and and and such.
But, you know, it's it's there's there's there's definitely a shift in this country in in in the representation of the working class person, and, you know, that that is the majority of this country. And the sad thing is, like you said, 2% of Congress, it doesn't have that type of a background. So there really is no real representation there. Folks in Congress are are basically serving their masters, and their masters are the, the, Ultra rich. The, you know, the ultra rich. The corporations. Yes. And the the special interest groups, and and so they've totally lost touch. And what we're seeing here now is, and and I'm hoping that this is a long term change for for Republicans, is that the the image of the Republican is now more of, hey, look, we're we're just, you know, we love the same things you love. We wanna ensure those things are, remain intact and and conserve.
Is not a bad word. You know, conserve and preserve those things which made this country the greatest country in the on the Earth. You know, family, religion, family, church, love of country, those things which are so anathema to the left at this point in history. Absolutely. Which is it's it's ridiculous. So, you know, it's it's refreshing to see that there are candidates going out into these districts and going out and meeting these people and bringing that message and getting that type of response.
[00:27:34] Unknown:
That's that's Yeah. It's it's extremely refreshing to hear because if you look at what what's going on I don't know. Maybe maybe you have experienced this. Maybe you've done it yourself. I know I recognize it in doing it myself. But in the past, being young, growing up, you you see a candidate. You hear what they have to say. You like what they have to say. You vote for them, and then your life goes on autopilot. You don't check-in to see what they've done. You don't check-in to see what they're doing. Mhmm.
And as a result, now we're faced with a $37,000,000,000,000 deficit on our country, the people that are depending on Social Security benefits are getting taxed or having reduced benefits because our previous congresses have either leveraged the Social Security trust fund or they've taxed people because they've been productive members of society by having maybe a spouse that has, an income, a pension, maybe they have a pension, and they're gonna reduce benefits for something that they've achieved and paid for their entire life. And that's what exactly, needs to change because the the the funds have been depleted. We need to get people working more back, in this country to start generating more revenue for Social Security. We need to figure out how to replenish those Social Security trust act funds from what has been robbed, stolen, leveraged in the past.
The big beautiful bill was just basically a Band Aid for the next three years where people that either are taxed or, gonna be receiving these benefits in the future, can claim a tax credit at the end of the year. But on a month to month basis, they're still gonna have reduced benefits. And I don't realize that I don't think people really understand that right now. One of the things that didn't get addressed in the big beautiful bill were people that are SSDI recipients where they've been disabled and they've had to file for these benefits. And, you know, it takes multiple years for some of these claims to get resolved. Yeah. And what ends up happening is I I think the the tax credit's about $6,000 a year for Social Security to help offset what's being taken out on a monthly basis, when you file your taxes.
But let's say you have a SSDI recipient that gets three or four years of back pay as a result of of getting those benefits finally awarded. And when you open up your statement, they're gonna take over a third of those benefits because it's a one time lump sum payment that the IRS requires them to take from you. And it could be 10 to $15,000 depending on how much it is that they're awarding you per year or per month for those SSDI benefits. So if you're only getting a $6,000 credit on your taxes and you're getting 10 to $15,000 taken from you, that doesn't offset that. That needs to be fixed. And so we need candidates that are going to go beyond Trump.
Eventually, we're gonna end up we're not gonna have them in three years in the White House. Hopefully, we're gonna have another Republican candidate. Mhmm. But we need somebody with a lot longer foresight as to what things need to get accomplished in in congress. And it's gonna take a while to get people on board to start realizing that we need to fix it. We need to get new funding sources, like I say, for, for that. We have supposedly all this money coming in from tariffs. Why can't we redirect that money through a bill and and redirect that into the the trust fund so that the people that, are looking at these benefits aren't looking at 2034 to only get 80% of of their monies because that that fund's being depleted.
So we need to do things that gain the trust back in our congressional members, our elected official because we don't I don't think we have that across the country anymore. So we need candidates that are willing to have a vision, a long term vision that's gonna fix things and be willing to dedicate themselves to bring back the middle class. You know, we have we have I've got allergies, so I'm a little bit dizzy today. So No. You're good. Private equity funds are a problem in this country. You know? They're they're now creating an issue, in many different categories.
We've got majority of of the assets that they, State Street, Vanguard, BlackRock, we have a lot of retirement funds, four zero one k's that invest in these funds. Then these funds take these the the assets that they have, and they invest in major corporations across the country. And they they don't just invest in them, but they get majority shares in these corporations, and they overrule a lot of what these boards do on these corporations. And so they become profit driven because the private equity investments that they have, they wanna perform for those. And it's kind of almost like they're acting as a monopoly, and you need to tackle them because congress has the ability to do that and regulate monopolies.
But the other thing that they're doing is they're buying up nationwide entire housing, districts, housing, neighborhoods, developments, and they're buying in bulk so they get discount from the builders. Let's say it's let's say Doctor Horton, you know, sells a house that traditionally sells 4 or $500,000, but they're gonna buy an entire neighborhood or subdivision and they get a discount, let's say, $300,000. So they go through. They might run them out. They might just let them sit there and and, you know, appraise and value and and increase.
But they and this is what I've also been explained on how they do this. They'll have a subaccount that they have, and they'll sell that investment portfolio to them at a profit, and then they'll leverage that with loans and go out and do this again. So they are inflate falsely inflating housing values across the nation by doing this because home affordability is is no longer there. And so they have a significant impact that they're creating, as well. So what does that do for our our young people that are that are wanting to, buy houses, get into first first housing projects, investments,
[00:34:09] Unknown:
retirees, things like that. It makes it almost impossible.
[00:34:13] Unknown:
Correct. So it it's there's a lot of problems with our country, and it starts with some of the things that our congressional members do. And until we start getting people that hopefully start jumping in to elections like this that are grassroots candidates that are are understanding what the history of what taxes do to your paycheck, your families, the the bad policies that they implement, we're not gonna change. And we're certainly not gonna, start developing, trust in our elected officials at the congressional level until we start seeing a positive change. And one of the other things that they do, where have all of our jobs gone, for the middle class? They've been outsourced.
So if these private equity firms are having controlling interest and votes for a lot of these major corporations, they also have influence on who the CEOs are gonna be. And if they're wanting to drive profits, they're gonna be outsourcing that labor for whatever it is that they're they're they're managing, making, and developing, and they're gonna outsource it to other countries. And that's what has happened over the years. Then they go to the legislature, and they get tariff reductions or fees and stuff that are a little bit more accommodating so they can still bring in that profit or that product from another country at a reasonable price so that they can still have a a marginal profit. So, some of these things like Mexico, you have to have, what is it, the 73% American made to bring in a truck from Ford, from Mexico into The US in order to get some of those those tariff reductions and such. Mhmm.
But, so they they affect a lot of different aspects of our of our national economics. So it's gonna be hard without additional candidates moving forward to to start helping to address some of these issues.
[00:36:16] Unknown:
Yeah. Well, I agree with you a 100% on that. We we do need more people. We need fresh blood coming into Congress, and and we're we're gonna get into that in a little bit. What I what I would like to do, though, before we get into anything else, really, I wanna get into your policies, your your platform. K. Because I will say that, you know, I've looked at other congressional candidates and, I think kinda lacking on the national politics, for the particular offices that they're running for. Now the first thing that you listed on your on your policy platform is, and I'd like you to explain this, is human trafficking. Now now you've listed this as your first policy, and you explained that you've been a witness to this behavior and, in in your time in serving law enforcement.
What do you think would be the first policy that could be established to help the innocent lives that are caught up in human trafficking?
[00:37:17] Unknown:
We're going down a good road right now by controlling the border. So the the amount of people that are no longer coming across the border affects this. Going after the cartels because they're the ones that have controlled the human trafficking aspect of it, it actually is is more lucrative money wise to the cartels than than the drug industry and the smuggling of that. But hand in hand, controlling the border is the biggest issue. So human trafficking, it's it's not only sex trade, but it's labor trade. So if somebody's wanting to be smuggled across the border, they have to pay a fee to these these, mules, that are getting them from point a to point b. And if they don't have the ability to pay the entire fee, then they identify them, label them, they get they get family locations, you know, things like that. And they have to provide labor to work off that indenture amount that cost them to get over the border. If they get deported, it happens all over again.
And so they they do a lot of most of the issues are are sex related trafficking, but we need to increase the amount of of crimes on a national level that can be enforced for that. And we need to make sure that we keep going on the same the same path with, the border control, issue that we're we're currently on so that we we don't continue that cycle. So policies and such regarding, the drug trafficking and the human trafficking, we need to continue doing the the aspects of cartel related crimes and things that are adversely affecting this this population. So, like, the drug cartels are are now being tagged with if somebody dies, passes away, they can be charged with murder because of the product. Mhmm. Same thing with the labor. You know? If if you're if you're trafficking a minor, you should have almost the same penalties as as the drug traffickers, you know, because you're you're taking the innocence away from a minor because of what you're doing to them that's it's irreparable harm. PTSD, the the bodily autonomy, the the functions, things like that that that affect in so many different ways, from that that environment and that climate, the the amount of sexual assaults just coming over the border from the from these individuals alone just by controlling the traffic on the border is gonna stop that.
So we need people that are willing to identify and and help us get these people out of the trafficking atmosphere. And that's what ice you know, that's what their secondary mission is. Mhmm. And they don't get a lot of credit for doing that. They, you know, they got almost a 125,000 people in the in the last eight months, nine months that have been identified coming out of trafficking. So we we need to make sure that we're prosecuting the people that we can and investigating to identify the cartel members that we're going after, and and getting them
[00:40:41] Unknown:
prosecuted. I agree with you. So what what would be the top three things that you think should be done immediately or could be done immediately to put an end to human trafficking?
[00:40:52] Unknown:
We we need to find the people first because we're still missing, I think, almost 200,000 kids that, you know, went missing over the last four years. Mhmm. We need to start doing the networking, and we needed to continue funding the ICE administration, department that is actually doing, those investigations along with the FBI, the local sheriffs. So they need to be able to have the infrastructure to be able to go out and investigate these crimes. And and we need to stop having some of the interactions that we have at these law enforcement facilities, which depletes our ability to accomplish that part of the mission that ICE actually does. We need to make sure that we have more, prosecutors that can sit there and prosecute these crimes and the investigators that are willing to develop the the cases to move forward. So, it's a lot of funding and a lot of staff resources that need to be dedicated, into investigating these crimes.
[00:41:57] Unknown:
Alright. Now, you also list drug trafficking. I don't know if we touched briefly on that just now. But especially here in Texas, you know, we especially here where I live. I live in Eagle Pass. I'm sitting right here on the border. You know, it's a huge issue. Granted, the the borders here right now, it's 99.9% completely shut down. You know, there's there's no really no illegal crossings taking place right now. But, in your experience in law enforcement, you know, this this brought you closer to this problem. And then, of course, you know, with with the rise of deaths from fentanyl and, and the power of the cartels in Mexico, what do you see as an immediate first time or first line of defense against drug trafficking?
[00:42:45] Unknown:
The the border's a good start. I would like to see the wall because it deters the people from coming over to begin with. Mhmm. Not a lot of people are are a fan of that, but it dedicates resources, from what we saw under the past four years where the the cartels would have people cross illegally in one certain area. Law enforcement actually swarms into that area to deal with the illegal crossings, leaving other areas that are unprotected to traffic or smuggle in other things that they need to bring across the country. So it leaves other areas unprotected. The wall is just a deterrent to allow some of those resources to stop in the future. There is other technology and such that they need to be funded with.
We need to have the enhanced crimes. We need to go out more after the cartels. Mhmm. And I I don't think people understand the scope of exactly what we're talking about with just fentanyl alone. It's almost been a hundred and twenty thousand people a year that we've had adversely, die because of the fentanyl, trafficking that that we've had in this country. That's right. Yeah. Matter of fact, one of, my former campaign, from last year, his son passed away. The first four years that I was actually retired, I worked for, Hays c I CISD, the school district up in Hays County. And we had almost six over, overdose cases, four deaths. One of those was that candidate's son during that period of time. And so it affects not only the family, it affects the communities, it affects the school district, his family, his friends.
It's it's not just an unnamed tragedy because of that. It is something that resonates with the community, when it happens. It's your brother. It's your family member. It's your uncle. It's your dad. And a lot of people don't associate that. And I think a a lot of what some of these progressives are doing is is that they're trying to dehumanize the element of what is going on in this country so that it doesn't seem to be so bad. And when you start talking to people, it affects them directly in in a lot of different ways. So it's it's impactful, and we need to start looking at prosecuting not just at a state level, but at a federal level. If we can sit there and have these investigations and turn them over to the federal officials to get a lot more enhanced punishments and go after the cartels like Trump wants to do Mhmm.
And that takes a lot of federal resources. A lot of federal resources that are getting dispersed across the country to deal a lot of, with the protests that we're doing right now. So Right. If people would just allow ICE to do their jobs, we could better, on the back end with their their collateral assignments, make a lot more positive difference for for some of the families that are being affected by this.
[00:45:57] Unknown:
Now speaking of of ICE and, you know, we've mentioned a few times here, we're talking about immigration. Immigration reform. That's another that's another, platform on your on your policy platform. Where would you begin with this policy? What would you do? What would be the first step you would take? So
[00:46:15] Unknown:
working for the school district for the last four years, I I developed a lot of friends and coworkers that are are here. They're doing the right thing. They they're, they've come into the country legally. They've they've asked everything that ICE has been doing. They've married American citizens. They keep their pair papers up to date. They have families. They have businesses. They pay their taxes, but they're not citizens yet. Mhmm. And a lot of the concerns that they have is it's such a unknown program, I would like to see an expedited process that shouldn't be any more than thirty to sixty days once you submit the documentation that would be part of the program, like marriage certificates, tax records, marriage marriage certificates, tax records, your your current, immigration paperwork that you've, been doing the entire time, and maybe the birth certificates of your family members, your your kids that you've had.
And it shouldn't it should not require you to pay $3,400 an hour for an attorney to to do that for you. It should be an easy process, that's easy to navigate for these individuals that that warrant doing the right thing. We should be applauding them for wanting to do that, and we should be applauding the people that do things the right way and not concentrating on the ones that are doing things illegally in this country and are getting deported because of it. It's not a reward, but it's it's a common sense approach to something that, should be happening anyway. A lot of these individuals already have Social Security numbers. You know? They're they're paying their taxes. They're doing everything we've asked of them, and they just don't think that they can afford, the time, the effort, and and the resources necessary to become a US citizen. And it it's just unnecessary. So that's that's one thing I would like to see, just an expedited process.
[00:48:20] Unknown:
Go ahead. I thought Oh, no. No. No. No. I was I was going to, but but, I can't I'd I'm not formulating the question properly in my head yet, so, it'll it'll come to but, I guess, well, I guess, basically, my question is I mean, it it does take years to to become a US citizen. And like you said Yeah. Tons of money granted.
[00:48:43] Unknown:
And I've been a friend of mine from ICE when I I worked in California that, he was born here and raised here, but his grandmother spent almost fifteen years doing the process, the legal, and the right way to come here, paying the money, waiting for, the background investigations, waiting for the okay to come over, and he said that the reward that she got by getting here was immeasurable. You she she she waited to do her time, and the family appreciates being here and and the time and commitment that she did and devoted to the family to bring bring them to this country so they can have a better life. And I you know, they they were for the Indonesia area. So the the rewards are there, and and we need to reinstill that that our citizenship from other countries coming here means something.
It's not something that should just be given through amnesty or,
[00:49:47] Unknown:
expected or Glad you said that. I'm glad you said that because that that's what I was thinking. So because I was gonna say that, you know, it does need there does need to be a change in the policy to become a US citizen. It does need to be a faster process. And by a faster process, I we don't mean amnesty like you just said. And, yeah, but that seems to be the the the the quick response that you get from, from from the folks that are in Congress or or or elected officials is, just yeah. Let them in. Just give it give them the citizenship, you know, whatever. But yet, in the same time, you have all these people that have come in the right way and have been working hard to try to get to this to the stage where these people have crossed over illegally are now granted citizenship while they're still on a waiting list, and they're still paying fees, and they're still going through the process of it.
[00:50:31] Unknown:
Absolutely.
[00:50:32] Unknown:
Yeah. And actually, I agree with you on that. It does need to, it does it does need to be streamlined. And also, I I think too, I think as well, you know, I think other countries are more selective of who they allow into the country to become citizens. And I think that's something that we need to start doing too. I I I don't Things are
[00:50:51] Unknown:
more restrictive in a lot of other countries that criticize our immigration process and the lack of empathy or sympathy that we do not have towards people that have come into our country illegally. And when you go back at their countries, they've got more stricter guidelines than we do. Mhmm. So it's it's almost it's almost like the the president of Mexico lecturing us on their citizens that are in our country illegally, which had occurred, what, six months ago.
[00:51:17] Unknown:
And Yeah. I remember that.
[00:51:19] Unknown:
And yet, you know, you're not even supposed to, traverse through Mexico without making contact with Mexico even if your intent is to come to The US. And our policies are supposed to be followed that before we contact anybody or allow anybody under our country, you're supposed to vet the paperwork that they had received from Mexico just to traverse across their country to get here. It doesn't matter if they're from Mexico or anywhere else. Mhmm. But just by entering Mexico with the intent on coming here, you're supposed to get approved, through their process and paperwork Yeah. To come here. And we ignored that over the last four years, and so did they.
So it it's just to me kinda hypocritical that, you know, just
[00:52:05] Unknown:
Mexico is just one example. Of course. No. Of course. I know I know that Australia is extremely hard to get citizenship going to Australia, because you have to demonstrate that you have something that you're gonna be able to contribute to their to their culture and their society. Same thing in Japan. You know, you have to assimilate. You can't there there is no coming to that to those countries and saying, well, you know, I refuse to learn your language. I I refuse to follow your your rules. I refuse to follow your laws. You know, we see that now coming in with, with with all of these, these folks coming in from these Muslim countries, they refuse to assimilate.
Sharia law. Sharia law, and, you know, and it's I I know there's a law in in in on the books in Texas already where Sharia law is is banned, but yet you still have these these place like Epic City popping up. Right. You know, it it's it's terrible. I saw a video today. Providing political donations
[00:52:57] Unknown:
to allow these things to go between the state and and local levels to approve these communities. Yeah.
[00:53:03] Unknown:
It's it's it's ridiculous. I mean, it's like you're talking out of both sides of your mouth and you're saying two different things. Right. Not you. I'm talking about so, you know, so the the the the I like to be a black and white
[00:53:19] Unknown:
issue person because it it it there's no ambiguity.
[00:53:24] Unknown:
Agreed. Absolutely. Yeah. Earlier today, I was actually talking to a to a a friend of mine, and, saw this video from from England, and it was a a Muslim preacher talking about how they have, 500 Christian churches have closed in England, and those properties were purchased by Muslim groups. And now those Christian churches are now places of worship for, the Islamic community. And it's happening there, it's happening here, it's happening all over. Sure. Because they're they're not coming into this country with the intention of assimilating, they're coming in here to bring whatever Beliefs they have. Exactly. From from wherever they're coming from, and and trying to, you know, change everything here to make it more like it was over there. Well, if if it was so great over there, why don't you stay there?
[00:54:13] Unknown:
Correct. If your beliefs are already in place there, then seems like you would be a good fit to stay there. Exactly. Exactly.
[00:54:20] Unknown:
And if and like you said, over the last four years of the previous administration, his the open door policies that they that they had did not make the process of coming to this country any less complicated. Right. So it's, you know, it's immigration is a very difficult thing, unless you just follow the existing laws. If you follow the laws,
[00:54:46] Unknown:
you have the That would infer that you have personal accountability in mind or responsibility individual responsibility or accountability, and and that's not what, the new movement that's being pushed out by the progressives, embraces. They they want open societies. They want people to travel. They want people to exist. And, you know, you start looking at these homeless populations that have mental health issues, drug problems, and and where these communities have embedded the progressive ideology, the the law enforcement's been told to keep their hands off. You know? Well, look what's happening in Portland. In somewhat in San Antonio, but huge issue in Austin.
So, we saw it in California, and the only time that they actually started cleaning up and allowing police to interact and do the job that they needed to do and clean up the homeless in in the Bay Area this last six months was because people started screaming about having audits for the $20,000,000,000 that they've spent in the last four years for the homeless population. Right. No return on investment. And so they wanted to start acting like they were being, compassionate and reflective of the laws that were already on the books, but it was just a distraction from the audit request and demands that they were getting, from all that money. And you see a lot of that up in Austin.
And a lot of these these these homeless populations, they network. So if if things are being shut down in California, where do you think that they're gonna go to? They're gonna go someplace that have community resources and law enforcement that that has a hands off approach Right. To that population. And so the population in Austin is increasing. Obviously, it's it's a no brainer. So and so was the funding for the the NGOs and the and the homeless community and and stuff that's coming out of Austin. So, fortunately, that's no longer my district that I'm gonna be running in, but it's still a concern. And and you see it, and and we certainly don't want it to be happening.
But what's your what's your thoughts on dual citizenship?
[00:57:00] Unknown:
I think, dual citizenship should not be a thing. I think you you're either a citizen of this country or you're not. Especially when it comes to members of Congress or elected officials in in in government service, whether it's a state, local, or federal level, I think dual citizenship is a should be forbidden. Absolutely not allowed. Where are your allegiances?
[00:57:21] Unknown:
Would it surprise you that every single foreign born citizen that's been elected into congress has dual citizenship? Oh, no. I'm not surprised by that at all. K. Not at all. I I think the last number that I was told that there's somewhere around 60 members of congress that actually have dual citizenship for various reasons, but every single person that's been foreign born, that's been elected into our our congressional membership,
[00:57:44] Unknown:
have that dual citizenship. So Right. And that's why you hear some of the comments that they make talking about the communities that they represent, that that's who they're loyal to.
[00:57:53] Unknown:
Correct. And it it's just it's interesting that most of the progressive ideologies that they're pushing is for the socialist agenda for the countries that they were born in, and they wanna bring that here, but they're claiming an oath and allegiance to The United States. And it's just it's just a new and I think it's just basically a fall back to where that's where the money's at. They're they're trying to disrupt the country.
[00:58:20] Unknown:
And, you know, what Well, I think the ultimate goal of of the globalist, the ultimate goal of, the progressive movement is the breakdown of national sovereignty. They don't want a strong United States. They don't want a a United States that is, that's that's moral. They don't want a United States that's, that that's you you can be compassionate and be moral, but united as well. They don't want that. They they want the open borders. They want it just like it is in Europe, the European Union. They don't want to see American exceptionalism.
They don't. They wanna tear it down. Telling us for a long time that they are going to destroy us from within, and Which they have. We need to start paying attention because they are actively doing that. Well, yeah. Well, that's the other thing too. You I I I'm not the only one who says this. I've I've heard it many, many, many times. When a progressive, socialist, communist, whatever you wanna call them, tells you they're gonna do something, believe them. But not only that, but believe them because they're gonna do it if they're not already doing it. Just like they just like they accuse the right of doing all the things that they're doing and have been doing.
If they're telling you that they're gonna tear down your society, they're gonna tear down your country, they're gonna tear down your city, your state, they're gonna do it, and they are doing it. And it's and it's spreading. It's like a cancer in this country.
[00:59:42] Unknown:
Yeah. It's it's I I agree. And being a little open minded to see what's going on, you actively see that this is what they're doing. They've got their rhetoric and their propaganda on the on the college campuses. Mhmm. Thank God, you know, we we had Charlie Kirk for the period of time that we had him that was opening people's eyes and bringing God back into our youth and redirecting them because, you know, what's been going on for the last fifteen years, we've been pushing out that if you're gonna be a success in this country, you need a college degree, and they've been detracting from the hands on labor, you know, trades that we we hold value in this country for the working class. Absolutely. So we we've got a huge deficit in jobs that are in those markets, and now they're saying that it's our fault because we're deporting the people that are doing these jobs when we've been recruiting people and telling them that they need to have a college degree, and they they don't have programs in place that force these kids to look and see what the job market capability of being able to support yourself with whatever degree path that you wanna follow while you're in college.
And so you have a a saturation in one field that you're never ever gonna be able to support your yourself or much less a family. Right. So we we need to get back to promoting the trades. And one of the things so when we when we came over here, we were able to bring my my youngest daughter. We we allowed her to go to the last two years of of high school here to develop some of those friendships. Mhmm. But some of the things that they were doing over here with the education system in Texas, we hadn't seen over in California decades. So they had a lot of those regional occupational programs, that they shut down stating that it was money related issues over there. But, it's just different priorities, versus over here. It's Right.
And and, you know, we we it was refreshing to see it. And and I'm glad and I will wanting to support that and continue that here for Texas because the people wanna have Texas values first, but we also need to promote policies, across the nation that affect everybody equally. It doesn't matter what party you're in. Mhmm. Taxes, immigration, all these different things, economics. You know? They they affect everybody equally, and and they don't wanna admit it. Mhmm. But but it happens.
[01:02:18] Unknown:
Yeah. And just just two quick comments on on what we said previously. I I think, personally speaking, that the reason why folks, you know, they push you need to have a college education is because you go to these these liberal colleges and, you know, you're not taught how to think, you're taught what to think. So you get all of these brainwashed people coming out with these pieces of paper that just says that they've been trained. That's all it that to me that's all it is. That piece of paper does not tell me I know anything more than anybody else. I was just taught what to think, not how to think. I can't you can't think critically. That's why you can get into debates with people with higher degree. Look, I I I have some college. Okay?
And, I I I consider myself educated. Some of the dumbest people I've ever had any kind of debate with or any kind of discussion with are people with higher education degrees. Some of the dumbest people, because they don't think critically. They're they're told what to think, not how to think. It took it it I had a I had a moment several years ago where I I decided that, you know what, I I need to I need to study myself, and I did my own research, and I did my own work, and I did I taught myself, you know, and I learned more factual information actually.
Teaching myself and doing my own research, my own study than I ever did in all the classes that I've taken in college. You know, I went to What's your broader base? Of course, and I went to college. I I, you know, I I did my my my city university, training education in, in New York. I went to Bible school, you know, I I I read you should see my library inside there. I've read just about everything that I have on that on that shelf. I love the enlightenment period of our history. You know, people say the the the World War two generation is the greatest generation. Yeah, great generation. Yes, for sure. Absolutely. The greatest generation was our founding generation. Yeah. You know, that's my opinion. That works. Yep. Exactly.
So so, you know, I studied that. I read that. I love that stuff, because that's who we are as a country, as America. Alright? America is, you know, is not The United States. That is not America. Alright? America is an idea, and America is is values. America is freedom, it's liberty. And we don't have that anymore because we have a bunch of brainwashed morons running around telling us that, no. No. The government says that you would do this, and the government gave you that right, and the government said this when that's absolutely untrue, and I'm on a soapbox. I'm gonna stop.
[01:04:59] Unknown:
That was the beauty with Charlie Kirk, that he was able to to root out the faults in our our formal ed higher education system. He made them think promote critical thinking in our youth to look at an opposing view to gain an original thought of yourself. Exactly.
[01:05:19] Unknown:
Exactly. And and and, unfortunately, that's what got him killed. Unfortunately, yes. And, I mean, I have we have there's other theories involved in all that stuff, which I don't really get into, because I think that's just that just that just disrespects his life and everything he did, so I don't play around. I read them. I find them fascinating to see all the different points of view. Right. But but, you know, what happened happened, and, you know, it's a terrible thing. It's a terrible stain on this country that something like that happened, that a a bright, intelligent young man was was taken out because he brought discourse, which is what the left always talks about day one. We have to talk. We have to talk. We have to have discourse. We have to have discussion.
Well
[01:06:05] Unknown:
We're doing that, but it's not what we wanna hear. Exactly.
[01:06:09] Unknown:
Exactly. They their their version of of discourse and discussion is that you agree with everything that they say, and you acknowledge everything that they say, which you get when you go to college. Correct. You're taught what to think and what to say. And we need people that continue
[01:06:28] Unknown:
promoting the same philosophy that Charlie Kirk promoted across the country. And I don't know who is gonna pick up that torch, but I think it's incumbent on people that are gonna be looking in office to start looking at our youth and making sure that they're taken care of and their their future is is gonna be secure for whatever that they wanna do. You know, I'm a big advocate in in government. The first responsibility it has to its community and its citizens is is public safety. Everything thereafter is just a a bunch of programs and services that allow us to seek out the quality of life that we want to pursue, and it shouldn't be incumbent on us to have to work for government to sustain government. It should be the other way around. I agree with that. We need to get back to that. Yes. Absolutely. Another thing and and,
[01:07:29] Unknown:
you know, I've said this before and I'll say it again, because I firmly believe this. The only thing the only thing that I want government to do for me is to protect my right to do for myself. That's all I want government to do. I want them out of my way. Primarily what the conservative movement
[01:07:52] Unknown:
entails is less government so that we have least amount of government in our personal lives as possible, and we're keeping as much money in our pockets that we earn along the way that we possibly can because we see that the government is not responsible fiscally in in how they spend our money. And I wonder how many liberals That's one of the things Doge brought out as well,
[01:08:15] Unknown:
and it's gonna continue going on. So I wonder how many liberals realize that on their tax form when they when they submit their their their documentation to the government that there's a little box there that says you can you can contribute more than what they take. How many liberals know that? I mean, if you wanna fund government, go right ahead. Don't take it out of my pocket. You're not because they're not representing me.
[01:08:37] Unknown:
Yeah. Bill billionaires are the problem, but what is it exactly that you want them to pay? Right. I mean, they they they're the ones that took the risks. They created these companies, these corporations, these businesses. They employ hundreds of thousands of people. They they pay property taxes. They pay employees' wages. Mhmm. They which get taxed. They pay for Social Security for those, employees for the employer share, but they're not paying enough. It's them individually that they think they need to pay more pay more, but they never can itemize exactly what it is that they need to be paying.
[01:09:16] Unknown:
And for what?
[01:09:18] Unknown:
Exactly. There's there's never a number associated with that. When you have Elon Musk getting a a $55,000,000,000, settlement payout for stock shares by the performance of Tesla, and he's paying, 20% in in taxes in one year by cashing that out Mhmm. That's 20%. I think usually when I was filing my taxes, I I'm usually between 18 or 20%. I think that's high, but, you know, that seems to be comparable what my entire career I was paying in taxes. Mhmm. But they want them paying thirty, forty, 60%. I I think they never can provide an actual number. Mhmm. Because that's never enough. That they created, have a substantial impact on the communities.
[01:10:06] Unknown:
So that's that's never gonna be enough. No. It it never will. It never will. But we are way off into the weeds here, brother. Let's get back to your policies here. Veterans, first responders, what are three things that, that you believe we could do better when it comes to recognizing the service that our veterans and first responders provide?
[01:10:25] Unknown:
Well, let let's take veterans first. You know, we need to continue down the same path that we're going right now. You know, they're they're coming out with these programs for community care to serve our veterans, you know, that the VA cannot, adequately serve. Maybe they might be in rural areas, but we need to make sure that those programs are efficient. Get rid of all the red tape, get rid of the waiting periods. I certainly don't like to hear the suicide rates that we have from our veterans on a national level, every single year.
They need the services. I understand what PTSD is. You know? I've I've had to deal with it many, many times in law enforcement. And, you know, you you can never give enough to a veteran because of what they've done for our country to preserve the way of life that we we have. One of my uncles and, god forbid, when whenever I get the time to do it because I was denied the time, but my my dad's middle brother, died with brain cancer. He was in, the air force. He got, brain cancer because of agent Orange due to, back in Vietnam.
And my dad fought for years and years and years to get him put on the Vietnam Memorial, and and that actually, happened on Father's Day every year when they induct the new, people that are being put on the wall. And I tried to go back there. You know, I think it was 2011 when he was inducted, and I was denied the time off because we had too many people at work off at the same time. So I was never able to do that. My wife just got home from work. So Okay. We, I would like to go back there and see that for myself because that was the last time that my grandmother was able to actually travel back there and have some of his family, present for that for that induction. But my dad's, you know, carried the torch and done those every single year, when he's asked to go do that for the new inductees. But, it's impactful.
I've never heard of my family, which strong military background all all across the board, complain on the VA services, but I certainly have heard about them, by talking to people and networking with people and stuff. So we need to make sure that they're taken care of. And the less administrative bloat that we have, we we need to carry that torch and move forward. Agree. First responders is the same thing. One of the things that we we need to look at is when you know, they're paying the ultimate price, either side of the house, whether it's veterans or law enforcement.
The law enforcement side of the house has a congressional program, and they give an annuity for the family members if somebody's either disabled or died in the line of duty. And some of those things that I became first aware of when we had some of the people that passed away, giving their life in our agency, that some of these programs are are backlogged two, three, four, five years to get these benefits to the family, and and they need to be brought into into place. We need to have representation that supports law enforcement from the top of government down because these people are are the ones that are out there, and it's in a spire. You know? It's not just police Mhmm. But it's all public safety.
[01:13:39] Unknown:
Right.
[01:13:40] Unknown:
Though these are the ones that they call when we have problems locally, to come help us out. And so every single day that, you know, you you have law enforcement background yourself. And so it it's you you never know what's gonna happen at the start of your shift, and you hope that you get to home go home to your family at the end of your shift. So whatever happens to you, whatever's sent to you throughout that shift, it's like water on a duck's back. It rolls off as long as I can sit there and go home to my family at the end of the night. That's right. Yeah. So,
[01:14:11] Unknown:
That's the goal.
[01:14:12] Unknown:
And by the time that I retired in '21, you know, we we had, the twenty twenty riots all summer long, being confronted on the receiving end of those riots. You you have a clear cut analogy as to what their ideologies are and what their potential is when they want to, weaponize the these, ideologies. And so that was one of the motivations that I had when I learned that the the current sitting congressional member of '35 did that to Austin by defunding Austin police because he was embracing the BLM Antifa movement. Mhmm. And they had to utilize some force that was, during some of those riots that they were doing in Austin, and he politicized that and used that political theater to defund the the PD up there.
And since government has the the sole responsibility of, to its citizens as as public safety, you just don't do that. And the aftermath still carries through today of what he did back in '21. So that was kind of my my motivation to jump into this to begin with to start getting a a support system in place for our law enforcement and our public safety members that are out there doing the job every single day.
[01:15:35] Unknown:
Outstanding. And you talk about providing armed security in schools to protect the children. What roadblocks do you think you'll face when trying to present this as a policy?
[01:15:45] Unknown:
Funding, is the big thing. We already have that here in Texas, but funding is not being provided for some of these programs to have, armed staff on current campuses right now through the state legislature. We do have COPS funding that we can do to utilize through the federal level, to maybe help offset that or or prioritize that with states that aren't funding that, across the nation or maybe like here in Texas. Some districts are just absorbing that cost. They're getting private security that are armed, and going through TCOOL, which is the state licensing, to make sure that they they have the training adequate.
Some have police forces, some don't. So, funding's a big key with getting that, streamlined. And there's a lot of support for that nationwide. I don't know how much support that's gonna have with, you know, private institutions now that, like, state, here has done the voucher systems where you you can just go to a private institution, if the state's gonna try to require or pick up the funding to have law enforcement personnel, that are armed or private security that's armed at those at those locations. But, that's probably, you know, one of the biggest hurdles I see.
[01:17:02] Unknown:
The funding. Yeah. I I I could see that. Very important question for me is the second amendment. What what are you what are your immediate thoughts, your concerns when it comes to the second amendment?
[01:17:23] Unknown:
I'm fearful that we're gonna have a change in administrative leadership, and they're gonna start imposing nationwide red flag laws because we see the weaponization of our legal system with Trump and other individuals that supported his agenda in the past and currently. And it's gonna get chipped away, and it's gonna adversely affect everyday citizens from obtaining keeping guns in their in their, everyday lives and access. They've already had concerns with, veterans, military personnel that have PTSD not being able to access or buy or having them flagged so that they can't purchase weapons on the federal level, in some states.
And so because I don't trust the red flag law system, it's gonna get weaponized and it's gonna get misused and abused. Now in California, we did have that. We had a lot of very positive Red County, conservative that I grew up in and I worked in law enforcement in. We had the ability to bring in a judge, to seize weapons and things like that for, victim services for domestic violence, stalking, crimes against persons where, a weapon was used to where we could go out under under a warrant and seize weapons, especially if it involved, stalking and and and victims of domestic violence.
And it had oversight with the judges, and that's what I'm fearful that on a nationwide level, it's gonna get misused, and it's gonna adversely affect people that, have an absolute right to to own and and retain their weapons.
[01:19:13] Unknown:
I just where where I get hung up is is that, you know, the second amendment's a right that was given to us not by government. It was given to us by God.
[01:19:23] Unknown:
Yep.
[01:19:26] Unknown:
And it says very specifically, I shall not be infringed. So I I don't I I I don't like the idea of red flag laws. I don't like the idea of restricting, but I do understand that there is a need to, especially when you have someone with a with a mental disability, I I I I I get that. I understand it, but you know and I know that it will be heavily misused. Absolutely. And it's Let's
[01:20:00] Unknown:
can I can I inject a Yeah? A a scenario? Sure. Let's say somebody was under the care, of a medical profession, and they get diagnosed with some type of mental illness. Mhmm. And let's say a doctor prescribes some type of psychotropic medications. And through the course of that treatment, they they become suicidal, homicidal. Mhmm. And they're taking the psychotropic medications, which is an imbalance in their in their brain system. Should a medical professional be required to report to local law enforcement that this person is unstable because they have, these homicidal or, murderous tendencies, and they're under the influence of a of a psychotropic medication Mhmm. Where law enforcement should take the responsibility of going out and safeguarding access to the weapons that they may already have in their in their system or preventing them from buying future ones so that they don't act with those.
[01:21:00] Unknown:
Yeah. Not that's You think that that could be get that that could absolutely get misused? Absolutely. Because let's just put it this way. You could take you you you could go through a period of taking, like, just, not just, but, you know, maybe you have anxiety. Right? You're going through something, you have some you have some anxiety issues, your doctor prescribes you an anxiety medication. Well, you know, on, you know, most of the anxiety medications, some of the side effects are suicidal tendencies, you know, and and and Homicidal Exactly. Depression.
[01:21:29] Unknown:
Exactly. So that that goes along that road that we've seen in some of the shootings that we've had, five to seven of the the school shootings that we had in the last Yeah. What, two years? Yes. Yeah. So it it's gonna get abused, and I don't wanna support red flag laws. I've seen them used, and I've used them in a very positive manner, but I I I I not at any way supportive of them because I know that they're gonna get abused. So my ideology falls back to absolute abilities to protect the sentiment.
[01:22:05] Unknown:
Alright. Now we we kinda hinted at term limits. We had a great conversation prior to the show about term limits, and I I am in totally total in agree in total agreement with you that there needs to be term limits for every level and branch of off of, elected service. The the example you brought up was Dianne Feinstein being wheeled into the senate chambers. There's a second one. There's a second one. Oh, yeah. I'm sure we'll we'll get to it. Yeah. I mean, you could there's a third one. You got Joe Biden with the auto pen. I mean, you know, of course. You know, so so you but the example that we we spoke about prior was, you know, Dianne Feinstein coming in, and, her her daughter, I think you said it was, that had power of attorney and was directing her and what she should be voting and so on and so forth.
That's disturbing. You know? Well,
[01:23:00] Unknown:
her some some of the what what I saw was that her staff members, her aids were wheeling her into the senate chamber to vote on issues that needed to be voted on at the time, and they're directing her on what she needs to vote in what manner she needs to vote for that bill Mhmm. That was that was, up for vote at the time. And then shortly thereafter, there was a, news article that came out that her daughter actually had a power of attorney over her because of her, inability to make decisions for herself both financially and health wise. And so a court in California had granted that. So she can't make her own personal decisions, but she's making decisions on behalf of the country, as an active senator in the in the US Congress. So Right. Which makes no sense.
And and how long was she in there? And she was also an anti second amendment advocate as well. But, and had a CCW and carry her own gun, but in private security. So it's just it's problematic all the way around. And then we had a senate, house member from, Northern Texas the the same way. She disappeared for six months, and I just saw the article. I remember that. Yes. I can't remember her name. Nursing home for the last six months paying, you know, $4,000 a month and hadn't been at her office or even in con the congressional sessions that were occurring at the time. So she's an active member of congress in a nursing home. Yeah. Actually, I I remember mentioning her on my show,
[01:24:30] Unknown:
when at the time that was going on, but I can't remember her name, though, for the life of me at the moment.
[01:24:35] Unknown:
McNaton. Not I saw it over the weekend. So Yeah. It's I I read it. The name just escaped me. But, yeah, that just reminded me of of the second instance where we we really need to look at term limits. And I I think we need to go a little bit farther if we're gonna prevent career politicians from occurring. So I would like to see not only, let's say, a twelve year term in congress as it is. So that would be the equivalent to two senate sessions Mhmm. Elections. And that could get reduced if you have local and state prior service where you've been elected official at a state and local, so that twenty years would basically be the the cap. So let's say you spent eight years, or let's say twenty years at a local or state level and you wanna come into congress, you're only gonna be able to serve twelve years because you've already had prior service at the local and state level.
Now you can't say that you can't do that because it's it's a different office, but you you can certainly create a bill to prevent the these career politicians from taking over and moving their way up. And and
[01:25:52] Unknown:
Two four year terms. Eight years looks like the presidency.
[01:25:57] Unknown:
You know, something like that. Or and then I stand off with the The US term limits, campaign that they're they're pushing out both local and, federally. So I think that they're wanting three or four congressional terms, like house. So it's not a very long period of time, but I think reasonable wise, two senate terms should be max. Right. So however you want however you wanna get elected and perform your service, we we need to see about getting those things changed because we're getting a lot of candidates. They're calling them the uni party because they they don't get anything done, and they're getting donations from both sides of the aisle.
And they're not benefiting Mhmm. The country. They're not benefiting the the middle class. We've we've had an erosion, and a substantial drop in the middle class across, our country. So we need to get back to policies, to support what we can in Congress, and we need new blood. Alright. And I agree. And what do you think about age limits? It's hard to say. I mean, I'm getting up there in age. You know? I I just turned 56, but, I mean, I'm not done serving.
[01:27:16] Unknown:
What about what about your eligibility to serve between the ages of Like a cognitive test? Is that kind of, Like, 21 to a thought that you're 21 to 65, you you're eligible to serve in an elected position. After that, you're out.
[01:27:33] Unknown:
The age in which maybe you're able to claim Social Security should be a disqualifier.
[01:27:38] Unknown:
Yeah. Could do that. Six, sixty seven. Yeah. Something like that. That that would be interesting. You know, it's just it's just ideas, you know. I mean, because you and the reason why I say it is because you look at people like Dianne Feinstein, look at people like Joe Biden, you look at people who have been sitting in these elected positions for so long, and then they get to the point where they can't think straight for themselves. Bernie Sanders? Bernie Sanders. Thirty eight thirty eight years, I believe. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he still somewhat has his mental capacities there, but, you know, they're they're fading, of course. I mean, he's getting older. But his loyalties, he's he you know,
[01:28:12] Unknown:
the wonderful thing that we have now is called the Internet. We can go back and see how these these candidates flip flop Of course. All over the place, because we can pull up those videos now. Right. It's where it's where the money comes in. Thing at our our fingertips and resource to go back and see what they're doing. You know, Schumer, you're you're right. You're absolutely right. You know? Lloyd Doggett, the one that's gonna be running or said he was gonna rerun again, turning 80 this year. He's been in politics for forty years up there in Austin, in Texas representing in in Congress.
So, the at some point in time, you need to have a life and enjoy your retirement, but you're you're gonna have some people have cognitive issues, some people do not. So I I don't know where to draw the line. I but it's definitely a concern with me. And especially if they've got medical issues that you can sit there and and pronounce and identify, Congress needs to be able to take action on on these individuals because they're not serving the American public when when they can't serve themselves.
[01:29:20] Unknown:
I agree. Alright. Let's, there was a quote on your website that I that I saw, and, you wrote this. Quote, progressive ideologies ruin America and are divisive. We deserve better Texas that we did we deserve better Texas than to be deceived by Democrats who support low education standards and open borders, who are soft on crime, and vote to defund our police. So we're we're we're in a we're in a living in a country right now that's very, very divided. Do you think it can be brought back together again?
[01:29:56] Unknown:
It's gonna be very difficult without new blood in congress because we have all this dark money, and I I we we need to figure out how to get rid of it. But the messaging that's coming across from the left side is making our political atmosphere so polarizing. I don't see a lot of bipartisan measures getting passed in our current state of affairs in congress. And so until we can start creating a better path, And I truly think that if we're gonna be better as a country, we need to have bipartisan agreements so that one half of the nation depends on who the majority is, has a voice in what's moving forward for the laws and in the bills and and the path our country needs to take.
And I think that's what's missing in a lot of our representation is that you you have a majority party that that comes into power, and they forget that there's other people in their districts that need representation also. It's not just your ideology that needs to be pushed out. Mhmm. And so congress is the same way. But until we start getting some of these things addressed on a nationwide basis and new blood into congress, I don't see that changing for a very long time. So I think some of the helpful things, term limits, I would love to see us stop having foreign born citizens getting elected into into positions of power, but those are gonna take congressional and constitutional changes.
And getting that two thirds vote passed by by the current congress is just unachievable. And it's gonna be a Pandora's box if you do a convention of states because once you open that up, they can change anything in our current constitution that they don't like. That's right. And so
[01:31:49] Unknown:
I am dead set against the constitutional convention. I am article five, I am dead set against that. I think that's a big a huge mistake. Huge mistake. Support, believe it or not, here in Texas. Yeah. I know. Which is which is disturbing. Which is very disturbing. You know, Marjorie Taylor Greene, said she mentioned in in a in a statement about, the possibilities of national divorce. Unfortunately, I think that there's a lot of momentum behind
[01:32:17] Unknown:
stuff like that and moves. Texas has been talking about it for a while. Yeah. It has. Is it? It has. So And I know we spoke one of the appealing things of wanting to retire here with the family is that Texas has the ability to do it whether they actually enact that or not.
[01:32:32] Unknown:
But there's a lot of people that have value in in that ability that live here in Texas, and there's a lot of support for doing that. Mhmm. So And, you know, Texas isn't the only state that that talks about this stuff. California's been talking about it. New York talks about it. Vermont, I think New Hampshire has has the longest running campaign for, for national divorce. So it's it's not just a uniquely Texas thing. This is and it's and it's a natural thing. It's it's not something that's that's that's that's so anathema.
It's a natural thing. I mean, if if if the the 13 original colonies didn't secede from Great Britain, we wouldn't have America, United States, you know, this American Union, that I like to call it, like the European Union, the American Union. It's so it's not a it's not a bad thing. And I know we spoke about it beforehand, so I'm not gonna get too much into that conversation we had, because you didn't give me a definite answer. So, I'm not gonna put you on the spot there now. But, but, there is a there is the possibility, and and sometimes, you know, I I look, no no mystery here. I've talked about it many times. I am part of an organization that that advocates advocates Texas independence, the Texas nationalist movement. And,
[01:33:45] Unknown:
I I agree I don't know how federally that would translate to a statewide movement to secede from the union. I don't know what that does to our representation in Congress.
[01:33:58] Unknown:
Well, there wouldn't be any. What's that? There wouldn't be any. That's that's that's what I'm saying. That's what that's why that's why that's that's why the state structured government is the way it is. You have the governor, which would be, you know, similar to the presidency. What does that mean? Yeah. Exactly. I'm just saying the office itself. The governorship would be like this considers like a presidency, then you have the two houses of Congress. You have the state and the state senators, and you have the the state representatives. It the the bicameral system, that's that's that's what the federal government was modeled after. The federal government system was modeled after the state governments. So, so it it it's it's feasible as possible. Texas does have the resources, it does have the ability to do so.
It it it it can happen. It it's just up to the people, though. It has to get before it has to get presented, you know, on a ballot, and the people have to vote for it. And that's what this organization that I'm part of does, that they they advocate for it. They try to push to get this on a ballot. They came close last session. Not this session that just took place, but the previous session today with the date feeling. Yeah. Two sessions. So, it it they they pulled some parliamentary shenanigans with the with the, petitions and such, and they wouldn't allow it to get put onto the platform. But another interesting thing too is the Texas the Texas state Republican party platform is Texas independence.
It's on there. Texas first. Yeah. Exactly. So so so those are conversations that I think are gonna happen. Now, right now, they were they were very much more vocal about these things under the Biden administration, obviously. Under the Trump administration, things kinda, you know, kinda whispers now because, you know, hey, things are a little bit better. You know, things are, you know, in most regards, things are a little bit better. In some regards, they're great. But, you know, I I it's not a bad conversation to have, and I think it's an important one to have, because what you you can't have a cookie cutter government for 300,000,000 people.
You know, the values of New Hampshire are not the same values in Louisiana. The the values of Louisiana are the same as North Dakota and South Dakota. You know, every every you you can't you can't come up with any real legislation that is gonna be applicable. One size fits all. Exactly. It's not gonna work. It can't work, and and and it's been proven not to work. You know, this monstrosity that we have right now is not with the intending not with the intention of our founding fathers. You know, we were supposed to be, a union of individual sovereign countries. That's where state comes from. Individual sovereign countries that have compacted together just for, mutual trade and common defense. That's really what the original intent was.
And you get that if you Congress was supposed to regulate that, so it was fair. Correct. And, Congress was only supposed to meet for, I think, three months out of the year. That was it. And then they would go back to their states, and that was it. And they would come back again, and you know, when when they got called into session. Not to permanently live in Washington DC and have have a little townhouse in Washington DC and have your your your your home here in your home state or whatever it is. No. That wasn't that was never what the intention was. And it just like it was never the intention to have a direct election of US senators.
The original was The US senator He appointed. Was appointed by the governor of the state Correct. For accountability. So if the gov if that senator is not acting in, in in accordance with what the state actually needs, then the governor can recall that person, that that that senator. And with the but and this this is why I am so dead set against con constitution because all this stuff is on the table and can get completely shredded just like it was before.
[01:37:52] Unknown:
And that's that's still the only position that the governor can do a special appointment for until the next election cycle or special election is called is for the senators. They don't have that authority to do that for the house representatives. So the ones that have come up vacant this year, you know, this last session because, you know, somebody passed away and somebody had mental issues or was in a nursing home. Let me just put it that way. Right. Exactly. So we're incumbent on having a, absence of representation in congress because there's there's no ability for the the governor to make those appointments temporarily to still have a voice for the constituents and and the state itself. And it's it's important as our population base increases, you're gonna have a disparity across the nation. Of course. You know, California, New York, Texas, we have these very large populations. So these smaller states are are gonna be incumbent on the policies that we push forward, because we're gonna have their representational base in in congress to represent our own interest as a state first, and that's what every Texas representative should have in congress Mhmm. Is looking to our state values and and the constituents here, and I I fully believe that.
So that goes the same way across the board. So as as as our population blows up, you're gonna have a disparity in representation in some of these smaller populated states. Of course. Of course. So let's, let's get some final thoughts here.
[01:39:22] Unknown:
Now so you're running for Congress, obviously. Why did you decide to run for Congress and not and not for a local office?
[01:39:31] Unknown:
The impact that I experienced myself, you know, being on like I said earlier, being on the opposite end of a riot because of these ideologies that are being pushed out, seeing the adverse effects of of what has gone on in California and moving and getting away from that, getting the hell out of California Mhmm. And coming to some place that's more sensible that we can have, you know, god family and and protection of our constitutional rights in a state with a lot of like minded individuals and the things that I grew up in a conservative county and and represent. I want those things protected, and I want those protected for the individuals that I want to represent. But I've been adversely affected just like everybody else has been adversely affected by these progressive failed policies and ideologies that are being pushed out not just here in Texas but across the nation. So they're they're no longer dangerous. They're deadly. Mhmm. And something that happened 12 thirteen days ago or fourteen days ago shows exactly what the capabilities are when you start promoting this rhetoric and this propaganda across the nation.
People will take action, you know, whether it's good or bad. Mhmm. And we see a lot more of the bad because that's what the media likes to, promote. So when I learned what the stance was on on the current congressional member and representative in '35, defunding the police, my law enforcement background. You know, I I I was a union representative for fifteen years as a deputy sheriff and another three years when I was on the detention side of the house. I enjoyed that representation. I enjoyed making sure that we had safe working conditions and and fair wages and things like that. And I missed it. I I missed the the mental fight, you know, to to make sure that people are taken care of. And I just thought it was a natural ascension in in going for that congressional seat because of the the ideology that was being pushed out by that particular individual.
And so it's not something I ever thought about getting into politics, but yet here we are. And we went through a successful grassroots unknown candidate campaign, came out as the Republican nominee. We shaved off almost eight points out of that race from a traditional blue, Democrat base, and we signed up to do that again in April to keep pushing against that message, against that same candidate. And then the governor and and the president had other ideas by doing, pushing out the redistricting. So, I'm not a quitter. You know, we've already filed. We've already moved forward, and some of the same existing district is gonna be in the new district, and that being down in Bexar County.
But the new counties entirely, Guadalupe, Karnes, and Wilson, represent what I grew up in, and I fought with the representation that I had, because of the same economic base that those new counties, rely on with good solid policies across our, across our country. Mhmm. So I understand the farming aspect. I understand the ranch aspect. I understand that we're in a drought, but we need to protect the water so that we have agriculture. We have the ability for these ranchers, these dairy farmers, to produce quality product and preserve, what we do agriculturally and then the the freedom that we're gonna have for our, our resources, moving forward for oil and and natural gas and things like that. And Karnes County is one of the primary recipients, of that economic base that needs to be protected.
So it it feels like home. The the new three counties traditionally feel like home where I was raised at. Right. And the working class individuals, the the small businesses that are the they're they're really the heart of our nation, and they they produce good quality working class individuals, blue collar workers also need to have their interest protected too. So it was just a lot of frustrations in what we see in congress right now, wanting things corrected and then the the bad ideologies that were being pushed out that we experienced for the last four years. So it just seemed natural for me to jump into that race, which seems unheard of and not trying to ascend through either a state or local elected positions prior to.
[01:44:25] Unknown:
Alright. So who's someone that you respect right now, and what are they doing that inspires you?
[01:44:31] Unknown:
Politically?
[01:44:33] Unknown:
Or anywhere in general.
[01:44:38] Unknown:
Well, I like a lot of what the Freedom Caucus in con in congress does. They're they're fiscal hawks. So, I see myself aligning with them. Chip Roy was one of the most outspoken individuals in in that caucus, trying to do sensible things for our country to make sure that we have, our our voting base protected when it comes to a save act, making sure that US citizens are the only ones voting, making sure that what we're passing as a economic bill, trying to get back to a actual annual budget that congress approves instead of doing these ridiculous, you know, CRs. Yeah. And omnibus bills.
So I admire his dedication to make sure that everyday Americans are are being taken care of, and they're at the forethought of what they're doing, before they do it and making sure that, that that carries forward.
[01:45:42] Unknown:
Alright. So that's kinda where I'm at. Outstanding. Alright. Steven Wright, where can the audience find out more about you? I have your website coming up right here right now.
[01:45:52] Unknown:
Here's one more. The new website this year is gonna be Steve Wright for tx35.com. Please like, share, spread it around. And and most importantly, these grassroots campaigns, depend on donations. And if we're gonna get the messaging out and start changing, the atmosphere in congress and start getting a more true representation of of our working class blue collar workers, then then this is where it starts.
[01:46:22] Unknown:
Alright. Any social media? Anything you wanna put out there?
[01:46:26] Unknown:
I do have x. I do have I'm still running the old campaign on Facebook. I have the new campaign on Facebook. I have my private, Facebook pages, all Steven Wright. Steve Wright for t x c d thirty five, Steve Wright for t x thirty five, and then just Steven Wright, on Facebook. And I believe it's Steven Wright, c d thirty five on x. So I I do have a fairly decent presence on all three of those platforms, Instagram as well. And some of the feed, from my Facebook page does come on to the actual, campaign website as well. Outstanding.
[01:47:10] Unknown:
Outstanding. Alright. Steven Wright, thank you so much for spending the night with us. We really enjoyed having you on the show. The invite. And, we'll definitely be looking to have you back on again very soon. You I have you all your contact info. I think you have mine. So, let's keep in touch, and let's get this let's get you back on the show really soon. Okay? New issues, they change, on a weekly basis, it seems like. So Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Let's get some good work done. Alright. Steven Wright for Texas. Thank you, sir. Have a great night. You too. Alright, folks. Don't forget to, head over to our website, joeroos.com.
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Alright. I think that should just about do it for us for tonight. Alright, folks. Don't forget the website, joeroos.com. Let us know what you think. And folks, listen, make Texas independent again. Go podcasting. Keep a steady stride, and keep talking. Good night, folks.
[01:50:44] Unknown:
Happy trails
[01:50:46] Unknown:
to you until
Transmitting live from the asylum studios, deep in the bowels of Southwest Texas, it's The Joe Roos Show, the show where we talk about anything and everything, where nothing is sacred, nothing is watered down, and nothing is PC.
[00:04:31] Unknown:
All Alright. Hey, folks. This is Joe Roos, and it is great to be with you guys once again, transmitting live from the asylum studios from the pimple on the backside of Texas, the beautiful city of Eagle Pass, and doing the very best we can to bring you the best quality talk radio we can muster without all the bluster, welcome to the Joe Russo. Alright, folks. I hope you guys are ready for another week. Week. It is Monday, September 2025. It is nineteen zero five hours at the start of this transmission. Well, busy weekend. We had a very busy weekend here at the asylum. I hope you guys were able to catch the show Sunday.
We talked about, dealing with death from the book of Proverbs, our Sunday Bible study show. Hope you were able to catch that. I thought it was a fascinating study, to be honest with you. Not a bad one either, if I do say so myself. We can't do that. Right? That's prideful. We shouldn't do that. God hates pride. So anyway, anyway, got a busy week ahead of us. We're gonna getting started here tonight. We're gonna we have a a very special guest waiting for us in the wings, and, we'll be bringing him on here momentarily. We'll be talking with Steven Wright, who was a congressional candidate for the, Texas Congressional District 35, and we'll we'll bring him on here just momentarily.
But as always, we do have some housekeeping stuff that we need to get done, so we're gonna get right into that. And show and folks, just so you know, this show is brought to you tonight by Ezra Healing. Ezra Healing is a substantial part of the new wellness paradigm currently being born all around the globe. I forgot to put the banner up. There we go. The global citizenry are no longer satisfied with the sick care version of so called health care. Band aid medicine, endlessly treating symptoms rather than root causes must be abandoned as soon as possible. Patient centric care must be the priority. We need to transition to the do no harm model of private care that places humanity at the forefront of real health and wellness care. In this new model, your entire lifestyle is examined and analyzed to promote and support the totality of your body's integrated systems. Ezra Healing is a solutions based health promotion and disease prevention grassroots movement that is always evolving to best serve you and your family. Now for more information on Ezra Healing and all the programs they offer and folks, they offer a ton of programs and a good portion of it's free. Check them out. Go to ezrahealing.com.
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They they just recently launched their own, podcast player app, so that's fantastic as well. The user interface is is beautiful. You need to check it out. So podhome.fmpodhome.fm1599 a month after a thirty day free trial. So make sure you try it out. Alright. Also, don't forget to head over to our website, joeroos.com. And when you get over there, open up that contact form and send us over a message. Let us know whatever's on your heart, whatever's on your mind. Any questions, comments, cares, concerns that you might have, any issues, any complaints, if you have an idea for a guest or, maybe a topic for a show, let us know. We're always open for that. So let us know what you're thinking. We'd love to hear from you guys. Now if you don't wanna use the the web form, totally fine by me. You can always email me directly at [email protected].
That's [email protected]. Also, don't forget to look for the support button on the homepage, and remember that this is a value for value show. And all that simply means is that if you've received anything of value from what we're doing here, we're we're asking that you return that value to us in the form of a donation. It could be your time, your talent, your treasure. And, as always, we'll lay out all the different ways you can help support us at the end of the show today. Alright. Well, with all of that said, tonight's guest, Steve Wright, candidate for Congressional District 35.
Steve started in law enforcement some thirty years ago in Kern County California, where he saw firsthand the fallout from progressive policies that emphasized politics over people. He packed up his family six years ago or seven years ago. Is that right? And moved to Texas. And now he sees some of the same policies taking place here in Texas that were taking place over in California. So he decided to run for Congress to fight back and protect These United States from division, low standards in education, and ruin of communities by policies that are absolutely soft on crime. And, something I did not know until just before the show, he's currently serving as a constable over there in current where where are you? Kamal County. Okay. There you go. So he's currently serving as a constable. So, Steve, welcome to the show. It is great to have you here. Thank you for, for being with us, and, this is great. Great to have you here. Thank you very much. Thank you for the invite. Yeah. Awesome. So, opening opening salvo.
So what's something about you that most people don't know but should?
[00:11:09] Unknown:
Well, two things. One of the questions I got asked, during the last campaign, because I'm actually the returning nominee for the Republican Party for District 35, was how is a white guy like me going to serve the interest of the Hispanic population that's down in the San Antonio area? And, actually, I my background in heritage is actually Cherokee Indian. Wow. So you you really can't choose where you're born at. And so my family ended up having to migrate from Oklahoma to, California. That's kinda how we had to get there during the Dust Bowl era. So that's one thing. I'll give you two. Okay.
During high school, because my, stepfather was Mormon during that period of time, I actually had to go to seminary before high school ever started every single morning, all four years, during that period of time. So I have pretty grounded, structured Christian background too.
[00:12:09] Unknown:
Alright. Outstanding. And, so what's your, what's your go to to help you unwind at the end of the day?
[00:12:17] Unknown:
Well, family. I try to sit there. We were fortunate enough to bring both my girls from California before they got interested in their significant other. So they're they're both here. So I try to spend enough time with them, my wife. We've been together almost thirty five years, so we try to spend what little time because she actually is now working again. Two, she was in law enforcement with the same agency over there. So, sometimes I'll I'll click around on social media and and see what's the flavor of the day or flavor of the week. So some of those things.
[00:12:53] Unknown:
That's about it. Alright. Alright. Outstanding. Now now you lived you lived in Kern County, California. You served in law enforcement there for thirty years. What were some of the changes that you saw take place in your hometown and, within California that really made you decide that Texas was the place for you to go?
[00:13:11] Unknown:
Well, California politics, changed dramatically over my thirty year career. You know, some of the basic things in law enforcement where when I started out, you you if somebody was pregnant and they took some drugs and they killed their baby that was inside of them, we could actually charge them early on in the career for for murder. Mhmm. Towards the end of the career, they had changed the laws. So, basically, you no longer were able to hold anybody accountable for doing that because it's a disease, it's a illness. But the to the contrary, you actually were able to charge somebody if a drunk driver were to hit that same female and and kill her or significantly injure her and kill the baby that was inside of her for murder or homicide depending on, which statute you could actually press based on maybe previous DUI history and things like that. Mhmm. But the personal accountability was was significantly going down.
Just endless amounts of cash generation, you know, DMV fees were off the hook. If I were in California right now, the the vehicles that I have registered here in Texas would cost me about $4,000 a year to register them over there, because they're based on, in 02/2014, they they they considered all trucks to be commercial vehicles, whether they were half ton, small quarter tons, all the way up to the three quarter ton. And that was a a money grab, basically, every single year thereafter that that that tax increase for that vehicle to get it registered. Didn't matter what you were using it for, if it was commercial or personal use.
It just the nonsense that that kept integrating state income tax. I mean, that's the big one. That's one of the things that that we were looking at coming here versus there. And all in all, I think when we started our retirement in '21, we got the family over here at 18. So in '21, when I retired after after 30, our annual savings was about $16,000 a year, just cost of living. No state income tax, no vehicle registration fees, the the fuel to fuel those vehicles. Any consumables that we have to purchase, were based off of, transportation costs. They were increased because of, the fuel and things like that. So it's just a a constant power grab and money grab by everything that you could think of. And you could start seeing the writing on the wall, energy costs had I not bought solar over there, and I wouldn't do that here because of how cheap, the electricity is versus over there. But the first summer we had a house built in '14, it cost me about $850 a month during those summer months when we first built that house.
The next summer, we put about $36,000 worth of solar onto that house. And it would cost me about $10 a month because I overpowered it with the intent on doing that. So we still got charged $10 a month to just connect to the the PG and E grid. And now the the public utilities commission over there, is now assessing values based on, ZIP codes. If you live in a higher area, you're gonna pay more money than somebody, that doesn't instead of subsidizing those low rents or or whatever they used to do before. So these are the same philosophies that they wanna they wanna institute here in Texas that we're seeing those red flags. Several years ago when Beto was running for governor, he was wanting to institute a state income tax, but he wouldn't indicate what it is exactly that he wanted to utilize that money for or dedicate those funds for.
I've heard Tallarico kinda saying the same thing, along the same lines. Since now he's announced that he's gonna be running for senate as well. Mhmm. So that that same philosophy is traveling over here. And, by god, we we moved here for a reason, and we don't want California politics here. And some of the things that we saw over there, you know, you start taking over the state seat, and then those things start progressing throughout the rest of the state. Well, they've already taken over Austin. Austin City Council is all progressive now. Mhmm. A lot of the problems that we saw in the state legislature here, this last general session was, a lot of democrat influence into what was going on in the legislature.
So they're trying to do the same things that have been standard over there. They're they're funding homeless, initiatives over here with NGOs, same thing that they were doing up in the barrier in California. There's no accountability. They don't wanna do audits. They don't wanna sit there and allow, people to see how these money, the monies are being spent, the return on investments. They're not concerned with that. So that's the current 35. We we now have a new redistrict 35, which kind of more resembles what people's voting history is for the new 35,
[00:18:29] Unknown:
that we're gonna be running in. Yeah. I was actually gonna ask you about the whole redistricting because, it can be very confusing once they start start breaking these things up. And, now I know that your campaign, we had talked, prior to the show. You you're gonna be running up against several,
[00:18:45] Unknown:
several folks right now. Sure. And, And and it could change before December when, the filing period is over to get on the state ballot. So we'll see.
[00:18:54] Unknown:
Alright. Now how has your campaign strategy changed, from your previous run?
[00:18:59] Unknown:
Well, we have to we it's it's a lot better. So when I ran in '24, I ended up becoming, going through the primary. There was five of us. Went into the runoff in June. We found out basically the August 1 that we had run won the runoff. And we were looking at a 70% demographic of voters that traditionally voted in, for Democrats. Mhmm. The current rep, Greg Casar, and he was my motivation as to why it is that I actually wanted to run against him because of those progressive philosophies that, I don't I don't agree with. They're not good for the country. They're certainly not good for Texas.
And as a result, we were able to have a significant amount of success with the uphill battle. I think we shaved off almost eight points during that, voting period Mhmm. Which showed that people were being more reasonable to, the policies that were being pushed out by people rather than, the politics of the progressive party. So we had a little bit more reasonable voter base. Now we're looking at a three new counties, Guadalupe, Karnes, and Wilson, and then they changed Bexar County, which is still currently in the in the current 35. They took away the downtown area, gave that to District 20.
Those were voters that traditionally vote, blue Democrat, and they opened up a little bit more of Cibolo shirts and Converse, bringing in a little bit more of the military area down there in Converse as well. So the new district is looking like 55, 56% voter base, for Republicans.
[00:20:52] Unknown:
Alright. It it's to me, you know, I'd when you when you talk redistricting, it it it is very confusing. And, you know, I I I get lost in a lot of the details of it. But, but you're running in a district that's largely Democrat. And, and that Currently. Not currently.
[00:21:14] Unknown:
But that Not in the new district. Okay. And,
[00:21:18] Unknown:
well, that kinda goes along with the next question was, you know, what what are the unique challenges that, that you faced in building a grassroots support and how you're going to increase voter turnout?
[00:21:29] Unknown:
I I had a lot okay. So the biggest issue that we had was was fundraising during the last campaign. I think I only generated maybe about $4,500 in donations. But by doing that, we had to shift going, door to door. We did about 3,000 door knocks in in San Antonio. We did we we kinda partnered with Ted Cruz's campaign. We did a lot of door knocking in combination with his campaign that was in areas of 35 at the time. So all in all, I think we knocked on about 12,000 doors, and predominantly, that was me. Wow. I mean, so, you know, we weren't getting a lot of support, down in Bexar County, from volunteers, things like that. So I was down there alone.
Some of the things that we were hearing in in Downtown San Antonio, some of the housing associations I was invited to to come speak at, it's like it's refreshing to hear a voice on the Republican side or the opposing side because the only people that ever come talk to us are Democrats. And one of the ones in in particular that I was at, the actually, she she characterizes herself as a socialist, Tara Castillo. She's on San Antonio City Council, I think District 5. She was there that night. They were they were pitching the new project marble that they have for the new Spurs, stadium. Mhmm. And she was not having what I was having to say, but the board that invited me there was wanting to hear what I had to say.
And so it was refreshing to see the reactions, and the warmth, you know, that that they were the reception that we were getting, while I was down there. So, and and I've heard that time and time again. It's we don't have Republicans that come in to the low income areas and and present their their platforms, their message, and and things like that. So, unfortunately, a lot of those areas are no longer gonna be in the new 35, but the same dynamics and demographics exist for Bexar County, that need to be addressed for those people. And I think some of the warmth that we were getting is that they were looking at my law enforcement background as being working class, blue collar, and the representation that that they wanna see for somebody because we're losing the working class in this country.
And I think over the weekend, I was looking at some of the some of the numbers. And if you look at congress at an entirety, it's less than 2% that have a background of working class blue collar, representation there. So most of the representation are professions, very successful business owners. They have a lot of affluent, backers, donors. And so you're losing the representation if you're wanting to have that for the working class blue collar workers. And a lot of the people that are that are turning away from what used to traditionally be the Democrat party, having the association are looking to find out what Republicans are willing to do or what their messaging is gonna be.
And so I I think I'm more representative of that, and I think that's what kind of, was resounding a lot during the last campaign. I'm I'm hoping that it carries through with this new campaign. And the economic base for the new three counties basically is exactly the makeup for where I was raised at in Kern County with an oil, ag, and ranch atmosphere being predominant for their economic base. So it's important to be able to address those issues in the three new counties that we're gonna be, looking to represent also.
[00:25:19] Unknown:
You know, I think I think the Republican Party is is I think I think working class people, blue collar people are starting to realize that the Republican Party is really the party for the working people at this point. The Democratic Party that there that exists today is not the same Democratic Party that existed in the sixties, in the fifties, you know, when when Oh, really? So it it is it has traveled so far to the left. It has traveled so far to the extreme left that it just doesn't resonate with the average, hardworking, middle class, blue collar worker. You know, the the the type of person that that loves family, loves church, loves loves to work and provide and take care of their families. And, of course, you know, the the working class gets beaten up, you know, taxes and and and such.
But, you know, it's it's there's there's there's definitely a shift in this country in in in the representation of the working class person, and, you know, that that is the majority of this country. And the sad thing is, like you said, 2% of Congress, it doesn't have that type of a background. So there really is no real representation there. Folks in Congress are are basically serving their masters, and their masters are the, the, Ultra rich. The, you know, the ultra rich. The corporations. Yes. And the the special interest groups, and and so they've totally lost touch. And what we're seeing here now is, and and I'm hoping that this is a long term change for for Republicans, is that the the image of the Republican is now more of, hey, look, we're we're just, you know, we love the same things you love. We wanna ensure those things are, remain intact and and conserve.
Is not a bad word. You know, conserve and preserve those things which made this country the greatest country in the on the Earth. You know, family, religion, family, church, love of country, those things which are so anathema to the left at this point in history. Absolutely. Which is it's it's ridiculous. So, you know, it's it's refreshing to see that there are candidates going out into these districts and going out and meeting these people and bringing that message and getting that type of response.
[00:27:34] Unknown:
That's that's Yeah. It's it's extremely refreshing to hear because if you look at what what's going on I don't know. Maybe maybe you have experienced this. Maybe you've done it yourself. I know I recognize it in doing it myself. But in the past, being young, growing up, you you see a candidate. You hear what they have to say. You like what they have to say. You vote for them, and then your life goes on autopilot. You don't check-in to see what they've done. You don't check-in to see what they're doing. Mhmm.
And as a result, now we're faced with a $37,000,000,000,000 deficit on our country, the people that are depending on Social Security benefits are getting taxed or having reduced benefits because our previous congresses have either leveraged the Social Security trust fund or they've taxed people because they've been productive members of society by having maybe a spouse that has, an income, a pension, maybe they have a pension, and they're gonna reduce benefits for something that they've achieved and paid for their entire life. And that's what exactly, needs to change because the the the funds have been depleted. We need to get people working more back, in this country to start generating more revenue for Social Security. We need to figure out how to replenish those Social Security trust act funds from what has been robbed, stolen, leveraged in the past.
The big beautiful bill was just basically a Band Aid for the next three years where people that either are taxed or, gonna be receiving these benefits in the future, can claim a tax credit at the end of the year. But on a month to month basis, they're still gonna have reduced benefits. And I don't realize that I don't think people really understand that right now. One of the things that didn't get addressed in the big beautiful bill were people that are SSDI recipients where they've been disabled and they've had to file for these benefits. And, you know, it takes multiple years for some of these claims to get resolved. Yeah. And what ends up happening is I I think the the tax credit's about $6,000 a year for Social Security to help offset what's being taken out on a monthly basis, when you file your taxes.
But let's say you have a SSDI recipient that gets three or four years of back pay as a result of of getting those benefits finally awarded. And when you open up your statement, they're gonna take over a third of those benefits because it's a one time lump sum payment that the IRS requires them to take from you. And it could be 10 to $15,000 depending on how much it is that they're awarding you per year or per month for those SSDI benefits. So if you're only getting a $6,000 credit on your taxes and you're getting 10 to $15,000 taken from you, that doesn't offset that. That needs to be fixed. And so we need candidates that are going to go beyond Trump.
Eventually, we're gonna end up we're not gonna have them in three years in the White House. Hopefully, we're gonna have another Republican candidate. Mhmm. But we need somebody with a lot longer foresight as to what things need to get accomplished in in congress. And it's gonna take a while to get people on board to start realizing that we need to fix it. We need to get new funding sources, like I say, for, for that. We have supposedly all this money coming in from tariffs. Why can't we redirect that money through a bill and and redirect that into the the trust fund so that the people that, are looking at these benefits aren't looking at 2034 to only get 80% of of their monies because that that fund's being depleted.
So we need to do things that gain the trust back in our congressional members, our elected official because we don't I don't think we have that across the country anymore. So we need candidates that are willing to have a vision, a long term vision that's gonna fix things and be willing to dedicate themselves to bring back the middle class. You know, we have we have I've got allergies, so I'm a little bit dizzy today. So No. You're good. Private equity funds are a problem in this country. You know? They're they're now creating an issue, in many different categories.
We've got majority of of the assets that they, State Street, Vanguard, BlackRock, we have a lot of retirement funds, four zero one k's that invest in these funds. Then these funds take these the the assets that they have, and they invest in major corporations across the country. And they they don't just invest in them, but they get majority shares in these corporations, and they overrule a lot of what these boards do on these corporations. And so they become profit driven because the private equity investments that they have, they wanna perform for those. And it's kind of almost like they're acting as a monopoly, and you need to tackle them because congress has the ability to do that and regulate monopolies.
But the other thing that they're doing is they're buying up nationwide entire housing, districts, housing, neighborhoods, developments, and they're buying in bulk so they get discount from the builders. Let's say it's let's say Doctor Horton, you know, sells a house that traditionally sells 4 or $500,000, but they're gonna buy an entire neighborhood or subdivision and they get a discount, let's say, $300,000. So they go through. They might run them out. They might just let them sit there and and, you know, appraise and value and and increase.
But they and this is what I've also been explained on how they do this. They'll have a subaccount that they have, and they'll sell that investment portfolio to them at a profit, and then they'll leverage that with loans and go out and do this again. So they are inflate falsely inflating housing values across the nation by doing this because home affordability is is no longer there. And so they have a significant impact that they're creating, as well. So what does that do for our our young people that are that are wanting to, buy houses, get into first first housing projects, investments,
[00:34:09] Unknown:
retirees, things like that. It makes it almost impossible.
[00:34:13] Unknown:
Correct. So it it's there's a lot of problems with our country, and it starts with some of the things that our congressional members do. And until we start getting people that hopefully start jumping in to elections like this that are grassroots candidates that are are understanding what the history of what taxes do to your paycheck, your families, the the bad policies that they implement, we're not gonna change. And we're certainly not gonna, start developing, trust in our elected officials at the congressional level until we start seeing a positive change. And one of the other things that they do, where have all of our jobs gone, for the middle class? They've been outsourced.
So if these private equity firms are having controlling interest and votes for a lot of these major corporations, they also have influence on who the CEOs are gonna be. And if they're wanting to drive profits, they're gonna be outsourcing that labor for whatever it is that they're they're they're managing, making, and developing, and they're gonna outsource it to other countries. And that's what has happened over the years. Then they go to the legislature, and they get tariff reductions or fees and stuff that are a little bit more accommodating so they can still bring in that profit or that product from another country at a reasonable price so that they can still have a a marginal profit. So, some of these things like Mexico, you have to have, what is it, the 73% American made to bring in a truck from Ford, from Mexico into The US in order to get some of those those tariff reductions and such. Mhmm.
But, so they they affect a lot of different aspects of our of our national economics. So it's gonna be hard without additional candidates moving forward to to start helping to address some of these issues.
[00:36:16] Unknown:
Yeah. Well, I agree with you a 100% on that. We we do need more people. We need fresh blood coming into Congress, and and we're we're gonna get into that in a little bit. What I what I would like to do, though, before we get into anything else, really, I wanna get into your policies, your your platform. K. Because I will say that, you know, I've looked at other congressional candidates and, I think kinda lacking on the national politics, for the particular offices that they're running for. Now the first thing that you listed on your on your policy platform is, and I'd like you to explain this, is human trafficking. Now now you've listed this as your first policy, and you explained that you've been a witness to this behavior and, in in your time in serving law enforcement.
What do you think would be the first policy that could be established to help the innocent lives that are caught up in human trafficking?
[00:37:17] Unknown:
We're going down a good road right now by controlling the border. So the the amount of people that are no longer coming across the border affects this. Going after the cartels because they're the ones that have controlled the human trafficking aspect of it, it actually is is more lucrative money wise to the cartels than than the drug industry and the smuggling of that. But hand in hand, controlling the border is the biggest issue. So human trafficking, it's it's not only sex trade, but it's labor trade. So if somebody's wanting to be smuggled across the border, they have to pay a fee to these these, mules, that are getting them from point a to point b. And if they don't have the ability to pay the entire fee, then they identify them, label them, they get they get family locations, you know, things like that. And they have to provide labor to work off that indenture amount that cost them to get over the border. If they get deported, it happens all over again.
And so they they do a lot of most of the issues are are sex related trafficking, but we need to increase the amount of of crimes on a national level that can be enforced for that. And we need to make sure that we keep going on the same the same path with, the border control, issue that we're we're currently on so that we we don't continue that cycle. So policies and such regarding, the drug trafficking and the human trafficking, we need to continue doing the the aspects of cartel related crimes and things that are adversely affecting this this population. So, like, the drug cartels are are now being tagged with if somebody dies, passes away, they can be charged with murder because of the product. Mhmm. Same thing with the labor. You know? If if you're if you're trafficking a minor, you should have almost the same penalties as as the drug traffickers, you know, because you're you're taking the innocence away from a minor because of what you're doing to them that's it's irreparable harm. PTSD, the the bodily autonomy, the the functions, things like that that that affect in so many different ways, from that that environment and that climate, the the amount of sexual assaults just coming over the border from the from these individuals alone just by controlling the traffic on the border is gonna stop that.
So we need people that are willing to identify and and help us get these people out of the trafficking atmosphere. And that's what ice you know, that's what their secondary mission is. Mhmm. And they don't get a lot of credit for doing that. They, you know, they got almost a 125,000 people in the in the last eight months, nine months that have been identified coming out of trafficking. So we we need to make sure that we're prosecuting the people that we can and investigating to identify the cartel members that we're going after, and and getting them
[00:40:41] Unknown:
prosecuted. I agree with you. So what what would be the top three things that you think should be done immediately or could be done immediately to put an end to human trafficking?
[00:40:52] Unknown:
We we need to find the people first because we're still missing, I think, almost 200,000 kids that, you know, went missing over the last four years. Mhmm. We need to start doing the networking, and we needed to continue funding the ICE administration, department that is actually doing, those investigations along with the FBI, the local sheriffs. So they need to be able to have the infrastructure to be able to go out and investigate these crimes. And and we need to stop having some of the interactions that we have at these law enforcement facilities, which depletes our ability to accomplish that part of the mission that ICE actually does. We need to make sure that we have more, prosecutors that can sit there and prosecute these crimes and the investigators that are willing to develop the the cases to move forward. So, it's a lot of funding and a lot of staff resources that need to be dedicated, into investigating these crimes.
[00:41:57] Unknown:
Alright. Now, you also list drug trafficking. I don't know if we touched briefly on that just now. But especially here in Texas, you know, we especially here where I live. I live in Eagle Pass. I'm sitting right here on the border. You know, it's a huge issue. Granted, the the borders here right now, it's 99.9% completely shut down. You know, there's there's no really no illegal crossings taking place right now. But, in your experience in law enforcement, you know, this this brought you closer to this problem. And then, of course, you know, with with the rise of deaths from fentanyl and, and the power of the cartels in Mexico, what do you see as an immediate first time or first line of defense against drug trafficking?
[00:42:45] Unknown:
The the border's a good start. I would like to see the wall because it deters the people from coming over to begin with. Mhmm. Not a lot of people are are a fan of that, but it dedicates resources, from what we saw under the past four years where the the cartels would have people cross illegally in one certain area. Law enforcement actually swarms into that area to deal with the illegal crossings, leaving other areas that are unprotected to traffic or smuggle in other things that they need to bring across the country. So it leaves other areas unprotected. The wall is just a deterrent to allow some of those resources to stop in the future. There is other technology and such that they need to be funded with.
We need to have the enhanced crimes. We need to go out more after the cartels. Mhmm. And I I don't think people understand the scope of exactly what we're talking about with just fentanyl alone. It's almost been a hundred and twenty thousand people a year that we've had adversely, die because of the fentanyl, trafficking that that we've had in this country. That's right. Yeah. Matter of fact, one of, my former campaign, from last year, his son passed away. The first four years that I was actually retired, I worked for, Hays c I CISD, the school district up in Hays County. And we had almost six over, overdose cases, four deaths. One of those was that candidate's son during that period of time. And so it affects not only the family, it affects the communities, it affects the school district, his family, his friends.
It's it's not just an unnamed tragedy because of that. It is something that resonates with the community, when it happens. It's your brother. It's your family member. It's your uncle. It's your dad. And a lot of people don't associate that. And I think a a lot of what some of these progressives are doing is is that they're trying to dehumanize the element of what is going on in this country so that it doesn't seem to be so bad. And when you start talking to people, it affects them directly in in a lot of different ways. So it's it's impactful, and we need to start looking at prosecuting not just at a state level, but at a federal level. If we can sit there and have these investigations and turn them over to the federal officials to get a lot more enhanced punishments and go after the cartels like Trump wants to do Mhmm.
And that takes a lot of federal resources. A lot of federal resources that are getting dispersed across the country to deal a lot of, with the protests that we're doing right now. So Right. If people would just allow ICE to do their jobs, we could better, on the back end with their their collateral assignments, make a lot more positive difference for for some of the families that are being affected by this.
[00:45:57] Unknown:
Now speaking of of ICE and, you know, we've mentioned a few times here, we're talking about immigration. Immigration reform. That's another that's another, platform on your on your policy platform. Where would you begin with this policy? What would you do? What would be the first step you would take? So
[00:46:15] Unknown:
working for the school district for the last four years, I I developed a lot of friends and coworkers that are are here. They're doing the right thing. They they're, they've come into the country legally. They've they've asked everything that ICE has been doing. They've married American citizens. They keep their pair papers up to date. They have families. They have businesses. They pay their taxes, but they're not citizens yet. Mhmm. And a lot of the concerns that they have is it's such a unknown program, I would like to see an expedited process that shouldn't be any more than thirty to sixty days once you submit the documentation that would be part of the program, like marriage certificates, tax records, marriage marriage certificates, tax records, your your current, immigration paperwork that you've, been doing the entire time, and maybe the birth certificates of your family members, your your kids that you've had.
And it shouldn't it should not require you to pay $3,400 an hour for an attorney to to do that for you. It should be an easy process, that's easy to navigate for these individuals that that warrant doing the right thing. We should be applauding them for wanting to do that, and we should be applauding the people that do things the right way and not concentrating on the ones that are doing things illegally in this country and are getting deported because of it. It's not a reward, but it's it's a common sense approach to something that, should be happening anyway. A lot of these individuals already have Social Security numbers. You know? They're they're paying their taxes. They're doing everything we've asked of them, and they just don't think that they can afford, the time, the effort, and and the resources necessary to become a US citizen. And it it's just unnecessary. So that's that's one thing I would like to see, just an expedited process.
[00:48:20] Unknown:
Go ahead. I thought Oh, no. No. No. No. I was I was going to, but but, I can't I'd I'm not formulating the question properly in my head yet, so, it'll it'll come to but, I guess, well, I guess, basically, my question is I mean, it it does take years to to become a US citizen. And like you said Yeah. Tons of money granted.
[00:48:43] Unknown:
And I've been a friend of mine from ICE when I I worked in California that, he was born here and raised here, but his grandmother spent almost fifteen years doing the process, the legal, and the right way to come here, paying the money, waiting for, the background investigations, waiting for the okay to come over, and he said that the reward that she got by getting here was immeasurable. You she she she waited to do her time, and the family appreciates being here and and the time and commitment that she did and devoted to the family to bring bring them to this country so they can have a better life. And I you know, they they were for the Indonesia area. So the the rewards are there, and and we need to reinstill that that our citizenship from other countries coming here means something.
It's not something that should just be given through amnesty or,
[00:49:47] Unknown:
expected or Glad you said that. I'm glad you said that because that that's what I was thinking. So because I was gonna say that, you know, it does need there does need to be a change in the policy to become a US citizen. It does need to be a faster process. And by a faster process, I we don't mean amnesty like you just said. And, yeah, but that seems to be the the the the quick response that you get from, from from the folks that are in Congress or or or elected officials is, just yeah. Let them in. Just give it give them the citizenship, you know, whatever. But yet, in the same time, you have all these people that have come in the right way and have been working hard to try to get to this to the stage where these people have crossed over illegally are now granted citizenship while they're still on a waiting list, and they're still paying fees, and they're still going through the process of it.
[00:50:31] Unknown:
Absolutely.
[00:50:32] Unknown:
Yeah. And actually, I agree with you on that. It does need to, it does it does need to be streamlined. And also, I I think too, I think as well, you know, I think other countries are more selective of who they allow into the country to become citizens. And I think that's something that we need to start doing too. I I I don't Things are
[00:50:51] Unknown:
more restrictive in a lot of other countries that criticize our immigration process and the lack of empathy or sympathy that we do not have towards people that have come into our country illegally. And when you go back at their countries, they've got more stricter guidelines than we do. Mhmm. So it's it's almost it's almost like the the president of Mexico lecturing us on their citizens that are in our country illegally, which had occurred, what, six months ago.
[00:51:17] Unknown:
And Yeah. I remember that.
[00:51:19] Unknown:
And yet, you know, you're not even supposed to, traverse through Mexico without making contact with Mexico even if your intent is to come to The US. And our policies are supposed to be followed that before we contact anybody or allow anybody under our country, you're supposed to vet the paperwork that they had received from Mexico just to traverse across their country to get here. It doesn't matter if they're from Mexico or anywhere else. Mhmm. But just by entering Mexico with the intent on coming here, you're supposed to get approved, through their process and paperwork Yeah. To come here. And we ignored that over the last four years, and so did they.
So it it's just to me kinda hypocritical that, you know, just
[00:52:05] Unknown:
Mexico is just one example. Of course. No. Of course. I know I know that Australia is extremely hard to get citizenship going to Australia, because you have to demonstrate that you have something that you're gonna be able to contribute to their to their culture and their society. Same thing in Japan. You know, you have to assimilate. You can't there there is no coming to that to those countries and saying, well, you know, I refuse to learn your language. I I refuse to follow your your rules. I refuse to follow your laws. You know, we see that now coming in with, with with all of these, these folks coming in from these Muslim countries, they refuse to assimilate.
Sharia law. Sharia law, and, you know, and it's I I know there's a law in in in on the books in Texas already where Sharia law is is banned, but yet you still have these these place like Epic City popping up. Right. You know, it it's it's terrible. I saw a video today. Providing political donations
[00:52:57] Unknown:
to allow these things to go between the state and and local levels to approve these communities. Yeah.
[00:53:03] Unknown:
It's it's it's ridiculous. I mean, it's like you're talking out of both sides of your mouth and you're saying two different things. Right. Not you. I'm talking about so, you know, so the the the the I like to be a black and white
[00:53:19] Unknown:
issue person because it it it there's no ambiguity.
[00:53:24] Unknown:
Agreed. Absolutely. Yeah. Earlier today, I was actually talking to a to a a friend of mine, and, saw this video from from England, and it was a a Muslim preacher talking about how they have, 500 Christian churches have closed in England, and those properties were purchased by Muslim groups. And now those Christian churches are now places of worship for, the Islamic community. And it's happening there, it's happening here, it's happening all over. Sure. Because they're they're not coming into this country with the intention of assimilating, they're coming in here to bring whatever Beliefs they have. Exactly. From from wherever they're coming from, and and trying to, you know, change everything here to make it more like it was over there. Well, if if it was so great over there, why don't you stay there?
[00:54:13] Unknown:
Correct. If your beliefs are already in place there, then seems like you would be a good fit to stay there. Exactly. Exactly.
[00:54:20] Unknown:
And if and like you said, over the last four years of the previous administration, his the open door policies that they that they had did not make the process of coming to this country any less complicated. Right. So it's, you know, it's immigration is a very difficult thing, unless you just follow the existing laws. If you follow the laws,
[00:54:46] Unknown:
you have the That would infer that you have personal accountability in mind or responsibility individual responsibility or accountability, and and that's not what, the new movement that's being pushed out by the progressives, embraces. They they want open societies. They want people to travel. They want people to exist. And, you know, you start looking at these homeless populations that have mental health issues, drug problems, and and where these communities have embedded the progressive ideology, the the law enforcement's been told to keep their hands off. You know? Well, look what's happening in Portland. In somewhat in San Antonio, but huge issue in Austin.
So, we saw it in California, and the only time that they actually started cleaning up and allowing police to interact and do the job that they needed to do and clean up the homeless in in the Bay Area this last six months was because people started screaming about having audits for the $20,000,000,000 that they've spent in the last four years for the homeless population. Right. No return on investment. And so they wanted to start acting like they were being, compassionate and reflective of the laws that were already on the books, but it was just a distraction from the audit request and demands that they were getting, from all that money. And you see a lot of that up in Austin.
And a lot of these these these homeless populations, they network. So if if things are being shut down in California, where do you think that they're gonna go to? They're gonna go someplace that have community resources and law enforcement that that has a hands off approach Right. To that population. And so the population in Austin is increasing. Obviously, it's it's a no brainer. So and so was the funding for the the NGOs and the and the homeless community and and stuff that's coming out of Austin. So, fortunately, that's no longer my district that I'm gonna be running in, but it's still a concern. And and you see it, and and we certainly don't want it to be happening.
But what's your what's your thoughts on dual citizenship?
[00:57:00] Unknown:
I think, dual citizenship should not be a thing. I think you you're either a citizen of this country or you're not. Especially when it comes to members of Congress or elected officials in in in government service, whether it's a state, local, or federal level, I think dual citizenship is a should be forbidden. Absolutely not allowed. Where are your allegiances?
[00:57:21] Unknown:
Would it surprise you that every single foreign born citizen that's been elected into congress has dual citizenship? Oh, no. I'm not surprised by that at all. K. Not at all. I I think the last number that I was told that there's somewhere around 60 members of congress that actually have dual citizenship for various reasons, but every single person that's been foreign born, that's been elected into our our congressional membership,
[00:57:44] Unknown:
have that dual citizenship. So Right. And that's why you hear some of the comments that they make talking about the communities that they represent, that that's who they're loyal to.
[00:57:53] Unknown:
Correct. And it it's just it's interesting that most of the progressive ideologies that they're pushing is for the socialist agenda for the countries that they were born in, and they wanna bring that here, but they're claiming an oath and allegiance to The United States. And it's just it's just a new and I think it's just basically a fall back to where that's where the money's at. They're they're trying to disrupt the country.
[00:58:20] Unknown:
And, you know, what Well, I think the ultimate goal of of the globalist, the ultimate goal of, the progressive movement is the breakdown of national sovereignty. They don't want a strong United States. They don't want a a United States that is, that's that's moral. They don't want a United States that's, that that's you you can be compassionate and be moral, but united as well. They don't want that. They they want the open borders. They want it just like it is in Europe, the European Union. They don't want to see American exceptionalism.
They don't. They wanna tear it down. Telling us for a long time that they are going to destroy us from within, and Which they have. We need to start paying attention because they are actively doing that. Well, yeah. Well, that's the other thing too. You I I I'm not the only one who says this. I've I've heard it many, many, many times. When a progressive, socialist, communist, whatever you wanna call them, tells you they're gonna do something, believe them. But not only that, but believe them because they're gonna do it if they're not already doing it. Just like they just like they accuse the right of doing all the things that they're doing and have been doing.
If they're telling you that they're gonna tear down your society, they're gonna tear down your country, they're gonna tear down your city, your state, they're gonna do it, and they are doing it. And it's and it's spreading. It's like a cancer in this country.
[00:59:42] Unknown:
Yeah. It's it's I I agree. And being a little open minded to see what's going on, you actively see that this is what they're doing. They've got their rhetoric and their propaganda on the on the college campuses. Mhmm. Thank God, you know, we we had Charlie Kirk for the period of time that we had him that was opening people's eyes and bringing God back into our youth and redirecting them because, you know, what's been going on for the last fifteen years, we've been pushing out that if you're gonna be a success in this country, you need a college degree, and they've been detracting from the hands on labor, you know, trades that we we hold value in this country for the working class. Absolutely. So we we've got a huge deficit in jobs that are in those markets, and now they're saying that it's our fault because we're deporting the people that are doing these jobs when we've been recruiting people and telling them that they need to have a college degree, and they they don't have programs in place that force these kids to look and see what the job market capability of being able to support yourself with whatever degree path that you wanna follow while you're in college.
And so you have a a saturation in one field that you're never ever gonna be able to support your yourself or much less a family. Right. So we we need to get back to promoting the trades. And one of the things so when we when we came over here, we were able to bring my my youngest daughter. We we allowed her to go to the last two years of of high school here to develop some of those friendships. Mhmm. But some of the things that they were doing over here with the education system in Texas, we hadn't seen over in California decades. So they had a lot of those regional occupational programs, that they shut down stating that it was money related issues over there. But, it's just different priorities, versus over here. It's Right.
And and, you know, we we it was refreshing to see it. And and I'm glad and I will wanting to support that and continue that here for Texas because the people wanna have Texas values first, but we also need to promote policies, across the nation that affect everybody equally. It doesn't matter what party you're in. Mhmm. Taxes, immigration, all these different things, economics. You know? They they affect everybody equally, and and they don't wanna admit it. Mhmm. But but it happens.
[01:02:18] Unknown:
Yeah. And just just two quick comments on on what we said previously. I I think, personally speaking, that the reason why folks, you know, they push you need to have a college education is because you go to these these liberal colleges and, you know, you're not taught how to think, you're taught what to think. So you get all of these brainwashed people coming out with these pieces of paper that just says that they've been trained. That's all it that to me that's all it is. That piece of paper does not tell me I know anything more than anybody else. I was just taught what to think, not how to think. I can't you can't think critically. That's why you can get into debates with people with higher degree. Look, I I I have some college. Okay?
And, I I I consider myself educated. Some of the dumbest people I've ever had any kind of debate with or any kind of discussion with are people with higher education degrees. Some of the dumbest people, because they don't think critically. They're they're told what to think, not how to think. It took it it I had a I had a moment several years ago where I I decided that, you know what, I I need to I need to study myself, and I did my own research, and I did my own work, and I did I taught myself, you know, and I learned more factual information actually.
Teaching myself and doing my own research, my own study than I ever did in all the classes that I've taken in college. You know, I went to What's your broader base? Of course, and I went to college. I I, you know, I I did my my my city university, training education in, in New York. I went to Bible school, you know, I I I read you should see my library inside there. I've read just about everything that I have on that on that shelf. I love the enlightenment period of our history. You know, people say the the the World War two generation is the greatest generation. Yeah, great generation. Yes, for sure. Absolutely. The greatest generation was our founding generation. Yeah. You know, that's my opinion. That works. Yep. Exactly.
So so, you know, I studied that. I read that. I love that stuff, because that's who we are as a country, as America. Alright? America is, you know, is not The United States. That is not America. Alright? America is an idea, and America is is values. America is freedom, it's liberty. And we don't have that anymore because we have a bunch of brainwashed morons running around telling us that, no. No. The government says that you would do this, and the government gave you that right, and the government said this when that's absolutely untrue, and I'm on a soapbox. I'm gonna stop.
[01:04:59] Unknown:
That was the beauty with Charlie Kirk, that he was able to to root out the faults in our our formal ed higher education system. He made them think promote critical thinking in our youth to look at an opposing view to gain an original thought of yourself. Exactly.
[01:05:19] Unknown:
Exactly. And and and, unfortunately, that's what got him killed. Unfortunately, yes. And, I mean, I have we have there's other theories involved in all that stuff, which I don't really get into, because I think that's just that just that just disrespects his life and everything he did, so I don't play around. I read them. I find them fascinating to see all the different points of view. Right. But but, you know, what happened happened, and, you know, it's a terrible thing. It's a terrible stain on this country that something like that happened, that a a bright, intelligent young man was was taken out because he brought discourse, which is what the left always talks about day one. We have to talk. We have to talk. We have to have discourse. We have to have discussion.
Well
[01:06:05] Unknown:
We're doing that, but it's not what we wanna hear. Exactly.
[01:06:09] Unknown:
Exactly. They their their version of of discourse and discussion is that you agree with everything that they say, and you acknowledge everything that they say, which you get when you go to college. Correct. You're taught what to think and what to say. And we need people that continue
[01:06:28] Unknown:
promoting the same philosophy that Charlie Kirk promoted across the country. And I don't know who is gonna pick up that torch, but I think it's incumbent on people that are gonna be looking in office to start looking at our youth and making sure that they're taken care of and their their future is is gonna be secure for whatever that they wanna do. You know, I'm a big advocate in in government. The first responsibility it has to its community and its citizens is is public safety. Everything thereafter is just a a bunch of programs and services that allow us to seek out the quality of life that we want to pursue, and it shouldn't be incumbent on us to have to work for government to sustain government. It should be the other way around. I agree with that. We need to get back to that. Yes. Absolutely. Another thing and and,
[01:07:29] Unknown:
you know, I've said this before and I'll say it again, because I firmly believe this. The only thing the only thing that I want government to do for me is to protect my right to do for myself. That's all I want government to do. I want them out of my way. Primarily what the conservative movement
[01:07:52] Unknown:
entails is less government so that we have least amount of government in our personal lives as possible, and we're keeping as much money in our pockets that we earn along the way that we possibly can because we see that the government is not responsible fiscally in in how they spend our money. And I wonder how many liberals That's one of the things Doge brought out as well,
[01:08:15] Unknown:
and it's gonna continue going on. So I wonder how many liberals realize that on their tax form when they when they submit their their their documentation to the government that there's a little box there that says you can you can contribute more than what they take. How many liberals know that? I mean, if you wanna fund government, go right ahead. Don't take it out of my pocket. You're not because they're not representing me.
[01:08:37] Unknown:
Yeah. Bill billionaires are the problem, but what is it exactly that you want them to pay? Right. I mean, they they they're the ones that took the risks. They created these companies, these corporations, these businesses. They employ hundreds of thousands of people. They they pay property taxes. They pay employees' wages. Mhmm. They which get taxed. They pay for Social Security for those, employees for the employer share, but they're not paying enough. It's them individually that they think they need to pay more pay more, but they never can itemize exactly what it is that they need to be paying.
[01:09:16] Unknown:
And for what?
[01:09:18] Unknown:
Exactly. There's there's never a number associated with that. When you have Elon Musk getting a a $55,000,000,000, settlement payout for stock shares by the performance of Tesla, and he's paying, 20% in in taxes in one year by cashing that out Mhmm. That's 20%. I think usually when I was filing my taxes, I I'm usually between 18 or 20%. I think that's high, but, you know, that seems to be comparable what my entire career I was paying in taxes. Mhmm. But they want them paying thirty, forty, 60%. I I think they never can provide an actual number. Mhmm. Because that's never enough. That they created, have a substantial impact on the communities.
[01:10:06] Unknown:
So that's that's never gonna be enough. No. It it never will. It never will. But we are way off into the weeds here, brother. Let's get back to your policies here. Veterans, first responders, what are three things that, that you believe we could do better when it comes to recognizing the service that our veterans and first responders provide?
[01:10:25] Unknown:
Well, let let's take veterans first. You know, we need to continue down the same path that we're going right now. You know, they're they're coming out with these programs for community care to serve our veterans, you know, that the VA cannot, adequately serve. Maybe they might be in rural areas, but we need to make sure that those programs are efficient. Get rid of all the red tape, get rid of the waiting periods. I certainly don't like to hear the suicide rates that we have from our veterans on a national level, every single year.
They need the services. I understand what PTSD is. You know? I've I've had to deal with it many, many times in law enforcement. And, you know, you you can never give enough to a veteran because of what they've done for our country to preserve the way of life that we we have. One of my uncles and, god forbid, when whenever I get the time to do it because I was denied the time, but my my dad's middle brother, died with brain cancer. He was in, the air force. He got, brain cancer because of agent Orange due to, back in Vietnam.
And my dad fought for years and years and years to get him put on the Vietnam Memorial, and and that actually, happened on Father's Day every year when they induct the new, people that are being put on the wall. And I tried to go back there. You know, I think it was 2011 when he was inducted, and I was denied the time off because we had too many people at work off at the same time. So I was never able to do that. My wife just got home from work. So Okay. We, I would like to go back there and see that for myself because that was the last time that my grandmother was able to actually travel back there and have some of his family, present for that for that induction. But my dad's, you know, carried the torch and done those every single year, when he's asked to go do that for the new inductees. But, it's impactful.
I've never heard of my family, which strong military background all all across the board, complain on the VA services, but I certainly have heard about them, by talking to people and networking with people and stuff. So we need to make sure that they're taken care of. And the less administrative bloat that we have, we we need to carry that torch and move forward. Agree. First responders is the same thing. One of the things that we we need to look at is when you know, they're paying the ultimate price, either side of the house, whether it's veterans or law enforcement.
The law enforcement side of the house has a congressional program, and they give an annuity for the family members if somebody's either disabled or died in the line of duty. And some of those things that I became first aware of when we had some of the people that passed away, giving their life in our agency, that some of these programs are are backlogged two, three, four, five years to get these benefits to the family, and and they need to be brought into into place. We need to have representation that supports law enforcement from the top of government down because these people are are the ones that are out there, and it's in a spire. You know? It's not just police Mhmm. But it's all public safety.
[01:13:39] Unknown:
Right.
[01:13:40] Unknown:
Though these are the ones that they call when we have problems locally, to come help us out. And so every single day that, you know, you you have law enforcement background yourself. And so it it's you you never know what's gonna happen at the start of your shift, and you hope that you get to home go home to your family at the end of your shift. So whatever happens to you, whatever's sent to you throughout that shift, it's like water on a duck's back. It rolls off as long as I can sit there and go home to my family at the end of the night. That's right. Yeah. So,
[01:14:11] Unknown:
That's the goal.
[01:14:12] Unknown:
And by the time that I retired in '21, you know, we we had, the twenty twenty riots all summer long, being confronted on the receiving end of those riots. You you have a clear cut analogy as to what their ideologies are and what their potential is when they want to, weaponize the these, ideologies. And so that was one of the motivations that I had when I learned that the the current sitting congressional member of '35 did that to Austin by defunding Austin police because he was embracing the BLM Antifa movement. Mhmm. And they had to utilize some force that was, during some of those riots that they were doing in Austin, and he politicized that and used that political theater to defund the the PD up there.
And since government has the the sole responsibility of, to its citizens as as public safety, you just don't do that. And the aftermath still carries through today of what he did back in '21. So that was kind of my my motivation to jump into this to begin with to start getting a a support system in place for our law enforcement and our public safety members that are out there doing the job every single day.
[01:15:35] Unknown:
Outstanding. And you talk about providing armed security in schools to protect the children. What roadblocks do you think you'll face when trying to present this as a policy?
[01:15:45] Unknown:
Funding, is the big thing. We already have that here in Texas, but funding is not being provided for some of these programs to have, armed staff on current campuses right now through the state legislature. We do have COPS funding that we can do to utilize through the federal level, to maybe help offset that or or prioritize that with states that aren't funding that, across the nation or maybe like here in Texas. Some districts are just absorbing that cost. They're getting private security that are armed, and going through TCOOL, which is the state licensing, to make sure that they they have the training adequate.
Some have police forces, some don't. So, funding's a big key with getting that, streamlined. And there's a lot of support for that nationwide. I don't know how much support that's gonna have with, you know, private institutions now that, like, state, here has done the voucher systems where you you can just go to a private institution, if the state's gonna try to require or pick up the funding to have law enforcement personnel, that are armed or private security that's armed at those at those locations. But, that's probably, you know, one of the biggest hurdles I see.
[01:17:02] Unknown:
The funding. Yeah. I I I could see that. Very important question for me is the second amendment. What what are you what are your immediate thoughts, your concerns when it comes to the second amendment?
[01:17:23] Unknown:
I'm fearful that we're gonna have a change in administrative leadership, and they're gonna start imposing nationwide red flag laws because we see the weaponization of our legal system with Trump and other individuals that supported his agenda in the past and currently. And it's gonna get chipped away, and it's gonna adversely affect everyday citizens from obtaining keeping guns in their in their, everyday lives and access. They've already had concerns with, veterans, military personnel that have PTSD not being able to access or buy or having them flagged so that they can't purchase weapons on the federal level, in some states.
And so because I don't trust the red flag law system, it's gonna get weaponized and it's gonna get misused and abused. Now in California, we did have that. We had a lot of very positive Red County, conservative that I grew up in and I worked in law enforcement in. We had the ability to bring in a judge, to seize weapons and things like that for, victim services for domestic violence, stalking, crimes against persons where, a weapon was used to where we could go out under under a warrant and seize weapons, especially if it involved, stalking and and and victims of domestic violence.
And it had oversight with the judges, and that's what I'm fearful that on a nationwide level, it's gonna get misused, and it's gonna adversely affect people that, have an absolute right to to own and and retain their weapons.
[01:19:13] Unknown:
I just where where I get hung up is is that, you know, the second amendment's a right that was given to us not by government. It was given to us by God.
[01:19:23] Unknown:
Yep.
[01:19:26] Unknown:
And it says very specifically, I shall not be infringed. So I I don't I I I don't like the idea of red flag laws. I don't like the idea of restricting, but I do understand that there is a need to, especially when you have someone with a with a mental disability, I I I I I get that. I understand it, but you know and I know that it will be heavily misused. Absolutely. And it's Let's
[01:20:00] Unknown:
can I can I inject a Yeah? A a scenario? Sure. Let's say somebody was under the care, of a medical profession, and they get diagnosed with some type of mental illness. Mhmm. And let's say a doctor prescribes some type of psychotropic medications. And through the course of that treatment, they they become suicidal, homicidal. Mhmm. And they're taking the psychotropic medications, which is an imbalance in their in their brain system. Should a medical professional be required to report to local law enforcement that this person is unstable because they have, these homicidal or, murderous tendencies, and they're under the influence of a of a psychotropic medication Mhmm. Where law enforcement should take the responsibility of going out and safeguarding access to the weapons that they may already have in their in their system or preventing them from buying future ones so that they don't act with those.
[01:21:00] Unknown:
Yeah. Not that's You think that that could be get that that could absolutely get misused? Absolutely. Because let's just put it this way. You could take you you you could go through a period of taking, like, just, not just, but, you know, maybe you have anxiety. Right? You're going through something, you have some you have some anxiety issues, your doctor prescribes you an anxiety medication. Well, you know, on, you know, most of the anxiety medications, some of the side effects are suicidal tendencies, you know, and and and Homicidal Exactly. Depression.
[01:21:29] Unknown:
Exactly. So that that goes along that road that we've seen in some of the shootings that we've had, five to seven of the the school shootings that we had in the last Yeah. What, two years? Yes. Yeah. So it it's gonna get abused, and I don't wanna support red flag laws. I've seen them used, and I've used them in a very positive manner, but I I I I not at any way supportive of them because I know that they're gonna get abused. So my ideology falls back to absolute abilities to protect the sentiment.
[01:22:05] Unknown:
Alright. Now we we kinda hinted at term limits. We had a great conversation prior to the show about term limits, and I I am in totally total in agree in total agreement with you that there needs to be term limits for every level and branch of off of, elected service. The the example you brought up was Dianne Feinstein being wheeled into the senate chambers. There's a second one. There's a second one. Oh, yeah. I'm sure we'll we'll get to it. Yeah. I mean, you could there's a third one. You got Joe Biden with the auto pen. I mean, you know, of course. You know, so so you but the example that we we spoke about prior was, you know, Dianne Feinstein coming in, and, her her daughter, I think you said it was, that had power of attorney and was directing her and what she should be voting and so on and so forth.
That's disturbing. You know? Well,
[01:23:00] Unknown:
her some some of the what what I saw was that her staff members, her aids were wheeling her into the senate chamber to vote on issues that needed to be voted on at the time, and they're directing her on what she needs to vote in what manner she needs to vote for that bill Mhmm. That was that was, up for vote at the time. And then shortly thereafter, there was a, news article that came out that her daughter actually had a power of attorney over her because of her, inability to make decisions for herself both financially and health wise. And so a court in California had granted that. So she can't make her own personal decisions, but she's making decisions on behalf of the country, as an active senator in the in the US Congress. So Right. Which makes no sense.
And and how long was she in there? And she was also an anti second amendment advocate as well. But, and had a CCW and carry her own gun, but in private security. So it's just it's problematic all the way around. And then we had a senate, house member from, Northern Texas the the same way. She disappeared for six months, and I just saw the article. I remember that. Yes. I can't remember her name. Nursing home for the last six months paying, you know, $4,000 a month and hadn't been at her office or even in con the congressional sessions that were occurring at the time. So she's an active member of congress in a nursing home. Yeah. Actually, I I remember mentioning her on my show,
[01:24:30] Unknown:
when at the time that was going on, but I can't remember her name, though, for the life of me at the moment.
[01:24:35] Unknown:
McNaton. Not I saw it over the weekend. So Yeah. It's I I read it. The name just escaped me. But, yeah, that just reminded me of of the second instance where we we really need to look at term limits. And I I think we need to go a little bit farther if we're gonna prevent career politicians from occurring. So I would like to see not only, let's say, a twelve year term in congress as it is. So that would be the equivalent to two senate sessions Mhmm. Elections. And that could get reduced if you have local and state prior service where you've been elected official at a state and local, so that twenty years would basically be the the cap. So let's say you spent eight years, or let's say twenty years at a local or state level and you wanna come into congress, you're only gonna be able to serve twelve years because you've already had prior service at the local and state level.
Now you can't say that you can't do that because it's it's a different office, but you you can certainly create a bill to prevent the these career politicians from taking over and moving their way up. And and
[01:25:52] Unknown:
Two four year terms. Eight years looks like the presidency.
[01:25:57] Unknown:
You know, something like that. Or and then I stand off with the The US term limits, campaign that they're they're pushing out both local and, federally. So I think that they're wanting three or four congressional terms, like house. So it's not a very long period of time, but I think reasonable wise, two senate terms should be max. Right. So however you want however you wanna get elected and perform your service, we we need to see about getting those things changed because we're getting a lot of candidates. They're calling them the uni party because they they don't get anything done, and they're getting donations from both sides of the aisle.
And they're not benefiting Mhmm. The country. They're not benefiting the the middle class. We've we've had an erosion, and a substantial drop in the middle class across, our country. So we need to get back to policies, to support what we can in Congress, and we need new blood. Alright. And I agree. And what do you think about age limits? It's hard to say. I mean, I'm getting up there in age. You know? I I just turned 56, but, I mean, I'm not done serving.
[01:27:16] Unknown:
What about what about your eligibility to serve between the ages of Like a cognitive test? Is that kind of, Like, 21 to a thought that you're 21 to 65, you you're eligible to serve in an elected position. After that, you're out.
[01:27:33] Unknown:
The age in which maybe you're able to claim Social Security should be a disqualifier.
[01:27:38] Unknown:
Yeah. Could do that. Six, sixty seven. Yeah. Something like that. That that would be interesting. You know, it's just it's just ideas, you know. I mean, because you and the reason why I say it is because you look at people like Dianne Feinstein, look at people like Joe Biden, you look at people who have been sitting in these elected positions for so long, and then they get to the point where they can't think straight for themselves. Bernie Sanders? Bernie Sanders. Thirty eight thirty eight years, I believe. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he still somewhat has his mental capacities there, but, you know, they're they're fading, of course. I mean, he's getting older. But his loyalties, he's he you know,
[01:28:12] Unknown:
the wonderful thing that we have now is called the Internet. We can go back and see how these these candidates flip flop Of course. All over the place, because we can pull up those videos now. Right. It's where it's where the money comes in. Thing at our our fingertips and resource to go back and see what they're doing. You know, Schumer, you're you're right. You're absolutely right. You know? Lloyd Doggett, the one that's gonna be running or said he was gonna rerun again, turning 80 this year. He's been in politics for forty years up there in Austin, in Texas representing in in Congress.
So, the at some point in time, you need to have a life and enjoy your retirement, but you're you're gonna have some people have cognitive issues, some people do not. So I I don't know where to draw the line. I but it's definitely a concern with me. And especially if they've got medical issues that you can sit there and and pronounce and identify, Congress needs to be able to take action on on these individuals because they're not serving the American public when when they can't serve themselves.
[01:29:20] Unknown:
I agree. Alright. Let's, there was a quote on your website that I that I saw, and, you wrote this. Quote, progressive ideologies ruin America and are divisive. We deserve better Texas that we did we deserve better Texas than to be deceived by Democrats who support low education standards and open borders, who are soft on crime, and vote to defund our police. So we're we're we're in a we're in a living in a country right now that's very, very divided. Do you think it can be brought back together again?
[01:29:56] Unknown:
It's gonna be very difficult without new blood in congress because we have all this dark money, and I I we we need to figure out how to get rid of it. But the messaging that's coming across from the left side is making our political atmosphere so polarizing. I don't see a lot of bipartisan measures getting passed in our current state of affairs in congress. And so until we can start creating a better path, And I truly think that if we're gonna be better as a country, we need to have bipartisan agreements so that one half of the nation depends on who the majority is, has a voice in what's moving forward for the laws and in the bills and and the path our country needs to take.
And I think that's what's missing in a lot of our representation is that you you have a majority party that that comes into power, and they forget that there's other people in their districts that need representation also. It's not just your ideology that needs to be pushed out. Mhmm. And so congress is the same way. But until we start getting some of these things addressed on a nationwide basis and new blood into congress, I don't see that changing for a very long time. So I think some of the helpful things, term limits, I would love to see us stop having foreign born citizens getting elected into into positions of power, but those are gonna take congressional and constitutional changes.
And getting that two thirds vote passed by by the current congress is just unachievable. And it's gonna be a Pandora's box if you do a convention of states because once you open that up, they can change anything in our current constitution that they don't like. That's right. And so
[01:31:49] Unknown:
I am dead set against the constitutional convention. I am article five, I am dead set against that. I think that's a big a huge mistake. Huge mistake. Support, believe it or not, here in Texas. Yeah. I know. Which is which is disturbing. Which is very disturbing. You know, Marjorie Taylor Greene, said she mentioned in in a in a statement about, the possibilities of national divorce. Unfortunately, I think that there's a lot of momentum behind
[01:32:17] Unknown:
stuff like that and moves. Texas has been talking about it for a while. Yeah. It has. Is it? It has. So And I know we spoke one of the appealing things of wanting to retire here with the family is that Texas has the ability to do it whether they actually enact that or not.
[01:32:32] Unknown:
But there's a lot of people that have value in in that ability that live here in Texas, and there's a lot of support for doing that. Mhmm. So And, you know, Texas isn't the only state that that talks about this stuff. California's been talking about it. New York talks about it. Vermont, I think New Hampshire has has the longest running campaign for, for national divorce. So it's it's not just a uniquely Texas thing. This is and it's and it's a natural thing. It's it's not something that's that's that's that's so anathema.
It's a natural thing. I mean, if if if the the 13 original colonies didn't secede from Great Britain, we wouldn't have America, United States, you know, this American Union, that I like to call it, like the European Union, the American Union. It's so it's not a it's not a bad thing. And I know we spoke about it beforehand, so I'm not gonna get too much into that conversation we had, because you didn't give me a definite answer. So, I'm not gonna put you on the spot there now. But, but, there is a there is the possibility, and and sometimes, you know, I I look, no no mystery here. I've talked about it many times. I am part of an organization that that advocates advocates Texas independence, the Texas nationalist movement. And,
[01:33:45] Unknown:
I I agree I don't know how federally that would translate to a statewide movement to secede from the union. I don't know what that does to our representation in Congress.
[01:33:58] Unknown:
Well, there wouldn't be any. What's that? There wouldn't be any. That's that's that's what I'm saying. That's what that's why that's why that's that's why the state structured government is the way it is. You have the governor, which would be, you know, similar to the presidency. What does that mean? Yeah. Exactly. I'm just saying the office itself. The governorship would be like this considers like a presidency, then you have the two houses of Congress. You have the state and the state senators, and you have the the state representatives. It the the bicameral system, that's that's that's what the federal government was modeled after. The federal government system was modeled after the state governments. So, so it it it's it's feasible as possible. Texas does have the resources, it does have the ability to do so.
It it it it can happen. It it's just up to the people, though. It has to get before it has to get presented, you know, on a ballot, and the people have to vote for it. And that's what this organization that I'm part of does, that they they advocate for it. They try to push to get this on a ballot. They came close last session. Not this session that just took place, but the previous session today with the date feeling. Yeah. Two sessions. So, it it they they pulled some parliamentary shenanigans with the with the, petitions and such, and they wouldn't allow it to get put onto the platform. But another interesting thing too is the Texas the Texas state Republican party platform is Texas independence.
It's on there. Texas first. Yeah. Exactly. So so so those are conversations that I think are gonna happen. Now, right now, they were they were very much more vocal about these things under the Biden administration, obviously. Under the Trump administration, things kinda, you know, kinda whispers now because, you know, hey, things are a little bit better. You know, things are, you know, in most regards, things are a little bit better. In some regards, they're great. But, you know, I I it's not a bad conversation to have, and I think it's an important one to have, because what you you can't have a cookie cutter government for 300,000,000 people.
You know, the values of New Hampshire are not the same values in Louisiana. The the values of Louisiana are the same as North Dakota and South Dakota. You know, every every you you can't you can't come up with any real legislation that is gonna be applicable. One size fits all. Exactly. It's not gonna work. It can't work, and and and it's been proven not to work. You know, this monstrosity that we have right now is not with the intending not with the intention of our founding fathers. You know, we were supposed to be, a union of individual sovereign countries. That's where state comes from. Individual sovereign countries that have compacted together just for, mutual trade and common defense. That's really what the original intent was.
And you get that if you Congress was supposed to regulate that, so it was fair. Correct. And, Congress was only supposed to meet for, I think, three months out of the year. That was it. And then they would go back to their states, and that was it. And they would come back again, and you know, when when they got called into session. Not to permanently live in Washington DC and have have a little townhouse in Washington DC and have your your your your home here in your home state or whatever it is. No. That wasn't that was never what the intention was. And it just like it was never the intention to have a direct election of US senators.
The original was The US senator He appointed. Was appointed by the governor of the state Correct. For accountability. So if the gov if that senator is not acting in, in in accordance with what the state actually needs, then the governor can recall that person, that that that senator. And with the but and this this is why I am so dead set against con constitution because all this stuff is on the table and can get completely shredded just like it was before.
[01:37:52] Unknown:
And that's that's still the only position that the governor can do a special appointment for until the next election cycle or special election is called is for the senators. They don't have that authority to do that for the house representatives. So the ones that have come up vacant this year, you know, this last session because, you know, somebody passed away and somebody had mental issues or was in a nursing home. Let me just put it that way. Right. Exactly. So we're incumbent on having a, absence of representation in congress because there's there's no ability for the the governor to make those appointments temporarily to still have a voice for the constituents and and the state itself. And it's it's important as our population base increases, you're gonna have a disparity across the nation. Of course. You know, California, New York, Texas, we have these very large populations. So these smaller states are are gonna be incumbent on the policies that we push forward, because we're gonna have their representational base in in congress to represent our own interest as a state first, and that's what every Texas representative should have in congress Mhmm. Is looking to our state values and and the constituents here, and I I fully believe that.
So that goes the same way across the board. So as as as our population blows up, you're gonna have a disparity in representation in some of these smaller populated states. Of course. Of course. So let's, let's get some final thoughts here.
[01:39:22] Unknown:
Now so you're running for Congress, obviously. Why did you decide to run for Congress and not and not for a local office?
[01:39:31] Unknown:
The impact that I experienced myself, you know, being on like I said earlier, being on the opposite end of a riot because of these ideologies that are being pushed out, seeing the adverse effects of of what has gone on in California and moving and getting away from that, getting the hell out of California Mhmm. And coming to some place that's more sensible that we can have, you know, god family and and protection of our constitutional rights in a state with a lot of like minded individuals and the things that I grew up in a conservative county and and represent. I want those things protected, and I want those protected for the individuals that I want to represent. But I've been adversely affected just like everybody else has been adversely affected by these progressive failed policies and ideologies that are being pushed out not just here in Texas but across the nation. So they're they're no longer dangerous. They're deadly. Mhmm. And something that happened 12 thirteen days ago or fourteen days ago shows exactly what the capabilities are when you start promoting this rhetoric and this propaganda across the nation.
People will take action, you know, whether it's good or bad. Mhmm. And we see a lot more of the bad because that's what the media likes to, promote. So when I learned what the stance was on on the current congressional member and representative in '35, defunding the police, my law enforcement background. You know, I I I was a union representative for fifteen years as a deputy sheriff and another three years when I was on the detention side of the house. I enjoyed that representation. I enjoyed making sure that we had safe working conditions and and fair wages and things like that. And I missed it. I I missed the the mental fight, you know, to to make sure that people are taken care of. And I just thought it was a natural ascension in in going for that congressional seat because of the the ideology that was being pushed out by that particular individual.
And so it's not something I ever thought about getting into politics, but yet here we are. And we went through a successful grassroots unknown candidate campaign, came out as the Republican nominee. We shaved off almost eight points out of that race from a traditional blue, Democrat base, and we signed up to do that again in April to keep pushing against that message, against that same candidate. And then the governor and and the president had other ideas by doing, pushing out the redistricting. So, I'm not a quitter. You know, we've already filed. We've already moved forward, and some of the same existing district is gonna be in the new district, and that being down in Bexar County.
But the new counties entirely, Guadalupe, Karnes, and Wilson, represent what I grew up in, and I fought with the representation that I had, because of the same economic base that those new counties, rely on with good solid policies across our, across our country. Mhmm. So I understand the farming aspect. I understand the ranch aspect. I understand that we're in a drought, but we need to protect the water so that we have agriculture. We have the ability for these ranchers, these dairy farmers, to produce quality product and preserve, what we do agriculturally and then the the freedom that we're gonna have for our, our resources, moving forward for oil and and natural gas and things like that. And Karnes County is one of the primary recipients, of that economic base that needs to be protected.
So it it feels like home. The the new three counties traditionally feel like home where I was raised at. Right. And the working class individuals, the the small businesses that are the they're they're really the heart of our nation, and they they produce good quality working class individuals, blue collar workers also need to have their interest protected too. So it was just a lot of frustrations in what we see in congress right now, wanting things corrected and then the the bad ideologies that were being pushed out that we experienced for the last four years. So it just seemed natural for me to jump into that race, which seems unheard of and not trying to ascend through either a state or local elected positions prior to.
[01:44:25] Unknown:
Alright. So who's someone that you respect right now, and what are they doing that inspires you?
[01:44:31] Unknown:
Politically?
[01:44:33] Unknown:
Or anywhere in general.
[01:44:38] Unknown:
Well, I like a lot of what the Freedom Caucus in con in congress does. They're they're fiscal hawks. So, I see myself aligning with them. Chip Roy was one of the most outspoken individuals in in that caucus, trying to do sensible things for our country to make sure that we have, our our voting base protected when it comes to a save act, making sure that US citizens are the only ones voting, making sure that what we're passing as a economic bill, trying to get back to a actual annual budget that congress approves instead of doing these ridiculous, you know, CRs. Yeah. And omnibus bills.
So I admire his dedication to make sure that everyday Americans are are being taken care of, and they're at the forethought of what they're doing, before they do it and making sure that, that that carries forward.
[01:45:42] Unknown:
Alright. So that's kinda where I'm at. Outstanding. Alright. Steven Wright, where can the audience find out more about you? I have your website coming up right here right now.
[01:45:52] Unknown:
Here's one more. The new website this year is gonna be Steve Wright for tx35.com. Please like, share, spread it around. And and most importantly, these grassroots campaigns, depend on donations. And if we're gonna get the messaging out and start changing, the atmosphere in congress and start getting a more true representation of of our working class blue collar workers, then then this is where it starts.
[01:46:22] Unknown:
Alright. Any social media? Anything you wanna put out there?
[01:46:26] Unknown:
I do have x. I do have I'm still running the old campaign on Facebook. I have the new campaign on Facebook. I have my private, Facebook pages, all Steven Wright. Steve Wright for t x c d thirty five, Steve Wright for t x thirty five, and then just Steven Wright, on Facebook. And I believe it's Steven Wright, c d thirty five on x. So I I do have a fairly decent presence on all three of those platforms, Instagram as well. And some of the feed, from my Facebook page does come on to the actual, campaign website as well. Outstanding.
[01:47:10] Unknown:
Outstanding. Alright. Steven Wright, thank you so much for spending the night with us. We really enjoyed having you on the show. The invite. And, we'll definitely be looking to have you back on again very soon. You I have you all your contact info. I think you have mine. So, let's keep in touch, and let's get this let's get you back on the show really soon. Okay? New issues, they change, on a weekly basis, it seems like. So Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Let's get some good work done. Alright. Steven Wright for Texas. Thank you, sir. Have a great night. You too. Alright, folks. Don't forget to, head over to our website, joeroos.com.
That's joeroos.com. And, drop any comments or questions that you have down there for us and let us know what you think, any opinions that you might have had, during the course of the show tonight. Also, don't forget to sign up for our programming announcements email list. Alright? Very, very, very important to do that because we send out all this information for you and let you know what we're doing. I don't know if you can hear Charlie barking out there. Must be dinner time for him, so he's, he's ready to go. But, so it's, joe roos dot com. Open up that contact form. Send us over a message. Let us know what you're thinking. Also, don't forget to do the, programming announcements email list. Look, it's free. It don't cost you nothing. Alright? It's not a big deal. So sign up for it. Get yourself on it. We don't sell your information. We don't share your information. It stays here with us, and we're not gonna spam you. I'm not gonna send you a bunch of things here. Buy this and buy that. Just sign up for it. Alright? It's the best way for us to keep in touch with everybody in between shows, and, it's really informative too. So get to know more about the guests before they actually come on. Alright. Don't forget to, head over to our social medias. You can find us all on I call it Twix because I don't know if it's Twitter or x anymore, so it's Twix.
At Joe Roos. Truth social at Joe Roos. Minds, great platform. And don't forget, founder CEO of Minds is gonna be on the show with us in October 22. Minds.com at Joe Roos. Facebook is Joe Roos Show. Instagram is not Joe Ruse. Don't forget because we got banned, so we had to start over again. So not Joe Ruse. TikTok, jo dot roose. Get her at Joe Ruse as well. Alright. Shout outs to our executive producers, Wayne Rankin, Rosanna Rankin, Carolina Jimenez, Marissa Lee, and anonymous Angela. Thank you guys for all that you do and your, contributions of your time, your talent, your treasure, and we really do appreciate that incredibly. So thank you so much. Now if you're wondering what that means, very simply this, they signed up donating their time, their talent, or their treasure. So associate producer, if you wanna donate your your treasure, your associate producer is $17.76 a month. Producer is $18.36 a month. Executive producer is $25 a month and up. You all get the same shout out on every single show. You get included in all the show notes. You get included in all the emails and everything that we send out. And, the executive producers get to be on the show with us live, and, which is always a lot of fun. And we have Wayne Rankin coming on the show on Wednesday to talk about the project that he is working on. We have our crypto wallet information up there as well. So if you wanna donate your cryptos, it's all up there as well. And, we also have wanna say thank you to the folks that are listening on the modern podcast apps that are streaming sat to us right now. Thank you so much for that. We really do appreciate it. Alright. Now if you wanna check out the modern podcast apps, just go to modernpodcastapps.com or podcastindex.org.
Alright. I think that should just about do it for us for tonight. Alright, folks. Don't forget the website, joeroos.com. Let us know what you think. And folks, listen, make Texas independent again. Go podcasting. Keep a steady stride, and keep talking. Good night, folks.
[01:50:44] Unknown:
Happy trails
[01:50:46] Unknown:
to you until
Opening from Asylum Studios and show kickoff
Recap of Sunday Bible study and weekly plans
Housekeeping and intro to tonight’s guest
Introducing Steve Wright: background and motivation
Personal background: heritage, family, faith
Why leave California: laws, costs, and accountability
Progressive policies in Texas and Austin concerns
Redistricting TX-35 and primary landscape
Campaign strategy, fundraising, and door-knocking
Working-class representation and party shifts
Debt, Social Security, and restoring trust
Private equity, housing, and outsourcing jobs
Platform focus and pivot to policy specifics
Human trafficking: border control and prosecutions
Drug trafficking and fentanyl: walls, tech, and cartels
Immigration reform: streamline legal paths without amnesty
Assimilation, dual citizenship, and cultural concerns
Education, trades, and higher-ed ideology
Role of government and public safety priorities
Second Amendment and red flag law skepticism
Term limits, age, and fitness for office
Polarization, bipartisanship, and convention risks
Texas independence talk and state vs federal roles
Representation, population, and state-first values
Why Congress, not local: riots, policing, and ideology
Who inspires Steve: Freedom Caucus and Chip Roy
Campaign links, socials, and closing thanks
Host wrap-up: website, mailing list, and sign-off
