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Speaker 1: Hi, Welcome back to the Carol Marcowich Show on iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: My guest today is Dustin Gregi, columnist with Townhall dot Com.

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Speaker 2: Hi.

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Speaker 1: Dustin's so nice to have you on.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for having me, Carol excited.

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Speaker 1: So how did you get into writing and being a

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Speaker 1: columnist with town Hall.

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Speaker 2: That is a long journey, but I suppose it kind

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Speaker 2: of all started, I know, kind of you know, our

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Speaker 2: upbrains and where we kind of come with that. For

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Speaker 2: me personally, youth group is where it kind of all started.

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Speaker 2: For very early on in my life. My grandmother was like,

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Speaker 2: you're going to be a priest. So I went to

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Speaker 2: youth group and that's kind of where a lot of

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Speaker 2: where did you grow up? Just oh, Minnesota, here in

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Speaker 2: Right County, so we border Minneapolis. I'm about a thirty

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Speaker 2: five to forty minute trip from Minneapolis, so a little

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Speaker 2: bit on the suburbs exerbs of Minneapolis. But that's kind

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Speaker 2: of where that all started. Very early in life. I

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Speaker 2: got involved in youth group and I was on track

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Speaker 2: to be a youth minister for the longest time. Where

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Speaker 2: that ultimately kind of broke off a little bit was

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Speaker 2: when I was in that we were very mission ship oriented.

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Speaker 2: So like we went to like Warres, Mexico, Chicago, Illinois,

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Speaker 2: probably a dozen different locations. That was kind of my

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Speaker 2: big thing I was really into and I feel like.

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Speaker 1: I was going to make a I was going to

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Speaker 1: make a war torn area joke there, but Juarez, I

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Speaker 1: don't want to insult them, you know.

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Speaker 2: Chicago, Yes, well, Minneapolis has definitely up the anny a

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Speaker 2: little bit recently here in the last four and a

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Speaker 2: half years. Yeah, even more recently. We're still with it.

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Speaker 2: But no, I mean I've seen some crazy stuff. And

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Speaker 2: even when those riots hit in Minneapolis, it was pretty

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Speaker 2: crazy compared to even Warres were like, I mean, some

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Speaker 2: of these places you go to, you're like, man, we're

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Speaker 2: just in a completely different world. But when those buildings

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Speaker 2: come down burning, I mean it's also a completely different world.

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Speaker 2: When you just go down you drive to see the

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Speaker 2: aftermath of how that all comes very similar in many regards.

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Speaker 2: I mean, granted or As wasn't constantly burning, but the

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Speaker 2: buildings were completely demolished and there's retaining walls built out

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Speaker 2: of rubber tires, and you're just so resourceful in how

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Speaker 2: you're actually living day to day in that type of situation,

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Speaker 2: but that was kind of my calling early on. But

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Speaker 2: one thing that kind of brought me out of that

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Speaker 2: we actually had this massive regime change in our youth program.

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Speaker 2: We had a new convert kind of come in and

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Speaker 2: they had a new program, and we kind of rebelled

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Speaker 2: at that point. We're like, no, we won't have any

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Speaker 2: of this. We don't want to change this program. We

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Speaker 2: want to be mission centric, we want to do this

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Speaker 2: versus this new regime was kind of more like, well,

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Speaker 2: we want to do like Catholic retreats and kind of

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Speaker 2: kind of keep us in our own bubble. And we're like, no,

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Speaker 2: we have to go out. We have to be outside

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Speaker 2: this bubble and go out and angelize. And then at

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Speaker 2: that point I kind of had this breakout of where

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Speaker 2: I found myself jumping church to church. At one point

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Speaker 2: I was going to three or four different services a week,

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Speaker 2: just trying to explore a little bit and figure out

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Speaker 2: what was out there. How we find that more mission

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Speaker 2: driven focus, and which ultimately led me to politics. We

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Speaker 2: ended up breaking off from this and we started a

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Speaker 2: youth group and it turns out that one of the

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Speaker 2: kids we brought on ended up being the son of

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Speaker 2: someone who's running to be our local state representative that cycle,

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Speaker 2: and literally just the rest is history. I'd end up

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Speaker 2: becoming that reps campaign manager for a campaign, ended up

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Speaker 2: working for the state party here in Minnesota for the Republicans,

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Speaker 2: worked on some congressional and statewide campaigns, had a lot

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Speaker 2: of success in those. Ultimately, then this guy Tim Walls

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Speaker 2: ran and for vice president.

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Speaker 1: Heard him.

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Speaker 2: Then from there kind of gets a little crazy. Your

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Speaker 2: three thousand followers on Twitter becomes ninety thousand really quickly. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: millions of people all of a sudden care about your

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Speaker 2: opinion and your analysts on everything. You know, That's kind

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Speaker 2: of how we got here today with town Hall.

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Speaker 1: Amazing. So you made the jump to journalism around that

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Speaker 1: time when Tim Walls became a national figure. Yes, what

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Speaker 1: was the first story you wrote?

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Speaker 2: The very first story I wrote, I I it was

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Speaker 2: out now, I do recall. It is about how Tim

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Speaker 2: Walls came to rise to be Kamala Harris's running mate,

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Speaker 2: and ultimately the issue that really drove them to meet

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Speaker 2: each other was abortion driven Minnesota was going to be

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Speaker 2: pushing the most insane abortion law in the country, and

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Speaker 2: that was known as the pro Act Kamala Harris as

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Speaker 2: vice president, actually came to visit an abortion clinic in Minnesota,

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Speaker 2: the first vice president in US history to ever visit

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Speaker 2: one ever, And there is Tim Walls and they had

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Speaker 2: a shared press conference. They really hit it off from

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Speaker 2: there and they could be getting close. Sure enough, within

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Speaker 2: six months of that meeting, he ended up becoming the pick.

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Speaker 2: So that's ultimately where their rise kind of started. And

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Speaker 2: you know, just kind of being in Minnesota politics as

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Speaker 2: an operative, I just kind of had that knowledge. And

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Speaker 2: I think the first moment it kind of hit me

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Speaker 2: was Molly Hemingway, Like texts were like, ask for my

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Speaker 2: number and text me. She's like, man, I just you're

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Speaker 2: reporting so good and like she used that word, which

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Speaker 2: is amazing. Yeah, And I'm just like, Molly Hemingway just

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Speaker 2: appreciates my reporting, right, yeah, right, and honestly start to

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Speaker 2: I love that.

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Speaker 1: You know. I talked to a lot of people on

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Speaker 1: this show who, especially in the last five years, have

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Speaker 1: left blue states to move to red states. It's been

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Speaker 1: a very common theme on this show. A lot of

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Speaker 1: people moved in the last five years, you know, the

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Speaker 1: great migration. But you are in Minnesota. It is a

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Speaker 1: blue state. You're you know, on the right. Why are

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Speaker 1: you sticking it out? And are you hopeful?

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Speaker 2: I am a hopeful optimist to a fault, and I

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Speaker 2: will unfortunately probably be here as long as I possibly can.

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Speaker 2: I mean me and my wife. We just had a

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Speaker 2: family trip to Florida over to the Great Gulf of

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Speaker 2: America this last couple months.

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Speaker 1: Live on the other side. But I went to the

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Speaker 1: a few times recently and I really loved it.

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Speaker 2: No, it's fantastic, And like I was around the Santa's

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Speaker 2: guy in the primary, like, and I appreciate Trump and

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Speaker 2: all he's ever done, and greatly signed with him for

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Speaker 2: all these battles, and I'm happy to be a happy

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Speaker 2: warrior in that manner. But I really do appreciate like

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Speaker 2: a leadership like Governor DeSantis and all that. And it's

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Speaker 2: on our list. It's on the escape list. That is

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Speaker 2: one of the options.

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Speaker 1: You're not escaping.

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Speaker 2: The thankful good part about where I live, in particular

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Speaker 2: is Right County, Minnesota. At one point, my congressional district

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Speaker 2: was listed as one of the top ten most conservative

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Speaker 2: districts in the country when Michelle Bachman was our congresswoman.

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Speaker 2: Now it's Tom Emmer, who's the majority whip. But it's

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Speaker 2: a very conservative, very I mean just I know the

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Speaker 2: sheriff by first name, my wife and his wife have

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Speaker 2: had like a three year snap streak. At this point.

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Speaker 2: We know all the all hardcore red meat Republican. Our

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Speaker 2: catchphrase here is raised right with a W because just

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Speaker 2: everything's Republican out here. It's a twenty seventy thirty districts

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Speaker 2: all across the board. So we have great leadership here.

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Speaker 2: So we kind of live in a little bit of

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Speaker 2: a bubble where something might happen and had it in

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Speaker 2: Ramsey County, but it doesn't necessarily affect us as much

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Speaker 2: because we have that little bit of a bubble here,

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Speaker 2: So that is thankful. But ultimately, like I am Minnesota

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Speaker 2: and I do love Minnesota. I just hate where our

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Speaker 2: politics have gone. And that's the importunate part. We're pushing

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Speaker 2: back in that regard, and I guess one final piece

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Speaker 2: on that, I'm like the hope of it. You know,

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Speaker 2: we only had a couple of statewide races come within

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Speaker 2: one percentage point of winning last cycle, and I throughout

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Speaker 2: all this, you know, kind of adventure of Tim Walls,

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Speaker 2: kind of having this national attention is we do have

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Speaker 2: eyeballs in the state like we normally wouldn't have had,

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Speaker 2: and there's things gain exposed that normally wouldn't get exposed.

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Speaker 2: And I just have to think that that little bit

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Speaker 2: of push is enough to push over. You know, the

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Speaker 2: attorney in the state, Audior races last cycle and hopefully

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Speaker 2: we can dethrone Tim Walls in twenty twenty six. So

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Speaker 2: that's my hope and that's what we're fviting.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that would be amazing. You know, it never made

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Speaker 1: sense to me that Minnesota is a blue state, although

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Speaker 1: it is very long time blue state. Actually, for the

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Speaker 1: young people listening, the piece of trivia is Reagan one

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Speaker 1: forty nine states and the fiftieth state that he didn't

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Speaker 1: win was Minnesota. You know, I think people refer to

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Speaker 1: living in a bubble in a bad way, but I

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Speaker 1: am very pro bubble. I think that living in a

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Speaker 1: bubble is a very good thing. I especially when kids

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Speaker 1: are concerned. I love living in my Florida bubble. I

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Speaker 1: love living in somewhere where, yeah, where it's safe. And

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Speaker 1: you know, when we travel and they see homeless people,

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Speaker 1: it's like jarring to them.

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Speaker 2: I love that.

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Speaker 1: Why would I want them to get used to, you know,

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Speaker 1: the kind of things that I got used to growing

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Speaker 1: up in Brooklyn that I don't think are necessarily good

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Speaker 1: for kids. So I'm very pro bubble. I'm glad you

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Speaker 1: have have that bubble for yourself.

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Speaker 2: In as my wife likes to say, she wants to

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Speaker 2: have a cornfield next to her and be surrounded by one,

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Speaker 2: but she wants to be within seven minutes of a target.

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Speaker 2: That's kind of her totally understanding. Don't ye problems out

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Speaker 2: in an area like this where it's conservative leadership, but

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Speaker 2: also just it's that exurb living and you know it's

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Speaker 2: eight You can bring your kids to the park and

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Speaker 2: not worry.

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Speaker 1: That's all people want, right, It's not that much to

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Speaker 1: ask for. So would you have been a priest?

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Speaker 2: Is that?

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Speaker 1: Would that have been the plan? B if you know,

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Speaker 1: journalism didn't work out or something?

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Speaker 2: So like I am imagining my great grandmother who is

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Speaker 2: in her is my great grandfather ninety eight when he

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Speaker 2: passed a ninety nine, I should say, actually, and she

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Speaker 2: would tell me how she would because this used to

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Speaker 2: be really long hair I was. I was a skateboarder

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Speaker 2: in middle school. Yeah, and she'd come over and be like,

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Speaker 2: I'm going to chop your hair off. I mean her

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Speaker 2: house was directly across the street from the Catholic church

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Speaker 2: like our Dartch Diocese, and my priest would be like,

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Speaker 2: you know, you make a really cool priest and you

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Speaker 2: don't have to be one of those boring ones. You

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Speaker 2: could be really cool like Father Schmidt's, which is the

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Speaker 2: famous one who does the year round Bible podcast. You

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Speaker 2: could be a cool priest like him. And I gave

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Speaker 2: it a little bit of a thought for a while,

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Speaker 2: but ultimately at the end of the day, like kids

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Speaker 2: and marriage were on my mind on my call. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: you know, we kind of don't expect to fall into,

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Speaker 2: you know, these different areas that we kind of expected.

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Speaker 2: My mom had always been on council and she even

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Speaker 2: served as mayor of our local town here for a while.

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Speaker 2: She always told me, you know, you're gonna be the

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Speaker 2: politician of the family. I'm like, no, that's not I

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Speaker 2: will never do what you are doing. I will never

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Speaker 2: do that. Right and now now here we are, But

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Speaker 2: you know, I always thought it was gonna be youth ministry.

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Speaker 2: At the end of the day. That was kind of

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Speaker 2: if I if I didn't end up doing this, it

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Speaker 2: would be probably youth ministry, or it would be some

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Speaker 2: type of music like working, doing some type of prison

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Speaker 2: worship band. Stuff that proud you would have been more

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Speaker 2: my route is what I would have went. But you know,

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Speaker 2: I'm thankful for this because now we have a platform

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Speaker 2: and we can do good things with it. You know,

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Speaker 2: we just got to be smart about it and how

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Speaker 2: we go about everything.

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Speaker 1: Right, do you play an instrument?

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Speaker 2: I am. I have a guitar player. I medle with drums,

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Speaker 2: but my wife does not like drums, so we do

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Speaker 2: not do drums right now, No, until we can go

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Speaker 2: get a private So there's.

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Speaker 1: No such thing as a wife who likes drums.

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Speaker 2: No even pulling out the guitar every once in a while.

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Speaker 2: It is kind of challenging, especially when you run out

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Speaker 2: of room and start to have kids. Yeah, and then

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Speaker 2: you're out of time because all this stuff is busy too.

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Speaker 2: But you know, try to keep up with it as

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Speaker 2: much as I can. But I try to get as

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Speaker 2: much private time as I can with my guitar or

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Speaker 2: just trying to get some miles in on the road.

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Speaker 2: I'm now the runner as well, so those are kind

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Speaker 2: of my two escapes there, but yeah, those that would

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Speaker 2: probably end up being my calling if that ended up going.

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Speaker 2: But prepood, there was a little bit there, but at

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Speaker 2: the end of the day, youth ministry was definitely there.

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Speaker 1: What do you worry about?

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Speaker 2: I definitely everything that surrounds my life that I worry

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Speaker 2: about is, without doubt, my family and my kids. How

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Speaker 2: do you give them the life that you know, while

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Speaker 2: I had a great childhood and a great life, especially

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Speaker 2: with my wife who didn't necessarily have the greatest childhood

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Speaker 2: growing up, our entire focus and likelihood is on giving

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Speaker 2: them what we didn't have and how we can always

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Speaker 2: do better and kind of you know, eliminate some of

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Speaker 2: those generational things that you don't want to carry over

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Speaker 2: to the next generational samplem that I've said, like her grandmother,

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Speaker 2: I mean she had kids when she was eighteen, her

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Speaker 2: mom had her when she was eighteen. Wow, you know,

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Speaker 2: how do you break some of those cycles? And while

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Speaker 2: that's not a bad thing, Like we care about life

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Speaker 2: and we want to and we're extremely prolfed and never

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Speaker 2: consider anything like that. We do everything we can to

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Speaker 2: push the battle pro life. But you also want to

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Speaker 2: try to do things as responsible as you can to

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Speaker 2: give your kids the best opportunities you possibly can. But

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Speaker 2: everything I think about, whether it's the policies of this state,

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Speaker 2: you know, or something else national, everything surrounds about like

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Speaker 2: how do we give our kids a better tomorrow than

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Speaker 2: we had growing up. That's definitely the one thing I

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Speaker 2: worry about, and in this state, that's why we continue

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Speaker 2: to fight. I mean, my family's all here. I mean

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Speaker 2: I have a lot of family in Alabama as well,

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Speaker 2: and they have a little bit more gifts down there

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Speaker 2: in terms of leadership. But you know, we try to

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Speaker 2: fight as much as we can here and think of

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Speaker 2: it because a lot of people can't escape. In many cases,

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Speaker 2: you're kind of forced here. May cases you bout your

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Speaker 2: house twenty five years ago and you're stuck in that mortgage,

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Speaker 2: like you can't leave. For so many people, escape isn't

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Speaker 2: an option while it's on our It's like we rent

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Speaker 2: right now and have that option to do that at

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Speaker 2: any point. But you know, we're trying to hold out

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Speaker 2: as much as we can because you don't want to

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Speaker 2: just move, you know, grandparents away from kids and all that.

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Speaker 2: Try to fight for everything. Right.

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Speaker 1: We just did it, and it's it's it's very hard.

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Speaker 1: I mean, the grandparents do come visit a lot. They

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Speaker 1: kind of you know, it's pretty close. It's like two

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Speaker 1: and a half three hours away from New York, but

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Speaker 1: still used to be like my mom was in my

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Speaker 1: house every single day. She'd let herself in at six

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Speaker 1: in the morning and like take the kids to school,

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Speaker 1: and it just it's very tough to make that move.

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Speaker 1: So when people online are like, oh, just move, like

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Speaker 1: you live in a blue stage, just move, it's not

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Speaker 1: quite so easy. And I get that. But so you

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Speaker 1: talk about giving kids, you know, a better world, are

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Speaker 1: you optimistic.

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Speaker 2: About that that I said, I am a gross optimist

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Speaker 2: to a fault. Granted, like there's some good data points

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Speaker 2: in there to point out that this is all very possible,

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Speaker 2: and you know, we're finding as much as we can

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Speaker 2: to do give those opportunities to them. You do worry

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Speaker 2: sometimes when you see kind of this, you know, inner

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Speaker 2: city growth coming out even to us in Wright County,

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Speaker 2: which is just a river, separates us from the craziness

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Speaker 2: and that's pretty much it. But you do have that

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Speaker 2: little bit of a bubble and that's kind of why

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Speaker 2: we're here. And maybe if we do end up moving.

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Speaker 2: Maybe it's just further west versus out of a differ

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Speaker 2: not to start things out. But you just try to

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Speaker 2: hold out as much hope as you can and you

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Speaker 2: fight as much as you can to kind of create

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Speaker 2: those better scenarios. But at the end of the day,

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Speaker 2: it all comes down to the kids. That that's the

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Speaker 2: only thing I truly worry about today. But at least

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Speaker 2: in my individual life, that's what my focus is. But

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Speaker 2: there's you know, there's a greater good you want to

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Speaker 2: fight for too. Granted I experience it firsthand in Minnesota

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Speaker 2: because we are a lab of craziness. We are we

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Speaker 2: are cold. California is a really good way to practice, Like, wow,

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Speaker 2: there's these horrible policies and all these people are just

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Speaker 2: fleeing California beautiful those Yeah, but you're choosing to stay

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Speaker 2: in the cold version of that, like isolated, you know,

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Speaker 2: but you know, you just do as much as you can.

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Speaker 2: You fight for the future, and yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, amazing. We're going to take a quick break and

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Speaker 1: be right back on the Carol Marcowitch Show. What advice

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Speaker 1: would you give your sixteen year old self if you

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Speaker 1: had to kind of do it again? What a sixteen

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Speaker 1: year old Dostin need to know.

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Speaker 2: That's a really good question, And I thought about that

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Speaker 2: one a little bit. One I obviously just say keep

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Speaker 2: being yourself and just do all of that, but keep

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Speaker 2: me and your your health prioritize that more. Like I

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Speaker 2: think back, like especially going to like college, like I

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Speaker 2: was a very competitive track and cross country athlete, Like

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Speaker 2: I could break a five minute mile, I could break

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Speaker 2: a nineteen minute five k. I put a lot of

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Speaker 2: work and effort into that, and then I actually in

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Speaker 2: college trained for my first marathon. I ended up slashing

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Speaker 2: my foot on chicken wire. It was a horrible experience

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Speaker 2: just before I think maybe a month month and a

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Speaker 2: half before the actual race. I'd put like a thousand

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Speaker 2: miles at that point, and I pretty much stopped running

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Speaker 2: after that. Then kids come along, marriage comes along. You

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Speaker 2: lose track of time, and you'll lose your health a

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Speaker 2: little bit. And thirty four, you know, probably a decade later,

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Speaker 2: I'm really starting to get back into it again. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and you realize like all of that sorry loss because

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Speaker 2: you just don't sleep as well anymore, you're not moving

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Speaker 2: around as efficiently, all that loss energy you could have

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Speaker 2: had in some of these scenarios and how it could

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Speaker 2: have just dramatically changed things. But yeah, when you come

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Speaker 2: into adversity, I guess I should say is to just

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Speaker 2: keep being consistent and push on because I mean, that

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Speaker 2: was a really rough time in life. When I reflect

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Speaker 2: on and I'm like, Dan, you know, I had that

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Speaker 2: mental fortitude at one point and then I just kind

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Speaker 2: of lost it at some point. Thankfully I'm there again,

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Speaker 2: I think, probably late. You know, it's not too late.

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Speaker 2: I mean I act like I'm old and I'm dying.

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Speaker 2: I'm still pretty da young. But no, but I hear you.

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Speaker 1: When you take a long break from something, it's very

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Speaker 1: very hard to get back in.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but you know the greater message there be consistent

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Speaker 2: and you're going to run into adversity. But despite that adversity,

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Speaker 2: you just got to keep going. But that's the one

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Speaker 2: thing I in particular think about is like my running,

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Speaker 2: Like there was at one point and you know, I'd

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Speaker 2: put in close to sixty seventy mile weeks just running

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Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty pounds later, basically a lot of

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Speaker 2: lost energy and like, but once you have those kids

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Speaker 2: and they start running around, you realize truly, like how

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Speaker 2: much energy you want, And thankfully you know that's that's

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Speaker 2: taken a dramatically different turn in the last like twelve months,

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Speaker 2: and I'm kind of really back in fighting shape again,

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Speaker 2: and I could just say like the day to day

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Speaker 2: stuff of like balancing, like, hey, we're doing this reporting,

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Speaker 2: we're working with these candidates, like I've got my hand

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Speaker 2: in like five different things right now. But and then

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Speaker 2: maybe that's a little bit of the ADHD still working

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Speaker 2: that time. I really just figured that out the last

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Speaker 2: couple of years that I have that. But you just

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Speaker 2: kind of learned that if you had had that energy,

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Speaker 2: you'd be able to do so much more and you'd

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Speaker 2: even this much further. And that's one thing I definitely

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Speaker 2: look at.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I totally hear you. I think for anything, and

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Speaker 1: it doesn't even just have to be like, you know,

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Speaker 1: a sports thing or anything. I think anything you take

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Speaker 1: a break from for that long, it's tough to come back.

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Speaker 1: But thirty four is still very young and you have

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Speaker 1: a lot of time to figure it out. I like

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Speaker 1: that answer. So I've loved this conversation. I love your columns.

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Speaker 1: Leave us here with your best tip for my listeners

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Speaker 1: on how they can improve their lives.

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Speaker 2: Two degree, I kind of I guess think I answered it.

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Speaker 2: But one thing that just generally comes back that and

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Speaker 2: I think I mentioned it briefly, is just be yourself,

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Speaker 2: especially in this world of all of these outside voices

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Speaker 2: just screaming in each of your ears like oh no,

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Speaker 2: you gotta do it this way, you gotta do it

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Speaker 2: this way. Whenever I look back and see like, oh,

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Speaker 2: when did I make kind of those big pushes and

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Speaker 2: jumps into the next thing, Because life's like this, it's

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Speaker 2: up and down. But those real moments where you really

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Speaker 2: just shoot up, it's just because you're your genuine self

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Speaker 2: and you're putting yourself out there. At the end of

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Speaker 2: the day, that's what people want. They want you to

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Speaker 2: be genuine, whether they like you or not. And I

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Speaker 2: guarantee I found the South the hard way because I

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Speaker 2: love to people, pease and be liked by everyone. As

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Speaker 2: your platform grows and as you've get more successful, you're

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Speaker 2: only going to grow more haters. You will only grow

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Speaker 2: more haters over time. Yeah, and just embrace it. Be yourself,

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Speaker 2: your genuine self, and life will find its way after that.

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Speaker 2: God will give you a path.

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Speaker 1: That I love it. Be yourself be genuine. Here is

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Speaker 1: Dustin GREGGI check him out at townhall dot com. Thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for coming on, Dustin.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Kern