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Speaker 2: So joining me now.
Speaker 1: Is one of the most decorated Olympians in Iowa history.
Speaker 1: Josh Turik is candidate for the US Senate, but I'm
Speaker 1: born with spina bifida. He ended up making a name
Speaker 1: for himself in playing professionally wheelchair basketball, earning a gold
Speaker 1: medal as the leader of a US Olympic team at
Speaker 1: the Paralympics. And he's now a politician, not the blazing
Speaker 1: a trail that, frankly is actually not a first time
Speaker 1: trail when it comes to that people. Certainly we've had
Speaker 1: our share of athletes going into politics. Josh is from
Speaker 1: the western part of the state. It's the state I'm
Speaker 1: the least familiar with council bluffs. He will correct me
Speaker 1: if I'm wrong, which also means he's sort of in
Speaker 1: that weird No Man's Land, how much Iowan? How much Nebraskan,
Speaker 1: which I'm gonna give my hard time about. But with that,
Speaker 1: let's talk a little bit about your campaign and who
Speaker 1: you are. Josh Turk, It's nice to.
Speaker 2: Meet you, Yeah, Chuck, thanks for having me. First.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna have to correct you on I'm not an Olympian.
Speaker 3: I'm a Paralympian. I'm a four time Paralympian, time gold medalist,
Speaker 3: the Summer Olympian.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's part of the Olympics, isn't it all
Speaker 1: the you know?
Speaker 3: I mean, well, the Summer Olympics is the largest sporting
Speaker 3: event on Earth in terms of total athletes and total
Speaker 3: countries in the Summer Paralympics, which immediately follows the Olympics,
Speaker 3: is the second largest sporting event on Earth. And I'm
Speaker 3: a very proud Paralympian and two time gold medalist. And
Speaker 3: then the other correction is, you're right, I am. I
Speaker 3: am a politician, but I really would define myself as
Speaker 3: a representative.
Speaker 2: A politician can be a bit of a pejorative, no,
Speaker 2: And I get that.
Speaker 1: I mean just like journalists can be a bit of
Speaker 1: a pejorative these days, right, you know, or a member
Speaker 1: of the media, if you will. But let me start
Speaker 1: with Eric. You know, if let's start with your life
Speaker 1: as a professional athlete. You know you're born with spina biffita.
Speaker 1: You didn't probably think as a kid you were going
Speaker 1: to be a professional athlete. Walk me through that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Sure.
Speaker 3: I was born and raised in Council BLUs, Iowa. Council
Speaker 3: Bluss is a very working class community. Sixty five percent
Speaker 3: of my community lives at or below the poverty line.
Speaker 3: I grew up to a large family, three sisters, one brother,
Speaker 3: and we grew up with a lot of economic struggle.
Speaker 3: We went to the Goodwill for our clothes, We shared clothes,
Speaker 3: went to the free summer lunch programs. There were times
Speaker 3: where my mom put our grocery bill on the credit card.
Speaker 3: So certainly somebody is familiar with a lot of economic struggle,
Speaker 3: of what a lot of people are going going through
Speaker 3: right now, both in Iowa and around the country. And
Speaker 3: then I was was born with my condition. I was
Speaker 3: born with a condition called spina bifida. This was due
Speaker 3: to my father's exposure to agent orange and Vietnam. I
Speaker 3: had my first suit do.
Speaker 1: You directly, do you is that's a direct fact that
Speaker 1: this has been directly Yeah, actually responsible.
Speaker 3: It's one of yes, it's one of the few times
Speaker 3: where the government has had to admit culpability. When when
Speaker 3: I was younger, we were part of the lawsuit and
Speaker 3: did the DNA testing and yeah, because of that, actually
Speaker 3: receive my health care that is related to my spina
Speaker 3: bifida through the VA and so.
Speaker 1: So yes, and that's for Lily, right, that's for life.
Speaker 1: You're on Tricare for life because of that.
Speaker 3: Is that is correct anything that is directly related to
Speaker 3: my to my spina bifida. So in my spina bifida,
Speaker 3: I had my first surgery at one day old. I
Speaker 3: had twenty one surgeries before I was twelve, almost all
Speaker 3: of which took place at Shriner's Hospital, because it was
Speaker 3: the only way that my family could afford to do it.
Speaker 3: So I'm certainly somebody in a deeply personal way, I
Speaker 3: understand the importance of affordable and accessible health care for individuals. Thankfully,
Speaker 3: for me, I found wheelchair basketball at a young age.
Speaker 3: I went to an adaptive sports program in Omaha, Nebraska,
Speaker 3: and it exposed me to all kinds of adaptive sports.
Speaker 3: And I come from a big sports family. Actually, both
Speaker 3: my mother and sister were basketball players and went on
Speaker 3: to play professional basketball, and really that was what I
Speaker 3: was struggling. Legitimately, I was somebody that was bullied so bad.
Speaker 3: It's hard enough to go through life well as a
Speaker 3: kid with economic struggle, but then you had a healthcare
Speaker 3: struggle and it was difficult for me and was bullied
Speaker 3: so bad. I actually I left public school for a bit,
Speaker 3: but it provided me. It provided me really social setting and.
Speaker 2: Everything that I needed to be able to be successful.
Speaker 3: Because of wheelchair basketball, I was ultimately able to get
Speaker 3: a college scholarship along with the help of vocation or rehabilitation.
Speaker 3: Had it not been for wheelchair basketball, I don't think
Speaker 3: I would have even gone on to college. And I've
Speaker 3: had a very successful collegiate career and wheelchair basketball. Scored
Speaker 3: over four thousand career points and sixty three points in
Speaker 3: a game, which are still records at my school. And
Speaker 3: then I had the opportunity to do something that I
Speaker 3: didn't even know existed, which was professional wheels for basketball,
Speaker 3: which doesn't exist in America. It only exist over in Europe,
Speaker 3: so spent some time over there.
Speaker 1: Where did you live in europe court where the various
Speaker 1: Where was your franchise?
Speaker 3: Where was I was able to play in Outside of Milan, Italy?
Speaker 3: I played in the south of France, which was an
Speaker 3: amazing opportunity, and then played in Madrid, Spain and in Billbospang.
Speaker 2: Those were the places. Let me played.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you, and maybe you've I don't know
Speaker 1: if you've thought about this, but why has Europe been
Speaker 1: on the forefront of Why don't we have this in America?
Speaker 1: And if you think about it, the first women's professional
Speaker 1: basketball leagues were all in Europe.
Speaker 2: Weren't here? Have you?
Speaker 1: I'm just curious why it's to me too bad that
Speaker 1: you had to leave America to go through the stream.
Speaker 1: Why do you think we don't value it here?
Speaker 3: I think that our sports can be very masculinely driven,
Speaker 3: and I think the European ideal for sports is more
Speaker 3: open to the idea of female sports and to adapt
Speaker 3: to sports in a way that that for whatever reason,
Speaker 3: you know, the American paradigm on sports is just dramatically different.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 3: It's it's much more inclusive in that sense. In America,
Speaker 3: it was a struggle for us just to be able
Speaker 3: to get a handful of individuals just to come in
Speaker 3: and watch us, if you're like family and friends. And
Speaker 3: yet when we're over and we're able to get in
Speaker 3: front of thousands and thousands of folks, So it's.
Speaker 1: A it's just a different culture. Yeah, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: a totally totally different sports culture.
Speaker 3: And it was an amazing opportunity to be able to to
Speaker 3: live in experience, especially as a poor kid from from
Speaker 3: Iowa that had gotten his bachelor's degree in history. It
Speaker 3: was an amazing opportunity to be able to see these
Speaker 3: places I had only been able to read about in
Speaker 3: history books. And to be able to you learn so
Speaker 3: much about yourself and about others and societies and social
Speaker 3: safety nets when you're when you're living overseas, and yeah,
Speaker 3: it was it was an amazing opportunity for me.
Speaker 2: How's your Italian? A Deaco?
Speaker 1: Probably it's better than mine, So don't worry whatever you say.
Speaker 2: My Spanish, My Spanish is good.
Speaker 3: Uh. My wife is Dominican by by birth and Spanish
Speaker 3: by passport and met her when I was playing out
Speaker 3: in Madrid, and so certainly that one is is pretty.
Speaker 1: Nigh a little bit better than Italian. Right now, what
Speaker 1: you learned one more man's language, though you should be
Speaker 1: able to understand all the other thing. So to turn
Speaker 1: to politics if you weren't a politic.
Speaker 3: Just the one thing I want to I want to
Speaker 3: cover on this is we we didn't get to it.
Speaker 3: I did end up the highlight of my basketball career
Speaker 3: was being a four time Paralympian and two times yeah yeah, correct,
Speaker 3: and especially we're a basketball nation, but we had gone
Speaker 3: twenty eight years without winning gold and so we went
Speaker 3: from nineteen eighty eight all the way until twenty sixteen
Speaker 3: without winning a gold medal. So some of I'm really
Speaker 3: really proud of. That was the way I ended my
Speaker 3: career was with winning back to back gold medals. So
Speaker 3: that was the end of my basketball career.
Speaker 1: Before we jumped to you, actually your next it is
Speaker 1: you had such success in that phase of your life,
Speaker 1: how hard was it to walk away?
Speaker 2: Not hard at all.
Speaker 3: Actually, for me, from the very beginning, the goal was
Speaker 3: just to be able to represent my country and one
Speaker 3: Paralympics and to maybe have the opportunity to win one
Speaker 3: gold medal was always the goal for me. So the
Speaker 3: fact that I was able to represent in four Paralympic
Speaker 3: Games and win two gold medals. Ultimately Father Time is
Speaker 3: undefeated too. By the time I got to my last Paralympics,
Speaker 3: I mean, right that the athlete is Unfortunately we have
Speaker 3: to die to death and we spend tens of thousands
Speaker 3: of hours at trying to become great and become an
Speaker 3: expert in a field and then it gets taken away
Speaker 3: from you. But by the time that I got to
Speaker 3: that last Paralympics, which was in Tokyo twenty twenty, which
Speaker 3: ended up being twenty twenty one because of COVID, I
Speaker 3: knew that that was going to be the last basketball
Speaker 3: game that I ever was going to play. And I
Speaker 3: was really really clear too that I wanted to have
Speaker 3: as successful of a part B of my life as
Speaker 3: my part A was, and my part A was pretty successful.
Speaker 3: So it was beautiful actually because in Tokyo, I knew
Speaker 3: that was going to be the last games I ever
Speaker 3: was going to play, so I was able to smell
Speaker 3: the roses a little bit and appreciate it being.
Speaker 1: The How what was it like to watch to be
Speaker 1: a spectator.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: It's one of the only times actually that I missed it, truthfully,
Speaker 3: But you know, because because there were so many of
Speaker 3: those guys that are still on that team that I'm
Speaker 3: very very close with. You develop a genuine brotherhood with
Speaker 3: these guys that you go through so much struggle with.
Speaker 3: But it was beautiful to be able to see them
Speaker 3: they actually won. It was the we became the first
Speaker 3: team to ever win three gold medals in a row.
Speaker 3: So I was it was amazing to be able to
Speaker 3: watch them and support them as I was going through
Speaker 3: It was nice. Actually it was kind of cathartic for
Speaker 3: me and watch a little bit of their games as
Speaker 3: I after I was going out knocking doors and crawling
Speaker 3: stairs trying to win my reelection.
Speaker 1: Right, So tell me about the decision to go into politics.
Speaker 1: Was there other fields that you were contemplating and you
Speaker 1: know why what drew you to the political space?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Well, two things.
Speaker 3: One is I've been a director of a nonprofit organization
Speaker 3: for ten years and what we do is we provide
Speaker 3: free summer camps to disabled kids and adaptive sports opportunity.
Speaker 3: Just to be a role model to that community and
Speaker 3: to be able to give back. When I finished with
Speaker 3: my basketball career as well, I got certified and what's
Speaker 3: called an assistive technology professional. So I was federally certified
Speaker 3: to be able to assist, to assess and provide mobility devices,
Speaker 3: manual wheelchairs and power wheelchairs for individuals with disabilities. And
Speaker 3: I was working with children, I was working with newly
Speaker 3: injured individuals. But where I was really spending the vast
Speaker 3: enjoity of my time where with individuals with progressive conditions,
Speaker 3: conditions like muscular dystrope and Lugarry's disease. And what we
Speaker 3: were showing was every single day we were dealing with
Speaker 3: unnecessary denials and delays. And what we were showing internally
Speaker 3: is since Iowa and Nebraska had privatized their Medicaid system,
Speaker 3: a one thousand percent increase in denial rate. I thought
Speaker 3: that this was fundamentally wrong and immoral, and that somebody
Speaker 3: should do something. I mean, it's literally maximizing profits off
Speaker 3: the backs of the most vulnerable. I mean, in the
Speaker 3: case of als, oftentimes it's eighteen months or even shorter
Speaker 3: from assessment all the way, these people don't have time
Speaker 3: for denials and delays. And then I had found out
Speaker 3: that Iowa had never had a permanently disabled member of
Speaker 3: the legislature, even though we're a state of one hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty years and a governing body of a one
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty members. We've got one in five islands
Speaker 3: that either blind, death, intellectually disabled, or physically disabled. And
Speaker 3: I thought to myself, this is probably why we're seeing
Speaker 3: these barriers to healthcare and to employment is because of
Speaker 3: the complete and total lack of representation. And although I
Speaker 3: was out in very red western Iowa and they said, Josh,
Speaker 3: you can't win as a Democrat out here, I said,
Speaker 3: I'm going to do this the same way that I've
Speaker 3: done with my basketball career, try to win gold medals.
Speaker 3: I'm going to go out and I'm going to outwork
Speaker 3: my opponent every single day.
Speaker 2: And that's what I did. For me.
Speaker 3: That meant going out every day Raynorsheine, hot or cold,
Speaker 3: and dragging my wheelchair upstairs to have conversations with Republicans
Speaker 3: and independence because it didn't work any other way.
Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting for you to say that about
Speaker 1: Iowa because given that Tom Harkin the former Senator, and
Speaker 1: Bob Dole were basically the godfathers of the ADA Act.
Speaker 1: And in fact, I mean, look, when I was growing
Speaker 1: up there, it weren't very many ramps. You know, I
Speaker 1: had an elderly grandmother who we were constantly lifting a
Speaker 1: chair and all this stuff. I mean, I don't think
Speaker 1: people realize as and we are a long way away
Speaker 1: from everything being accessible for somebody and who needs to
Speaker 1: use a wheelchair these days. But to think where we
Speaker 1: were in the seventies and eighties compared to where we
Speaker 1: are today is because of an Iowa senator and a
Speaker 1: Kansas Senator from each side of the aisle. And there
Speaker 1: was a lot of momentum for that. And it does
Speaker 1: feel as if even the that the eightya feels like
Speaker 1: something that hasn't that sort of hit a wall a
Speaker 1: little bit. I imagine you have a lot of opinions about
Speaker 1: the ADAI.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're certainly correct. I mean a handful of things there.
Speaker 3: One is he's a good friend of mine now, but
Speaker 3: he really is my political hero is Senator Tom Harkin.
Speaker 3: And this, in truth is one of the reasons why
Speaker 3: I'm doing this, is this is his seat that is
Speaker 3: up now after twelve years, you know, thirty years he
Speaker 3: was our Iowa senator and now it's been held by
Speaker 3: a Republican for the last twelve years. And myself, in
Speaker 3: so many disabled Iolands, so many disabled Americans.
Speaker 2: I'm only here.
Speaker 3: All the opportunities that I've been given for occupation educationally
Speaker 3: is only because of the work that Senator Harken and
Speaker 3: Congressman Tony Coeo and as you said, Bob Dole ended
Speaker 3: up doing on the American with Disabilities Act. They literally
Speaker 3: provided me in so many disabled Americans and on ramp
Speaker 3: onto society to be able to be successful. And one
Speaker 3: of the reasons why I'm doing this is because here
Speaker 3: in Iowa, we deserve to once again have a senator
Speaker 3: that is going to fight for the people and fight
Speaker 3: for the middle class, and fight for social and economic justice,
Speaker 3: and fight for these social safety nets that have allowed
Speaker 3: me to be successful in my life Medicare, Medicaid, social Security,
Speaker 3: and not just look out for billionaires in large corporations.
Speaker 3: It really is, I'm only here because of Senator Harkin,
Speaker 3: and I want to be able to continue his legacy
Speaker 3: and champion and carrying that flag and fighting for the
Speaker 3: people and fighting for healthcare.
Speaker 1: It's possible that our friend Tony Coelo might even be
Speaker 1: listening right now. He's somebody that I've known a long
Speaker 1: time in politics and very I mean, look this is
Speaker 1: the passion was ultimately one of the most passionate things
Speaker 1: he worked on.
Speaker 2: I know that. And and uh, he's very sensitive.
Speaker 1: I mean, I would get grief from him if he
Speaker 1: ever thought I wasn't giving somebody, you know, if I
Speaker 1: if I wasn't giving a benefit of doubt due to
Speaker 1: some sort of physical issue, you know, whether it was
Speaker 1: somebody with a with a verbal issue or something with
Speaker 1: their physical traits.
Speaker 2: And uh, he's a I.
Speaker 1: Consider him a longtime friend, and I imagine you he's.
Speaker 2: He's filled with advice. I bet in your campaign he
Speaker 2: absolutely is.
Speaker 3: And I've been I've been grateful to to be able
Speaker 3: to have now a friendship with with both Congressmen Coeo
Speaker 3: and and and Senator Harkin. And this is, this is
Speaker 3: this is certainly one of the reasons why I'm doing
Speaker 3: this is to continue on that legacy. One of the
Speaker 3: things that Senator Harkin talks about is one of the
Speaker 3: beauties of the American with Disabilities Act is that not
Speaker 3: one Nickel actually went to an individual with a disability.
Speaker 3: Is all it was doing was just evening the playing field.
Speaker 3: It was just providing an equality of opportunity to individuals.
Speaker 3: And that's what certainly, that's what we're fighting for.
Speaker 1: It was equal access, not equal outcomes. Equal access, that's right,
Speaker 1: that's correct, you know, which.
Speaker 2: Seems to be.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is you know, it's it's one thing
Speaker 1: you know in those that that physically have things that
Speaker 1: they have to overcome, but then there are you know,
Speaker 1: this is the same conversation we're trying to have about immigration,
Speaker 1: you know, the same conversation we're trying to have about
Speaker 1: any body that's trying to live a free life, right
Speaker 1: and wants to have equal opportunity, equal access, not necessarily
Speaker 1: equal outcome. Can you what do you think is the
Speaker 1: hardest part of convincing, because I do think when you
Speaker 1: explain to anybody left or right that it's about equal access,
Speaker 1: not equal outcome. Nobody's against equal access, you know, it's
Speaker 1: the equal outcome conversation that becomes the debate about all
Speaker 1: these Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. The way that I would say that is when
Speaker 3: I'm out there. I represent the redditest district that is
Speaker 3: represented by a Democrat that was won on election day,
Speaker 3: so Trump won my county by twenty points. I represent
Speaker 3: two communities in the Iowa legislature, Carter Lake, which Trump
Speaker 3: won by eighteen points and my hometown of Council Blufs,
Speaker 3: which he won by ten points, and I was able
Speaker 3: to win by nearly six points, about fifty percent.
Speaker 2: Better than any other Democratic Do you think is the
Speaker 2: Trump voter?
Speaker 3: The Turrek Trump voter is someone that Here's what I
Speaker 3: would say is that the one thing I'll give credit
Speaker 3: to Trump for is that he accurately addressed that the
Speaker 3: status quo was not working for the average American and
Speaker 3: is seeing a hallowing out of the middle class. And
Speaker 3: the Turrek Trump voter is maybe what they would be
Speaker 3: a common sense voter to some degree that felt like
Speaker 3: the Democratic Party had shifted away too much focusing on
Speaker 3: culture war issue or didn't feel like it was looking
Speaker 3: out enough for the middle class or the average American.
Speaker 3: And whereas for me, I'm a common sense prairie populace,
Speaker 3: much like Senator Harken. And when I'm out there, what
Speaker 3: I'm talking about are the kitchen table issues. It's the
Speaker 3: way that I was very disciplined about that, both not
Speaker 3: only in my legislative races, but in the Senate race
Speaker 3: of talking about that. This what matters the most is
Speaker 3: the kitchen table issues. It's about affordability. It's about driving
Speaker 3: down cost a livable wage. It's about affordable housing, it's
Speaker 3: about affordable healthcare, pharmaceuticals. We have some very specific issues
Speaker 3: to Iowa too that I would talk about. We were
Speaker 3: number one in public education and now we've precipitously dropped
Speaker 3: to the middle of the pack. So I would talk
Speaker 3: about public dollars belonging to public schools, talk about doing
Speaker 3: something about our cancer rates. In Iowa were the only
Speaker 3: state with the growing cancer rate, second highest rates to
Speaker 3: only Kentucky. And I would talk about the need for
Speaker 3: clean air and clean water because that's something certainly something
Speaker 3: that touches everyone, regardless of where you sit on the
Speaker 3: political spectrum, doesn't matter Democrat or Republican. And those are
Speaker 3: the things that I talked about, and I think that
Speaker 3: there were some voters in there, certainly because of fourteen
Speaker 3: percent over performance that that resonated with. But I think
Speaker 3: that the way that we can once again win elections
Speaker 3: in state like Iowa is through genuine economic population them
Speaker 3: what I call cerry populism.
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Speaker 1: ago and he said something. I said, why are you running?
Speaker 2: You know?
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Speaker 1: a whole bunch of voters going, yeah, I agree with you, Yes,
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Speaker 1: the D next to your name? What happens when somebody says, hey,
Speaker 1: I like what you're saying, but why do you have
Speaker 1: a D next to your name? What's your answer to that?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm really really clear of why I have
Speaker 3: a D next to my name. I'm always reminded of
Speaker 3: the quote from John F. Kennedy when he said, you know,
Speaker 3: why are you a liberal? Why are you a Democrat?
Speaker 3: And it's because I believe in looking forward not backwards.
Speaker 3: That I believe in and I care about people's jobs,
Speaker 3: about people's health care, about people's schools. This is why,
Speaker 3: ultimately I'm a integrammer. I say that I have two
Speaker 3: north stars politically. The first is a quote from Franklin
Speaker 3: delan and Roosevelt, which I think is the greatest president
Speaker 3: of the twentieth century and also the only disabled president
Speaker 3: that we've ever had, And he said that the test
Speaker 3: of our progress of a society is not whether we
Speaker 3: add more to those with abundance, but whether we have
Speaker 3: enough to those with the least. And then the other
Speaker 3: would be Matthew twenty five forty, which is, you know,
Speaker 3: as Jesus said, what you do to the least among you,
Speaker 3: that you also do to me, And that, to me
Speaker 3: is the essence of what a democrat is. Is that
Speaker 3: we care about people's schools and jobs, in livelihoods, and healthcare.
Speaker 3: And that is really really clear of why I'm a Democrat.
Speaker 3: I don't think necessarily that Iowa is like these other
Speaker 3: states and that you get out of the urban communities,
Speaker 3: and the term democrat or democratic is a pejorative. I
Speaker 3: think we have a very very long history of being
Speaker 3: a progressive state. Third state to legalize gay marriage.
Speaker 1: I say, I have a friend of mine that refers
Speaker 1: to Iowa as the organ of the Midwest. We used
Speaker 1: to do that about ten years ago. A little less
Speaker 1: so lately, given that it's been a little less purple,
Speaker 1: although I still think Iowa just was uniquely open to
Speaker 1: Trump at a period of time when this economy was
Speaker 1: just transitioning. I suspect Iowa was going to go back
Speaker 1: to its swing swinginess pretty soon.
Speaker 3: I mean, we could certainly get into one of the
Speaker 3: reasons why Iowa has shifted more than almost any other
Speaker 3: state over the last ten years.
Speaker 1: And there's no state with more Obama to Trump counties,
Speaker 1: no state. They're all in eastern Iowa. It's fascinating.
Speaker 3: You are absolutely correct. But here here's what I've said.
Speaker 3: I've said that Iowa is a common sense state that
Speaker 3: has masquerrated as a red state. And for you, you
Speaker 3: have to remember that for thirty years we had we
Speaker 3: voted for Senator Harken, and that he ended in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 3: That's not that long ago. But even more recently, in
Speaker 3: Trump's first midterm twenty eighteen, we won three of the
Speaker 3: four congressional seats, and we were only three points away
Speaker 3: from winning every single one of the congressional races. And
Speaker 3: I actually feel even more energy and excitement right now
Speaker 3: for chance, particularly in the rural communities which they have
Speaker 3: just been absolutely decimated and betrayed by the tariffs and
Speaker 3: where the commodities prices are. You go to even more
Speaker 3: recent history. Twenty twenty two, we were only one point
Speaker 3: five percent away from having three of our six state
Speaker 3: wide officials being Democrats. That means the average Iowa voter
Speaker 3: went in there in twenty twenty two and voted for
Speaker 3: three Democrats and three Republicans. We are not a red state.
Speaker 3: We're a common sense state that has masqueraded more than
Speaker 3: what we actually are. And because everything has perfectly aligned
Speaker 3: and we needed about ten things to happen, but the
Speaker 3: fact that we've got, for the first time since nineteen
Speaker 3: sixty eight, an open Senate race, and an open governor's
Speaker 3: race and two open congressional races. I really do believe
Speaker 3: that Iowa was the center of the political universe in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty six, and you were going to see the
Speaker 3: state shift.
Speaker 1: I've had some say to me, let me curious what
Speaker 1: you think of this, And I'm probably playing to the
Speaker 1: crowds on this one, which is the Iowa Democratic Party
Speaker 1: got a little too Deminish and not enough everywhere else
Speaker 1: that it was almost too concentrated in Des Moines. Do
Speaker 1: you accept that premise? Do you think that was part
Speaker 1: of the problem over the last decade.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that the not not only in Iowa,
Speaker 3: but I think nationally, I think the party has has
Speaker 3: lost touch with the plights of real Americans or the
Speaker 3: middle class or just the average worker.
Speaker 2: We're all real America.
Speaker 1: Other way, I always get a little sensitive to that
Speaker 1: in fairness, urban Americans in rural America. But I think
Speaker 1: what you're trying to say, and what I would say
Speaker 1: when I would say this and I got and I'd.
Speaker 2: Fall into the same trap so I didn't mean.
Speaker 1: To which is it's really rural America that Democrats just
Speaker 1: stopped showing up in and it's showing up. This is
Speaker 1: why they've been alienated from rural America. It's not that
Speaker 1: they've like, if you'd show up, they'd have no problem.
Speaker 1: But this is where I think micro targeting and the
Speaker 1: quote efficiency of use of dollars. Well, there's more Democrats
Speaker 1: in the urban area. You got to get out the
Speaker 1: got to get out the base vote. And you're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but if you shave three points in rural America, then
Speaker 1: you have a better shot at urban America, putting you
Speaker 1: over the finish line.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that that has certainly been a miscalculation. First,
Speaker 3: I would say two things. I would say, you know,
Speaker 3: quote having done this and winning in very very red areas,
Speaker 3: I say that the right candidate with the right message
Speaker 3: and the right work ethic, you can win in these
Speaker 3: red environments because I've got the electoral experience that that
Speaker 3: that I've I've done it, and the quality of candidacy
Speaker 3: can't be understated on that. I would also say that
Speaker 3: part of the calculus is we do need candidates that
Speaker 3: are going to be willing to go out there and
Speaker 3: go into all ninety nine counties and go into all
Speaker 3: these small communities. I think for far too long here
Speaker 3: in Iowa, over the last ten years, we've had candidates say, well,
Speaker 3: we're going to maximize turnout in Polk County and Johnson
Speaker 3: County and Lynn County, and that's how we're going to win.
Speaker 3: But ultimately, where a rules state, and it may not
Speaker 3: make a fundamental difference in the outcomes in the statehouse races,
Speaker 3: but we've got to trim the margins and we've got
Speaker 3: to get out there and we've got to talk to
Speaker 3: Republicans in these and independence in these rural communities and
Speaker 3: explain why we're different. But we certainly can do that.
Speaker 3: I mean, we have the opportunity. In the messaging I've
Speaker 3: been able to prove it.
Speaker 1: You've already sort of touched on this issue that I
Speaker 1: sort of discovered in twenty.
Speaker 2: Gosh, I think it was. It was I did a whole.
Speaker 1: I think it was in twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: we went out to eastern Iowa to talk about sort
Speaker 1: of what happened to you know, where did all the
Speaker 1: Democrats go in eastern Iowa? And I was in Decora
Speaker 1: and in some of these towns, and most of what
Speaker 1: we heard was simply, you know, the only Democrat that
Speaker 1: showed up in twenty twenty was Pete Bouda Diute. You know,
Speaker 1: nobody else did. And you're like, well, no, wonder he overperformed, right,
Speaker 1: you know. Now there was sort of a comfort level
Speaker 1: for him. He was already a Midwesterner, so there was this,
Speaker 1: you know, and he was sort of a fish out
Speaker 1: of water in South Bend. And when you start out
Speaker 1: as thinking of yourself as a fish out of water,
Speaker 1: you sometimes overwork, right, And so he went to all
Speaker 1: these places. But the other thing I discovered was there
Speaker 1: was a lot of bullishness that well, Democrats are going
Speaker 1: to be able to make a comeback because of what
Speaker 1: was happening in the schools. And it comes to the
Speaker 1: sort of the choicification. I guess of pub of public
Speaker 1: schools all over the country. I was sort of following
Speaker 1: a blue print that Florida has in some of these
Speaker 1: other states in the South. And the problem that I
Speaker 1: think Texas Republicans are running into Iowa Republicans are running
Speaker 1: into is school choice sounds great, but when you live
Speaker 1: where the closest school is thirty is within, you know,
Speaker 1: the next clos to school is thirty miles away, what
Speaker 1: choice do you have? And so suddenly you're not fixing
Speaker 1: my school, but you've given me choice to go find
Speaker 1: an alternative thirty miles away or I have to homeschool
Speaker 1: my kids. Walk me through the choicification of the Iowa
Speaker 1: public school system right now and how it did work
Speaker 1: and how it's working.
Speaker 2: At the moment.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is certainly it was a point of personal
Speaker 3: pride for all Iowans. We were number one in education.
Speaker 1: Always Massachusetts in the east, Iowa and the Midwest, and
Speaker 1: I think it would be like get out West.
Speaker 2: Those were always the three big, you know.
Speaker 3: Great states for public schools, and this is why people
Speaker 3: were moving here. Our test scores were the highest in
Speaker 3: the nation, and we prioritize that even when we put
Speaker 3: out our state quarter.
Speaker 2: It was it was about the quality of our education.
Speaker 3: And now, unfortunately, we have seen a precipitous drop and
Speaker 3: now we're down to the middle of the pack on
Speaker 3: this issue. Depending on the metric you're using, twenty six
Speaker 3: or even thirty two, what's the drops.
Speaker 1: We spend it on testing, it's un testing and all
Speaker 1: across the board.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, tes testing scores predominantly is where you're seeing it.
Speaker 3: But one of the reasons is because we're no longer
Speaker 3: prioritizing this or funding this. We now spend twelve hundred
Speaker 3: dollars less than the national average per pupil here in
Speaker 3: Iowa and in the Iowa legislature. Unfortunately, now with what
Speaker 3: we've seen with vouchers, last year, we gave our public
Speaker 3: schools a two percent increase and we gave our private
Speaker 3: schools a forty four percent increase in funding. And in
Speaker 3: what you're seeing is you're seeing rural schools that are
Speaker 3: legitimately struggling and closing and it I mean, it's it's
Speaker 3: it's very very serious. When these rural communities, you only
Speaker 3: have really four pillars of these rural community and that
Speaker 3: would be your rural pharmacies, which are closing, and then
Speaker 3: you're seeing rural schools closing due to the lack of funding,
Speaker 3: and we're giving private schools and there are no private
Speaker 3: schools in these rural communities.
Speaker 1: No, And what you potentially do is you you almost
Speaker 1: incentivize some bad actors who try to open up sort
Speaker 1: of you know, essentially government funded private schooling where they
Speaker 1: get tax.
Speaker 2: Breaks and all this stuff.
Speaker 1: They grab the money and they don't give your kid
Speaker 1: a good education and there's nobody there to make sure
Speaker 1: they're following the rules. Or you get parents start homeschooling,
Speaker 1: and that's hard.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I think many a parent wants to do that well
Speaker 1: and in a dream world in some ways somebody you know,
Speaker 1: But it's not as easy as you make it out
Speaker 1: to me. And I admire those that do it, but
Speaker 1: it's hard.
Speaker 3: It ain't easy, absolutely, and there are so many rural
Speaker 3: communities now that are struggling with this. And even more
Speaker 3: egregiously is that we can't audit the schools and so
Speaker 3: there's no regulation on what they teach. There's no regulation
Speaker 3: in terms of it. It's your tax dollars being used there.
Speaker 3: You go your tax dollars and yet then there's no
Speaker 3: standard on testing. They can spend the money how they want.
Speaker 3: They can spend it on pupils, they can spend it
Speaker 3: on football equipment if they want. And then most most
Speaker 3: egregiously for me, is there's no discrimination policies in place,
Speaker 3: and so if a kid needs an IEP or he
Speaker 3: has a visible disability or whatever his situation is, the
Speaker 3: private schools can say no, sorry, we can't take you,
Speaker 3: which just puts that onus more on the public schools
Speaker 3: which are having less and less funding, right and department.
Speaker 1: This is one thing people always ask, what does the
Speaker 1: National Department of Education do help public schools with the
Speaker 1: funding so that they can provide services to students who
Speaker 1: may need some extra help in order.
Speaker 3: To get particularly with those with disabilities and special education.
Speaker 1: It's always been a foundational support. So you get rid
Speaker 1: of this, and where's this going to go? I mean,
Speaker 1: I hate to be politically cynical about this, but I
Speaker 1: think this has opened the door to having a different
Speaker 1: conversation in rural America than Democrats have been having over
Speaker 1: the last decade.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I mean this is just kind of, unfortunately
Speaker 3: a perfect storm in these rural communities where you're just
Speaker 3: you're you're seeing young people not stick around. As I
Speaker 3: was saying before, you've got four pillars in these rural communities.
Speaker 3: You've got the rural pharmacy. That's an interesting issue, you're right,
Speaker 3: I mean rural pharmacies. They're being hurt by the PBMs.
Speaker 3: And then you've got your public your schools which are
Speaker 3: closing because of the lack of funding, and we're putting
Speaker 3: the funding towards the private schools where you're only in
Speaker 3: the urban areas. And then you've got rural hospitals. And
Speaker 3: in a place like Iowa, you've got two and five
Speaker 3: is ones in the rural communities that are on Medicaid.
Speaker 3: In the last five years, we have closed thirty one
Speaker 3: nursing home skilled nursing facilities in rural hospitals due to
Speaker 3: lack of reimbursement and lack of FUNDA. It is really
Speaker 3: hurting these these communities. Then you exasperate that with what
Speaker 3: we're seeing on the tariffs and the commodities prices, where
Speaker 3: these you know, we're losing our family farms and you're
Speaker 3: seeing farm suicides and foreclosure rates that are going up.
Speaker 3: I mean, we really is moving us into almost a
Speaker 3: a second farm crisis of what we saw in the
Speaker 3: in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, where are you on tariffs?
Speaker 1: Because I think that you know, in Iowa famously, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, ag tariffs were you'd be in one some
Speaker 1: some politicians would be on one side of the aisle
Speaker 1: for against all tariffs on ag because that was such
Speaker 1: a huge export. But then on manufacturing you'd have you know,
Speaker 1: particularly a Tom Harkett might be for some of these tariffs.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's on washing machines or dishwashers because those things
Speaker 1: used to be made. You know, there was a time
Speaker 1: that certain towns were known not by their name but
Speaker 1: by the plant. Right, Oh, it's a maytag town, right,
Speaker 1: you know you'd have that, or oh it's a it's
Speaker 1: a popcorn town, or it's a popcorn popping plant. And
Speaker 1: where are you? You know, do you think all tariffs
Speaker 1: are bad? When are there tariffs that are out there
Speaker 1: that you support? Where do you put yourself on the issue.
Speaker 3: No, I would tend to agree with you. I mean,
Speaker 3: certainly not all tariffs are bad. I think you can
Speaker 3: make the argument that at least in the manufacturing sector,
Speaker 3: to have some level of parody or competition they can
Speaker 3: be valuable, but certainly what we're seeing right now with
Speaker 3: this chaotic terriffs where you know you're seeing shifts from
Speaker 3: from day to day, and you know one day it's
Speaker 3: one hundred percent tariffs, and they have really really hurt
Speaker 3: the gag communities, and that's being doubled down where Trump's
Speaker 3: giving forty billion dollars to Argentina to bail them out
Speaker 3: so that the Chinese can buy their soybeans. Meanwhile, our
Speaker 3: farmers are left there to hold the bag and they're
Speaker 3: upside down on their soybeans. It really really is hurting
Speaker 3: our bag communities. And I think that when I'm out
Speaker 3: there and I've been out to a lot of farms,
Speaker 3: we're hearing farmers that are really really concerned that we've
Speaker 3: already lost a majority of our family farms and what
Speaker 3: few remain out there. Yeah, suicide rates are three times
Speaker 3: higher than what they were over the last two years.
Speaker 3: Foreclosure rates are double what they were last year. It's
Speaker 3: it's moving us towards the farm crisis, and this has
Speaker 3: been a self inflicted womb due to this chaotic nature
Speaker 3: of the tariffs. I believe that tariffs should be as
Speaker 3: the as the founders of the Constitution intended with the
Speaker 3: power of the legislature much like the power of the purse.
Speaker 1: So one of the things that frustrates longtime Iowan's is
Speaker 1: the idea it's a shrinking population state, right that the
Speaker 1: I remember when when you know that there have been
Speaker 1: multiple governors who said, you know, my goal is to
Speaker 1: you know, I'm during the heyday of the public school system. Hey,
Speaker 1: we're educating all these kids and they're leaving. You know,
Speaker 1: they're they're leaving the state. They're not staying. What's the
Speaker 1: what's your plan to get more folks to want to
Speaker 1: stay in Iowa? What's the job what's the job market
Speaker 1: looked like the next thirty years in Iowa? And what
Speaker 1: is what should Iowa be an investing in to make
Speaker 1: it to make it such a because it's always been
Speaker 1: seen as a pretty livable, right, it's a it's a
Speaker 1: very livable place to moin in particular, so you know,
Speaker 1: if you're looking for a small city but want city life,
Speaker 1: the Moin's about as affordable a place as you can
Speaker 1: live in the Midwest. But what's the next what are
Speaker 1: the next thirty years of jobs look like in Iowa?
Speaker 1: Because I do think Iowans are nervous about the future.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they certainly are.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, we're the only state in the last one hundred
Speaker 3: years that hasn't doubled in population size. And even for
Speaker 3: the for the young people that we have, oftentimes we're
Speaker 3: educating them and then they go on. The first thing
Speaker 3: is we've we've we've got to start going the right direction,
Speaker 3: particularly in rural communities. As I said, you know, we've
Speaker 3: we've got to have a healthcare system in place. We're
Speaker 3: basically dead last right now in Iowa for every single
Speaker 3: economic metric, I mean, for all intents and purposes, we're
Speaker 3: already in a recession. We've seen a six percent reduction
Speaker 3: in GDP, We're forty ninth in terms of economic growth,
Speaker 3: forty eight out of fifty in terms of individual purchasing
Speaker 3: in economic growth. By every single healthcare metric, we're basically
Speaker 3: dead last. Rural hospitals, obgyns, mental health providers, mental health reimbursements.
Speaker 3: You have to have these systems in place to want
Speaker 3: for this to be a livable situation as well if
Speaker 3: you want people to move here to Iowa. So I agree,
Speaker 3: it's a beautiful state when all around the world. I
Speaker 3: love Iowa. It's great, Iowa nice, it's affordable even, you know,
Speaker 3: it's amazing place. But you've got to have these systems
Speaker 3: in place, from education and healthcare, and also what we're
Speaker 3: seeing with some of these social issues where we've moved
Speaker 3: to a six week abortion ban and in some of
Speaker 3: these culture war issues where we've just not made this
Speaker 3: state very welcoming to a lot of individuals. And you know,
Speaker 3: it's interesting doing on immigration as wells it made it
Speaker 3: less welcoming to immigrant communities.
Speaker 1: There's a reason results matter more than promises, just like
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Speaker 1: Their fee is free unless they win. You know, it's
Speaker 1: interesting with with Iowa and how it's gotten sideways and
Speaker 1: cultural issues is that, you know, my father grew up
Speaker 1: the you know, the Midwest Methodist, which means, you know,
Speaker 1: I always joke Methodists are you know, people who are
Speaker 1: Christians but don't want to talk about it. You know,
Speaker 1: but but you know, meaning like you know, your your
Speaker 1: faith is your faith.
Speaker 2: You don't wear it on your sleeve.
Speaker 1: What you wear in your sleeve is your values, right,
Speaker 1: it's it's you know, your values is being good to
Speaker 1: your neighbor, empathy, things like that. And yet there's this
Speaker 1: perception that i was a very religious state. And yet
Speaker 1: I did see something recently that compared to the rest
Speaker 1: of the Midwest, it is actually has the least. It's
Speaker 1: it's on a downward trajectory of people that go every
Speaker 1: week to some sort of religious service. What is What
Speaker 1: have you discussed out there campaigning statewide?
Speaker 3: I mean, most states are on a downward trajectory in
Speaker 3: terms of that, but I still think that I was
Speaker 3: is a religious state. I think the most recent numbers
Speaker 3: I had seen was sixty five percent of Violins still
Speaker 3: a ten church on a regular basis or would define
Speaker 3: themselves as Christian or members of religious organization. And certainly
Speaker 3: that's something that I'm going to incorporate in this campaign.
Speaker 3: I'm somebody that has born and raised and proudly spiritual
Speaker 3: and would define myself as is a Christian in the
Speaker 3: true sense of the word.
Speaker 2: And I'm going to go out there.
Speaker 3: There's three things that Republicans that have, as I feel
Speaker 3: like they've had a stranglehold on, that they're not going
Speaker 3: to be able to use against me. The first is
Speaker 3: hard work, because every single part of my story from
Speaker 3: overcoming economic situations, the healthcare situations that I've gone through,
Speaker 3: also to win Gold Medals, but then even to win
Speaker 3: my election, a very very deeply read district.
Speaker 2: Going out there.
Speaker 3: Every single day and dragging my wheelchair upstairs has been
Speaker 3: about hard work. The second is I think that Republicans
Speaker 3: have felt like they've been able to have a stranglehold
Speaker 3: on patriotism. And I'm someone that is deeply patriotic. I
Speaker 3: love Iowa, I love my country. I have proudly represented
Speaker 3: the United States in four Paralympic Games and one gold medals,
Speaker 3: and so I don't think they'll be able to use that.
Speaker 3: And the third is, as we were talking about with this,
Speaker 3: is on spirituality or on religion. I feel like there
Speaker 3: has been this push that if you're a Democrat you
Speaker 3: cannot be religious or spiritual, if you're a Christian, you
Speaker 3: must have to be Republican. And I'm going to go
Speaker 3: out there and actively talk about, you know, Matthew twenty
Speaker 3: five forty, and that the true message of Jesus is
Speaker 3: taking care of the most vulnerable in society and the
Speaker 3: poor and the elderly and the disabled. It's one of
Speaker 3: the main reasons why I am a Democrat.
Speaker 1: Let me go through a few questions that you're look,
Speaker 1: you know that could get WEAPONI against you, fair, unfair.
Speaker 1: The issue of trans sports and access? What what what
Speaker 1: should that? What's fair to the trans community when it
Speaker 1: comes to access to organized sports, school, college, et cetera.
Speaker 1: I mean I say this and I feel like you
Speaker 1: actually have a in some ways of a better you know,
Speaker 1: you benefited from having access.
Speaker 2: For for adaptive sports.
Speaker 1: So what's the right I don't know if there's a
Speaker 1: right answer. What do you think is the right way
Speaker 1: to think about this issue?
Speaker 3: I mean the first is I think we need to
Speaker 3: be empathetic on this issue. I mean, the children that
Speaker 3: are involved in this, they're they're really in a no
Speaker 3: win situation. Is somebody that you know has gone through
Speaker 3: a lot of bullying and adversity in my life, you know,
Speaker 3: being different with the disability.
Speaker 2: We need to recognize.
Speaker 3: That, you know, sports is a unique area of dedicated
Speaker 3: a lot of my life to this, and we certainly
Speaker 3: need fairness and involved in this. However, I would say that,
Speaker 3: you know, I have personal experience with this. I actually
Speaker 3: I wanted to try out for my team in high
Speaker 3: school and play basketball, and yet there was an equipment
Speaker 3: rule that prevented me from being able to play. And
Speaker 3: yet it was not my congressman, or my mayor or
Speaker 3: my senator that was making the decision on this issue.
Speaker 3: It was the sports governing bodies. And so my position
Speaker 3: on this is that this should be decided by the
Speaker 3: sports governing bodies.
Speaker 2: And politicians shouldn't be involved in this conversation. I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't think my position is a United States senator
Speaker 3: I should be involved in this, that it should be
Speaker 3: Should a high school principal have to make sports governing bodies?
Speaker 3: I don't think it should be left up to local control.
Speaker 3: I think you leave it up to sports governing bodies.
Speaker 1: Socialism versus capitalism. You know the excitement that the progressives
Speaker 1: have about the victory of Zoon Mamdani, he's a self
Speaker 1: described democratic socialist. There's the every political party claims they're
Speaker 1: a big tent when they have people in there that
Speaker 1: that they that not everybody agrees, and I get that,
Speaker 1: But where are you on socialism versus capitalism? And I
Speaker 1: ask a plurality the most recent NBC News poll, it's
Speaker 1: a poll that I'm very familiar with, and I know
Speaker 1: it's really well done. Democrats were the only group that
Speaker 1: had a net positive rating on socialism and a net
Speaker 1: negative rating on capitalism. A Why do you think that
Speaker 1: is and where do you put yourself on that spectrum?
Speaker 3: Well, I would define myself as a capitalist. I think
Speaker 3: capitalism is the greatest vehicle ever devised by man to
Speaker 3: be able to generate capital. However, it's very inefficient at
Speaker 3: being able to divide that that capitalis. So I'm certainly
Speaker 3: not a las Fair capitalist. I think that you know,
Speaker 3: you need a regulated capitalism and a progressive taxation rate.
Speaker 3: I mean, honestly, when something's been fascinating to me, again
Speaker 3: representing very red district, and you talk, I'm not talking
Speaker 3: most exclusive Republicans, this whole entire MAGA movement make America
Speaker 3: Great Again. Well, what they're talking about with that is
Speaker 3: they're talking about America post World two, arguably at our zenith.
Speaker 3: And I'm sure and preaching the choir to you on this,
Speaker 3: but when you're talking about America post World two nineteen fifties,
Speaker 3: you're talking about the where we had the most amount
Speaker 3: of union membership and the strengths of our unions, and
Speaker 3: the unions built the middle class. But we also had
Speaker 3: the most progressive taxation rate. That was when the highest
Speaker 3: earners were paying a marginalized tax rate of ninety one
Speaker 3: percent and during the Eisenhearer administration and the largest corporations
Speaker 3: where we're paying fifty one percent, and we've eroded that
Speaker 3: we are literally living through a second Gilded Age right
Speaker 3: now in this country. And it has I mean all
Speaker 3: the way back to John Edwards when he talked about
Speaker 3: we're living in two Americas, the haves and the have nots,
Speaker 3: and it was a.
Speaker 1: Bit of had that speech is funny when you think
Speaker 1: about that speech. He gave an four and oh eight
Speaker 1: constantly and being in Iowa and right, you heard it
Speaker 1: a millillion times. We all heard it. You know, we
Speaker 1: live into Americas.
Speaker 2: We are now, we are living in it's more.
Speaker 1: I was just going to say the speech, weirdly is
Speaker 1: more resident now than it was then.
Speaker 3: If you make over one hundred thousand dollars right now,
Speaker 3: I think you're feeling pretty good.
Speaker 1: And especially a little money in the stock market, you're like, hey,
Speaker 1: this is great, my savings is working for me.
Speaker 2: But what if you don't have savings?
Speaker 3: That's right, but you can't have a more disconnected The
Speaker 3: disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street can't be more clear,
Speaker 3: And it really is the haves and the have nots
Speaker 3: and and there's too many people right now in Iowa
Speaker 3: right now that are in the have not section that
Speaker 3: are struggling just to keep food on the table and
Speaker 3: pay their bills, and struggling with affordability of healthcare and
Speaker 3: pharmaceuticals and all of it. And this is what we need.
Speaker 3: We need a genuine prairie populist. And you know, we
Speaker 3: used to have prairie populous We no longer in the
Speaker 3: US have those because we don't have senators from Iowa
Speaker 3: and the Dakotas in Nebraska. And we need somebody that's
Speaker 3: going to go out there and fight for the people.
Speaker 1: The issue of climate change is thing that's really important
Speaker 1: to a certain subset. Look do I think it should
Speaker 1: be important to a large subset of hepe, but but
Speaker 1: politically it's important to a smaller subset these days. And
Speaker 1: I'm sure you're getting plenty of advice that says, hey,
Speaker 1: don't you know these issues, these are not these are
Speaker 1: not front and center. And yet I think rising electric bills,
Speaker 1: the data centers that are that are going to be
Speaker 1: going online, that are going to impact our ability to
Speaker 1: that are basically going to a competition for electricity, which
Speaker 1: is inevitably is going to raise rates. Is there is
Speaker 1: there a way to be sort of to to mitigate
Speaker 1: the damage coming from extreme weather and at the same
Speaker 1: time not look like you're coming out against the economy.
Speaker 3: If you get my drift, I think, like with most things,
Speaker 3: how I define myself as a common sense I mean, one, yeah,
Speaker 3: certainly climate change exists, and it's and it's happening in
Speaker 3: where you may see those effects most most directly is
Speaker 3: actually in the Eag commune and where we're seeing.
Speaker 1: Okay, southwest Iowa, the flooding, you know, one hundred year
Speaker 1: floods that come every couple of years.
Speaker 3: It's it's it's it's the flooding, it's the extreme heat.
Speaker 3: And then when you're seeing these rain showers which which
Speaker 3: are just coming down in torrents and knocking down the
Speaker 3: road crops. It is affecting us in a very very
Speaker 3: serious way. And also Iowa we have always been a
Speaker 3: leaders in renewable fuels, renewable energy. We have the second
Speaker 3: most amount of our energy grid that is from renewable energy,
Speaker 3: the most of the vast majority of that is through wind.
Speaker 3: And I think that there's a way where we can
Speaker 3: address this without uh without stifling growth or innovation or
Speaker 3: or the economy. And certainly one of the best ways
Speaker 3: is certainly through that through through wind energy, and continuing
Speaker 3: those incentives and subsidies through the through the federal government,
Speaker 3: certainly at the state level.
Speaker 1: Two, being a US senator means you're going to be
Speaker 1: dabbling more informed policy than the campaign itself will be about.
Speaker 1: And I imagine if a foreign policy issue comes up,
Speaker 1: it's going to be the issue of Israel. Where are
Speaker 1: you on US support for Israel?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, certainly, I'm hopeful that we're going to
Speaker 3: see a peaceful end too that I think we're all
Speaker 3: hopeful for that. What has happened there in Gaza has
Speaker 3: been horrific. The amount of loss of life into civilians
Speaker 3: and two children, it really has been horrific. I think
Speaker 3: that Israel certainly had the right to defend itself, but
Speaker 3: I think that now the response is certainly, by any metric,
Speaker 3: been disproportionate. And I think that we need to make
Speaker 3: sure that any sort of support or arm cells comes
Speaker 3: with the insurance that we're adhering to international law.
Speaker 2: You put a little more a few more guardrails on arm.
Speaker 3: Sales, Yeah, particularly put particularly on offensive weapons.
Speaker 1: And as you crane our fight, what would you say
Speaker 1: to somebody, is that our fight? And if it is,
Speaker 1: why is it our fight? In your in your words, I.
Speaker 2: Think it's I think there's certainly a distinction there.
Speaker 3: I think that what's happened is they they have been
Speaker 3: invaded by but an authoritarian regime with with Putin, and
Speaker 3: I think that that is one of the examples where
Speaker 3: we should probably stand in in in and fight with
Speaker 3: them and uh, because.
Speaker 2: That that is, that is a distinction they have.
Speaker 3: That is a sovereign country that has been invaded by
Speaker 3: a foreign power, and and that is that is an
Speaker 3: area where we should.
Speaker 1: Support one that might be a little closer to home.
Speaker 1: College sports, it is gone through dramatic changes.
Speaker 2: Iowa was on the halves.
Speaker 1: I worry that Iowa state, where my grandparents both got degrees.
Speaker 1: By the way, are their cyclone alums there They might
Speaker 1: be have nots because they're in one conference and I
Speaker 1: was in a super conference. There's always been this talk
Speaker 1: that Congress is going to have to get involved.
Speaker 2: Do you think they need to?
Speaker 1: And as somebody who's you know, look, you know, one
Speaker 1: side of the state loves their Hawkeyes.
Speaker 2: The other side of state loves their cyclones. But the
Speaker 2: fact is Iowa State is is is.
Speaker 1: Essentially getting punished because Texas left the Big twelve. Is
Speaker 1: there a role here for the Senate? And do you
Speaker 1: think there should be?
Speaker 2: Maybe I'm i'm I'm I'm torn.
Speaker 3: I maybe sports should be separate, But I do know
Speaker 3: the history of the n c a A. You know,
Speaker 3: one of the reasons why that was created was just
Speaker 3: because of with football, we are seeing all all the
Speaker 3: violence in the you know, unfortunate even loss of life
Speaker 3: early on.
Speaker 1: Sure they were trying to wring Teddy Roosevelt. It basically
Speaker 1: was created you know, by ted in order to.
Speaker 3: Say that that is exactly correct. I mean what we're
Speaker 3: seeing with the the n I L. I mean we
Speaker 3: this this is just turned into the las A fair
Speaker 3: there and there's no regulation, and I think honestly that
Speaker 3: they missed an opportunity. You know, my brother and sister
Speaker 3: both played professional able body basketball. My sister had a
Speaker 3: brief cup of coffee with the WNBA, and so they
Speaker 3: both were four year starters. My brother at Nebraska, my
Speaker 3: sister at L. Robert University, and they honestly, they struggled
Speaker 3: just to have money just to do their laundry.
Speaker 2: And we missed an.
Speaker 3: Opportunity there to find some happy medium where we could
Speaker 3: at least take care of our athletes or at least
Speaker 3: that they had some level of control over their name,
Speaker 3: image and likeness. But what we're seeing now, which is
Speaker 3: millions and millions of dollars dumping into this and no
Speaker 3: guardrails and no regulation, it may be a need for
Speaker 3: the Senate or for the government to get involved.
Speaker 1: Do you get a sense that Iowa State, basically partisans
Speaker 1: are nervous that you know that suddenly you know, if
Speaker 1: Io and Iowa State can't play every year because of
Speaker 1: the financial demands of the Big ten that want them
Speaker 1: playing in other games like that, that is something that's
Speaker 1: really good at tick Off Islands.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just it's it's it's interesting. It's almost I
Speaker 3: feel like our college sports has almost moved into what
Speaker 3: we're seeing with UH, with our country and our economics,
Speaker 3: where we've got a handful we've got a handful of these,
Speaker 3: and with football in particular, it's the SEC and it's
Speaker 3: the Big ten that are the haves and they've got
Speaker 3: all the TV money and those are just going to
Speaker 3: continue to generate more and more fun.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a monopoly. It's not even a meritocracy.
Speaker 1: It feels like a monopoly. And that's of course what
Speaker 1: what what we're seeing here with AI and and and
Speaker 1: what we're seeing with the big tech in the moment.
Speaker 3: Correct And I mean look again to get back to
Speaker 3: us talking about the second as being in Gilded Age
Speaker 3: at least one hundred years ago. In the first guilded Age, Uh,
Speaker 3: we had legislators that stood, that stood up to this
Speaker 3: and to the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts and and the
Speaker 3: JP Morgans, and we we broke up standard oil, and
Speaker 3: we know, we recognize that these monopolies were no good
Speaker 3: for society to have one percent controlling all the economic wealth.
Speaker 3: And of that Gilded Age, we ended up coming up
Speaker 3: with Franklin Delan and Roosevelt and the New Deal and
Speaker 3: you know, the advent of social security and social safety
Speaker 3: nets for individuals. I'm hopeful that this is an opportunity
Speaker 3: here for us in this country, and particularly in this
Speaker 3: upcoming election, for us to make that shift and to
Speaker 3: to to actually have more people that are going to
Speaker 3: be genuine populous. They're going to fight for the middle
Speaker 3: class and fight for economic populism and we can change
Speaker 3: our country.
Speaker 2: All right, totally.
Speaker 1: Easy questions for you know, he's got the best. Who's
Speaker 1: who's going to be the best college basketball team from
Speaker 1: Iowa this year? Who's going to go the furthest in
Speaker 1: the tournament?
Speaker 2: I would probably guess the Hawk guys is that.
Speaker 1: That's yeah, i Awowa State doesn't have as good of
Speaker 1: a ball.
Speaker 2: Club this year.
Speaker 3: They may they they may it's.
Speaker 2: But I'll say who I think is going to go
Speaker 2: furthest in the in the tournament? I think the Hawk guys.
Speaker 3: However, I'll say this Drake Man, oh Man, They've they've
Speaker 3: had they've had good results with at least making the tournament,
Speaker 3: which is drink.
Speaker 2: And you and I.
Speaker 1: There's some pretty good supposed mid major teams right now,
Speaker 1: that is right.
Speaker 3: I mean half the battles just get into the tournament.
Speaker 3: I mean that that has been also interesting too with
Speaker 3: this shift in sports on the on the football you've
Speaker 3: seen more of but have and have not actually on
Speaker 3: the basketball side of things. I think you can make
Speaker 3: the argument where some of these teams, because you're seeing
Speaker 3: guys that are going in there and they're just staying
Speaker 3: for one year and then they're entering the transfer pooral
Speaker 3: or the better athletes are going off to the NBA.
Speaker 3: I think you can make the argument that some of
Speaker 3: these mid majors that are able to keep their guys
Speaker 3: for three or four or five years, they're able to
Speaker 3: compete in an interesting way against these you know, the
Speaker 3: Havels so.
Speaker 1: Seniors four years guys that grow up together for four
Speaker 1: years in the same program. One hundred percent. I'm a
Speaker 1: which at GW matters. That's that's our plan, that's the
Speaker 1: GW blueprint. That's how they think we can we can
Speaker 1: be the next you know, the next Gonzaga, the next
Speaker 1: Wichita State, right r that can pop in there. Let
Speaker 1: me get you out of here on this. What's uh
Speaker 1: on the NBA level? Who's your favorite basketball player to watch?
Speaker 3: Oh, I'm I'm a big fan of Jo Kich what
Speaker 3: he's been able to do.
Speaker 1: You like that, you like the the the high IQ player, right.
Speaker 3: I just kind of like unicorns. I just like watching
Speaker 3: anything at the very highest level. I'm a shooter, you know.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think I had said to you, I
Speaker 3: in my collegiate career four thousand career points sixty three
Speaker 3: points in the game.
Speaker 2: Uh so that was always my skill set.
Speaker 3: So watching somebody like Steph Curry that has been able
Speaker 3: to master that that unique skills the.
Speaker 1: Mayor Fred Hoiberg, right, he was a big shooter back
Speaker 1: in his day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, Yeah, of course.
Speaker 3: But I mean it's like these the viduals that are
Speaker 3: able to do it in a in a very unique
Speaker 3: way at a high level. In Yo Kich, particularly with
Speaker 3: his physical appearance and you know, as he's just kind
Speaker 3: of lumbering down the court, but that level of coordination
Speaker 3: that he that he has, it really is it's it's sensation.
Speaker 2: I really love watching him.
Speaker 1: It's such a high flying sport. To see him not
Speaker 1: get an inch off the ground is fantastic. It's my
Speaker 1: favorite gree I love that.
Speaker 2: Who's your goat for the NBA? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Who do you put in the goat? Do you have
Speaker 1: a goat? Do you have a hot take? Goat between
Speaker 1: Jordan Lebron, I got a hot take that involves Magic Johnson.
Speaker 1: But that's my hot take or you know.
Speaker 3: Well, here I will tell you my goat, but I'll
Speaker 3: tell you my Mount Rushmore, my goat without a doubt
Speaker 3: is Jordan. I mean as a kid watching growing up
Speaker 3: watching him play six championships, six and zero. But I
Speaker 3: also think you can make the argument for someone like
Speaker 3: Bill Russell eleven championships in thirteen years. I don't know
Speaker 3: if we'll ever see anything like that. Wilt Chamberlain. I mean,
Speaker 3: if you just look at the individual stat lines, he
Speaker 3: averaged fifty points in a season, scoring over one hundred.
Speaker 1: And was one of the greatest volleyball players of all
Speaker 1: time as well, by the way, without a doubt.
Speaker 3: I mean, this was a guy that for a season
Speaker 3: actually averaged more minutes than even an NBA game has average,
Speaker 3: like forty eight point three minutes in the game. Those
Speaker 3: would be those would be the ones that would be
Speaker 3: up there for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Josh, this was great. Good luck out there.
Speaker 1: I mean, are you any questions quickly hit me up.
Speaker 3: What do you think about Iowa? I mean, like you,
Speaker 3: I mean, you're you're You're as close to this as
Speaker 3: is almost anybody. You're seeing this unique opportunity that we've got,
Speaker 3: you know, first time since nineteen sixty eight, open governor's race,
Speaker 3: open race, two open congressional races. In Trump's first midterm,
Speaker 3: we won three of the four and we've got a
Speaker 3: great candidate with somebody like Rob sand that is similar
Speaker 3: to me in terms of leaning into the middle. What
Speaker 3: do you think about Iowa and us being the center
Speaker 3: of the political universe or this being a fundamental change
Speaker 3: in our electorate.
Speaker 1: Well, I think it is one of those where if
Speaker 1: if the Democrats want to be a national party, and
Speaker 1: I would argue that they've not been a national party
Speaker 1: since Obama and the and this sort of the got
Speaker 1: taken over by a consultant class that got I've always said,
Speaker 1: you know, analytics was a you know, the analytics revolution
Speaker 1: that hit politics and sports and all this stuff where
Speaker 1: people let data drive decisions. Sometimes data can be exclusive,
Speaker 1: meaning it excludes people because it's efficiencies that analytics is
Speaker 1: looking for. Well, we found out the efficiencies of baseball
Speaker 1: made the game suck and so we had to like
Speaker 1: get a and the efficiencies of politics actually made got
Speaker 1: rid of persuasion. We start the art of persuasion. Iowa
Speaker 1: only works with persuasion, right. It's why the caucuses, I
Speaker 1: think are such a unique thing and why Iowans took it. Seriously,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, the Democratic Party only views Iowa through an
Speaker 1: identity issue, and I think that is what offended some islands.
Speaker 1: I really believe that that when the Democratic Party nationally said,
Speaker 1: you know, I was too white, Well what do you
Speaker 1: think that said to the resident?
Speaker 2: You don't want us in your club? Okay?
Speaker 1: And then you wonder, oh, well, now I was out
Speaker 1: of range. Well you just told eighty percent of the
Speaker 1: population you didn't want them involved because they were too white.
Speaker 1: It was a strange, and I know that isn't I
Speaker 1: understood what the DNC was trying to say. But anyway, look,
Speaker 1: I'm I think that if not now, when, right, if
Speaker 1: the Iowa Democrats can't make a comeback in this environment,
Speaker 1: under these circumstances, with everything that's there, right, if it
Speaker 1: doesn't happen, the party's brand is even in worse shape
Speaker 1: than I thought. I look at Iowa as this test
Speaker 1: if the Democrats are and I most look, I'm a believer.
Speaker 1: I live in history, So everything is cyclical, right, It
Speaker 1: just is. You know, Harkin first got elected in the
Speaker 1: seventy four Watergate class, right, and it was Iowa had
Speaker 1: a very Republican reputation before then. And that's sort of
Speaker 1: when sort of the Iowa Democrats started to to get
Speaker 1: more competitive.
Speaker 2: But it is a if.
Speaker 1: If there isn't success this time, then it is not
Speaker 1: your fault or Rob's fault, or or the fault of
Speaker 1: the folks on the ground. It really is the national brand,
Speaker 1: right if you can, if you can rebrand an Iowa
Speaker 1: Democrat is something that isn't associated with the national party.
Speaker 1: I think you have a boxer's chance because if you
Speaker 1: but you have to show up everywhere in the beauty
Speaker 1: of Iowa. Is it's kind of expected, right, the ninety
Speaker 1: nine counties, the fact that everybody that covers not Iowa politics,
Speaker 1: even if you're not from Iowa.
Speaker 2: You know there are ninety nine counties.
Speaker 1: Do you know how many other states people know that
Speaker 1: they're the number of counties are in that state outside
Speaker 1: of people that live.
Speaker 2: In that state. Nowhere right, Iowa has it.
Speaker 1: And so I do think, you know, for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: you just had a and I think if you look
Speaker 1: at the leadership of the Democratic Party, it's too coastal.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: It wasn't that long ago that the Democratic Party was
Speaker 1: first that had a Senate Democratic leader from South Dakota,
Speaker 1: and then it was replaced by a Senate Democratic leader
Speaker 1: who was born and raised in rural Nevada. Like, literally
Speaker 1: the towns are outside of Vegas. There are five of
Speaker 1: them that exist, right, I'm being a little facetious, So
Speaker 1: you know, this is one of those things where literally
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party left Iowa. Iowa didn't leave the Democratic Party.
Speaker 1: And we'll find out if Iowans are open to this
Speaker 1: version of the party. But I look at it, I
Speaker 1: think what's happened with the schools and the funding cuts.
Speaker 2: I hear it from a lot of.
Speaker 1: My friends in rural Iowa about how you know, even
Speaker 1: if culturally they were supportive of the idea of private
Speaker 1: schools and there was the skepticism of the public schools,
Speaker 1: the way this is work doesn't work for people, right. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: people want their local school to work and they want
Speaker 1: to have a say over their local school, right, they
Speaker 1: want both things. So look, I mean, I'm I'm biased.
Speaker 1: I've spent a lot of time in Iowa. My my
Speaker 1: wife worked in Iowa. We've you know, we both care
Speaker 1: about the state a lot. Like I said, I've got
Speaker 1: more family buried in Iowa than any of the state
Speaker 1: in the Union. So I've always taken pride on what
Speaker 1: sort of a bipartisan state. It's always has been, and
Speaker 1: it was always a point of pride. My father's was
Speaker 1: a big conservative, grew up in Waterloo. It was a
Speaker 1: point of pride that Iowa was this swing state. That's right,
Speaker 1: because Iowan's worry about the person at the party, and
Speaker 1: there was always that there was a bit of a
Speaker 1: there was always pride in that the independent streak of Iowa.
Speaker 1: So look, I'm a I'm bullish in theory, but you
Speaker 1: got to have good candidates.
Speaker 2: Without a doubt.
Speaker 3: This is one of the things that I've learned representing,
Speaker 3: you know, such a red district, is this comes down
Speaker 3: to right candidate, right message, and that message is genuine
Speaker 3: economic ti mat Yeah, and in the right work ethic,
Speaker 3: I think you can win.
Speaker 2: And we do.
Speaker 3: I mean, we're basically dead last by every single economic
Speaker 3: and health care and as you said, this is a
Speaker 3: huge opportunity. But it's a lot of responsibility we get
Speaker 3: this right because if we cannot win in this environment,
Speaker 3: then this state may be gone for a generation.
Speaker 2: And yeah, because.
Speaker 1: If Republicans can win in this environment, then then they're
Speaker 1: going to govern for quite some time. I Mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know if you've spent much time with Mike Frankin
Speaker 1: in the race he ran. You know, he was just
Speaker 1: totally I mean, you want to talk about identity politics,
Speaker 1: just eliminating him from consideration by the national Party. And
Speaker 1: it turned out he was the stronger candidate because he
Speaker 1: won the primary despite the National Party supporting somebody else.
Speaker 1: So what I would say is be careful when that
Speaker 1: when you think the national parties on your side, they
Speaker 1: don't always make the smartest decisions.
Speaker 2: That's fair.
Speaker 3: In the other thing that you said that one hundred
Speaker 3: percent agree with is that we've got to make our
Speaker 3: own identity of what is an Iowa Democrat. I think
Speaker 3: that one of the one of the advantages that like
Speaker 3: a state above us in Minnesota has had is they've
Speaker 3: been able to make the distinction with we are the
Speaker 3: arm and Labor party. And I think that if we
Speaker 3: had that ability to say we are the party of
Speaker 3: the American class, that.
Speaker 1: John who says you have to keep the name Iowa Democrats,
Speaker 1: who says you can't become the Iowa Democratic Farm Labor
Speaker 1: I mean, I you know, I've had a few people
Speaker 1: ask me this and I'm like, yeah, I you know,
Speaker 1: rebrand if the part if the Democrats are going to
Speaker 1: be a coalition party and most look, we're we're a
Speaker 1: country two parties. Nobody goes to the store and only
Speaker 1: takes and there's only two choices of t shirt sizes,
Speaker 1: extra small and extra large. Right, Like the idea that
Speaker 1: we try to squeeze everybody into two parties is absurd.
Speaker 1: We probably should be a four or a four party system.
Speaker 1: I think it would frankly sort of ease the ease
Speaker 1: some of the tension inside both parties. You know where
Speaker 1: you have these giant where the tent is so big
Speaker 1: it rips a hole in the middle, right, And that's
Speaker 1: kind of what I think has happened to the Democrats.
Speaker 2: You've got these.
Speaker 1: Pro democracy Extrapublicans on one side, and you've got the
Speaker 1: Bernie Sanders Democratic social on the other. And they only
Speaker 1: agree on one thing, Trump is bad for democracy.
Speaker 2: Other than that, they've got nothing else in common. That's
Speaker 2: a tough.
Speaker 1: Coalition to win with on bread and butter issues. And
Speaker 1: I don't know why other state parties haven't actually followed
Speaker 1: the lead of Minnesota. Now, Minnesota, there used to be
Speaker 1: separate parties. There was a Democratic Party, and there was
Speaker 1: a farm Labor Party and then they merged. That's sort
Speaker 1: of the history of that. But I've been surprised, Like,
Speaker 1: if I were an Idaho Democrat, I just rebranded the
Speaker 1: party the Idaho Freedom Party or something, you know, where
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes words you know are words you don't
Speaker 1: use anymore in certain locations. Okay, move on, your ideas
Speaker 1: can still work.
Speaker 3: It is interesting though, because we were I think we're
Speaker 3: seeing a schism actually on both parties. I mean, the Democrats,
Speaker 3: as you indicated, are but you also see this amongst
Speaker 3: classical conservatives and also what is a maga Republican and.
Speaker 1: So divide, you know, Josh, that divide existed before. It
Speaker 1: just was so dormant during the Cold War. The isolationist wing,
Speaker 1: you know, which was borderline xenophobic back in the nineteen thirties,
Speaker 1: and they were like, hey, we're not going to get
Speaker 1: involved in other people's wars. And they were the ones
Speaker 1: that held the Americans back from participating in World War
Speaker 1: Two until it came to our shores. Right, we wouldn't
Speaker 1: have gotten involved until it hit us because that Republican
Speaker 1: Party was more trumpy in the FDR era than Eisenhower.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: And then the Eisenhower to Romney, run of Republicans. They
Speaker 1: were all sort of internationalists, and yet they're the Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think they're dead.
Speaker 2: They're just in hibernation at that wing of the party.
Speaker 2: I enjoyed this.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for good to get to know you.