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What I believe is common sense, I'm learning is not that common. The public has been left out of so many conversations on community issues, and as a publicly elected official, I want to change this. I want to invite my community in a new space, where you can listen in behind the scenes to the discussions that lead to the decisions that are impacting our lives. In a podcast I named Common Sense, I'm inviting the whole world to see these conversations happening in real time! Subscribe to listen in on these conversations!
What I believe is common sense, I'm learning it's not that common.
There is a lot going on in the world of politics, nationally, across the state
and here at home. And people on both sides of the aisle are trying to
make sense of the current landscape and identify who they
will look to in the future as leaders in local and state government.
It's a topic I love to engage. So I brought two individuals in who
also love to talk about all things politics. John Whitmer and Andy
Hoosier. Both of these two have leadership positions in the Republican
Party. Both have conservative talk radio shows, and both are
very opinionated and very outspoken on a wide range of issues.
We talk about how they perceive their roles in the party. We talk about talk
radio. We talk about their take on some issues and working on the local
level. It was a fascinating conversation. I hope
you enjoy this episode with John Whitmer and Andy Hoosier.
All right, fellas. John Whitmer, Andy Hoosier. Thank you. I think we just had a
podcast before this thing even kicked on and had a conversation. But that's.
That's the hard part of having radio guys come in. They're not going to stop
talking. Yes, normally. And politicians, well,
one active to one former. And.
That's right. That's right. So I'm the only non-politician in.
That's right. It was funny. We were talking before. I was like. Because normally when
people come in, it's like we have to tell them, please get close to the
mic. Talking to them, it's like, we have a radio now. We know what we're
doing. All right, I want to tell you a story before we get started. And
John, I might have told you this before, but my previous
generations in my family, my grandfathers in particular, were pretty rabid
Democrats. They had an affinity with John Kennedy.
They were machinists and factory union folks, very working
class people. And it ran really deep in my
family historically, just not leftist roots, but
very. Just traditional Democratic
roots in my family. Until my father. My father
is a very proud conservative Republican. When you ask him what
are the reasons that you became a conservative
and a Republican, he there's two reasons. Number one, Ronald Reagan,
my father was born in 1975. He. I'm sorry,
1957, graduated high school in 1975, went off to the army, went
away, came home, economic turmoil, chaos.
And Ronald Reagan painted a dream and a vision of optimism, of hope,
and rallied people around, rallied Americans around a common enemy, which
was communism. And he believed it. So it was Reagan and There was
a second person, Rush Limbaugh. Oh, yeah, My
father was a ditto head. Like, I remember him picking me up from school.
Rush was just. Rush was going. He ran bowling centers. He was in the
bowling business. He had something called Rush & bowl over the lunch hour to where
he. People would come in, pay $5 to bowl, and he'd have Rush Limbaugh playing
over. I remember restaurants that would do that, limb ball lunches.
This was my father's influences. This is what made him become a conservative.
This is how he raised his family as conservatives. We've all chosen this worldview now,
but it was talk radio, man, that really had the influence for a lot of
not just ditto heads, but a lot of Republicans and conservatives.
Rush Limbaugh had such a stake in that and an influence.
But here you are, you're both talk radio. Your
Republican leadership, your conservative talk radio. Like, how did you get
in this space and is it the same influence today as it once
was? Well, I got my start from him. I didn't
know that. Oh, yeah, actually. So poor Andy
Hoosier never got to take a day off because he's a one man
show over there. And so back in the day when he needed a
day off, he'd need somebody else to fill in.
That's how he started filling in for my show. Yeah, he would call me and
he'd say, hey, I want to take a Friday off or something. Would you? And
I'd never done it before, but I would fill in on Andy Hoosier
show. And then after I lost my reelection
bid, KNSS called me
and said, hey, we've heard you filling in over there. Would you be interested in
doing something? And you know, I'd never done it before and this was going
on eight years ago. And I said, well, I'm sure I'll try.
And that's how. But I got my start filling in on Andy Hoosier’s
show. I'd never heard that. I owe my starting radio. There we go. To Andy,
who started off and now look at you all over the place. How did you
get into this? Oh, my gosh. So that's a funny story. So I went to
college originally for majoring in political science,
but not knowing what to do with it. I wanted to be involved. Involved in
politics. No idea where I wanted to go.
I went two years. I ran the College Republicans. I ran the organization
as the chair for a good year and had no clue. I started
running that, doing the adult beverages party and whatever, but ended up.
Yeah, not even going to college or not even go to the classes for a
while. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. At one point.
Finally, my sophomore year, the communications
department, this was at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, opened up the
communications department. They had an Internet station for the university
radio station and said instead of just communications majors, anybody
can do it that they want. So I said, I listen to Rush. Same thing
I in high school. I would take my lunch breaks in high school and go
in my car and listen to Rush Limbaugh. Is that right? That was the first
guy that I listened to going to Mark Levin, all these other radio hosts that
were out there. And I said, you know what? That would be fun. I'm going
to try it. They put me in a slot from 2 to 4 in the
morning. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Weeknights, 2 to 4 in the morning. I wasn't going
to class anyway. So I was like, why not? So I did it and I
fell in love with it. It was terrible. The show was God awful. But I
loved it. So I dropped out, went to a broadcasting school and I've been,
golly, I just actually hit my 10 year anniversary here in Wichita back
in August of this year. I've been in radio in total now for about 14
years. I didn't know you were a chair of a col- because I was
the chair of the KU at the University of Kansas. University, Kansas College of
Republicans. And at the time there were eight of us because it's KU,
it's the UC Berkeley of the Midwest. That's right. But, well, Bowling Green, same thing.
Bowling Green was the most politically active and
liberal university in the state of Ohio outside of Ohio State University. Yeah,
Bowling Green. You're a Jayhawk too. I forgot that. So you know,
you know what I was like. So our goal, our goal there, I'm sure you
guys did the same thing was at that time was not to really promote a
lot, but to just be the thorn in the side of every other organization that
was on there. And we had a lot of those. The one that ran the
Latino organization there, he quoted himself as nicknamed the term
Che Che Guevara. Yeah, that was the type of people that we had to deal
with in Bowling Green. So it was a lot of fun. We, we had a
great time there. But yeah, that was my radio start was I did it in
college not knowing what I wanted to do in politics, but wanting to be involved
somehow and just fell in love with radio and dropped out and went to a
broadcasting school. Let me ask you a question. Historically, the thought process
was that A lot of more left leaning pundits
and, and journalists kind of dominated traditional news
sources and yet. Still do. But conservatives had
their footing in talk radio on the radio. Is that
still the case today? And do you think that talk radio, conservative talk radio in
particular, still has the same sort of influence that it wants? Oh, I think it
does, very much so, yeah. I mean you were, and I'm sure you remember the
network Air America back in the day and I remember that one. So when I
was interning in Denver where I went to the broadcasting school, I interned
for, I don't know if you know the guy by the name of Mike Rosen,
850 KOA, the big blowtorch hundred thousand watt
station out of Denver, Colorado. Mike Rosen had filled in for Rush a few times.
I had listened to him when I went through high school in Colorado, listen to
him and he was a legend. Everybody, even people that didn't know
politics, knew the name Mike Rosen. I got the chance to enter,
intern for him for six months. Wow. Which was really amazing. The same
building that he was in was in Denver, there was a market at that
time, 760 Progressive Talk. And it was the liberal station of Air
America. And they had David Sirota, they had
Ed Schultz, if you remember that, Randy Rhodes, they had all these progressive names. They
went bankrupt because they can't handle the progressive movement, can't
handle themselves in talk radio when you're talking anti
private markets, you can't be funded by private industry with, when
you're talking bad about that industry as a whole, they were so radical. The morning
show host was a local guy out of Denver by the name of David Sirota.
He writes for Salon.com I think now go figure. He at that
time had, was so radical, he had said that Barack Obama
was a flaming right wing conservative and no better than George Bush. Like that's
how crazy these guys were. And you can't sustain on that type of rhetoric on
the radio model. The market won't reward the market model won't reward that.
So yeah, conservatives I think still have a dominance in talk radio. And I think
talk radio, we can talk about the future of the industry and the media as
a whole overall. But I think that it's still very prevalent. It's still,
very strong. And it's tying in with things like this, with actually podcasting
and talk radio as a whole. The radio industry,
if they're going to survive, which I think they always will, you know, you can,
you can listen to a podcast all you want to, but when you want news
happening at that moment, it. No doubt you're still turning on the radio to figure
out what the news is, that there's always going to be a spot for that
in talk radio and podcasting are going to go hand in hand, I think, for
influencing content in the future. Yeah. You agree? Yo, Without a
doubt. I mean, look at. I mean, you mentioned podcasting. Look at how popular Joe
Rogan is. Look at how he influenced the last election cycle. Well, and that's
why Democrats right now are starting with works podcast. They want their own
Joe Rogan. On the other side, Gavin Newsom's trying it. They're trying to hype up
all these other influencers. They're desperate to try and break into the market, and it's
not working. And there's a reason for that. But what you said about the news
is people still go to traditional news sources many times to get what they think
is factual news or just to stay dialed in. For me, a lot of times
it's out of habit. When I get in the car and I take my kids
to school, I flip over to KNSS. I flip over to 98.7. And
for many years, it's how it is. We appreciate.
We appreciate that. It's Steve and Ted in the mornings, except. After
January, Ted Woodward. It'll be Woodward and Wit. And this is the news
that broke this week. Now, we're recording this here in the middle of December,
but the news broke this week. I think most people know now Steve McIntosh is
retiring after, I thought, over 55 years. Incredible. That's an incredible
radio career. Think about it. He. He covered the
shooting in downtown Wichita. He was there. Remember the guy shooting. He was
from the hotel. He was there on the street. He covered
BTK. I mean, Steve McIntosh is a legend. He is
a legend and a wonderful. Human being and just a sweet guy. And,
you know, we've been. When they first brought me in, one of the ideas was,
hey, we would have a local, assuming I didn't fall on my face or say
something I shouldn't and get fined, which, you know, for seven years
I've been behaving myself, more or less.
But that was part of the plan all along, was that we, if we had
a proven commodity that the market didn't reject,
that the plan was that if MacIntosh retired When
McIntosh retired, we would do this. Well. And so here we are
going on eight years later. Well, it shows a tribute to the market as a
whole, because a lot of times for people that, you know, for myself, where this
is my career, you know, nothing against you, John. No. You know, that from, you
know, people coming in as former politicians or experts on certain industries
that have come into, you know, something like even Charlie Kirk as a podcaster
coming into the radio industry, as opposed to being a radio
professional, where that's like, that's what we were trained to do. It's such
a different market nowadays and it's so rare to hear someone like
Macintosh that longevity in a market.
And, you know, there was always a joke that they always said that, you know,
you know, you're a true radio person when you've gotten fired from multiple different radio
gigs and you're bouncing around the country to different markets. So to be in a
same market, to be part of that community and to be a radio person for
that long is really honorable. I'm
excited to the fact that I hit 10 years here in Wichita just a couple
months ago, which is a really big feat. So it's really neat and cool to
see that that type of legacy still alive. It is. And he is a legend.
And now we have that morning drive is going to be the Woodward and
Witt show. That's great news, man. Congratulations. Thank you. And we're not changing
the format's not going to change that much. We're still going to do news, traffic,
weather, but we'll throw in some new commentary. Not commentary, but
interview segments. I mean, you like, for example, what may not be you because you
may not be me. You won't be the chairman, but we'll still do, you know,
Mondays with the mayor. Yeah. And we will do Tuesdays with the county commission.
But for example, on. Sure, I can tease
this. Every other Friday, we will have an interview
with Congressman Estes or Senator Roger Marshall.
That's a brand new segment from live from Washington, D.C.
every other Friday during the legislative session on my show, you
know, we've done an under the dome update. We're going to do that now.
Every Monday morning on the morning show, live from Topeka,
we will have an under the dome update. That's something new that that
show hasn't had on the morning show. But because I'm there,
we'll have more of that. And I've. Over my years on the Sunday
show, I've been able to meet some folks like Tyrus and
Riley Gaines and I've got some really good relationships. Well, now
we can bring those folks on the morning show. So we will start bringing
in a little more interviews, but the content will still be essentially the
same. Yeah. And I hear I will tell you as every Tuesday morning
at 7:35, I come on and give an update from the county Commission.
And it's funny because those guys, you never want. They'll want to know what's going
on at the commission meeting, but you never know what they want to talk about.
And a lot of times they want to talk about sports, they want to talk
about baseball. I played baseball for a living. They want to talk about it, and
it's just fun to talk to them. But you. How many people text me and
say, hey, I. I listen to you on Steve and Ted. I heard you this interview.
I every, every. We listen to it every single morning. So that's the legacy that
I think Steve and Ted have built. And pivots are necessary at
times. He's retiring and I think this is going to be really cool and I
think the market's going to really enjoy that. And I think we're glad. I know
I'm glad to have Ted Woodward. Oh, he's. He's great. He's. He will be.
He's taking Steve's role, I'm taking Ted's
role. So we still have that consistency because Ted Woodward still
there. And Ted's going to be the driving force. And
I'm coming in to kind of, you know, play second fiddle, which is great. Well,
I love this whole conversation around talk radio, conservative talk radio, a lot of it,
just because of the influence it had on my life and my father's life. And
just remembering listening to Rush and it was really cool and knowing you guys are
radio guys. I always said, I'd love to be a radio person. I don't have
the voice, but I have a face for radio. I could probably pull that. So
do we. Are you agreeing with that? No, no, we all think that
way. Honestly, it takes a while to get familiar with learning to listen to your
own voice, listening back to your air tracks, listening to podcasts. It's very
strange. And I've always joked that, you know, I got a face for radio and
a voice for newspaper. So it's all right. You know what's interesting
is we started last year, we started rebroadcasting my show
on Saturdays. And the first time that it
aired, my wife and I were in the car and my voice came out on
Saturdays and oh, wait, I know that. I recognize, I recognize, but I'm
just not used to hearing it. It's very strange. The other one is whenever I
hear my theme song, Carry On Wayward Son. Yeah, I was like, ah,
I'm on the Air. So. Yeah. Well, I love it. Appreciate conservative talk radio.
Appreciate the legacy that it has and the influence I think that it does still
have today and the people that have made it so influential over time. Let's talk
a little bit of politics. Obviously, you're not just radio folks. You're not just
conservative talk radio people. You are also the vice president
of the vice chair of the Kansas Republican Party. Yeah. And you're the chair of
the Sedgwick County Republican Party. So aside from just talk radio, you have
influential leadership positions at the state and the local level.
Let's talk about that piece. What is the primary? Help me understand, help the public
understand what's the primary role of a state party and
a county party. What it is that you do exactly. And what's the
importance of what that role is? Well, from the state level, which you know, John,
I know you talk about it on your show, I talk about it on mine as
well. We always talk about that engagement, getting active and actually doing something to change.
And we can do that from behind the microphone all we want to, but at
the end of the day, we want to live. What we try to preach is,
you know, getting engaged and getting active. I've never been involved in from that
side of politics before. I've always been that third party objector, that radio guy behind
the microphone to get the information out, talk to people, but never actually be engaged
that self. I got the call from Danedri, our chair of the state party
last year, before the election, year and a half, whenever it was, and said, hey,
Andy, I'm running for the chair of the state party, which is like, cool, all
the power to you. She goes, I want you to be my vice chair. I
said, wait a second, hold on. What you do realize I've never done this before.
But, you know, I told her, I said, if I can be an asset because
my mission is obviously the messaging, the pr,
the getting voters engaged, getting our message out, trying to counter the attacks from
the other side and the talking points. And if I can be an asset to
that, I want to help. So from the state party, that's been my role. And
a lot of it is trying to help with a lot of our social media
posts and growth, trying to, you know, create the messaging
of what we want to actually promote with the conservative movement, the Republican Party,
and the whole role of the state party, which a lot of people may not
even know because they're like, what does the state party even do? It's really to
assist and help the candidates statewide get elected and
assist the Counties in what they need to do is really our main goal. One
thing you should point out is the way the state party is organized,
one member of each of the leadership team has to represent one of the
congressional districts. Yes. So he represents the entire 4th
congressional district. Danedri is from, I believe, the 2nd or 3rd
district. Yeah. And so he represents everyone in the 4th
congressional district, all south central Kansas. So if I get a call from any of
the county leaders from the 4th district, you know, I take their
concerns up to the state leadership. We figure out what to do, we try and
organize stuff. Working with you on, you know, the upcoming state Republican convention.
But yeah, our goal is to fundraise, to help out statewide races and to assist
in counties because, you know, obviously the grassroots happen at the local level, and the
county parties are the ones that organize that local level. Our goal is there to
try to assist that in the best we can through organization, through coming up with
the talking points, the campaign platforms, through trying to help out the best way we
can. That is our goal. And that's what, right now, what we're trying to do
for the upcoming midterm elections. That's the stateside. Is the county side different? How is
it different than what they do there? What's the role? And
how did you get to this point, though? You wanted to. You're busy. You're both
very busy people. How did it get to the point where you wanted to do
this? I can give you the politically correct. Nice answer.
Give me the John Whitmer answer. Beat Democrats. That's my job. That's your job.
That's my job. Recruit candidates, raise money. But really it comes down to
my job is to beat Democrats. And that's really what it is. Our job
at the county level is to, you know, at the state House, the state
senate, local level, it's to recruit candidates and then help
fund and educate and train them and beat Democrats.
And, you know, I've served in the legislature, and our job in the
legislature and at the county level is to govern. That's your job.
But it is party leadership. Our job is not to govern. Our
job is to win. And so that will be our focus as we
especially moving into 2026. We have a
gubernatorial cycle, and we have. And again, not primary. Can't
really play in the primaries, but when we get into the general, that'll be our
focus. And I think Andy would probably agree that
Sedgwick county will be ground zero for the
gubernatorial race. Without a doubt. Without a doubt. Last. Last cycle, it was
Johnson County. I think most political pundits agree that Sedgwick county is ground.
Well, and I think you hear that from a lot of the gubernatorial candidates on
the right right now for the Republican Party. They're spending a lot of time here.
You start hearing whispers about what their thoughts are on lieutenant governor and what that
could look like. And they know that the key to
winning the Governor's Mansion in 2026,
it's going to come through Sedgwick County. Yep. Oh, there is. At the end of
the day, there's really seven to nine counties statewide where you focus most of
your attention on. And if you can win those, then you win the election. And
we saw that with the last two governor's races with Derek Schmidt at the time,
with Kris Kobach prior to that, it comes down to about seven counties. And which
is really unfortunate. I don't like that. I've been promoting an idea which is
away from the Republican side of it, but just kind of a personal project of
starting to create a conversation around an idea of a statewide Electoral
College because I think that we're so diversified within a state that
it's the same issue we see nationwide on why we have an Electoral college nationally.
And I think it's worth the conversation there to, to better represent. But
yeah, we. The race comes down to about seven to nine counties and
Sedgwick county is one of the biggest ones where that is one or swayed an
election in some ways or fashion. And we need to be prepared for
that. So, yeah, all hands on deck. I know that John's getting ready for that
one. And at the state party again level, we're just ready to give them whatever
assistance they need to make that happen. Well, it is interesting to think about the
diversity in Kansas in regards to particularly rural and urban.
And we talk. I met with the deputy Secretary of Department of Corrections
yesterday, talking about a lot of things that we're working through. I've been very critical
of some things and they've responded and they've come and met. We're working on things,
on funding formula and. And such. But Sedgwick county is very
unique. Comparative. Yes, comparative to Johnson county,
which is another urban county compared to Shawnee Wyandotte, rural
America. It is really unique here. And what's happening here is unique from what's
happening throughout the state. So I'm. And it's unique. I wanted to real
quickly. It's unique in the sense that Sedgwick county, in order for Republicans to
win, Republicans have to Win Sedgwick county and we have
to win the 4th district. The other counties like that. We don't even necessarily have
to win those big areas. We just have to see an increase in voter turnout
for Republicans and overall, as a state, we'll end up winning these races
overall. The second district under Derek Schmidt's congressional district,
we lost that governor's seat because largely of that district there
by like 20,000 some odd voters that turned out for President
Trump didn't turn out for the congressional districts or the down ballot races.
And it's in right now. The focus for Republicans that we have at the state
party is how do we just get them to turn out if we have
just 20 to 30,000 more people turn out
statewide? Republicans win, we dominate. We have the most amount of
registered voters in the state. And in fact, there are more independents and
unaffiliated in the state than there are Democrats. So there's no reason for
us not to win these races. All we have to do is figure out what
drives people to the polls and make sure they actually show up and we win
the race. It's really not that. Let's stay on that topic right there because I've
always said that good, good policy makes good politics and
that one of the things, particularly not talking Republican Party, but conservative
movement in particular. It was an intellectual movement. Yes. It was a party
of the intellectual right is people that were progressing
ideas and contending and debating real good ideas and good ideas.
It's good politics, man. Do we have
good ideas from the party standpoint? Are we winning in the idea, intellectual piece of
this? I think so. I mean, so I worked as a staffer,
paid staffer on both of the last two gubernatorial campaigns.
And I think part of our problem is sometimes we've, we've lost our
messaging. And I'll give you a good example. Derek Schmidt's campaign. And
Derek, I love Derek Schmidt. Great guy, class guy.
But part of the problem he had is he lost messaging. If you look at
the beginning of his campaign, his core message
was retire free in Kansas. I don't know if you remember
that, but that was the message. We are going to. We're going to eliminate income
tax on retirees. We're going to eliminate property tax for
retirees and retire free in Kansas. That was
his message. That's a, that message resonates not only
with conservatives. That message resonates with Democrats, with
independents. That was his message. And then Dennis Pyle
came along. And because of Dennis Pyle,
Derek. And I remember I was in on some of these conference calls. But because
of that message, he now had to. He felt,
and the campaign felt that they had to now re-secure their base.
And so because of that, they pivoted to
transgender policy. And again, the transgender issue is important, but
that's important to the base. So now they're talking about women and
girls sports, which is an important issue, and they're. They're trying to secure the base.
Well, when you do that, you're now off of that core message,
which appeals to a broader base. So I think,
yes, we have winning issues, but the more we can preach
to an issue that appeals to a broader base. Yeah,
I think we've got winning because our issues win. What's running on.
They're running on socialism. They're running on Mamdani issues. That
doesn't appeal to the broad base. Well, you got to remember, there's a difference between
the, the messaging on the campaign trail and the messaging of, let's say,
the platform of what the party actually stands for. Yes. On the radio show, I
always talk about the three principles that we need to promote, which is life, liberty,
and private property. At the end of the day, we don't need to get into
the weeds. You know, a lot of times, people want to change the platform of
the party and have a very specific statement on a very specific issue. We don't
need that. The Republican Party needs to just stay true to the
conservative values of life, liberty, private property. Period. End of story.
Just about every issue that comes up, every whatever flavor of the day,
falls under those principles in some fashion. Where we stand on, the
candidates themselves can take it how they want to on a campaign trail. But as
a party itself, if we're going to win people over, if we're going to show
them what we stand for and fight for those values, we have to keep it
simple. Life, liberty, private property. My three pillars of conservatism on what
we stand for, what we believe in. And then we can go from there and
use those to make our judgment based on an issue one way or another. I
think he's right. You agree? Absolutely. I mean, I've got similar four platforms
on my show. Limited government, individual liberty, free enterprise.
If you're targeting about those things, they appeal to a broad
independent. Independents and Democrats.
Focus on that. I think we get in the weeds, but again,
it depends on your candidate. Gotta have great candidates, right? And I think
we've lost. Republicans have lost the governor's race. Not because of our
candidates, because we don't stick together. And I've made this
argument time and time again. That, and we have
this problem again now with, what is it, eight, nine Republicans. I think we’re up to
11 in our primary. Yeah. If we don't whittle this
down when we get to the general, we're going to have a problem.
Not only whittle it down, but actually get along. We've had so many instances where
it gets so emotional in the primaries that by the end of it, the side
that loses says, well, I'd rather have a Democrat than this Republican in office
because they didn't completely align. And that's something we have to stop and do. It's
that. But then you've got 60 days before the general. So we bloody
everybody up in August at a primary and somebody emerges. Then you got 60
days and the coffers are depleted financially. I mean, candidates
weakened because of the primary. I think we got to have a conversation in
Kansas about that August date. And if. Well, you know what, there is the state
party, our leadership right now, we are talking about that, trying to find a way
to move those primaries up a little bit so that way they're more in line
with the rest of the nation in like an April, May type of thing. So
that way, moving time, filing deadline up, too. Yeah, you have to move it
up to May or. Exactly. So there is opportunity for that because then we can
have that healing time. We are working this year. We made a pledge to all
the governor's candidates that, that they're hopefully going to make that
pledge that if they don't win it, they're going to endorse the general election candidate,
whether that happens or not. But that was, that's what we're asking for. We're also
going to be throwing some type of Republican, you know, harmonious get together, sing
Kumbaya kind of party after the primaries statewide to where we can try and heal
those wounds, you know, and come together. Because look, I love the idea and
again, I've always said it. This comes from my mentor, Mike Rosen out there at
KOA. He wrote a piece in the Denver Post, the Rocky Mountain News at
the time, that had made the case that party trumps platform or party over person.
And he always made that case that in the general election it's the party over
the person because by then it's the special interests, it's the money, it's the
idea overall as a party over the individual candidate. And I agree with that
mindset. However, I've kind of taken it from there and gone
a little bit beyond that and saying that the primary election is the most
important election by far, because if we are going to do party over person in
the general election, the primary is what sets that tone on what the party's gonna
stand for, what it looks like. And in order to do that, I love the
diversity. I love the debate, and I love. It’s a purifying process.
Yes, the purifying and challenging our ideas, because unlike Democrats, they get their
marching orders. They don't really have a whole lot of debate except for their civil
war they're seeing right now. But Republicans overall, we
challenge our ideas, and I love a primary. But at the end of the day,
once it's done, we can't. I always see it as kind of like the Italian
family. You know, you smack each other, yell and scream at the dinner table, you
know, and you bicker internally, but if anybody outside the family messes with
you, then you mess with the entire family. And the Republican Party needs to be
like that. Well, Reagan had an 11th commandment. I mean, never speak ill of a
fellow Republican. And it was because of that, I think, John. I agree. I think
we've lost some elections because of this. Oh, there's very much that we've lost
elections. And the problem we have is even in this
current primary, there are Republican candidates for governor who are refusing to
sign your pledge. That's right. Who are refusing to. Oh, yeah, yeah,
there are. Okay. Well, here we are. Well, let's talk about the issues then, because
again, I'll say it from the rooftops, good policy
makes good politics, and we need to be a party of ideas, and the movement
needs to be filled with ideas. Looking ahead at 2026,
we know what the state legislator has signaled what their number one issue is going
to be. Let's talk about what's shaping issues. Interesting you say
that because I'm not sure that everyone knows what their
number one issue is. What do you think their number one issue? We have been
told loud and clear that they are going to go headstrong into property taxes in
this conversation about property taxes is what we're being told on the county level. And
yet I would say, what more can the state do about
property tax other than change the way appraisals are done? Yeah.
And to be quite frank. So we talk about that conversation. And this is me
just. There's a couple issues I want to talk about here in regards to this.
Number one, the state has already eliminated, with the exception of the 20 mils
that they charge, that goes to the state. Right. They're already out of the 1.5,
which goes to schools. It goes right to the school. So unless they want to
deal with. That, which they can't, what they can do is the
appraiser and the appraiser processes flow through the state. Kansas Department of Revenue, Property
Valuation Division. We can talk about that piece of it there. The ideas that are
being floated, I'm not too keenly fond of. You mean like a cap.
I'm not afraid of caps on the dollar side of things.
What I don't want, I do not like caps on
valuations. I think it's a terrible idea for a number of
reasons. The biggest reason is that the greatest asset that we own
is our home. And we want our homes to appreciate and we want our homes
to value. What people don't like in the increased valuation is not that you've
gotten more equity, they don't like that it typically produces more tax
dollars, property tax payments. So let's actually get to the root of the
problem that people are frustrated about. And it's the property taxes,
it's not the valuation. But I would contend that we've
got to begin at the premise and we've got to sell to this community, which
I think by and large Republican, Democrat, independent, agrees, property taxes really have
become an issue. Oh yeah. I truly believe that we
are in a danger zone with our working class families and those on fixed income.
And it's not just because the valuations have gone up and not just because that
the 107 different taxing jurisdictions in Sedgwick county are collecting most of
the appraised value growth. The biggest issue is because the
inflationary environment we've been in the last five years is it's not just their property
taxes and property insurance have gone up. It's their goods, it's their services.
We are in a danger zone. And those particularly on the right, need
to tie every single policy back to healthy families.
And property taxes are really hurting people. And I think right or wrong, it
is. And I think it is a priority for a lot of people. Which is
why the. How many different school bonds that have been voted on throughout the entire
state since January of this year have been shot down over and
over. I think out of what? Maybe it's not because people hate kids. Or yes,
I don't know, maybe people do hate kids, but who knows in today's age? It's
legitimate. It's legitimately concerned. Out of the 20 different some odd school
bonds around the state, maybe three of them had passed, but all of them are
getting shot down because even for the basic ones that normally would just go through
with flying colors without a question. People are saying, no, I can't do that right
now. I don't want it. I can't handle it. We met a threshold, John.
I think, let's be honest, the problem is government spends too much.
I mean, here you go. Wichita is doing it again. The
sales tax is, is an $850 million
spending slush fund. And the problem isn't. Yeah, I
mean, we all want nice things. I want nice things for Wichita.
USD 259 in November is going to come back with yet another half a
billion dollar bond initiative. And again, it's for
spending. And I think, yes, I understand what you're saying about
wanting to control property taxes, but the real solution to all of this
is for government to stop spending beyond their means. And if they could learn
to control their spending, a lot of this would solve itself.
Well. And let's go to a few different other communities because you're right, like Wichita,
it's a very large budget. It's very wasteful. You can always find ways to trim
it. You can always find ways, you know, at the county, at the state level,
at the city level to try and find ways to trim it. You know, being
a city council member of a town of nine hundred and ninety people, you know,
less than a thousand people there. Our entire $1 million
annual budget is based on a 1% sales tax and property tax
revenue in the state, in the city, that's it. And it takes us three years
to raise enough revenue to just pave our main downtown strip in the
town, which is ridiculous. So, you know, obviously growth is a, is a
thing on there, but we don't have places to trim. So as we talk about
the property tax issue, you know, yeah, the valuations are going up way
too quickly, the property taxes are going up way too much. A lot of small
towns, that's the lifeblood of us actually opening our doors and doing anything. So
it's finding a way to lower inflation enough to where, you know, cities like
that, our small towns can survive with the minimal amount of
property tax or get enough people in to substitute that into sales tax, which is
what I would like to do, you know, eventually. But it's a, it's a deep
conversation that we have to figure out what to do moving forward. In defense of
Ryan and the counties and cities, they're not the main
perpetrators here. Right. Look at your property tax bill. If I look at mine, you
know. You're what, maybe 9% about usually about
20% total. Yeah. So, yeah, the city is 9, 10%.
Goddard, where I live, 18%. It's. It's. So the
schools are the primary perpetrators here. Right. Some are worse. I've got
a buddy lives out in Andover. They're over 20% of it say it's
massive. So that's really who your primary perpetrators here are, the
schools. And so if you really want to deal with property taxes, you got to
go where the. Where the cost, where the culprit is. Let's talk through this real
quick. And I think it's really put. I'm grateful for this discussion, particularly a party
leadership, because I think it's something that we've got to be able to vet out
and talk out in. In an area to where we can really explore ideas.
The over dependence on property tax is what has really stretched some of this. You
talked about. You're dependent on it to do basic government services at the county,
obviously, I think the county, this county is different than other counties. I think this
county's different than the city in many regards.
But, you know, we are trying to forecast public safety
increases. I mean, and it is significant. If you look at Jeff Easter and
the jail, that 40% of every
property tax dollar that comes in goes to the jail. It goes to fund
the sheriff's department. Yeah, it's significant. And he talks about. He was.
He did a podcast with me a few months back and. And he said when
he first got on as the sheriff, his medical budget was
$1.7 million. His medical budget that was passed in 20. In
2026. We're giving him the budget of $12 million for medical expenses.
Wow. 100. Property tax funded. Wow. So if you
look at 911 calls, they were now over 1200 average per day. When I first
got on the commission just three years ago, the average EMS calls per day was
180. They're now at 230 per day. The rising cost of
public safety, and that's core service and that's public, that's property taxes. So
the reason for that, when you look at the population growth, isn't there.
But we are a sicker population. And more
EMS calls are for things like diabetes and things of the mental and
behavioral crisis, which I think that Covid and the way Covid was managed had,
certainly had a play on some of these things. Not fully, but the drug use,
the types of drugs that are in the community today, particularly Wichita,
the type of methamphetamine, it's a cartel meth. This is why the border does matter.
Particularly here in Wichita. It's a cartel meth. The type of synthetic
marijuana is K2. It's actually inducing psychosis. So the mental
and behavioral health challenges are more significant. The, the rate
you'll see public safety budgets correlate with what's happening in the family units.
82% of the kids in USD 259 live under the poverty level. The number of
single parent homes in our community, this is a real. And we're seeing correlations
and that's why we talk about, when we talk about like these social issues and
we talk about the family values and we talk about, you know, the, the divorce
rates and the abortion rates and everything else. This, like you said, it correlates with
public service spending that we have. And as this continues to increase massively
on public service, that it's also an investment that we need to look at to
try and stop that from happening. I always use the example of you have an
open wound that you go to the hospital for, do you just get a bigger
band aid or do you actually sew it up and figure out why you have
the issue in the first place? We need a deeper investment on long
term issues to bring back the family values, to get rid of the
demand for the illegal drugs, for these, you know, things to the
mental health issues, to prevent them. Preventative, healthy issues. The
MAHA movement that we're seeing right now to actually live healthier lifestyles, we do more
of that stuff, we're going to need less of the public services and we can
actually cut back on spending. I think you're exactly right. Yeah. John, you agree? Yeah,
I think he's right. But Andy's bit of a crackpot on the health stuff. So,
you know, he's, he's, he's gotta, you gotta give him a grain of salt. But
I think this is an important conversation in regards to where are we at in
the Republican Party statewide? Now listen, this is my opinion, my opinion
only. I, it doesn't matter who's in the White House. I'm not a fan of
the federal government. I'm just, I'm not, not a fan of what the federal government.
We don't trust them. I have a, I don't trust any government. I have, I
have a particular disdain for the federal government. It could be whether it's Trump or
Biden or Obama or George W. Bush. It could be, it could be Reagan,
it could be Teddy Roosevelt, it could be Abe Lincoln sitting in there. And I
have a disdain for the federal government. I think having a healthy disdain for government
is probably a good thing. Probably a good thing, yes. But many times
what happens is we begin to look at the things that are happening on the
federal level and we throw that umbrella of things that are happening on the local level.
My approach and my thought to what I want to happen at the federal level
and what is not happening at the federal level, does it
correlate and translate to what's happening on the local level, meaning this
chair of the county party chair, vice chair of the state party.
Is it good politics and good
policy to basically come in and say, sorry,
we, I'm playing devil's advocate here. We've got a
cut, cut, cut to the place to where we can no longer have good public
safety, to where people particularly that are parents
think that we're not funding schools appropriately, which I disagree. But that's, I'm
playing devil's advocate. Is the policy approach from our
local and state party the best policy for Republicans to win,
to come in and say, we're just going to cut until we, you know, we're
down to the studs. Here's, here's, here's what I would say is, and I think
you've mentioned this on my, on my radio show before, is that we have,
the messaging we have to have is we want efficient government at
the local level and cuts and massive,
just essentially hitting the reset button at the federal level. The way I want to
see it is, you know, Donald Trump teased this week it's not going to happen,
but he teased the idea of getting rid of federal income tax altogether
and just replacing it with tariffs. Is that ever going to happen? Probably not. I
loved that idea back in the early 1900s, before we started this entire fourth branch
of government with the bureaucratic agencies. But right now, it's probably
unfeasible to do that. But theoretically, let's just go down the world of
fantasy for a moment. If we could get rid of
80% of the federal government, we get rid of every
agency, every department, every service, everything. And
we go back to, in my opinion, the role of the Constitution, which is essentially
three roles the federal government's supposed to have, which is military and
national defense, that is immigration and foreign policy, and
that is regulating monopolies to make sure there are no monopolies through interstate commerce. Those
are the three duties of government. That's it. Period. End of story from that. We
are a long ways away from that. It is a fantasy, though. That is a
fantasy if we're able to get to that point. I'm playing it Wrong. Yeah. If
we're able to get back to that point, at some point we hit that reset
button. Donald Trump overturns all the tables and just slashes, cuts everything. Then
the state. Jesus. and the money changers there, see. Yeah. Then
I would be in support of the state saying we need to raise taxes for
certain programs because that's the state level. At the concept of
federalism, the city level, the county level, we're going to do these different programs
where you need to raise taxes for whatever type of service or program. If you're
going to have a social program and food stamps or whatever at a county, at
a statewide level, that is where it should be done. We're still in fantasy
hypothetical. Yes, I fully agree. I would rather I pay six and a half percent
to my, to my state income tax, 36% to my federal. I,
I'd rather be in reverse. Exactly. I would rather. That's the way the system was
intended to be. That's, that's the point I'm trying to make. That is the system
that was supposed to be that. If you want a universal health care system,
I may not like it, but at a state level, all the power to. You
go crazy with it. The federal government's not supposed to be involved in that. And
that's the way the system should be set up. Different in Kansas is different than
Oregon and different than Virginia. And we reserve the right to be able to have
these things in fashion the way we want. John. Okay, I'll get back to from
Fantasy Land to do a little reaction. So you asked
about do we cut, cut, cut when we're down to the bone. Okay,
my response to that is prove you're down to the bone. Because I've yet to
have a government that actually has proven we can't cut anymore.
That's no offense. That's what I hear from elected officials
all the time. Oh, we can't cut anymore. And I say it's a cop out.
There's always ways to fine tune. Yes, I sat on the, on the WOGEj, the
Wichita government efficiency. And when we made our presentation, there
was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Oh, we can't cut anymore. And I call
bovine excretion is what I would call that.
That was a large load of bovine excretion that we can't cut
anymore. There's 2% annually at the city that they spend on
art and oh, we can't cut that. Why not? When you're facing a
budget shortfall, you make cuts before
you're going to ask people on a fixed income, retirees, people
who are living below the poverty line to spend
more of their hard earned money. Maybe you should cut art. Maybe you shouldn't spend
$600,000 on a pair of shitters. Excuse my French.
Maybe you should. Okay, so that's where I'm at. Before
we start looking at
cutting cops, we should start cutting funding for
now, I'll go to the county, the zoo.
Maybe we should start cutting. We should start cutting Exploration Place and.
That’s a conversation. Let the counties and you've looked at this and I appreciate that
you have before taxpayers should be spending that, do a sales tax
for that, do a user fee for that. So, and here's the thing, my
point. Is I think it could be done. We move to
user fees, we move to sales tax on the
and I think that's the way to do it.
And then when you've proven there's no place else
to cut, then the taxpayers are probably willing to
say, okay, tax me. Not only that, because we
don't trust. You're right. There's always, and there's always ways to fine tune as the
years goes on and technology upgrades. There's always ways to fine tune the system and
make it more efficient. So you're absolutely right. Transferring to a sales tax is always
a better idea as well. If you can supplement it from what else is going
on, being able to cut certain programs. But at the end of the day, if
they are asking for more money, then at least for me, again, going back to
my original point is if you say, hey, we need this money because we're
cutting off the flow of cash from the federal level and we want
to do it ourselves and be wicked, wildly independent, I'm more open to that
conversation as well. If we're not being beheld into the mob that
is the federal government that holds that over our heads, you know, like, you know,
with the carrot and saying that you can have this, but as long as you
do our bidding, then I'm open to us funding ourselves on our own and just
being more financially independent. You’re talking my language man. Let me give you two
points here, and I want to give an example anecdotally because I actually think you can find
balance in these things. I actually think you can reduce property tax dependence
and stabilize local government services. And I know this to be a fact because that's
what we've done at Sedgwick County. I'll give you a couple of examples. Let me,
let me back up a step on the sales tax versus property tax things.
We have got to agree on a premise as a community that
property taxes really are hurting people. We really are in a danger. And let me
just be candid. It's not hurting my family. Okay. It's not hurting my family. My
property taxes could triple. It's not going to impact my family, but
it is impacting working class families. It
is impacting working class families. It is impacting those on
fixed income. And we have. We are. We now have reached diminishing
returns on property taxes. So it is. And many people say,
well, it only impacts the rich folks. They're asking for tax breaks and things of
these sorts. Well, let me just tell you anecdotally, I can show you
dozens and dozens and dozens of messages. I get from people in my district
that our renters, which are 40% of the people in the city of Wichita, that
property tax increases, property insurance increases, the landlord has passed
through to the rent rate increases. I had a lady, a single. They're gonna do.
They have to. I had to do it on my properties
legitimately. I had a lady reach out and said, my rent has gone up
$450 a month. I can't afford it. So we really
are in a danger zone. Yes. Let me tell you about the cutting to the
bone in that conversation and what, and the decisions have to be on a local
level. And I appreciate your local government experience and your state experience. You've seen these
things in budgets. Budgets are hard. One of the reasons I
ran for this position at the county in 2022,
there were a couple reasons, but one of the main reasons was there was incredible
instability at county government. We had lost a third of our paramedics
since 2019. And you may say, was that really a big deal? Well, when the
average response time for a paramedic or EMS is eight minutes nationwide, and we were
averaging 24 minutes. And parts of our. That's insane. If a child is choking or
drowning or a heart attack, yeah, that's a problem. Yeah. 911 was at
62% staffing. And now they receive. They were receiving at that point in time,
1100 calls a day with someone having the worst
moment in their life. And they have something called dichotic listening at
911.1 One ear. They have someone having the emergency that they're receiving the call.
The other ears are listening to the first responders while they're typing. That model is
archaic. And when they were working mandatory overtime because of 62%
staffing, it wasn't working. The sheriff was down
120 deputies in the jail. 120 deputies.
He doesn't talk about this much publicly, but he. I think I'm okay to share
this. Well, I'm going to. We might have to edit it out. I don't think
the community realizes how close we were to having to call the National Guard into
the jail because of the ratio between deputy to
inmate had reached a level to where we couldn't insure some things. That's how bad
it was. Comcare was down over 200 full time employees up and down. The starting
wage of a county firefighter was $14 a and 60 cents. I pay people
at the Mattress Hub warehouses. Some of them don't have driver's licenses in my warehouses.
That starting wage of $15 an hour and it was
impacting the service that we provide. Now here's my point in
that long diatribe. Here's my point is we came in
stabilized county government services because as John said earlier, local government's about
providing services. We stabilize those services. We're now at almost
94% staffing countywide. And here we are three years in a
row where we've significantly lowered property tax mill levy independents
where this year we lowered 1.1 mills of property tax. There's nobody in the state
that's done what we've done. That's a prime example of how you work towards efficient
government. We can do things to where we can stabilize
the service and we can reduce dependence on property tax. But you have to
actually work at it. That's it. It doesn't come organically or naturally.
You got to work at it, John. Am I right?
John doesn't like that we have elephants. I don't like that you. I don't like
that you've exceeded R and R. I don't like that you spent $10 million
on a zoo barn. Yes, on an elephant barn. Here's the thing. But it's
a. But again, it's a give and take but. It's a give and take but
it's. And it's a work in progress. I mean, look, I mean the fact that
we're getting to where we need to be to actually function is great
because there's always waste, there's always ways to fine tune. That's what you start.
So. Right. So you start working to make it efficient as you try
to trim it. And now that things are running efficiently, you know how the system
needs to work in order to trim out the other places. You can now you
can dial things in so you're right, it's a work in progress. And are there
always ways where, you know, we're like, oh, wait a second. Is actually a good
example about how you did compromise. Because if I were, if I were running
the show, I wouldn't have done those things. Sure. I wouldn't have exceeded R
and R. I wouldn't have done an elephant barn. Now granted, those things are nice
asset. They are. And here's the balance in local. I'm just a cold
hearted. You’re not, and we've talked about this a lot and, and
what I so appreciate about John is that when he disagrees with you, you will
get a text message and you. Will get a phone call. Yes, you will.
But it's not personal. It's a conversation about approach. It's a conversation
about this is what. I still love you and I still vote for you. It's
all good. And we're both Jayhawks and it's all good. But the thing about it
is the challenge that we have on the local level, that I don't want the
federal government doing a bunch of things, but I do want the federal government caring
about healthy families here. Now, in my view, the best way we can care about
healthy families is make sure we have a thriving economy where business can thrive
here without a bunch of over regulation and a bunch of over taxation.
That's an important piece of it. The quality of life, amenities, they do
matter. I do not like that they're funded by property taxes. But in
1964, the voters in Sedgwick county went to a ballot and
said, you need, we want you to open a park in a zoo. So we're
beholden by law to have a zoo. And if we're going to have
a zoo, we should have a zoo that is an excellent zoo. I just don't
like that we fund it via property tax dollars. 30% of the dollars that
come into the zoo come from people outside of Sedgwick County. They should be funding
it so they should be helping and funding it so that, that's all part of
it. But this balance in local government, it's. I, it's just, I always
tell John, it's not as easy as just cut, cut, cut, cut, cut is. We've
got to be able to find the balance. And I think we have at Sedgwick County.
And I really think, you know, I don't know, maybe John, maybe we disagree on
that a little bit because I see the need for, for the zoo.
I see that, I see the need for those sorts of things and how you
fund it. Like you said, I wish we could get away from the property tax,
do it in a different fashion. I love the zoo. Yes. I've taken my kids.
There's needs for that. I think the zoo should just be funded by
consumption. It's the most popular tourist attraction, outdoor tourist attraction in the state
of Kansas, and it's right here. I just think it should be 100% funded. Like
the elephant barn is a perfect example. I think the elephant barn. I
know for a fact there are wealthy Republicans
that probably would have loved to have had a elephant
barn, a pachyderm barn named after
them. Who probably would have donated for that. They. But they never
asked. They are. See, the county only gave $2 million to the project.
It is our asset. We own over 70. That 2 million, I guarantee you, had
we reached out, I could give you a couple of wealthy pachyderms
Pachyderms. Yeah. Who would put their name. There's
my point. Wealthy Republicans who would have put their name on that.
And now you'd have had no taxpayer dollars. Yeah. And here's a perfect
example of that. Trump's announcement of the Trump accounts for kids. There you go.
That's a great example of this right now because you know, we could have had
under a Biden administration, under a Democrat, they would have said the government
is going to start just, you know, putting money away, like a new Social
Security plan for these kids and we're going to have this government project that's going
to be great and yada yada. And it would have been our taxpayer money subsidizing
all of this stuff for essentially a universal basic income. That's the way it would
have done. Trump came around and said, we're going to invest in kids in the
stock market. We're going to have the parents investing in it and major
companies and corporations like the company Adele spent $26 million or whatever it
was, $26 billion to fund for over 20
million kids to have a thousand dollar account with. Now they say their
phones are ringing off the hook with more people wanting to come in and actually
invest and actually contribute to this. And that's the thing. What we need to realize
is, and for Democrats and progressives listening to this, that say that Republicans are heartless,
that we're greedy, that all the business people and corporations don't care about people,
it's a bunch of crap. And it really is because we are members of a
community. Sedgwick county, city of Wichita, state of Kansas, whatever. We're a
community. And we want to help anybody that's in need. If you're behind somebody at
a grocery store and they're five bucks short to pay for their stuff,
how many people wouldn't cover that to help them out? Right?
Yeah, we've done it many times. There's a humanity that we've forgotten. Forced
taxation for charity is not charity. Forced taxation is government control.
And a program that's completely inefficient doesn't work in the first place. We want to
help people, and we do it through the private market. We need the assets in
order to do it in the private market without the government taking it away from
us. And we have to get back to that mindset. You mentioned his name. I
want to talk about the president, President Trump. I want to talk
generally about the conservative movement in the Republican Party
and who is influence who. I understand you,
your county leadership. There's only. Your state leadership. There's only so much you
can and should say in these situations. But I think we could have a larger
conversation about has the MAGA movement. And
I talk about this a lot on this podcast, and I will get a lot
of messages that are frustrated. But I think people need to understand
the MAGA movement and why it attracted so many people that are
not conservative. They're not. They're just pissed off people because
the world is not working for them anymore. Housing is unaffordable.
The minimum behavioral health challenges. I mean, the inflationary environment. They're
mad. And they saw someone that could break the system and they wanted that. That's.
That, that. That's why a lot of young voters voted for Donald Trump. Minority
voters. Yeah. I mean, he reached out to Hispanics and African Americans
traditionally didn't vote. My question is the MAGA movement,
is this the new Republican Party? Is this,
is this. How does conservatism, which is.
It's. This is a lean right movement, but it is not a conservative. It's a
populist movement. Yeah. So is it changed the conservative movement?
How do we. How do we handle this? Yes, it is a. It is a
populist movement that conservatives were rightfully so able to piggyback on because it was
a more conservative populist movement. It has changed the Republican Party in good
and bad ways, I think. And as a member of the state
party leadership, for the Republicans, it is a challenge and yet a
benefit for us all at the same time. Because like you said, people
turned out that had normally not voted prior to. They
turned out that have never voted. They turned out as independents. They turned out as
libertarians. They turned out across the board with the promises that Trump had that we're
going to go in, overturn the table, fight the corruption, fight the deep state and,
you know, and be a part and be of the people. And in my opinion,
I think he's doing that. I think that he's had some challenges. I think that
the deep state is really deep. So every little gain that we have doesn't necessarily
go as appreciated as it probably should. But I think he's doing
a great job with his entire cabinet that he has, making the wins that they
are. That being said, the future of the Republican Party is up in the air
right now because we're already starting to see the divide
with Trump not even out yet, but people trying to claim what
the MAGA movement is and the America first movement. We saw the walking away
with Marjorie Taylor Greene lately saying that she's more America first because she
doesn't want to fund any foreign nation at all whatsoever, including the nation of
Israel, compared to people that want to be involved, you know, in the Middle east
in some fashion or help aid our allies. And I get it, you know, America
first, we want to invest in the country first. But whether people agree,
disagree, that's the divide that's starting to happen. People are already starting to claim what
the MAGA movement is before Trump. The person that started the MAGA
movement is even out of office. So the future is going to be the
question of will those people continue to turn out to vote after he's
gone. And I think the party overall is in a
better position because it's more of an open umbrella. We have people like
Tulsi Gabbard, people like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. J.D.
vance that were, well, J.D. vance was still conservative at some point. I'm talking the
ones that were Democrats, progressives that came over because they saw an
opportunity to fight for freedom in their ideas. Tulsi Gabbard
and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. People that were formerly Democrats that came over,
has helped the party immensely with a more open umbrella idea on
certain policies. The question is, can we hold that together as a
caucus afterwards, or are we going to eat each other up like Republicans have
historically done, because they're in a purest view, and it's either our way or you're
not Republican enough. I think this is. I
don't think it's necessarily a Republican thing. I think both parties are seeing this.
Case and point, back in the day of, you
know, Joe Lunchpale was a Democrat. Joe Lunchpale,
like your dad. Yes. You know, the Reagan Democrats. These
guys were Democrats, union workers, predominantly
Democrat voters. And now they're voting Republican.
College, you know, we're traditionally Republicans.
That script has now totally flipped upper. You know, union
or excuse me, university graduates are now voting
Democrat. The wealthy are now traditionally voting
Democrat. And union guys, Joe
Lunchpale, the guys on the scaffolding are voting
Republican. And I think that's because
Republican platform, it's what we talked about earlier when you talked about ideas
and principles. And I think as long as we as a
Republican Party continue to put principles
and platforms over personality, I think we can
win. So as we're, as long as we're talking about
lower taxes, economy, the stuff, it's, you know, remember
Carville? It's the economy, stupid. If we talk about
that and let, you know, let Jasmine
Crockett and the crackpots, they're driving to drive their party
so far, the left, it is not going to appeal to
everyone on the middle of the road. Well, here's the. I want
to disagree slightly. We go to traditional
values and the thing that matters, you know, core principle. Why are
Hispanic voters voting more and more Republican?
It's not because we're pro life. We are pro life, but we're
pro family. But we also care about putting food on the table and help
you get a job. That's what matters. If we focus on
that, we'll win. We get distracted. We won't. I want to disagree
slightly on that because you said policy over personality, which
ideologically I agree with. But that's not the way voters vote.
That's not the way that voters turn out. People went out and turned out to
Donald Trump, not because he had the perfect layout step by step on how to
actually change economic and tax policy. They voted for him because
he went in and said, I'm going to make America great and it's going to
be the golden age of America. We're talking personality. Donald Trump
isn't the future. No, but I think that people, the way that their
mind works is they want to be emotionally connected, not
attached to a tax policy because we're dorks. We enjoy the tax rates. We enjoy
the tax policy. We are talking about marginal tax rates. Yeah, we're all about that.
But the average voter doesn't do that. They want the personality. The race for the
presidency is not who has the best policy, it's the person who is
the biggest celebrity. That's true. Obama. And now in,
now in an age of influencers, on social media and people
that don't have any ideas yet. That's how people vote. So now what you have
to do is you have to find the person with the policy ideas, but
you have to have the personality behind that to come in and just
tear them apart. Democrats, the reason Jasmine Crockett's popular, the
reason AOC is popular, the reason that Bernie Sanders still scuffles out of
there and does his thing, is because they have this charisma of
saying the authoritarians and the oligarchs and da, da, da, da. Whatever else
they say, it drives people emotionally to want to be involved. And Republicans,
in my opinion, have to do a better job at bringing up emotion as opposed
to just saying, your taxes are too high. I'm gonna lower your taxes. Cool.
But what's the emotional connection behind that to drive people to the poll? And that's
what Republicans have to do a better job of. We have to have a personality
with the policy backed behind it. I appreciate that, and I talked a lot with
the governor candidates as I've met with all of them now, and
we've talked a lot about. Please make sure that every policy has a connecting
link back to healthy family. Yes. As pro life candidates in particular.
Yes, babies in utero are really important and is the. The genesis of the
movement. But we also have to care very deeply about this foster care system in
this crisis and what's happening in the family unit. It can't just be about. We
need to care about these issues. I say that we need to care and have
a plan on homelessness and the housing affordability issues that are plaguing communities
today. This is very much about healthy families, and that's who we are.
And we win that with ideas. We win that with actually sharing good
ideas. And again, good policy is good. And messaging to the people on how
they're going to do it. Yeah. Yeah. All right. State of the Union. Are you
hopeful? Are you? As we head into 2026, we've got a lot of.
We got a gubernatorial race. We got midterms nationally and federally. We've got
the counties up. We've got. You're smiling. I'm so excited. He's the
eternal optimist. I. John, let's start here.
Uh-oh, are you. And I think I know where your head's at
on some of these things, and I think you're excited about some things. Oh, yeah.
But I mean, give us the State of the Union here in Sedgwick County.
There's gonna be a dog fight in some of these things, particularly in the governor's
race. It's gonna be a dog fight. Oh yeah. I mean, I
see now this is where I get in trouble because I'll say something and then
people get mad. I mean, what are you wanting to know? The governor's
race? You want a handicap? What are you looking for? No, I just, I want
to know the vibe, man. Are we are. Listen, I, I would say that
historically the party up and down the
ballot of whoever's in the White House in the midterm has a hard time
and we have, for better or worse,
we have a very polarizing person in the White House right
now. Again, for better or worse, we've got Laura
Kelly exiting. Thank goodness. We've got,
we've got a lot of people fighting right now for the governors and this
vision of where they want Kansas to go. Man,
this, it's going to be a tough battle in, in the midterm.
Are you confident that at the end of the day that Republicans are going to
win this thing? Yeah, well, it depends on who we put
forward. I, I think it depends on who the Republicans put forward. Keep in mind
the Dems have a fight too. They do because Laura Kelly's picked
another squishy middle of the road milk toast, you know,
square candidate who will not offend anybody but
won't inspire anybody. And then you got Cindy Holscher
who is a bomb throwing progressive, who the left is
going to love. But as a Republican, I would love to run against Cindy Holscher
because she's so left wing. She's coming around the other side and if they nominate
her, we'll beat her. But that's who the Dems don't want
because we can beat her. So if they get Colson or isn’t that his
name? Ethan Corson. Yeah, if they get, if they get him,
then you know, he can run as Laura Kelly in flats.
So we'll see. I think they've got a fight in their hands
on our side. We've got a bunch of candidates, a number of
whom will not make the debate stage. But if we get it down to a
decent amount of candidates, it's, you know,
it could be a lot of fun. There's some great candidates in this field.
It's going to be, look, it's going to come down to money is what it
really comes down to. This is going to be, let's see, back in
four years ago, realistically if you wanted to make it
out of the primary, you needed five,
six million dollars. Realistically I think
to be honest with you, you probably need twice that now.
Just that's the cost to play the game, to do digital, to do mail, to
do a full service, to run a statewide campaign, to pay for
TV in Johnson and Sedgwick County. And I don't think
half of these candidates can raise anywhere near that amount of money. And there
are a lot of candidates that are going around saying, well, I don't need money.
I'm going to run the grassroots campaign and I'm going to run it out of.
That's just malarkey. Let's just be honest. And
so money is just going to be the determining factor here. So we'll
see what it all comes down to. Fortunately,
Sedgwick county is the host of the state convention. January
30th, 31st, February 1st. We're going to have a great
convention. I can tell you. I'm not, I'm not
getting, you know, not betraying any secrets here.
The Saturday night guest is Dana Loesch. She'll be here
in Wichita for the big banquet. We've got the first official
debate on Friday night, so that's a
big deal. But even that, not all the candidates will make the debate stage.
Do you have to have a minimum raised to be able to make it? Yeah.
Andy can probably give you a little more. Well, let's talk to the eternal optimist.
State of the Union here. What do you, how do you feel? I'm so excited.
Look, I mean, I, I love the season anyways. That's why I'm so excited not
only to be on the radio, but also in party
leadership, to see the behind the scenes, to try and be prepared for this. I'm
excited. I'm helping, you know, with the organization for the, for the
winter convention. I'll be moderating the governor's debate that night. I think
KAKE TV is going to broadcast it. So I'm really excited for that.
To see where we're at as a party, to see where we're at with the
candidates and to go from there. Look nationwide and state of the Kansas. I am
optimistic. This year, like you said, normally midterm
elections, the minority party usually has the advantage. They're fired
up, they're angry. They want to see change. I honestly,
personally, I think the, with how much attention the elections
got this year in the off season, they've already kind of burnt their
popcorn. They've already kind of used all of the energy that they had. Their
big wins was what, Jay Jones with the attorney general's race after that
whole scandal in A in a blue state. In a blue state. In
Zorhan Mamdani. In a blue state. In a blue state. So it wasn't
necessarily big wins for them because we already knew they were going to win those,
but they were so excited to see a revolutionary quote
unquote candidate like Zorhan Mamdani win that their entire
momentum of we're going to start changing the tide and bring socialism and get
party moment, they use that this year. So and by the way, in
order to do that, how many billions of dollars the Democrat Party, the DNC have
to take out in loans because they didn't have any cash? They're in a dire
state. They don't have a platform. Their platform is anything Trump does, we're
against it. And free stuff. And free stuff. But that's their
platform right now is whatever Trump's against, whether it works or not, they're against it.
They haven't come out and said this is exactly what we are going to do.
It's been, you know, we talked about policy versus character and personality.
They don't have any policy. Their only personality right now. Because what I've seen
is the structure of agencies and
departments and programs, homeless programs, drug prevention
programs, everything that they've done, crime prevention programs, everything that's
been an institutional, millions of dollars nationwide
is crumbling in 10 months. Donald Trump ended
crime in New York, in Washington D.C. with the National Guard. Close the border.
He's been able to close the border in less than a couple months. He's been
able to get criminals off the streets in multiple different areas. And
that's what they were supposed to be doing in the first place. And we just
showed we could do it within months by actually going in and getting it done.
So these programs that they promoted as their platform of this is what we're going
to change with a new multimillion dollar program, a salary of
300 million, $300,000 to try and prevent a tent city
in LA while the tent city continue to grow, doesn't work any
longer. And if we're able to showcase that, it's game over for Democrats.
Now for us here in the state of Kansas. You know, yeah, we've talked about,
you know, how the Republicans shouldn't beat each other up too much to where we're
going in too divided. But I'm optimistic.
Even if we get a quote unquote moderate candidate for governor, if
we get someone middle of the road as opposed to a more conservative person, we
have a super majority of Republicans in the legislature.
All they literally have to do is rubber stamp what the legislature wants to get
done as a Republican caucus and we can get things done. So
either way, I'm optimistic about what the state of Kansas looks like. I know
we're going to have some pretty hard races. There's a rumor Governor Kelly may be
jumping into the Senate race along with some others. Yeah. Along with
possibly Sharice Davids. Along with possibly. What is his name? Trooper Ben or something
from the Kansas Highway Patrol. I like Trooper Ben. Yeah. So there's
a few names that have been floated out for the Democrats and Republicans have held
the Senate seat in the state of Kansas for 100 years. So as
party leadership, we don't want to break that record. Dr. Marshall will be fine. Yeah,
but again, yeah, if we do what we say we're going to do, If
Republicans in D.C. if Republicans do what the Trump agenda has been and they start
codifying what Trump's worked on, if we show that Democrats have zero platform,
I'm honestly not worried. We have to work hard like we're always behind. But
the eternal optimists in me shows that we're going to be just fine.
I appreciate that. I appreciate the optimism, too. I, I am optimistic,
particularly on the local level. I'm optimistic on the state level. Once again,
as you know, the federal government I have a particular disdain for. I'm very
frustrated. I feel like sometimes the conservative movement's not shaping the Republican
party as it should. As it should. Well, the conservatives have been run out. Yeah,
the conservatives have been ran out almost like libertarians out of the Republican Party. You
know, Rand Paul that got run out of the Republican Party as a
libertarian. And now, you know, not now, I'm saying. But prior to this
populist movement, you know, Rand Paul was almost on the way out. Ted Cruz was
a minority in there. We had people like John McCain and Jeff Flake and you
know, all these guys that were complete, you know, the establishment running people
out that had a. A lot of neoconservative the government, very
much 38 trillion dollar debt. These are the very much so
never reformed anything that we. And we're getting better. This is why I was so
frustrated a couple weeks ago with the Thomas Massie thing. I was very frustrated on
the Thomas Massie thing because Thomas Massie is a principled conservative. Yes. And
I hated seeing the infighting with Thomas
Massie. I really hated that because he is someone that is
in the movement conservative base. This is a guy who is, you
know, he studied Edmund Burke. He's a Bill Buckley kind of
guy, this is the movement conservative. That's the movement. Now, here's the
thing. And I love Thomas Massie right there with you. I love Rand Paul. They're
some of my favorite people in there. The only thing I wish they would do
is I wish they would find a way to be more productive
in how they get their agenda across. Because you cannot be a no vote on
everything and just be a no vote. And if you're able to actually say, hey,
we're gaining 60% of what my agenda goal is here and voting for that, I
would be. That was Reagan's philosophy. Exactly. I'll take the 60 and then I'll come
back. Ideologically, I completely, 100% agree with those guys. And I wish we could
get to where they want. I do not like the infighting. I don't like the
attacks from President Trump on that because we're all on the same side here. We're
all going to do the same thing and work towards the same goal. They just
have to find a way to be more productive in advancing their agenda. I agree.
Man, there is so much I would love. Oh, yeah. To talk about
this. The Wichita Ford sales tax plan. I would
love to talk marijuana policy. That's a big conversation that we have
throughout. That would be one that Danny and I would probably disagree on. My
guys, it'd be fun to have those kind of conversations. Choose an edible.
That's not allowed here, John. Yeah. But nonetheless,
let me tell you what I appreciate. I appreciate deeply that, that you, because I
know how busy you are, you're growing your radio show network,
you are now promoting and moving into a different room with radio, and yet you
still serve your city elected. You are a state legislator. You serve in
leadership positions. I'm so grateful that people are willing to step up and serve.
I'm grateful that people are willing to step into positions and contend for principles and
values. What, what Russell Kirk called the permanent things in the conservative
movement and. And contending for the traditional values that
are make Kansas, Kansas. So I'm just grateful for that. I'm.
I appreciate our relationship. I appreciate that. When you don't agree, you let me know
and we talk. When you and I, we went on the show and we talk,
things have. A lot of fun and man, but. That's what's so neat. We need
more communication, not less. It's happened less and less lately, I've noticed. I appreciate
that. Yes. Thank you. He's mad at the city. He's not
as mad at the county anymore. I'm not mad at this. Well, actually, yeah, right
now I am. But I appreciate you guys. I appreciate the relationship.
Thank you for coming in here, getting some radio guys in here, getting on a
podcast. I think it's a blast. Really cool. My pleasure. Anytime. I
appreciate you. Love you, brother. Appreciate. We do say Christmas, by
the way. We do say Christmas. That's right. God bless you both. I appreciate you.