February 16, 2026 • 41 mins
đź“ŤIt’s 2026, and Wisconsin is shaping up to be one of the most important political battlegrounds in America.
Former Special Forces operator Nick Polce joins The David Rutherford Show to explain why he’s running for Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin — and why he believes the real fight for America now starts at the state level.
Sponsors: Black Rifle Coffee: https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
01:08 - Deciding To Run For Office
04:45 - Can Nick Make A Difference?
05:34 - DC Is Lost, States Matter The Most
06:58 - Regulations That Are Crushing WI’s Economy
09:42 - Healthcare Costs & Preventing Fraud
12:29 - The Illegal Immigration Problem
17:39 - Sponsor: Black Rifle Coffee Company
21:34 - Overspending & The Cycle of Corruption
22:54 - Election Integrity In Wisconsin
28:41 - Fighting A Collectivist Takeover In Wisconsin
30:18 - Why Has Wisconsin Pulled To The Left?
32:21 - Message To Young Voters & Why Freedom Matters
38:31 - The Rising Political Temperature In America
40:28 - Where To Follow & Support Nick’s Campaign
Follow Clay & Buck on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuck
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's twenty twenty six, and this is an election year,
and I'm proud to welcome former Special Forces operator Nick Polse,
who's running for lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, today on the
David Rutherford Show. All Right, Nick, you know, one of
(00:26):
the things that I take a lot of crap for
is not having more Green Berets on the show. And
you know, I want to make sure that I pay
tribute to all my Green Beret brothers because I am
an eighteen Delta officially, right, and so having you on
is such an incredible opportunity, and I'm really excited to
(00:50):
hear what you have to say about running for lieutenant governor.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Man, all right, thank you.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
I appreciate you having me on, and I'll try to
represent the regiment to the best of my abilities and
not let anybody down.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Awesome, Awesome, because we know, we know Big Jay is gonna.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Be watching for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, all right, let's just jump right
into it.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Obviously.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
You know a lot of people, in particular operators are
stepping into this battle space.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
You know, for many reasons.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
We've had Jared Hudson, who's running for Senate down in Alabama.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
Uh, you know, we're we're we're in.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Talks to have a couple more guys that are are
are in contention, are going to start throwing their hats
into run here soon. Let's just ask you, how long
did you serve and why are you taking that deep
dedication to serving the nation and continuing it.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
To want to serve the great state of Wisconsin.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Sure, great question.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
So I spent a lot over a decade in the Army,
a little over eleven years. And my backstory is I
was a senior in college when the towers came down,
and that was a pivotal moment in my life and
much of r we'll call it the gat generations lives,
and it was a pivot point. And so I chose
at that point that I wanted to join. I wanted
(02:12):
to join specifically to get into the Special Operations community
because I want to go overseas and take the fight
to America's enemies. So from the time that we had
that tragic attack on nine to eleven September, I graduated
in May, and then I was on my way to
basic training in October, and then from that point I
got the opportunity to serve with some of the best
(02:33):
of the best. Like I said, it's been over a
decade doing that and then that living that, walking that,
watching the decisions that were made by some of the
folks in the political class or some of our elected officials,
and how they affected us on the ground. It prevented
us from doing certain things, It caused unnecessary injuries, some
(02:54):
folks didn't come home that. Carrying that and learning from
that is what I'm caring forward now into my campaign
here for lieutenant governor in Wisconsin. And I decided to
jump in my why is my little guy, my nine
year old He drives me. He's why I'm doing what
I'm doing, and it's because of him. And I don't
(03:14):
want him to grow up in a state that he
cannot afford. I don't want him to grow up in
a country he cannot afford. And I wanted to feel
safe in the United States. And so those are the
things why I got into the race.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
It's so fascinating to me, especially from GWAT guys who
do feel the continued call to push through and get
into politics, because you know, we often look at the
battlefield as you know, hey, that was the most that
was the place in our lives that always made the
most sense.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Right there was there was the good.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Guys and then the bad guys, right and and it
was pretty linear. You knew where the battle space were,
you had your mission objective, you had your boys around you,
and things seem to make sense. But when I take
a step back and look at the political craziness that's
going on across the country right now. For me, because
(04:06):
I actually considered running for Congress down here in South
Florida and for the twenty two session, and I talked,
I talked to Brian mast about it at some other people,
and after doing those discussions, I was like, this is crazy.
Why would I want to go and subject myself one
to the whole campaign and running and the assaults and
(04:29):
the attacks, and then two getting into government and getting
you know, into what seems to be a greater space
of let's just say, lack of accountability, lack of responsibility.
Why why do you think that you can go and
make a difference?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Now, No, it's a great question, and it you do
the research and it sounds like you talk to a
lot of some real knowledgeable people and at some point,
so so for me in Wisconsin, I think a lot
of ways Washington, d C. Is I'm not a lot
cause lost, cause it's so far gone that to me,
the states is where we can we can fight, we
(05:12):
can preserve, we can protect and eventually rebuild and try
to hold the country that we that we had, that
we grew up on, that's given so much, that's given
so much to us.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
And at the state level, you have more control.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
It's it's it's closer to the problem set and usually
those closest to the problem set are best able to
solve the problem.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
And so my focus is on the state right now.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Great, you had you had talked about Republicans losing elections
in Wisconsin pretty regularly, uh for a while. Now, can
you just give us a brief history of that and
why do you think now is a good time for
you to run for lieutenant governor?
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
So, in Wisconsin at the state wide level, you've had
Ron Johnson and President Trump are the only ones that
have won the state since twenty fourteen. Prior to that,
you had Governor Scott Walker, who won in twenty ten
with that Tea Party revolution. He won a recall in
twenty eleven, and then he won for a re election
in twenty fourteen. But since then the GOP here we
(06:16):
haven't run a state wide race that we've won it
with the exception of the two guys that I mentioned.
So the why in my assessment is I look at
the messaging.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
One.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
I look at the messaging and the messaging that one
in twenty ten, that won in twenty eleven, that President
Sharp ran On Senator Ron Johnson ran On consistently is
one of a populist of one on focusing on the
working class, focusing on the individual American. And when we
run on that messaging here in Wisconsin, we can win,
(06:46):
and we stray from that, we're racking up losses. So
I look at the messaging here as one of the
main reasons why at the state level the Republican Party
has not been able to win since twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Awesome, all right, So when I go to your you know,
your website, which is Nicholaspolls dot com, and look at
You've got this great list of initiatives, and so the
number one is unleashing the Wisconsin economy.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
What does that look like for you?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And what would you do as soon as you get
into office to try and facilitate some of that economic
growth to take place.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Sure, So let me first talk about the role.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
So as a lieutenant governor, there's not very much outlined
in the constitution, the state constitution here for their role.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Essentially, it's a couple of things.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
One is, if the governor leaves the state, he or
she can authorize you to with certain powers. If something
happens to the governor, then you step up and you
become the leader of the state and then you're in
charge of the Senate. Short of that, there's not much
outlined in the constitution as to what the lieutenant governor
can do and should be doing daily. So I look
(07:58):
at this role as one of an advocate and one
of being a robust, proactive lieutenant governor because you have
a platform, right as the number two elected official in
the state. You have a platform and you have the
power to convene or what does that mean. You get
the opportunity to bring people together, whether they're business leaders,
whether they're folks in education, whether they're folks at the
(08:20):
lower levels of government, you know, the county or state level.
You can bring people together, you can have conversations, and
you could be an advocate for wisconsinights across the state.
So that's what I look at as my role, all right.
So now specifically as it comes to some of the
economic items, Wisconsin is one of the most over regulated
states in the Midwest. So when you have a whole
(08:41):
bunch of regulations, you're decreasing freedom. Business owners aren't able
to do certain things, employees aren't able to do certain things.
There's less of risk taking in those situations. We also
have property taxes that are increasing. We had our governor
here that signed a four hundreds a four hundred year
property tax increase, and most recently in December, we've felt
(09:04):
that for the first time since he signed it, and
there was a lot of sticker shock. So when you
combine high regulations, you combine high property taxes. We have
income taxes and a variety of other little regular taxes
and rules regulations.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
That creates a lot of restraint.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
And so when I talk about unleashing the Wisconsin economy,
I want to create freedom.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
I want to talk about freedom.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
I want to crisscross the state preaching freedom because in
humans are naturally yearning to be free, and we should
unleash them and allow them to have the economic freedom
here in the state. Much like what President Trump is
trying to do at the federal level.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Now, I understand that, you know, most states have very
substantial health care costs, including Wisconsin, i e. Madison and
Milwaukee for sure. And you know, one of the things
that we're seeing recently is the corruption or manipulation of
(10:02):
healthcare issues through corruption or federal spending going into the
wrong places, the Somali population in Minnesota, we've got the
other illegal immigrant in Maine. We saw Sean Ryan deliver.
A main reporter's been diving into that. We've seen it
in California. We've seen it all over. So healthcare obviously
(10:26):
is probably going to be a big one on the ticket.
How are you going to address healthcare and what is
your message to a lot of people that rely on subsidies.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
That's a great question.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
So specifically in Wisconsin, there are a couple of things
that the state can do, separate from the federal government
to help drive down costs and then also increase competition.
So one of the things that we have here is
we have a limited amount of health insurance companies that
can sell into Wisconsin. One that doesn't taken any laws changing,
(11:01):
that just comes out of the executive branch and medicine
of the Insurance Commission a changing and allowing other insurance
companies to sell into Wisconsin. So one, you can increase
the amount of insurance companies selling here, which should we
have more supply and demand stays the same, we should
see prices coming down. The second thing we can do
again at the state level. I mean there's many things,
(11:22):
but the second thing that we can do is there's mandates,
meaning that we have a laws here in Wisconsin that
mandate certain health insurance companies have to sell plans, meaning
they're putting a floor in place. So no matter what
I have to buy a certain plan, you have to
buy a certain plan. You can't go to insurance company
and pick and choose, or the insurance company can't sell
(11:44):
you a plan that you may like because of the mandates.
So there's a couple of things we could do right
away to help drive down costs in the state.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Now, as it relates to a lot of the fraud.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
One of the things I'd like to do, and I
think that we can do it at my level, if
not in different parts of the government.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Here is audit.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Before we talk about raising taxes, and before we talk
about any additional spending is auditing where the money's going,
because I'm pretty sure if we do this audit, we're
going to find money, a lot of money there that's
being misspent. You mentioned a couple of examples across the
country of a lot of fraud that's popping up, and
I'm on the bet that if we audit, we're going
to find a whole lot of money that we then
(12:23):
can decide how to allocate for Americans, for Wisconsin it
to not have it go to fraud, waste, or abuse.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
Great answer, all right.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
So one of the things that obviously some of I
think you look at, really what's triggered one of your
neighbors there in Minnesota and this the craziness that's happened
on the streets in Minneapolis, is the fraud was exposed
and all that attention came crashing down. I remember seeing
(12:53):
a video just the other day doctor Oz standing in
front of an old giant warehouse facility and there were
over four hundred fraudulent healthcare companies or daycare companies set
up in that. Obviously, the Nick Shirley investigation to Somali
daycare centers and all this funny to the tune of
eight billion was going in.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
But the real.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Problem at problem of that, and I think fraud and
that is a different thing.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
The other is is illegal immigration.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
When I looked up the statistics on on Wisconsin, and
I you know, I didn't see Wisconsin ranks twentieth in
total population with approximately five point nine to six million residents. Racial,
you know, the demographics mostly white, aging seniors overall, you know.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
But one of the.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Interesting thing, you know, was the illegal immigration numbers. It
said there's an estimated seventy thousand undocumented immigrants as of
recent data, and that's primarily for twenty twenty three estimates,
representing one point two of the state's population.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
You know.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
But I'm sure what's going to emerge is this immigration stance.
And we'll talk about the main Democratic challenger you have
and maybe a little bit of a Republican amenute. So
what's your stance on what's taking place in Minnesota as
well as the grander context of the immigration issue in
(14:30):
the United States.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Let's start with Minnesota.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Now, I would separate from the illegal immigration problem, the
fraud that you mentioned there, the fraud that you mentioned
in California, the fraud that they found in hud When
I see we'll come back to immigration just a second.
What I see is incentives when it comes to government
programs are all wrong. Meaning the incentive when you're in
(14:54):
charge of a government program or when you're running a
government program is to.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Spend all the money.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Because you go back at the end of the year
to whether it's at Congress or whether it's at the
state house, and go to that assembly and say, hey,
I spend all my money, so you need to give
you more money. What happens if you go back and
you don't spend all your money, then the representatives say, hey,
oh you got extra money. Great, We're going to give
it to the people that spent all the money. So
(15:18):
within government programs, there is an incentive to not really
watch or anything's going, to not really care much about
the accountability because your incentive is to spend all your money.
So that is a problem that I would like to
see addressed, and that's one of the things that I
will be working on addressing when we win, is working
on how we can change that incentive model period to
(15:40):
get at the fraud, to get at the focus on
being frugal and being accountable with our money. In Wisconsin
money across the United States. Now backing up to the
illegal immigration here in Wisconsin, we had Fort McCoy was
one of the bases that the Biden administration and brought
a whole bunch of Afghany folks in. I remember that
(16:04):
several years ago, but for macloy in Wisconsin, right yep.
So that was one of the major staging grounds when
they would bringing folks in. And then there was all
kinds of news articles and there were different accounts of
walking off the bays, having problems with destruction, variety of things,
and then wherever they went after that. Minneapolis large Somali population,
(16:27):
and we saw the results of that was American intervention
in Somalia made famous by the blackhawk Down movie and
how those those great Americans, so many of them gave
their lives or came home injured. We a lot of
our intervention in Somalia caused that part of the immigration
lead people leaving Somalia.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
A lot of them settled in Minneapolis.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
There's also some communities in Wisconsin on the western side
of the state, specifically in Barron County and there and
they're here and it doesn't appear based off of their actions.
It doesn't appear that there's a whole lot of assimilation.
It doesn't appear like there's a whole lot of wanting
to be Americans, of wanting to join America for our
(17:11):
values and for why we're living here. And it doesn't
appear that's happening, all right. And so those are just
a couple of things I want to talk through right now.
And the last thing you had talked about the fraud.
Back to my comment originally with the incentives, it appears
that a lot of folks that have come as immigrants,
whether illegal or illegal, there's an incentive for the state
(17:32):
to be putting them into programs, and then the lack
of accountability transparently leads to opportunities for waste, fraud abuse.
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(19:33):
Oh yeah, I think you're spot on. I think it
is an incentive circle, right, I absolutely agree, you know,
and then I think the asylum programs were really interesting.
And if you look at where the distribution took place,
a lot of the distribution of asylum seeking immigrants were
(19:55):
distributed to purple states, right swing states, and I and
I think, you know, that makes sense when when when
you're struggling with your core base, uh and I think
the Democratic Party has struggled, started to fractionalize its core base.
We saw that with with Democratic males in particular Hispanic
(20:16):
and African American males started you know, going more independent
and actually voted uh in for Republicans the last time
around because of I think the the opportunity, the economic
opportunity that has been diminished as a result of probably
government handouts or however you wanted the incentives, right, that
incentive structure, and and you know, I think for all
(20:40):
NGOs that have exploded over that they're also incentivized, right,
They're incentivized to continue to keep that circle going. And
then now there's you know, there's a couple of people
I'm following on x who are talking about how that
structure works. Right, you import a large number of asylum
seekers immigrants right coming over you put them in a
(21:04):
purple state, you put them on state funds, right that
are fostered through NGOs that are also getting state funds
and federal funds, and then you just you know, recycle
those people and then you know they help devise economic
incentives too, and then they fund the politicians that keep
them keep the money trained going. So it is it
(21:27):
is an interesting cycle of corruption.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
We go back to that.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
You know you have listed on your initiatives about government
spending itself. What about Wisconsin, Wisconsin government spending do you
want to try and address with that advocacy as Lieutenant
governor and to get a better discussion going on?
Speaker 4 (21:54):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Well, and just in the last eight years, we've seen
the spending at the federal or the state level here
go up about fifty percent, and we haven't gotten fifty
percent better services. We haven't gotten the fifty cent better
fifty percent better quality of life. Right, So the spending
is continued increasing. And the thing about government spending is
at the state level, it only comes they can't print
(22:14):
money like they can't at the federal level, like the can't.
There's no federal reserve in Wisconsin thats can just turn
on the printing press. So it either comes from taxes
or fees, or or there's borrowing or the state's borrowing.
And when we're looking at the constant increase of spending spending,
it means we're taking or extracting more and more money
(22:36):
from our citizens here. And my focus is on keeping
more of your money in your pocket because you know
best how to spend your money for your family, for yourself,
for your community, rather than somebody a bureaucrat in Madison
who just has a budget and their incentivized to spend
it all.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
That makes a lot of sense, all right, at the
bottom of your initiatives. You talk about election integrity. Now,
I don't know where you stand. I'm I've been doing
a lot of shows on election integrity in particularly about
the twenty twenty elections. And you know, there's there's you know,
Scott Presser, who does the amazing you know, voter registration
(23:16):
for Republicans. He you know, he helped New Jersey out
Pennsylvania he flipped in twenty twenty four, which was an
unbelievable flip. You know, he's he's brought some attention to
the Wisconsin twenty twenty elections. You know, Obviously, there were
a couple reports about the printing of additional ballots. John
(23:41):
Solomon reported on some of that. There was a guy
that was a whistleblower for the United States Posts Or Office.
His name was Ethan Peace, but he saw some substantial
abnormalities in terms of ballots that came in. You know,
(24:03):
as a part of your duties as Lieutenant governor, you
will be assisting in the implementation of elections in Wisconsin.
What are your thoughts about voter rolls, future elections and
reinstilling confidence, you know, in a state that was considered
(24:23):
to have some abnormalities in twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Yeah, that's still a big issue here here today, and
there's a lot of items that haven't been resolved yet.
One of the main issues we have here is the
way that our elections are run. We have a it's
called elect the Wisconsin Election Commission, and so rather than
elections run out of a constitution elected office like a
Secretary of State, the Wisconsin Election Commission, which is bureaucrats
(24:46):
that are appointed by party. So there's a couple of Republicans,
a couple of Democrats, and they've been run the election.
So I am not in favor of that system, I'd
like to abolish the Wisconsin Election Commission. I'd like to
return the power to run a elections to the Secretary
of State, constitutionally elected official. That's one thing. The second
thing is verifiable. We want verifiable elections and verifiable ballots.
(25:09):
We had a problem in twenty twenty and it was
less of a problem in twenty twenty four with absentee ballots. Right,
So in Wisconsin, for a long time, it was very
few people that were requesting absentee ballots. It was only
if you couldn't leave the house, if you really small
circumstances where you would absentee.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
COVID changed all that.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
The rules got expanded, there was a lot of relaxation
in some of the rules, and so there was a
transition to a lot of absentee ballots. And as you
know if you've been studying it, when you have a
lot of absentee ballots flooding the system, it makes it
easier to be able to get the outcome that you
want in an election, because once the ballot is separated
(25:52):
from the envelope, it's near impossible to figure out if
that is a legitimate and verifiable verifiable out tied to
a person. So the verifiable election is another thing that
I'd be working on here in the state. And you
mentioned voter roles, So voter rolls back to the the DOJ.
(26:13):
Trump's DOJ issued Wisconsin to get a look at the
voter roles to help clean up Wisconsin's fighting that. Well,
why would you fight trying to clean up voter roles.
It doesn't make any sense unless there's something that you
potentially are trying to tie or you're trying to make
it easier to get the outcome that you want in
an election. So we have to back to the advocacycpiece
(26:37):
right is talking about that, talking about solutions that I
just gave you a couple of them here, and clean
up the voter roles as a high priority as well.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
So I've been paying attention to a guy on x
right now who's been posting constantly about voter roles and
the additions to voter roles being able to register online.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
No proof of ID.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Is that a part of Wisconsin elections is no voter ID.
And if it is, I mean obviously a grand majority
of the population nationwide, like seventy eight percent believe voter
IDAs are accurate, how would you try and bring that
back to the state.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
So we do have a voter ID here.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
We have a pretty robust system in place to allow
people to vote, also to have some security in place
related to voter i D. One of the things that
I would change and I would push for a change
is the way that the Wisconsin elections focus on college
kids or people that move here from out of state.
So within about thirty days, if you moved to the
(27:41):
state within thirty I think it's thirty days of the election,
then you can vote in this state. And so there
I would change that because what happens is if you're, say,
living in Iowa, you move to Wisconsin within thirty days
of the election, then you can vote here in Wisconsin.
College kid or or something like that. I would change that.
I would I would make that a longer time. Or
(28:04):
if somebody does move in here within the thirty days,
they have to vote and the state that they came from,
rather than change their residency and voting within thirty days
of the general election. So that's one of the things
I would change. In addition, we have the voter I D.
We have a variety of different not just driver's license.
There's there's the passport, and there's several other ones. I
(28:26):
did work a couple of elections in Milwaukee County and
so got to see it firsthand as a pole observer,
the whole process.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
From the beginning to the end, on how that works.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
That's good news. Sorry I made that mistake to my listeners.
All right, let's shift now to who you're running against.
The woman you're running against is I'm going to butcher.
Last name Sarah Godolowski. Is that correct?
Speaker 4 (28:53):
Garilowski? Now, she's seems to be a.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Person that has been kind of, you know, moving towards
politics and political activism for a long time.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
Give me a.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Little bit of a description about why you think her
policies don't get in line with what Wisconsin, the people
Wisconsin want or need.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Sure, so she's been she prior to running for lieutenant governor,
she was secretary of State, and then she also has
ran or she did almost run for I believe, was
Senate in twenty twenty two as well. So her vision
and her policies align what I'll call the collectivist mindset,
which is increasing government control of your life, increasing government spending,
(29:43):
which means taxes have to go up, increasing regulations. They
want to turn Wisconsin into a sanctuary state. One of
the lieutenant governor, the current lieutenant governor who's running for governor,
she's already come out and said, I don't want to
have ICE enforcement. I don't want to be sharing with ICE,
and that would be absolutely terrible if we if Wisconsin
(30:04):
turned into a sanctuary state. And so those are a
few of her positions and her policies that she would
support and then with the next Democrat governor as lieutenant
governor and those of me are exactly the opposite of
what we need for Wisconsin.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
What do you think people in Wisconsin, not outside of
Madison and Milwaukee, out out where the farms are, out
where you know the people that I mean, because you know,
my aunt and uncle lived in Wisconsin for forty years.
My cousins went to university. Wisconsin's a great, big ten school,
(30:41):
and man, I just remember going there as a kid
and it seeming like it was just the state where
people like to be left alone and nice people and
they just want their liberty and their freedom. Why do
you think the state has pushed so hard to the left.
Is it really because of the focal centers of Madison
(31:05):
and Milwaukee. And why don't you know people in rural
areas recognize kind of this collectivist mentality to kind of
really jump in terms of their voter turnout.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Well, I think that we do.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
That's pretty that's pretty neat that you got the history
here with Wisconsin. As I've been getting out chriss crossing
state talking going all over the place, urban areas or
rural areas, I think that there is that mentality that
you mentioned, which is want to be left alone, want
to live our live. We have a lot of freedom here,
history of freedom in the state. The two counties that
(31:42):
are the largest voting block for Democrats are Dane County
and then Milwaukee County, and there's a little bit up
in Green Bay County. Those are the two, really two
and a half where they drive the most turnout, and
those are the highest population centers, and those are the
areas that you see the most radical ideas, the most
the hard and herder pushed into collectivism, the attempts to
(32:05):
try to disrupt I iced to see most of the
protests there and as those in my opinion, as those
urban centers have grown, when they turn out they can
offset a lot of the voting in some of the
rural counties and some of the more counties that I focus.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
More on freedom.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
That makes a lot of sense, you know, I as
I've watched this, I mean from you know, my my
last deployment was in twenty eleven. I spent a lot
of that year in Pakistan with the agency, you know,
and I got home it really I saw this kind
of collectivist mentality as you describe it, I call it
(32:43):
straight out Marxism. You know, I've I've noticed that a
lot of this has led you know, in these you know,
blue city centers or in college towns, right, and it
is really kind of taking hold of I think, you know,
(33:04):
the thirty five and younger generation, and those generations are
considerable now, you know in terms of size, i e.
Speaker 4 (33:12):
The you know, the Gen Z is going to be
bigger than the boomers.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
And you know, as as you're leading into the primaries,
what do you want to say to those younger voters now,
Like those people that have been since you know, they
were in middle school, junior high, and high school and
in college, they've been you know, there's been this bombardment
(33:37):
of you know, I don't want to call it anti
American sentiment because I believe they love their country.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
I just believe they think a socialist.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Formula is the way we get out of whatever they
perceive this unbridled oppressive, fascist, imperialism, or whatever you want
to describe. Right, there's a new word for it every day.
One day you're Nazi, the next day you're a fascist,
next day, you know, whatever it is. So you know,
what do you have to say to those young voters
(34:06):
that are looking to you know, and again, I don't
want to come across as presumptuous, but you know what
I see with friends of mine that have served and
do have legitimate voices, whether in politics or in podcasting
or whatever. You know, you you see there's a gravitational
(34:28):
pull towards young people within that because there's a I
think there's a respect that takes place from your service,
right obviously, ten years going down range in the GWATT
and at the level that you do it at the
highest level, you know, there's a built in respect. But
the language that these kids are used to is very
(34:49):
different than the things that inspired you in that senior
year of college to go out raise your right hand,
join and go serve for ten years going down range
in the g WATT. So what how are you you
gonna approach those young people and what message do you
want to tell them? No?
Speaker 3 (35:04):
So here's so here's where I hear a lot in
that in that demographic, in that generation is is a
feeling like they're they're not able to chase the American
dream for whatever reason, whether it's housing kosts are out
of control, whether I've graduated college and I have this
this weight of debt that's hanging around my neck. Job
h one B V sus right, that that whole process
(35:27):
where we're not hiring Americans.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Those are a couple of the core issues.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
So as I approach it, I share my story and
I share that I want to be your voice. I'm
running for my nine year old and I want him
to have a be able to chase the dream that
I was able to chase because I stood on my
dad's shoulders and like he stood on his father's shoulders.
And so that when I talk about my son in
this race, I'm talking about the next generation, and it
comes to millennials and it comes to Gen Z and
(35:55):
a feeling like they're heard, like I hear you, I
hear you on some of your challenges, and frank quite frankly,
we as not just us and then are you know
maybe the generation above us. They've taken action, and they've
taken made choices that are affecting you know, are affecting
our kids, in our in our grandkids, and we got
to turn that around. And the last thing I'll say,
(36:16):
you know what mentioned socialism and that it sounds so good, right,
And I see this election as a very start contrast
between on the one hand, you got the collective is
and the socialist, the Marxist whatever, like I said, whatever
label uh that we want they want to call themselves
that day, and the folks that believe in freedom and
we're seeing they got an election in New York. They
(36:37):
had a Seattle elect a mayor that got elected in Seattle.
Uh here in the state of Wisconsin at the governor
candidate level and at the lieutenant governor cannate level on
the left a Democrat side, their policies and their positions
are pushing harder and harder left into that socialist mindset.
And that's going to be terrible for any genera unless
(37:01):
you're the small percentage of people that's in charge, right,
because in socialism, the small percent of people that are
in charge, they are the ones that get paid, they're
the ones that have all kinds of wealth and the
rest of us don't. And so that is that's what
I talked earlier about wanting to preach freedom and wanting
to take that on head on.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
That has to happen.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
We have to be able to take that mentality head
on and explain why it's no good, not only in
the heart, but we have to take it. We have
to focus on the emotional level too when we're battling
against socialism, because they try to capture the moral high ground,
and we cannot let them capture more high ground because
nowhere and socialism do they ever get to capture the
(37:40):
moral high ground?
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Never works.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Well, that's the greatest illusion of how people are professing
all of this to young kids, right, who do you
go after you go to that disenfranchised twenty two year
old kid, who, like you said, has got a mountain
of debt because they said, if you go to college,
you'll you'll you know your annual income and you know
(38:02):
it'll it'll do this, and you know and and then
you know they when they get out, they realize, Man,
they've been lied to a lot by these same people
that are then projecting the socialistic views. Right, vote for
people that will give you free stuff, and uh, I
just think it's it's kind of comical that they, you know,
young people get get caught in that kind of propaganda
(38:25):
trap over and over.
Speaker 4 (38:27):
So I appreciate your answer there, Nick, All right, give.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Me some final thoughts on kind of where we're at
with the temperatures in America right now, in the vitriol
amongst people. What do you hope to see in your campaign,
not only in your primary against other Republicans, but then
when you win that you go on to campaign against uh,
(38:54):
you know, your your Democratic opponent, and at the end,
you know, at the end of the year for the
lieutenant governorship. What do you hope to see?
Speaker 3 (39:04):
Well, I like to see a dialing down of the rhetoric.
I'd like to see a dialing down of the of
the what appears to be a march towards more and
more aggression, more and more violence. And I would hope
and I pray that that is not the case. It
does appear like we talked a little earlier about Minnesota,
and some of the actions there appear to be insurgency
(39:27):
based or folks that have studied manuals on how to
develop an insurgency, and it appears to be that they're
employing it there, which is which is, which is is
no good at all. So I would love to see
a dialing down of the rehtic. I'd love to see
a dialing down of the of the conversation, and a
dialing down of the demonization of people on different issues.
(39:47):
And you call them names so you can demonize them,
and then once you demonize them, or once you dehumanize them,
then it becomes easier to do other things. That's another
lesson of history. So I'd like to see us focus
on how do we solve problems, what's going to be
the best for in my stay here in Wisconsin, and
then how do we execute on those items to make
it better for Wisconsin. I here and that's what I
(40:09):
keep talking about. We talk about solutions, we talk about
the hows to get things done as we're Chris crossing
the state, and try to avoid any type of that
dehumanization and that that anger focus on individual because it's
very hard to talk to somebody when you're when you're
calling them names, or when you've decided that they're not
worth a conversation.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
Outstanding, outstanding? All right, Nick, where can people find you?
Speaker 4 (40:33):
Follow? And then how can they help you with your campaign?
Speaker 2 (40:37):
So fantastic?
Speaker 3 (40:38):
So on x or at Nick Polse WI on Facebook
or at Nick Polse for Lieutenant Governor and then our
website is Nicholaspulse dot com. Please sign up, Please share
with all your friends and family. Absolutely donate if you
believe in me, if you believe in our team, if
you believe in our mission, donate as so that we
(40:58):
can continue to spread the word across the state as
he pushed towards the primary in August and then ultimately
the election general election November.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Nick, I just there's a part of me that's like, man,
you're crazy. I can't believe you fought ten years into
g WATT at the level you did and now you
want to go into this battle. But then there's a
part of me that says, shut up, wus he's doing
the right thing. You don't have the courage to do it.
So I just want to offer you, you know, I'm
(41:30):
you know, it's just cool to see another operator step
it onto the battle the new battlefield which is for
the Battle of America and the Soul of America.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
And I just wish you the best man.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
Good luck to you right, thanks again, thanks for having
me on and I appreciate that support.
It's twenty twenty six, and this is an election year,
and I'm proud to welcome former Special Forces operator Nick Polse,
who's running for lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, today on the
David Rutherford Show. All Right, Nick, you know, one of
(00:26):
the things that I take a lot of crap for
is not having more Green Berets on the show. And
you know, I want to make sure that I pay
tribute to all my Green Beret brothers because I am
an eighteen Delta officially, right, and so having you on
is such an incredible opportunity, and I'm really excited to
(00:50):
hear what you have to say about running for lieutenant governor.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Man, all right, thank you.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
I appreciate you having me on, and I'll try to
represent the regiment to the best of my abilities and
not let anybody down.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Awesome, Awesome, because we know, we know Big Jay is gonna.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Be watching for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, all right, let's just jump right
into it.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Obviously.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
You know a lot of people, in particular operators are
stepping into this battle space.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
You know, for many reasons.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
We've had Jared Hudson, who's running for Senate down in Alabama.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
Uh, you know, we're we're we're in.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Talks to have a couple more guys that are are
are in contention, are going to start throwing their hats
into run here soon. Let's just ask you, how long
did you serve and why are you taking that deep
dedication to serving the nation and continuing it.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
To want to serve the great state of Wisconsin.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Sure, great question.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
So I spent a lot over a decade in the Army,
a little over eleven years. And my backstory is I
was a senior in college when the towers came down,
and that was a pivotal moment in my life and
much of r we'll call it the gat generations lives,
and it was a pivot point. And so I chose
at that point that I wanted to join. I wanted
(02:12):
to join specifically to get into the Special Operations community
because I want to go overseas and take the fight
to America's enemies. So from the time that we had
that tragic attack on nine to eleven September, I graduated
in May, and then I was on my way to
basic training in October, and then from that point I
got the opportunity to serve with some of the best
(02:33):
of the best. Like I said, it's been over a
decade doing that and then that living that, walking that,
watching the decisions that were made by some of the
folks in the political class or some of our elected officials,
and how they affected us on the ground. It prevented
us from doing certain things, It caused unnecessary injuries, some
(02:54):
folks didn't come home that. Carrying that and learning from
that is what I'm caring forward now into my campaign
here for lieutenant governor in Wisconsin. And I decided to
jump in my why is my little guy, my nine
year old He drives me. He's why I'm doing what
I'm doing, and it's because of him. And I don't
(03:14):
want him to grow up in a state that he
cannot afford. I don't want him to grow up in
a country he cannot afford. And I wanted to feel
safe in the United States. And so those are the
things why I got into the race.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
It's so fascinating to me, especially from GWAT guys who
do feel the continued call to push through and get
into politics, because you know, we often look at the
battlefield as you know, hey, that was the most that
was the place in our lives that always made the
most sense.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Right there was there was the good.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Guys and then the bad guys, right and and it
was pretty linear. You knew where the battle space were,
you had your mission objective, you had your boys around you,
and things seem to make sense. But when I take
a step back and look at the political craziness that's
going on across the country right now. For me, because
(04:06):
I actually considered running for Congress down here in South
Florida and for the twenty two session, and I talked,
I talked to Brian mast about it at some other people,
and after doing those discussions, I was like, this is crazy.
Why would I want to go and subject myself one
to the whole campaign and running and the assaults and
(04:29):
the attacks, and then two getting into government and getting
you know, into what seems to be a greater space
of let's just say, lack of accountability, lack of responsibility.
Why why do you think that you can go and
make a difference?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Now, No, it's a great question, and it you do
the research and it sounds like you talk to a
lot of some real knowledgeable people and at some point,
so so for me in Wisconsin, I think a lot
of ways Washington, d C. Is I'm not a lot
cause lost, cause it's so far gone that to me,
the states is where we can we can fight, we
(05:12):
can preserve, we can protect and eventually rebuild and try
to hold the country that we that we had, that
we grew up on, that's given so much, that's given
so much to us.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
And at the state level, you have more control.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
It's it's it's closer to the problem set and usually
those closest to the problem set are best able to
solve the problem.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
And so my focus is on the state right now.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Great, you had you had talked about Republicans losing elections
in Wisconsin pretty regularly, uh for a while. Now, can
you just give us a brief history of that and
why do you think now is a good time for
you to run for lieutenant governor?
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
So, in Wisconsin at the state wide level, you've had
Ron Johnson and President Trump are the only ones that
have won the state since twenty fourteen. Prior to that,
you had Governor Scott Walker, who won in twenty ten
with that Tea Party revolution. He won a recall in
twenty eleven, and then he won for a re election
in twenty fourteen. But since then the GOP here we
(06:16):
haven't run a state wide race that we've won it
with the exception of the two guys that I mentioned.
So the why in my assessment is I look at
the messaging.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
One.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
I look at the messaging and the messaging that one
in twenty ten, that won in twenty eleven, that President
Sharp ran On Senator Ron Johnson ran On consistently is
one of a populist of one on focusing on the
working class, focusing on the individual American. And when we
run on that messaging here in Wisconsin, we can win,
(06:46):
and we stray from that, we're racking up losses. So
I look at the messaging here as one of the
main reasons why at the state level the Republican Party
has not been able to win since twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Awesome, all right, So when I go to your you know,
your website, which is Nicholaspolls dot com, and look at
You've got this great list of initiatives, and so the
number one is unleashing the Wisconsin economy.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
What does that look like for you?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And what would you do as soon as you get
into office to try and facilitate some of that economic
growth to take place.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Sure, So let me first talk about the role.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
So as a lieutenant governor, there's not very much outlined
in the constitution, the state constitution here for their role.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Essentially, it's a couple of things.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
One is, if the governor leaves the state, he or
she can authorize you to with certain powers. If something
happens to the governor, then you step up and you
become the leader of the state and then you're in
charge of the Senate. Short of that, there's not much
outlined in the constitution as to what the lieutenant governor
can do and should be doing daily. So I look
(07:58):
at this role as one of an advocate and one
of being a robust, proactive lieutenant governor because you have
a platform, right as the number two elected official in
the state. You have a platform and you have the
power to convene or what does that mean. You get
the opportunity to bring people together, whether they're business leaders,
whether they're folks in education, whether they're folks at the
(08:20):
lower levels of government, you know, the county or state level.
You can bring people together, you can have conversations, and
you could be an advocate for wisconsinights across the state.
So that's what I look at as my role, all right.
So now specifically as it comes to some of the
economic items, Wisconsin is one of the most over regulated
states in the Midwest. So when you have a whole
(08:41):
bunch of regulations, you're decreasing freedom. Business owners aren't able
to do certain things, employees aren't able to do certain things.
There's less of risk taking in those situations. We also
have property taxes that are increasing. We had our governor
here that signed a four hundreds a four hundred year
property tax increase, and most recently in December, we've felt
(09:04):
that for the first time since he signed it, and
there was a lot of sticker shock. So when you
combine high regulations, you combine high property taxes. We have
income taxes and a variety of other little regular taxes
and rules regulations.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
That creates a lot of restraint.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
And so when I talk about unleashing the Wisconsin economy,
I want to create freedom.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
I want to talk about freedom.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
I want to crisscross the state preaching freedom because in
humans are naturally yearning to be free, and we should
unleash them and allow them to have the economic freedom
here in the state. Much like what President Trump is
trying to do at the federal level.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Now, I understand that, you know, most states have very
substantial health care costs, including Wisconsin, i e. Madison and
Milwaukee for sure. And you know, one of the things
that we're seeing recently is the corruption or manipulation of
(10:02):
healthcare issues through corruption or federal spending going into the
wrong places, the Somali population in Minnesota, we've got the
other illegal immigrant in Maine. We saw Sean Ryan deliver.
A main reporter's been diving into that. We've seen it
in California. We've seen it all over. So healthcare obviously
(10:26):
is probably going to be a big one on the ticket.
How are you going to address healthcare and what is
your message to a lot of people that rely on subsidies.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
That's a great question.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
So specifically in Wisconsin, there are a couple of things
that the state can do, separate from the federal government
to help drive down costs and then also increase competition.
So one of the things that we have here is
we have a limited amount of health insurance companies that
can sell into Wisconsin. One that doesn't taken any laws changing,
(11:01):
that just comes out of the executive branch and medicine
of the Insurance Commission a changing and allowing other insurance
companies to sell into Wisconsin. So one, you can increase
the amount of insurance companies selling here, which should we
have more supply and demand stays the same, we should
see prices coming down. The second thing we can do
again at the state level. I mean there's many things,
(11:22):
but the second thing that we can do is there's mandates,
meaning that we have a laws here in Wisconsin that
mandate certain health insurance companies have to sell plans, meaning
they're putting a floor in place. So no matter what
I have to buy a certain plan, you have to
buy a certain plan. You can't go to insurance company
and pick and choose, or the insurance company can't sell
(11:44):
you a plan that you may like because of the mandates.
So there's a couple of things we could do right
away to help drive down costs in the state.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Now, as it relates to a lot of the fraud.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
One of the things I'd like to do, and I
think that we can do it at my level, if
not in different parts of the government.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Here is audit.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Before we talk about raising taxes, and before we talk
about any additional spending is auditing where the money's going,
because I'm pretty sure if we do this audit, we're
going to find money, a lot of money there that's
being misspent. You mentioned a couple of examples across the
country of a lot of fraud that's popping up, and
I'm on the bet that if we audit, we're going
to find a whole lot of money that we then
(12:23):
can decide how to allocate for Americans, for Wisconsin it
to not have it go to fraud, waste, or abuse.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
Great answer, all right.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
So one of the things that obviously some of I
think you look at, really what's triggered one of your
neighbors there in Minnesota and this the craziness that's happened
on the streets in Minneapolis, is the fraud was exposed
and all that attention came crashing down. I remember seeing
(12:53):
a video just the other day doctor Oz standing in
front of an old giant warehouse facility and there were
over four hundred fraudulent healthcare companies or daycare companies set
up in that. Obviously, the Nick Shirley investigation to Somali
daycare centers and all this funny to the tune of
eight billion was going in.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
But the real.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Problem at problem of that, and I think fraud and
that is a different thing.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
The other is is illegal immigration.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
When I looked up the statistics on on Wisconsin, and
I you know, I didn't see Wisconsin ranks twentieth in
total population with approximately five point nine to six million residents. Racial,
you know, the demographics mostly white, aging seniors overall, you know.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
But one of the.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Interesting thing, you know, was the illegal immigration numbers. It
said there's an estimated seventy thousand undocumented immigrants as of
recent data, and that's primarily for twenty twenty three estimates,
representing one point two of the state's population.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
You know.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
But I'm sure what's going to emerge is this immigration stance.
And we'll talk about the main Democratic challenger you have
and maybe a little bit of a Republican amenute. So
what's your stance on what's taking place in Minnesota as
well as the grander context of the immigration issue in
(14:30):
the United States.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Let's start with Minnesota.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Now, I would separate from the illegal immigration problem, the
fraud that you mentioned there, the fraud that you mentioned
in California, the fraud that they found in hud When
I see we'll come back to immigration just a second.
What I see is incentives when it comes to government
programs are all wrong. Meaning the incentive when you're in
(14:54):
charge of a government program or when you're running a
government program is to.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Spend all the money.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Because you go back at the end of the year
to whether it's at Congress or whether it's at the
state house, and go to that assembly and say, hey,
I spend all my money, so you need to give
you more money. What happens if you go back and
you don't spend all your money, then the representatives say, hey,
oh you got extra money. Great, We're going to give
it to the people that spent all the money. So
(15:18):
within government programs, there is an incentive to not really
watch or anything's going, to not really care much about
the accountability because your incentive is to spend all your money.
So that is a problem that I would like to
see addressed, and that's one of the things that I
will be working on addressing when we win, is working
on how we can change that incentive model period to
(15:40):
get at the fraud, to get at the focus on
being frugal and being accountable with our money. In Wisconsin
money across the United States. Now backing up to the
illegal immigration here in Wisconsin, we had Fort McCoy was
one of the bases that the Biden administration and brought
a whole bunch of Afghany folks in. I remember that
(16:04):
several years ago, but for macloy in Wisconsin, right yep.
So that was one of the major staging grounds when
they would bringing folks in. And then there was all
kinds of news articles and there were different accounts of
walking off the bays, having problems with destruction, variety of things,
and then wherever they went after that. Minneapolis large Somali population,
(16:27):
and we saw the results of that was American intervention
in Somalia made famous by the blackhawk Down movie and
how those those great Americans, so many of them gave
their lives or came home injured. We a lot of
our intervention in Somalia caused that part of the immigration
lead people leaving Somalia.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
A lot of them settled in Minneapolis.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
There's also some communities in Wisconsin on the western side
of the state, specifically in Barron County and there and
they're here and it doesn't appear based off of their actions.
It doesn't appear that there's a whole lot of assimilation.
It doesn't appear like there's a whole lot of wanting
to be Americans, of wanting to join America for our
(17:11):
values and for why we're living here. And it doesn't
appear that's happening, all right. And so those are just
a couple of things I want to talk through right now.
And the last thing you had talked about the fraud.
Back to my comment originally with the incentives, it appears
that a lot of folks that have come as immigrants,
whether illegal or illegal, there's an incentive for the state
(17:32):
to be putting them into programs, and then the lack
of accountability transparently leads to opportunities for waste, fraud abuse.
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(19:33):
Oh yeah, I think you're spot on. I think it
is an incentive circle, right, I absolutely agree, you know,
and then I think the asylum programs were really interesting.
And if you look at where the distribution took place,
a lot of the distribution of asylum seeking immigrants were
(19:55):
distributed to purple states, right swing states, and I and
I think, you know, that makes sense when when when
you're struggling with your core base, uh and I think
the Democratic Party has struggled, started to fractionalize its core base.
We saw that with with Democratic males in particular Hispanic
(20:16):
and African American males started you know, going more independent
and actually voted uh in for Republicans the last time
around because of I think the the opportunity, the economic
opportunity that has been diminished as a result of probably
government handouts or however you wanted the incentives, right, that
incentive structure, and and you know, I think for all
(20:40):
NGOs that have exploded over that they're also incentivized, right,
They're incentivized to continue to keep that circle going. And
then now there's you know, there's a couple of people
I'm following on x who are talking about how that
structure works. Right, you import a large number of asylum
seekers immigrants right coming over you put them in a
(21:04):
purple state, you put them on state funds, right that
are fostered through NGOs that are also getting state funds
and federal funds, and then you just you know, recycle
those people and then you know they help devise economic
incentives too, and then they fund the politicians that keep
them keep the money trained going. So it is it
(21:27):
is an interesting cycle of corruption.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
We go back to that.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
You know you have listed on your initiatives about government
spending itself. What about Wisconsin, Wisconsin government spending do you
want to try and address with that advocacy as Lieutenant
governor and to get a better discussion going on?
Speaker 4 (21:54):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Well, and just in the last eight years, we've seen
the spending at the federal or the state level here
go up about fifty percent, and we haven't gotten fifty
percent better services. We haven't gotten the fifty cent better
fifty percent better quality of life. Right, So the spending
is continued increasing. And the thing about government spending is
at the state level, it only comes they can't print
(22:14):
money like they can't at the federal level, like the can't.
There's no federal reserve in Wisconsin thats can just turn
on the printing press. So it either comes from taxes
or fees, or or there's borrowing or the state's borrowing.
And when we're looking at the constant increase of spending spending,
it means we're taking or extracting more and more money
(22:36):
from our citizens here. And my focus is on keeping
more of your money in your pocket because you know
best how to spend your money for your family, for yourself,
for your community, rather than somebody a bureaucrat in Madison
who just has a budget and their incentivized to spend
it all.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
That makes a lot of sense, all right, at the
bottom of your initiatives. You talk about election integrity. Now,
I don't know where you stand. I'm I've been doing
a lot of shows on election integrity in particularly about
the twenty twenty elections. And you know, there's there's you know,
Scott Presser, who does the amazing you know, voter registration
(23:16):
for Republicans. He you know, he helped New Jersey out
Pennsylvania he flipped in twenty twenty four, which was an
unbelievable flip. You know, he's he's brought some attention to
the Wisconsin twenty twenty elections. You know, Obviously, there were
a couple reports about the printing of additional ballots. John
(23:41):
Solomon reported on some of that. There was a guy
that was a whistleblower for the United States Posts Or Office.
His name was Ethan Peace, but he saw some substantial
abnormalities in terms of ballots that came in. You know,
(24:03):
as a part of your duties as Lieutenant governor, you
will be assisting in the implementation of elections in Wisconsin.
What are your thoughts about voter rolls, future elections and
reinstilling confidence, you know, in a state that was considered
(24:23):
to have some abnormalities in twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Yeah, that's still a big issue here here today, and
there's a lot of items that haven't been resolved yet.
One of the main issues we have here is the
way that our elections are run. We have a it's
called elect the Wisconsin Election Commission, and so rather than
elections run out of a constitution elected office like a
Secretary of State, the Wisconsin Election Commission, which is bureaucrats
(24:46):
that are appointed by party. So there's a couple of Republicans,
a couple of Democrats, and they've been run the election.
So I am not in favor of that system, I'd
like to abolish the Wisconsin Election Commission. I'd like to
return the power to run a elections to the Secretary
of State, constitutionally elected official. That's one thing. The second
thing is verifiable. We want verifiable elections and verifiable ballots.
(25:09):
We had a problem in twenty twenty and it was
less of a problem in twenty twenty four with absentee ballots. Right,
So in Wisconsin, for a long time, it was very
few people that were requesting absentee ballots. It was only
if you couldn't leave the house, if you really small
circumstances where you would absentee.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
COVID changed all that.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
The rules got expanded, there was a lot of relaxation
in some of the rules, and so there was a
transition to a lot of absentee ballots. And as you
know if you've been studying it, when you have a
lot of absentee ballots flooding the system, it makes it
easier to be able to get the outcome that you
want in an election, because once the ballot is separated
(25:52):
from the envelope, it's near impossible to figure out if
that is a legitimate and verifiable verifiable out tied to
a person. So the verifiable election is another thing that
I'd be working on here in the state. And you
mentioned voter roles, So voter rolls back to the the DOJ.
(26:13):
Trump's DOJ issued Wisconsin to get a look at the
voter roles to help clean up Wisconsin's fighting that. Well,
why would you fight trying to clean up voter roles.
It doesn't make any sense unless there's something that you
potentially are trying to tie or you're trying to make
it easier to get the outcome that you want in
an election. So we have to back to the advocacycpiece
(26:37):
right is talking about that, talking about solutions that I
just gave you a couple of them here, and clean
up the voter roles as a high priority as well.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
So I've been paying attention to a guy on x
right now who's been posting constantly about voter roles and
the additions to voter roles being able to register online.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
No proof of ID.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Is that a part of Wisconsin elections is no voter ID.
And if it is, I mean obviously a grand majority
of the population nationwide, like seventy eight percent believe voter
IDAs are accurate, how would you try and bring that
back to the state.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
So we do have a voter ID here.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
We have a pretty robust system in place to allow
people to vote, also to have some security in place
related to voter i D. One of the things that
I would change and I would push for a change
is the way that the Wisconsin elections focus on college
kids or people that move here from out of state.
So within about thirty days, if you moved to the
(27:41):
state within thirty I think it's thirty days of the election,
then you can vote in this state. And so there
I would change that because what happens is if you're, say,
living in Iowa, you move to Wisconsin within thirty days
of the election, then you can vote here in Wisconsin.
College kid or or something like that. I would change that.
I would I would make that a longer time. Or
(28:04):
if somebody does move in here within the thirty days,
they have to vote and the state that they came from,
rather than change their residency and voting within thirty days
of the general election. So that's one of the things
I would change. In addition, we have the voter I D.
We have a variety of different not just driver's license.
There's there's the passport, and there's several other ones. I
(28:26):
did work a couple of elections in Milwaukee County and
so got to see it firsthand as a pole observer,
the whole process.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
From the beginning to the end, on how that works.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
That's good news. Sorry I made that mistake to my listeners.
All right, let's shift now to who you're running against.
The woman you're running against is I'm going to butcher.
Last name Sarah Godolowski. Is that correct?
Speaker 4 (28:53):
Garilowski? Now, she's seems to be a.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Person that has been kind of, you know, moving towards
politics and political activism for a long time.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
Give me a.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Little bit of a description about why you think her
policies don't get in line with what Wisconsin, the people
Wisconsin want or need.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Sure, so she's been she prior to running for lieutenant governor,
she was secretary of State, and then she also has
ran or she did almost run for I believe, was
Senate in twenty twenty two as well. So her vision
and her policies align what I'll call the collectivist mindset,
which is increasing government control of your life, increasing government spending,
(29:43):
which means taxes have to go up, increasing regulations. They
want to turn Wisconsin into a sanctuary state. One of
the lieutenant governor, the current lieutenant governor who's running for governor,
she's already come out and said, I don't want to
have ICE enforcement. I don't want to be sharing with ICE,
and that would be absolutely terrible if we if Wisconsin
(30:04):
turned into a sanctuary state. And so those are a
few of her positions and her policies that she would
support and then with the next Democrat governor as lieutenant
governor and those of me are exactly the opposite of
what we need for Wisconsin.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
What do you think people in Wisconsin, not outside of
Madison and Milwaukee, out out where the farms are, out
where you know the people that I mean, because you know,
my aunt and uncle lived in Wisconsin for forty years.
My cousins went to university. Wisconsin's a great, big ten school,
(30:41):
and man, I just remember going there as a kid
and it seeming like it was just the state where
people like to be left alone and nice people and
they just want their liberty and their freedom. Why do
you think the state has pushed so hard to the left.
Is it really because of the focal centers of Madison
(31:05):
and Milwaukee. And why don't you know people in rural
areas recognize kind of this collectivist mentality to kind of
really jump in terms of their voter turnout.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Well, I think that we do.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
That's pretty that's pretty neat that you got the history
here with Wisconsin. As I've been getting out chriss crossing
state talking going all over the place, urban areas or
rural areas, I think that there is that mentality that
you mentioned, which is want to be left alone, want
to live our live. We have a lot of freedom here,
history of freedom in the state. The two counties that
(31:42):
are the largest voting block for Democrats are Dane County
and then Milwaukee County, and there's a little bit up
in Green Bay County. Those are the two, really two
and a half where they drive the most turnout, and
those are the highest population centers, and those are the
areas that you see the most radical ideas, the most
the hard and herder pushed into collectivism, the attempts to
(32:05):
try to disrupt I iced to see most of the
protests there and as those in my opinion, as those
urban centers have grown, when they turn out they can
offset a lot of the voting in some of the
rural counties and some of the more counties that I focus.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
More on freedom.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
That makes a lot of sense, you know, I as
I've watched this, I mean from you know, my my
last deployment was in twenty eleven. I spent a lot
of that year in Pakistan with the agency, you know,
and I got home it really I saw this kind
of collectivist mentality as you describe it, I call it
(32:43):
straight out Marxism. You know, I've I've noticed that a
lot of this has led you know, in these you know,
blue city centers or in college towns, right, and it
is really kind of taking hold of I think, you know,
(33:04):
the thirty five and younger generation, and those generations are
considerable now, you know in terms of size, i e.
Speaker 4 (33:12):
The you know, the Gen Z is going to be
bigger than the boomers.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
And you know, as as you're leading into the primaries,
what do you want to say to those younger voters now,
Like those people that have been since you know, they
were in middle school, junior high, and high school and
in college, they've been you know, there's been this bombardment
(33:37):
of you know, I don't want to call it anti
American sentiment because I believe they love their country.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
I just believe they think a socialist.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Formula is the way we get out of whatever they
perceive this unbridled oppressive, fascist, imperialism, or whatever you want
to describe. Right, there's a new word for it every day.
One day you're Nazi, the next day you're a fascist,
next day, you know, whatever it is. So you know,
what do you have to say to those young voters
(34:06):
that are looking to you know, and again, I don't
want to come across as presumptuous, but you know what
I see with friends of mine that have served and
do have legitimate voices, whether in politics or in podcasting
or whatever. You know, you you see there's a gravitational
(34:28):
pull towards young people within that because there's a I
think there's a respect that takes place from your service,
right obviously, ten years going down range in the GWATT
and at the level that you do it at the
highest level, you know, there's a built in respect. But
the language that these kids are used to is very
(34:49):
different than the things that inspired you in that senior
year of college to go out raise your right hand,
join and go serve for ten years going down range
in the g WATT. So what how are you you
gonna approach those young people and what message do you
want to tell them? No?
Speaker 3 (35:04):
So here's so here's where I hear a lot in
that in that demographic, in that generation is is a
feeling like they're they're not able to chase the American
dream for whatever reason, whether it's housing kosts are out
of control, whether I've graduated college and I have this
this weight of debt that's hanging around my neck. Job
h one B V sus right, that that whole process
(35:27):
where we're not hiring Americans.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Those are a couple of the core issues.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
So as I approach it, I share my story and
I share that I want to be your voice. I'm
running for my nine year old and I want him
to have a be able to chase the dream that
I was able to chase because I stood on my
dad's shoulders and like he stood on his father's shoulders.
And so that when I talk about my son in
this race, I'm talking about the next generation, and it
comes to millennials and it comes to Gen Z and
(35:55):
a feeling like they're heard, like I hear you, I
hear you on some of your challenges, and frank quite frankly,
we as not just us and then are you know
maybe the generation above us. They've taken action, and they've
taken made choices that are affecting you know, are affecting
our kids, in our in our grandkids, and we got
to turn that around. And the last thing I'll say,
(36:16):
you know what mentioned socialism and that it sounds so good, right,
And I see this election as a very start contrast
between on the one hand, you got the collective is
and the socialist, the Marxist whatever, like I said, whatever
label uh that we want they want to call themselves
that day, and the folks that believe in freedom and
we're seeing they got an election in New York. They
(36:37):
had a Seattle elect a mayor that got elected in Seattle.
Uh here in the state of Wisconsin at the governor
candidate level and at the lieutenant governor cannate level on
the left a Democrat side, their policies and their positions
are pushing harder and harder left into that socialist mindset.
And that's going to be terrible for any genera unless
(37:01):
you're the small percentage of people that's in charge, right,
because in socialism, the small percent of people that are
in charge, they are the ones that get paid, they're
the ones that have all kinds of wealth and the
rest of us don't. And so that is that's what
I talked earlier about wanting to preach freedom and wanting
to take that on head on.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
That has to happen.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
We have to be able to take that mentality head
on and explain why it's no good, not only in
the heart, but we have to take it. We have
to focus on the emotional level too when we're battling
against socialism, because they try to capture the moral high ground,
and we cannot let them capture more high ground because
nowhere and socialism do they ever get to capture the
(37:40):
moral high ground?
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Never works.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Well, that's the greatest illusion of how people are professing
all of this to young kids, right, who do you
go after you go to that disenfranchised twenty two year
old kid, who, like you said, has got a mountain
of debt because they said, if you go to college,
you'll you'll you know your annual income and you know
(38:02):
it'll it'll do this, and you know and and then
you know they when they get out, they realize, Man,
they've been lied to a lot by these same people
that are then projecting the socialistic views. Right, vote for
people that will give you free stuff, and uh, I
just think it's it's kind of comical that they, you know,
young people get get caught in that kind of propaganda
(38:25):
trap over and over.
Speaker 4 (38:27):
So I appreciate your answer there, Nick, All right, give.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Me some final thoughts on kind of where we're at
with the temperatures in America right now, in the vitriol
amongst people. What do you hope to see in your campaign,
not only in your primary against other Republicans, but then
when you win that you go on to campaign against uh,
(38:54):
you know, your your Democratic opponent, and at the end,
you know, at the end of the year for the
lieutenant governorship. What do you hope to see?
Speaker 3 (39:04):
Well, I like to see a dialing down of the rhetoric.
I'd like to see a dialing down of the of
the what appears to be a march towards more and
more aggression, more and more violence. And I would hope
and I pray that that is not the case. It
does appear like we talked a little earlier about Minnesota,
and some of the actions there appear to be insurgency
(39:27):
based or folks that have studied manuals on how to
develop an insurgency, and it appears to be that they're
employing it there, which is which is, which is is
no good at all. So I would love to see
a dialing down of the rehtic. I'd love to see
a dialing down of the of the conversation, and a
dialing down of the demonization of people on different issues.
(39:47):
And you call them names so you can demonize them,
and then once you demonize them, or once you dehumanize them,
then it becomes easier to do other things. That's another
lesson of history. So I'd like to see us focus
on how do we solve problems, what's going to be
the best for in my stay here in Wisconsin, and
then how do we execute on those items to make
it better for Wisconsin. I here and that's what I
(40:09):
keep talking about. We talk about solutions, we talk about
the hows to get things done as we're Chris crossing
the state, and try to avoid any type of that
dehumanization and that that anger focus on individual because it's
very hard to talk to somebody when you're when you're
calling them names, or when you've decided that they're not
worth a conversation.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
Outstanding, outstanding? All right, Nick, where can people find you?
Speaker 4 (40:33):
Follow? And then how can they help you with your campaign?
Speaker 2 (40:37):
So fantastic?
Speaker 3 (40:38):
So on x or at Nick Polse WI on Facebook
or at Nick Polse for Lieutenant Governor and then our
website is Nicholaspulse dot com. Please sign up, Please share
with all your friends and family. Absolutely donate if you
believe in me, if you believe in our team, if
you believe in our mission, donate as so that we
(40:58):
can continue to spread the word across the state as
he pushed towards the primary in August and then ultimately
the election general election November.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Nick, I just there's a part of me that's like, man,
you're crazy. I can't believe you fought ten years into
g WATT at the level you did and now you
want to go into this battle. But then there's a
part of me that says, shut up, wus he's doing
the right thing. You don't have the courage to do it.
So I just want to offer you, you know, I'm
(41:30):
you know, it's just cool to see another operator step
it onto the battle the new battlefield which is for
the Battle of America and the Soul of America.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
And I just wish you the best man.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
Good luck to you right, thanks again, thanks for having
me on and I appreciate that support.
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