Brogressive hosts Ben Bartlett and Max Levin sit down with Noah Widmann, Democratic candidate for Congress in Florida’s 7th District, for a wide-ranging conversation about how Congress lost the plot — and what it’ll take to bring working-class credibility and results-driven politics back to Washington.
Noah opens by explaining what pushed him to run for office (00:39), pointing to performative politics, a lack of town halls or basic accountability, and a system where lawmakers spend more time chasing headlines than helping people. He shares how growing up in Central Florida on food stamps and Social Security, then working night shifts as an EMT before earning scholarships to Columbia and Georgetown Law, shaped his deep personal connection to the programs Republicans keep trying to cut (02:41). He walks through that journey — dropping out of college to raise his daughter, working low-wage jobs, and ultimately becoming a pro bono attorney helping people like his mom (04:57).
The conversation shifts to what kind of campaign Noah is running—and why contrast with an incumbent who lives in Virginia, enriches himself through defense contracts, and avoids public engagement is so stark (09:26). He discusses his vision for results-first politics rooted in housing, insurance reform, and affordability (11:28), and reflects on the ideas behind Ezra Klein’s abundance agenda and how they could help rebuild trust and opportunity at the local level (13:01).
Later, the group explores how economic instability and uncertainty — especially around tariffs—are crushing small business owners and working families alike (17:18). Noah calls for a more honest economic debate, one that rejects the chaos of broad-brush tariffs and looks at who actually wins and loses when trade wars escalate (20:06).
From there, they dig into the path to victory in a red-leaning swing district (23:58), discuss why reforms like term limits and banning congressional stock trading are essential (27:02), and what it will take to win back skeptical voters who feel alienated by both parties. Noah shares how he plans to connect with those voters directly — through frequent in-person and digital town halls (30:48), a pragmatic message, and a campaign that actually listens.
In the final stretch, Noah talks about masculinity and the Democrats’ messaging gap with young men (36:18), how sports like wrestling shaped his worldview, and why the party needs to do a better job welcoming people without alienating them through culture-war signaling (40:34). He closes with a call for normal, grounded candidates who reflect the people they represent — and explains why, in his words, “you can’t be what you can’t see” (44:42).
Follow Noah @NoahWidmann and his campaign @NoahForFlorida @Ben @BenBartlettt, Max @MaxLevin23, and Brogressive Podcast @BrogressivePod on Twitter/X.
🎧 Listen now and support Noah’s campaign on his website: noahforflorida.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
Welcome back, guys to another episode of Progressive, a very
special guest today. We are joined by Noah Whitman,
who is running for Congress thisyear.
He's running against Republican Corey Mills in Florida.
So welcome to the show Noah, really excited to have you on.
Excited to be here. Obviously I'm a listener, as you
can imagine, and this is pretty exciting.
(00:30):
Well, it's exciting for us as well.
So just to get straight into it,what made you decide to run for
Congress? What was kind of the final straw
where you're like, this is something I have to do?
Yeah, a lot of things, right. So I think, you know, on the
front end, it's kind of what what's been kind of, you know,
basically pissing me off about politics, you know, and, and in
(00:50):
2025. And I think it's just how nobody
in office right now seems to be solution oriented, right.
You know, there's a lot of outrage, there's a lot of
sensationalism, you know, and I,I feel like our politics feels
performative, right? I, I think that's something that
bothers me a lot. And I think that right now we're
seeing people like Corey Mills in Congress.
(01:12):
You know, he's enriching himself.
You know, he's an arms dealer and he's got so many
controversies. We're obviously going to have
the chance to hit on a lot of those today.
But I'm going to say this, you know, as someone that grew up
raised by a single disabled mom,you know, I, I came up in
Section 8 housing, I became a teen dad.
You know, we relied on food stamps growing up like this,
(01:35):
that and the other, I think seeing Congress just not do
their job and allow these vital programs like Social Security,
you know, agriculture programs, school lunch programs be under
attack while they're just insider stock trading and
enriching themselves. I think it's awful on the on the
other end too. You know, I have a daughter.
I have a 10 year old daughter named Elizabeth.
(01:57):
I was raised by my mom and oldersister.
And I'm just going to be honest,something that did push me over
the edge was, you know, a coupleweeks back, Corey Mills, the
behavior he was engaged in, right?
You know, he's allegedly, you know, he's being investigated by
DC police for an assault againstan alleged assault against a
young woman. That upset me.
(02:17):
And I think when you mix that with how out of touch Congress
is and how he's just never even held a town hall meeting it it,
there were a lot of things that pushed me to do it, but it
wasn't kind of 1 golden moment. And Noah, so with all that you
mentioned food stamps and material policy and a lot of
these things that are important to working class people, you
lived it, you lived Section 8. And so can we get on on the
(02:38):
record that you're going to support these things?
Strongly, very strongly. For me, on a personal level,
I've seen it. I felt it.
You know, I don't just care, forexample, about the vitality of
Social Security just because of the D next to my name.
I care because if that gets cut,it's my mom.
If the Department of Education gets cut, that's kids like me
(02:59):
that got to go to college after becoming teen parents and so on.
So absolutely on the record, these programs are vital.
And I think that my story, whichwe'll talk about today, can show
why those act as the bootstraps people talk about is when
everybody's uplifted. Democrats, even as they continue
to push for some of these policies, have certainly lost
the image of being the party that supports the working people
(03:21):
and people who, like, go throughmany of those experiences.
So what do you say to voters whofeel like neither party really
has done anything for them? And do you feel like actually
having people from the background who have actually
have experienced these things themselves first hand and not
just from the government side ofthings, do you feel like that is
one way that Democrats can maybeearn back the trust of these
voters? Sad, right?
(03:42):
I think people are they're on the money.
They know that both parties could be doing more and should
be doing more. I think right now they're
feeling the chaos of this current administration and the
do nothing Congress. And I think I mean, we really do
have to gain trust, you know, wereally do.
Prices were too high. They're higher now.
And I, I think that people really were looking for a vision
(04:03):
that said, we stand with you. We don't look down on you.
And I think it's also important for us moving forward to
honestly tell people. I mean, like so many folks that
I know right here at home, a lotof people that voted for Trump
because they thought costs were going to come down and that
things were going to be like 2019 Again.
I think that there's a real opportunity to win folks hearts
(04:24):
and minds just by telling the truth and being normal.
Being normal can never be underrated, but we're talking a
little bit about like some of your experiences.
If you could just give our listeners a little bit of a
rundown of like your experiencesleading up and to deciding to
run for Congress. I know that you grew up in
Florida, becoming a father at a young age.
(04:45):
I know you'd written about that and how important that was to
your experiences and ended up atGeorgetown.
If you could tell us a little bit about that and how that
maybe has shaped your worldview as well.
Yeah, thanks. I, I was raised in Central
Florida by, like I had mentioned, by a mom by herself.
She's disabled. She still relies on Social
(05:05):
Security to this day. And growing up, you know, we
didn't always know where the next meal was going to come
from. We didn't know what was around
the corner. I used to joke, you know, But
when you, when you grow up poor,if the shower, if the shower had
breaks, you just become a bath person, right?
And so I think my whole life, I had to learn how to adapt, how
to make things work and how to understand, you know, the
(05:25):
importance of community, family and just normal approaches to
kitchen table issues. And you're right, I became a dad
really young. So I was the captain of my
wrestling team in high school. I was one of the first to finish
high school in my family and in high school relied on things
like free school breakfast and lunch.
And that's what helped keep me energized and focused and
(05:47):
healthy during the school day. And was able to work hard in the
wrestling room. And I earned a scholarship as
the first in my family to go to college.
Right. And on the first day of class,
it was pretty cinematic, actually.
I was about 50 feet from the building to go into my first
college classroom. And that's when I got the call
and found out I was going to be a dad.
And, you know, I dropped out right away.
I moved immediately back home tobe with my daughter's mom, be
(06:09):
with my family, make it work. And, you know, I started working
for Sonic Drive in flipping burgers and went from there to
bagging groceries to so many other, you know, jobs in between
and eventually ended up at the fire department, right, And did
a lot there. My first memory was seeing EMTs
and paramedics save my mom when when I was four years old.
(06:31):
And I think for me that that wasa moment that kind of always
stayed with me and always touched me.
I mean, public health care and, you know, first responders have
always been such a deeply important part of my life.
I mean, we even knew these folks, these first responders on
a first name basis when they would come by our house, right?
So, you know, that was huge for me.
I did that, did quite well, loved the work even though it
(06:53):
was obviously difficult. And I did 513 hour night shifts
a week and then Community College in the mornings.
You know, I knew I wanted to tryto go back to college for my
daughter's sake. So I wanted to make sure I could
get the best career possible that fit my hopes and dreams and
more importantly, hers. And you know, after two years, I
was ready to go to UCF or UF because those were my dream
(07:14):
schools for my whole life. And I unexpectedly got into
Columbia and took that opportunity, moved to New York
with 20 bucks in my pocket. I didn't even own a laptop and
managed to do well there, earneda scholarship to Georgetown for
law school, did well there. And now today I'm sitting here
on the Progressive podcast, which is amazing.
(07:34):
And I'm an attorney. I do a lot of things, but I'm
most proud of my pro bono work where I help folks on Social
Security appeals, people like mymom, you know, that have fallen
through the cracks and that needa leg up getting the benefits
they've worked so hard to earn their whole life.
No, I got to say, it's one of those things that you read in
the news all the time about members of Congress being
millionaires and having more money than God.
(07:56):
But I really appreciate Someone Like You actually throwing your
hat in the ring. I know it's difficult, and I
know it's going to be a long slog.
It's going to be a lot of energy, it's going to be a lot
of time, and it's going to be just going through the trenches.
And I just want to say thank youfirst and foremost for being the
guy to step up. I mean, that's really just kind
of inspiring. More importantly, I'm really
kind of happy to know that someone who's normal is actually
going to give a shot, right? Someone who knows what it's like
(08:19):
to go to the grocery store and put things back because it's too
expensive, right? To know what it's like when you
go to the grocery store and you point at something, your mom
goes, no, no, we don't have the money for that.
Like watching her well up in tears, right?
It makes me really, really proudto know that someone like he was
running like that. And it's off to you, Ben.
Yeah. So I mean you talked a little
bit earlier about how you feel like a lot of politics today is
very performative. And so I'm wondering like with
(08:41):
that experience that you would bring to the job and actually
having experienced at 1st and knowing the real world impact on
actual human beings of these policies, if you feel like, I
mean, obviously this will be your goal, but I wonder if
candidates like you are maybe a way we could get politics away
from such a performative style and towards like delivering
actual results. I mean, I know that I know Corey
(09:02):
Mills, like he voted to impeach Biden, Merrick Garland and all
that. He picks all these very
political Fox News go viral and increase his name recognition
things to talk about. So I wonder, is that something
that you plan to focus on this campaign and really like
actually delivering hard resultsto the the voters?
And yeah, if you could talk a little bit about that and how
(09:23):
you feel like your experience could be a good contrast to
Mills? Contrast is I think the keyword
here, you know, I, I'm from here, I don't live in a Virginia
mansion and you know, I'm not anout of touch person trying to
use the office to enrich myself.And I think that that number one
is going to is going to come through, you know, and I think
also that what it's really aboutat the end of the day is doing
(09:46):
the job. Like somehow that's, you know, a
controversial idea these days that just getting work done, no
matter if it's a right idea, left idea, just having solutions
to real issues. You know, Corey Mills, all the
votes you talked about, he's taken all those.
None of them made rent or mortgages cheaper.
None of them made groceries costless.
(10:06):
None of them made wages higher. And and none of them helped
small business owners, right? His job titles lawmaker and over
90% of the bills he sponsors don't become law.
I mean, imagine if you had that sort of a fail rate in any job
or as a. Student.
You'd be in a lot of trouble. And so I don't know, I for me
it's about actual solutions, getting things done and just
(10:30):
electing normal people to Congress, people who've actually
seen the same paycheck week after week as the grocery bag
gets smaller, right. You know, people that understand
the stakes. I I just don't think an out of
touch arms dealer with all his controversies and ethics
investigations against him for enriching himself.
I just don't think that that's someone who's doing the job,
(10:51):
who's doing the hard work. So that that's kind of a little
bit about the approach. I mean, we certainly there's a
lot of material there. He's not somebody that does the
job. You know, somebody asked me the
other day, Hey, you know, like what sort of, you know, prior
experience with mills do you have?
And I answered truthfully. I It'd be hard to have any
considering he's never held a town hall once so.
(11:14):
And so in that vein, can you talk a little bit more about
what you're going to do differently?
I like the idea of the grocery bag.
So in helping people with their grocery bag, what's your vision?
What are your goals? I mean, everybody has a
different approach. And that's I'm not here to talk
to nitty gritty. I'm here to talk about what your
goal is with that. Yeah, you know, I mean, my goal
both campaigning and when when we win, you know, when we win
(11:34):
this campaign, it's going to be delivering, it's going to be
showing up. So people like Mills, people
like this current do nothing majority, you know, they're not
showing up and doing their job. You know, and I could certainly
talk about policy issue by policy issue.
And again, there really is a lotthere.
Healthcare costs more and more businesses are having to make
tough decisions. And you know, I can't help but
(11:55):
think about all the single working moms out there like mine
who have really, really, really a lot more pain right now for no
reason. You know, the last four months
things have kind of gone off therails because this branch of
government isn't treating itselflike the coequal branch that it
is. And so I don't know, I think
that it's about holding our elected officials accountable
(12:17):
and just delivering for normal. People, we were talking a little
bit before we started recording that.
I know you, I believe you had a chance to read some of the
Abundance books from Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson.
Have you enjoyed that book and do you feel like that, have you
taken anything away from that that you might bring to the job
(12:38):
in Congress in terms of like being less process oriented and
more results oriented and just focused on delivering results
for the district, building things that the district needs
rather than just like making sure to check all these boxes
through the process? So if you could talk a little
bit about that and how that you feel like could help the
(12:59):
district going forward? Absolutely.
I mean, you know, that's something that strikes at the
heart of of the issue. You know, I think there's a lot
of good ideas there. I think, you know, there's
there's more that I want to learn about abundance, even
though I've gotten to read a quite a bit about it.
I've got the book. But I think at the end of the
day, it's about keeping things local and solving problems, you
(13:19):
know, checking boxes or having some kind of letting the perfect
be the enemy of the good approach that Congress is taking
on both sides right now is just not doing it for people.
So my approach and I think what something like abundance and a
lot of these other solutions andideas come to is listening to
all sides. You know, and, and Mills, he
(13:41):
doesn't listen to anyone but themost partisan per people on his
side. And that's just not going to
really help anybody. Florida's seen massive
population growth over the past,you know, 10 years and, you
know, we have an influx of people and an insurance crisis.
So I think other than making sure that we have good
affordable housing, we have goodabundant housing for everyday
(14:02):
working families. I think that we need a national
approach because I have a local approach here.
We need a national approach to insurance costs to be a part of
this discussion. It's whether it's wildfires in
in your state or hurricanes in mine, people are finding that
they can't insure their homes. And it's it's breaking a lot of
Florida families right here at home, people that I know
(14:23):
personally, people that I know by name and by heart.
And, you know, I think part of the abundance thing here we can
take away is just that we reallyneed actual solutions to these
real problems, regardless of what ideology they purport to
come from, right? So, yeah.
Yeah. I mean, where I'm at in the
greater Orlando area, I mean I'min Seminole County specifically,
(14:45):
it's one of the fastest growing areas of the country.
So are places like Austin, TX, but they've managed to bring
some of their housing costs down.
So we need to look at all hands on deck approach here and make
sure that we actually kind of get something done for people.
So that's kind of my take away from abundance.
I think I really like the idea of pragmatism to be honest.
I think it comes through. That's it's good to hear because
(15:09):
it's like it's too many times weget bogged down and just you're
a bad idea because of what you said, which I mean, it's a
logical flaw. You can't just attack someone's
character. Go well, I don't like what you
said because I don't agree with all this other ideology or your
bad character. It's it's good to hear that
you'd be willing to cross the aisle, right?
That's what I'm hearing. If it's a good idea, it doesn't
matter if it comes in red or blue.
It's a good idea regardless. Feels like some of this abundant
(15:30):
stuff would lend itself to maybea bipartisan approach.
I mean, I know they're like evenBirdman or I can't remember his
name right now, the guy who ran for president and is now like
interior secretary even. He's like a pretty big EMB from
what I've heard. So I wonder if that's a an
opening for Someone Like You who's elected in such a like
(15:50):
swing district to work with Republicans potentially even to
get this done. It could be, and it should be,
right? I think that the idea, it's not
just that we're going to stand up to this administration on the
bad things they're doing, it's that we want to have the honor
to work with anybody to actuallyhave solutions and have things
get done. Yeah, I know that Berg, he's
expressed some interesting ideason on some of these points.
(16:13):
And so quite frankly, if we could just have a good positive
outcome for the people right here at home, I'd work with
anybody to get that done. That's really important to hear
because it's one of those thingswhen you have too much animosity
between one or two, it's like, then who's the one who pays the
price of that, right? It's people like, yeah, it was
people like you. It's the people like your mom.
It's people like my mom. It doesn't matter who you are.
(16:34):
It's like you're just the one sitting there going please.
Like when I go to the grocery store, the bill is $200.00 and
food stamps doesn't cover that, right?
Food stamps is 29294 a month. And it's like, OK, well, great.
I bought frozen chicken and potatoes and that's $40 poof,
gone. It's important that we actually
work on these substantive solutions and more importantly a
boot that people out that aren'twilling to work on those.
(16:55):
But in that same thing, no, I know there's a lot of other
issues that are important to you, but to the people of
Florida, you said healthcare access insurance, but talk a
little bit more about job creation, job growth.
I know that one's a little bit off topic, but young people,
right? Young people are feeling
stagnated and you yourself are way younger than your
competitor. So where do you see yourself in
that role in driving a new generation of growth?
(17:18):
We need a new generation of growth.
I think the idea of working hard, playing by the rules and
being able to make it. But it's a fundamentally
American idea. It's the American dream.
The idea of just being able to own a home and own a business.
I mean that that's that's true agency for so many folks that
have that dream and they should be able to do it.
You know, I think that .1 honestly, we have to put an end
(17:41):
to the tariff chaos. We have to Republicans and
Democrats and independents alikeagree that this chaos, you know,
in markets and jobs and costs it, it has to end.
You know, I was just talking to somebody, for example, about
this uncertainty and planning for for her small business.
She owned A-frame shop bringing a picture frames paintings,
(18:02):
right. And she was telling me she
didn't know if she should panic by in bulk a bunch of her
materials, including raw materials ahead of these
tariffs. And then she said, even if I do
that, where am I going to store them and how am I going to
afford some additional unit? You know, how am I going to make
sure that it's actually the amount I need?
(18:22):
You know, that chaos is bad. My sister, you know, she's
right. And Castleberry, she cuts hair.
She's got her own hair studio, same thing with her.
And like, that's even scarier ina sense, because some of these,
you know, clays, sprays, putties, you know, hair
products, some of them are goingto potentially go bad if you get
too many of them, right. And so that's something that is
(18:43):
tough for her and even tougher for people that own restaurants.
You know, I think that we need to have an approach for small
business owners to be able to tomake it and to be able to
actually be a fundamental part of their community.
And I think people in our generation, you know, younger
people, we want to see a resurgence of Main Street,
right? Especially in an era where Wall
Street's getting away with everything while mom and pop
(19:04):
shops keep disappearing. So frankly, I just, I want that
to be easier for folks. I want that American dream to be
alive. And I think whether you're 27,
we're 67, you know, people just want to make it.
Absolutely. Why?
I think that hits on something key with the tariffs as well as
the uncertainty of it. Like it'd be 1.
(19:24):
I mean, it would be bad enough if he was just proposing these
policies and it was very clear that these are permanent or
temporary. But it's so much mixed messaging
that it really can't achieve anygoal for that.
I mean, if the stated goal is tohave all these businesses decide
to bring manufacturing back to the United States, they're not
going to do that if they think there's a good chance Trump's
going to change his mind in six months, that it all would have
(19:45):
been for nothing. The same is true for buying up a
whole stockpile. So he talked a little bit about
this, but is that something you're hearing a lot from your
district, from the voters you talk to?
Like it's are these tariffs an important issue to them, I would
assume? And are there any other issues
that you're hearing like on the top of lines of voters of
Florida's 7th congressional minister?
(20:06):
Yeah, it's coming up a lot. You know, I, I was talking to
one of my former history teachers, you know, from when I
was in middle school and he said, wow, I never thought that
something like civil service reform in the tariff would be a
twenty 20s era problem. And, and, and it is, right.
I mean, on the ground, you know,people that voted for Trump, not
for Trump or didn't vote at all.You know, they're worried about
(20:29):
the tariff. They're worried about rising
costs. It's simply costs more to do
less right now. I think that that's a problem.
You know, a lot of people want that to be reversed.
You know, they're worried about that.
They're worried about having insurance for their home, like I
was mentioning. They're worried about if they
own a small business or aspire to.
They're worried about that beingless possible every day if they
(20:50):
work in retail or they work 2 jobs, like way too many people
have to. They're worried about being able
to pay the bills. And, you know, those are huge
issues along with healthcare costs.
I mean, quite frankly, you're seeing people with the same
paycheck be expected to pay morefor medication that if they, if
they don't take it, they're going to die.
I mean, that's a huge problem. So I think that people all
(21:12):
across the spectrum are really just looking for solutions that
are going to make it easier to just live.
And, and that doesn't, you know,that doesn't have to come from
one specific etiology or the other.
It just has to come from common sense.
It's, it's interesting, like a lot of this just comes down to
uncertainty. Like I, I think a lot about the
whole tariff shenanigans and I think that's what people are
looking for. We need someone to just say,
(21:33):
hey, it's going to be OK. Like we're not going to do that
crazy nonsense. And hopefully we can provide
that to people, right? And that's what we're.
Looking for we can end tariffs, right?
I mean, IEEPA back in 77, the law that, you know, Trump's
utilizing now to raise costs foreveryday families, You know,
that was enacted for a specific purpose.
Congress does have the power to put a stop to these tariffs, and
(21:57):
that's what I intend to do. Now, do I think that we should
intelligently and and rightly take on China?
You're damn right. You know, we're seeing them take
American jobs. We're seeing them flood markets
and devalue currency. There's a lot of issues with
China. But putting tariffs blanket
across the board on our friends,on our allies, on our jobs.
(22:20):
I mean, This is why jobs are, you know, we're seeing some job
loss already, unfortunately thatthat's an attack on us and the
only person that wins a wide scale trade war.
Is nobody it's awful because it's it's the idea of how do you
take on the new threat? And the answer is you work with
your buddies. You know, you don't piss
everybody off on the playground and go, OK, well, you know what?
I can take on all of you at once.
(22:41):
Like I'm pretty sure we've seen enough fighting movies from the
80s to know when 25 people, unless you're Jackie Chan,
you're not taking on 25 guys, right?
Like if that's not how that works.
Max, I thought, I thought the solution was to take on all
these islands with Penguins because they are the ones really
stealing all the American jobs. Well, yeah, I mean, those
assholes are the ones taking oursemiconductors.
Like honestly, we should go to war with them.
(23:01):
Well, Noah, so you I think you make a good point of like this
is something that kind of cuts between partisan lines and that
infects everyone, including manyof the people who voted for him
for inflationary reasons, thinking that prices were too
high. And So what I'm wondering is
your district, it's a swing district, but certainly last
couple years has been a little bit more red.
(23:24):
So what do you say to voters or just people tuned into politics
or maybe a little bit skeptical of winning in a district that's
even a little bit more Republican than 5050 and that
are like so skeptical and concerned with the partisan
gridlock and just polarization right now?
What do you say to those voters who are wondering if it's even
(23:46):
worth running in a district likethis?
And but why do you feel like youcan win over those soft
Republicans and moderate independent voters in a way
that's able to fuel you to victory?
Yeah. I mean that, you know, this is a
district in a state that the president won three times,
right? You know, it's not going to be
easy, but it includes Orlando suburbs that are becoming
(24:09):
friendlier to our message of, you know, pragmatic, pragmatic
approaches to real problems. And so, you know, we, we had the
two specials in two districts that are not just a lot redder,
not just much redder, but are significantly redder than the
district right here that I live in and that I'm running it.
Those narrowed down immensely and they're about five times
(24:30):
more difficult than than the 7thCongressional that I'm running
in. So if that trend holds and if we
just make this about real people, real problems and real
solutions to those problems, I think that we're going to
actually take this thing home. And I don't know, I think, you
know, we, we have to as Dems, wehave to just do a better job, I
think of gaining that trust you talked about and making sure
(24:52):
that people know we don't look down on you for trying to lower
costs. And that being why you voted for
Trump, right? Like we can actually have
everybody on our team, which is supposed to be the American
team, like we all want to win. And I think that the fact that
prices haven't dropped and the fact that we can actually tackle
that together, as well as the fact that we can admit to the
(25:15):
fact that, you know, Congress istoo out of touch.
There's insider stock trading. They're also very immensely old.
I think we should start having areal conversation about term
limits. I think all of that's going to
really help us deliver a win forall of my neighbors and I.
Well, building on like rebuilding trust with voters,
you talked a little bit about how how your opponent
(25:36):
Congressman Bills has been the subject of several ethics
investigations. And just for our listeners who
don't know, I was reading about this earlier this week.
I actually hadn't heard about itthat So he before he got to
Congress was one of the foundersof a defense contractor, Passum
Defense. And in January 2023, the Office
(25:57):
of Congressional Ethics releasedreport that he had been actively
contracting with the federal government and that they secured
over $1,000,000 in federal contracts. 94 different
contracts were awarded to entities that were owned by the
congressman and he has denied wrongdoing, of course, but he
refused to cooperate with the investigation or provide tax
(26:19):
returns. And then also he had the the
assault charge that apparently there was an arrest warrant sent
to the interim US attorney for the District of Columbia.
And for unclear reasons, it was not signed by Martin, which many
have speculated to be a political gambit there.
So do you feel like some of these policies that you talked
about, term limits or say, like a ban on stock trading, is that
(26:42):
something you would support? And do you feel like that will
really help you build the contrasts where you have this
almost like parody of a corrupt congressman that you're running
against and helping us rebuild trust in these voters that, like
Congress, people are actually going to work for you and not
just for their own interests? Absolutely.
(27:02):
You know, he has cartoonish he'sa he's a weird little guy, you
know, I mean, he's someone that obviously looks out for himself.
He tries to project strength. Nobody that puts their hands on
a woman or does the things he's done or enriches themselves or
or who lies and who hides from investigation.
Nobody like that's tough. And I think honestly, we do need
(27:26):
to completely look into things like term limits.
We we just need anti corruption measures, right?
Our Congress, their job titles representative, but they're not
representative of us. And so I think that we need to
look at things like the term limits, ending stock trading.
We also need to end gerrymandering.
You know, I don't care if it's team red or team blue doing it.
(27:46):
Nobody should be in a situation where it's the politicians
picking the voters instead of the voters picking the
politicians. It's wrong.
I don't care if it's New York Democrats or if it's Texas
Republicans. It shouldn't happen.
So I think that would solve a lot of these.
I don't think it would solve allof these problems.
I think the other thing that's going to solve our issues is
(28:07):
just electing someone who's actually had to work with their
hands and struggle and and understand what the heck's going
on on the ground, not someone enriching themselves.
Absolutely. When I think something that's
under discussed with the gerrymandering stuff is not just
that it like gives people a disproportionate amount of seats
or party or whatever, but it also incentivizes them to draw
(28:28):
districts where there's very few5050 districts.
It's it's a lot of safe seats. And I feel like that really
contributes to what we were talking about earlier, the
performative nature of politics right now where there's so many
voters who know unless they do something super crazy, and even
then that they're in such a safeseat that they might as well
just try to build up their own brand or whatever.
(28:50):
So I think it's great that you're running in a district
like this that actually is one of those more 5050 ones and
forces, hopefully the candidatesrunning to actually like appeal
to that normal, you know, the road voter who feels like
they're kind of being overlooked.
And so I'm curious, like, what would your pitch be to that
voter in your district that likemedian voter, maybe slightly
(29:11):
red, but not really too committed to any side.
What would your pitch be to themof why they should vote for you
in this election? Yeah.
I mean, and if you're talking about somebody that you know,
might be a Republican, might have voted for Trump, I would
just tell them the truth. I would tell them my story, my
approach, what I believe in, andI would just outright say,
listen, I know the elephant in the room is that I'm not an
(29:33):
elephant in this room. I'm, I'm a Democrat.
But above everything else, I, I'm an American.
You know, I'm somebody who understands what's going on.
I'm somebody who's got a lot of solutions to the way too many
problems we have. No matter what we see eye to eye
on, You know where I stand, and it's with you, it's with your
(29:54):
family, it's with our families. We need a congressman who
actually is going to stand with us.
Whether or not you know, you like every single bullet point
that I stand for, you know that it's on behalf of you.
And I think that that matters. That's number one.
Number two, I'm just going to behonest about the fact that
(30:16):
there's the other side of what comes with being a problem
solver. I am not scared to buck my own
party. If anything, I'm excited to, you
know, the Democratic Party needsto do better.
And you know, if I upset people on one wing of the my party or
the other, it'd be an honor if it was in service of actually
bringing real solutions to people right here at home.
(30:38):
Well, and I, I take it you wouldactually hold a town hall so
that they could say, Hey, why'd you do this?
Or you could at least say, hey, I did this unlike unlike your
your buddy Corey. You know, it's tough to be a
buddy with someone that you know, makes it hard to meet them
right now. You know, several town halls.
I think that, you know, part of the job, how I know part of the
job is to actually be accountable.
(31:01):
That might be the biggest part of being a member of Congress.
It's an honor. You're you're being paid by our
taxes to serve us. That's supposed to be the point
of the job. I'm not a coward.
I'm not someone that projects toughness and isn't actually
tough. I would hold town halls and be
excited to be, you know, yelled at by people that disagree with
(31:22):
me. I think that that's a big part
of the job. And we need someone who's
willing to hear dissenting voices, concerned voices.
And of course, we're going to need somebody that's actually
willing to just stand up for us.So yeah, I would hold several
town halls. Right in that same beta town
halls, I've been thinking a lot about, you know, communications
and meeting people. It's like, OK, digital town
halls I think would be a good thing too.
(31:43):
Do you plan on hosting things like live streams or I, I've
been thinking a lot about meet the member where it's like, hey,
we host live streams like just sound like twitch.
I mean, if, if the biggest streamers on Twitch and YouTube
and yada, yada, yada, they're just these personalities that
you talk to. It's like, why not that you know
what, not everyone wants to go to these town halls because, you
know, that's for people who are retired and people who have the
money. Like I don't know about you, but
(32:05):
I work evenings like I, my schedule is weird.
I work from like 1 to like 7. So if it's a town hall at 6:30,
not going to make it. So what would you thoughts be on
like digital town halls or otherways that they can meet you?
Yeah, You know, the the truth isthat you're pointing out a real
problem, right? Like you know it.
It's not just that sometimes town halls are inaccessible or
(32:25):
at bad times or they're too rare.
You've got people like Mills notholding them at all.
So I wouldn't just hold several regular in person town halls,
you know, on the campaign. And more importantly, once I'm a
congressman, probably serving myfriends and family right here at
home, I'm going to hold alternative, you know, versions
of those, whether they're digital, whether they're, you
(32:46):
know, online, in person. I think that that's what people
need. And so, you know, I think that
that kind of approach is just going to make it easier to be
accessible, easier to hear the concerns of people I'm here to
represent. So the answer is a resounding
yes. Awesome.
Well, it's great to hear there'ssomeone running for Congress who
understands that the job title is representative.
But so on your campaign a littlemore broadly, I know this is
(33:10):
going to drop a little bit afteryour launch date.
And so how's the process been sofar of like building up the
campaign? How's it looking in the first
few weeks of getting started? And what would you say?
Like you feel like your path to winning is?
And maybe how our listeners can get involved and help flip a
(33:31):
seat? Absolutely.
You know, the whole basis of thecampaign is just to have a good
ordinary person from a working class background in Congress.
We need that perspective. You know, we need a good
grassroots sort of approach. You know, our current leaders,
they don't know the problems that every American's facing.
They don't know the issues that are facing those of us that are
(33:53):
underage 35. And on the flip side, they don't
really seem to care about the people that are trying to
prepare for retirement. So it's an all hands on deck
approach that way. I think at the end of the day,
it's going to be about all of uscoming together.
It's going to be about all of usturning out good people with a
good message of delivery, right?Of delivering for people right
(34:14):
here at home. For those of you listening, I
hope you go to noahforflorida.com.
We need you. You know, we're not taking
corporate money. I'm not a multi millionaire
international arms dealer under multiple investigations.
You know, I'm not somebody that can do this without you, right?
So if you're able to go to noahforflorida.com and chip in,
that's what's going to make thispossible.
(34:36):
It can't happen without all of us because united we do this,
divided things stay the same andget worse.
So that's our approach. It'd be an honor to have, you
know, all of your listeners right here on deck with us
because that's the way we changethe country and get a new
generation of leaders that we know we deserve.
So when is the ACT Blue page going live?
(34:56):
I was going to say, is that is that still going to be happening
or is that band I I hadn't checked.
That's right, yeah. You know, executive order after
executive order, you know, I, I,I've taken several
constitutional law classes and I, I don't remember the sloppy
Sharpie, you know, trampling on the 1st Amendment part of the
Constitution, but I'll have to look into it.
You know, I think that's going to be live on May 6th.
(35:18):
So that's going to be ready to go.
If you go on our website, noahforflorida.com, you're going
to be able to chip in whether that's 5 dollars, $500 a dollar,
everything helps and that's going to be ready by the time
you're listening to this. Awesome.
Well, we'll be sure to link all that in the in the episode
description below so you guys can check it out.
But I want to before we wrap up,you talked about how you you did
(35:42):
wrestling in high school and I believe been in college a little
bit as well. Could you talk about, like, that
experience? I, I did a little wrestling in
middle school, mostly football and high school.
But do you feel like, especiallyfor Democrats who there's been
kind of this identity crisis around, like young men or just
like masculinity in the Democratic Party, is there
(36:05):
anything you can bring from thathistory through wrestling,
whether it even be as simple as just the grit of working through
it, that you feel like would be helpful in Congress?
And yeah, I've been curious to hear anything about.
That whole process, grit matters, the fight matters.
You know, the ability to, to take things on head first.
You know, my solution. And when I was wrestling, I, I
(36:29):
had the scholarship in college, but I dropped out the first day
when I found out I was going to become a dad at 18.
But you know that what that really taught me was just how to
work through things, right? You know, I, I also did football
and, you know, cross country at,at, at different points, but
wrestling for me was so special because it's it, it's really
just you against one person and there's no excuse to be made.
(36:51):
You, you, you win or you lose. And I think that that's
important generally. And I think for Dems, we need to
be a bigger tent that's welcoming.
You know, when I talk to guys myage, your age, everywhere in
between, a lot of people worry that, you know, there's people
in our party that just don't really want them in that don't.
You know, I think there was somepiece recently about just how
(37:12):
some, you know, podcast podcaster that, you know, goes
to the gym a lot. Oh, you know, this is a a Dem,
but they're in like a Republican, you know, body or
vibe, and it's like, that's not the right message.
Men and young men generally, like we're welcome here, You
know, you matter. We don't hate you.
We're not going to cancel you just for like being yourself,
(37:34):
even if we still want men to be better and to do better, right.
And so I, I think we can do a better job with that.
I think I'm going to be able to communicate where I'm coming
from, meet people where they're at and, you know, admit that.
Yeah. If you want to just like, be
welcome here, you should be welcome here.
You know, I think that's something we got to do better.
(37:54):
And, you know, if you were out there worried about that, I'm,
I'm here to tell you as a Dem, if you're, if you're a young
guy, come into the tent, join us.
You know, we, we don't just wantyou.
We need you. And you know, you're, you're
going to be welcomed with open arms.
Awesome. Yeah, And I, I feel like even if
there are some Democrats who like would agree and like, oh,
(38:15):
we should expand our tap, we would.
Now, we do want these people in our party.
I think a lot of them don't knowhow to talk to these voters.
And they kind of build them up as these like mythological
figures in their head. When as you are someone who
played sports, someone I played sports in high school, I feel
like it exposes you to a lot of these voters that then now it's
(38:35):
kind of weird to read about it in the news as people talk about
it. And I'm like, and I was calling
the barstool Republicans or whatever that they're not very
partisan. They do not have like really
super strongly held like conservative beliefs on tax
policy and cutting Social Security or whatever.
And I think I, I love to like people who judge went on the
Andrew Schultz Flegard broadcastthe last week.
(38:57):
And I, I really felt like that, Like it reminded me so much of
so many political conversations iPad with friends of mine who
really fit into like the mold ofall those hosts on that show.
And that when you go there and you, you don't have to like do
some fake appeal to them and be like, oh, I came out with my gun
and camo on and whatever. Like he, he was himself.
(39:18):
And and they would tell jokes that like probably five years
ago, many Democrats would have been like afraid to be in the
same room. And he would laugh at it because
it was funny or somewhat funny. And And so, yeah, so I feel like
it's important to be able to just talk to these voters.
And when they actually hear the policies, as we saw on that
podcast, many of them hadn't heard it articulated at all like
(39:40):
that. They when he brought up how Elon
and Trump have been claiming like all these people 200 years
old were on Social Security and he broke it down for them and
explained that it was like, yes,they were still in the system
because they don't remove peoplein the system, but they weren't
actually received checks. And they that like blew their
minds. And even when he made just the
general pitch of like kind of the abundance agenda when he
(40:01):
wants the future to be under Democrats, they were all like,
that's amazing clip that we needto hear more of it.
And it was refreshing. And so I I hope that I mean.
Obviously this is the progressive podcast, but even I
would love it if once you're deeper in the campaign, would
you be willing to kind of go on some of those, not even
necessarily like Super Fox News,although even that that would be
(40:22):
great too, but some of those apolitical, vaguely Republican
avenues and just talking to those voters, is that something
that you would definitely want to do in a campaign, especially
a general election campaign? Strongly and it would be an
honor to do so. I think we have to meet people
where they're at and most people, I mean, you know, most
people, they're just worried about their jobs and their
(40:42):
families, right? Like most people are more
apolitical than they are political.
And you know, meeting people where they are with what they
listen to, with what they're doing, I think that that
matters. Being nor a normal person and
making sure that these folks don't think that we hate them,
that matters, right? Like I'm not looking to get
snapping fingers at some like, you know, Northeastern College
(41:03):
poetry slam. I, I'm, I'm here to just
actually do things and accomplish things and help
people. And I think that that's what
people want for their government.
Like, they don't even want to have to think about politics.
And, you know, I think if I can kind of communicate where I'm
coming from, no matter what the platform is, I think that would
be amazing. Well, and I was going to say,
it's one of those things where you're going to talk to them
(41:24):
like normal people, right? I think kind of this whole crux
of the Northeastern poetry slam,I think we're getting here is
college is fucking weird. Some of the shit they say,
you're like, what the fuck are you talking about?
They OK, I know this is off topic, but I I have this gripe
where I have heard the word neoliberalism used 1000 times to
ascribe 1000 different meanings to all these different
(41:45):
instances. Like you can't just throw this
word around. Just say whatever, whatever
you're talking about, all right,you're going to talk to them.
You're like, hey, the rents too damn high.
The groceries are too damn expensive.
You're 4K that he he torched with a bunch of stupid ideas.
I'm not going to do that. And I think that's really what
people want. They want.
Someone who's talking like normal people and that doesn't
necessarily mean super dumbed down, but that just means not
like the lived experience of allthis academia language that I
(42:08):
think still poisons a lot of democratic circles, poisons the
Wow. It poisons the Wow badly
because. You know, if, if you want to
have a working class party, if you want to have working class
voters, you sure as hell better have working class views and
welcome working class voices. Like, you know, when I was with
the fire department, if I started talking about lived
(42:29):
experiences or XYZ space of somekind or whatever other issue or
abolish this or that, none of that would like people look at
me like I had three heads because it'd be a weird thing to
say, you know, and I think something else we have to do is
just do a better job at saying what we're trying to say, right?
Like if you say something about,you know, I don't know, like
(42:52):
highways are X or Y or Z, you know, bad thing.
Well, why don't you explain whatyou mean by that, right?
Like, if there was a policy thatdirectly hurt people, just say
that, you know, you don't have to, like, use very inflammatory
words to describe what you're trying to say.
And so, yeah, meeting people where they're at and being
normal, we that'd be pretty damnrefreshing.
(43:14):
Normal. Normal No.
Yeah, normal Noah right that that's the slogan.
But but like it doesn't even have to be watering down your
beliefs or like your your policies like it or dumbing them
down in some sort of like attempt to inauthentically
appeal like Pete is clearly. I mean, I keep going back to
(43:35):
him, but he's the one who showedup on one of these podcasts of
late. So he's on top of mind, but he's
someone who's clearly very like educated, talks very like
articulate and, and comes acrossas someone who like went to grad
school, but he doesn't come across that way in the way we're
talking with like he he doesn't talk in those weird academia
circles. So I think being authentic still
(43:56):
while you're doing this stuff isvery important.
I think some Democrats lose sight of that and start like
talking about how we runs a meanpick 6 on that or whatever.
That's always our go to tweet. But I won't get you on the
record on that. Well, I I don't want to hold you
too long. I know you got a lot going on
right now. Super busy time, super exciting
(44:17):
time. It was great to have you on and
we're really excited about this campaign.
We will be sure to link all the information below and make sure
our listeners can help you out anyway they can.
And yeah, so if you want to close this out and plug anything
that voters or our listeners should know about this race and
(44:39):
just, yeah, thank you for comingon.
Thank you. I mean, I'd end it with this.
We deserve to have people in Congress, in office that reflect
us and that serve us. The only way we're going to do
that is by putting one of us on deck.
You know, we need a victory for us, the regular people, the
working people, the people who don't always know, you know,
(45:01):
what's going to be around the corner.
We deserve that kind of certainty from our leaders.
And I believe that you can't be what you can't see.
And so if we are hoping to to have a government that actually
gives a damn about us, we sure as hell better vote for one of
us. So please, you know, make it
happen across the country, not just in my district.
Let's vote for good, normal people who are going to deliver
change. And it'd be an honor to have you
(45:24):
join my team at NOAA for florida.com, which I've said a
lot of times. But thank you for letting me do
that plug, and thank you all forlistening.
We'll know for Congress. Well, thanks so much for coming
on. Thank you.
Welcome back, guys to another episode of Progressive, a very
special guest today. We are joined by Noah Whitman,
who is running for Congress thisyear.
He's running against Republican Corey Mills in Florida.
So welcome to the show Noah, really excited to have you on.
Excited to be here. Obviously I'm a listener, as you
can imagine, and this is pretty exciting.
(00:30):
Well, it's exciting for us as well.
So just to get straight into it,what made you decide to run for
Congress? What was kind of the final straw
where you're like, this is something I have to do?
Yeah, a lot of things, right. So I think, you know, on the
front end, it's kind of what what's been kind of, you know,
basically pissing me off about politics, you know, and, and in
(00:50):
2025. And I think it's just how nobody
in office right now seems to be solution oriented, right.
You know, there's a lot of outrage, there's a lot of
sensationalism, you know, and I,I feel like our politics feels
performative, right? I, I think that's something that
bothers me a lot. And I think that right now we're
seeing people like Corey Mills in Congress.
(01:12):
You know, he's enriching himself.
You know, he's an arms dealer and he's got so many
controversies. We're obviously going to have
the chance to hit on a lot of those today.
But I'm going to say this, you know, as someone that grew up
raised by a single disabled mom,you know, I, I came up in
Section 8 housing, I became a teen dad.
You know, we relied on food stamps growing up like this,
(01:35):
that and the other, I think seeing Congress just not do
their job and allow these vital programs like Social Security,
you know, agriculture programs, school lunch programs be under
attack while they're just insider stock trading and
enriching themselves. I think it's awful on the on the
other end too. You know, I have a daughter.
I have a 10 year old daughter named Elizabeth.
(01:57):
I was raised by my mom and oldersister.
And I'm just going to be honest,something that did push me over
the edge was, you know, a coupleweeks back, Corey Mills, the
behavior he was engaged in, right?
You know, he's allegedly, you know, he's being investigated by
DC police for an assault againstan alleged assault against a
young woman. That upset me.
(02:17):
And I think when you mix that with how out of touch Congress
is and how he's just never even held a town hall meeting it it,
there were a lot of things that pushed me to do it, but it
wasn't kind of 1 golden moment. And Noah, so with all that you
mentioned food stamps and material policy and a lot of
these things that are important to working class people, you
lived it, you lived Section 8. And so can we get on on the
(02:38):
record that you're going to support these things?
Strongly, very strongly. For me, on a personal level,
I've seen it. I felt it.
You know, I don't just care, forexample, about the vitality of
Social Security just because of the D next to my name.
I care because if that gets cut,it's my mom.
If the Department of Education gets cut, that's kids like me
(02:59):
that got to go to college after becoming teen parents and so on.
So absolutely on the record, these programs are vital.
And I think that my story, whichwe'll talk about today, can show
why those act as the bootstraps people talk about is when
everybody's uplifted. Democrats, even as they continue
to push for some of these policies, have certainly lost
the image of being the party that supports the working people
(03:21):
and people who, like, go throughmany of those experiences.
So what do you say to voters whofeel like neither party really
has done anything for them? And do you feel like actually
having people from the background who have actually
have experienced these things themselves first hand and not
just from the government side ofthings, do you feel like that is
one way that Democrats can maybeearn back the trust of these
voters? Sad, right?
(03:42):
I think people are they're on the money.
They know that both parties could be doing more and should
be doing more. I think right now they're
feeling the chaos of this current administration and the
do nothing Congress. And I think I mean, we really do
have to gain trust, you know, wereally do.
Prices were too high. They're higher now.
And I, I think that people really were looking for a vision
(04:03):
that said, we stand with you. We don't look down on you.
And I think it's also important for us moving forward to
honestly tell people. I mean, like so many folks that
I know right here at home, a lotof people that voted for Trump
because they thought costs were going to come down and that
things were going to be like 2019 Again.
I think that there's a real opportunity to win folks hearts
(04:24):
and minds just by telling the truth and being normal.
Being normal can never be underrated, but we're talking a
little bit about like some of your experiences.
If you could just give our listeners a little bit of a
rundown of like your experiencesleading up and to deciding to
run for Congress. I know that you grew up in
Florida, becoming a father at a young age.
(04:45):
I know you'd written about that and how important that was to
your experiences and ended up atGeorgetown.
If you could tell us a little bit about that and how that
maybe has shaped your worldview as well.
Yeah, thanks. I, I was raised in Central
Florida by, like I had mentioned, by a mom by herself.
She's disabled. She still relies on Social
(05:05):
Security to this day. And growing up, you know, we
didn't always know where the next meal was going to come
from. We didn't know what was around
the corner. I used to joke, you know, But
when you, when you grow up poor,if the shower, if the shower had
breaks, you just become a bath person, right?
And so I think my whole life, I had to learn how to adapt, how
to make things work and how to understand, you know, the
(05:25):
importance of community, family and just normal approaches to
kitchen table issues. And you're right, I became a dad
really young. So I was the captain of my
wrestling team in high school. I was one of the first to finish
high school in my family and in high school relied on things
like free school breakfast and lunch.
And that's what helped keep me energized and focused and
(05:47):
healthy during the school day. And was able to work hard in the
wrestling room. And I earned a scholarship as
the first in my family to go to college.
Right. And on the first day of class,
it was pretty cinematic, actually.
I was about 50 feet from the building to go into my first
college classroom. And that's when I got the call
and found out I was going to be a dad.
And, you know, I dropped out right away.
I moved immediately back home tobe with my daughter's mom, be
(06:09):
with my family, make it work. And, you know, I started working
for Sonic Drive in flipping burgers and went from there to
bagging groceries to so many other, you know, jobs in between
and eventually ended up at the fire department, right, And did
a lot there. My first memory was seeing EMTs
and paramedics save my mom when when I was four years old.
(06:31):
And I think for me that that wasa moment that kind of always
stayed with me and always touched me.
I mean, public health care and, you know, first responders have
always been such a deeply important part of my life.
I mean, we even knew these folks, these first responders on
a first name basis when they would come by our house, right?
So, you know, that was huge for me.
I did that, did quite well, loved the work even though it
(06:53):
was obviously difficult. And I did 513 hour night shifts
a week and then Community College in the mornings.
You know, I knew I wanted to tryto go back to college for my
daughter's sake. So I wanted to make sure I could
get the best career possible that fit my hopes and dreams and
more importantly, hers. And you know, after two years, I
was ready to go to UCF or UF because those were my dream
(07:14):
schools for my whole life. And I unexpectedly got into
Columbia and took that opportunity, moved to New York
with 20 bucks in my pocket. I didn't even own a laptop and
managed to do well there, earneda scholarship to Georgetown for
law school, did well there. And now today I'm sitting here
on the Progressive podcast, which is amazing.
(07:34):
And I'm an attorney. I do a lot of things, but I'm
most proud of my pro bono work where I help folks on Social
Security appeals, people like mymom, you know, that have fallen
through the cracks and that needa leg up getting the benefits
they've worked so hard to earn their whole life.
No, I got to say, it's one of those things that you read in
the news all the time about members of Congress being
millionaires and having more money than God.
(07:56):
But I really appreciate Someone Like You actually throwing your
hat in the ring. I know it's difficult, and I
know it's going to be a long slog.
It's going to be a lot of energy, it's going to be a lot
of time, and it's going to be just going through the trenches.
And I just want to say thank youfirst and foremost for being the
guy to step up. I mean, that's really just kind
of inspiring. More importantly, I'm really
kind of happy to know that someone who's normal is actually
going to give a shot, right? Someone who knows what it's like
(08:19):
to go to the grocery store and put things back because it's too
expensive, right? To know what it's like when you
go to the grocery store and you point at something, your mom
goes, no, no, we don't have the money for that.
Like watching her well up in tears, right?
It makes me really, really proudto know that someone like he was
running like that. And it's off to you, Ben.
Yeah. So I mean you talked a little
bit earlier about how you feel like a lot of politics today is
very performative. And so I'm wondering like with
(08:41):
that experience that you would bring to the job and actually
having experienced at 1st and knowing the real world impact on
actual human beings of these policies, if you feel like, I
mean, obviously this will be your goal, but I wonder if
candidates like you are maybe a way we could get politics away
from such a performative style and towards like delivering
actual results. I mean, I know that I know Corey
(09:02):
Mills, like he voted to impeach Biden, Merrick Garland and all
that. He picks all these very
political Fox News go viral and increase his name recognition
things to talk about. So I wonder, is that something
that you plan to focus on this campaign and really like
actually delivering hard resultsto the the voters?
And yeah, if you could talk a little bit about that and how
(09:23):
you feel like your experience could be a good contrast to
Mills? Contrast is I think the keyword
here, you know, I, I'm from here, I don't live in a Virginia
mansion and you know, I'm not anout of touch person trying to
use the office to enrich myself.And I think that that number one
is going to is going to come through, you know, and I think
also that what it's really aboutat the end of the day is doing
(09:46):
the job. Like somehow that's, you know, a
controversial idea these days that just getting work done, no
matter if it's a right idea, left idea, just having solutions
to real issues. You know, Corey Mills, all the
votes you talked about, he's taken all those.
None of them made rent or mortgages cheaper.
None of them made groceries costless.
(10:06):
None of them made wages higher. And and none of them helped
small business owners, right? His job titles lawmaker and over
90% of the bills he sponsors don't become law.
I mean, imagine if you had that sort of a fail rate in any job
or as a. Student.
You'd be in a lot of trouble. And so I don't know, I for me
it's about actual solutions, getting things done and just
(10:30):
electing normal people to Congress, people who've actually
seen the same paycheck week after week as the grocery bag
gets smaller, right. You know, people that understand
the stakes. I I just don't think an out of
touch arms dealer with all his controversies and ethics
investigations against him for enriching himself.
I just don't think that that's someone who's doing the job,
(10:51):
who's doing the hard work. So that that's kind of a little
bit about the approach. I mean, we certainly there's a
lot of material there. He's not somebody that does the
job. You know, somebody asked me the
other day, Hey, you know, like what sort of, you know, prior
experience with mills do you have?
And I answered truthfully. I It'd be hard to have any
considering he's never held a town hall once so.
(11:14):
And so in that vein, can you talk a little bit more about
what you're going to do differently?
I like the idea of the grocery bag.
So in helping people with their grocery bag, what's your vision?
What are your goals? I mean, everybody has a
different approach. And that's I'm not here to talk
to nitty gritty. I'm here to talk about what your
goal is with that. Yeah, you know, I mean, my goal
both campaigning and when when we win, you know, when we win
(11:34):
this campaign, it's going to be delivering, it's going to be
showing up. So people like Mills, people
like this current do nothing majority, you know, they're not
showing up and doing their job. You know, and I could certainly
talk about policy issue by policy issue.
And again, there really is a lotthere.
Healthcare costs more and more businesses are having to make
tough decisions. And you know, I can't help but
(11:55):
think about all the single working moms out there like mine
who have really, really, really a lot more pain right now for no
reason. You know, the last four months
things have kind of gone off therails because this branch of
government isn't treating itselflike the coequal branch that it
is. And so I don't know, I think
that it's about holding our elected officials accountable
(12:17):
and just delivering for normal. People, we were talking a little
bit before we started recording that.
I know you, I believe you had a chance to read some of the
Abundance books from Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson.
Have you enjoyed that book and do you feel like that, have you
taken anything away from that that you might bring to the job
(12:38):
in Congress in terms of like being less process oriented and
more results oriented and just focused on delivering results
for the district, building things that the district needs
rather than just like making sure to check all these boxes
through the process? So if you could talk a little
bit about that and how that you feel like could help the
(12:59):
district going forward? Absolutely.
I mean, you know, that's something that strikes at the
heart of of the issue. You know, I think there's a lot
of good ideas there. I think, you know, there's
there's more that I want to learn about abundance, even
though I've gotten to read a quite a bit about it.
I've got the book. But I think at the end of the
day, it's about keeping things local and solving problems, you
(13:19):
know, checking boxes or having some kind of letting the perfect
be the enemy of the good approach that Congress is taking
on both sides right now is just not doing it for people.
So my approach and I think what something like abundance and a
lot of these other solutions andideas come to is listening to
all sides. You know, and, and Mills, he
(13:41):
doesn't listen to anyone but themost partisan per people on his
side. And that's just not going to
really help anybody. Florida's seen massive
population growth over the past,you know, 10 years and, you
know, we have an influx of people and an insurance crisis.
So I think other than making sure that we have good
affordable housing, we have goodabundant housing for everyday
(14:02):
working families. I think that we need a national
approach because I have a local approach here.
We need a national approach to insurance costs to be a part of
this discussion. It's whether it's wildfires in
in your state or hurricanes in mine, people are finding that
they can't insure their homes. And it's it's breaking a lot of
Florida families right here at home, people that I know
(14:23):
personally, people that I know by name and by heart.
And, you know, I think part of the abundance thing here we can
take away is just that we reallyneed actual solutions to these
real problems, regardless of what ideology they purport to
come from, right? So, yeah.
Yeah. I mean, where I'm at in the
greater Orlando area, I mean I'min Seminole County specifically,
(14:45):
it's one of the fastest growing areas of the country.
So are places like Austin, TX, but they've managed to bring
some of their housing costs down.
So we need to look at all hands on deck approach here and make
sure that we actually kind of get something done for people.
So that's kind of my take away from abundance.
I think I really like the idea of pragmatism to be honest.
I think it comes through. That's it's good to hear because
(15:09):
it's like it's too many times weget bogged down and just you're
a bad idea because of what you said, which I mean, it's a
logical flaw. You can't just attack someone's
character. Go well, I don't like what you
said because I don't agree with all this other ideology or your
bad character. It's it's good to hear that
you'd be willing to cross the aisle, right?
That's what I'm hearing. If it's a good idea, it doesn't
matter if it comes in red or blue.
It's a good idea regardless. Feels like some of this abundant
(15:30):
stuff would lend itself to maybea bipartisan approach.
I mean, I know they're like evenBirdman or I can't remember his
name right now, the guy who ran for president and is now like
interior secretary even. He's like a pretty big EMB from
what I've heard. So I wonder if that's a an
opening for Someone Like You who's elected in such a like
(15:50):
swing district to work with Republicans potentially even to
get this done. It could be, and it should be,
right? I think that the idea, it's not
just that we're going to stand up to this administration on the
bad things they're doing, it's that we want to have the honor
to work with anybody to actuallyhave solutions and have things
get done. Yeah, I know that Berg, he's
expressed some interesting ideason on some of these points.
(16:13):
And so quite frankly, if we could just have a good positive
outcome for the people right here at home, I'd work with
anybody to get that done. That's really important to hear
because it's one of those thingswhen you have too much animosity
between one or two, it's like, then who's the one who pays the
price of that, right? It's people like, yeah, it was
people like you. It's the people like your mom.
It's people like my mom. It doesn't matter who you are.
(16:34):
It's like you're just the one sitting there going please.
Like when I go to the grocery store, the bill is $200.00 and
food stamps doesn't cover that, right?
Food stamps is 29294 a month. And it's like, OK, well, great.
I bought frozen chicken and potatoes and that's $40 poof,
gone. It's important that we actually
work on these substantive solutions and more importantly a
boot that people out that aren'twilling to work on those.
(16:55):
But in that same thing, no, I know there's a lot of other
issues that are important to you, but to the people of
Florida, you said healthcare access insurance, but talk a
little bit more about job creation, job growth.
I know that one's a little bit off topic, but young people,
right? Young people are feeling
stagnated and you yourself are way younger than your
competitor. So where do you see yourself in
that role in driving a new generation of growth?
(17:18):
We need a new generation of growth.
I think the idea of working hard, playing by the rules and
being able to make it. But it's a fundamentally
American idea. It's the American dream.
The idea of just being able to own a home and own a business.
I mean that that's that's true agency for so many folks that
have that dream and they should be able to do it.
You know, I think that .1 honestly, we have to put an end
(17:41):
to the tariff chaos. We have to Republicans and
Democrats and independents alikeagree that this chaos, you know,
in markets and jobs and costs it, it has to end.
You know, I was just talking to somebody, for example, about
this uncertainty and planning for for her small business.
She owned A-frame shop bringing a picture frames paintings,
(18:02):
right. And she was telling me she
didn't know if she should panic by in bulk a bunch of her
materials, including raw materials ahead of these
tariffs. And then she said, even if I do
that, where am I going to store them and how am I going to
afford some additional unit? You know, how am I going to make
sure that it's actually the amount I need?
(18:22):
You know, that chaos is bad. My sister, you know, she's
right. And Castleberry, she cuts hair.
She's got her own hair studio, same thing with her.
And like, that's even scarier ina sense, because some of these,
you know, clays, sprays, putties, you know, hair
products, some of them are goingto potentially go bad if you get
too many of them, right. And so that's something that is
(18:43):
tough for her and even tougher for people that own restaurants.
You know, I think that we need to have an approach for small
business owners to be able to tomake it and to be able to
actually be a fundamental part of their community.
And I think people in our generation, you know, younger
people, we want to see a resurgence of Main Street,
right? Especially in an era where Wall
Street's getting away with everything while mom and pop
(19:04):
shops keep disappearing. So frankly, I just, I want that
to be easier for folks. I want that American dream to be
alive. And I think whether you're 27,
we're 67, you know, people just want to make it.
Absolutely. Why?
I think that hits on something key with the tariffs as well as
the uncertainty of it. Like it'd be 1.
(19:24):
I mean, it would be bad enough if he was just proposing these
policies and it was very clear that these are permanent or
temporary. But it's so much mixed messaging
that it really can't achieve anygoal for that.
I mean, if the stated goal is tohave all these businesses decide
to bring manufacturing back to the United States, they're not
going to do that if they think there's a good chance Trump's
going to change his mind in six months, that it all would have
(19:45):
been for nothing. The same is true for buying up a
whole stockpile. So he talked a little bit about
this, but is that something you're hearing a lot from your
district, from the voters you talk to?
Like it's are these tariffs an important issue to them, I would
assume? And are there any other issues
that you're hearing like on the top of lines of voters of
Florida's 7th congressional minister?
(20:06):
Yeah, it's coming up a lot. You know, I, I was talking to
one of my former history teachers, you know, from when I
was in middle school and he said, wow, I never thought that
something like civil service reform in the tariff would be a
twenty 20s era problem. And, and, and it is, right.
I mean, on the ground, you know,people that voted for Trump, not
for Trump or didn't vote at all.You know, they're worried about
(20:29):
the tariff. They're worried about rising
costs. It's simply costs more to do
less right now. I think that that's a problem.
You know, a lot of people want that to be reversed.
You know, they're worried about that.
They're worried about having insurance for their home, like I
was mentioning. They're worried about if they
own a small business or aspire to.
They're worried about that beingless possible every day if they
(20:50):
work in retail or they work 2 jobs, like way too many people
have to. They're worried about being able
to pay the bills. And, you know, those are huge
issues along with healthcare costs.
I mean, quite frankly, you're seeing people with the same
paycheck be expected to pay morefor medication that if they, if
they don't take it, they're going to die.
I mean, that's a huge problem. So I think that people all
(21:12):
across the spectrum are really just looking for solutions that
are going to make it easier to just live.
And, and that doesn't, you know,that doesn't have to come from
one specific etiology or the other.
It just has to come from common sense.
It's, it's interesting, like a lot of this just comes down to
uncertainty. Like I, I think a lot about the
whole tariff shenanigans and I think that's what people are
looking for. We need someone to just say,
(21:33):
hey, it's going to be OK. Like we're not going to do that
crazy nonsense. And hopefully we can provide
that to people, right? And that's what we're.
Looking for we can end tariffs, right?
I mean, IEEPA back in 77, the law that, you know, Trump's
utilizing now to raise costs foreveryday families, You know,
that was enacted for a specific purpose.
Congress does have the power to put a stop to these tariffs, and
(21:57):
that's what I intend to do. Now, do I think that we should
intelligently and and rightly take on China?
You're damn right. You know, we're seeing them take
American jobs. We're seeing them flood markets
and devalue currency. There's a lot of issues with
China. But putting tariffs blanket
across the board on our friends,on our allies, on our jobs.
(22:20):
I mean, This is why jobs are, you know, we're seeing some job
loss already, unfortunately thatthat's an attack on us and the
only person that wins a wide scale trade war.
Is nobody it's awful because it's it's the idea of how do you
take on the new threat? And the answer is you work with
your buddies. You know, you don't piss
everybody off on the playground and go, OK, well, you know what?
I can take on all of you at once.
(22:41):
Like I'm pretty sure we've seen enough fighting movies from the
80s to know when 25 people, unless you're Jackie Chan,
you're not taking on 25 guys, right?
Like if that's not how that works.
Max, I thought, I thought the solution was to take on all
these islands with Penguins because they are the ones really
stealing all the American jobs. Well, yeah, I mean, those
assholes are the ones taking oursemiconductors.
Like honestly, we should go to war with them.
(23:01):
Well, Noah, so you I think you make a good point of like this
is something that kind of cuts between partisan lines and that
infects everyone, including manyof the people who voted for him
for inflationary reasons, thinking that prices were too
high. And So what I'm wondering is
your district, it's a swing district, but certainly last
couple years has been a little bit more red.
(23:24):
So what do you say to voters or just people tuned into politics
or maybe a little bit skeptical of winning in a district that's
even a little bit more Republican than 5050 and that
are like so skeptical and concerned with the partisan
gridlock and just polarization right now?
What do you say to those voters who are wondering if it's even
(23:46):
worth running in a district likethis?
And but why do you feel like youcan win over those soft
Republicans and moderate independent voters in a way
that's able to fuel you to victory?
Yeah. I mean that, you know, this is a
district in a state that the president won three times,
right? You know, it's not going to be
easy, but it includes Orlando suburbs that are becoming
(24:09):
friendlier to our message of, you know, pragmatic, pragmatic
approaches to real problems. And so, you know, we, we had the
two specials in two districts that are not just a lot redder,
not just much redder, but are significantly redder than the
district right here that I live in and that I'm running it.
Those narrowed down immensely and they're about five times
(24:30):
more difficult than than the 7thCongressional that I'm running
in. So if that trend holds and if we
just make this about real people, real problems and real
solutions to those problems, I think that we're going to
actually take this thing home. And I don't know, I think, you
know, we, we have to as Dems, wehave to just do a better job, I
think of gaining that trust you talked about and making sure
(24:52):
that people know we don't look down on you for trying to lower
costs. And that being why you voted for
Trump, right? Like we can actually have
everybody on our team, which is supposed to be the American
team, like we all want to win. And I think that the fact that
prices haven't dropped and the fact that we can actually tackle
that together, as well as the fact that we can admit to the
(25:15):
fact that, you know, Congress istoo out of touch.
There's insider stock trading. They're also very immensely old.
I think we should start having areal conversation about term
limits. I think all of that's going to
really help us deliver a win forall of my neighbors and I.
Well, building on like rebuilding trust with voters,
you talked a little bit about how how your opponent
(25:36):
Congressman Bills has been the subject of several ethics
investigations. And just for our listeners who
don't know, I was reading about this earlier this week.
I actually hadn't heard about itthat So he before he got to
Congress was one of the foundersof a defense contractor, Passum
Defense. And in January 2023, the Office
(25:57):
of Congressional Ethics releasedreport that he had been actively
contracting with the federal government and that they secured
over $1,000,000 in federal contracts. 94 different
contracts were awarded to entities that were owned by the
congressman and he has denied wrongdoing, of course, but he
refused to cooperate with the investigation or provide tax
(26:19):
returns. And then also he had the the
assault charge that apparently there was an arrest warrant sent
to the interim US attorney for the District of Columbia.
And for unclear reasons, it was not signed by Martin, which many
have speculated to be a political gambit there.
So do you feel like some of these policies that you talked
about, term limits or say, like a ban on stock trading, is that
(26:42):
something you would support? And do you feel like that will
really help you build the contrasts where you have this
almost like parody of a corrupt congressman that you're running
against and helping us rebuild trust in these voters that, like
Congress, people are actually going to work for you and not
just for their own interests? Absolutely.
(27:02):
You know, he has cartoonish he'sa he's a weird little guy, you
know, I mean, he's someone that obviously looks out for himself.
He tries to project strength. Nobody that puts their hands on
a woman or does the things he's done or enriches themselves or
or who lies and who hides from investigation.
Nobody like that's tough. And I think honestly, we do need
(27:26):
to completely look into things like term limits.
We we just need anti corruption measures, right?
Our Congress, their job titles representative, but they're not
representative of us. And so I think that we need to
look at things like the term limits, ending stock trading.
We also need to end gerrymandering.
You know, I don't care if it's team red or team blue doing it.
(27:46):
Nobody should be in a situation where it's the politicians
picking the voters instead of the voters picking the
politicians. It's wrong.
I don't care if it's New York Democrats or if it's Texas
Republicans. It shouldn't happen.
So I think that would solve a lot of these.
I don't think it would solve allof these problems.
I think the other thing that's going to solve our issues is
(28:07):
just electing someone who's actually had to work with their
hands and struggle and and understand what the heck's going
on on the ground, not someone enriching themselves.
Absolutely. When I think something that's
under discussed with the gerrymandering stuff is not just
that it like gives people a disproportionate amount of seats
or party or whatever, but it also incentivizes them to draw
(28:28):
districts where there's very few5050 districts.
It's it's a lot of safe seats. And I feel like that really
contributes to what we were talking about earlier, the
performative nature of politics right now where there's so many
voters who know unless they do something super crazy, and even
then that they're in such a safeseat that they might as well
just try to build up their own brand or whatever.
(28:50):
So I think it's great that you're running in a district
like this that actually is one of those more 5050 ones and
forces, hopefully the candidatesrunning to actually like appeal
to that normal, you know, the road voter who feels like
they're kind of being overlooked.
And so I'm curious, like, what would your pitch be to that
voter in your district that likemedian voter, maybe slightly
(29:11):
red, but not really too committed to any side.
What would your pitch be to themof why they should vote for you
in this election? Yeah.
I mean, and if you're talking about somebody that you know,
might be a Republican, might have voted for Trump, I would
just tell them the truth. I would tell them my story, my
approach, what I believe in, andI would just outright say,
listen, I know the elephant in the room is that I'm not an
(29:33):
elephant in this room. I'm, I'm a Democrat.
But above everything else, I, I'm an American.
You know, I'm somebody who understands what's going on.
I'm somebody who's got a lot of solutions to the way too many
problems we have. No matter what we see eye to eye
on, You know where I stand, and it's with you, it's with your
(29:54):
family, it's with our families. We need a congressman who
actually is going to stand with us.
Whether or not you know, you like every single bullet point
that I stand for, you know that it's on behalf of you.
And I think that that matters. That's number one.
Number two, I'm just going to behonest about the fact that
(30:16):
there's the other side of what comes with being a problem
solver. I am not scared to buck my own
party. If anything, I'm excited to, you
know, the Democratic Party needsto do better.
And you know, if I upset people on one wing of the my party or
the other, it'd be an honor if it was in service of actually
bringing real solutions to people right here at home.
(30:38):
Well, and I, I take it you wouldactually hold a town hall so
that they could say, Hey, why'd you do this?
Or you could at least say, hey, I did this unlike unlike your
your buddy Corey. You know, it's tough to be a
buddy with someone that you know, makes it hard to meet them
right now. You know, several town halls.
I think that, you know, part of the job, how I know part of the
job is to actually be accountable.
(31:01):
That might be the biggest part of being a member of Congress.
It's an honor. You're you're being paid by our
taxes to serve us. That's supposed to be the point
of the job. I'm not a coward.
I'm not someone that projects toughness and isn't actually
tough. I would hold town halls and be
excited to be, you know, yelled at by people that disagree with
(31:22):
me. I think that that's a big part
of the job. And we need someone who's
willing to hear dissenting voices, concerned voices.
And of course, we're going to need somebody that's actually
willing to just stand up for us.So yeah, I would hold several
town halls. Right in that same beta town
halls, I've been thinking a lot about, you know, communications
and meeting people. It's like, OK, digital town
halls I think would be a good thing too.
(31:43):
Do you plan on hosting things like live streams or I, I've
been thinking a lot about meet the member where it's like, hey,
we host live streams like just sound like twitch.
I mean, if, if the biggest streamers on Twitch and YouTube
and yada, yada, yada, they're just these personalities that
you talk to. It's like, why not that you know
what, not everyone wants to go to these town halls because, you
know, that's for people who are retired and people who have the
money. Like I don't know about you, but
(32:05):
I work evenings like I, my schedule is weird.
I work from like 1 to like 7. So if it's a town hall at 6:30,
not going to make it. So what would you thoughts be on
like digital town halls or otherways that they can meet you?
Yeah, You know, the the truth isthat you're pointing out a real
problem, right? Like you know it.
It's not just that sometimes town halls are inaccessible or
(32:25):
at bad times or they're too rare.
You've got people like Mills notholding them at all.
So I wouldn't just hold several regular in person town halls,
you know, on the campaign. And more importantly, once I'm a
congressman, probably serving myfriends and family right here at
home, I'm going to hold alternative, you know, versions
of those, whether they're digital, whether they're, you
(32:46):
know, online, in person. I think that that's what people
need. And so, you know, I think that
that kind of approach is just going to make it easier to be
accessible, easier to hear the concerns of people I'm here to
represent. So the answer is a resounding
yes. Awesome.
Well, it's great to hear there'ssomeone running for Congress who
understands that the job title is representative.
But so on your campaign a littlemore broadly, I know this is
(33:10):
going to drop a little bit afteryour launch date.
And so how's the process been sofar of like building up the
campaign? How's it looking in the first
few weeks of getting started? And what would you say?
Like you feel like your path to winning is?
And maybe how our listeners can get involved and help flip a
(33:31):
seat? Absolutely.
You know, the whole basis of thecampaign is just to have a good
ordinary person from a working class background in Congress.
We need that perspective. You know, we need a good
grassroots sort of approach. You know, our current leaders,
they don't know the problems that every American's facing.
They don't know the issues that are facing those of us that are
(33:53):
underage 35. And on the flip side, they don't
really seem to care about the people that are trying to
prepare for retirement. So it's an all hands on deck
approach that way. I think at the end of the day,
it's going to be about all of uscoming together.
It's going to be about all of usturning out good people with a
good message of delivery, right?Of delivering for people right
(34:14):
here at home. For those of you listening, I
hope you go to noahforflorida.com.
We need you. You know, we're not taking
corporate money. I'm not a multi millionaire
international arms dealer under multiple investigations.
You know, I'm not somebody that can do this without you, right?
So if you're able to go to noahforflorida.com and chip in,
that's what's going to make thispossible.
(34:36):
It can't happen without all of us because united we do this,
divided things stay the same andget worse.
So that's our approach. It'd be an honor to have, you
know, all of your listeners right here on deck with us
because that's the way we changethe country and get a new
generation of leaders that we know we deserve.
So when is the ACT Blue page going live?
(34:56):
I was going to say, is that is that still going to be happening
or is that band I I hadn't checked.
That's right, yeah. You know, executive order after
executive order, you know, I, I,I've taken several
constitutional law classes and I, I don't remember the sloppy
Sharpie, you know, trampling on the 1st Amendment part of the
Constitution, but I'll have to look into it.
You know, I think that's going to be live on May 6th.
(35:18):
So that's going to be ready to go.
If you go on our website, noahforflorida.com, you're going
to be able to chip in whether that's 5 dollars, $500 a dollar,
everything helps and that's going to be ready by the time
you're listening to this. Awesome.
Well, we'll be sure to link all that in the in the episode
description below so you guys can check it out.
But I want to before we wrap up,you talked about how you you did
(35:42):
wrestling in high school and I believe been in college a little
bit as well. Could you talk about, like, that
experience? I, I did a little wrestling in
middle school, mostly football and high school.
But do you feel like, especiallyfor Democrats who there's been
kind of this identity crisis around, like young men or just
like masculinity in the Democratic Party, is there
(36:05):
anything you can bring from thathistory through wrestling,
whether it even be as simple as just the grit of working through
it, that you feel like would be helpful in Congress?
And yeah, I've been curious to hear anything about.
That whole process, grit matters, the fight matters.
You know, the ability to, to take things on head first.
You know, my solution. And when I was wrestling, I, I
(36:29):
had the scholarship in college, but I dropped out the first day
when I found out I was going to become a dad at 18.
But you know that what that really taught me was just how to
work through things, right? You know, I, I also did football
and, you know, cross country at,at, at different points, but
wrestling for me was so special because it's it, it's really
just you against one person and there's no excuse to be made.
(36:51):
You, you, you win or you lose. And I think that that's
important generally. And I think for Dems, we need to
be a bigger tent that's welcoming.
You know, when I talk to guys myage, your age, everywhere in
between, a lot of people worry that, you know, there's people
in our party that just don't really want them in that don't.
You know, I think there was somepiece recently about just how
(37:12):
some, you know, podcast podcaster that, you know, goes
to the gym a lot. Oh, you know, this is a a Dem,
but they're in like a Republican, you know, body or
vibe, and it's like, that's not the right message.
Men and young men generally, like we're welcome here, You
know, you matter. We don't hate you.
We're not going to cancel you just for like being yourself,
(37:34):
even if we still want men to be better and to do better, right.
And so I, I think we can do a better job with that.
I think I'm going to be able to communicate where I'm coming
from, meet people where they're at and, you know, admit that.
Yeah. If you want to just like, be
welcome here, you should be welcome here.
You know, I think that's something we got to do better.
(37:54):
And, you know, if you were out there worried about that, I'm,
I'm here to tell you as a Dem, if you're, if you're a young
guy, come into the tent, join us.
You know, we, we don't just wantyou.
We need you. And you know, you're, you're
going to be welcomed with open arms.
Awesome. Yeah, And I, I feel like even if
there are some Democrats who like would agree and like, oh,
(38:15):
we should expand our tap, we would.
Now, we do want these people in our party.
I think a lot of them don't knowhow to talk to these voters.
And they kind of build them up as these like mythological
figures in their head. When as you are someone who
played sports, someone I played sports in high school, I feel
like it exposes you to a lot of these voters that then now it's
(38:35):
kind of weird to read about it in the news as people talk about
it. And I'm like, and I was calling
the barstool Republicans or whatever that they're not very
partisan. They do not have like really
super strongly held like conservative beliefs on tax
policy and cutting Social Security or whatever.
And I think I, I love to like people who judge went on the
Andrew Schultz Flegard broadcastthe last week.
(38:57):
And I, I really felt like that, Like it reminded me so much of
so many political conversations iPad with friends of mine who
really fit into like the mold ofall those hosts on that show.
And that when you go there and you, you don't have to like do
some fake appeal to them and be like, oh, I came out with my gun
and camo on and whatever. Like he, he was himself.
(39:18):
And and they would tell jokes that like probably five years
ago, many Democrats would have been like afraid to be in the
same room. And he would laugh at it because
it was funny or somewhat funny. And And so, yeah, so I feel like
it's important to be able to just talk to these voters.
And when they actually hear the policies, as we saw on that
podcast, many of them hadn't heard it articulated at all like
(39:40):
that. They when he brought up how Elon
and Trump have been claiming like all these people 200 years
old were on Social Security and he broke it down for them and
explained that it was like, yes,they were still in the system
because they don't remove peoplein the system, but they weren't
actually received checks. And they that like blew their
minds. And even when he made just the
general pitch of like kind of the abundance agenda when he
(40:01):
wants the future to be under Democrats, they were all like,
that's amazing clip that we needto hear more of it.
And it was refreshing. And so I I hope that I mean.
Obviously this is the progressive podcast, but even I
would love it if once you're deeper in the campaign, would
you be willing to kind of go on some of those, not even
necessarily like Super Fox News,although even that that would be
(40:22):
great too, but some of those apolitical, vaguely Republican
avenues and just talking to those voters, is that something
that you would definitely want to do in a campaign, especially
a general election campaign? Strongly and it would be an
honor to do so. I think we have to meet people
where they're at and most people, I mean, you know, most
people, they're just worried about their jobs and their
(40:42):
families, right? Like most people are more
apolitical than they are political.
And you know, meeting people where they are with what they
listen to, with what they're doing, I think that that
matters. Being nor a normal person and
making sure that these folks don't think that we hate them,
that matters, right? Like I'm not looking to get
snapping fingers at some like, you know, Northeastern College
(41:03):
poetry slam. I, I'm, I'm here to just
actually do things and accomplish things and help
people. And I think that that's what
people want for their government.
Like, they don't even want to have to think about politics.
And, you know, I think if I can kind of communicate where I'm
coming from, no matter what the platform is, I think that would
be amazing. Well, and I was going to say,
it's one of those things where you're going to talk to them
(41:24):
like normal people, right? I think kind of this whole crux
of the Northeastern poetry slam,I think we're getting here is
college is fucking weird. Some of the shit they say,
you're like, what the fuck are you talking about?
They OK, I know this is off topic, but I I have this gripe
where I have heard the word neoliberalism used 1000 times to
ascribe 1000 different meanings to all these different
(41:45):
instances. Like you can't just throw this
word around. Just say whatever, whatever
you're talking about, all right,you're going to talk to them.
You're like, hey, the rents too damn high.
The groceries are too damn expensive.
You're 4K that he he torched with a bunch of stupid ideas.
I'm not going to do that. And I think that's really what
people want. They want.
Someone who's talking like normal people and that doesn't
necessarily mean super dumbed down, but that just means not
like the lived experience of allthis academia language that I
(42:08):
think still poisons a lot of democratic circles, poisons the
Wow. It poisons the Wow badly
because. You know, if, if you want to
have a working class party, if you want to have working class
voters, you sure as hell better have working class views and
welcome working class voices. Like, you know, when I was with
the fire department, if I started talking about lived
(42:29):
experiences or XYZ space of somekind or whatever other issue or
abolish this or that, none of that would like people look at
me like I had three heads because it'd be a weird thing to
say, you know, and I think something else we have to do is
just do a better job at saying what we're trying to say, right?
Like if you say something about,you know, I don't know, like
(42:52):
highways are X or Y or Z, you know, bad thing.
Well, why don't you explain whatyou mean by that, right?
Like, if there was a policy thatdirectly hurt people, just say
that, you know, you don't have to, like, use very inflammatory
words to describe what you're trying to say.
And so, yeah, meeting people where they're at and being
normal, we that'd be pretty damnrefreshing.
(43:14):
Normal. Normal No.
Yeah, normal Noah right that that's the slogan.
But but like it doesn't even have to be watering down your
beliefs or like your your policies like it or dumbing them
down in some sort of like attempt to inauthentically
appeal like Pete is clearly. I mean, I keep going back to
(43:35):
him, but he's the one who showedup on one of these podcasts of
late. So he's on top of mind, but he's
someone who's clearly very like educated, talks very like
articulate and, and comes acrossas someone who like went to grad
school, but he doesn't come across that way in the way we're
talking with like he he doesn't talk in those weird academia
circles. So I think being authentic still
(43:56):
while you're doing this stuff isvery important.
I think some Democrats lose sight of that and start like
talking about how we runs a meanpick 6 on that or whatever.
That's always our go to tweet. But I won't get you on the
record on that. Well, I I don't want to hold you
too long. I know you got a lot going on
right now. Super busy time, super exciting
(44:17):
time. It was great to have you on and
we're really excited about this campaign.
We will be sure to link all the information below and make sure
our listeners can help you out anyway they can.
And yeah, so if you want to close this out and plug anything
that voters or our listeners should know about this race and
(44:39):
just, yeah, thank you for comingon.
Thank you. I mean, I'd end it with this.
We deserve to have people in Congress, in office that reflect
us and that serve us. The only way we're going to do
that is by putting one of us on deck.
You know, we need a victory for us, the regular people, the
working people, the people who don't always know, you know,
(45:01):
what's going to be around the corner.
We deserve that kind of certainty from our leaders.
And I believe that you can't be what you can't see.
And so if we are hoping to to have a government that actually
gives a damn about us, we sure as hell better vote for one of
us. So please, you know, make it
happen across the country, not just in my district.
Let's vote for good, normal people who are going to deliver
change. And it'd be an honor to have you
(45:24):
join my team at NOAA for florida.com, which I've said a
lot of times. But thank you for letting me do
that plug, and thank you all forlistening.
We'll know for Congress. Well, thanks so much for coming
on. Thank you.
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