Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Well, here we are. I'm Lisa Fox and welcome to
meet the candidates on iHeartRadio. I'm here with Mike Garcia.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hi Mike, Hey, Lisa, how you doing.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I'm wonderful. Mike is currently serving in the US House
and running for reelection in the twenty seventh congressional district
in the upcoming election, which we know is right around
the corner November fifth. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Nice to meet you. I know you're a local guy.
So the point of the show is really just to
kind of go behind the scenes really and just get
to know you a little bit as a person, because
politics can be a little overwhelming talking about all this
the serious stuff and what's being done isn't being done?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah that's right.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Before all this, you're just a guy.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
You're a local man, a dude from Santa Clarita. Yeah
that's right. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
So let's start off for people who don't know you,
Let's talk about where you're from and your background and married, guy, kids,
all the good stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah. Married with two boys, one eighteen and one eight
years old now and hard to believe they're growing up
so fast. But I was born in Oran, not a hill,
so just a little bit of waste from the studios
here and was raised in the San Fernando Valley and
then moved to the Santa Clarita Valley in nineteen eighty three.
And I was just a kid who wanted to fly airplanes,
you know, since a young age, and that's all I
(01:11):
thought about was flying, flying jets and aviation, and ultimately
had the opportunity to join the Navy. Joined went to
the Naval Academy and was able to fly a F
eighteen's off of aircraft. Literally, yeah, literally do what you
saw in the movie's Top Gun one and two and
the dream come true. Absolutely best job in the world.
But I've always had a desire to serve the country.
(01:33):
I've always had a desire to do what's right for
the country and provide security, you know, for the country.
And that's been the great motivator for me all along.
And now in this journey representing you know, three quarters
of a million people at the federal level and the
House of Representatives, it's a lot of people, a lot
of people, but it's the same oath. It's the same
oath to the Constitution and to do what's right for
the country and not necessarily follow you know, party allegiances
(01:56):
blindly and not just you know, do what others want
you to do, but do what's right.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
I want to get into the issues that you are
essentially fighting for, so to speak. But say exactly what
your region is? Where exactly is it? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Good question. So I represent north San Fernando Valley, Ganada Hills,
Porter Ranch, all of the Santa Clarita Valley so up
near Magic Mountain, and then act in and all would
all say along the fourteen and then all of the
Anlo Valley, Palmdale, Lancaster close to Edward's Air Force Base.
So it's a big geographically, it's a big district, but
from a political spectrum it's also a very wide diverse
(02:31):
district as well.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
So you've been serving since twenty twenty, so this is
not your first rodeo. You know the area well growing up,
been part of it, and so what do you feel
the needs of that community is, Like, what's your primary
focus on accomplishing once you're re elected.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, these are historically very safe neighborhoods, Santa Clarita, you know,
Porter Ranch, and what we're seeing right now over the
last especially three and a half years as a decline
in security. And when I say security, I like using
that word because it's a great unifying There's a lot
of aspects of our life that are underpinned or founded
on security, whether it's economic security. The economy is struggling
(03:08):
right now with inflation, with you know, basically the cost
of living, affordability challenges. That we have high taxes in California,
that's an economic security, neighborhood security, where we're experiencing record
high crime rates, record high homelessness rates, even in North
La County, which historically we didn't have. Border security, which
is a massive issue right now with eleven to fifteen
million people being here, legally, protecting social security, which is
(03:29):
something that anyone over the age of thirty is really
caring about right now because we pay into that right
we don't want the government taking that away. So we've
got to make sure that we protect social security and
national security. We're experiencing right now, probably one of the
weakest moments in our nation's history relative to Russia, relative
to China. The open borders aggravating that, and we're seeing,
you know, Israel now in the midst of a three
(03:52):
front war. So all of these things that are normally
segregated and used to divide people politically, and the Republican
already doesn't agree with the Democrat Party necessarily in every
facet of them. But they all have the common denominator
of security, and we all as Americans deserve security, and
that's that's something that is the great unifier right now.
So my district, when I talk to my voters, just
(04:12):
want security. They want to be able to afford healthcare,
they want to be able to afford the groceries, pay
for the gas, have a job, not pay taxes, not
to be held up, not have their car stolen, you know,
not have to leave California.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
How do you feel, Mike, how do you feel? What
can you do differently than you've already been doing while
you've been in office? You know, like, how will this
term be different?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah, the message is the same. It's a loyalty to
the Constitution, to capitalism, to competition, and investing in local charities.
I'm a big philanthropist. I believe in charity solving a
lot of our problems. And then you know, the same
message about security. In the end, the number one priority
in my office is constituent casework. We've we've helped close
(04:52):
to six thousand of our constituents, you know, get their passports.
You know, two days before their their honeymoon, they realize
their passports expired and they they call and say, hey,
don't tell the wife, but I need a little help here,
and we can get that done in a day or so.
People who are having issues with the VA veterans who
haven't gotten paid. We just got a veteran about one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars in back pay last week.
(05:13):
The government owed them for decades. So any issues that
folks have with the federal government, this is what the
priority is and has been and will continue to be,
is just taking care of our constituents, regardless of political affiliation.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
How easy are you to get a hold of I
know you have mentioned your website right Instagram? Are you
on all the social media platforms?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yep, We're on all the social media platforms. We've got
our website, We've got yep. At well, the campaign side
is elect Mike Garcia dot com. When we do need support,
we do need help on the campaign side. We need funding,
we need volunteers, we need people to help help us
get out the vote to elect Mike Garcia dot com.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Could Mike be your guy? Well, find out I mean,
hopefully this conversation helped. Of course, you can find out
again more on your website.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yep, elect Mike Garcia, and you can follow us on
social media as well, and we're talking about the issues
and reach out. As always, if anyone has questions on
policies on issues, we're happy to answer it.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Wonderful so nice to meet you. A good lucky election.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Thank you, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Mike Garcia, thank you.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
I appreciate it.