Don Hartness interview

Senator-elect Don Hartness joins us to discuss his win in District 42.

Episode Transcript

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subscribe to the Right Side Radio program. Today. All right, guys,
As you know, we had an election here in my
neck of the woods, Jones County, Mississippi, in Senate District
forty two. It is the Senate district that was formerly

(04:26):
held by our good friend and one of the original
founders of the Right Side Radio show, Chris McDaniel. There
was some gamesmanship played by Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hoseman in
this redistricting which forced this special election in the first place.
But what he did is he carved out a section

(04:47):
of Jones County, and by doing that, he drew Chris
McDaniel out of his own district. He drew me out
of the district, and several other people such as myself,
who weren't able to vote yesterday, weren't able to participate.
The incumbent Senator Robin Robinson voted yes on these new

(05:09):
district lines, and as such, she faced a challenger in
Don Hardiness, and I'm happy to say that Don was
able to win this race yesterday in a dominating fashion
over seventy percent of the vote. I think it's still unofficial,
but over seventy percent of the vote went to Don,

(05:32):
and Don is gracious enough. I know he's super tired
after watching election results, knocking on doors and then all
day today he's been out picking up his campaign signs,
but he's still been gracious enough to join me here
on the Right Side Radio show. Don. Welcome to the

(05:53):
program again.

Speaker 5 (05:55):
Thank you, Jack, thanks for having me on.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
Well, Don, I want to do because I think this
is the first time you've been on the Right Side
since you guest hosted once after my father passed, And
as I've done with Jim and Jerrel and Chris, I've
taken the time to thank each and every single one
of all for filling in for me during that period
when talking into a microphone just was not something I

(06:22):
was ready to do yet. So again, let me let
me start off by thanking you for doing that for
me during that time.

Speaker 5 (06:30):
You're welcome Jack.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
Well, Don, you know, let's talk about this race, because again,
when you got in this race, I think you knew
it as well as most people. You were viewed as
a long shot. This was probably a circled safe race
for Senator Robinson. And again, what made you decide to
get in when it looked like the odds were probably

(06:54):
going to be stacked against you.

Speaker 4 (06:57):
Well, you know, you know, you get so many distractions
in the race, and what ended up happening, Uh, you
know you had you know, when you.

Speaker 5 (07:08):
Have the distractions.

Speaker 4 (07:10):
My I tell my wife is pretty much she and
I it's just keep keep knocking on doors. The rest
of it will fix itself in time. And we had
the basically the wind was behind our backs during the
uh we felt like had the first go round was
it seemed like we had walls that just kept coming up.

Speaker 5 (07:31):
This time with with Dal and his article in the
Laurel Leader call.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
And that's Judge Dal Williamson here in Jones County for
for listeners that aren't sure who you're talking about.

Speaker 4 (07:46):
Right, and when he wrote that article and name names
and how this redition hurt the judicial system in Jones County.

Speaker 5 (07:55):
Uh, people started paying attention.

Speaker 4 (07:57):
And when that happened, of course in the districts and
people started looking, hey, this you know may and this
precinct anymore.

Speaker 5 (08:05):
I mean, they really started taking a hard look.

Speaker 4 (08:08):
And during the election yesterday, what we found out is
that during that time is that people were going down
to the polls to vote and found out that they
were in a different district.

Speaker 5 (08:22):
I did hear that.

Speaker 4 (08:23):
I think it was in the Powers precinct. Folks were
very upset and calling their friends to make sure that
since they couldn't vote, that somebody in forty two could
come to the precinct and vote for them. I mean,
they were called people left and right. So it really
energized this campaign. I think that's why you see the

(08:46):
numbers where they are is because people were really fired
up and upset about the redistrict and they found out
kind of late. So until they showed up, did they
know what was going on?

Speaker 3 (08:59):
You know, Judge Williamson's article was about a month two
months before the election, so there was plenty of time
for people to see it, forget about it and have
that cool off. And then about two weeks maybe three
weeks before Chris McDaniels started commenting on the fact that

(09:20):
he was drawn out of the race. Do you think
that when Chris started to get involved and started to
post stuff on social media, talk about it on Chris
McDaniels America, do you think that kind of helped really
tip the skills in your favor.

Speaker 4 (09:36):
Well, that's that's a no brainer. It doesn't take you know,
a master businessist to figure out. When Chris entered this
and put the information on Facebook, it really fired people up.
I mean he basically, you know, told the truth of
what was going on actually in the race. Of course,
your lates won't, our establishment won't won't say that, hey,

(10:00):
that Chris wasn't a target, but he was, and we
all know it by the drawing. It doesn't, like I said,
it doesn't take once you look at the draw and
you can see that they went around his home. But
in their infinite wisdom, you know, for what man uses
for evil, God makes for good. And I'm telling you,
my wife looked at me several times during the election said,

(10:22):
this one feels different. This election feels she said, I
could feel the hand of God on this everything that
happens as it's like that we had to win behind
us the whole time and the time and between mister
Wimson and Chris McDaniel and uh, it just there was

(10:46):
we felt like we were going to win this thing,
but we had no idea how large.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
Yeah, now let's go back two years ago. You ran
against n Or Robinson, then we're unsuccessful. If this race,
if the redistricting hadn't happened, and this race was a
regular four year term, would you have considered running again?
Or do you think that in that situation where she

(11:13):
doesn't have these two bad votes hanging over her head,
do you think that she would have been beatable?

Speaker 5 (11:19):
Well, hindsight, you know, it's always twenty twenty.

Speaker 4 (11:24):
I've always wanted to run, and then at first I
got a taste of it, you know, being short about
fifteen hundred and fifty votes, I have, you know, been
on the outside looking in for a lot of years.
Started with the Tea Party movement and to DC twice
Marsha Pennsylvania Avenue, got to see Chris and meet Chris
and nine and when he ran against that, and I

(11:46):
really got interested. And in fact, if it hadn't been
believed it or not for Obama, I probably wouldn't have
been in as deep as I was. When he made
the statement that our veterans, our military uh with with
Sanata Mertha up in Pennsylvania, when they said our soldiers

(12:06):
get up in the darkened night and kill innocent women
and children, that set me off. And then of course
the tea Party movement happened. Chris was a big part
of that. I was a big part of it. So
you know, I've been interjected with this for a long time,
and Chris, if he hasn't done anything at all.

Speaker 5 (12:24):
It has fired up the conservatives around the state.

Speaker 4 (12:28):
And I'm lucky to have many of what I did
because I've met a lot of good people across this state.
In fact, some of them, a lot of them ran
a few years ago and and a lot of us
got you know, defeated at that time. But we just
have to take the bull by the horns and just
keep plugging along and get get in there and change

(12:48):
the state absolutely.

Speaker 3 (12:50):
And we we we are happy to have people like
you that are fighters, that are willing to stand and fight.

Speaker 5 (12:56):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (12:57):
And I'm going to get to some other questions on
that here in a second, but let's let's keep going
because again the Laurel Leader Call broke the story on redistricting.
Josh Kuru Nichols wrote the story talking about how the
lines were drawn. Uh, you knew about the crooked lines

(13:18):
before the article broke. You knew about the crooked lines
before you even announced you were running. Correct, Yes, you
know I looked at the map.

Speaker 4 (13:29):
The maps that we had were legislative maps, and they
weren't just exact, they were kind of generic.

Speaker 5 (13:37):
Uh you know, so you audition research.

Speaker 4 (13:39):
In fact, when I did my maps, when I started walking,
I actually got one of the Google maps and started
writing in streets because, uh, you know, when you run
running race, you don't want to call on a you know,
two or three hundred homes and not in the district itself.

Speaker 5 (13:55):
So you know, I spent a lot of midnight all
doing that. So made sure I did a good job
with that.

Speaker 3 (14:02):
Absolutely the factors in this race because again we talked
about those two bad votes, but there are a couple
of other votes in there, Like she voted for medicaid expansion,
which is something that Msissippi Governor Tate Reeves has said
played a major role in not just her race, but
other races that went against folks who voted to expand medicaid.

(14:27):
Uh So, again, there were there were other votes. I'm
sure that you were watching that made you want to
get involved in this race again. Uh So, again, when
you look at this and you see how everything played out,
it seems like you you knew that there was even
if it was a long shot that this there might

(14:48):
be a perfect storm setting up if you could just
get the information out to the people.

Speaker 4 (14:55):
Right, Yeah, the the information that was a uh that
was in in my pitch and another something else that
happened during the race.

Speaker 5 (15:07):
Of course when r J. Her brother entered into it.

Speaker 4 (15:12):
I believe that helped my calls as well, because in
going through the ballot with who is going to be
on the ballot, when you mentioned those two names, you know,
the eyebrow goes up.

Speaker 5 (15:22):
Well, is that her relative was her brother and.

Speaker 4 (15:27):
The belief system, I can't believe a brother would run
against a sitting sister.

Speaker 5 (15:32):
Something is not right.

Speaker 4 (15:34):
So they started questioning whether or not she was up
for the job based on if you can't hand you
handle your family business in private, then why would you
we send you to Jackson if you can't handle something
that simple?

Speaker 3 (15:48):
Yeah? Uh, you know again, and this is I don't
know if this is common in a smaller you know
state sended election or or whatnot. But did Senator Robinson,
has she called you or since you one to you know,
concede or congratulate you.

Speaker 4 (16:10):
Well, you know, the first time we ran I sent
her a little message. I don't know if it was
a messenger. It was on her Facebook page and congratulated on.

Speaker 5 (16:19):
On her on her run. I didn't even have her
phone number, so I didn't really know how to get
a hold of her.

Speaker 4 (16:23):
And the social media you can do that. And she
did the same for me on on this congratulating me.
And and that's the vices with me where I'm not
you know, not looking for you know, you know, a
phone call and saying that you know, hey, the best
person won, all that kind of stuff. I think that
that's enough of what we did.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
Absolutely, you talked about how this race felt different than
two years ago. And and I know for a fact
that you knocked on as many doors as you can.
You might have knocked on every door in your district,
knowing how hard you were out there working. Uh, tell
me a little bit about what you were hearing, is
you were going door to door that that led you

(17:06):
and your wife Jerry Lynn to feel like this was
this was a different race.

Speaker 4 (17:12):
Well, you know, when you're going through your your card
and talking a little bit about yourself and you get
in some conversations and you know, you talked about the
you know, the redistrict and when it started becoming a
hot button, and I'd have people to ask me, well
am I in the district or not? And you show
them the map and where they were at and that
type thing. And uh, of course the voting record was big,

(17:35):
you know, the medicaid expansion. In fact, UH went to
you know a lot of rural places in Jones County.

Speaker 5 (17:41):
You go to Union, you go to you know, Rainy,
you go to.

Speaker 4 (17:44):
Mosale and so you know a lot of chicken farms there.
And in fact, if I'm not mistaken, the property tax
on the chicken farm buildings themselves, Uh, she had approved
too or voted in some building.

Speaker 5 (17:56):
I don't have the build number in front of me.

Speaker 4 (17:57):
But the gentleman that I would sit with at lunch
or talk about their their increase and property taxes on
the buildings on the chicken farm. So you know their
margins are small enough because they're dealing with you know,
the Sanderson Zee Tysons or who you know, whomever they're
they're growing for. Is that your margins get tight. So

(18:18):
if your taxes go up, you and I know that
generally that farmer is paying for it.

Speaker 5 (18:24):
Uh. And somehow he's got to recoup that increase in
taxes on his farm.

Speaker 3 (18:31):
Absolutely. Uh, let me ask this so you know, because again,
there are a lot of us, such as myself, who
have been drawn into a district that is going to
be a Democrat controlled district. The lines are drawn as
such to where it's going to be a true challenge
to to get a Republican, a conservative elected. How important

(18:54):
is it for you to represent us, even though we're
not technically in your district anymore? How important is it
for you to be our voice as well?

Speaker 5 (19:05):
Well?

Speaker 2 (19:05):
Jack, you know the.

Speaker 5 (19:07):
Weird thing about this.

Speaker 4 (19:08):
I moved here in twenty nineteen, and you know, so
basically an outside I was in Ranking County for twenty
plus years and was involved in, you know, several groups
up there, and I moved down here because of in
laws and we were taking care of their property, and
so I got down here. I mean, you do what
you need to do for family. I mean, that's that's

(19:29):
the way we're all built. And so I moved down here.
Didn't have any plans on you know, politics. I was
part of a couple of groups and kept informed. But
when this opportunity came up, and uh, you know, put
my name out there and and ran.

Speaker 5 (19:44):
And.

Speaker 4 (19:46):
It's it's it's a it's an experience that basically we
took a year of our life between the last election
and this mark. I looking at the amount of months
we spent knocking on doors, it was almost a year.
I mean, we've spent a year of our lives knocking
on doors.

Speaker 5 (20:04):
But we learned a lot.

Speaker 4 (20:05):
We learned a lot about people when you talk on
the porches, the front steps, the yards, mowing grass wherever
it is, and you had a conversation, you wanting to
knock and go on. But I tell you, you get
so much information when people are you know, or leisure
at their home and open up to what makes them.

Speaker 5 (20:26):
Tick and what they need to do. You know what
legislators need to do.

Speaker 4 (20:30):
You know, we have two ears and one mouth. You know,
we're supposed to listen more than we talk. And then
the other thing is I always have this believe as
somebody who has served in this country, is that you know,
in the end, you basically you just you're the employe
er or the employee and your constituents or the employers.

(20:54):
You serve your constituents, you serve your family, you serve
your wife. So you should be a servant in any
capacity in your life. And when you're a true servant,
then your needs get bet as well. So it helps
everybody when you have that attitude done.

Speaker 3 (21:10):
When you get up there, and you probably already know this,
you're going to be greeted by leadership. They're going to
come to you their hands out and asking you to
play ball with them and ask you to maybe betray
campaign promises along the way. What are you going to
do when those members of leadership come up to you
and start asking you to betray these campaign promises you've made.

Speaker 4 (21:34):
Well, I've already reached out to conservative legislators there in
the House, in the Senate, We've talked about things.

Speaker 5 (21:45):
I am not one.

Speaker 4 (21:46):
I'm not a yes man, never have been, never will be.
I don't want to put myself in a situation. I
want to make sure I'm guarded and protected. I had
two pieces of advice given me by lobbyist and labeled,
and he told me two things to remember when I
went to Jackson.

Speaker 5 (22:05):
He said.

Speaker 4 (22:06):
The first thing is you buy your own lunch. He said,
Then you're not beholding anybody on anything that they're you know,
trying to sell you. Why you're going to lunch, he said.
Number two, he said after after session parties and that
type of thing.

Speaker 5 (22:21):
He said, don't go. And he said the reason you
don't go, he said, I have seen many a legislator
go to Jackson and go to these little deals, and
you know, there's money offered in campaigns or a promise
if you get a bill done, somebody in your family
gets a job. I mean, you know, it's a you know,
it's a dinner thieves.

Speaker 4 (22:40):
So you really have to be careful and guarded and
get with the right people while you're up there, so
you avoid the traps and the pitfalls that the establishment
sets for you. Because telling when you wear the word
C conservative on your shirt, you're basically your Captain America
and everybody's coming after you. All the bad guys are
going to try to do what they need to do

(23:00):
to take you down. So you have to be guarded.

Speaker 5 (23:03):
When you're a conservative Repokan in.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
Jackson, it's got to be frustrating because again, there was
a time where we thought that having that or by
your name was enough. But we've learned without a doubt
that there are a lot of Republicans, especially there in
Jackson that just don't believe in the party platform, and
we haven't seen party leadership ever hold them accountable for

(23:28):
them betraying the platform. So again, I think that's solid
advice that you need to know the people that you're
you're running around with and never turn your back on
the people that put you in office in the first place.

Speaker 4 (23:45):
Well, there was a there was a mandate. When you
see seventy plus percent support in any race, that's a mandate.
You know, we're not talking about you know, fifty one,
forty nine, we're talking about seventy. So when you see that,
the message was loud and clear from the folks who

(24:07):
voted for me that this three district.

Speaker 5 (24:10):
Is definitely important. So that is my priority.

Speaker 4 (24:14):
I've already talked to some folks on the Jujitsal side
to help you see if we can offer an amendment
or buil to help restore that that that part.

Speaker 5 (24:24):
But we do have to wait for the census in
twenty thirty to do stuff as far.

Speaker 4 (24:30):
As to you know, look at this rediscent and change
it again, because by the state constitution, every ten years
you have to look at the population, see where it's
shifted and do you know and do your districts based
on where the population has gone. I would like to
be there long enough. You know, you want to you know,
you want to make Jones County hole again. You know,

(24:52):
I represent Peddle, I represent a little Wayne count a
little bit of Green County. But the heart and soul
of forty two is Jones count Whether people wanted admit
or not, this is the heart and soul of forty
two is Jones County. And when they and I saw
the boats come in and it was heavy, heavy, Jones
County is that there was a mandate that guys, we

(25:12):
need to fix this problem. So my my job to
go up there is they told me what they wanted.
That's what I'm going to do. So, you know how
you do the fist pump every day when you hear Trump,
you know something that should have been done twenty years
ago he's doing now. That's the kind of attitude that
I take to Jackson and when you hear my name,
you do the fist pump. This guy said that that's

(25:35):
what he was going to do, and he's going to
keep his words. So I want to make sure that
folks in the district forty two, whether the Jones or
you know Forrest, you know Wayne or Green County that
you're going to see me and we're going to do
some good things.

Speaker 5 (25:49):
So just wait and see.

Speaker 3 (25:51):
You know now that you're officially you know, well you've
won the race. You know, in January you'll get sworn
in and you'll officially be a state senator from District
forty two. What what do you want to hit the
ground running? Because again, you know, they're going to put
you in a box because you beat somebody that the

(26:13):
establishment I thought they could count on. And you know,
so what do you what are you hoping to accomplish
when you hit the ground running there in January?

Speaker 4 (26:25):
Well what folks don't realize and maybe they do, maybe
I'm not giving enough credit when you were when when
you say you're a conservative publican and go to Jackson,
like you said, they put you in the far back.

Speaker 5 (26:38):
They don't give you the committees, the choice committees.

Speaker 4 (26:41):
They bury in the back somewhere and a port a
potty or something for your office. And that's the reason
a lot of times you can't get some things out
of these committees because they don't put you on the ones.

Speaker 5 (26:55):
That that that that have the action, so I know
there's a target on the back.

Speaker 4 (27:00):
I've already talked to some conservatives on the on the
Senate side, and I'm hoping that we can come up
with saying some things and work together and possibly bring
some others along with us.

Speaker 5 (27:12):
I think you need strong leadership.

Speaker 4 (27:14):
In fact, I got a couple of texts today, thank
god we got another conservative. I mean, you know that's
welcoming in itself, is that that is good leadership is needed,
good Republican. I'm talking about platform, believe in Republicans. I
don't know where the platform has gone. People are now

(27:34):
so mad at politicians. They don't even give to the
to the party anymore.

Speaker 5 (27:38):
Now they're given to.

Speaker 4 (27:39):
The individual because they don't trust the party has got
their beliefs. And you know, at heart, and I realized that,
and that's what this race was about, the establishment versus
every day Joe. That's what this whole race was. I
didn't have anything. I didn't have one hundred thousand dollars
at my disposal. I didn't have a chick and Chick.

(28:02):
I had don Hardness and a few packs and a
few individuals that gave to the camp. That's what this
campaign was about John Hugh Public versus establishment, David and Goliath.

Speaker 5 (28:14):
That's what it was.

Speaker 3 (28:15):
Absolutely it was. You know, we talked about Chris's influence
and it wasn't just your race. He appeared to influence
because there was a race up there in De Soto
County where I think I've read reports that they dropped
twelve million dollars against the incumbent up there because he
ran a fellow of the establishment. Chris came out and
spoke highly of him too, and he ended up overcoming

(28:39):
all that money that was dumped in for his challenger
and winning as well. So Chris definitely still is casting
a shadow from from where he is, and that's that's
a good thing, you know, to have somebody like Chris,
even though he's not there in Jackson, he's still casting
a shadow. And the fact that he's willing to get
in there and fight for people like that, so you know,

(29:02):
again you're one of them. Uh, how important is it
to have voices like Chris, you know, like the right side,
you know that are out there trying to continue to
spread the conservative message and kind of have your back
when you do get put in a box.

Speaker 5 (29:16):
Well, it's it's the great equalizer.

Speaker 4 (29:19):
I mean, uh, you know the Conservative coalition, I mean
everybody that that that holds deer to conservative principles. I'm
talking about Jeffersonian Reagan type of philosophy.

Speaker 5 (29:31):
Uh. It's tough. We've got we've got bull's eyes on us.

Speaker 4 (29:36):
Because we were into low taxes, little government, and the
Republican Party has become Uh. Let's tax them just like
the fuel tax. Let's offer pennies back on the grocery. Uh,
let's give a little bit on state income tax. But
guess what, you don't get it till twenty thirty seven,
only if you hit these fifteen targets on the way.

Speaker 5 (29:55):
I don't like smoking bears. I don't like the three
card money. I don't like somebody to you know, to
you know, throw water on the leg and tell me
it's rain and come on.

Speaker 4 (30:04):
I mean, let's let's do some real when you when
you tell me that you've got record tax revenue for
the first six months of twenty twenty five, you can't
tell me that you pay your bills and you've got
an excess. Where is that access supposed to go. That's
supposed to go back to the people who put it
in their hands. And to begin with, that's not their money.

(30:26):
So when they say a rainy day fund, that's that's
a that's a code word for the next day gum
project that comes down the line. Let's throw money at it.
Some big business come in. Let's throw them thirty million
dollars to locate Mississippi to buy them that that's not
that's not helping. That's not helping every day Joe. That's
not helping the folks on Social Security. That's not helping

(30:47):
the folks that that are that are integen, that need
our help. We've become a a you know, a catch all.
You know, let let a bleeding. We've become you know,
the Republican Party is going to solve so far left
there they're going right behind the Democrats. And I don't
like to see our party go left.

Speaker 5 (31:06):
It's gone.

Speaker 4 (31:07):
They're following the Democrat. Look look at the last two years.
How many Democrats on the House or Senate have complained
about anything as.

Speaker 5 (31:16):
Far as bills. They're not the first complaint.

Speaker 4 (31:20):
You know, you put eight Democrats or whatever it is
on the Senate side, eight Democrats to chair committees.

Speaker 5 (31:27):
Who does that in the Republican Party.

Speaker 3 (31:30):
Who does that, and just one person I can think of.

Speaker 4 (31:35):
Well, that person was a was a Democrat all his
life to he ran for secretary of State, decided, Hey,
I can't run for a state right office.

Speaker 5 (31:43):
With a D body on my name. So I got
to put an R by it.

Speaker 4 (31:46):
Let's not change my principles, but let me call myself
a Republican even though my background has been Democrat for
the last fifty years.

Speaker 5 (31:54):
You've you know, you're lying to people. At Least tell
the truth. Hey, you change change are to a date.
At least you be consistent they tell the truth.

Speaker 3 (32:04):
It doesn't sound like you're planning to go to Jackson
and shaking hands with Delbert Host.

Speaker 5 (32:10):
I've already burned my bridges, would you.

Speaker 4 (32:15):
You know?

Speaker 3 (32:15):
That's uh, and that's what we want. Don we won't fighters.
We This doesn't come down to because again to all accounts,
Senator Robinson is a nice lady, and but that's not
what we need in Jackson. Nice will only get you
so far. If you're not willing to fight, if not
willing to stand up, if you're definitely not willing to

(32:37):
stand up for the people that put you in the
office in the first place, then you don't need to
be there any longer. And Don I'm I'm happy to
see you win this race. You know, I endorsed you myself,
and just really and truly appreciate you for for taking
this challenge because again, as I said at the beginning,

(32:59):
when when you announced this was a long shot because
you were running against an incumbent, and that's look, it's
rare to see an incumbent beat. It happens.

Speaker 5 (33:11):
Never.

Speaker 3 (33:12):
When you see an incumbent beat in the manner that
you won this race.

Speaker 5 (33:18):
Well that's that's a huge compliment.

Speaker 4 (33:20):
And the phone calls I have gotten as the history
of this the history of this race, the history of
forty two, the history of Jones County, I'm proud that
I was able to come through and and and and
and tell folks, you know, I'm not a lifelong Jones
County person.

Speaker 5 (33:37):
I moved here by default to help out family members.

Speaker 4 (33:42):
I've always you know, I've been around Chris for a
long time, been to In fact, before Chris was even
a household name, I was in committee meetings watching and
the and the questions he was asking in those committees.
I was so impressed with him when I first seen
him that. You know, I offered my services when he
ran and uh, you know, put up signs knock on doors.

(34:02):
I was very impressed with his conservatism. You know, there's
only good conservatives come around once in a lifetime. You've
got Reagan, You've got Chris and Mississippi, and I'm sure
there's others out there, but you know, they don't come
around often. And anybody that can argue at the Supreme
Court as an attorney, my hat's off because that takes brilliance.

(34:24):
I mean, you're talking about probably some of the at
least in history, some of the smartest minds at the
Supreme Court. And you've got a guy from Mississippi who
can make an argument and up in DC and represent
us and that's that's awesome.

Speaker 3 (34:39):
And you're talking about the lawsuit against Omamacare. Correct, yes, yes, correct, No,
that's one of the things too. Chris, Chris is a fighter,
and you're going in despite the fact he was drawn out,
you're going into his old Senate seat. You know, does
that shadow that he cast, that conservative shadow, is that

(35:00):
that's something that you're hoping to make sure that you
live up to because it's it's a big shadow.

Speaker 4 (35:06):
Well, you know, Reagan was a huge shadow. And then
then of course you got a Trump. And Trump didn't
start out as a conservative. He's more of a populist
than a conservative, but he lines up with, you know,
the conservative side of things. But like, you know, there's
some things I don't agree with what Trump on, you know,
and a lot of its financial it's not you know, he.

Speaker 5 (35:29):
Does some great deals. Uh.

Speaker 4 (35:31):
I don't think you're ever one hundred percent behind anybody.
There's gonna be some things that philosophically might be a
little different. But in the end, you know, is that
person helping is that person uh doing things to make
your life better?

Speaker 5 (35:47):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (35:48):
That's the question you always are Are they going up
there for themselves, the enrichment selves? Are they going up
there to represent?

Speaker 5 (35:55):
Uh? And I think Chris has always been straight with
us on whatever he's done.

Speaker 4 (36:01):
He's you know, Uh, I've been in the committee of
meetings when he's had him when he's asked the questions.

Speaker 5 (36:06):
I mean, uh, he's rock solid.

Speaker 4 (36:09):
I mean, I you know, big shadow, yes, but you
know I may make a bigger shadow up there. I've got, uh,
you know, hopefully to work with some folks up there
and and turn this thing around and maybe get a
few more on our side.

Speaker 5 (36:22):
I mean, that's it's tough.

Speaker 4 (36:24):
Like you said, you've got the establishment and you know
we're the what second, Uh, we've got the super majority
on one side or both sides, and uh here we
are going left instead of right, and and nobody's complaining
on the left that about what's going on. And so
you know, if they're not complaining, you're you're not doing
your job.

Speaker 3 (36:45):
That's fair, that's fair. Well, don I really appreciate you,
you know, again taking the time because I know, I
know you have to be tired after all the work
that you've put in. Election night is a stressful day
because no matter what you're hearing, you really don't know
how it's going to go until you see the final numbers.

(37:06):
And then all day today you've been out picking up
signs so that way they're out of the way and everything.
And yet you still found time to come on and
give us this interview tonight, and I truly appreciate that.

Speaker 5 (37:18):
Done well, Jack.

Speaker 4 (37:20):
One final thought is that you know, I want to
thank the folks in the forty two district, and of
course that includes Green Forrest, Wayne and Jones. I will
represent them. I want to make them proud. I want
to do everybody a service while i'm there. I'm not
gonna be a lifetime guy. I'm not having plans of

(37:41):
being up there thirty years. I want to do a
job and then some other conservative come along and run
for this seat at some point in time. But we've
got to keep Jones County conservative. We got to make
it whole again. And I'm talking about when I say whole,
we get North Laurel back, we get a raid of back,
we get sand Hill back, and anything else were nate
and I think they did. This is the most jigsaw

(38:04):
puzzled forty two district in the state.

Speaker 5 (38:09):
It's a shame, and it's a sham it is.

Speaker 3 (38:12):
And again, I think you're the right guy to fight
for us. I think you're the right guy. I think
you'll represent those of us in thirty four now who
feel like we won't have a conservative voice. I think
you'll be a conservative voice for us as well. And
I appreciate you that. I mean, we need fighters, not
people who are just going to lay down anytime leadership

(38:33):
ask them to. So donal let me ask you one
last question for I'll let you go after knocking on
all these doors that you have for the last you know,
six months and six months two years ago. Do you
feel more like a Jones County in now?

Speaker 5 (38:50):
Well, I'll tell you, I say yes to that. I
tell you, anywhere you go, you absorb the locale.

Speaker 4 (39:00):
I mean Mississippi, whether you're in Jones County or whether
you know, Mississippis have a way of rallying together, you know,
the free state of Jones attitude that hey, I don't
do what I'm told. I do what's right, you know.
I mean that resonates. That's that's what this race was

(39:20):
all about. Is do you go with somebody to do
that does what they're told, or you go with somebody
that says no. One it's time to say no.

Speaker 5 (39:28):
But yes, I feel like.

Speaker 3 (39:30):
A part of the family now absolutely, don Well, thank
you for your fight. We look forward to watching your
career there in Jackson, and we're rooting for you. And
if it ever gets tough, you're more than welcome to
come back on this show. Tell us what we need
to know, and just let us know what we can
do as your foot soldiers to have your back while

(39:51):
you fight for us.

Speaker 5 (39:53):
Thank you very much, Jack and thank you for having
me on.

Speaker 3 (39:57):
Well, guys, I'm gonna pause ray Year for our first
commercial break, probably be our only commercial break tonight, because
Don went to a decent forty minutes with us there
in that interview. But I'm pretty encouraged after last night's victory,
and I'll talk about that when I get back, because
I think it's I think it's worth talking about while

(40:18):
we are encouraged by this victory and what it means
to a lot of us who may have felt disenfranchised
a little bit after a couple of elections, may not
have gone our way and whatnot. So this is the
right Side Radio program. We'll be right back. The Midnight Ride,

(41:13):
the home of the anti establishment movement. This network features
great programming such as Chris McDaniel's America, God and Country,
The right Side Radio Show, Paul Revere's Liberty Layer, and

(41:34):
many more coming soon. So check out the Midnight Ride today.
Head to the Midnight Ride dot com and check out
all the amazing content. First off, I want to get

(42:19):
back into things here. Thank you again to Don Hardness,
Senator elect from District forty two here in my home
state of Mississippi, man that I think is going to
go to Jackson and fight for us, and I'm happy
to have him on our side. And again, it's an
exciting time for us. And I said before the break

(42:42):
that I wanted to talk about the fact that, and
I've set it on this air, that I have become
disillusion My faith in the electorate was pre rattled, and
with good reason. We've seen time and time again where
elections didn't go the way that they should have. And

(43:04):
I'm sorry to say it that way, but in my
personal opinion, when you see folks that have shown you
a pattern that let you know they're voting against your interest,
and yet they continue to climb up the ladder, that's
a problem. And that's one of those things that frustrates
me for sure. And to see Don be able to

(43:30):
win a race and win it overwhelmingly, and this isn't
about the former senator's personality. This is about the record.
And Don ran a race against her record and that's
the way it should be done, and her record screamed change.

(43:50):
There's no other way to put it. As I said,
it was a political malpractice to vote for district lines
that carved up your home district. It was political malpractice.
To vote for new judicial district lines that carved up

(44:10):
your home district, to not stand up and fight. It
was one of those things that just really opened a
lot of our eyes. Some of us who knew what
was going on already knew. But the people here, the
people in this district, they prove that they can pay attention,

(44:33):
that their eyes can be opened, and that when people
are willing to present you with facts and show you
what was done, show you how these bad votes took
away voices, voices like my own. And it showed too
that there'll be consequences when you vote against your people.

(44:59):
It's not going to be easy for Don and Jackson.
He's going up there into a lions den. As we've
talked about before. The lieutenant governor of the state of Missippi,
the man that controls the Senate, Delbert Hoseman. He may
have an Arbia his name, but that man is a
Don the Wold Democrat, plain and simple. And we've already
seen the snakes that are in the Senate that are

(45:20):
already lining up to shoot arrows at mister Harkness before
he ever even gets there. Those people will continue to
try to be roadblocks. But I think Don's a fighter,
and I don't think he'll roll over to any of them.
So I'm happy to have a man like Don, a
man that I call a friend, and now I can

(45:41):
call him a senator. So I'm happy to see Don
make that leap. And again, we need good people that
will put their name on the ballot. As I said,
when Don put his name on the ballad, it was
not as sure they at all. Matter of fact, most

(46:02):
analysts had this marked as a safe race for Senator Robinson.
But Don put in the work, he utilized the information,
and he did the things necessary. And then of course
you had folks like Chris McDaniel get involved and point

(46:25):
out what they did to him and the rest of
us who got drawn out of District forty two. You
had judged dal Williamson, who was brave enough to come
out and point out what they did to judicial district.
We saw an awakening here, and I hope that maybe

(46:48):
as an awakening throughout the state. We saw an awakening
in North Mississippi when they tried to railroad an incumbent
senator because he wouldn't one hundred percent go along with
the establishment crowd. So thank goodness that Chris was willing
to get involved in those races, put his name out

(47:10):
there again and let folks know what's happening. I think
that's the reason why we woke up this morning and
saw that District forty two had elected Don Hartness. Don's
going to go to Jackson. He's going to fight for us.

(47:31):
He's going to go to Jackson. He's going to be
that warrior in the same vein that Chris was. And
I'm pretty excited by that, and I think that that's
going to be the best case scenario for us, without
a doubt. I was proud to endorse him. I was
proud of the work that he put forth, and I'm
proud to see him win that election. But now the

(47:55):
hard work comes. Now comes the time where he's got
to go to Jackson. He's going to live up to
the promises and be that fighter. I have no doubt
that he will meet those expectations because I've known this
man for I think about eleven years now, and one
thing about Don agree with him, disagree with him. That

(48:17):
guy's going to be passionate about everything that he does.
He's going to passionately fight for his district. I have
no doubt about any of that, and that's why we
send our heartfelt congratulations to Don Hardness for his victory.
And again, thank you, Don for taking time out of

(48:38):
your extremely tiresome schedule. It's going to be a little
less busy now, Don, Thank goodness, you'll get You'll get
to have a little bit of a days of relaxation
once you pick up the last of those signs. But
I know he's looking forward to a break because that
man has worked his tail off for the last two

(48:58):
or three months. I can't remember when qualifying was, but
from the moment he went to Jackson and signed the
papers to yesterday when the polls closed, Don Hardness was
putting his boots on the ground, knocking on as many
doors as he could, meeting as many people as he
could to try to make sure that he told folks

(49:21):
why he deserved to be our state senator. And I
thank him for that. And yes, I say our state
senator even though I live in a different district now,
because I have no doubt that I can pick up
the phone and call Don with any concerns I have
and he will listen because he understands there's a group
of us that were carved out of forty two who

(49:42):
should rightfully be in forty two that won't have a
conservative representative there in the Senate, and we'll need him
to be our voice as well. And I feel like
I got that with him, and I'm extremely exc cited
to see what he does in these next two years.

(50:04):
That's the worst part. In two years, he's got to
do it again if if he wants to run for
a second term, he doesn't get a full four year
term because this was a special election. But it's exciting
people and for some of my national listeners. You know,
again my message to you guys, as always, when I

(50:25):
focus on something more local or Mississippi centric, you need
to take note too, because again, this might be a
Mississippi state senator, but you need to go and see
what's happening in your state capital. You need to be
asking questions about the things that are going on up there,
making sure that the people you're sending to your state

(50:47):
capitals are putting forth the values and the promises that
you expect them to. You need to make sure that
they're emboldened by you and not the lobbyist, not leadership
within the establishment group. If they're beholden to other people

(51:09):
outside of the interest of the voters. You need to
bring them home. And it's easy to find out because
all you have to do is look at certain votes.
Maybe that might take a little bit of time for
you to do some research, but you owe it to yourself,
you owe it to your children's futures to do that.

(51:34):
You know, if two years ago, if Gon had been
the victor, we wouldn't be in this mess because don
would have fault tooth and nail to prevent what was done.
Maybe they would have got it passed through anyway, but
we would have heard a lot of yelling. We would

(51:57):
have seen someone that was willing to stand up in
fight for us, not someone who is going to look
at leadership and say, oh, you want me to vote
for this, I'm going to That's the type of representative.
That's the type of senator that we expect. We were
blessed with Chris McDaniel as our state senator for a

(52:19):
long time, and we knew every day he went to
Jackson he was going to fight for us. We blocked
out the noise that the knuckleheads there in Jackson, and
they're still there trying to be critical of Chris even
though he's not sitting in office throwing arrows and throwing

(52:41):
your knades at him. These little bitty manchilds that they are,
they're in the State Senate who are still trying to
lob these attacks. We know they're foolish because we saw
with our own eyes. They can try to tell us
whatever lie they want to say, but we knew the truth.

(53:02):
We saw the fight, We saw the frustration, We saw
the heart and the passion and everything that he embodied.
That is the embodiment of the free State of Jones.
And now we're hopeful that we'll get that type of
leadership again through don hardness, because we sorely have been

(53:28):
lacking it the last two years. All we ask is
that you fight. You fight, You don't roll over and
give them what they want. That's what we look for.
We look for fighters. Donald Trump's a fighter. Agree with him,

(53:50):
don't agree with him. It doesn't matter if you watch Trump.
If he believes in an issue, you know he's going
to go to war for it. People are rare. The
Chris McDaniels, the Trumps. Those type of people are rare
these days that are willing to stand up there and
lead the charge straight into battle. When you can find

(54:16):
people like that, that's the ones you want to hold
on to. That's the ones you want to share with
the rest of the state, the rest of the country,
because we need those type of people. We need those
men and women that'll lead the charge. We've only got
a couple in the State Senate that I believe are

(54:36):
truly conservative. Kathy Chisholm, Angela Hill come to mind. Now
we can add Don Hardness to that. I'm sure there's
some more, and I just haven't learned them or done
enough of home work myself, because I do focus a
lot on national politics. I focus a lot on the
national news, because I do recognize this show is not

(55:01):
merely focused on just my area. But every now and then,
something like this happens that you have to talk about.
You have to stop, and you have to point out,
especially when an injustice has occurred, and having that injustice

(55:22):
come at an ultimate cost for the person that voted
for it is satisfying. That's not because we hate Senator Robinson.
It doesn't come from a place of hatred, comes from
a place of we expect better, and I think we
got better. I think our area has improved with the

(55:45):
election of Don Hartness. I know I'm going to keep
fighting no matter how frustrated I get. I know Chris
McDaniel's going to keep fighting, and I believe that Don
Hartness will be a fighter in that similar vein.

Speaker 5 (56:02):
We are.

Speaker 3 (56:05):
In trying times for sure, and conservatism may not be
as attractive to some as it once was, just because
again it's been poorly sold. We've allowed Republicans to act
like Democrats. So when people see that and they're told

(56:26):
that's what conservatism is, they have a hard time accepting it.
They have a hard time going along with it because
that looks a lot like liberalism. Because the reality is,
it was never conservatism in the first place. It was
just a group that had ours by their name, that

(56:48):
you believed because you believed in the party, Which isn't
your fault, because I understand why you would believe in
the Republican Party, but because you believed in the party,
believed that they were conservative. But they weren't. They never were.
They were opportunists who saw a movement and jumped on

(57:11):
board with the Republican Party. They never had the intention
to push conservative values. They never had the intention to
try to get the Republican Party to adhere to its platform.
They were trying to push their agenda while utilizing the

(57:34):
popularity in this state of that or by their name.
And if you live in a state outside of Misissippi
and you don't think that's happening in your state, your
delusional party switchers are a danger. Sure, there's some good
ones who switched because they actually had a switch in

(57:59):
their ideology. Ronald Reagan comes to mind, but most of
the time they're just opportunists who see that they can't
win a race as a Democrat, so they switch over
to the Republican Party. Meanwhile, everything that they believed in
that you disagreed with remains the same for them. They

(58:21):
didn't change a single one of their stripes, and as such,
that's why they are pushing the party to the left,
and we need fighters to stand up to that. We
need fighters that will continue to move us in the

(58:43):
conservative direction, to right the Republican Party, to get it
back to its conservative roots. Conservatism works, We've seen it work.
The fact that the Republican Party has gifted away from
that is frustrating beyond belief. But hopefully the race is

(59:08):
like the one last night. We can look at it
and say wow, because again, this whole Jerry Manner district,
it wasn't done by Democrats people. That was done by
Republican leadership. And I know they get mad when I
say that, but it's the God's honest truth and it

(59:29):
needs to be exposed. There's a reason I walked away
from the Republican Party because the Republican Party walked away
from me. When you've got figureheads like Delbert Hoseman up
there in Jackson, that's that's not the Republican Party I

(59:49):
grew up with. The Republican Party I grew up with
doesn't push for Democrat platform ideas, it doesn't try to
weaponize re districting against fellow Republicans. But that's what happened.
And until we're willing to call out bad actors within

(01:00:10):
our party, until we're willing to say the truth that
there are members of the Republican Party that are just terrible,
that are truly Democrats, we're going to wake up and
we're going to see us lose elections and we're going
to wonder why. But some of us already know why.

(01:00:36):
And there's some that just want to stick their head
in the sand and don't want to hear the truth.
Hopefully last night is a sign that we're awakening from that.
That's my hope. Am I still completely jaded? Do I

(01:00:57):
believe that's the case now? Because yes, I am still
completely javid? But for just a moment, just a shimmering moment,
here we have a light. We have a light, and
we can be excited about that light. We can be
excited to see the possibility that maybe we can start

(01:01:23):
to get people to wake up from their slumber. And
if we do that, maybe we can take back the party.
We'll see the balls in your court.

Speaker 5 (01:01:33):
People.

Speaker 3 (01:01:33):
Last night, people here in District forty two answered the call.
What about the rest of you? What will you do?
This has been the right Side Radio program and I'm
your host, Jack Fairchilds, and I want to thank one
more time Don harden Is for being our guest tonight.
We look forward to coming back to you real soon.

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Escape to our River resort