Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The following is a presentation of FCB Faith. This is
Keeping America First with Bishop John T. Coats and Reverend
Jeff Jemison on FCB Faith.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome to this wonderful day and time in our great country,
and today we are launching our new show, Keeping America First.
And we have a very important guest on this premiere show,
none other than Tom Eddie who happens to be the
chairman of the Erie, PA County that's Eerie County, PA
(00:48):
Republican Party. Welcome to our show, Tom, how are you today?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I'm doing fine and I appreciate you having me here,
I really do.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
These are exciting times post election. Tom, tell us a
little bit about Erie, PA and the county chair the
county party. There just what you do as chairman.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Well, first of all, Erie has been for some reason
this year designated as a bell Weather county. I think
there were six that they picked out throughout the nation
that said the direction that they go will determine the race,
and obviously I think all six went towards Trump and
the Republican Party. And the reason I think they call
(01:32):
us a bell Weather is because we kind of in
this very small northwest corner of the state, replicate everything
you find within the entire state of Pennsylvania. And in
the last ten major elections, that's national and statewide elections,
Erie has always voted for the winner, and they came
through last Tuesday. Trump won here by about two thousand votes,
(01:55):
So we were very happy. I mean, in sixteen he
won here and it was only sixteen hundred by twelve
and twenty. But I think his message resignated this year,
and I think unfortunately for the other side of the aisle,
the economy and inflation did not help them. Those are
things that people see on a daily basis, and they
(02:16):
could see the impact it was having on their own
finances and the family, and I think that's what turned
the race in favor of Donald Trump.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
How about immigration. Do you think that that issue of
immigration factored into this at all.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
I think immigration does factor into it in Erie County.
We do have some immigration here with regard to illegal migrants,
but not a whole lot. We seem to be a
transient point. You know, they come through. My wife's met
a couple of buses once in a while at Walmart,
and they come through pick up stuff and then they're gone.
(02:54):
There was a couple of years ago, right after Biden
took office, they flew some midnight flights in here, and
they were mostly young teenage girls, and unfortunately many of
them were unfortunately pregnant at the time. And then when
our congressmans began to look into it, they just disappeared.
We don't know where they went, whatever happened to them.
(03:16):
And then there was a college in the eastern part
of our county, which is called Northeast. They had this
Mercyhurst College, had an extension there on this beautiful campus,
and they were planning on bringing in immigrant families into there.
But then that was stopped very quickly by a gentleman
out out of Pittsburgh that bought it and made it
(03:37):
into a veteran's rehabilitation center. So the immigration issue that
we have is nothing more than legal immigrants coming here.
It's one way in which it seems like the city
of Aria has been losing population for at least twenty
years or more, and they're trying to regain that population
by bringing an immigrant community into it. But you know,
(04:00):
those are hardworking people that came here illegally, and nobody
has a problem with that. I don't think I've ever
talked to anybody has a problem with immigration. Their problem
is with people jumping the line, you might say, and
coming here and not going through the full process and
the vetting process.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I agree with you one hundred percent on that. No
one has a problem with immigration, but it's the illegal immigration.
I like what you said, jumping the line, and I've
been in many ceremonies where folks have waited for years
to get legal citizenship, and we celebrated, and I thought,
you know, I think that's just tragic that other folks
(04:42):
can just bypass that whole process. But that is an issue,
and again, the economy was definitely an issue. Can you
talk about some of the other successes of your election
day for you specifically?
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Well, I think our big success is we had a
great growd. We had three young people here that was
working actually for the Trump campaign out of our office,
and they ran an outstanding operation. You know. My recollection
is that after the twenty twenty election, Trump realized that
(05:18):
he had to look at what he did in twenty
twenty other than you know, maybe the potential for fraudulent
votes that was you know, that was over, in my opinion,
so his his his team went back and looked at
the campaign and realized they really didn't do much in
a ground game, and so they put a lot of
effort into the ground game, not only in Pennsylvania. I
(05:38):
mean there was I think they had seventeen sites throughout
the state and seventeen different counties in which they had
people that were hired to work on a ground game.
And they wouldn't work just in that one county, like
the people that were here. They were working in Erie County,
but they also worked in Warren County, which is east
of US, and Mercer County and Crawford which is south,
(06:00):
So there was four counties that they controlled. And every
week I'd come here on a Tuesday night, they had
twenty thirty people in here making phone calls. They were
either in some cases writing postcards personal postcards to people,
and then they would organize for the weekend to go
out and knock on doors. So the ground game I
(06:22):
felt really changed for the first time that since I've
been here to being very extensive, and I think that
often obviously helps. You know, the old adage is if
I get ten friends to vote the way I want
them to vote, you know, that's ten, not just one.
And then I always tell the people, then get those
ten to vote for ten people. And that's kind of
(06:45):
what they were doing. It was almost like a pyramid effect.
They'd get ten people, get those people to get ten people,
and then they just kept growing throughout the course of
the election. And they were doing this for probably about
three months.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Did you find a lot of outside support folks coming
in from other parts of the country and other cities
I had.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
I mean, I'd be sitting here and all of a sudden,
somebody'd show up at my office and say, well, I'm
from Buffalo, New York, and I says, good, I said,
and then what can I do? They want to know
what they could do. And so we had people from
not only other states, but also other counties coming here.
And I think it was because there was so much
attention on Erie County in Pennsylvania as being this again
(07:30):
Belwether County, and they felt that if Erik wins, will win,
and so they were migrating here to help us, and
they did, and we appreciate all that help. It really
is important because Erie County registration wise has about close
to ten thousand more registered Democrats than Republicans. But the
(07:53):
funny part about that is two years ago it was
twenty thousand different. So there was a huge shift in
our county with regard to registrations, and I think that
also played a big part.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Well, that's that was really mentioned during the news that
I kind of followed that that Republicans were doing a
great job in terms of registering new voters all across Pennsylvania.
So I think that without a doubt that made a difference.
And I think that a lot of people overlook the
(08:28):
ground game of the Republicans, and I think that actually
led to a lot of surprises, especially with the lands
the sweep of all of the swing states.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Yeah, I do. I think you know, when they talk
about the Democratic crownd game, I know here in Erie County,
you know, the Democrats they seem to come up with
a lot of money all the time, but everybody that
goes out is paid. They get students and they pay students,
and we just don't have those resources. So every one
of our individuals that when I went up as a volunteer,
(09:02):
and I always kind of say jokingly that you know,
if somebody's going out because of what's in their heart,
they'll work a little bit harder than if it's just
something being paid to them. So I think our ground game,
I don't know if it was equal to theirs in
terms of numbers, but I think in terms of the
excitement and the energy that our volunteers put into, it
was above the Democratic Party.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
What advice would you give from this past election experience
and cycle, what advice would you give to other party
chairs or county chairs?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Well, I think it's I really think the ground game
is extremely important. You know, next elections in that like
we have one starting in January, we start all over again,
and the excitement probably among the populace won't be as
much because Donald Trump's not there and it's not a
presidential election, and a lot of people they don't look
(09:57):
at local elections as being as important, but they're probably
more important than the national elections because decisions made on
a local level, whether it be the county council or
whether it be school boards, those decisions usually impact the
populace immediately. And so I think getting out and talking
to people and getting other people to do the same
(10:20):
is critical. Is just critical. You know, people unfortunately have
a tendency to be have a habit of watching a
certain television station and the news off of that station,
and which means they may only get one side. And
if you go out there and knock on a door
and your polite and you're you know, treat them properly,
(10:41):
I think people will listen and sometimes it'll make a difference.
I think my wife I can give you an example.
My wife was talking to this woman that lives up
the road from us, and she said, up until election
day she was not sure who she was going to
vote for yet. And she had talked my wife several
times and she said, you know, talking to you and
(11:05):
you give me some things I didn't know about change
my mind and I voted for Trump. So that personal
connection I think is critical.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Without a doubt, that really contributed to the success of
this election. Well, is there anything that you'd like to
tell our audience and before we close here and we
thank you for being our first guest on Keeping America First.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Well, I appreciate you asking me to come. And you know,
the one thing I tell people is that don't consider
your vote not that important. Every vote really really counts,
and you know a lot of people will go into it,
like for us in this next election, and I think
we had in some of the precincts we had ninety
(11:51):
percent turnout and I'm sure in the next election will
probably be down under fifty. But again, people need to
realize that all elections are important and they make a
difference in the community depending on who gets elected. And
if you want a certain your community to I guess
maybe go in a certain direction, whether it be right
(12:12):
or left. You got to get out there at the
polls and make your voice heard and that's what's important.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Thank you, Tom for all the work that you do.
Tom Eddie, Chairman of the Erie County PA GOP. We
thank you for being with us again. Tom, We're going
to stay in touch with you. Okay, that's fine.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
I've enjoyed my conversations with you. And hey, it's a
group effort. One county or anything like that. I mean,
Trump one is a result of winning the entire country
and that's what you've got to do. If you want
to be successful, you've got to work together. So thank
(12:52):
you very much for having me. And not to mention
winning every demography. Yeah, it's an increase with every demography. Yeah,
and that means that he's he has done one thing
that has never been able to do be done before,
and he's changed the face of the Republican Party. You know,
I think he's a common sense guy. You know, he
(13:14):
might be rich, but he's common sense and he thinks
about the people and that's what's important.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Absolutely again, thank you, Tom, and we're going to have
you back sometime.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Have a great day, okay, you have a good one too,
and have a happy holidays.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Same to you.
The following is a presentation of FCB Faith. This is
Keeping America First with Bishop John T. Coats and Reverend
Jeff Jemison on FCB Faith.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome to this wonderful day and time in our great country,
and today we are launching our new show, Keeping America First.
And we have a very important guest on this premiere show,
none other than Tom Eddie who happens to be the
chairman of the Erie, PA County that's Eerie County, PA
(00:48):
Republican Party. Welcome to our show, Tom, how are you today?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I'm doing fine and I appreciate you having me here,
I really do.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
These are exciting times post election. Tom, tell us a
little bit about Erie, PA and the county chair the
county party. There just what you do as chairman.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Well, first of all, Erie has been for some reason
this year designated as a bell Weather county. I think
there were six that they picked out throughout the nation
that said the direction that they go will determine the race,
and obviously I think all six went towards Trump and
the Republican Party. And the reason I think they call
(01:32):
us a bell Weather is because we kind of in
this very small northwest corner of the state, replicate everything
you find within the entire state of Pennsylvania. And in
the last ten major elections, that's national and statewide elections,
Erie has always voted for the winner, and they came
through last Tuesday. Trump won here by about two thousand votes,
(01:55):
So we were very happy. I mean, in sixteen he
won here and it was only sixteen hundred by twelve
and twenty. But I think his message resignated this year,
and I think unfortunately for the other side of the aisle,
the economy and inflation did not help them. Those are
things that people see on a daily basis, and they
(02:16):
could see the impact it was having on their own
finances and the family, and I think that's what turned
the race in favor of Donald Trump.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
How about immigration. Do you think that that issue of
immigration factored into this at all.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
I think immigration does factor into it in Erie County.
We do have some immigration here with regard to illegal migrants,
but not a whole lot. We seem to be a
transient point. You know, they come through. My wife's met
a couple of buses once in a while at Walmart,
and they come through pick up stuff and then they're gone.
(02:54):
There was a couple of years ago, right after Biden
took office, they flew some midnight flights in here, and
they were mostly young teenage girls, and unfortunately many of
them were unfortunately pregnant at the time. And then when
our congressmans began to look into it, they just disappeared.
We don't know where they went, whatever happened to them.
(03:16):
And then there was a college in the eastern part
of our county, which is called Northeast. They had this
Mercyhurst College, had an extension there on this beautiful campus,
and they were planning on bringing in immigrant families into there.
But then that was stopped very quickly by a gentleman
out out of Pittsburgh that bought it and made it
(03:37):
into a veteran's rehabilitation center. So the immigration issue that
we have is nothing more than legal immigrants coming here.
It's one way in which it seems like the city
of Aria has been losing population for at least twenty
years or more, and they're trying to regain that population
by bringing an immigrant community into it. But you know,
(04:00):
those are hardworking people that came here illegally, and nobody
has a problem with that. I don't think I've ever
talked to anybody has a problem with immigration. Their problem
is with people jumping the line, you might say, and
coming here and not going through the full process and
the vetting process.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I agree with you one hundred percent on that. No
one has a problem with immigration, but it's the illegal immigration.
I like what you said, jumping the line, and I've
been in many ceremonies where folks have waited for years
to get legal citizenship, and we celebrated, and I thought,
you know, I think that's just tragic that other folks
(04:42):
can just bypass that whole process. But that is an issue,
and again, the economy was definitely an issue. Can you
talk about some of the other successes of your election
day for you specifically?
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Well, I think our big success is we had a
great growd. We had three young people here that was
working actually for the Trump campaign out of our office,
and they ran an outstanding operation. You know. My recollection
is that after the twenty twenty election, Trump realized that
(05:18):
he had to look at what he did in twenty
twenty other than you know, maybe the potential for fraudulent
votes that was you know, that was over, in my opinion,
so his his his team went back and looked at
the campaign and realized they really didn't do much in
a ground game, and so they put a lot of
effort into the ground game, not only in Pennsylvania. I
(05:38):
mean there was I think they had seventeen sites throughout
the state and seventeen different counties in which they had
people that were hired to work on a ground game.
And they wouldn't work just in that one county, like
the people that were here. They were working in Erie County,
but they also worked in Warren County, which is east
of US, and Mercer County and Crawford which is south,
(06:00):
So there was four counties that they controlled. And every
week I'd come here on a Tuesday night, they had
twenty thirty people in here making phone calls. They were
either in some cases writing postcards personal postcards to people,
and then they would organize for the weekend to go
out and knock on doors. So the ground game I
(06:22):
felt really changed for the first time that since I've
been here to being very extensive, and I think that
often obviously helps. You know, the old adage is if
I get ten friends to vote the way I want
them to vote, you know, that's ten, not just one.
And then I always tell the people, then get those
ten to vote for ten people. And that's kind of
(06:45):
what they were doing. It was almost like a pyramid effect.
They'd get ten people, get those people to get ten people,
and then they just kept growing throughout the course of
the election. And they were doing this for probably about
three months.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Did you find a lot of outside support folks coming
in from other parts of the country and other cities
I had.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
I mean, I'd be sitting here and all of a sudden,
somebody'd show up at my office and say, well, I'm
from Buffalo, New York, and I says, good, I said,
and then what can I do? They want to know
what they could do. And so we had people from
not only other states, but also other counties coming here.
And I think it was because there was so much
attention on Erie County in Pennsylvania as being this again
(07:30):
Belwether County, and they felt that if Erik wins, will win,
and so they were migrating here to help us, and
they did, and we appreciate all that help. It really
is important because Erie County registration wise has about close
to ten thousand more registered Democrats than Republicans. But the
(07:53):
funny part about that is two years ago it was
twenty thousand different. So there was a huge shift in
our county with regard to registrations, and I think that
also played a big part.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Well, that's that was really mentioned during the news that
I kind of followed that that Republicans were doing a
great job in terms of registering new voters all across Pennsylvania.
So I think that without a doubt that made a difference.
And I think that a lot of people overlook the
(08:28):
ground game of the Republicans, and I think that actually
led to a lot of surprises, especially with the lands
the sweep of all of the swing states.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Yeah, I do. I think you know, when they talk
about the Democratic crownd game, I know here in Erie County,
you know, the Democrats they seem to come up with
a lot of money all the time, but everybody that
goes out is paid. They get students and they pay students,
and we just don't have those resources. So every one
of our individuals that when I went up as a volunteer,
(09:02):
and I always kind of say jokingly that you know,
if somebody's going out because of what's in their heart,
they'll work a little bit harder than if it's just
something being paid to them. So I think our ground game,
I don't know if it was equal to theirs in
terms of numbers, but I think in terms of the
excitement and the energy that our volunteers put into, it
was above the Democratic Party.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
What advice would you give from this past election experience
and cycle, what advice would you give to other party
chairs or county chairs?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Well, I think it's I really think the ground game
is extremely important. You know, next elections in that like
we have one starting in January, we start all over again,
and the excitement probably among the populace won't be as
much because Donald Trump's not there and it's not a
presidential election, and a lot of people they don't look
(09:57):
at local elections as being as important, but they're probably
more important than the national elections because decisions made on
a local level, whether it be the county council or
whether it be school boards, those decisions usually impact the
populace immediately. And so I think getting out and talking
to people and getting other people to do the same
(10:20):
is critical. Is just critical. You know, people unfortunately have
a tendency to be have a habit of watching a
certain television station and the news off of that station,
and which means they may only get one side. And
if you go out there and knock on a door
and your polite and you're you know, treat them properly,
(10:41):
I think people will listen and sometimes it'll make a difference.
I think my wife I can give you an example.
My wife was talking to this woman that lives up
the road from us, and she said, up until election
day she was not sure who she was going to
vote for yet. And she had talked my wife several
times and she said, you know, talking to you and
(11:05):
you give me some things I didn't know about change
my mind and I voted for Trump. So that personal
connection I think is critical.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Without a doubt, that really contributed to the success of
this election. Well, is there anything that you'd like to
tell our audience and before we close here and we
thank you for being our first guest on Keeping America First.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Well, I appreciate you asking me to come. And you know,
the one thing I tell people is that don't consider
your vote not that important. Every vote really really counts,
and you know a lot of people will go into it,
like for us in this next election, and I think
we had in some of the precincts we had ninety
(11:51):
percent turnout and I'm sure in the next election will
probably be down under fifty. But again, people need to
realize that all elections are important and they make a
difference in the community depending on who gets elected. And
if you want a certain your community to I guess
maybe go in a certain direction, whether it be right
(12:12):
or left. You got to get out there at the
polls and make your voice heard and that's what's important.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Thank you, Tom for all the work that you do.
Tom Eddie, Chairman of the Erie County PA GOP. We
thank you for being with us again. Tom, We're going
to stay in touch with you. Okay, that's fine.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
I've enjoyed my conversations with you. And hey, it's a
group effort. One county or anything like that. I mean,
Trump one is a result of winning the entire country
and that's what you've got to do. If you want
to be successful, you've got to work together. So thank
(12:52):
you very much for having me. And not to mention
winning every demography. Yeah, it's an increase with every demography. Yeah,
and that means that he's he has done one thing
that has never been able to do be done before,
and he's changed the face of the Republican Party. You know,
I think he's a common sense guy. You know, he
(13:14):
might be rich, but he's common sense and he thinks
about the people and that's what's important.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Absolutely again, thank you, Tom, and we're going to have
you back sometime.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Have a great day, okay, you have a good one too,
and have a happy holidays.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Same to you.
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