Ep. 66 - Guest: Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose

Guest: Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Now this is the FCB Podcast Network. This is the Jeff Glorian Nick Show.

(00:21):
Welcome to the Jeff Lauri and NickShow. And here we are in
the midst of winter and here inOhio, and we have a very important
primary election coming up in March.And today we have a special guest,
none other than Ohio's Secretary of State, Frank LeRose. Good morning, Frank
LaRose, how are you well?Hey, good morning, Jeff. It's

(00:44):
so good to see you. Lookingforward to this conversation. As always,
as our audience knows you are aUS Senate candidate in this upcoming primary,
we want to just jump right intoit. Tell us why should you be
our choice in this primary? Well, thank you, Jeff, and again

(01:06):
so good to see you, andI really appreciate your friendship over the years
and enjoyed coming to worship with thechurch and everything else. The simple reason
is that we've got a country tosave. This country is heading into fundamentally
dangerous direction. I know how toget that done right. I mean,
talk is cheap that every candidate outon the campaign trail is going to make

(01:26):
a lot of promises. I've actuallyproven it. I've proven that I'm going
to fight for our values. That'swhat I've done for the eight years I
was in the State Senate. That'swhat I've done for the last five years
as a Secretary of State, wherewe've made it easy to vote and hard
to cheat. Right. We've madeelections convenient but also secure in Ohio.
That's the same kind of leadership I'mgoing to take to the US Senate.
I've really focused on a couple ofthings, Jeff. Number one is the

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economy. Because of the bad ideasfrom Sharon Brown and Joe Biden. This
economy is hurting Ohio families because everythingcosts more, but wages aren't going up
to keep up with it. Weknow how to unleash American prosperity by getting
government out of the way, cuttingto access, he can keep more of
the money you earn, streamlining regulations, oil and gas drilling right here in
Ohio so we can bring down thecost of fuel. It's about investing in

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the kinds of energy that actually workwhen the sun's not shining and the winds
not blowing, to make sure thatwe can keep the cost of electricity down
as well. We're gonna rebuild thiseconomy by putting smart conservative leadership in place.
The second one is I'm the onlycandidate in this race with school aged
children. You know that I've gotan eight year old to ten year old
to twelve year old, three littlegirls, and I don't want to copare

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it with the government. Neither doesmy wife Laura. Laura and I want
our children to be raised with ourvalues. We don't want our children to
be indoctrinative. We want them tobe educated, and we certainly don't think
some bureaucra I should be able tostep between us and our children and try
to make decisions about their healthcare orhow they should be raised. Those are
decisions that will make as parents.And then the other thing that I'm focused

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on, We've got to secure theUS Mexican border. And listen, it's
not because we hate the people onthe other side, far from it.
It's because we love our country thatwe want to secure the border. You
know, I served down there.I was part of a counter narcotics task
force on the US Mexican border whenI was a soldier, and it was
a tragedy what was occurring down therefrom the people involved, but it also

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was a real threat to our nationalsecurity. It's gotten even worse now.
There are drugs and crime porn acrossthat border that are killing our communities,
and we have to stop it.That means building the wall. That means
supporting the border patrol, and thatmeans taking away the incentive for people to
come here illegally. So those arethe things that I'll focus on, and
I'm going to beat Sharon Brown inNovember so that we can finally get this

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country back on track. Thank youso much. To tell us a little
bit about your military service. Yeah, so I enlisted when I was eighteen
years old, left for basic training. I grew up an Akron and I
was inspired by a former World WarTwo veteran who was one of the leaders
in my boy Scott Troop, andso I got to hear stories about liberating
a concentration camp and being part ofthe Normandy invasion. When I was a

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little kid, I thought, gosh, I want to do something like that.
So I enlisted at eighteen starved withthe one hundred and first Airborne Division
deployed DA Kosovo, deployed to asI told you, the US Mexican border,
and then I was given the chanceto try out for the Army Special
Forces and I thought, well,got to give it a try and was
able to become a Green Beret.Served around the world, including in Iraq,

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Morocco, Alan. I was awardedthe Bronze Star, and for me,
the best part about it, otherthan of course serving in this country,
was serving shoulder to shoulder alongside withsome really amazing Americans from all walks
of life, from all kinds ofbackgrounds in the United States Army, and
that's something I really cherished. Istill do that. I'm still a reservist.
I get to be Sergeant first classLaarrose on the weekends every now and

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then when I'm not being Secretary ofState of la Rose, and so I
enjoyed that chance to continue serving.At forty four years old, I'm one
of the old Green Berets now,but I can still keep up with the
young guys. You've had a greatpolitical career. I shouldn't take career,
but you served in the as aUS I'm sorry, Ohio State Senator.

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Tell us a little bit about thatyour service, Therese, and you know,
I appreciate your correction because I don'tview it as a career. Listen,
I can earn a living a lotof other ways, and Lord and
I have decided to do public servicebecause we believe that it's the best thing
I can do to leave this countrystronger for our children. And my time
in the State Senate, I wasreally proud of the work that we did.

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It started with how do we cutthe size of government so we can
grow the private center. How dowe attract more businesses to provide good paying
jobs for people to come into ourstate. That was the focus that I
had. Also keeping our elections secure. I did a lot also on public
safety kind of issues and making surethat our neighborhoods are safe for our children.

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Those are the things that I focusedon in the State Senate and then
got elected Secretary of State and havebeen keeping the elections honest and convenient ever
since then. That says a lottell us a little bit about election security.
Some folks will say, well,they don't trust the system, and
some folks will say, you've gonetoo far. You know, you hear
from the left that you've gone toofar, you hear from the right that

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you haven't done enough. Can youjust kind of clarify that, yeah,
yeah, So again, we wantthere to be a Balloce. It's a
false choice that you'll hear politicians reallyon both sides saying that you can't have
both security and convenience. That's nonsense. We have secure elections and we have

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convenient elections, and that's what wewant. We've got four weeks of early
voting where you go down to theBoard of Elections and cast your ballot.
That includes evening hours, weekend hours. We have Sunday early voting in Ohio.
Most states don't. There's only fivestates in the country that has Sunday
early voting. As you know,a lot of faith communities have organized what
we call Souls to the polls wherepeople can come out and vote after church

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on Sunday. New Ohio has thatmost states don't. We also have absentee
voting where you can vote from thecomfort of home, and that's four weeks
and get all the information about thatat our website, the Secretary of State's
website vote Ohio dot gov. Andthen of course we've got election Day from
six thirty a m. Till seventhirty pm. But we also check IDs
and there's nothing discriminatory about that.It's insulting for people to say that somehow

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because of your skin color, youcan't have an ID or something. In
Ohio, we accept that very simpleidea that you have to prove who you
are when you come to vote,and that's what most other states do as
well. And guess what, ifyou don't have an ID, you can
get one for free. In Ohio. All you got to do is go
to any BMB location and you canget a free ID. So we don't

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want to keep anybody away from theprocess of voting. We also take dead
people off the voter rules. Idon't apologize for this. We work on
a monthly basis to get the listfrom the Ohigh Department of Health and to
remove the deceased voters from the voterrules. We also make sure that only
citizens can vote, and we runa secure process that's cant bipartisan. Here's
my call to action. If anybodythat listens to your program thinks that maybe

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they're concerned about something they've seen onYouTube, or I've seen on Facebook or
whatever else, go be a pollwark, sign up to be an election official.
Learn firsthand why I say with confidencethat it's both easy to vote and
hard to cheat in Ohio. Andyou can do that again at vote Ohio
dot gov. You get paid forit. Not a lot of money,
but you know, a couple hundredbucks. But you're really going to get

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a great education. And how honestare elections are in Ohio. Here's the
last thing. There's a lot ofconspiracy theories out there that relate to voting
machines. People have a lot ofwild ideas. It's important for Ohioans to
know that every ballot is on paper. Of course, we use a voting
machine on election night to give youthat quick result because we want to go
to bed and knowing the result onelection night, but that's not the final

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answer. We go back three weekslater and we count the paper and we
compare it to the electronic result.We compare them side by side, and
they have to match up. Duringmy time as Secretary of State, our
accuracy rate has been above ninety ninepercent. In fact, ninety nine point
nine to eight was our accuracy ratein twenty twenty. Ninety nine point ninety
nine was our accuracy rate last year. We're proud of the way Ohio's Republicans

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and Democrats work together to run goodelections. Yeah, I think that's so
important to let the voters know,let the public know how Ohio's elections rank
nationwide. Can you speak to that? We are unquestionably the gold standard.
Other states admire the way Ohio runselections. This is why. This is

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why I was the only Secretary ofState in America to get Donald Trump's endorsement
in twenty twenty two when I wasrunning for reelection. This is why I
was elected to be the Republican Secretariesof State chairman next year. Because other
states really value the way that Ohioruns elections. This is why I've testified
in numerous other states legislatures because theywant to know how does Ohio do it

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so well even when they continue tostruggle. This is something we're proud of.
But don't We don't stay the bestby just staying in place. We're
constantly innovating. We've got legislation thatwe're working on right now to improve the
security of our elections. For example, we found a loophole that allowed a
Swiss billionaire to try to pour moneyinto campaigns in Ohio, and so we're

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working to close that loophole because wedon't want a Swiss billionaire funding campaigns at
Ohio. Those are things that we'redoing to constantly stay on the cutting edge
of election security. Well, Ipersonally would like to just thank you for
the exceptional job that you're doing andkeeping voting records accurate, keeping your files
accurate and different in all of eightyeight, all of the eighty eight county

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boards of elections files are updated constantly, and that you're auditing them. And
I think that's the thing to doand something that we as citizens should be
proud of. Can you imagine,I mean, I just can't imagine they're
being dead folks on voter files andvoter files full of folks that haven't voted
in decades and things like that,and folks that have moved without saying so.

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So I think you're doing a stellarjob and the citizens of Ohio,
both Democrats and Republicans, must beproud of the job that you're doing and
the service that you've done in theOhio Senate and a Secretary of State in
it and hopefully in the US Senate. JEF, Honest elections are the foundation

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of our entire form of government,and it's my solemn obligation to make sure
that people can trust their elections.Think about this, the only legitimacy.
The only permission that any elected officialhas to do their job comes from what
the founders called the consent of thegovernment. All that means is that the
citizens have all the power and theyallow some of us to do these jobs.

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But that consent of the government onlycomes from a trustworthy election. If
people don't trust their elections, anythingelse falls apart. And that's why we
work so hard to make sure thatagain you can trust your elections and it's
easy to participate in the middle.High. Well, thank you for taking
this time out to just share withour audience why you should be our choice
in this March primary and then inNovember. Any closing statements in remarks you'd

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like to make, We're just aboutout of time. Hey, Jeff,
as you've heard me say, Itook an oath when I was at eighteen
and I joined the army, andI said, this country is so precious
that it's worth dying for. Ibelieve it is. That means that this
country is also so precious it's worthliving for. And that's why I'm asking
for your vote for the United StatesSenate. I'm asking for your prayers and
please check out our website frank Lerooesdot com to learn more about our campaign

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and please become a part of it. Sign up to be a volunteer with
us. We'll go out and knockon doors together. We're gonna win this
primary, and we're gonna win thegeneral election, and we're gonna put our
country back on track. And havingyour support would be a real blessing and
I appreciate it. Thank you somuch, and thank you to our audience
for staying with us. Let's rememberto keep fighting a good fight, and
let's remember that we can all dobetter. So let's do our part keep

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making our communities and our country abetter place to live. Thank you all.
Thank you a Secretary of State,Frank LeRose and US candidate. We
want you to win, win,win this March and move on to November
to be the next US Senator fromthe state of Ohio. Thank you again,
God bless you all. This hasbeen a presentation of the FCB podcast

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Network, where Real Talk Lives.Visit us online at Fcbpodcasts dot com.