00:00And the seat that you're running for is very interesting, right?
00:04It is the 9th Congressional District in Ohio.
00:07It's a district that President Trump won by over six points in 2024,
00:11but the Democratic incumbent, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur,
00:15she won, narrowly won, but beat her Republican challenger.
00:19What makes you think that you can beat her in 2026?
00:24You know, what I think has happened is we haven't run quality candidates.
00:28So this is one of those districts, and you pointed it out perfectly.
00:31This is an R plus three district.
00:33So President Trump won this district, and so did Marcy Kaptur.
00:36So what it tells you is, and we're just looking at data here, right?
00:39It tells you Northwest Ohio still votes for the person over party.
00:44They care.
00:45If we would have run the right candidate, this one, I wouldn't even be here.
00:51And like everybody else, I watched.
00:54I was hoping this would turn, because I don't think Ms. Kaptur is having the integrity.
00:59She says one thing.
01:00She's really a say-do gap.
01:02She says one thing, but then she votes, like California and New York.
01:05But we're not California and New York.
01:08And so you need quality candidates that are going to be able to go against Marcy Kaptur's record.
01:14And so right now, I do think I can do that, right?
01:17I'm a political outsider.
01:18I'm not, I don't have this sort of, you know, long career in politics.
01:24And what you're seeing, though, is people who don't have, who are not, you know, sort of political, have a political pedigree, they're winning.
01:31I mean, look at the vice president.
01:33Look at the president.
01:34Look at Vivek.
01:35Look at Senator Marino.
01:36And like you said, you're saying that she didn't run against a quality candidate, a quality Republican.
01:43That Republican's back in this primary.
01:45Former state representative, Derek Maron, he narrowly lost to Kaptur in 2024.
01:49Like I said, he's looking for a rematch.
01:51Another Republican is state representative Josh Williams.
01:54He serves as the majority whip in the Ohio House.
01:56Before you run against Kaptur, you have to come out on top in the Republican primary.
02:03What makes you think, what separates you from that pool of candidates?
02:08Yeah, well, you know, I think that's a great question.
02:11I think the difference is you have somebody like Derek Maron who didn't do the hard work, was unable to raise enough money and actually go after Marcy's Kaptur record.
02:22So I think there's challenges there.
02:23He, by all means, he had the president's endorsement at that time, which I don't think he will get again.
02:30He also had the NRCC helping him raise money and he still couldn't do it.
02:35So he had all the right things to happen.
02:37You know, I mean, it was an exciting time.
02:39You should have won it.
02:40Then you have somebody like Mr. Williams who has a really colorful record, right?
02:45Somebody who's had a DUI, somebody who actually defends criminals, but who also says that they're hard on crime.
02:51These are the type of candidates Marcy Kaptur wants to run against.
02:55And we can't take a chance here.
02:57We cannot take a chance because what's at stake is we will lose the House and then the president will be impeached.
03:04We need to have somebody with a strong record and who can bring the fight to Marcy Kaptur.
03:09We're seeing a redistricting fight in Texas play out right now.
03:14And Ohio seems to be next because Ohio has to draw their congressional map, redraw rather, ahead of the 2026 midterms.
03:21This is a seat that could potentially be impacted by that redistricting.
03:25What do you think of that?
03:27You know, Ohio already had to do it.
03:30So in the last term, they didn't get a bipartisan support.
03:34So it was only good for two years.
03:36So Ohio was going to do this regardless what's happening in Texas, anywhere else.
03:39Ohio already had to do this type of work.
03:42And so, yeah, that is the I don't know what's going to happen in the legislator, but that is up for them to decide how they want this to look.
03:49It's going to be tough because it has to be somewhat bipartisan.
03:51It has to pass so many levels of government to make it a reality.
03:56I will tell you, you know, some people want to make it, you know, maybe an R plus seven.
04:02To me, it doesn't matter.
04:03I think this is a winnable seat right now.
04:06It's an R plus three.
04:07Again, it goes back to it having a good quality candidate.
04:10So if they if they didn't touch this district, I'm actually perfectly happy with that.
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