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00:04 - bank.

00:13 - Jason.

00:14 - Richey, Republican for lieutenant governor.

00:17 - Why are you running for this office?

00:19 - Well, it was, I ran for governor four years ago

00:22 - because there was a lot of problems with the state.

00:25 - And then, subsequently, I was the chair of the Allegheny County Republican Party,

00:30 - and in February, I had no,

00:34 - interest in, running for this spot.

00:37 - But I got a call, early February, late January from Stacey Charity.

00:42 - And she said, Jason, I need you to run.

00:44 - I need you to campaign with me, and I need you to govern with me.

00:47 - And shortly after that, Senator McCormick called me.

00:51 - He's a little bit more forceful.

00:52 - Hey, we need you to do this.

00:55 - And I know I've seen what's happened to this state.

00:59 - And, you know, when I ran for governor four years ago, U.S.

01:04 - News and World Report, just a few weeks ago, came out,

01:07 - and we're ranked 47th out of the 50 in economy.

01:10 - Right now, seven out of ten eighth graders are not proficient in reading

01:15 - or math.

01:15 - We're one of the highest taxed people in the United States,

01:19 - and we're top six and people fleeing and, we're losing population.

01:23 - So the Saints head in the absolute wrong direction.

01:27 - So I know how important that is.

01:29 - And, after some good contemplation and talking with my wife, Melissa,

01:34 - I called Stacy back and I said, I'm in.

01:37 - So excited to go for it.

01:38 - So you found out about your running?

01:40 - Well, relatively late.

01:41 - You got the call from the Garrity campaign just in February,

01:44 - and it just came out of nowhere, It came out of nowhere, literally.

01:47 - I had no idea it was coming.

01:50 - And then, you know, they're like, oh, you you know,

01:53 - you probably won't have a primary well, of course I did.

01:56 - So we had to put together a campaign, starting in February for May.

02:01 - We were very successful.

02:02 - We won about 66% of the statewide vote.

02:06 - Put a quick campaign together,

02:08 - won the primary, and, now we're ready to go with states.

02:12 - So let's explore

02:13 - the duties you would be responsible for if you're elected to lieutenant governor.

02:17 - One of those duties is presiding over the Senate.

02:19 - And briefly explain that to our viewers.

02:22 - Yeah.

02:22 - So the lieutenant governor

02:23 - is a real interesting position because constitutionally,

02:26 - it's the only position that's in both in the executive branch

02:31 - and in the legislative branch, because you're the chair of the Senate.

02:35 - And I see that responsibility and take it seriously.

02:38 - I think one of the things that I can do is I'm someone

02:41 - they can work, across party lines, someone,

02:45 - I'm a lawyer by trade, so I'm a professional negotiator.

02:49 - And mediation and so what I want to do is really get to know

02:54 - the senators on both sides and do the same thing

02:57 - with the House of Representatives, so that when the executive branch.

03:01 - Stacy, when we have an initiative and we need the legislature to pass a law,

03:06 - I'm able to work with everyone to get a deal done.

03:10 - Because the most important thing, it's not about party.

03:14 - It's not about chalking up a victory for a party.

03:16 - It's always going to be about what's best for Pennsylvania.

03:20 - How do we chalk up a victory for Pennsylvania?

03:22 - So I think of all the duties and responsibilities that the lieutenant

03:25 - governor has.

03:27 - This is probably one of the most important, because it's

03:30 - my job to make sure legislation can go through

03:34 - and that we get something that that that moves Pennsylvania forward,

03:37 - having negotiating skills and being a lawyer by trade.

03:40 - That has to come in handy if you're

03:42 - standing in front of those 50 senators and trying to maintain this session.

03:46 - Right. Oh, absolutely. So that won't be a problem.

03:49 - We'll keep the Senate in order.

03:51 - Let's talk about another responsibility then, lieutenant governor.

03:54 - And that has to do with being the chair of the PA Board of Pardons. Yes.

03:59 - So, this is obviously a real important responsibility.

04:03 - One of the things that is upset me with the current administration

04:08 - as the the time just to have a hearing

04:11 - in front of this board,

04:14 - chaired by the current lieutenant governor is now over ten years.

04:17 - So you have to wait over ten years from your application

04:21 - to even get a hearing on a pardon or a commutation.

04:24 - That's unacceptable.

04:25 - So we're going to get this board moving.

04:28 - We're going to start moving forward hard on it.

04:30 - And it's very important because there are certain people,

04:35 - you know, that haven't been involved necessarily in violent crimes

04:39 - that haven't hurt anyone or hurt property, and they've served their time

04:44 - and they're looking for a second chance, right?

04:47 - They've gotten educated. They've gotten rehabilitated.

04:50 - This board is very important to make sure people can get their second chance.

04:55 - You can get out there, get in the workforce and get back,

04:58 - and be a, you know, a real, a positive for society.

05:03 - So what about the Emergency Management Agency, Pennsylvania Emergency Management.

05:08 - Agency, commonly known as PMA, and you'd have responsibility there to.

05:13 - Sure.

05:13 - You know, that's an agency.

05:15 - Obviously, we we hope we don't need it.

05:17 - But we will be we I will make sure Pennsylvania

05:21 - is prepared for whatever emergency response happens.

05:24 - You know, we saw it back in the day, some, minors getting getting stuck.

05:29 - You might remember, maybe some of the viewers are as old as I am, but.

05:33 - Or any kind of weather catastrophe.

05:36 - It's my job to make sure they're prepared, that

05:38 - they have the funding needed, and we're ready to roll,

05:41 - and I will provide the leadership necessary on that.

05:43 - And how big a staff there would you be dealing with?

05:45 - Just trying to get an idea of the resources

05:47 - that would be at your disposal for a job like that?

05:50 - Yeah.

05:50 - I mean, you have, you have a big staff, you have a lot of people,

05:55 - and there's a lot of different agencies

05:56 - that can come in to any disaster, depending on what it is.

05:59 - So it's it's it's about organizing,

06:02 - providing leadership early on so that whatever the problem is,

06:06 - there is a hierarchy and you have the agencies

06:09 - and you're using the state government to its full potential.

06:13 - And if necessary, bringing in bringing in federal partners

06:17 - to work with to make sure that the emergency is handled.

06:21 - Now, here's another responsibility of lieutenant governor.

06:23 - So I pose the question, how much have you considered

06:26 - taking over for the governor in the event the governor is incapacitated?

06:30 - I've given that much thought. Oh, absolutely.

06:32 - I mean, when I ran for governor four years ago,

06:36 - I did that knowing full well, that my qualifications,

06:40 - as as running, as an outsider, someone that's going to come into the government,

06:45 - clean it up, make it a fresh set of eyes on it.

06:48 - But my background is in and I've 30 years of one of the largest

06:52 - law firms in the world.

06:54 - I have done disputes all over the world, almost on every continent.

06:58 - And my background's in energy and construction, which is,

07:03 - as Stacy often says, you know, my background is perfect for what we need

07:06 - because we need to unleash the incredible power of Pennsylvania's energy potential.

07:10 - We are the Saudi Arabia of natural gas.

07:13 - And then I also do a lot of bid protest, which is challenging government,

07:17 - state government procurement in particular for corruption and fraud.

07:22 - And so, I'm very well acquainted with the procurement process

07:26 - and how to maximize procurement for taxpayers.

07:30 - So I think my background in looking for corruption and fraud,

07:33 - making the executive branch more efficient, more agile,

07:38 - as well as my background with the energy sector and unleashing

07:42 - energy so we can bring in new revenue, bring down everyone's energy

07:46 - bills, bring down everyone's taxes, and making their lives more affordable.

07:50 - We're going to explore the issues some more.

07:52 - But first, let's just consider some biographical information

07:55 - our viewers want to know where are you from?

07:57 - So I'm originally from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania.

08:01 - It is an old steel town, right outside of Pittsburgh.

08:05 - It was where I grew up, and I grew up at a time

08:08 - when the steel mills were failing.

08:10 - I can remember my mom and I.

08:12 - My mom was a public schoolteacher. My dad was a mechanic.

08:14 - So we were a little insulated from the steel industry.

08:17 - But we were doing meals on Wheels, getting people food.

08:19 - I can remember my, friends just disappearing

08:23 - because their parents had to leave to find opportunity elsewhere.

08:27 - So it was a tough town.

08:29 - It's also a town where it has

08:31 - the most NFL players in the Hall of Fame than any other town in the United States.

08:34 - So it's a football town.

08:36 - But I grew up in Aliquippa, and I became I was a wrestler.

08:41 - I eventually went to Allegheny College in northwestern

08:43 - Pennsylvania, in Meadville, where the PCN was, founded.

08:47 - Oh, and yeah, exactly.

08:49 - And I was,

08:50 - academic All-American third wrestler to have 100 wins.

08:54 - And then I eventually worked in the last steel mill in Aliquippa

08:59 - to, help, get some money to put myself through law school.

09:03 - Now, tell me about the path you took immediately after high school.

09:07 - Yeah. So, again, Allegheny College. Right.

09:10 - But it was a college that eventually you went to law school

09:13 - because you became a lawyer. Yep.

09:14 - Let's skip ahead to that.

09:16 - And, which law school did you attend and why did you choose that?

09:19 - So I chose I went to Ohio State University,

09:22 - and the reason I chose Ohio State was because it's

09:26 - I was actually, at the time as a top 25 law school in the country in the rankings,

09:30 - but it was also the closest law school to Pittsburgh.

09:34 - So we lost to our 45 minute drive.

09:37 - And and frankly, back then,

09:40 - the out of state tuition at Ohio.

09:42 - State was cheaper than Pennsylvania's in-state tuition.

09:46 - But I always knew I wanted to come back to Pittsburgh

09:48 - because I love it, and I wanted to spend my life there.

09:51 - I wanted to raise my family there and all the major law firms

09:55 - interviewed at Ohio State, it was, you know, how state was top 25?

09:58 - So given the, the tuition advantages that were, well,

10:03 - what Ohio offered, what versus Pennsylvania,

10:06 - given that it's ranking and, well, established in the scholarship world

10:12 - and that the Pittsburgh firms were all interviewing is a perfect fit for me.

10:16 - So let's take a step back then and explore the reasons you took up the law.

10:20 - Why did it appeal to you in the first place

10:22 - while actually growing up in Aliquippa in this steel town?

10:25 - I had never met a lawyer before.

10:28 - I really didn't know, what it entailed.

10:32 - I can remember get my classes

10:34 - and it said I was in torts, and I'm like, what in the heck is a tort?

10:37 - But when I was in college,

10:41 - my professors would say, you know, you have oratory skills.

10:45 - Like, I have never seen that my writing skills were well above,

10:51 - you know, the student there, like, have you ever thought about law

10:55 - because, you know, you're writing your communications?

10:58 - Are elite, and we think you have you know what it was.

11:01 - You got some encouragement in college.

11:03 - Yeah, some professors, you know.

11:05 - But one of the things I really enjoyed about going to Allegheny.

11:07 - Colleges was a small school, very well academic, about 2000 people.

11:12 - But you had that interaction with your professors and,

11:14 - and they, you know, really took an interest in me.

11:18 - I graduated magna cum laude, 3.8.

11:21 - I was Phi Beta Kappa.

11:23 - So with the highest, the highest academic honors.

11:25 - And those professors really did provide me some guidance

11:29 - and I've as a result, I've had an incredibly successful year.

11:32 - I'm still one of the largest law firms in the world.

11:36 - And I'm on my 30th year at the same, same firm.

11:39 - I've stayed there.

11:40 - I'm a very loyal man, same wife for 26 years, same law firm for 30 years.

11:46 - Well, let's,

11:47 - consider some of the issues, in this campaign at least defined by you.

11:51 - They're on your website and it says on your website

11:54 - that you and Stacy Garrity say you'll protect taxpayers.

11:58 - That sounds good, of course, but what do you have in mind?

12:01 - So this is the seminal question

12:04 - of what I think voters need to think about.

12:08 - And I've been had this program since I ran for governor last time.

12:12 - As I mentioned earlier in the interview, Pennsylvania

12:16 - is the Saudi Arabia of natural gas.

12:19 - And since we've had the technology, the horizontal drilling,

12:23 - to be able to access this natural gas, we've had 12 years of Wolf and Shapiro

12:28 - that haven't even closely, brought that industry to where it is.

12:33 - So what we need to do is we need to drill and drill and drill.

12:38 - We need to bring in new natural gas fired

12:40 - power plants to Pennsylvania and connect,

12:44 - the wellhead to those fire power

12:46 - plants, the infrastructure necessary have the private sector do it.

12:50 - And that's going to bring down everyone's energy costs.

12:52 - It should almost be free electricity just for being a Pennsylvanian.

12:56 - That's the potential of how much energy we should be producing.

12:59 - But the most important thing is we need to make sure the infrastructure

13:04 - to get that natural gas to Philadelphia, where the private sector

13:07 - will build a large LNG facility to cool the natural gas.

13:11 - We need to get our naval yard going again,

13:13 - making tankers to take our natural gas around the world.

13:17 - We need to make sure that our NATO allies

13:21 - are addicted to Pennsylvania natural gas and not Russian.

13:24 - And our estimates show that will bring in 6

13:28 - to $7 billion in new revenue to the Commonwealth.

13:32 - It'll bring in 200,000 jobs.

13:34 - Plus as I mentioned earlier, it's going to bring your energy costs down.

13:37 - And what Stacey and I are going to do with that new revenue

13:40 - is we've got to bring people's taxes down.

13:44 - We are some of the most tax people in the country.

13:46 - That includes property tax, which we want to put a cap on.

13:50 - And then we've got to use that new revenue to lower it.

13:53 - That includes the second highest gasoline tax in the country

13:57 - for both gasoline and diesel.

13:58 - It's totally unacceptable.

14:00 - We have a death tax in Pennsylvania that almost nobody has.

14:05 - Where

14:06 - if you unfortunate to die in Pennsylvania, no matter how rich or poor you are,

14:10 - you're paying anywhere from 5 to 15% of everything you own to the state.

14:15 - I'm also for bringing the, income tax down to zero,

14:20 - because the income tax is only a penalty on those who dare to go out work.

14:24 - So we want to use the new revenue to bring down taxes.

14:29 - And between bringing down your taxes and bringing down your energy costs

14:34 - by bringing new natural gas production,

14:36 - we're going to make the lives of Pennsylvanians much more affordable.

14:39 - You brought up transportation just a minute ago, and that reminded me

14:42 - of a post you made that has to do with the PA Turnpike.

14:46 - You assert on the website

14:47 - that the PA Turnpike is the most expensive road in the world.

14:51 - Now, how did you determine that research?

14:54 - I mean, it's a fact.

14:55 - If you go from one end of the road to the other end of the road,

14:58 - it will be the most expensive road in the entire world.

15:03 - This is how inefficient we are.

15:05 - This is how poorly run the Shapiro administration government is.

15:09 - And, you know, for years, the legislature has used the Turnpike Authority.

15:14 - I mean, the debt right now

15:15 - with the Turnpike Authority, I think is like $15 billion.

15:19 - They've had the turnpike authority, taking out debt

15:22 - and then paying, you know, into the PennDOT fund.

15:26 - The entire government is mismanaged.

15:28 - We shouldn't have the second highest gasoline tax, second highest diesel

15:33 - tax in the country, the most expensive road in the entire world.

15:37 - And every one of your listeners out there knows our roads are horrible.

15:41 - We have the second most efficient bridges in the country.

15:45 - This is the complete incompetence of the Shapiro administration.

15:49 - He has, no substantive legislative achievements.

15:52 - He has no economic plan whatsoever.

15:54 - He just about, getting as much money as he can, the hand out

15:58 - to try to deliver as many votes as he can.

16:00 - This kind of government, it's all about how do I win the next election.

16:05 - We've got to be done with that.

16:06 - We have to move in a different direction where our government

16:10 - is working for the people.

16:12 - You know, making the tough decisions necessary to move Pennsylvania forward.

16:16 - We should be with the energy we have a perfect geographic location

16:21 - in the United States between Chicago, New York, Washington, DC, and Boston,

16:26 - and the hard working people, the rivers, the rail we have, we should be

16:30 - one of the most dominant economic forces in the world, and we're not.

16:36 - U.S. News and World Report says we're 47th out of the 50 states.

16:40 - In economy, I think people need to understand

16:44 - we can't just accept things the way they are.

16:47 - We have a unique position to turn this economy around,

16:51 - to turn Pennsylvania around to change the lives

16:55 - of millions and millions and millions of Pennsylvanians.

16:58 - And that's why I'm doing this.

17:00 - I have a great job. I have a great family.

17:03 - I have three boys that, my wife and I love to death.

17:06 - But I'm going around campaigning and all 60s, and I'm not a career politician.

17:10 - I'm, you know, Josh Shapiro and his lieutenant governor.

17:13 - They've known nothing else but working in the public sector.

17:16 - Society.

17:17 - And I come from the private sector, and she has a sense of military background.

17:22 - I'm doing this to help people.

17:24 - I'm doing this because I know in my heart

17:28 - that Pennsylvania is capable of so much more.

17:30 - And it's exciting to me, and I'm all I can tell all the viewers out there.

17:34 - And to use, I'm going to work as hard as I can, every day to get the message out.

17:39 - And, and, and my heart's in the right place.

17:42 - Why I'm doing this now.

17:43 - You talked about your desire to change lives.

17:45 - So what can you and Stacey Garrity do to support job creators out there?

17:50 - Everybody's worrying about jobs and the economy, of course. Yeah.

17:52 - So, number one, as we already talked about,

17:54 - you have to bring taxes down to make this a place where people

17:57 - want to bring their business income tax down to zero.

18:00 - Oh, absolutely. That sounds radical. Tell me more about that.

18:03 - That's all right.

18:04 - You know, we have about a 3% income tax right now.

18:07 - So to bring it down to zero with the new revenue coming in is a real possibility.

18:12 - If you look at the states that are really thriving, like the top economic states,

18:17 - they are Florida, Texas, Tennessee, what do they all have in common?

18:22 - Nevada.

18:23 - They have 0% income tax.

18:24 - Many people have done that.

18:27 - But that is not at all radical.

18:29 - Income tax, I think is the worst tax that anyone could do because again,

18:34 - it's a penalty.

18:35 - Like we want to encourage people to come out and work.

18:38 - We want to encourage people to start their own small business.

18:41 - Right.

18:42 - And so and frankly, we don't want the bureaucracy of everyone

18:46 - to have to file these tax returns.

18:48 - Let's get rid of that.

18:50 - Let's encourage people to come here to start their small business

18:54 - or to dare to go out and work and get a job.

18:57 - Every business out there needs more labor.

19:01 - And so that, that, that getting rid of that 3% income tax,

19:05 - it would make a huge difference getting people's businesses here.

19:08 - And to the point of your question to we've got

19:12 - 160,000

19:15 - regulations, some of the most in the entire country.

19:19 - We need to bring that number down by half and start a new rule

19:23 - for every one we add, we're going to take one away.

19:26 - Every business I go to, I don't care if I go to a cosmetology school, I go to,

19:32 - you know, a manufacturing facility, or I go talk to farmers.

19:37 - Everybody complains about Pennsylvania regulations.

19:40 - I'll never forget.

19:41 - I was in Clinton County and a farmer said, Jason,

19:44 - I have to report every week how much manure I have.

19:48 - I don't know why Josh Shapiro wants to know that,

19:51 - but that's the kind of craziness that is out there right now.

19:55 - And and we need that.

19:56 - We need to cut down the regulations, those regulations that we have.

20:00 - I mean, it makes the price of milk more expensive.

20:03 - It makes our pharmaceuticals more expensive.

20:06 - It lacks the access to health care because of all the licensing requirements

20:10 - on doctors and nurse practitioners and PA and telemedicine,

20:14 - we could do so much more to bring health care costs down

20:17 - for people to make their lives more affordable, to make access,

20:20 - especially in rural Pennsylvania, where under Shapiro, a number of hospitals

20:25 - have shut down, emergency rooms are more than an hour away.

20:29 - There's nowhere to deliver babies that should not be happening.

20:33 - And so, by cutting down by by bringing down the tax burden,

20:39 - especially 0% income tax, which I love, but but bringing down the number of

20:43 - revenue by the way, if you got your wish and income tax didn't

20:47 - get under 0%, suddenly

20:48 - the state would not have that revenue that it's always had in years past.

20:52 - Well, how does that make an adjustment or even compensate for that?

20:54 - So there's two things. So one is I said unleashing the energy.

20:57 - You're talking about 6 to 7 billion in new revenue.

21:00 - But here's the great thing about getting rid of the income tax.

21:03 - When you get rid of the income tax, it's not like all of that tax money disappears.

21:08 - Because if when you go to work and we're not taking income

21:11 - tax out, you have more money to spend.

21:14 - And when you have that money to spend, guess what?

21:17 - We grab you on our sales tax.

21:19 - So the sales tax volume will go up because our consumers will be spending more.

21:25 - And that's one of the reasons I love getting rid of that tax,

21:28 - because it's not as if just because I bring down the income tax, that

21:34 - the state actually loses out on all that revenue, it will recoup it in other ways.

21:39 - They will generate more economic activity.

21:42 - You may get it.

21:42 - The sales tax could be in a property transfer tax.

21:45 - You know one of our other taxes can grab it.

21:47 - I just want our viewers understand you're not in favor of raising the sales tax.

21:51 - You're just saying you would realize more income

21:53 - for more people paying sales tax, right? Yes.

21:56 - That combined with the additional revenue that we would get, from unleashing

22:01 - the energy those two and also, you know, looking at the current government

22:06 - that we have to make it more efficient, we need to run it like a business.

22:11 - And so I believe that you can get, some more savings.

22:16 - You know, we would have to do an audit.

22:18 - We'd have to look at where what agencies.

22:20 - But I think, you know, we want to run the government like a business.

22:23 - So there's really, like, three pots, if you will.

22:27 - And getting rid of that tax is you have new revenue from energy.

22:31 - You have money that you would capture, because consumers

22:34 - would have more money and then also more efficiencies in government.

22:38 - Let's, change the subject of the campaign.

22:40 - You said at the beginning of our program that you ran for governor back in 2022.

22:45 - So I wonder what lessons you learned from that campaign

22:47 - that are coming in, valuable now for this new campaign for lieutenant governor?

22:52 - A lot of lessons.

22:53 - You know, when you get into politics, it's not like the private sector is.

22:57 - It is very, very different.

22:59 - Maybe you're doing something different

23:01 - this year that you didn't do in 20 to the biggest thing.

23:04 - And that I'm seeing is, first of all, I'm, I'm doing social media.

23:08 - So, in a way, social media and this is what I'm learning

23:13 - is really the going to be the, the battleground of politics, you know,

23:18 - you know, in this particular race that we have, Josh Shapiro has a ton of money.

23:23 - Well, more than than Stacey and I have.

23:25 - But people don't watch TV as much as they used to.

23:27 - You're watching Netflix, you're watching Amazon Prime.

23:30 - And same thing with the radio.

23:31 - You know, a lot of times when you're driving around,

23:33 - you're listening to your music from your Bluetooth,

23:36 - social media, though, everybody, everybody

23:39 - is walking around with one of these and they're they're watching.

23:43 - So I'm on YouTube, I'm on Netflix, I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook, I'm on X.

23:50 - I didn't do this last time.

23:51 - And, you know, people can follow me and I'm doing

23:55 - at least four videos every week about policy issues.

23:59 - I keep them in the one minute or less.

24:01 - And tell me about your latest one minute video.

24:04 - What was it about?

24:04 - Well, we just did a couple in Philadelphia about

24:07 - how are we going to keep property taxes down, how, property

24:10 - taxes are so high in Pennsylvania, for instance, that our seniors

24:13 - who may have paid off their home, but they're on fixed income.

24:17 - They're literally getting foreclosed on because our property taxes have gone

24:21 - out of control.

24:22 - So we we did, for instance, video on that.

24:26 - And I do it on a whole range of issues. Right.

24:29 - But it's a great way to get your message out

24:32 - and a way to talk and to educate people.

24:35 - You know, people come up to me like,

24:37 - you know, I didn't know we had the second, highest gas tax in the country.

24:40 - No one ever told that to me till I watched your video.

24:43 - And I looked it up and, you know, and I certainly everyone to fact check me

24:47 - because I, I work really hard to make sure everything's

24:50 - that I say is, correct and prompt and I use I to double check.

24:54 - But it's really a great way to educate voters about the issues.

24:58 - It's also a great way to educate them about what I think the current governor

25:03 - is not doing or has done wrong, or things

25:05 - that he has said, that are false.

25:08 - So, that I guess that's probably the biggest lesson is

25:12 - and I also from on 8:00 every Sunday at 830,

25:17 - I'm doing, Facebook Live, Instagram Live, TikTok live.

25:21 - And the reason I'm doing it, it's what I like to update people

25:24 - on where the campaign is, but to allows them to ask questions

25:29 - about what they're seeing on TV, what's happening.

25:31 - And so to have that kind of, you know, weekly live communication back and forth.

25:37 - And I also think, you know, just like doing your program

25:40 - today, it helps the voter get to know me, right?

25:43 - Because they see me on video.

25:44 - Think we were talking about how important it is to do these kind of things live.

25:49 - So the more interactions and I I've been to all 67 counties, I'm

25:53 - doing five events, sometimes five events, three events a day meeting the,

25:58 - you know, people in person, but the but the video contact and doing interviews

26:02 - like this really helped the the voter to get to know what kind of person is

26:06 - Jason Richie is this a guy that I would want leading the state?

26:10 - Well, given this era of social media, and you're saying

26:13 - that the future of politics is campaigning on social media,

26:16 - what is the value, then for meeting

26:18 - people in person then excluding this great show we're doing today?

26:22 - Yeah, I mean, there's nothing that will ever replace

26:25 - meeting someone and being able to shake their hand and give them a hug.

26:29 - Sometimes when I'm out there, people just need to talk.

26:32 - What do they say, by the way? What are their concerns, how they're,

26:37 - drugs.

26:37 - The rampant, the their children being on drugs,

26:41 - being addicted to drugs, the loss of opportunity.

26:44 - I can't tell you how many people you know, their kid

26:47 - or their grandkid, you know, is gone to Tennessee

26:50 - or Texas or somewhere because there wasn't the opportunity here.

26:54 - They're talking about how bad the roads are and how bad the bridge is in

26:58 - their town has never been fixed.

27:00 - It's those kind of things.

27:01 - And I think it's it's really important,

27:04 - to, to, to to be there for them to, to, to hear.

27:08 - But it's also good to hear.

27:10 - I tell people it's not necessarily me always going out

27:13 - and saying why you should vote for me.

27:15 - It's about me listening to what their issues are.

27:18 - Jason, we only have about a minute left in our program,

27:21 - so use that time and tell our viewers why they should vote for you in November.

27:25 - Yeah, voters should absolutely vote for Stacey Garrity and I.

27:29 - Pennsylvania has been a place that's in decline,

27:33 - and it's becoming incredibly unaffordable.

27:36 - We have, a governor who's more interested and setting up a run

27:40 - for the white House than he is about governing Pennsylvania.

27:44 - Stacey and I are going to be here every day

27:47 - with one focus, which is how to we make people's lives better.

27:52 - The days when we are ranked 47th out of 50.

27:56 - An economy must be over.

27:58 - The days when seven out of ten eighth graders in

28:01 - Pennsylvania aren't proficient in reading or math.

28:04 - That has to end the days of being in the top 6 or 7 states

28:08 - in terms of taxation burden on us, top six and people fleeing the state.

28:14 - You know, I have three boys, Justin, Logan and Marcus.

28:17 - Melissa.

28:18 - And I want them to stay here.

28:21 - We want our grandkids to be here because when you're around

28:25 - people you love and you care about, that's happiness.

28:29 - And really, you know, in this game of life that we're all in, that's the end

28:33 - goal is happiness.

28:34 - And that happiness should be happened in Pennsylvania. So,

28:37 - but it's not

28:38 - that that progress is not going to happen with Governor Shapiro.

28:43 - We need to move on from this guy.

28:45 - We need someone that's more focused on Pennsylvania and not about politics.

28:50 - Jason Richey, Republican for lieutenant governor.

28:53 - Thank you. Thank you.