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Welcome to the Jack Hopkins

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Show podcast , where stories

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about the power of focus and resilience

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are revealed by the people

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who live those stories and

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now the host of the Jack

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Hopkins Show podcast , jack

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Hopkins .

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Okay and welcome to the Jack Hopkins Show

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podcast . I am your host , jack

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Hopkins . Okay and welcome

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to the Jack

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Hopkins Show podcast

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. I'm your host , jack Hopkins , and this evening we have somebody that the thing

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that when I was researching that stood out in my mind , and

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I'll tell you why in a moment . He's

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got three degrees from an

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Ivy League school . Now

0:43

, I'll tell you the significance of that in

0:46

a moment . But Connor

0:48

O'Callaghan is running for office

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in Arizona's first congressional

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district and

1:08

we've got early voting coming up July 5th .

1:09

The primary is July 30th , so a lot to talk about . Welcome , Connor Jack

1:12

. Thanks so much for having me on Great to be here .

1:14

Big fan of yours , so it's great to be doing the show Fantastic . I'll tell you why

1:16

that stands out to me . The three degrees from

1:18

an Ivy League school . I've always

1:20

told my kids in the absence

1:23

of any other reason , I've always

1:25

told my kids in the absence of any other reason , a college degree says

1:27

to a future employer I

1:29

know they can at least stick with

1:31

something for four years , right

1:34

At a minimum . I know they can

1:36

follow through on something for

1:39

four years . Now to

1:41

do that at an Ivy League school

1:43

, that's even

1:45

another notch , just

1:55

going on the assumption that things are probably a little tougher at most Ivy League schools than

1:57

they are at , say , a community college . So that in and of itself stands

1:59

out about you , my friend .

2:04

Well , listen , I appreciate that and so you know . So something I'd love to drive

2:06

home for your listeners is I am the product

2:09

of public schools here in Arizona , in

2:11

the same district that I'm now seeking to represent

2:13

. So I moved to what is now

2:16

Congressional District 1 . When I was four years old I

2:18

was born in Ireland I still had an Irish accent

2:21

. I had an Irish accent until I was in first grade

2:23

. My first grade teacher thought that I

2:25

had a speech impediment . I called my parents

2:27

in for an emergency parent-teacher conference

2:29

and then thought , oh my goodness , all three of them have speech

2:31

impediments . She

2:35

was like oh , I guess it's just an Irish accent . That's

2:37

how Irish people talk . This , of course , being Arizona in

2:39

the late 80s , we're probably the first Irish people they'd ever met

2:41

, probably

2:44

the first Irish people they'd ever met , right . So you know , and of course , the agreed upon solution was

2:46

to teach the proper American . So I've spoken like this ever since the first

2:48

grade . But I , you know

2:50

, k through 12 public school kid

2:52

and I seriously just had the

2:55

best time . Just

2:57

unbelievable teachers , unbelievable coaches

2:59

, administrators , guidance counselors , volunteers

3:01

, and so , yes , everything you said , I think

3:03

, is true , and you know , I was blessed

3:06

to go on and get a tremendous education at the University

3:08

of Pennsylvania .

3:09

But none of that would have been possible without

3:11

my public school experience right here in the district , and

3:13

I'm glad you brought that up because so

3:15

often when

3:18

we hear Ivy League school , we

3:20

immediately we tend to think , oh , privileged

3:22

family , you know , born with a silver spoon

3:24

in their mouth , which it's

3:27

pretty unfair because that's simply not

3:30

the case in every

3:32

situation . So I think it's

3:34

great that you've got

3:36

that . Start with public education

3:39

. I think public education is so important

3:41

and clearly it

3:43

was sufficient enough to provide

3:46

you with the foundation to be able

3:48

to go to an Ivy League school

3:50

, so that's a great point .

3:53

I think that's spot on and , candidly

3:56

, that's one of the reasons that I'm running for Congress

3:58

. So my wife and I are raising our three beautiful

4:00

boys in the same city , scottsdale

4:03

, same public school system that I grew up in there's zone

4:05

to go to the same high school . I went to Chaparral High

4:07

School and I do feel like

4:09

and this is an unfortunate thing , jack that things

4:12

aren't as good and the opportunities

4:14

aren't as good now as they were for

4:16

me , you know , 30 years ago . So when I was going

4:18

to school here , you know women had the right

4:20

to have an abortion , we had an assault weapons ban

4:23

, fighting climate change in school , you know . You remember

4:25

reduced reuse , recycle , you

4:27

know . And there's been this fight

4:29

here in Arizona which I won't bore your

4:31

listeners with , but there's really a fight over the

4:33

public school system . You know , and it's the

4:36

other battle lines aren't super

4:38

cleanly drawn but it's pretty much the Republicans

4:41

want to kind of deemphasize and

4:43

sort of , you know , deconstruct the public school system

4:45

, make it more charter and religious

4:47

and private focused schools . You

4:49

know the Democrats sort of view it as their mission

4:51

to save the public school system . I'm

4:54

very much on the front lines of that

4:56

fight , given that I'm a product of public schools

4:58

, myself and my kids . But it's a little bit

5:00

depressing from the standpoint , jack , that

5:02

you know I want . I'm in this fight

5:05

because I want my kids and my kids , friends

5:07

and their kids and everybody's kids here

5:09

to have the same opportunities that I had . You

5:11

know , normally it's like I want people to have a better

5:13

opportunity . I had it . So I get us

5:15

back to a place where you

5:18

really think that you can be anything you want to be

5:20

and achieve anything you want to achieve , be

5:23

and achieve anything you want to achieve , because that's how I felt and I want all the kids

5:25

you know in our district and in Arizona and in our country , frankly to you know , be able

5:28

to go to their local public school and still have all

5:30

the opportunities that I have .

5:31

And that's such an important distinction

5:33

to make , because to

5:36

be able to go beyond , we

5:39

first have to catch up to what

5:41

you were able to have

5:43

. It's such an important distinction

5:45

. This is a question

5:47

I have for you , and it's kind of on two

5:50

different levels , I guess . First

5:52

, let's do it on a national level . I

5:56

think anybody listening has their

5:58

own personal map

6:01

or view of what's

6:03

at stake in these November

6:06

elections , but I always like

6:08

to hear everybody's individual

6:11

interpretation . So , on a national

6:13

level , on a federal level , what's

6:16

at stake in the November

6:18

elections ?

6:21

I mean listen , I think there's

6:23

three things that are at stake nationally

6:25

it's your health , it's your wealth and

6:28

it's your individual freedoms , and I

6:30

think that's what's on the ballot . People

6:32

say abortion's on the ballot

6:34

or people say democracy's on the ballot , but

6:36

I think it's your health , your wealth and your personal

6:39

freedoms , and we can get into all

6:41

of what that means . But health , it's

6:43

abortion rights , absolutely . It's

6:51

also aspects of the Affordable Care Act . It's Medicare , which David Schweiker who I'm hopefully running

6:53

against in November he's on the record . He wants to slash Medicare , wants

6:55

to slash Social Security so that

6:57

Social Security gets into the wealth

6:59

part of things . You paid into Social Security your whole life

7:02

. David Schweiker doesn't necessarily

7:04

want that money to be there for you when you retire

7:06

. That's wrong . That's just fundamentally

7:08

wrong as far as I'm concerned

7:10

. And then the individual liberty side of things is

7:12

obvious . Again , that ties back

7:14

to abortion rights . But even just look

7:16

at Project 2025

7:18

. Some of the things that are being proposed

7:22

by the MAGA extremists

7:24

like Donald Trump and David Schweikert

7:26

one of his acolytes are really

7:28

, really scary , scary things

7:31

. So I do not think it's hyperbole

7:33

to say your health , your wealth and your personal freedom

7:35

are on the line in November . So

7:37

vote like your life depends on it , because

7:39

your life may depend on it .

7:42

Absolutely , and I like the

7:46

categorization of those

7:48

three things because , as you said , there's

7:50

a lot that falls

7:52

beneath each of those headings and

7:55

that's kind of where we get caught up sometimes

7:57

is in some of those not to diminish

8:00

them , but they're subcategories

8:03

of these bigger

8:07

overarching frames of reference , and

8:09

so I think we sometimes

8:11

can lose sight of the

8:13

big picture because we do get so zeroed

8:16

on one issue , and

8:19

not that that's a bad thing

8:21

, but we do so at

8:23

the exclusion of everything

8:26

else and there's not just one

8:28

thing .

8:31

You're completely right and , jack , I got to hand it to

8:33

you . You know you are a great

8:35

Twitter warrior and you're

8:37

great at messaging and I think it's

8:39

something that Democrats , historically

8:42

, we collectively haven't done a great job of it

8:44

. You know , I think you're fantastic . I think Rachel

8:46

Bitticoffer , you know who authored Hit

8:48

Him when it Hurts , which has sort of become a little bit of a Bible

8:50

for candidates and campaign managers

8:52

in the Democratic Party nationally . You

8:55

know , you're absolutely right . We have to be

8:57

, you know , sharp and pointed in

9:00

our messaging because there is a lot at stake

9:02

and you know it's the age where , like , if you're explaining

9:04

, you're losing , and I've heard

9:06

Hakeem Jeffries say that

9:08

the and this is a negative on the Democratic

9:11

Party that you know Republicans

9:13

govern in headlines and Democrats

9:15

govern in fine print and

9:17

, as future Speaker Jeffries said , no

9:19

one wants to read the fine print , right ? So we

9:22

need to refine the way we message . Again

9:24

, you know , akeem Jeffries has done a wonderful job of this

9:26

. You've done a great job , rachel's done a great job , but

9:28

we need to sort of mirror what

9:30

the Republicans do , frankly , very well

9:32

and just tell people in very

9:35

simple terms what's at stake

9:37

, why this election matters and

9:39

why we have to elect President Biden , why we have

9:41

to elect Ruben Gallego over Kerry Lake

9:43

and why we have to get me into office over

9:45

David Schweikert and flip the house . Thank

9:48

you for that .

9:49

First of all , I agree

9:51

on everything that you

9:53

just said , and

9:56

one thing , if

9:59

we stick with that since

10:02

I'm not running for office , I

10:05

tend to be a little more edgy

10:08

than what a typical candidate

10:11

can afford to be . With that being

10:13

said , let's talk about David Schweikert

10:15

for a minute , because when I was researching

10:17

this guy , I

10:20

was like this is a bad , bad

10:22

dude . This guy's not for democracy

10:25

. He

10:29

seems very deceptive . For

10:32

example , he won't answer the

10:34

question if

10:36

he's for national abortion ban , but

10:39

he co-sponsored a national

10:41

abortion ban six different

10:43

times . A national abortion ban six different

10:45

times . No-transcript

10:54

bingo .

10:55

It's like what else do you need to know ? You know , after

10:57

that court ruling came out in Alabama restricting

11:00

IVF , he said he will . You know he'll always be

11:02

a defender of IVF . It's like well , david

11:04

, you co-sponsor the Life and Conception Act

11:07

six times , which would have been

11:09

tantamount to a national abortion

11:11

ban and restrict IVF nationally

11:13

in much the same way as happened in Alabama . So

11:15

, like so many of these MAG extremists

11:17

, they want to talk out of both sides of their mouth

11:19

. And now that we're onto them , you

11:22

know , now that we're pointing out these

11:24

guys are draconian Like he didn't

11:26

. This isn't something David Schweikert co-sponsored

11:29

once . You know it's not an opinion

11:31

he had 20 years ago and maybe

11:33

he's genuinely evolved . He sponsored

11:35

this thing six times and as recently

11:38

as 2021 . So , to your

11:40

point , you're right , he won't go on

11:42

the record , but the record is

11:44

very , very clear and we have to

11:46

call these things out for what they

11:48

are . You know the MAGA

11:50

extremists , in particular Donald Trump

11:52

, their master , is at gaslighting , and

11:55

I mean that as a compliment . You know

11:57

they're so good at it , but it's like it's

11:59

all right . It's all right there . We just have to shine

12:01

a light on it and be like this , this this guy is

12:03

for a national abortion ban . How how much more clear

12:05

could it possibly be ?

12:07

Right , you , you , you

12:12

nailed . It is etched

12:14

indelibly on his

12:16

back . He cannot escape

12:18

that . It's etched

12:21

in stone . Election

12:23

denier as well , somebody

12:26

who's in lockstep with

12:28

Trump in every imaginable

12:31

way . Again , not a good

12:33

guy , certainly

12:35

not somebody that embraces democracy

12:38

, or at least not in

12:41

the way that we view democracy

12:43

moving forward . But let's take

12:46

a step back and let's look

12:48

at July 30th , because

12:51

we've got some people to get through . Before

12:53

we get to David Schweikert , tell

12:56

me about your opponents

12:58

. I know that

13:00

we've got some

13:02

not-so-good people

13:04

there either in terms of what they

13:06

stand for , so tell

13:09

me a little bit , just

13:11

kind of some surface-level stuff on where

13:13

your opponents stand .

13:16

Sure . So I'm in a six-way race , me

13:19

being one of the six running against five other candidates

13:21

, and I guess , to

13:23

sort of hit it head on , I'm running . The two

13:26

probably most formidable competitors in the race

13:28

that I need to make sure that I

13:31

defeat and we're confident we will , but we have

13:33

to get it done are very recent

13:35

former Republicans . So you have Marlene

13:38

Gallon Woods , who was a Republican

13:40

for almost 40 years and

13:42

she was a Republican until after

13:44

the midterms in 2018 . So

13:47

her whole narrative is that Donald

13:49

Trump is crazy and the Republican

13:51

Party left her and she had no choice

13:54

. She had to become a Democrat . So

13:56

you waited two years after

13:59

Trump got elected more than two years after Trump

14:01

got elected to switch . So it wasn't like it was a quick

14:03

switch . You know , and we're talking about

14:05

somebody who switched in their mid 50s

14:07

, you know , and now she's

14:10

this paragon of virtue . No

14:12

one's going to fight like she will for women's

14:14

rights . But meanwhile , when you

14:16

go back and look at the record

14:20

, her husband was a very well-respected

14:22

state attorney general here in the 90s , but

14:24

he was a Republican . He led

14:27

literally led court cases

14:29

against Planned Parenthood . He took on

14:31

Planned Parenthood in court here

14:33

in the 90s Woods versus Planned Parenthood

14:36

, granted some of that's part of his job , but

14:38

where was Marlene sort of speaking out

14:41

? Then Marlene at

14:43

the time gave a max donation . She said it

14:45

was only $140 . Turns out $140

14:47

was the most you could give because Jan Brewer was

14:49

a clean elections candidate . She

14:51

supported Jan Brewer , supported

14:54

Jan Brewer so extensively that she was literally

14:56

standing over jan brewer's shoulder

14:58

on her re-election night , clapping

15:01

as she was . Waving around you . Everyone

15:03

was waving around signs saying fire pelosi , plotting

15:07

the fact that nancy pelosi got evicted

15:09

from her house . And then this

15:11

was after jan brewer signed the draconian sp 1070

15:13

law , which was one of the most racist immigration laws in the history of this country , and it's rearing its ugly head again now because there's

15:15

going to be a ballot signed the draconian SB 1070 law , which was one of the most racist immigration

15:17

laws in the history of this country , and it's rearing its ugly head again

15:20

now because there's going to be a ballot measure

15:22

. It's very similar to what SB 1070

15:24

was . So she supported her after

15:26

that and then in that second term that

15:29

Marlene helped her get , she went and

15:31

signed the most draconian

15:33

abortion law in the country at that time , which

15:36

was a 20-week ban . Now , of course , ironically

15:38

, that feels quaint now . You know

15:40

, like gee , only a 20 week ban , but at the time

15:42

, it was the most restrictive ban in the country

15:44

. You know she went on to support Mitt

15:47

Romney . You know Mitt Romney was unabashedly

15:49

pro-life . You know , in 2017

15:52

, she was retweeting a tweet from Ben Sasse

15:54

, who was a very pro-life senator . You

15:57

know , now she says , oh , it was a tweet about

15:59

adoption and I have an adopted daughter and

16:01

God bless Marlene . She's a great

16:03

mom , you know , and being an adoptive

16:05

parent is an amazing thing . I

16:08

don't know that . You know , elevating Ben

16:10

Sasse's message , whether it was about being

16:12

pro-life , which it seemed to be , or whether it was

16:14

about adoption , it just again , it doesn't

16:16

really add up . No , and I'm a firm believer

16:18

, if you want to know where someone's headed , look

16:21

at where they've been I .

16:22

I want to . I want to talk to this point

16:24

and kind of expand on it on

16:27

your behalf . As

16:30

you know , I'm a former republican , right

16:33

I'm , I

16:35

identify as a democrat . Now I

16:37

I'm anti-Trump , I'm hardcore

16:39

anti-MAGA and I've built

16:41

a decent following . But

16:45

let's be clear , my

16:47

followers aren't really

16:50

taking much of a risk because I'm not

16:52

running for office , right

16:54

, I mean , I'm just , I'm a messaging

16:57

guy and I'm fighting for

16:59

something they believe in . I'm

17:01

, I'm locked arm and arm

17:03

with him . But let me say

17:05

this , let me go on record and

17:07

say no

17:09

one should ever trust a jack

17:12

hopkins who's running for office

17:14

. I wouldn't

17:16

trust a jack hopkins who

17:18

, oh , you know what . I think I'm going

17:20

to jump in and run as a Democrat Now

17:23

. I could make a case all

17:25

day why

17:27

you should

17:29

trust me , right . But

17:31

just as a general rule

17:34

, in the atmosphere

17:36

that we are in now , I

17:39

don't think we can afford to

17:41

take the risk of

17:44

betting on somebody

17:46

who , not

17:48

so long ago , was

17:50

rah-rah Republican . It's

17:53

just too great a risk . And

17:55

I think , just having a general

17:59

way of thinking about the world and

18:01

saying you know what Jack Hopkins

18:03

seems like a great guy and

18:05

I've followed him for a while now , and

18:08

you know , I think he's a good guy , I think he's

18:10

a trustworthy guy , but even yet

18:12

I would not vote for Jack

18:14

Hopkins for an important office

18:17

, because we just can't take that risk

18:19

. We need somebody with a proven record

18:22

running as a Democrat

18:24

. So that's my view

18:26

on that .

18:28

Look , jack , I think that's very well said . I

18:30

appreciate those sentiments and here you

18:33

can feel free to steal this . Here's how I sort

18:35

of describe it . Right , it's great

18:37

and I want to talk about Amish Shah also , because he's

18:39

in the same boat , but it's great that Marlene and

18:41

Amish got off their crazy train

18:44

. That's

18:46

great . There's plenty of room on our train . We

18:48

want to build a big tent . We welcome

18:50

those independents . We welcome those disaffected

18:53

Republicans , moderate Republicans , republicans

18:55

who are just fed up with MAGA . We want them on our

18:57

train and I know , jack , you want them

18:59

on the train , but we don't have to give up

19:01

the conductor seat on the train . You

19:03

know there's plenty of room and a couple of cars

19:05

back , right , you know . But it's like

19:07

, hey , I'm here now . I figured out Trump was crazy

19:10

after the midterms in 2018 . Now let me drive

19:12

. It's like what I like

19:14

that , and so that's sort of how I think

19:16

I like that . And

19:18

you have Amish Shah , who is another

19:21

formidable competitor . He was a Republican

19:23

in 2016 , voted

19:25

in the Republican presidential primary

19:27

here in Arizona , said he voted for Donald Trump

19:29

. Claims he did it to help

19:31

Hillary Clinton . The problem with that

19:33

is we're late in the primary cycle

19:35

, so it was over , and it was Trump and

19:38

Cruz , so I don't know what

19:40

he was really thinking anyway . And Trump had it all locked

19:42

up . But here's the thing he

19:44

says I switched parties . You know

19:46

I switched parties to help Hillary . I thought Trump

19:49

would be easier to beat , so

19:51

that's why I did it . That's not a terrible

19:53

narrative , except that

19:55

Amish moved here in 2016

19:58

, registered as Republican , voted for Donald Trump

20:00

. So let's go back . Where was Amish before

20:02

he was in New York City 2004 to

20:05

2016, . Not

20:07

a registered Democrat . So

20:09

the implication of switching parties would imply

20:11

you were a Democrat . You switched for a few months

20:13

and switched back . That's not what happened here

20:16

. So again switched for a few months and switched back . That's

20:18

not what happened here . So again , it's more gaslighting . You know , when he was in the

20:20

state house , he lobbied hard against

20:22

over-the-counter access to contraceptives for

20:24

women . You know he led some brutal

20:27

hearings on gay conversion therapy and

20:29

they ended up allowing religious exceptions for gay

20:31

conversion therapy . So again there's

20:33

a room on our train and people can change

20:36

, and these people may be gay

20:39

rights champions now . They may be vehemently

20:41

pro-choice , you know . They may be vehemently

20:44

pro-democracy . That's awesome . So

20:47

stay in our tent and help us win

20:49

and get over the goal line . You know

20:51

, but we've seen this too many times , you know

20:53

. We saw it here in our stay with Kyrsten Sinema . We

20:55

don't need to replace a heinous

20:58

14-year MAGA extremist

21:00

with somebody who may or may not

21:02

be a Democrat . It's just too big of a risk to take

21:05

. As you said , I agree .

21:06

Well stated . Well stated , Tell

21:09

me what the atmosphere is like

21:11

in Arizona . Of

21:13

course we see the

21:16

news feeds and we see the stories

21:18

, but to live there and to operate

21:20

in that environment , is

21:23

it edgy right now . Can you feel the

21:25

tension ?

21:28

You know it's interesting , jack , it's

21:30

not super edgy . As I

21:32

mentioned , I grew up here , raising my family

21:34

here . I think this state and

21:36

this district is the best place in the

21:38

world , best place in the country , and

21:40

I love it here . And the first

21:42

thing you might say is like wow , it's interesting , given your politics

21:45

, that you feel that way . Arizona

21:47

is a very interesting place and

21:49

one of the things I love about it the most is

21:52

it has a real still like independent

21:54

in the literal sense , like Wild West

21:56

sort of streak to it . You know , in

21:59

the modern times you might call it libertarian

22:01

, right . But you know , when I was growing up here , and

22:03

even now , there's sort of

22:05

always been a little bit of like a to each

22:07

their own thing , like , hey , you do

22:09

your thing , I'm going to do my thing , you

22:12

don't bother me , I won't bother you , and we're all

22:14

good . And that sort of has

22:16

persisted and pervaded over the course

22:18

of time . You know , has the temperature gotten

22:20

turned up here ? Sure , but the temperature has gotten

22:22

turned up nationally . So I don't think that it's

22:25

turned up any higher here than it is anywhere else

22:27

, right ? Something else , too , I think is interesting

22:29

to highlight is everybody nationally kind of talks

22:31

about how Arizona is a purple

22:34

state , you know , or even a blue state

22:36

, because we now , you know , thank goodness , we

22:38

have , you know , a great Democratic governor

22:40

in Katie Hobbs . We have a great Democratic

22:43

Attorney General in Chris Mays . We have a

22:45

great Democratic Secretary of State in

22:47

Adrian Fontes . You know , we have

22:49

Mark Kelly . Obviously , you know , kyrsten

22:51

Sinema was a Democrat . Hopefully Ruben Gallego

22:53

will be winning that seat , so you can look

22:55

at Arizona and say , wow , it's a purple state or

22:58

maybe even a blue state . I actually

23:00

think it's still kind of a pink

23:02

state , and what I mean by that is

23:04

I think there are still a lot of

23:07

McCain Republicans here

23:09

who have a real identity crisis

23:12

, and these are the people that

23:14

we want to reach out to , and independents

23:16

as well . We want to bring them to our side of

23:18

the tent , and we've done that to a large degree

23:20

, including people like Marlene

23:22

and Amish , but we want to continue

23:24

to do that , because those

23:27

are the folks that basically they have an identity

23:29

crisis . They're like well , I don't usually support

23:31

Democrats , but I'm not a MAGA extremist

23:34

. I really don't like Donald Trump . I really don't

23:36

like the direction that we're going in with that

23:38

. So , you know , I think I'm

23:41

willing to make that leap over

23:43

and support a good , moderate

23:45

Democrat who grew up here raising his family

23:48

or has some financial expertise

23:50

from working on Wall Street . You know those

23:57

are the people that we need to appeal to . But I think if you're really thinking about

23:59

what is Arizona , I would say it's pink , but it's not deep

24:01

red . And the Republican

24:03

Party , to a degree , can't get

24:06

out of its own way because they keep nominating

24:08

these crazy MAGA candidates that can't

24:10

win general elections and I think

24:12

you find those moderate R's that

24:15

like they just want their party back , right

24:17

, you know ? And the longer this MAGA stuff goes on , the

24:19

more things continue to come our way and

24:21

, quite frankly , jack , rightfully

24:23

so , you know .

24:26

I couldn't agree more . I lived in Mesa 1990

24:30

. And I remember

24:33

Arizona did

24:35

at that time it had

24:37

this feel of it

24:39

didn't really , it

24:44

wasn't really hooked into any other

24:46

state in terms of what it thought

24:48

, what it did . It was just kind of

24:50

like you said , it's kind of the Wild West , it's just kind

24:52

of like , okay , this is Arizona

24:54

, almost like it wasn't

24:57

even connected to anything

25:00

around it . I lived in California

25:02

for many years and it

25:04

did not have that

25:06

feel that was unique to

25:08

Arizona . So when you talk about

25:10

Arizona being a pink

25:13

state , that resonates with me

25:15

and I say , yeah , you know , I've heard nobody

25:17

else talk about it in that way

25:19

, but that really captures the

25:21

essence . I think of

25:24

Arizona and of Republicans

25:27

who , like you said , don't normally vote

25:29

for Democrats , but they're

25:31

going , you know what . But I can't

25:33

vote for this either , you know . I can't

25:35

and they

25:37

don't want to let democracy

25:40

crumble . You

25:42

know the McCain Democrats or

25:45

the McCain Republicans . Rather , they

25:48

didn't want to see democracy

25:50

crumble .

25:52

No , I mean McCain took on Trump

25:55

before he unfortunately passed . I mean

25:57

that's a feud that's still going on today

25:59

. Donald Trump can't let it go Right .

26:03

So we've got this pink situation

26:06

message that

26:08

you think has been connecting most

26:12

directly to those McCain-ish

26:16

people .

26:19

Yeah , it's a great question and you know

26:21

, again , I think it gets back to that sort

26:23

of pragmatism . You know , mccain

26:25

obviously was known as a maverick and

26:27

it's the same kind of thing . You know , now

26:30

we as Democrats are really the Mavericks . We're

26:32

the ones trying to keep the country together

26:34

. And I think it's a few things . One

26:37

I think you know , we

26:40

, I Democratic Party , you know we're right

26:42

on the abortion issue and what I mean

26:44

by that is you know , you look at states

26:46

like Ohio . You look at states like Kansas

26:49

. You know states that are probably lean Republican

26:51

, if not , you know pretty Kansas . You know states that are probably lean Republican

26:53

, if not . You know pretty properly read , you know , and abortion rights are

26:55

passing in those states of 5743

26:58

. You know we have an abortion

27:00

access amendment petition on the ballot

27:02

this November that would enshrine abortion

27:05

rights in our state constitution . That's going to bring a lot

27:07

of voters out and I think you'll see something

27:09

similar to what you saw in Ohio 55 , 45

27:11

, whatever the case may be . So

27:13

my point is that's one thing that's bringing

27:16

over some of those moderates , you know , because you

27:18

wouldn't get to those numbers if you didn't get some moderate

27:20

Republicans coming over and voting again

27:22

for what , at the end of the day , in my opinion , is

27:24

an individual right and individual liberty

27:27

and individual freedom . You know , and

27:29

some Republicans are helping kind of us get

27:31

that over the goal line . So I think that's one

27:33

thing . I think the other thing is , if

27:35

you look at Secretary Fontes , if you

27:37

look at Chris Mays , if you look at myself

27:39

, you need Democrats that

27:42

can talk about the border and

27:44

can talk about the economy and can

27:46

be strong on these issues and , going

27:48

back to the very start of our conversation

27:50

, can message properly and can distill

27:52

what's going on and say listen , the economy

27:55

is not in a tank under Biden . What are you talking

27:57

about ? Stock market's at near record

27:59

highs . Unemployment's at near record lows . Unemployment

28:01

for minorities is at

28:03

historic lows

28:06

in terms of we're at almost

28:08

full employment , and so , from

28:10

that perspective , the economy has been

28:12

doing great . Has inflation squeezed

28:14

families ? Absolutely . Do people feel

28:17

less well off than they did a few

28:19

years ago ? Even they're making more money

28:21

, they have a better job , but they feel like

28:23

it hasn't kept up with the cost of inflation , of course

28:25

, and so we need to be sensitive

28:27

to those kitchen table issues and a

28:29

lot of hidden costs insurance , know insurance tax , home

28:32

insurance , auto insurance

28:34

, health insurance , affordable Care

28:36

Act premiums have gone way up . So

28:38

you know there are affordability issues

28:40

, no question , and you know . But inflation's

28:43

come way down under Biden Biden's working

28:45

on combating price gouging . These are all

28:47

things that we need to do , but we need to go

28:49

right back in the Republicans' face and

28:51

say , hey , do you know who's added the

28:54

most debt of any president since

28:56

2000 ? Donald Trump

28:58

. So 24 years . Donald

29:00

Trump was in for four years and added

29:02

a quarter of the total debt that we've accumulated

29:05

in that timeframe . We

29:07

need to be able to message on these things . We're

29:09

the ones that are going to be able to . On these things . We're the ones that are going to be able to

29:11

fix Social Security . We're the ones that are going to be able to expand

29:14

Medicare . We're the ones that are going to make

29:16

the average American you

29:18

know , in the middle class more

29:20

economically sound and on better footing

29:22

. So we have to be able to tackle that issue . You

29:25

know . And same with the border . You know the

29:27

notion that it's a Biden open border

29:29

policy . It's a Democratic invasion

29:32

. It's complete insanity

29:34

. It is . The Republicans blocked

29:37

a good faith effort

29:39

at bipartisan immigration reform . That wasn't

29:41

even that bipartisan . Sure , basically , republicans

29:44

wrote the bill and Democrats

29:46

said , hey , it's fine , we need to

29:48

move forward , let's do it . And Donald

29:50

Trump killed it Right . So any

29:52

chaos and dysfunction that's happening at the border

29:54

now directly attributable

29:56

to Donald Trump . And these are the messages

29:58

that we have to be able to deliver , because

30:00

those moderate Republicans and independents they

30:03

get it , they listen to that and they're like

30:05

yes , that is exactly what happened

30:07

and that's why we're going to support a Democrat

30:09

. What happened ? And that's why we're going to

30:12

support Democrats .

30:13

You're right , they do get it . Before

30:16

we wrap up , I want to because I know this is near and dear to your heart , because

30:19

it almost just jumps out of your mouth what are you afraid

30:21

will happen to public

30:23

education in Arizona

30:25

under Republican leadership

30:27

?

30:29

It's a great question . So we need

30:31

to flip the legislature . You know you

30:34

were asking about what the environment is like here in Arizona

30:36

. It's scary from this standpoint

30:38

. You know we have Moms for Liberty and all

30:40

these far right organizations coming in trying

30:42

to take over school rights of

30:44

potentially scary direction . You know

30:46

, obviously we have the presidency , the Senate

30:48

, my

30:57

race for the House , that's all super important . But where

30:59

that all converges is on the state legislature . So Republicans

31:01

have , you know , there's 30 senators . They

31:03

have a one seat advantage . There are

31:06

60 House members

31:08

, they have a one seat advantage . And

31:10

so you know , basically we need to kind of flip two

31:12

seats in each chamber to be able to have a one seat advantage . And so you know , basically we need to kind of flip two seats in each

31:14

chamber to be able to have a democratic

31:16

majority . And why that matters

31:18

is we have this voucher program

31:21

going on in Arizona right now where

31:23

if you send your kid to a private

31:25

school you get $7,000 per kid

31:27

. Well , you could also homeschool and get $7,000 per kid . Now here's the thing on the

31:29

on the surface , like oh , maybe that's achool and get $7,000 per

31:31

kid . Now here's the thing On the surface

31:34

. You're like oh , maybe that's a good idea . School choice

31:36

, all that kind of thing . I support

31:38

school choice . Send your kids wherever you

31:40

want to send your kids . Send them to a Christian

31:42

school , send them to a private school , send them to a charter school

31:44

, send them to a public school , that's fine . You

31:46

cannot do that at the expense

31:49

of the public school system , which is what's happening

31:51

. So this voucher program , the price tags

31:53

now at almost a billion dollars

31:55

a year , and so it's threatening

31:58

to bankrupt not only the public school system

32:00

but also the state itself . And

32:02

here's the worst part , jack 83%

32:05

of that money is going to people

32:07

that were already outside the public school system

32:10

to begin with . So the whole

32:12

notion that you're promoting school choice

32:14

, you're opening up doors and opportunities

32:17

that is not what's happening . 83%

32:19

of the money is going to wealthy

32:22

folks that were sending their kids to private school

32:24

already . We have a 2.5%

32:26

flat tax here in Arizona . So

32:28

if you make $250,000 a year and

32:31

have one kid in private school , from

32:33

an income tax to voucher perspective

32:36

, you're a net inflow . If

32:38

you have two kids in private school and you make $500,000

32:41

a year , you're getting a bigger check

32:43

back from the state than you're paying in personal

32:45

income taxes . That's a problem

32:48

, and if we don't flip the legislature

32:50

, we're not going to be able to rein in

32:52

the voucher program and it'll ultimately

32:55

lead to very bad things both

32:57

for the public school system and for our state

32:59

. So we basically just have to win , like every

33:02

single race cycle

33:04

, and things will be a lot better .

33:07

It's essentially the same thing we're seeing on a national

33:09

level . Then this appeal to

33:11

the wealthiest among

33:14

us , and here , here's

33:17

another tax cut , if you will

33:20

, for you . You

33:22

know , when this comes up , the one thing

33:24

that , while they're not the

33:26

exact same thing , they're close enough

33:28

. You , as a candidate

33:30

, you can't go out and get

33:33

a huge loan or get a big influx

33:35

of money and go out and pay people

33:38

to vote for you . It's illegal

33:40

, right ? It's

33:42

pretty similar what we're seeing . You

33:44

know it's like we'll pay you to do

33:47

this instead of this

33:49

. You know , at the end of the day , that's , that's

33:51

what it is . Well , you're right and you know people here , the end of the day , that's what it is

33:53

.

33:54

Well , you're right and you know , people here have referred

33:57

to this voucher program as welfare for the rich

33:59

and I think that's right . And your point

34:01

, jack if you , you know you're getting seven

34:03

grand , 14 grand , 21 grand , 28

34:05

grand , depending on how many kids you have you're getting

34:07

that money into your pocket . I

34:10

don't know . All

34:13

else being equal , you're probably not going to vote against that , you're probably

34:15

not going to vote for the Democrat . That's going to make the state better , and

34:17

so you're absolutely right . It's

34:20

a cynical take , but to

34:22

a degree they're buying votes

34:24

and keeping that sort of wealthy Republican

34:27

donor base happy .

34:29

Yes , and to people who

34:31

might say , or thank , or come back

34:33

with and say well , wait a minute , if their household

34:36

income is $500,000 a year , what

34:39

would $7,000 per kid

34:41

mean to them ? And , as you know as

34:43

well as anybody , expenses

34:47

rise to meet the

34:49

income , to

34:59

meet the income , and people have the same challenges with money at $300,000

35:01

, $500,000 a year income as they do at $50,000

35:03

a year income , and they always want more so

35:06

they can dig it a little deeper

35:08

. So it's not like people get

35:10

to an income level where they say

35:12

so

35:15

it's not like people get to an income level where they say that's enough , I don't need

35:17

it anymore , right ?

35:18

Or they suddenly become altruistic , and I think that's sort of the

35:20

bigger point is that no one

35:22

turns away free money . Right

35:24

, you know , billionaires don't turn away free money

35:26

. Sure , absolutely . You know a billionaire

35:28

, you know so to your point about income and I agree

35:31

with a lot of what you say . But you know , a billionaire

35:33

doesn't matter if their tax rate goes up or

35:35

down . 2% , like , what

35:41

difference does it make to them ? Right ? But all else being equal , you know , aside from some very patriotic

35:43

folks , you know , and there's a group called Patriotic Millionaires

35:45

, you know , that's going to be endorsing me

35:47

. They're a phenomenal group of people . These

35:49

are very smart , very

35:55

successful people that believe we

35:57

need to revamp tax policy , to tax the wealthy more , you know , bring

35:59

down income inequality , bring down that wealth gap

36:01

. You know , mark Cuban is out there

36:03

, you know , and I think he's really kind of a Republican

36:05

, but he's out there , vehemently anti-Trump

36:08

, vehemently pro Biden , and he says

36:10

that the second most patriotic thing

36:12

you can do besides military service is

36:14

paying your taxes . And he's posted

36:17

some of his tax bills , and they're hundreds of millions

36:19

of dollars , and he says that he's happy

36:21

to pay that because that's what he's

36:23

doing for America . But anyway

36:25

, that was a little bit of a side tangent in saying that

36:27

most people , if they

36:29

have the opportunity to have more money in their pocket

36:32

, not less , that is how they're

36:34

going to vote , that's who they're going to support

36:36

, and so you know . You're absolutely

36:39

correct that . You know what Donald

36:41

Trump did and what David Schweikert pushed

36:43

hard for with the Trump tax cuts . That

36:45

was a $3 trillion gift

36:47

to the wealthiest folks in this country

36:50

and sadly you're

36:52

not wrong they haven't forgotten it

36:55

. But the reality is . One

36:57

thing that I hate is I hate the term

37:00

. The rich need to pay their fair share

37:02

. I don't have all the numbers in front of me , but

37:04

if you look at the top 5%

37:07

in this country pay like 85%

37:09

of the taxes or something very

37:11

high like that , and

37:14

so the reality is the wealthy in this country

37:16

are certainly paying their fair share

37:18

from a sort of aggregate percentage

37:21

standpoint . So I don't like the term pay their

37:23

fair share . But we have budget

37:25

deficits . We have a lot of things

37:27

that we need to do domestically . We need to support

37:30

our allies and support democracy

37:32

globally . Domestically

37:35

, we need to support our allies and support democracy globally . So we need

37:37

to ask the wealthiest folks in this country , we need to ask the wealthiest corporations

37:40

in this country to do a little bit more

37:42

, to pay a little bit more . We need to make the tax

37:44

code more fair . We need to make sure that it doesn't

37:46

disadvantage small businesses at the

37:49

expense of large corporations . We need to

37:51

make sure , on an individual level , that

37:53

it doesn't disadvantage the middle class

37:55

or the upper middle class at the expense

37:57

of billionaires . And so those are things

37:59

that we need to do . We need to close loopholes . We need to revamp

38:02

our tax

38:05

code . We can do that . The American

38:07

experiment has been great and it's going

38:09

to continue to work . We

38:11

just all need to come together . We need to have common

38:14

goals , common ideals , and

38:16

let's set us up for success

38:18

for the next 250 years

38:20

. You know that's what I'm going to Washington

38:22

to do . We need to be pragmatic , we

38:24

need to be practical and we need to be smart , and

38:27

you know this , too , shall pass

38:29

as long as everybody gets out

38:32

there and votes like their lives depend on it . Beautifully

38:34

said .

38:36

As we prepare to close out here

38:38

, I want to remind people

38:40

of something about the man that

38:42

you'll hopefully be facing

38:44

in the general election David Schweikert . He

38:48

voted to throw

38:50

out the Pennsylvania electoral

38:53

votes . He

38:55

was for throwing

38:58

out a free and fair election

39:00

won by Joe Biden

39:02

. He was okay

39:05

with watching

39:07

everything dissolve , as

39:10

we know now , illegally

39:13

, in a manner that was

39:15

not paired up with the US Constitution

39:17

, because

39:28

people were going to prison for the things that happened in that whole

39:30

scheme . If you will , I'm

39:33

going to give you the last word and then we'll close out . If you had like a 15 , 20 second

39:35

elevator speech for people

39:37

as we head into July

39:40

and early voting starts

39:42

I think you said the 5th and

39:45

then the election being the 30th what

39:48

do you tell them on that elevator speech ?

39:52

It's all about electability . We

39:54

have to beat David Schweikert

39:56

. You know , I grew up here , I'm from

39:59

the district , I'm for the district , I'm raising

40:01

my family here . I've spent more time here than

40:03

I've spent anywhere in my life . I've

40:05

always been a Democrat . I have long

40:07

held progressive values . I can flip

40:09

this seat without sacrificing

40:12

our principles and , most importantly

40:14

, I have the team and the resources

40:16

to get it done . I'm the only candidate in this race

40:18

with more cats on hand than David Schweikert . We

40:21

think this is a $9 million general

40:23

election . I've raised money , I'm proud

40:25

to say , in all 50 states and Washington

40:27

DC . This is a national

40:29

race with national implications

40:32

, and the team that I have

40:34

running my campaign is the same campaign team

40:36

that got Adrian Fontes elected secretary of state

40:38

in 2022 . He won by the largest

40:41

margin statewide of anybody . We took

40:43

a great mousetrap that he'd already built

40:45

. We bolted onto it and made it even

40:47

better . You know my campaign manager

40:49

was campaign manager of the year for Adrian Fontes

40:51

. She's nominated again for my campaign .

40:53

She's in the Arizona .

40:54

Democratic Party . So we

40:56

can get this done , jack , but

40:58

we need voters to show up

41:00

in July . Vote Connor O'Callaghan

41:03

, get me on the ballot for November

41:05

, and I promise you David

41:07

Schweikert's 14-year reign will

41:09

finally come to an end .

41:11

Fantastic . So if you

41:13

are somebody who can vote in that

41:15

election , vote Connor

41:17

O'Callaghan . This

41:20

is the guy who's not compromised . This is

41:22

a guy who's not decided

41:24

late in life that he's going to be

41:26

a Democrat . This is a guy who , two

41:28

years ago , was not voting

41:30

for Donald Trump , was not representing

41:33

a Republican or a MAGA

41:35

candidate in any race

41:37

. This is the guy

41:40

we need to put in office in Arizona's

41:42

first congressional district , connor

41:44

O'Callaghan . Connor

41:46

, it was a pleasure to have you and

41:49

after you have won the

41:51

primary , I'd love to have you back

41:53

on .

41:55

Would love to be back on , Jack . You're awesome . I

41:57

appreciate all you're doing on the front lines

41:59

to help protect democracy and I

42:01

would love to come back anytime We'll

42:15

see

42:20

you

42:23

next

42:25

time .