Former Green Beret John Frankman on Running for Congress in Florida District 1 | Veterans, Freedom & Conservative Leadership

In this episode of Panhandle Pulse, host Chuck Asbury sits down with John Frankman, former U.S. Army Green Beret, veteran advocate, and Republican candidate for Florida's 1st Congressional District.

John shares his journey from military service and Special Forces training to entering the political arena after being affected by the military COVID-19 vaccine mandate. He discusses the challenges of becoming a Green Beret, his faith-driven leadership philosophy, and why he believes Florida's most veteran-dense congressional district needs stronger representation in Washington.

Topics covered include:

• John Frankman's military background and path to the Green Berets
• Life in Northwest Florida and why he chose to make the Panhandle home
• The impact of federal government expansion and constitutional concerns
• Veterans' healthcare and the push for a VA hospital in the region
• Government spending, inflation, and affordability challenges
• Medical freedom and accountability in government
• Congressional term limits and stock trading reform
• Infrastructure, military readiness, and transportation priorities
• Campaigning as a grassroots challenger against an incumbent candidate
• The role of faith, service, and leadership in public office

Whether you're a voter in Florida's 1st Congressional District or simply interested in military service, public policy, and grassroots politics, this conversation provides an in-depth look at the issues shaping the future of Northwest Florida.

🎙️ Listen now to hear John Frankman's vision for veterans, freedom, accountability, and conservative leadership in Congress.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome to the Pain Handle Pulse, the show that dives into real challenges and honest conversations shaping the Florida pain handle. I'm your host, Chuck Asbury. Each week we sit down with the people who make our community strong, sharing real issues, real conversations, and no filters. Hey guys, welcome back to Panhandle Paul. And John Frankman today. Welcome to the show. He is a former Green Beret and now running for Congress in Florida District 1. That's correct. Yeah, thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it. Yeah, I'm excited that you're here. So the goal is to inform people in the district here to learn more about you and just everyone that's making a difference in the panhandle.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Yeah, thanks. And first I'll give a shout out to Jojo who's letting us record at her coffee shop. It's where I met her back in uh 2021 when all the craziness was happening with COVID. We had regular meetings here. She's a great community leader and great coffee shop if you've ever been in the Blue Water area.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Yeah, it's great right here in Niceville, Blue Water. So first time being in here. It's a really nice setup. They just got done having a homeschooling class right over there as well. So yeah. Yeah, a lot of nice, nice place. So for the listeners in the area that may not know you, tell us your background. Where'd you grow up and how did you find the pain handle?

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Sure. I was born in Los Angeles and grew up in the DC metro area. My parents, they they divorced and moved around a good bit. And then my stepdad was in the military. So really grew up all across the country. And I ended up going into the military on active duty in 2015. And what brought me here first was ranger school. So infantry officer, ranger school, the last phase of ranger school here in Florida. So didn't have uh the best experience of the panhandle. Right. But afterwards, when I got done with the special forces qualification course, there's five special forces groups you can get assigned to because I had a background in Spanish. I got assigned down to here, seventh special forces group, where we focus on Central and South America. So I got stationed here in 2020 and it's the longest I've lived in one place. Chose to make it home after getting out in 2023.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Nice. Yeah. It's a great area to be in here.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

There's all kinds of activities, water, people. It's just a great place. And it's the most veteran-dense district in the country. Like a lot of people don't realize we have more veterans here in this congressional district than any other place. So you have plenty of veteran transplants that come here, love the area, make it their home. Yeah, yep. That's it's definitely my dad was down here too.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

He was a veteran in the area. Um my sister, my younger sister is as well. So this is a a very high populated veteran area and military, active military bases. So what wanted you to become a Green Bray to join the special forces in the Army? Did that something you've wanted to be as a kid, or are you just Yeah?

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Yeah, I mean, that's a great question. I always thought about just service in different ways. I was very ideological as a kid, very faithful, always believed in God, always when you just use the gifts God gave me for the greater good. And I thought about military service, police service. My dad, he was a police officer with the Los Angeles Police Department for over 20 years in the reserves. Um then my stepdad was in the military, and that exposed me to that, and even finding old Halloween costumes and pictures of me wearing military stuff. So very much always interested in just using those physical leadership gifts, love of country, and providing that service. So it was determined by high school that, yeah, I'm going in the military one way or the other. That is going to happen. I did ROTC in college through Wheaton College, and I had a kind of weird route into the military. I converted to Catholicism when I was 15 and discerned the priesthood after leaving college. So commissioned in the army, then spent four years studying for the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. and the military archdiocese with the plan of being an army chaplain. After discerning that wasn't what God was calling me to do, I went as an infantry officer. And it was during ranger school that I'd met a number of very solid Green Grays and thought, you know, this seems like a very nice kind of stepping point from infantry. I love that you have the language aspect. There's another definition or saying, or what some people say about Green Grays is it's like a missionary with a rifle. Because you really go into other countries, you work with the rebel force, with a guerrilla force, and you overthrow terrible governments, right? Like overly controlling unlawful governments. So really was drawn to that kind of mission.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Yeah. So for the people that may not know, like it takes serious commitment and a lot of effort to become a Green Beret. Tell uh tell them a little bit about that and the path. Like the determination to become it is not easy for someone just to do.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Right. Yeah. I mean, as an officer, you have to have been in the military for a number of years and you have to be pretty much promotable to captain. So you can't just go in as an officer and say, I want to be a special forces green braet. You have to first do your years. Most people are infantry. So I was an infantry officer first, had already done the infantry basic officer leadership course, ranger school, airborne school. And then trying out, you have to go through special forces assessment selection, which is a three-week selection process before you even begin the training to become a green bray. That involves IQ tests, physical aptitude tests, language aptitude tests, um, psychological examinations. You have land navigation, you have team week where you carry more weight than you ever thought was possible for further than possible. You end with a 20-plus mile ruck march where they don't give you a watch, tell you where you are, you just keep going until you're done. And I think it was about a 30, 35% attrition rate, just that. And then it was another two years of training when I got to Q course in North Carolina before I actually graduated, finished the whole special forces qualification course, including military free fall, to actually come back here.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Okay. Yeah. And so how long were you the air force in the Army for the Green Bray?

SPEAKER_00 5:17

Uh yeah. So I I was at Seventh Special Forces Group for three years. So did about two years of training for the Green Brays and then spent three years down here. And my tri my service ended early based on the COVID vaccine mandate, which is what ultimately led me or forced me out of the military um and got me interested in politics or where politics more or less got involved in me. Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

Yeah. And as I've we've seen, you got in 2024, all over the news, you got to meet President Trump out there. So how is that experience doing that uh and just being in the presence of the president as well as talking to him about how the mandate and the force interrupted your career?

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Yeah, that was such a surreal experience. I mean, just from the start of the national anthem, being on stage in front of thousands of people to Trump walking out with God bless the USA, that famous song. And then I'm just having gone through all this suffering and difficulty under the Biden regime, not just for me, but for the other tens of thousands of service members affected. So it was just incredibly powerful. And I don't know how much it shows in the video, but I was certainly nervous. Yeah. But it was an amazing opportunity to ask him and say, I'm John Frankman. I was a special forces green beret forced out for not getting the shot. And this Biden regime was just awful for the military. So what we do to repair the military and hold leaders accountable. And then to have him ask me questions back was not expected, but uh pretty fun. You know, he asked, were was I in the military? Yes. Did you get the shot? No. And then just raucous applause from the crowd was pretty fun. Uh, and then just sharing that. And he asked if I would go back in. I said if there's accountability potentially. He said there'd be accountability that he'd fire their asses, and that was just pretty funny.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Yeah, and as it does with in the government space, it takes time to do anything or make large changes in there. How do people think in in in everyday life, right? We use government and you're running for Congress here, and we'll we'll transition to that in a minute. But the overreach and the power of the federal government that mandates you as a service member or us as citizens to get a vaccine or do something outside of the realm, how do you see the government continue to gain more control and power over the citizens, or do you feel like they there's a way to start checking it?

SPEAKER_00 7:14

We need to check that in incredibly. I mean, the amount of power that they have is only continuing to increase. And right now, we are kind of staving that power away because we have President Trump who's not going to use that power in the same way. But he's doing that through executive orders. Congress really hasn't done anything to step up and to make sure that the sins that have happened under the Biden regime don't happen to us again. Our founding fathers, some of the things that we're going through right now, our founding fathers would have never ever dreamed of. They would have absolutely had a medical freedom amendment if that's something that they would have seen the future and seen the difficulties that we're having. They would have never anticipated the surveillance state that's happening right now. We're seeing the flock cameras here in Florida. Um, and there's so many intrusions into our privacy and against our Fourth Amendment rights. But the federal government is just way too big. We've lost any sense of the Tenth Amendment, which states that if the powers aren't relegated in the Constitution of the federal government, it belongs to the state. And we really need to get back to that. We need to shrink the federal government like crazy because it's right.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

And then as we see now over the fraud and abuse that's happening, not only in Minnesota and California, but also in the state of Florida, uh, to the same degree. There's got to be accountability in there.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Right. Yeah. And just that's another thing where have loved Blazingolia. And it's incredible to me that within six months has found almost, what, two billion dollars of wasteful fraudulent spending, which makes me wonder, hmm, what did your predecessor do?

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Yeah, especially inside here. And that brings to a point. So you've got into politics where you've wanted to run and make a difference because you see the overreaching government. How did you get involved in the process? How did it start?

SPEAKER_00 8:38

When I got out of the military, the first thing I did is I went on an eight-day silent retreat and I was asking, God, what do you want me to do? And I was even considering going back to seminary. At the time, I was single and didn't have the military commitment. But going through that retreat, going through that prayer period. Afterwards, I wrote and published an article, an op-ed that got published in the Floridian. And from that, that turned into interviews and turned into other op-eds and turned into going in up and seeing congressmen. Um, and it was really the fruit of that retreat of just trying to seek God's will that I think providentially set up a number of things that had happened to really put me in a position to have a voice for others that they might not have had. It led to going to the State of the Union with Matt Gates as well and a number of other amazing opportunities. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

And now you're a few months into the process, the primary election's in August coming up. How is that seeing behind the curtain a little bit behind what's going on within the Republican Party itself because you're running as a Republican candidate?

SPEAKER_00 9:33

Yeah, I mean, and it's it's a really interesting experience because I ran in the special election last time and running this time as well. And just just the whole going against an incumbent is a is a difficult thing. And just I think seeing how establishment that the party can be, that I think we we look at the democracy, we hope that it's it's a fair shot for everybody who wants to get up there. But to see how much you have like pre-selected candidates that are kind of picked, established, they get the backing early on, how much money is involved. Um, I I think if we look at what the Thomas Massey loss that happened just a week ago, which which I'm disinhear, disinheartened about, Massey was one of the bigger champions I felt for military members and somebody I looked up to and got to know. But yeah, it's it's it's a battle, but it's a battle worth having. And if we don't have citizens that get in there and step in and do the right thing, it is a David versus Goliath fight, but with God's help, anything is possible. And we're called to not necessarily success, but to to fidelity, to doing the right thing. And if he gives us the grace, if we amass our power together, it's something that we can overcome.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Yeah, definitely. I agree. I mean, anything behind I'm faith-based in my family as well as you are, you you lead with your faith, and then everything else will follow in there and you serve others. The key behind that is that mechanism, you serve others. And I think a lot of politicians that we get are handpicked or groomed for this. They've been career-long politicians, and once they get into they have a they have a hard time transitioning out or thinking for the people.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Right. Yeah, yeah. No, that's definitely a difficulty. And that's something where I respected Matt Gates because he stopped taking money from any special interest groups, any any PACs. And he was fighting to have term limits to uh make sure that you couldn't take any special interest donations and against insider trading. And we need those kinds of reforms to ensure that our congressmen serve the people and aren't more addicted to just staying and getting re-elected. And when the establishment props them up, they're not gonna bite the hand that feed.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Right. So, what are some of the policies that make you different from the other candidates uh in District One that are running here that people need to listen to and turn in to make a wise decision?

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Yeah, so I I'm running against Jimmy Patronas in the congressional uh in the Republican primary right now. And he was elected last year in the special election. He got Trump's endorsement last year, and I was running that race as well, dropped out at that point with kind of the hope that that things would go well. Um, and also just seeing the tea leaves that, hey, this is gonna be a very difficult task, Trump's endorsement never being stronger. But one of the big things that I've seen that has kind of failed, and what I've alluded to earlier, is this is the most veteran-densely populated district in the country. We have nearly a hundred thousand veterans here, and we have five major military installations. Jimmy Patronus is not a veteran. You don't necessarily have to be a veteran to represent this district, but you sure as well definitely need to prioritize taking care of them. And Matt Gates did a good job because he said he had multiple veterans on his staff, multiple ones who I was in touch with. Austin, Adam, Derek, I mean, you name it, Jim, Baggy, right? So, but Patronas didn't have a veteran on his staff until I actually started challenging him in the primary. Um, that's led to people trying to reach out to his office, not getting help with VA and other issues. So I want to prioritize that by trying to fight for a VA, uh VA hospital. Right. I think that's an absolute essential thing that needs to happen. Try to prioritize making sure that we have the Gulf Coast testing range secure so that doesn't sunset, so they won't get any drilling. So we kind of maintain that because if you get rid of that, you're gonna lose the bases. So try to really fight uh for greater transportation needs within 98 because just getting onto Pearlper airfield, and we all know that kind of Nabar area gets really clogged up. Yeah, I mean, that's a national security crisis. And it's not something that a strongly worded letter is gonna take care of. You actually have to have people. My dream or goal would be to have at least two veterans within the district office to one of them to liaise with the bases in in NAS Pensacola, Whiting Field, Corey Air Station, and the other to liaise with Eglin Air Force Base, Hurlbert Field, and come up with a solution working with the Department of War and with the county commissioners and with whatever finances we get through transportation, that committee to alleviate that traffic just to help people out.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Yeah. And that's a great point. One of the things that we've been down here, my dad was a veteran, lived in the area. We lived outside of West Virginia. We moved down, he had the veteran, we had the VA hospital area. So he could go and get any service that he ever needed from here. Once we moved here, it wasn't. You have to drive all the way to Pensacola, uh, which is an annex, not really a hospital, and then, or there's one in PCB, which again is another annex. I think that's actually in Panama City. Um, and then all of his medications came from Biloxi, Mississippi. Right. So being a veteran in your 70s and 80s, it becomes difficult to get your your prescriptions, get your medications in the mail, and that. So anything that could help the veterans in this area would be tremendous.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

And just putting it in perspective, the nearest to VA hospital we have is in Biloxi. Yep. Right. And they serve about 20,000 veterans. But we have about 30,000 that are serviced in the Pensacola uh clinic, and about 30,000 in the clinic that's by Eglin Air Force Base over in Niceville. So we already have a greater need. And it's a little frustrating when Jimmy Patronus writes a letter asking to have a survey or some looking into seeing if we need it when that's something that has been talked about for just years and years and years.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

I've talked to others in the past before is would it be feasible in the meantime? Because it's going to take years to build a hospital, to find the place, to build it. But in the meantime, back earlier we gave medical cards where you could go get, see any doctor you wanted, any specialty requirement you could go get done. But the way that works today through Congress is you have to get approvals, which again takes process. Would that be something you'd be looking at to be able to waive where they could just go to whatever doctor they need?

SPEAKER_00 14:48

No, definitely. And also with regards to having the infrastructure, this great point. And I think the most cost-effective way of getting a hospital here in the district right now is if you take the Navy hospital and you give that to the VA, and then you give the knee the Navy the VA clinic. Uh, they're both co-located out there in Pensacola. If you just do that agency swap, that's gonna get that done a lot quickly, more quickly. And I I realize and one of my biggest concerns is the federal deficit. I think that's the greatest existential crisis that we're we're making. And although I do want many things for our service members and veterans, it doesn't mean that I I'm just writing a blank check for it, right? You prioritize them because they're the ones that allow us to have the freedoms that we have and just understanding the difficulties and sufferings that they've gone through and their families have gone through is absolutely essential. But you try to do that in the most efficient, cost-effective ways that you can.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Yeah, and I definitely agree on that. The most effective ways for affordability. And in the panhandle here, everyone's thinking affordability, not from uh the buzzwords from the GOP, but in your eyes, how can you help winner if elected to help with affordability in our area?

SPEAKER_00 15:48

It is so simple that it's almost ridiculous to explain. We're $39 trillion in debt. If you have 10 apples and $10, every apple is worth a dollar. If you have $20 and $10 apples, every apple is worth $2. We are now $39 trillion in debt. If you put that in perspective, that means that every man, woman, and child who is a U.S. citizen would have to pay $115,000 to the federal government to pay off the federal deficit. Because there's so much money within our economy right now, that's why everything costs so much. The only solution we have to actually tackle affordability is to cut down on spending to pay off the federal deficit. That's the only thing that's gonna fix it. And wages have not kept up with inflation. Right. And that's that's the that's the only way we're gonna be able to get out of this, or else our system is just gonna collapse.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Yeah. And again, if we go back to when Doge started at the beginning and still continue to be, if there's trillions of dollars that could be cut from wasteful spending that we're seeing all across the country. Yeah. And I'm sure there's more from our area that can be done as well, too.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Right. And that gets back to the Tenth Amendment, where if the federal government isn't supposed to be the one that's doing it, you need to bring it back down to the state level or the local level. And just as a Catholic who studied Catholic social teaching, one of our principles is subsidiarity. That's the principle that you take care of the problem at the lowest level possible. If there's something that I, John Frankman, can you do to fix my problem, I fix my problem. If it's a family issue, a family issue. Because the federal government will not understand the local issue or the state issue as well as the people there. And it's going to just lead to more bureaucracy. And one dollar to the federal government doesn't go as far as a dollar does to just the state itself. There's way more room for fraud, waste, and abuse, which we've been seeing just massively within the nation.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Right. And so being elected, Patronus again, who you're running against, has only been a half of a term before re-election here. What are some of your day ones, your year one priorities when you get into Congress?

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Yeah, I mean, uh first of all, personnel as policy and just getting actual veterans within my district office, that doesn't take any legislative action that I have to work with other people for. That's just me getting good people into the district office who can help other veterans in navigating their issues and being responsive. That's a very easy thing to do. Also fighting to get that Gulf Coast testing range, I think that's gonna really secure the military mission here in the area for a much longer time. And then what kind of got me into politics was personal liberties. I think there needs to be a medical freedom amendment. I think that's something that our founding fathers would have been very much on board with. And if it takes trying to get a discharge petition with whatever brave congressmen are up there up on the hill, that's something I'm gonna do. But this is the most conservative district in the state of Florida. Our previous congressman before Jimmy Patronus was Matt Cates. He was an absolute firebrand, and the people love that here. They don't want just an establishment person who's more worried about doing what Mike Johnson wants him to do and the political party wants to do rather than what the people here, God-fearing, very conservative people, want their representative to do.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

So, how have you been getting out about in the community and pushing your message to that? Because again, the hardest part for a non-incumbent is getting out and talking to the people in that way. And again, it costs dollars for people to raise versus the establishment money.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

So, how have you been doing that to help spread your work? I mean, the grassroots efforts have been just incredible. And I had my campaign kickoff here in Jojo's back in January, and we had over 100 folks coming in. Um, these aren't your super politically involved people, these are other Green Berets, other veterans, friends from church, friends from CrossFit, just people throughout the community who I've gotten to know because I live here. I've been here for six years, long as I've been in one place. And I've been going out and about the community at various different events, all the way from Scambia out to Walton County, Republican clubs, different uh American legions, AMVET centers, churches, you name it, and then just also pushing the social media game. But um, that is one of the things that I've noticed from the first time I ran, where before Patronus had jumped in the race, when it's like, hey, we'll give everybody a look because there's not an incumbent right now versus seeing the media kind of protect the incumbent. Not really, ooh, you'd be a good person for us to interview on this, but we don't want to make it look like a Frankman versus Patronus thing because they want to make sure that uh he's still gonna do interviews with them later on and that they're not upset that uh he's not upset about them or something. So it takes a lot of work, but like I said, David versus Goliath, but we're just gonna keep on pushing out there and and working social media too.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

Yeah. And that is again that's another good fact. So there's only certain information that you can get and see, and that's why I want reasons to have you on the show here today, because all of our listeners on here get to hear a different perspective. We've invited Petronus on the show too, reached out to him as well as the other congressional candidates that are running, and maybe we'll hear back and he'll sit down with us. But the point is, is for everyone that has a fair chance to go out and hear and and make the right choice that benefits them, not just continue to stamp Republican, we go in August and vote.

SPEAKER_00 20:21

Yeah, and this area is the most red district within the within the country. It will typically or almost always go red. Now, I do have concerns that if Patronas is the Republican nominee that Gabe Valamont obviously has her sights set on, and she's the Democrat, uh Democrat candidate right now, going unopposed, has her sights on unseating Patronas. And Patronas was the first candidate to lose Escambia County since 1992, which is just absolutely crazy, right? And I mean her her kickoff video is absolutely hilarious. I don't know if you had a chance to see it, but she's basically starts by saying, Welcome to Florida's first congressional district, Jimmy Patronas. I'm going to give you a tour since you don't actually live here. Hilarious, but I just worry that with that kind of message, there is the concern that maybe she does get more momentum, that we do lose more ground. And obviously, there's a lot of talk. Polymarket, everybody kind of sees Republicans, and typically historically, whoever is in power at the White House loses during the midterms. I think there's a greater damage or greater threat of losing this district if Patronus is the is the primary or wins the Republican primary in August.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

So with everything that we've discussed today circling around, you talked about that Trump's signed a bunch of executive orders, but Congress, Senate has not picked up any of those. So how would you work with incumbents and longtime Ronald Democrats in the House to continue to push these efforts to make them not executive orders but into law permanently?

SPEAKER_00 21:41

Yeah, I mean, that's that's writing the legislation, getting co sponsors, working with other groups within Congress, whether it's just just form the coalitions. You you do that that groundwork. If your speaker is not working for you or not getting it done, then you form a coalition to try to get rid of the speaker, right? If that's something that's necessary, not saying that's what I'm going to go and do, obviously. That's something that you figure out when you're there. And one thing as a Green Beret is that we go through a lot of human engagement training. We practice talking to guerrilla commanders, area commanders, people from other countries. I mean, I've gone to El Salvador, I've gone to Spain, I've talked to other countries' units. And Robin Sage is an exercise where we pretend to try to overthrow another another country, right? And you're taking, you're not taking anything personally, you're negotiating with the other partner force and you're working to that 51-51 solution that benefits you both, and you're just not taking anything personal. I mean, I think that the characters are even more ridiculous within politics than they are even in a pre-staged military exercise. But to use that training to figure out what are my objectives, what are the goals, what's going to benefit the people of Northwest Florida, Florida's first congressional district specifically the most, and how am I going to get that across the finish line? And then to use those tools in order to get it there. And if it means sometimes going ham and going the full nonstop discharge petition avenue, that's something that's going to happen. Another thing that I see Congress has is you have that public office, that public voice to really inform people and really to move and to push the culture in a certain way. A lot of people say that culture, that politics is downstream from culture. I want to bring culture up to politics, right? I want to use that theological background I have of four years of seminary, a systematic theology degree, a master's in that, to make good arguments, conservative arguments in accordance with our faith to help inspire a next generation of voters, to get people to turn out to vote and to help change hearts and minds because it's unfortunate, but a lot of politicians don't actually care about what you're talking about until it's a big issue that they can capitalize on. And then even then, they're going to only go so far as to make it seem like they're doing something about it versus actually getting full resolution. Right. I think that the COVID COVID vax mandate within the military is the perfect example of that, where not enough has been done so far.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

Yeah. And one of the things that you're doing right now, you're already out in the community. So the what we usually see with politician and candidates is once they win the primary, once they win the general election, then it becomes again, you're in a commitment, so it's an easy street in there. Are you going to continue to be out in the community and open door access for your constituents in there?

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Yeah, absolutely. And I'm actually going to live here too. But I I'm going to, I'm going to live here. I'm going to have town halls, not just telephonic, where we didn't have any actual town halls from Jimmy Patronus until, again, entered in the primary. And even those have been via telephone, which means that you can pre-screen calls to make sure whatever troublesome, difficult things you don't want to ask don't get asked. I like that Matt Gates had uh his in-person town halls where anybody could go up, get to the microphone, ask a question in public, right? We'll absolutely continue that. I also like that he had his uh constituent service days. I've been to some of those days. I've gotten a number, know a number of his staff members. I have some of his staff members are are helping and supporting me in this campaign right now. But I think that is kind of the way forward to better have connections with the community to be more visible and be more just uh approachable and accessible.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

Yeah, and that's great. Now, some of our representatives in Florida and the House have put bills forward on stopping financial trading while you're elected. Also, term limits. Do you have any where what is your stance on both of those?

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Let's do it for both. Yeah, let's do let's do term limits. I mean, the real term limit should be the election, right? But it it's just unfortunate and we have to understand that a lot of the populace doesn't necessarily pay as much attention to elections as as maybe they they could or should. Right. Um, but I think if you have, I don't know, even if it's like an eight or ten year, I I'm I'm not exactly sure what the number should be, and that's something I'm open to discussing, but there needs to be some level of term limits because you know, one thing I noticed going up to the state of the union up on the hill is man, there's a lot of very old people here. Right. Very, very old people here.

SPEAKER_01 25:31

Yeah, yeah, they've been there for uh again 40, 50 years, and it becomes some of again, being honest in the show, don't even know where they're at. Like they're there just uh to push a button there. And I think that follow-up to some of the questions people think about here in the area is is like we go, we vote, you're registered Republicans, you automatically accuse that you're gonna do a Republican stamp. What is your take on vetting every bill that comes across you that you're gonna determine it where it's best for Northwest Florida, or if you're just gonna be like some other politicians that just, all right, we're all reporting Republican, we're all gonna do this, even though it's devastating to you.

SPEAKER_00 26:02

Well, I think that I've already shown that I'm a critical thinker. I mean, I didn't get the COVID shot, and I don't necessarily agree with everything that the the Republican Party is pushing, right? So we'll absolutely review all the legislation to make sure that it's the best thing for Northwest Florida and just the best moral thing that I think aligns with uh with Christian faith values as well. So yeah, that's definitely a hands-down thing for sure. That's good.

SPEAKER_01 26:22

And then what about right at the beginning? I don't know if you remember this, but as soon as Dojo's starting and they're going through the whole big, beautiful bill, they publish that massive document out for everyone to see on X back at the time. I think that's something we need more of. Every public goes through public, so you get public opinion on it beforehand. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

Um that was just a massive bill, right? Uh and that unfortunately continued to increase the federal deficit. I mean, there was a lot of good things in there, but that's one of the difficulties is you have this thing that has all these good things in there, and then if you vote against it, you're said, hey, you just voted against giving pay increases to soldiers. It's like, yeah, but I'm trying to, you know, my my analogy is that when a family has to buy something, let's say they have to buy a house, they don't just list all the pros and all the cons and list one of the cons as the price point of the house. Right. Like the first thing you consider is what is our budget? And I think we need to get back to that in Congress, but I think we also further should just do single subject spending bills. So totally for that, and very end, it's very unfortunate that Doge kind of was pushed out and seeing the the frustration of Elon Musk. I mean, just absolutely and with anything in Congress where people don't know, it's a special session.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

So they only have a limited period of time that they can be special contractors to the federal government. So they only had the hundred and some days that they're allocated to do. Now they could redo it again and spin off something else, but that's the way federal rule works. So circling around to term limits and running that, I think one of the people, especially in our area that don't really understand is the election cycle was just a special election with Jimmy Petronas. And now a year and a half later, we have another election cycle. Some of the part is is you're gonna be in Congress for a year and then you're gonna be back on the campaign trail because the house is run so frequently. Right. How do you contribute to making sure you're in Congress passing everything and then focusing on the area?

SPEAKER_00 28:01

Yeah. So I I mean, I think that the way you kind of protect yourself with the elections is you just do the will of the people within the area, right? So you focus dead on focus on what you need to be doing up in Washington. You're coming back to the district whenever you're not in session to so it's not just like you're waiting for an emergency session of, oh crap, I have a primary challenger who's calling me out on some things that I haven't actually done. So I better start making it look like I'm doing the things that I haven't been doing this whole time, right? So if I'm actually doing my job, I think that's the biggest safety. Um and if I'm actually coming back to the district going and attending events, it's kind of like I'm campaigning year round without really having to intentionally try to campaign. Right. But I'm happy that they do have the two-year, two-year elections. I mean, that's to keep the house to be the most responsive to the people. Senators, they have more longevity, six years. Sometimes that's good, sometimes that's bad. But I think it's that kind of balance that our founding fathers intentionally put together. Yeah, that's great.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

So, what are some of the key policies that you're running on in here that make you uh different from the other candidate?

SPEAKER_00 28:58

Yeah, I mean, military veterans, I think that's the the huge thing that affects this district. I mean, having been a veteran, having advocating for veterans the last few years, that's an absolutely huge one. Also fighting for the affordability uh through paying down the federal deficit, actually calling out, I think that's something that we just haven't really seen. Whereas I think that um current congressman is more would just kind of vote with whatever party line tells him to continue to vote for. Accountability is a huge one. Make accountability great again is another thing I put on my literature and have seen kind of the opposite a little bit from Patronas. He was on tape at a Republican executive committee being asked about the Epstein files and said that he wants to move on past the Epstein files and that there's no more work to be done on the documents. Then one was pressed about, well, what about accountability for those who've assaulted children? He has said, hey, all the files are out there for anyone to do what they want to with them. I think that we absolutely need to be having investigations on everything that Epstein was involved with, especially since he was involved, probably involved with foreign intelligence agencies, our intelligence agency to just see the depth of it, that there is this two-tier justice system. So I think accountability in that sense, he also voted against, voted to cover up sexual misconduct reports made against members of Congress. I think those HR 1100 would absolutely have voted to open that up. So, and for complete transparency, complete accountability. I don't think that there should be any double standard between between elites and regular people, congressmen and civilians. So that that's that's a huge one. And then fighting for our freedoms is another another huge one. And just having had my rights infringed upon me as a service member, as a Green Beret who didn't get the COVID shot, that's something that I actually absolutely will be fighting for every every turn possible.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

And I think that's a key point you talked about fighting for the people of the district and circle back on how we got started and becoming a Green Beret, that is not easy work. And becoming a politician or running against an incumbent is not easy work. No, no. So from this, hopefully people hear that look, you you've stepped into this to support the people and that you're trying to do what at the end of the day is right for the district. Yeah, yeah, 100%. No, absolutely. And so finishing on here, we talk about getting out the vote and getting people in a primary. The long part is it's in August, it's in the middle of summer, some of the people may not be here. How do you convince and what's your leading message to make sure that people get out and make the right choice in August?

SPEAKER_00 31:16

Yeah. I mean leading the leading message then would be that, you know, I'm I'm running for Congress, not because I want to get involved with politics, politics got involved in me. And I think that we've we're seeing kind of a slower decline within our country because we've allowed for establishment and pre-selected candidates to kind of continue to just play political games. And if we want to actually turn things around, if we want to actually steer America towards a brighter future, not just a slower decline, we need new blood in there. A lot of people talk the talk, but actually walk the walk. Um, at great personal sacrifice, I gave up my job as a green bray, something I worked extremely hard to by staying on principle. I will continue to stand on principle and fight for those things that I say will fight for if I get up to Congress. My motto is Fighter for Faith and Freedom. I want to bring uh I've been fighting for faith and freedom. One when I was a seminarian, preparing to be a chaplain in the military, also fighting for freedom as a service member, and I want to continue to do that up in Congress. So you have choices here in the district, but it's gonna take you guys to get involved. So if if people want to get involved, they can go to my website, franklyflorida.com, they can volunteer, they can donate, and you can just share this video with a friend. If it's just that that grassroots word of mouth, I mean that that goes very far. But I think if, and that that's one, like you said, one of the difficulties is how do you get that name ID, that recognition going. Um, but I think if enough people know my name and know Jimmy's name, I think I'm gonna fare pretty well. So if you can please help me get the word out, you know, this district deserves a fighter. It's the most conservative in the state, it's the most veteran densely populated in the country, and I want to be that fighter for this district and would be absolutely humbled to have your vote and your support.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

Yeah. Well, John, it's been great having you on the show. I hope everyone goes out, listens to this message, and makes the right choice uh come August. All right, thanks for listening today's episode. If you liked it, be sure to follow and subscribe. I'll leave you with this what's the biggest issue you see in the pain handle right now? Join the conversation with me at Chuck Asberry IINX. I'd love to hear your thoughts.