Jenny Beth sits down for Scott Parkinson, a candidate for US Senate for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Scott has been a vital part of the conservative movement for more than a decade and after the craziness of COVID decided it's time for him to throw his hat in the ring.
Jenny Beth sits down for Scott Parkinson, a candidate for US Senate for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Scott has been a vital part of the conservative movement for more than a decade and after the craziness of COVID decided it's time for him to throw his hat in the ring.
You can find out more about Scott and his campaign at www.scottparkinson.com
Twitter:
@ScottTParkinson
@JennyBethM
@TPPatriots
Scott Parkinson (00:00):
I announced on April 3rd that I was gonna run for the United States Senate and take on Senator Tim Kane and try to make a difference on behalf of my kids' future. I want to ensure that my generation isn't the first generation to leave the next generation worse off than the current one.
Narrator (00:16):
Keeping our republic is on the line, and it requires Patriots with great passion, dedication, and eternal vigilance to preserve our freedoms. Jenny Beth Martin is the co-founder of Tea Party Patriots. She's an author, a filmmaker, and one of time magazine's most influential people in the world. But the title she is most proud of is Mom To Her Boy, girl Twins. She has been at the forefront fighting to protect America's core principles for more than a decade. Welcome to the Jenny Beth Show.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:48):
I want you to meet my friend Scott Parkinson. Scott is running for the United States Senate in Virginia to retire. Hillary Clinton's former running mate. Scott is a tried and true conservative who has been a vital part of the conservative movement for years. He and I have been in the trenches together for some of the biggest fights over the last decade, and I wanna be sure you get to know him before we go to my conversation with Scott Parkinson. Please be sure to like this episode, subscribe to you and leave a review of the podcast and share it with your friends. Scott, thanks so much for joining me today. So you're running for US Senate, why do you decide run for the Senate?
Scott Parkinson (01:28):
That's a great question. First of all, thank you Jenny Beth for having me on the podcast. It's a really exciting time for me and my family. I announced on April 3rd that I was gonna run for the United States Senate and take on Senator Tim Kane, uh, somebody that has been in elected office for nearly 30 years. He's been on the ballot already nine times, and he's sort of lost his way. A lot of people have this perception of Tim Kane as a blue dog, moderate Democrat, but he's just as radical as almost anybody in the United States Senate. In fact, he actually votes with Bernie Sanders 94% of the time. And at the beginning of C V I D, I'm somebody that's worked on Capitol Hill for a lot of my career. I've, I've worked in the conservative movement, and as I evaluated, uh, future opportunities for myself and what I wanted to do with, with my career, I felt this calling to step up and try to make a difference myself, rather than just put all the trust and responsibility on other people's shoulders.
(02:31):
And, uh, part of that process was just watching what they did to kids at the beginning of the Coronavirus Pandemic right in, in Arlington. They closed the schools down. My daughter was set to, to be a part of a Wizard of Oz play, uh, with another church. And they had to cancel that during the dress rehearsals and just the devastation that I think adults placed on kids, whether it was basketball seasons that got canceled, their prom, their actual graduations, and everybody said, well, we have to do this, uh, for the adults in the room that, that, uh, might have comorbidities. They might have real serious health issues that that little kids are risking if they get sick, even though they're not, uh, suffering the severe consequences of covid. A lot of adults were. And there was this overreaction of fear, and I watched the, the, uh, United States Senate and House of Representatives, uh, react to fear and basically manufacture a real economic crisis by the poor decisions that they were making in early 2020.
(03:43):
We needed more conservative leaders that were willing to stand up and tell them to stop or to slow down or just simply not to do that. I'm used to telling my kids to stop and slow down. And, uh, we just didn't have real adults in the room when it came to protecting our constitutional rights. The First Amendment was directly under salt during C O V I D, and we've restored a lot of the First Amendment, but we need to ensure that people, uh, have elected representatives and senators that are the firewall for freedom and for our constitutional rights. We know that they locked down the Capitol complex. You couldn't have peaceable assembly. We know that they prevented us from petitioning government for grievances in person. They censored speech if you were gonna speak out against Covid. And that
Jenny Beth Martin (04:31):
Happened to us a lot.
Scott Parkinson (04:32):
Yeah. And you know, they even, uh, closed forced the closure of churches when they allowed for mega corporations like Home Depot to stay open. I'm not saying we should have closed Home Depot, I'm just saying we should have kept those churches open.
Jenny Beth Martin (04:46):
We should have kept everything open, frankly, and never before in history have we used children as the shield to protect adults. Adults are supposed to be the ones, it's it's animal instinct to protect your children. If you don't do that, the, the species doesn't survive. But instead, we're willing to sacrifice our children and their, their wellbeing to protect adults. Well, we weren't, but people were. Yeah. And it's just wrong. Um, the, and by the way, the Wizard of Oz, I was in the Wizard of Oz when I was a kid, so I can imagine that, you know, you're sitting there, uh, and you're, your children are preparing for it and practicing, and the dress rehearsal's very exciting. And then they never get to finish it.
Scott Parkinson (05:30):
Yeah. And you know, it's adults that are telling the kids, sorry, plays canceled and not postponed, but canceled, canceled. And, you know, your graduations are canceled and your basketball seasons canceled. The, the force of government, through the direct guidance that we had at the CDC and the NIH was something that the states basically felt, uh, pressured to, uh, listen to. And what if I was the last state standing? And, you know, what if people in my state are dying in nursing homes and, you know, what if this pandemic that everybody's just so terrified about, they didn't know there were a lot of unknowns. And so I think there was this initial overreaction, and, you know, the result three years later is just this economic situation. I think that my generation, I turned 40 last summer, and I promise you this is not a midlife crisis and deciding to run for the United States Senate. Uh, but it was a a time to reflect on, on how I can best serve my community. And in deciding to, to step up and try to make a difference on behalf of my kids' future, I want to ensure that my generation isn't the first generation to leave the next generation worse off than the current one.
Jenny Beth Martin (06:48):
And we have to do that. And every generation before us has, has done that for the next generation. Um, my kids are in college now. They never had a prom. Their schools started back pretty early. They never had mask mandates, um, but they never had a prom. And I, I did a, a fake prom, you know, where my, for my daughter and her friends, and it was on our back porch and everyone dressed up, but it was not the same as a real prom. Um, it, it's just wrong. We, we stole part of their childhood from them, and they'll never be able to get that back. They just have to go on and accept it. But it, it was wrong. Um, before we go into policies and the kind of things that you want to, to change and the principles that you stand for, talk a little bit more about your background. You just said you were 40 and it's not a midlife crisis. Well, I know that because I've, I've known you for a while, so you, it's not like you just were like, oh, I'll, I'll walk out my house and run for Senate. You've been very active politically and legislatively for years.
Scott Parkinson (07:53):
Yeah. I cut my teeth in the conservative movement starting in 2005. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin, moved out to Washington DC and I was this young guy that thought I could just walk into Washington and get a $60,000 a jo a year job. And I, I learned after about six weeks after not getting any interviews that I was wrong. And I ended up taking a paid internship at the Heritage Foundation where I made $300 a week. Not a lot of money, not even enough to really cover, uh, my housing expenses in Washington. But I had several roommates and, uh, I worked hard and I demonstrated to people around me, uh, that I could do real work. And ultimately, I got promoted pretty quickly there at Heritage to work for Dr. Ed Ulner as a specialist assistant. And then I started to take,
Jenny Beth Martin (08:43):
And Ed Ulner was the president of Heritage right? At the
Scott Parkinson (08:45):
Time, yes. Uh, for about 40 years. Right. He was president and he was the president back in 2005. And so from working for Dr. Ulner, it gave me a new opportunity to network with people that usually wouldn't talk to me just three months earlier. Right. And I was able to end up landing a job in the United States Senate working for a senator from Utah named John Sen. I started out on the phones and giving tours and writing a little bit of constituent mail, but it was the grunt work in the office. And you have to demonstrate competency in that space on Capitol Hill, just kind of getting your foot in the door right. And able to have, uh, new responsibilities to do more interesting things. Uh, Senator Sen was elected chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee after the 2006 elections where really most Republican senators lost their reelection.
(09:35):
Senator Sen won by a, a, a pretty comfortable amount. So he led the campaign arm of the United States Senate. I went over there and was a research analyst, uh, later met my wife and I was doing a little bit of political consulting afterwards. And then in 2010, we had the big Tea Party movement that of course, you helped lead. Right. And it was just such an awesome opportunity. My home state elected more of a tea party type candidate, was Senator Ron Johnson. And I was fortunate enough to be hired as his first policy advisor, and they, they sit me down after I'm hired, and they said, well, what kind of policies do you wanna work on? And I knew Senator Johnson was really interested in the economic and budgetary and tax policy ideas, appropriations. And so I told them, you know, I wanna work on domestic policy.
(10:26):
And they said, okay, great. We're gonna hire a foreign policy advisor then too. And, uh, the two of us basically split all the policy responsibilities for the first six months. And it just gave me this wide range of, of responsibility on, on policy issues to learn about. And when you're going into Capitol Hill, even in a decent job like a legislative assistant, you have to be a sponge willing to learn from everybody around you that has real experience from economic policy advisors to just, uh, strategists that understand how the legislative process works. We've all, you know, watched the, the corny cartoon. Right, right. But, uh, the legislative process in the United States Senate is actually a pretty fascinating one, and it ultimately comes down to individual senators leveraging their individual rights as a senator through the filibuster. And so I learned a lot about that in the time.
(11:21):
And, uh, when you're an economic policy advisor to a senator, you get to know a lot of your colleagues in other Senate offices pretty closely. And we used to trade ideas with each other. And there ended up being an opening, uh, for Senator Marco Rubio, and they recruited me to come work in that office. And I took the job. It was a really neat time. He was running, uh, well, he was being considered, I guess i, I should say, for vice president, uh, when Romney ultimately picked Paul Ryan. Um, and then after election, when, when we lost the, the presidential race in 2012, Senator Rubio came back to the staff and he said, I wanna have a brand new policy agenda focused around economic opportunity and upward mobility. And we're sitting as like the whole staff. And I'm like, these are my issues. Right. Like, he didn't even give me a heads up.
(12:11):
It was kind of funny, right. But it was just a brand new opportunity for me to even reach out to more policy experts. And there was a big assumption at the time that Senator Rubio was gonna be running for president in 2015 and 2016. And so everybody answered my phone call and it, it was just like, it, it was kind of like picking out the all-star economic advisors throughout the country. And, and I was, uh, in my early thirties and, and able to, to tap them as a resource to the office. So we built a big policy agenda out of that. And it stuck around in his office for four years. Uh, I had a lot of different opportunities to do different things mm-hmm.
(13:01):
It was the executive director at the Republican Study Committee. And I think this is when you and I first met and, uh, at rsc, uh, you had just had the House Freedom Caucus splinter from rsc Right now, members still belonged to rsc, but Freedom Caucus was off on their own as, uh, another organization that was strategizing. And I decided to take the position because I thought it would give me a unique approach to, uh, the House and the Senate if Senator Rubio ultimately was successful in his race. And I was like, oh, maybe I could like be director of Legislative affairs. How cool would that be? So I took the job and uh, uh, about a month later, I was in the hospital room with my wife. We had our, uh, second baby, uh, Lin. She was born on March 15th, the odds of March. And as I was holding her that night in the hospital room, I was watching Fox News and I was watching Marco Rubio drop outta the presidential.
(13:59):
Aw. And I just thought it was such a, a, a thing where God was speaking directly to me and my family, and, Hey, you did the right thing. Um, here's a guy that it looks like he's stepping away from politics altogether. Yeah. At the time, he wasn't even running for reelection in the Senate. And it wasn't, excuse me, it wasn't until the Pulse nightclub shooting that he, uh, changed his mind and ended up running in 2016. So I, I felt like everything happened for a reason with that. And at the rsc it was just a great opportunity for me to get to know conservative movement leaders. It was still a conservative organization, even though it had 178 House Republicans at the time. And so I did that for a couple of years.
Jenny Beth Martin (14:41):
And that also gave you a chance. So you'd been on, I'm interrupting you, but you'd been on the Senate side. Yeah. So you learned how legislating worked on the Senate side and being over on the house side, you learned how it worked on the house as well. And there's a lot of ins and outs and rules that I've learned from you because of the experience you've gained.
Scott Parkinson (14:58):
Yeah. And being a senior staffer in the House of Representatives, you know, it was just a, a huge opportunity for me to have access to a large number of members having meetings every week with the Speaker's Office and the Leader's office, and then running our big caucus lunch. And, uh, it was a lot of fun. You know, this is when we did the Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This is when we tried to repeal Obamacare. That was a, a big, uh, thing that I worked on in the, the Senate. But we were actually trying to get that reconciliation, uh, package passed through the house. And we, we did get sort of a compromise. Bill passed through the house, and then we all remember John McCain, right. Giving us the thumbs down in the Senate. Um, but it was just a, a good opportunity for me, uh, to get to know members.
(15:44):
And one member that I got to know as RSC executive director was a representative from Florida named Ron DeSantis, and, uh, had some good friends in his office and, and got to know him a little bit as one of my members. And ultimately in 2018, uh, he asked me to be his Chief of Staff after I left the rsc. And so I did that when he was running for governor in 2018. Uh, and, uh, after he won the governor's race, I got to be the Deputy Executive Director of his transition in Tallahassee. And shortly thereafter, I, I took a job, uh, with, uh, club for Growth, which is the leading economic policy organization in the country. They have about 500,000 members. And so I started working at club as Vice President of Government Affairs, did that for the last four years. And that fast forward us, uh, all the way to, to 2023 when I just couldn't stand on the sidelines anymore. Had to get in the game and announce for United States Senate earlier this spring.
Jenny Beth Martin (16:45):
Okay. Now, when, if someone should listening to this, and they don't know a lot about you from around, around the country, they may be sitting there going, well, he sounds like he's kind of connected to establishment cuz you've been in all these positions on both the, the Senate side and the house side. And first I can vouch that you are a troublemaker, as one of our friends likes to call, call us and herself. But, but you're, you're willing to stand up for conservative values. So yeah. Talk about some of the principles that you stand for.
Scott Parkinson (17:17):
Well, that's what I meant by saying I cut my teeth in the conservative movement. And, uh, my good friend Senator Mike Lee from Utah, he's endorsed my campaign, my campaign for Senate. He describes me as an outsider's insider. I'm somebody that knows where the bodies are buried. I've been working against the uni party and the establishment my entire career, right. Trying to advance conservative victories, what I kind of term it is putting points on the board. And it's difficult to get conservative policies signed into law. But the things that, uh, staff are able to accomplish in persuading a member to sign onto a conservative bill or to to vote up or down, uh, to be a part of a conservative strategy like repealing Obamacare, uh, those were the things that I was doing on Capitol Hill. Now, uh, what I've also, uh, had the, the fortunate opportunity to do is serve on the executive committee along with you on, uh, the Conservative Action Project. And that's been a really fascinating thing that, that we've, uh, worked with other big leaders in the conservative movement to strategize on ideas and sign letters, coalition letters to the conservative movement on, uh, things that we support or oppose. And, uh, you know, I I I think that when you kind of get back to this, like, uh, Scott sounds like he's a political hack, right? I think I'm far from the truth, far from that,
Jenny Beth Martin (18:46):
From what I know about you. That's correct.
Scott Parkinson (18:48):
Yeah. You know, I, I'm, I'm a a pretty normal guy. I, I live out in Arlington, Virginia, but I've been, uh, somebody that's been, uh, very concerned about, uh, our attacks on faith, attacks on family, and our attacks on freedom. And when I look my kids in the eyes, uh, I, I look at them as, as a father, uh, and I look at my wife as a husband, and I look at our future as one that needs to be free. And I just feel like as the growth of government has, uh, expanded over the last 18 years that I've been in the Washington area, that's a direct intrusion on our daily lives and our freedoms. So we need to be able to stand up against that political pressure that the uni party and the establishment have basically thrown in our faces and said, you're gonna take this.
(19:40):
And it's sort of like eating the disgusting vegetables, right? Like, um, there are some vegetables that are good for you and that you enjoy eating. Uh, and then there's other ones that it's like you want, you don't want to touch and you don't wanna be around that at all. And I think it's the same thing in Washington DC when you look at the schemes of, uh, people that are way too connected to special interest power and, uh, what their priorities are, and the fact that they have really no ideological compass when it comes to, uh, principle or, you know, really the, the the US Constitution.
Jenny Beth Martin (20:15):
So what are the policies that you're most focused on as you're, you're campaigning and you're running and, and, and based on the policies that you're focused on, if you were to be nominated and elected, what would you wanna do from day one?
Scott Parkinson (20:31):
That's a huge question. It is. And I hope I can talk for about an hour on this, cuz I can, I'm ready to go
Jenny Beth Martin (20:37):
Well we can break it down, but what are the policies you stand for? And then we'll talk about what you wanna, what you would do on day one. Thank
Scott Parkinson (20:42):
You. Um, I think that as a candidate, you have be willing, first of all to go and meet with the people in Virginia and listen to them and hear what's important to them. Uh, as I was testing the waters, it was clear that there were three prevalent issues that were rising to the top and were repeated over and over and over. And the first one is the parents' rights movement. What happened, uh, in Loudoun County became a nationalized issue when you had, uh, a boy that was, uh, claiming to be transgender student wearing a skirt to school, rape another girl in, in the girl's bathroom. And the school administrators swept it under the rug. And, uh, the kid went to another school. And, and same thing happened with a sexual assault of another child. And I think that the parents' rights movement is, uh, not going anywhere.
(21:42):
Yeah. And, uh, they're, uh, some people on the radical left are trying to change the fabric of Virginia and the fabric of America with this Marxist ideology and woke injected into the minds of young people. And I think that as parents, we need to step up and teach our kids what American history is. We're not gonna erase history. I think that we need to stand up for our, for our Christian culture. Uh, my family goes to church every Sunday, and I, I think that, uh, in exposing my kids to the gospel, uh, it's been a healthy part of discussion and them learning who they are. And so I think that that's important as part of the parents' rights effort. The other thing I would add into parents' rights, and it'll get to the next issue, is, uh, these schools don't, they're not safe. And we had a, just a terrible overdose at Wakefield High School in Northern Virginia earlier this year, and a student died, uh, while several other students got sick when they were doing drugs together in a bathroom.
(22:51):
It was apparently covered in Fentanyl. And the fact that we have border security, uh, insecurity is what I should say, border issues with all these drugs pouring across the border that's making it into our communities. And so public safety is the next issue. I think that people are tired of the carjackings, they're tired of, of, of the drugs and the poison that's in our communities. And I think that they're tired of this dangerous rhetoric from the left that we're gonna defund the police. They took school resource officers outta schools. And that doesn't make anybody safer. That's woke them right there. Right. And so I think that there is a sort of a side-by-side parallel as I talk to parents throughout Virginia about this strong desire to have safe schools restoring parents' rights, but also enhancing and increasing public safety by backing the blue. Um, the third issue that I think is, is, uh, definitely emerging as a national issue.
(23:52):
And I think those other two are national issues as well, but they're, uh, very focused here in Virginia. Um, the third issue is without a doubt the economy. And, uh, that's part of what I'm deeply concerned about and why I wanted to run people in my neighborhood are, are mostly doing okay. Uh, I live in one of the wealthiest counties in America in Arlington County, but that's not reflective of the Commonwealth of Virginia. And, uh, the family of four that's at $60,000. There's a, a inflation calculator on the bureau of, um, uh, I'm sorry, the bls, the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Right. Uh, with, uh, you can just punch in any year and then you can figure out what the earning power is for now. And when you punch in 2020, it results in 16.6 inflation to today. So if you haven't had your wages increased by 16.6%, you're worse off today than you were at the beginning of covid.
(24:55):
And for most people, their wages haven't kept up. Right. What is 16.6%? That's actually 60 days out of the year, that's two months of earning power. That's just gone like a bad magic trick. And I think that that's something that we need to talk about. How did we get inflation? We did, we got it by overreacting, first of all, during the coronavirus pandemic and exploding federal spending, uh, adding 7 trillion in spitting in total, uh, to the US economy. And that created, uh, uh, inflationary period that is at a 40 year high. We also had Biden come in with his stimulus legislation. He did that on reconciliation, which is a Washington term for, he did it without any Republican support. And, and that bill was incredibly expensive, almost 2 trillion. Then you had the bipartisan infrastructure bill. It was really a boondoggle. It had nothing to do with infrastructure, but it was all this crony, uh, cronyism and these handouts to, uh, other green New Deal type special interests. And then you had the 4,000 page plus Omnibus appropriations bill, and you had the Inflation Reduction Act, which was more of the green New New Deal and such. The
Jenny Beth Martin (26:13):
Name is just a lie.
Scott Parkinson (26:15):
Absolutely. And so when you add in all that stuff, my opponent, Tim Kane, voted for all of it and so did Bernie Sanders. Right. And I think the real issue here is that Virginia can't afford 94% of socialism. We need to restore fiscal sanity in Washington. And I think that there are real leaders in the House of Representatives and the United States Senate that are working to do that Now on the debt limit fight, I was very much inspired in January by our friends, the Patriot 20, that stood up to fundamentally transform the House of Representatives in the battle with Kevin McCarthy. And whether he was gonna be the speaker. I think there were a lot of those 20 that did not want this to be a personality contest. Right. But deeply cared about the future of America. And when you can set aside personalities, but you can focus on outcomes, that's why they were successful. And the proof is in the pudding because Kevin McCarthy's actually doing a pretty darn good job right now. He's holding the conference together. We only have 222 votes in, in the house, and that means that he's gotta listen to everybody and make them feel like they're a part of the process in order to get legislation passed. But I think it's, uh, ultimately empowered him to have real standing in the Oval Office against President Biden during the debt limit negotiation.
Jenny Beth Martin (27:42):
We also saw in January that he's rather stubborn than McCarthy is when he wants something. And I hope that he shows that stubborn side to Biden and wants, wants what's best for, for his conference. And they've given him with the changes that have happened, it incentivizes him to wanna take care of the conference, which is good.
Scott Parkinson (28:04):
Yeah. You know, another another thing aside from the debt limit is how the, uh, house Republicans were able to come to together and pass the most robust immigration, uh, bill border security bill in really the last 40 years and maybe even ever. Right. Uh, we've got this crisis with everything pouring across the border with 7 million new people, uh, illegal aliens that have come across. And I think that it is gonna be something that we're wrestling with for 20 years because of the, uh, irresponsibility that the Biden administration has, uh, taken when it comes to enforcing American sovereignty on our border. So they were able to come to, to an agreement there. And that's not a bill that Joe Biden is ever gonna entertain. The Senate Democrats are never, ever going to allow that bill or anything remotely close to it to be signed into law. And so that's why I think it's so important that everybody that's listening across America really starts to think about how they can red rededicate their, uh, extra time in helping elect a new Republican majority in the United States Senate and a new Republican president because we need unified government. So that, that bill that the House Republicans passed earlier this spring, so that that can actually become law.
Jenny Beth Martin (29:29):
And, and that bill is, it, it is truly robust and it it will actually create a secure border. So it's very important that it, it that can work to get it to become law. Now, there is some people, and I've heard this over the, as Title 42 has expired, and, and people are so worried because they're seeing these terrible videos of things that are happening on the border, um, they're like, well, why aren't they doing that in the debt ceiling fight fighter? Why aren't they the doing more? And I, I've tried to explain that, that the House is leveraging the power that it has right now, but what we have to understand is they've just voted for it. They're all on the record voting for it. The liberals, not liberals, but moderates and conservatives in the the conference all agreed to it. And now it's going to be part of our job as citizens to work to make sure we get a Senate that would also pass that bill.
Scott Parkinson (30:29):
Yeah. We've got a a, a pretty favorable Senate map for 2024. There's a lot of pickup opportunities. Obviously, I'm focused on doing everything I can in Virginia to make this a competitive race. People forget that Tim Kane was on the ballot with Hillary Clinton. Clinton Clinton in 2016, Hillary Clinton. And you know, when you're the vice presidential nominee, it, it's sort of like the sprint to the general election. It's only about three months that he was running side by side with her. But trust me, there's plenty of pictures. Right. And they definitely did it. And this is, I think, how he catered to the progressive left. Uh, having been former chairman at the, uh, DNC and then being on the ticket with Hillary, he just lost his way. And, and there's so many people in, in the Democratic party that when they think about the political spectrum and how far to the left that it's moved, it's abandoned them and they don't have a political home. And so my campaign in talking about public safety, in talking about parents' rights, in talking about the bottom line, the kitchen table conversations, the economy, I think we're gonna be able to pick off some of these Democrats, a lot of these independents, and we're gonna run the score up with Republicans to make this the most difficult race that Tim Kane has ever had.
Jenny Beth Martin (31:49):
Well, let's make it the, the worst race he's ever had and, and make sure that he's not a senator in a, in a couple years. That's what what we really ultimately need. Yeah. Um, so you just mentioned that you think there's an, an opportunity for pickup in 2024 in the Senate. What do you see as a, how do things look in 2024, not just for the Senate, but for the House, for the White House, um, not endorsing anyone, but just how do, how do things look for winning that unified government?
Scott Parkinson (32:21):
Yeah. And, uh, you know, I'll be clear, I'm gonna be working hard to help a Republican nominee do everything I can to put Virginia in play, whoever it is. And, uh, when you, when you think about the states that are in play now, there are three big red states that have Democrats that I think the National Republican Senatorial Committee has been really clear on. They're the top three targets, and that's Montana, Ohio, and West Virginia. All three of them are gonna be fairly competitive Republican primaries. Um, candidates are still evaluating whether they're gonna get in the race in Montana or if they're gonna get in the race in Ohio. The West Virginia race seems pretty defined with Governor Justice and Congressman Alex Mooney. Uh, but aside from those three, there's a lot of pickup opportunities throughout the country that, that folks wanna take a look at, whether it's Arizona and Nevada, which we lost two close races, right in the 2022 midterms.
(33:20):
Uh, when you think about Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and Virginia, uh, these are, are, are going to be dog fights. We've got Michigan, we've got an open seat because Debbie Stabenow announced her retirement. And, you know, Alyssa Slotkin seems like she's gonna be the Democrat, but there's, uh, a lot of Republicans that are looking at running there. Um, so we feel like in, uh, in, in a op in an opportunity that faces us through Joe Biden and the incompetency that he has as a candidate, we all see it every day. Right. You just have to pay close enough attention to understand he hasn't lost a step. He's lost a giant leap. And the energy behind the Biden movement, he's way upside down in Virginia. And that means that his un unfed, uh, is image is, uh, perceived negatively by most Virginians while we have a really, really popular governor Glenn Youngen.
(34:16):
And that was also part of the logic for me to run because Governor Youngen laid out that blueprint for winning in Virginia. It's the first time we've had a governor in a presidential race here in a couple of decades. You know, when, when you think about how important it is to have a Republican governor laying out the infrastructure with the state Republican party, the, uh, Republican Party of Virginia, that will give us a better opportunity than we had in 2016 or 2020 to win Virginia as well. So I'm grateful for the leadership of Governor Youngen. I think Virginia is very, very much in play. I think many of these other states are in play. I think it's also important not just to have, uh, 51 49, uh, Senate Majority because we need to ensure that we have a functional majority where we're not going to some of the, uh, Republicans in the Senate that have historically voted with Democrats right.
(35:09):
On big bills. And we saw that with the Obamacare repeal with John McCain in, uh, in 2017. Right. And so when we're missing out on fulfilling the promises that we made on the campaign trail, voters lose enthusiasm. And you build the enthusiasm by fulfilling the promises that you're willing to make. So just don't break, break your promises. Jim Jordan, a friend of mine always says, just do what we said we would do. Right. And, you know, it's hard for the Democrats to say, you know what? Darn it, Jenny Beth, they did what they said they were gonna do. It's like we're broadcasting what we're gonna do. We're gonna save the economy, we're gonna enhance public safety, and we're gonna restore parents' rights in the classroom.
Jenny Beth Martin (35:51):
It sounds free citing now, just one more th well, a couple, couple quick things. So what would you do, um, if you are elected senator, what are you gonna do on day one and in the first month or so, or at the beginning of your term?
Scott Parkinson (36:06):
Yeah, another great question. Well, with my experience working in the Senate for three senators, you do start to understand Senate procedure and Senate precedent, and you have to assert yourself into being a part of any major negotiation that's happening. I think one of the big things that will happen that doesn't get a lot of attention on tv, but about half the work of the United States Senate isn't related to legislation. It's related to fulfilling the nominations, our constitutional role in the Senate for executive branch nominations and judicial nominations. And when you think about effectuating change through the executive branch agencies, you need to make sure that you have the right people leading those agencies. And you know, I I think right now, Joe Biden is taking all sorts of unconstitutional executive order actions, uh, because he can't get anything through the house and he can't get anything through the Senate.
(37:06):
And he's got really a year and a half left of his presidency at minimum. And so when you think about what you can do as a senator, if you're willing to object, we're seeing it with Tommy Tuberville right now. Right, right. Tommy Tuberville is objecting over a policy disagreement with the Pentagon related to abortion. And by him asserting himself, he's fundamentally changing the work of the Senate when it comes to military promotions and, uh, the woke ism and, uh, really the, the leftist radical posture of the Pentagon. We want the war fighter to have strong military readiness and to not be concerned about all this junk that's going on right now. Right. And I think Tommy Tuberville is a great example from Alabama, um, on asserting his individual power and making them come to him. Uh, you know, I have some, some obviously some big policy endeavors that I would like to be a part of after I'm elected senator.
(38:09):
I think that we are way overtaxed and we see it every day, uh, in, in, not just in our paychecks, but, uh, you know, at death we see it at the gas pump. Uh, we see it with our investments. We are taxed so much and they're collecting these record levels of revenue, but they're not doing anything about spending. And so what I would like to do is provide for robust, uh, tax reform policies that enable a strong economic growth and higher productivity within the private sector, not just corporations. Right. I'm not just talking about cutting the corporate rate, but we need to do things for pass through entities, small businesses that were crushed during the Coronavirus Pandemic. And I know that there's a lot of democrat small business owners that feel like it was a government taking that they told them, you have to shut down your business.
(39:01):
Right. And they felt it. They lost their entire life's work, their small business, and a lot of the mega corporations were able to sustain the period. Yeah. Their shareholders may have taken a, a haircut and a loss at the time. But we need to, we need to step in with that, um, regulatory reform early on. If we have unified government in, uh, the House, Senate, and White House, you can utilize the Congressional Review Act to rescind any of the Biden uh, regulations that are still eligible to be rescinded. And there will be a lot of, lot of things that I think the Senate can focus their time doing that. Um, other big things we need to restore health and competition, uh, health insurance competition. And what that means is ensuring that Obamacare just isn't this single payer system. Right. You, you've got AOC and the Socialist Squad.
(39:54):
They want Medicare for all. I want Medicare for seniors. I wanna make sure that that program is around for my parents, because right now it's really at risk. We know that there's solvency issues. The Medicare trustees and the Social Security trustees have been warning Congress for really over 15 years. These are the insolvency dates, and these are political third rails that nobody wants to touch. No one does. But if, if we don't do anything to save them, and I wanna save Social Security and Medicare, we wanna be clear about that. Um, but if we don't do anything to save them, when it's too late and everybody sees a 23% cut across the board, they're gonna say, what the heck happened? Why didn't you guys act? Why didn't you do anything to protect these programs that have been around in terms of retirement security, uh, in relation to our investments and in relation to our healthcare? So I think those are big, big questions that we will have to address after I'm sworn in, in January, 2025.
Jenny Beth Martin (40:53):
Are spending cuts more important or tax cuts?
Scott Parkinson (40:56):
Well, that's a great question. I think that every spending in increase is a future tax increase. So we need to get a grip on the growth of government through spending. Federal spending is ultimately, uh, a further intrusion on our, uh, constitutional rights, our God-given rights and the, uh, daily life that we enjoy. Now, uh, some people think that they just really need that spending to happen at the National Institute of Health to provide for research on whatever disease is out there. And some of that work is important, but can it take a 10% cut possibly because it's had probably a 20% growth over the last 10 years, and we just need to get back to fiscal sanity so that we have a balanced budget. And when we have a balanced budget, it will end the debt crisis and we can begin to pay down this 31, 30 2 trillion level of national debt. That's a real, real pinch on America's future. Right. Uh, you've also got all these actions that the Biden administration's taking when it comes to the housing. They wanna subsidize credit scores from people with good credit, with bad credit. What do you think that's gonna do to our financial, uh, system?
Jenny Beth Martin (42:14):
Well, I think we're gonna have a repeat of 2008 in the housing crisis. Yeah. Because you're giving loans to people who can't afford them. And what's worse is you're punishing people who can, it, it's just, it's a huge problem.
Scott Parkinson (42:27):
Well, we've seen the Fed boost interest rates 10 times over the last 18 months or so. Uh, we've also seen it, it, some people haven't called it a run on the banks, but a crawl. And we're seeing bank failures that are rolling out. We've had a couple of the biggest bank failures in our nation's country history, country history, uh, with Silicon Valley Bank. And, um, you know, I think that that's a real concern. Um, we don't want to just prop up the big six, right? We want independent community bankers to be at the table to serve their communities. And there's a lot of jobs that are associated with that as well. So I think, uh, ensuring that our financial institutions are strong and have the proper risk assessment that, um, they are actually being reviewed. Right. We think that Silicon Valley Bank missed a lot of the big red flags and warning signs. And so, uh, that's something that I think policymakers can start to take a look at as well, to provide for certainty in financial markets.
Jenny Beth Martin (43:31):
Okay. And then, um, and you mentioned that you previously, that you think that tax cuts are very important. We ha we've never had spending cuts and tax cuts at the same time, have we?
Scott Parkinson (43:45):
Not that I can recall. You know, obviously when, when I think about tax cuts, I think about the big successful Trump tax cuts, the tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017,
Jenny Beth Martin (43:55):
Which grow the economy
Scott Parkinson (43:56):
In a big way. And they way under counted and, and underestimated how much revenue that was gonna bring in, uh, in, in terms of the macroeconomic effects of job creation and extra productivity, higher wages, new job formation. And so we could have actually cut taxes by a lot more. Had had, we had a, a true accounting in the dynamic analysis, uh, from the Joint Committee on taxation. Uh, in addition to that, I think that you, you look at the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, there was some success with that. And obviously when, when they began to expire in, uh, 2011, 2012, right. Uh, there was sort of a panic in Washington, what are we gonna do about this? We don't want to increase taxes. Uh, well, let me be clear. The democrats really, really, really want to increase taxes. And Biden has said, oh, we're not gonna increase his taxes on the middle class. And what do you think inflation is?
Jenny Beth Martin (44:55):
What does he think? Taking money from people who can afford to buy a houses.
Scott Parkinson (44:58):
Yeah. What do you think, uh, he's doing when it comes to burdening the middle class with, uh, higher, higher corporate rate that they've proposed? That's something that has passed along. Not, not through, uh, you know, the the shareholder, but higher cost for, uh, the goods and services that the corporation has. Right. It's gonna, it's gonna result in higher prices as well. So I, I look at the Biden economy. I think about, uh, how these Democrats have basically abandoned any sense of, of, uh, economic reality and how they ultimately have this sort of 50 year plan, this long game to, to change the America into being a socialist nation so that there's more dependency. That's why they want the open borders. That's why they want to crush the middle class with this historic inflation. And they wanna say, oh, well, we're building up a new green environmental safe, uh, economy that, you know, attacks fossil fuels. Well, you know, a lot of people like their trucks. And did you know that Joe Biden promulgated new regulation related to tailpipe emissions? A lot of people don't want to get rid of their pickup truck by 2027 or whatever year it actually is. Um, and so I think that we need to be out there talking to the American people about the real day-to-day consequences from the Biden administration. And that's why we're gonna have a wave election in 2024.
Jenny Beth Martin (46:30):
Okay. And if people wanna get involved in your campaign or learn more about you, where do they go to do that?
Scott Parkinson (46:35):
Yeah. Well, the first thing I would tell everybody, check out the website, scott parkinson.com. Also follow me on Twitter at Scott t Parkinson. My middle name is Thomas, not after Thomas Jefferson, but my dad's middle name was Thomas too. That's what that's about. Um, and, you know, we need obviously people to step up in a big way and sign up to volunteer, get involved in your grassroots organizations, uh, whether it's a Tea party group or another conservative group leading the charge. There are so many strong grassroots leaders in Virginia and America that are making a big difference for the future of our country, and people need to sign up. The other thing that I just want, uh, everybody listening or watching to, to be aware of, Democrats are running up the score with their low dollar army of donors through Act Blue. And we don't really have an equivalent through act through Win Red.
(47:31):
Uh, win Red is, is nowhere near the type of machine that Act Blue is for the Democrats. And if you need evidence of this, look at, uh, the Senate race in Texas, and, you know, he raised 2.2 million within the first, I think, 18 hours of his race. And so that's Colin Allred, uh, who's taken on Ted Cruz in the 2024 Senate race of Texas, um, that is reflective of the energy behind the progressive left. They're willing to do the $25 contributions. I think a lot of people on the right are like, you know, like, uh, it'll all work itself out. And I, you know, I, they're not used to making that monthly contribution to a candidate. And we need to change the behavior of people getting involved. A lot of people can't afford it, and we totally understand that, especially as they feel the pinch of the Biden administration. So if you can't afford it, get out there. Volunteer, join the grassroots, uh, that are making a difference in elections in 2024 and beyond.
Jenny Beth Martin (48:32):
Scott Parkinson, who is running for the United States Senate, thank you so much for being with us today, and I hope people go and check out your website and follow you on Twitter.
Scott Parkinson (48:41):
Thank you, Jenny Beth.
Narrator (48:42):
The Jenny Beth Show is hosted by Jenny Beth Martin, produced by Kevin Mooney and directed by Luke Livingston. The Jenny Beth Show is a production of Tea Party Patriots action. For more information, visit tea party patriots.org.
Jenny Beth Martin (49:02):
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