Christopher Rodriguez | Congressional Candidate for California 49

[00:00:13] [SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to Season 6 of The Basics of Life Conversations with Rob Salvato.

[00:00:19] [SPEAKER_00]: The beautiful thing about being a representative is your power is received from the people.

[00:00:31] [SPEAKER_00]: So your entire purpose is to go to DC and grab as much of that power

[00:00:35] [SPEAKER_00]: and bring it back here on the grounds for them.

[00:00:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And it's not to go to DC and get your own personal agenda done as an individual.

[00:00:47] [SPEAKER_03]: Today on The Basics of Life Conversations, we are beginning Season 6 of our program.

[00:00:53] [SPEAKER_03]: And the theme of this season is going to be normal people making a difference.

[00:00:59] [SPEAKER_03]: And my guest today is Christopher Rodriguez.

[00:01:02] [SPEAKER_03]: Christopher is a former Marine, a local farmer, a husband and a father of seven kids

[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_03]: who is running for Congress here in the 49th District.

[00:01:13] [SPEAKER_03]: Talk about a normal guy seeking to make a big difference.

[00:01:17] [SPEAKER_03]: In our conversation, Christopher and I talk about his troubled upbringing

[00:01:22] [SPEAKER_03]: and the grace of God in his life and what led him to take this step of faith

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_03]: as a non-politician entering into the political arena.

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_03]: And I for one think that we need more guys like him in office.

[00:01:37] [SPEAKER_03]: So now here is my conversation with Christopher Rodriguez.

[00:01:40] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, welcome to the conversation, Christopher.

[00:01:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me, Pastor Rob.

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's great to have you on the program today and excited to have this conversation with you.

[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_03]: And I'd love to just start off by talking about your background, your upbringing.

[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_03]: I'd love for our listeners just to get a sense of who you are and where you've come from.

[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_03]: So why don't you go for it?

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely. So again, my name is Christopher Rodriguez.

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_00]: I was born in Chicago.

[00:02:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I had a very humble upbringing and very violent upbringing.

[00:02:25] [SPEAKER_00]: My father was a Latin King gang member, drug dealer,

[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_00]: and he brought that violence home and would regularly physically abuse my mom.

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_00]: And I remember often hiding my sister in the closet and he sent her to the emergency room one too many times.

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_00]: And by the grace of God, there was a program that one of the Catholic churches had a woman shelter.

[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_00]: And so my mom made her way there and they taught her how to get a driver's license,

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_00]: apply for a job, get into housing,

[00:02:59] [SPEAKER_00]: and really just get on with her life as a single mom away from my father.

[00:03:05] [SPEAKER_03]: How old were you at that time?

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_00]: So that was between the ages of two to five.

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_03]: Two to five, okay.

[00:03:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. And as you can imagine, I have seven children, four boys, three girls.

[00:03:19] [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, those young ages is where a lot of your pre-programming and it affects you in your adult life.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_00]: And as you grow up and my mom eventually met my stepfather, Jack, who's a Marine

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_00]: and kind of showed me what it was to be a man.

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Here's this guy that came in, loved my mom, loved kids that weren't his.

[00:03:46] [SPEAKER_00]: He coached my baseball team.

[00:03:48] [SPEAKER_00]: He sat next to my bed when I was sick and really was that father figure and showed me a different side to the world,

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_00]: because all I had known up to that point was violence and anger and I had a lot of that built up.

[00:04:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And so I ended up growing up really fast.

[00:04:06] [SPEAKER_00]: I became a young father and ended up graduating high school two years early.

[00:04:14] [SPEAKER_00]: I knew that I didn't want to be like my dad and so I did everything I could to take on responsibility.

[00:04:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And after graduating, I remember dropping my daughter off to preschool and I heard on the radio about 9-11.

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_00]: And it really set a spark in me to want to become a United States Marine once we found out it was a terrorist attack.

[00:04:40] [SPEAKER_00]: And so I swore in a week after my 17th birthday and immediately went to boot camp and then on to the front lines of the Iraq War.

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_00]: The first tour was from Kuwait to Baghdad on our initial invasion.

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_00]: And we ended up kicking down the doors of Saddam Hussein's Palace, securing Baghdad.

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And then my second tour was in Fallujah and there was a lot more conflict, daily firefights from house to house.

[00:05:09] [SPEAKER_00]: I ended up, you know, I lost a lot of brothers during that tour and I ended up getting injured in a firefight.

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_00]: A rocket propelled grenade blew up next to a window I was firing out of and knocked me back and shrapnel, traumatic brain injury.

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Lost all the hearing in my left ear and because of those injuries I was not able to re-enlist in the Marine Corps.

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And so I was an ocean side right here in North San Diego County and nothing to fall back on.

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I wanted to be a Marine but I had a young family and I had to provide.

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, no excuses.

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I started a small business, got into real estate, mortgage and property management and became very successful.

[00:05:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank God quickly in that and bought a farm here in Oceanside that I currently manage with my wife and kids in the South Moral Hills area right on the border of Oceanside and Fallbrook.

[00:06:03] [SPEAKER_00]: And we grow avocado, guava, passion fruit and coffee commercially.

[00:06:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Nice.

[00:06:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and when you get, you know, more involved in the community, you know, your business is successful.

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_00]: You want to kind of give back, you want to get more involved, you know, not only with your local church but also in the community.

[00:06:23] [SPEAKER_00]: And so I served with the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce and on their executive committee and we really worked on issues that were related to the business community.

[00:06:33] [SPEAKER_00]: But eventually you see the disconnect between local government and the citizens and the businesses.

[00:06:41] [SPEAKER_00]: And so I wanted to get involved in that way politically and I eventually ran for city council and won that back in 2018.

[00:06:49] [SPEAKER_00]: And so I've been doing that and the family and everything in between.

[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm very thankful.

[00:06:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank God for all of it that I'm here today to be able to serve and run for Congress.

[00:07:03] [SPEAKER_03]: I love that.

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_03]: Now, prior to going to the Marines, were you still in Chicago that whole time?

[00:07:11] [SPEAKER_00]: So, no, we moved.

[00:07:14] [SPEAKER_00]: So I actually ended up my stepdad Jack, he actually he was a mechanic, but he moved with the company.

[00:07:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And so we ended up living in multiple states.

[00:07:25] [SPEAKER_00]: So we were never anywhere for more than a year, year and a half.

[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_00]: So I lived in Texas, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana.

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_00]: We eventually made our way to Des Moines, Iowa area.

[00:07:40] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's where I went to high school and eventually got recruited out of the Marine Corps.

[00:07:46] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_03]: And then when you were in the Marines, were you stationed at Pendleton?

[00:07:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Yep.

[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Yep.

[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Right here at Camp Pendleton.

[00:07:53] [SPEAKER_00]: And I was here the entire time outside of Iraq deployments.

[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:07:59] [SPEAKER_03]: And so then did that make like an impression?

[00:08:01] [SPEAKER_03]: Like, hey, Oceanside is not a bad place to live.

[00:08:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I fell in love.

[00:08:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I loved it.

[00:08:06] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I mean, I have all my family where they are, but I just I really fell in love with Oceanside and North County.

[00:08:14] [SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, you know, once I bought my first house, it was like, okay, I'm here.

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm anchor.

[00:08:19] [SPEAKER_00]: I can go visit family.

[00:08:20] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm staying here.

[00:08:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.

[00:08:22] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's they say that North County San Diego is like the best kept secret in San or in California.

[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_03]: And I would tend to agree.

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_03]: It's funny, my dad's from Pittsburgh and he came out here on in December on a like a little Christmas break to visit some friends.

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_03]: And he ended up, you know, telling his mom, hey, send all my stuff because I'm not coming back.

[00:08:49] [SPEAKER_03]: So seriously, so let me ask you this question.

[00:08:53] [SPEAKER_03]: You know, you mentioned your faith in God, how did you come to faith in Christ and what does your role does your faith play in, you know, how you live as, you know, as a father as a husband as a part of the, you know, community here in North County.

[00:09:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, thank you for asking.

[00:09:16] [SPEAKER_00]: So I was very angry, angry young man growing up and like I said, I grew up fast.

[00:09:22] [SPEAKER_00]: I became sexually active, you know, fast and got involved with the wrong wrong groups and eventually got in trouble where my mom was able to make the decision that I could, you know, participate in a youth boot camp sort of program where, you know, troubled kids can go to for a

[00:09:46] [SPEAKER_00]: 90 days and kind of get their life put back together in a structured environment.

[00:09:51] [SPEAKER_00]: And it was called Woodward Academy.

[00:09:54] [SPEAKER_00]: And I ended up going there and, you know, I love I thrived in that structured environments.

[00:09:59] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't really have that before.

[00:10:00] [SPEAKER_00]: And it really turned me on to the dynamic of, you know, the military and discipline and, you know, camaraderie and just, you know, just that entire, you know, environment.

[00:10:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, while I was there, they would have church services on Sundays and they would invite the youth to come and there was this pastor named Milo and they played Christian hip hop.

[00:10:26] [SPEAKER_00]: And I never heard Christian hip hop and I'm, you know, I'm like, I'll go whatever.

[00:10:31] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to be doing doing chores back here.

[00:10:33] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, we'll go and I've heard I heard some Christian hip hop and I remember the pastor was kind of doing an altar call and talking about Jesus and our sin and you can have salvation and, you know, good news and all these dynamics and it was like really hitting my heart.

[00:10:51] [SPEAKER_00]: And I remember he called the invited up and I went up and I was afraid and and I asked Christ into my heart and he gave me good wisdom to, you know, get a Bible start reading and ask God for help and understanding his word.

[00:11:07] [SPEAKER_00]: And then you need to get involved in a local church that, you know, preaches and teaches the Word of God.

[00:11:12] [SPEAKER_00]: And that began my journey and it's been a journey ever since.

[00:11:16] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think God for it, it got me through a lot of hard times.

[00:11:21] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, up until this point, I remember reading scripture in Iraq and, you know, we had a horrible fire, really, really horrible firefight the day before I got injured and we lost several Marines.

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_00]: And I remember reading my reading my, you know, reading the Word of God and and I felt the Holy Spirit say, you know, ask the guys to gather and just say a prayer.

[00:11:48] [SPEAKER_00]: And I went around and say, Hey, guys, we're going to say a little prayer in the back before our patrol tomorrow because we knew that it was going to be, you know, all hell is going to break loose.

[00:11:57] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we were just ready for it because we just experienced it the day before.

[00:12:00] [SPEAKER_00]: And so I went maybe announce men and I sat in this little room and kind of put my head down and, you know, within five minutes, the whole room was full of Marines.

[00:12:10] [SPEAKER_00]: And even guys that were like, you know, you know, verbal atheists, they were in that room like, I'm just here to kind of see what's going on.

[00:12:18] [SPEAKER_00]: And I just opened it up simply and then Marine started like quoting scripture and praying and end up being like this hour long, you know, ministry from the, you know, from God just over us.

[00:12:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And several of those Marines didn't make it the next day.

[00:12:34] [SPEAKER_00]: And it was just I just I remember that that testimony of just how good God is.

[00:12:39] [SPEAKER_00]: And even in the most darkest, gross, evilest times, he's there and he's reminded me of that over and over and over.

[00:12:49] [SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm thankful and, you know, obviously as a business owner, as a father, as serving the community, I cannot be in line with being a leader, loving my wife, loving my kids,

[00:13:06] [SPEAKER_00]: being responsible without having that relationship, that vertical relationship.

[00:13:13] [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, I've gone through obvious seasons where I'm not in the word as much, I'm not in prayer as much, I'm not as close as I want to be.

[00:13:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And those are the times where it's way more, I don't want to say it's any more difficult than other times,

[00:13:31] [SPEAKER_00]: but you definitely have a lot more peace through the storm because your trust isn't on yourself.

[00:13:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Your trust is on God and it makes actionable steps easier because you know he's got your back and you know he's there regardless.

[00:13:50] [SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, that's how I try to walk every day.

[00:13:54] [SPEAKER_03]: That's good.

[00:13:55] [SPEAKER_03]: That's awesome.

[00:13:55] [SPEAKER_03]: You know, Paul said something in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10.

[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_03]: He makes the statement that we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

[00:14:11] [SPEAKER_03]: And it's interesting that word, you know, workmanship, it's literally the word pohime in the Greek and it means his masterpiece.

[00:14:18] [SPEAKER_03]: But what's interesting is when Paul makes that statement, he's not talking at all about our anatomy.

[00:14:24] [SPEAKER_03]: Even the Bible says that we're fearfully and wonderfully made because the key phrase in that verse is that we are his workmanship created in Christ.

[00:14:34] [SPEAKER_03]: And so it's all talking about our identity in Christ.

[00:14:37] [SPEAKER_03]: And it's the idea that God has for each of us.

[00:14:41] [SPEAKER_03]: He's made us his workmanship, his masterpiece and that he has a plan and a purpose for our lives that he wants us to walk in that have literally been created before we even came to know who Jesus was that this was God's plan.

[00:14:59] [SPEAKER_03]: And part of the whole Christian life is about discovering that that's what God has for us, that he's inviting us into his mission.

[00:15:11] [SPEAKER_03]: He's inviting us to play a part of the work he wants to do in the world.

[00:15:17] [SPEAKER_03]: And I think whenever we come to realize that this is his plan and this is his purpose and this is why we've been made, it just makes life take on a whole new dimension to where even doing devotions and getting time in the word is not necessarily just like, oh, like I'm eating my breakfast.

[00:15:40] [SPEAKER_03]: But it's more of a sense of, you know, I'm checking in with my king.

[00:15:45] [SPEAKER_03]: You know, I'm spending time.

[00:15:47] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm getting closer to, you know, the general so to speak and so that I can be on the right page today for what he has for me.

[00:15:58] [SPEAKER_03]: And I find that picture to be really interesting because you're, you know, a man of God and you're following Jesus.

[00:16:05] [SPEAKER_03]: And yet, you know, you're taking a step of faith into a, you know, desiring to go into a line of work that for a lot of people really isn't desirable.

[00:16:18] [SPEAKER_03]: And that's the idea that you, you know, are running for Congress.

[00:16:21] [SPEAKER_03]: So why do you want to do that?

[00:16:23] [SPEAKER_03]: You know, what led you to want to disrupt your life in that kind of way?

[00:16:30] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to be straight forward with you.

[00:16:33] [SPEAKER_00]: I have no desire to be a congressman at all.

[00:16:37] [SPEAKER_00]: I have zero desire and I never thought I would get into politics.

[00:16:44] [SPEAKER_00]: But I have felt this calling and this tugging to lead in this way, you know, after I was, you know, in business and surrounded by it.

[00:16:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And I saw how policies worked.

[00:17:01] [SPEAKER_00]: And I saw, remember I said I saw the disconnect between, you know, local government and the residents and the businesses.

[00:17:07] [SPEAKER_00]: But on even more so, even more so, especially over the last couple years, we see a lot of our laws and policies in America are failing Americans.

[00:17:21] [SPEAKER_00]: They are failing Americans and they're going in a completely different direction than our nation was founded on by the grace of God.

[00:17:29] [SPEAKER_00]: And there's a disconnect between the body of Christ and the churches of our land here in America and their lack of involvement in the political realm or political process.

[00:17:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think churches have failed Americans in that they have relinquished their role of influencing our culture.

[00:17:56] [SPEAKER_00]: And they've taken a step back because of some policies announced by, you know, the Supreme Court that attempted to express what our founders meant when they said separation of church and state,

[00:18:11] [SPEAKER_00]: which was to prevent a state run church like where they came from.

[00:18:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[00:18:17] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's not what we're doing here. But when you have the church failing to participate in the political process and influencing culture, this is the direction our country goes.

[00:18:27] [SPEAKER_00]: So I also think that the church has a big responsibility.

[00:18:30] [SPEAKER_00]: And so here I am a Christian man, you know, the biggest sinner I know trying to work all this out in this inside of me to get involved.

[00:18:41] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm getting involved politically but at every step of the way, I see the huge need of the church of the body of Christ of the church leadership to really get more involved in civics and the political process and policies.

[00:18:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Like we need the church now more than ever and that can commingle with the gospel. You know, it absolutely can.

[00:19:08] [SPEAKER_00]: And I, you know, so that's why I'm getting involved. I'm getting involved because I think I have a responsibility at least in my own backyard to influence and help, you know, work with local churches and local governments

[00:19:24] [SPEAKER_00]: and beyond to really get more involved with each other and to kind of, you know, rip down that pretend veil that's been there, you know, unacceptably for the last five decades.

[00:19:40] [SPEAKER_03]: That's great. That's an awesome plan. Let me ask you this. In what ways would you seek to, you know, as a congressman engage the church? What would that look like exactly?

[00:19:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, number one, I think churches should be involved in the political process and having candidates come through and vetted and checked off as being a viable individual to serve on a school board or board of supervisor or city council on up to state assembly.

[00:20:12] [SPEAKER_00]: And for federal government, the church has to participate in the political process, vetting of candidates. That's one side of it. The other side of it is getting involved on helping to shape our culture and policies.

[00:20:27] [SPEAKER_00]: We are suffering heavily on attacks against the family and the family units. And families are so important to the framework of our country and our founding.

[00:20:41] [SPEAKER_00]: And the farther we get away from the family dynamic, which a lot has to do with, you know, irrespective of your faith because we were in America, you know, there's, there's, we're a country of small communities starting with the family unit.

[00:20:58] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think the church can really help influence policies that, that can create a better environment for families to thrive.

[00:21:11] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, I don't know tangibly what that exactly looks like. But what I can tell you is, you know, even from just an economical standpoint, you know, two parent household is significantly more successful.

[00:21:23] [SPEAKER_00]: The children are success significantly more successful in life when that's embraced and the help and the resources are there.

[00:21:32] [SPEAKER_00]: And so just in a tangible way, the church's involvement in helping influence that would be huge for the, for our region and for our nation.

[00:21:45] [SPEAKER_00]: But I'm always going to want to surround myself with, with counsel of wisdom and guidance on how to approach, you know, different policies and decisions.

[00:21:56] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, we have, you know, political, what's the word, topics like, you know, Roe v. Wade and life. And there's, you know, there's a lot of these conversations that have to happen in the church's voice needs to be heard and the word of God needs to be a part of that.

[00:22:20] [SPEAKER_00]: And so that's kind of where I see that happening. Hopefully that answered your question.

[00:22:28] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, no, that's great. That's great. Yeah, I really, I appreciate that and definitely, you know, put some kind of tangible ideas on, you know, what that would look like.

[00:22:37] [SPEAKER_03]: And you're running for the seat in the 49th District here. And what do you think are some of the biggest issues that we are dealing with here in this North County, San Diego area that encompasses that 49th District?

[00:23:01] [SPEAKER_00]: So, so number one, the number one issue in the district is inflation or economy. And whether you're a Democrat or Republican and independent, that's the number one issue that individuals are feeling and experiencing on a daily basis.

[00:23:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Each family right now has about a $5,200 per year inflationary tax burden that's been forced upon them because of failed policies out of DC.

[00:23:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, we need to do everything we can to address inflation. Now there's different ways to address it. Obviously, we need to immediately ramp up domestic production of oil, natural gas and expand our leases.

[00:23:48] [SPEAKER_00]: The more supply we can flood our markets with, the less we're dependent on importing that energy in. We can lower energy costs substantially right out the gate by just authorizing, you know, domestic oil and gas production.

[00:24:08] [SPEAKER_00]: We need to stop with the mass spending and printing of money. That's what's caused inflation that we're dealing with right now. We've printed 40% of all currency ever printed in the United States.

[00:24:23] [SPEAKER_00]: We printed 40% of it in the last 14 months. That's crazy. Yeah, and so it's, we have flooded, we have flooded the market with, you know, mass government spending, which is causing a lot of issues on the ground.

[00:24:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Electricity costs, you know, a lot of environmental, you know, less meaning environmental policies that go to the extreme, you know, translate into higher energy costs. And that's why in San Diego County we're experiencing the highest electricity rates in the nation right now, right here in this district.

[00:24:58] [SPEAKER_00]: And so you have kind of all this coming down on us and that really creates burdens. We're a blue collar district, a lot of retirees, a lot of lower income families, and they're the ones that are the greatest, you know, they're the ones that are the most impacted by these, these policies.

[00:25:15] [SPEAKER_00]: So inflation, economies number one, number two, believe it or not is education. We've completed 8700 surveys in the district and that's the number two issue right now in the district is education.

[00:25:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Parents feel like public education has failed their children. A lot of it has to do with the, you know, mass shutdowns and the way they handled our, you know, curriculums and education. And then also what they're teaching our kids and what you see on the news that different states are teaching

[00:25:46] [SPEAKER_00]: children at such a young age and really trying to prevent parents from having an influence on their kids' education. That's unacceptable. And then number three is crime. There's been a significant rise in crime. A lot of that has to do with local state policies, which I don't have influence on

[00:26:07] [SPEAKER_00]: necessarily on a federal level, but what's fueling a lot of the drug and gang related activities and violent crime is our open and porous southern border. That is just, you know, an overwhelming amount of fentanyl and drugs and individuals that have no intention of achieving the American dream. They're here to cause problems and are crossing over illegally.

[00:26:34] [SPEAKER_00]: And they're taking advantage of our, you know, Biden's open border policies and we need to secure our borders. We, you know, in order to have a sovereign nation to protect its citizens, we have to have secure borders. And so that's a top priority, you know, it falls into the crime issue as being number three.

[00:26:55] [SPEAKER_03]: All right. Well, if elected, what do you think are going to be some of the biggest obstacles that you will have in accomplishing some of these goals?

[00:27:10] [SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, we're going to take back Congress this November and then, you know, pray to God I hope we take back the Senate. But the biggest obstacle is, you know, Biden's still going to have the power to veto.

[00:27:26] [SPEAKER_00]: So as Congress, we move on legislation, we move on policies to immediately bring relief on our economy, on education, on securing our borders. Biden has the ability to veto.

[00:27:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Now the only thing we have at our disposal with a conservative majority is we, you know, Congress controls the purse. We control spending. We have the ability to shut down parts of our government if necessary or not approve budget proposals.

[00:27:56] [SPEAKER_00]: On important items for, you know, the White House as a leverage tool to ensure that we get the legislation passed to bring relief to Americans that are really struggling right now in our economy.

[00:28:11] [SPEAKER_00]: So that's going to be our biggest challenge.

[00:28:14] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, and then obviously navigating the landmines that, you know, Mike Levin is going to want to try to bring into the equation. You know, he's going to want to bring in social distraction type issues when my priority at this juncture is to focus on the kitchen table issues that the district is experiencing right now.

[00:28:36] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's going to be my focus. And that's what I'm going to talk about. And that's, you know, that's what I'm going to work hard on getting done once I'm in Congress is, is, you know, the beautiful thing about being a representative is your power is received from the people.

[00:28:52] [SPEAKER_00]: And so your entire purpose is to go to DC and grab as much that power and bring it back here on the grounds for them. And it's not to go to DC and get your own personal agenda done as me as an individual.

[00:29:07] [SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, I think a lot of people don't they don't understand that they go what do you want to go do when you get into Congress? Well, it's not about me. Yeah, I'm representing you.

[00:29:15] [SPEAKER_00]: If I go to there to do what I want to do, which we do see representatives do. That's that's a complete violation of my my oath and your trust that you voted in you put in, you know, you invested into me.

[00:29:29] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, you know what, Christopher, one of the things that I admire about you and, you know, as I've followed your campaign a bit is the fact that you are not a politician. And, you know, I think that's the very thing that you're saying right now is, you know, a

[00:30:01] [SPEAKER_03]: politician realizes what you're saying, you know, I'm here to represent the people. And you've kind of made a point to, you know, make that very clear that you are not a politician.

[00:30:13] [SPEAKER_03]: You know, do you want to speak to that for a minute?

[00:30:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely. I appreciate you bringing that up because I'm not I'm just an ordinary American man. I'm not a politician. I actually, I really don't like that term. I prefer the term statesman, which I think really describes what our founders meant of Congress is, you know, being a statesman or, you

[00:30:41] [SPEAKER_00]: are you understand your position under God and your role and priorities and you understand that that your power only comes from the the district that gives it to you, and you're responsible to them.

[00:30:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And you're like I said earlier, your job is to go and get as much of that power in representing their interests as possible and bringing it back down. And and that means I need to work with the other side. It means that I need to avoid division as much as possible.

[00:31:19] [SPEAKER_00]: And really, you know, use a lot of wisdom and discernment and surround myself with my church, you know, and prioritize my priorities under God, and take it one day at a time to get things done.

[00:31:32] [SPEAKER_00]: And and I think that's that's the that's the leadership and the dynamic I want to bring to the table is of a statesman and not as a politician, because politicians can can message things the way they want. They can answer questions the way they want.

[00:31:48] [SPEAKER_00]: They can convey to the base, whatever they want to sound as good as they want. But in the end, it's an empty suit, empty shell. There's no substance there. And you there's a real disc there's a real disconnect.

[00:32:05] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I'm just an average Joe guy, you know, you know, that I'm here to serve you. And whether I meet with one or a thousand, I don't care, I'm here to serve you. And until you vote me out, you know, from that perspective, and I'm not doing my job or I've accomplished what I'm accomplished, I can go back to my old life.

[00:32:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Boom, I'm out, you know, I have no desire to be here for any other reason than to get things done, and then move on.

[00:32:33] [SPEAKER_03]: You know, I like to look at it in this way that you're a normal guy who's seeking to make a big difference. And I really, yeah, I really appreciate that. And I want to ask you just a follow up question to that is, you know, okay, you're not a politician, you're a statesman, you're this normal guy that is seeking to make a difference.

[00:32:54] [SPEAKER_03]: If you get elected, how do you stay there? How do you stay in that mindset of I'm a statesman, not a politician, I'm a normal guy trying to make a difference because I think we've all seen the kind of the normal guy the guy who wasn't that quote unquote politician type of guy become that once they get into office.

[00:33:19] [SPEAKER_03]: So how are you not going to become that? What are the, what are going to be the things that help?

[00:33:25] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to read a quote from J. F. Clark and it really speaks a lot to me and I try to read this on a daily basis but he says, a politician thinks of the next election, a statesman of the next generation.

[00:33:41] [SPEAKER_00]: A politician looks for the success of his party, a statesman for that of his country. The statesman wishes to steer while the politician is satisfied to drift.

[00:33:54] [SPEAKER_00]: And I want to hold true to that and it's going to be a, yeah, it's, you know, I'm not going to be naive to the pressures and the reality of a reelection in two years that are, you know, it's very expensive

[00:34:10] [SPEAKER_00]: to get elected. You know, I'm the leading Republican candidate right now and it's taken raising over $1.2 million in the last 10 months.

[00:34:19] [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, it's very expensive and I'm not self-funded. I'm not independently wealthy. This is, you know, 10,000 individual donors with an average donation of less than 80 bucks.

[00:34:30] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's the people are funding me and I appreciate that but if I don't raise the money for the next election then I'm not going to get elected.

[00:34:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And so you have to balance that with what being a statesman and getting things done for the people and so I think balance is key.

[00:34:49] [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, I met with Congressman Green in D.C., very strong Christian. He holds a Wednesday Bible study and kind of a congressional leadership course to help navigate freshmen, you know, congressmen that want to maintain these balances

[00:35:10] [SPEAKER_00]: and you know, because it's a whole new world I'm going to have to navigate and I don't want to be ignorant to that.

[00:35:16] [SPEAKER_00]: And I want to do it right and I want to make sure I'm around individuals who are doing it right and that are, you know, they have strong foundations in Christ.

[00:35:26] [SPEAKER_00]: And so I think planning for that and constantly being in communication with, you know, obviously my wife but you know, I have my, you know, one or two pastors or close men that I can have as accountability and talk about things.

[00:35:42] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I want to have all of these tools at my disposal so that I am set up for success to serve the people on the ground and I don't get swooped up with the so-called swamp and you know, all the bells and whistles that may come along the way.

[00:36:04] [SPEAKER_03]: I love that. That's great. That's a great perspective and answer and I love that quote that you mentioned as well.

[00:36:11] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, we're going to wrap this up and I just want to mention before we do is there anything else that you would love for our listeners just to know about you, your heart or what you stand for?

[00:36:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. So, you know, outside of being a father of seven and a husband and small business owner and serving my community, I really love farming and agriculture.

[00:36:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Like I'll be out till midnight like fixing sprinklers and I mean, I just, I love that. And I think usually once a year I'll invite the community out because we have so many extra avocados to come out and grab some avocados and kind of tour the property.

[00:36:58] [SPEAKER_00]: But I, you know, at some point I would love to open that up again and I'll put it out there to get the community and you can, you know, see my home and my farm and kind of see my backyard.

[00:37:11] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I want to always stay, you know, vulnerable in a healthy way but also transparent and relatable like you were talking about when we first got on the phone.

[00:37:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's so important to connect on that real world level and not ever be looked at as, oh my gosh, look at what he has done.

[00:37:31] [SPEAKER_00]: I always wanted to be, you know, God has put this man in his position and that's why he's there, you know, to give God glory in that.

[00:37:38] [SPEAKER_03]: That's great. Christopher, how can our listeners be praying for you?

[00:37:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Just my marriage, keeping me and my wife's marriage strong as a top priority and just, you know, focused on the priorities on why I'm doing this.

[00:37:57] [SPEAKER_00]: And just over my family. This is not an easy process on a family to go through a high profile congressional campaign.

[00:38:08] [SPEAKER_00]: There's not so nice people out there and so just prayer over my house during this season would be huge.

[00:38:16] [SPEAKER_03]: All right. And don't forget to vote.

[00:38:21] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, go vote!

[00:38:24] [SPEAKER_03]: But hey, I really appreciate you taking time to be with us today and really enjoyed just getting a little glimpse into your heart and your vision

[00:38:34] [SPEAKER_03]: and why you're doing this.

[00:38:39] [SPEAKER_03]: And we're going to be praying that, you know, God's will be done in this.

[00:38:45] [SPEAKER_03]: And I just appreciate you being willing to step into the fray, step into the battle really in that way and to be able to make a difference.

[00:38:57] [SPEAKER_03]: So we will be praying for you.

[00:38:59] [SPEAKER_03]: But thanks so much for being with us today.

[00:39:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much, Pastor. I really appreciate you.

[00:39:05] [SPEAKER_03]: All right.

[00:39:13] [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for listening to season six.

[00:39:16] [SPEAKER_02]: This season is all about God's stories and we have more content coming your way.

[00:39:21] [SPEAKER_02]: If you'd like access to more Christ centered content, we'd love to direct you to the Good Lion podcast network.

[00:39:27] [SPEAKER_02]: Simply go to goodlion.io for more Christ centered content.

[00:39:32] [SPEAKER_02]: And if you enjoyed this conversation, we'd love it if you shared it with a friend, wrote a review or left a rating.

[00:39:37] [SPEAKER_02]: Otherwise, we'll see you next time here on the basics of life conversations.