Come up. A live recording. Awesome. You gotta turn off. Yourself. Hey guys what's going on welcome to uh Doug's campaign? Um my question is who's Doug Heck um so the point of this town hall got to know him a little bit is to know what he's about why he's running against Kathleen Rice and uh for everyone here on Facebook. Please uh post a comment below. Ask questions someone will be monitoring the uh the comments and whoever is on. Itself keep the questions coming there is AQ and A. um if it's a great question we will uh present to him. if not then well, you know uh but in the meantime, without further ado, I would like to introduce Doug a great man who I respect um if I live in the district, I would definitely vote for him. I live in Queens but uh right now here we go Doug Man you live in Queens. I didn't know that what are you? What are you doing here? I'm just kidding. I'm sorry. Uh thanks for putting this together by the way, so yeah, my name is Doug Newman. We're actually we're in our campaign headquarters right now in the village of Hempstead it just gonna give everybody a quick view. It's just some of the team some very small portion of the team we've built up a large grassroots campaign uh as we've been going out there for the last, I don't know how many months it's been now uh actually a big part of it's been driving around with this big sign you can see behind me. I have on my car on my Subaru and it basically tells people to text me and that's that's actually a big part of my message. I just want to be the most accessible us representative you've ever had we've ever had, which is in star contrast to our current representative who's basically been absent from the community. so she's been in office for 6 years. Uh her name is Kath. Rice, A lot of people don't even know who their Congress person is. I've learned that as I've been campaigning and that's become a big part of my campaign pitch going up to stores, I have uh I would show you I have posters and I'm putting up in store front windows and it says. Do you know who your Congress person is vote? Doug Truman and you will and has my number there to text and yeah we've had thousands of people reach out and text and I talk with them directly. I talk about the issues they care about and at the end of the day. I think that's really what the role of a Congress person is it's to be in touch with as many constituents and community groups as possible throughout the district. Understand what you are across the board with all parts of the community to bring people together to a consensus on what actions we should take to improve the district as a whole, and I think it's easier, said than done. I think it takes a lot of energy. A lot of effort you know this district is almost 800000 people strong, which is it's it's it's vast in terms of geography as well and I think it is you know uh a job that requires a lot of energy in our current congressman is just not doing the job and that's that's become um. When I set out to run that wasn't you know the main killer of my campaign, but that's kinda become the main pillar of my campaign cuz I'm seeing that's that's the most stark difference between me and uh our current representative. So I'll continue to talk about myself here just cuz I think a lot of you probably don't know me or know anything about me uh so Doman never run or held political office before I'm uh engineered by day. I'm actually a civil engineer professional engineer. I'm actually the Commissioner of Engineering for the Town of Hempstead and the Town of Hempstead encompasses actually most of the Congressional Fourth district, which is the district I'm running and so I'm very familiar with our district because of my role as Commissioner of Engineering um familiar with all the infrastructure issues throughout this district, I worked in public service, essentially my entire adult life. uh so I know what it means to serve the people and while working during the day as a public. Servant as an engineer, I went to law school at night over down the block from where we are right now at university and I got my law degree over there became an attorney. Actually I became a patent attorney uh but I kept my day job as an engineer. I work my way up and became Commissioner of engineering and recently I decided you know I got the bug and decided that I wanted to get into politics. Actually, it was something that I never. I would always tell people I wouldn't want to do I work behind the scenes of politics a lot, but I never really thought I'd be. For office um like many of you, I'm sure I'm kind of uh a bit fed up with the current scene in Washington. I'm fed up with politics and politicians and that's why I never really wanted to run myself, but I realized the only way to beat them or change them is to join them and that's why I decided to run and a big focus of my campaign is bringing. True power to the people uh I think all too often to re elect representatives that end up towing the line of the party and not actually representing their constituents and you know even if you if you look at my logo, it's it's hard to say, is this guy a Republican or a Democrat? and I do that for a reason. So ultimately I am a Republican and we can get into the reasons as to why I am, but before being a Republican or you know more so than being. Republican I'm looking to work and be an advocate for the people and that's why my logo is very nondescript and you know independent in nature and I think that's important, especially given the environment of what's going on right now, Everybody's very divided. this country is very divided. Uh you know everybody split up into into blue and red and I want to bring people together, Unite people along the lines of what it means to be an American and that's one of the. Pillars of my campaign as well, uh I could get in we could get into the text based polling system. Maybe we'll we'll we'll touch on that later, but that's one of the main components um would you like me to Ariel? Should I should I go through my platform a little bit? I mean what how do you wanna proceed? Um absolutely go go through your platform a little bit. Yeah, what is a tax based polling system? I don't even know what that is okay, So the you know one of the one of the. Main components of my campaign is to improve representative democracy uh not an Injustice district, but in the country as a whole, so I set up and we actually already built the technology uh text based polling system where every single constituent throughout the district, whether you're a registered Republican or Democrat or you're a, you know a blank unaffiliated independent will be able to vote essentially vote directly on every issue on the floor of Congress. so I'm gonna text out you know if elected i'. Texting out every issue to all my constituents that sign up to this. hopefully we'll get a lot of them to do that and uh I'll be asking them to text back their response. You know a yay or nay on different issues and what that's gonna do is that's gonna make me more accountable to the people because I'll have that raw data staring me in the face as to where the constituents stand on issues and what it's also gonna do is it's gonna give the people a true voice so. Too often, you have somebody run for Congress or you know uh another seed in they say they're gonna be the voice of the people, but then gonna end up doing it. Uh this will be a tool that will help make that a reality will make me accountable and it will give people a conduit to me. so I actually know where they stand on the issues and like I said, I think uh you know an important aspect of that is the fact that you know sometimes you'll have a Republican. that's that's voted into office and then the Democrats feel like you know they're they're forgotten for those next 2 years or Democrat. The Republicans feel like they're forgot this will allow uh me to be accountable to all constituents, no matter what party they're from and III won't be able to ignore where people stand on issues. so that's that's what the texting system is. That's what the purpose of it is and when I'm out there talking to people on a daily basis, which I'm doing all the time and that's why I was a little late to the zoom today. um that's something. That I drive home and that's something that people really seem to their head at you know they have their head at the fact that they don't know their Congress person when I talk to them about that and they bring up. Oh, it's captain rice They start to wonder like oh. yeah. why don't I don't like orange person and they get interested in that uh but they also love this idea of the text polling system. I see their eyes light up and I think it's it's something that will be easy for us to implement and it will be uh you know not just very. Not just be a productive tool to have in this district, but I think it will become a great example for how representative democracy should function throughout the United States of all. I'll continue to go through my platform because that will take questions so uh you know one of the things is you know making this district more affordable. Um I just turned forty last week. I've lived in this area. my entire life I live in West Hempstead right now, I grew up on the north shore of Long Island in Glen head. I spent a good part of my life as a young adult in Mineola, which is also in the fourth Congressional district and You know, I know Nassau County is a very expensive place to live. you know I'm a professional engineer. I'm an attorney. I have a good job um and you know it's it's hard. It's hard to make your way here. It's not easy. It's hard to get that good job. get a job. That's good enough where you could go out and buy a home. You know there's a lot of young people carrying the burden of student loans. I'm one of them. I still have my law school student loans that I'm paying off so I think you know we need to work. At whatever we can do to make it more affordable to live in Nassau County and you know the main reason why I think that's important is because at the end of the day, you know a society is only as strong as the families that make it up and when it when it becomes unsustainable for families to stay together in a society in this district, it starts to erode the. Fabric of the entire community and unfortunately, I think we're seeing that you know uh all too often you have you know grandparents that have to leave the district because they can no longer afford to live here and they're leaving their their children behind and their grand kids You have young people that are about to start a family and they're deciding to leave Nassau County because they feel like this is the place that they can't make their home and it's just very unfortunate and we're we're essentially you know. Our families apart here, so I think it's essential that we do whatever we can to make this district more affordable. Some of the things I wanna do to that end are uh basically promote the development of additional housing in the district. Uh you know, II know that becomes a little bit of a delicate issue because a lot of people have their expectations of what Nassau County should be. They see it as a place that should be the suburbs and I agree with that is the expectations you know the expectation of what that. County is and should be and we should maintain that, but there's areas in the district that I think it's you know it would be okay for us to develop more and add more housing. There's more urban areas and I think what we need to do is uh create incentives for that development to happen and what this is essentially gonna do is you know create more housing supply and when you create more housing supply, uh you know more young people can then. To buy homes uh at the another aspect of that is lowering taxes, you know so I have a uh a six-point tax plan that we put up on our website by the way go to Douglas Tubman.com to see more details of my platform. You have a very detailed platform uh so the six point tax plan the main the main component of that is um eliminating the salt tax. App uh that will put more money in people's pockets permanently extending pro small business tax deductions allowing tax deferral for startup small businesses, eliminating the marriage penalty, increasing the child tax credit and increasing allowable expense deductions for teachers. These are all things that you know we're proposing and where we see we could reduce taxes. I think there might be other ideas we could implement. And you know once elected, uh I would be doing my due diligence towards coming up with any other ways we could possibly reduce taxes Um I'll shoot through the rest of my, you know some of the other main points of my platform without going into so much detail uh coveted relief funding. so obviously we're all very aware of the fact that we're going through a pandemic right now and I think it's the role of our government the role of our federal government to get legislation passed as soon as. To get emergency funds to the people that need it and people are expecting that and they're expecting their government to take action on that. and we're not seeing that. currently, you know we're seeing too much politics uh in DC and we're seeing um these bills essentially get stagnated and slow down and we're not seeing legislation get passed fast enough to bring money to the people that need it to get us through the economic effects of the shutdown from the pandemic. Uh so you know if. And that bill still hasn't been passed. I would be uh you know a very strong supporter of doing whatever we need to do to get that bill and others pass to get the funds needed uh into the hands of small businesses and families and individuals um I'm a big supporter of um our police. you know we can get into that more. Yeah. That's obviously very much a hot topic um but you know I think it's. Important to uh stand behind our police, especially as an elected official, especially as a Congress person and uh you know, I explained you know when people ask me, you know uh why are you fundamentally a Republican? I say you know, I think the role of government is to provide a platform for free and open society to flourish and I think our government needs to provide the basic needs that are required for that to happen. things like. Providing safety and security equally for all and that requires the police and you know there's recently been talk of defunding the police and I think that's dangerous. I think that's dangerous rhetoric that we're hearing from the extreme left and it's leeching into the not so extreme left and I think we need representatives that will talk out against that and support our police for this very core reason that without safety and security equally, you know being provided equal. For all, uh we just can't have a free and open society so big support of our police uh big supporter of our our veterans. You know, I'll take initiatives there to get to continue to support our veterans. I want to you know address climate change in a sensible Republican way you know without uh too much regulation, you know III don't like things like the green new deal. I think they're too drastic uh but I'm certainly. Believe in global warming uh I'm you know, I'm an engineer. I'm a I'm a I'm a science minded person. Uh I look at the data and the data is very, you know very stark and real in that in that area, you know our oceans are getting warmer and they're rising. The storms are getting worse. Uh I experienced it firsthand as commissioner engineer for the town of Hempstead, where I'm seeing the increase flooding. so I think we do need to. Towards solving the problems of climate change, but in a way where we do it uh went through capitalism not through uh socialistic ideas socialism uh improving our local infrastructure so once again a commissioner of vary so it's it's something that's near and dear to my heart as I'm sure all of you know the local infrastructure here, it is not in the most pristine shape. I'm sure you got travel around the country. Uh travel around the world and say why did things look different here? Why don't they look as good as they are elsewhere? Why isn't our mass transit as good and uh you know we need to change that this was Nassau County. This district is one of the oldest suburbs in America and a lot of it just happens to be crumbling all at the same time. so I think it's important that we bring attention to this and we start to improve our infrastructure and I'd be fighting for federal dollars to do that. Uh another big main issue that's on my list. here is supporting Israel. um you know this came up last night, I was doing a zoom and uh you know so staunch support of Israel big part of our constituency in the fourth Congressional district is is the five towns, which has a very large Jewish community and I've heard them and I've heard their concerns and I would I would continue to be uh you know a staunch supporter of Israel. I'd stand behind our president on that one. I think he's done a great job uh in terms of pushing uh initiatives forward towards creating peace in the Middle East and II would be behind him with that. and uh I think that covers most of uh the basics of my platform. One of the other things is reforming higher education. Uh we are proposing uh a degree in three concepts so most people go to school uh and they get a four-year degree. We're proposing an idea where you know colleges start offering degrees in 3 years instead of. Uh actually as a young gentleman that's been working on my campaign that propose this concept and we've we talked it out. I think it's a great idea and it's going to you know, save students money and that there would be one last year schooling. it's gonna get them into the workforce a year sooner we'll be able to start earning um so yeah, let's uh I'll I'll I'll stop talking at this point. we could uh open it up to questions. Do we have any that are coming through? Absolutely. Um, in fact, we have one question from Nancy uh by the way she says she knows you um, she says Hi, okay. What can what can we do on a national um and a local on a local level? uh for safety, you know about crime, you see it's increasing and we wanna know um what are your thoughts on that? Hold on one second. I mean, so you know, first and foremost, I think you know we need to support. we need to support our police. Uh you know the we need to we need to talk about you know reforming our police as well. Um you know I've been out talking to constituents everyday my headquarters here in the village of Hempstead. uh this happens to be uh a minority community around here in the village of Hempstead, There are people around here that are concerned. Uh about the police and some of you know the police brutality that's that's that we have been seeing and you know, I think you know we can't we can't ignore those concerns. Those are valid concerns. you know the Black Lives Matter movement is something um that had a lot of energy behind it for a reason and I think we need to make sure that you know we address those issues. Uh so while I am a big supporter of the police, I think it's very important that we uh talk about things like holding police accountable. uh you know we need to make sure uh our police are held accountable uh and what that would begin to do is you know that's gonna create more trust between the police and the community um at the end of the day, that's really the goal. you know the goal is. To have the community trust, the police and the police trust the community and you know I think here in Nassau County, We do a very good job at that. You know I think police are pretty well integrated into the community. Uh I think we have a you know a pretty diverse uh police force, but I think we could always do better. Uh I think you know like I said. So I don't think we should be thinking of defunding. I think maybe even in some we need more funding you know uh when I talk to. community here ah we seem to reach those those same ideas when we talk about the fact that there is high crime ah in some parts of the district and you know we talk about you know whether or not that means less pleasing or more it means potentially more and or giving the police more resources and tools so they can properly do the job that needs be done you know fighting fighting ah you know ah drug use and fighting ah You know uh local gang crime uh so I think what needs to be done is you know, first and foremost sending a strong message that we back the police so that the police uh are are not uh you know under attack, you know from the community they need the police need to be respected. The law needs to be respected. That's very important. You know when we saw incidents of you know citizens throwing water on the police and you know it's it's. It's important that you know there's respect between the community and police and so that needs to come down from the top and from the representatives and sending out that strong message uh but we also you know on the other hand need to make sure that we you know start to take initiatives and move towards holding making sure you know any of the bad apples so to speak in the police departments are held to the same standard uh that any other individual be help. Hold to for the you know for crime, we're we're broken um so I think that's you know uh the first thing I would do is just kinda try to set that tone. Um I think you know what I've experienced being out and campaigning um especially in minority areas and as a white guy walking around, is that you know a lot of it is just you know people becoming. Comfortable with each other, you know uh the community needs to be comfortable with the police and the police need to be comfortable well that the community needs to be neighbors policing neighbors. so I think you know just having uh police out there on the beat more um and becoming uh familiar with the community. You should know your local police officer as well as you know the guy that works at your local deli and you know when you see your police officer it shouldn't instill. In you, it should instill safety this feeling of safety in you and I think a lot of that is just better communication between the police and the people uh and you know I would like to help you know lead those efforts um and you know those aren't necessarily things on the federal level that need to be done. That's not necessarily legislation that needs to be passed, but I wanna be very well integrated in the community. I wanna be boots on. And I wanna help lead those initiatives of integrating police into communities. I'm very well, said meeting, especially uh something you wanna just alist from camaraderie between the police and the community um and we do have another question from Brian uh her that he asked. Can you comment uh more in depth of that your um pro clean energy. Over there and to maintain a bit. So we want to um you know invest in ideas and promote technologies um that will help uh solve you know or slow fix global warming so creating incentives for new technology like uh carbon capture technology um promoting the use of eco-friendly power sources in buildings and homes so creating tax. For that so that people are using more efficient technologies in their businesses and homes uh whether you know, maybe it's tax breaks that they're getting for the purposes of implementing these, you know energy savings technologies um enacting the Nuclear Energy Leadership Act, so you know we need to consider these things and start uh you know uh allowing innovation to uh essentially uh prosper you know uh we need to. Capitalism to be the solution. um you know there's I don't wanna get too philosophical but we all know there's you know there's an infinite amount of energy in the universe and you know there's there's science out there. that's allowing us to essentially um create that energy uh our our our our grasp that energy as needed. Uh so you know we use when we use solar uh you know nuclear not something to be ignored. It's an amazing technology uh and we just need. We just need to um you know I'll I'll create a regulatory framework that allows these innovative technologies to blossom um and it's not about uh more regulation in many instances. I think it's about you know less regulations so that these new technologies uh can prosper um de regulating wind and solar energy production is is another concepts that we're we're talking about. The team, but basically you know we you know I want to create an environment uh an ecosystem where innovation will prosper. Awesome um and we do have another question from uh from the chat from Jonathan Davis um what has been the point of this campaign journey and what has been the most challenging part of your campaign for Congress? uh very good question. HM, you know. HM, that's that's a good question. That's a good question. Don't don't it's the the biggest challenge. I'll answer that one first cuz it's been a lot of challenges uh the biggest challenge is not uh getting pulled in one direction. You know you're out there. you're talking to a lot of people and it's very tempting to just give people the answer that they wanna hear. and I think that's what most politicians do and I think a lot of people. Set up with that I'm fed up with that and me as an individual I don't you know. I'm not that person don't wanna be that person uh but it is challenging uh to to you know, essentially not let uh the forces that be change you as you go through this process. uh so you have you know people and political groups and you know uh you know other powerful groups that are trying to pull you in different directions and get you to come on their side and agree with things and so it. A real challenge to you know, stay true to who you are and you know uh not make false promises so that's been a challenge and I think I've done a pretty good job at that and part of uh you know what the way I'm doing. it is just having uh you know a simple message and a core mission that I'm sticking to which is you know carrying out the role of what I think it means to be a Congress person, which is just listening to people understanding their issues and then going to promising to go. Out on their behalf in the best interest of everyone so kinda like being an attorney for the people, but that's been my biggest challenge and I think if elected, that's gonna continue to be the biggest challenge, which is to not get pulled in one direction to not be you know, enticed depend or to any group. you know, I don't think our current congressman has done a very good job at that. you know, I think we have seen that she started to ponder to some of these more extreme ideas on the far left and I think that's dangerous and I think that's you know where you need. Uh you know a strong representative with the strong backbone that's not gonna do that uh well. This is the second part to the of my high point my high point um you know I guess my high point is just now being out there in the community uh in areas where Republicans typically don't hang out in primarily democratic areas, you know we put the headquarters here in the in the village of Hempstead and now walking around these different parts of the community driving around in my car and getting you know the. Man you know people know me now, they know that I'm real and the campaign is real and that we're actually out here trying to help people and it's very positive and reassuring when I have somebody come out shake my hand and say you know what Doug you seem like a legit guy. You seem like you wanna actually go and do a good job and that's that's the high point for me when I have those moments with people where they we're we're reconnect and they basically put. Trusted me and saying you know you got you got my vote. It looks like you're actually looking out for our best interest. Thank you. um we actually have some great questions on the on Facebook over here um what does this question from Antonio Kelly? How do you plan on helping with the growing homeless population in Nassau County? That's a good question. Uh so I think you know we talked about uh you know. More housing to the district, but obviously that's not gonna solve um you know homelessness. you know a lot of those A lot of those issues are local, but I think you know what we could do is bring in federal dollars. Uh you know uh seek federal grants that could help alleviate those issues. You know at the end of the day this district um or actually the state is paying 26 point. 26.6000000000. $26.6000000000 more in federal taxes than what we're getting back from the federal government and I think we need a. Advocate in Congress that's gonna bring more federal dollars to this district and what I intend on doing as a Congress person is being that pain in the ass in Congress. that's gonna really try to bring that money to this district and I'm gonna do it in a way where I'm going to make logical arguments for why we need it and database arguments whether that's for infrastructure and showing you know why we need money for XY and Z or it's for this issue of homelessness and you know. Um uh you know so I don't I don't have a precise answer on what we're gonna what can be done, but I think part of that is getting money uh getting grants that we can use to uh start to alleviate that problem. Um you know homelessness, you know, I'm not gonna pretend to be an expert in the field, but I think a lot of us know it has to do with mental health issues. you know so these aren't people uh that you know just. Don't happen to have a job and they don't have to pump you know so jobs obviously is an important thing. We can get into that. you know I would you know I want to you know that's gonna be a top of my priority is doing what we can do to bring more uh you know bring more companies into this district. Bring more jobs so people can start to live fulfill lives. Uh I you know I'm I'm against these concepts of welfare. You know I think on some level it's necessary for people. uh you know that need their basic needs met that I honestly don't. Have the ability even if given the opportunity to take it and you need welfare for those purposes? uh but I think there's there are others uh that if given the opportunity if given the you know the means to proper education uh will be able to work their selves out and work themselves up, but in terms of homelessness, I think a lot of those people it's not about a lack of job. Uh but it's about um people you know with mental uh illnesses and so we need we need proper funding to give them the proper care they need and then we need funding to provide them proper housing. awesome. Well, let's take a few more questions uh from Facebook um this question is from Erin Morgan. um do you think it's fair to the citizens of New York or the uh uh. Rice refuses to debate you and campaign do you think she feels entitled to the seat with the backing of the big money sandwich and political machine. Well, I love this question. Thank you um as I took this, I most certainly do think it's unfair that she doesn't want to be. you know this is the America is a democracy the people deserve to be able to make an informed choice. They need to know what their options are. I actually ran into Kathleen rice today uh at a polling. Center here in Hempstead, she was I was out there talking to people uh in the neighborhood and I guess she came to vote and she went through. I didn't see her go through the main area where to vote. I guess she went through the back door uh but I got I got word that she was there and I actually went and tried to find her and I found her she was running out and I ran up to her. I was good. I was gonna record her, but I didn't think it was the polite thing to do didn't wanna. That guy, so I was a gentleman and I approached I asked her, I said, You know miss Rice. I was like, Will you debate me and I think her exact words were uh absolutely not um and I said why and she said, well, you know boating is already started so you know it wouldn't make sense. It's like you know I've we've been asking her to debate for the last 3 months uh and then she ran away but the point is you. She's yes, Of course, she should be up to debate and of course, I think it's because she has a lot more to lose than gain, but it's her responsibility as an elected representative in the seat of Congress to give her constituents that that choice and to allow people to hear all sides of the argument so they can choose their best representative and I would think she would agree to that. Ultimately, but she's not doing it because she has a lot more to lose than gain and I think it's unfortunate and I think people are starting to catch on to it, too. There's so many people that I met today that you know when I bring that up to like WoW, really, why won't she so please tell your friends. Kathleen Rice refuses to debate me awesome and we have a that is coming from Carrie Johnson. I just feel like I need to share this with you um it's for. To see Doug here answering questions and facing the people the taxpayers, unlike others who've remained hidden during the pandemic uh doing uh doing puzzles um doing puzzles leadership and the voice of the taxpayers here as we have with dog human, a voice for for the pet. Alright, I like that comment as well. Listen Kathleen rice, You know the world was basically on fire for the last 8 months if you've ever needed our leaders to step up, it was now. And she just wasn't there. She wasn't there during the George Floyd incident uh with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, she wasn't out there. She wasn't you know out there talking about her viewpoint of it. She wasn't there during coveted and during the lock downs, whether or not what she had to say is something that I ultimately agreed with or anybody else she should have at least been out there engaging with everybody and having these conversations and also. People in the right direction taking a leadership uh you know role when needed, like with the with the police, you know, I think you know that was a very tough issue. You know, people are very fired up. you know and upset with the police and I get it and I understand why um, but you also then needed somebody in a leadership role to stand up and say, wait a minute hold on. We need to make sure you know we we provide safety and security first and let's let's let's respect our. Um, but we didn't see that from her and uh you know it's much easier to just wait for the storm to pass, which is exactly what she did and then come out after and then and then just hope that she would get voted in by default. You know it's concerning to see when I'm out there talking to people um a lot of the messaging that's happening right now cuz voting has started Is you know, Vote row all the way um and you know it's primarily a Democratic district and to help. To do that, I think is insulting you know it's not about voting your party line all the way it's about understanding what the different offices are understanding who's running and voting for the best person for the job. I think it's very concerning that you're seeing messaging coming down from the higher ups of the parties telling them to vote row a all the way, and you know a lot of people. Are very amped up about the presidential election. You know, we're you know. we're it's it's you can't look you know how to screen without seeing what's going on uh between Biden and Trump and I get it. People are very excited about that. and that's what's motivating to come and vote, but they're not even a lot. A lot of people aren't even cognizant of the fact that there's a lot of other very important elections that are taking place so if nothing. If you're tuning in to this, you know just go. do your homework look at the different people that are running for the different seats and make an informed choice. That doesn't mean you have to vote for me, but at least know who's running in the fourth Congressional district. It's you know it might be more important than the presidential race. This is you have the seat that represents you directly in DC. It's a seat that's bringing federal dollars to this district. so check out all the different offices that are running check out who the. Candidates that there are and go make an informed decision just don't vote in accordance you know with your party vote in accordance with the person that's running in or people that are running in that seat and uh I think we only have time for two more questions. Um this question is from Greg. What is your position on China? Uh you know I think I stand behind the president with this one. Um I think China is. Is the elephant in the in the room? I mean, you know the United States is the leader of the free world and we are the leader of democracy. We're the leader of you know capitalism. We're the leader of uh you know providing liberties equally to all these are all very important ideals and concepts, and I think it's the. That the world ultimately needs to continue to move towards and what's concerning about China is that it's is very powerful and becoming more powerful and you know we need to work with China, obviously as partners uh there's a lot of reason why we should you know continue to work with them as partners uh you know but it's concerning that you know the ideals of their country really don't align with American ideals and it's a. That we need to do whatever it is we need to do as a country to make sure that we keep China at Bay and we don't allow them to become the leaders of the world because once that happens, you know the what we know as America will start to fade away, you know America is just an idea like anything else. It's an idea. It's that it's a collective idea among people that believe in these concepts of Liberty individual liberty and that can. Can go away like any other idea once people stop believing in it, so it's very important that we maintain our position as the leader of the free world so that people jointly continue to believe in these ideals that we have that's very well, said um of our last question, this question is from Jim um aside from voting for you. what else is possible for us to make our district change from the establishment. Has been in place. You know you had to look at who else is running the other offices, obviously start with that um getting more active in government putting more pressure on elected officials I think that's the best thing you can do is put pressure on your elected officials and that will start to that will start to yield change. I do think our democracy does work. It's just a slow moving machine, you know, but. Media It's social media is a tool that can be used in a very positive and powerful way to help transform our democracy so use social media use the networks you have to start to influence politics. You know, be a be a be a strong voice yourself be out there on Twitter to be out there on Facebook and Start to be a player in the game and start to influence the You know those around you um so I think that that's probably the best thing you could do is just get involved get involved in politics get involved in government obviously make sure you vote but then after election day and this is why I started this text based polling system continue to be involved being involved um on a daily basis, understand what the issues are and it it takes a lot of work. That's that's one of the unfortunate. About you know our representative democracy, It's here you know you can participate as much as you want to participate, but a lot of us have our daily lives. We have our day jobs and that's where our attention goes, but I think more people need to start carving out time in their day and in their minds and attributing it towards civic engagement because at the end of the day. A very important part of our lives and it's a good investment of your time because it's you're gonna help shape the world that you live in and you're gonna help shape the world that your children are currently live in so just get involved. Thank you very much and uh that was our last question now Doug um do you have any last uh famous words that you want uh partner with uh with us tonight. I guess my the one thing I didn't talk about is the bar tag line, which is build a brighter future together. We just launched a video Advertisement for the campaign that basically displays that concept. concept. I'm seeking to realign people along the idea of what I think it means to be American. You know there's more that unites us than divides us and I wanna be that voice. I wanna be that force that brings people together in this district and on a larger level that starts to bring people together uh throughout the country, I think our country is very divided right now. it's unfortunate to see and we could be. A much more powerful country if we start to realign again and at the end of the day, we are all Americans. we all we are all neighbors. You know we all want the same basic things and I think we need to remember that you know we need to ignore social media a little bit uh when it comes to those types of things, it's not about the party. It's about people and putting people first and realizing there's more that unites us than divides us. so let's work together. Let's find common interest and let's build a bright future together. Thank you very much. Doug again. Thank you for uh for joining us today um well uh that was it guys and uh don't forget to vote. Take care have a wonderful night.