Primary night in the books so all the free stuff as far as what I say, turn out 56 percent of counties 56 not good, one of the the winners in a landslide, It's still a mailing, but it's not gonna matter and that is the fourth congressional. in the Republican side of things and I said to this individual coming upon us right now, you know what I wish I could have gotten you on as far. The two primary, but I tell you what if you prevail guess what you're coming on and I called them up and I kept my word and it is Douglass to it and he is the prevailing water as far as the GOP of fourth congressional Doman Douglass. Congratulations Good morning. Thank you. Jay. Thanks for. Thanks for keeping your word I hope to do the same. I think it's gonna be the hardest part about about running for Congress is trying to keep the the. Campaign promises you make in your pledge as to what you're gonna do if elected, but thanks for keeping yours and have me on. well I wanna reach out to you and I'm glad you're able to answer the call give us Doug give me a little background on yourself how you kinda get into this game alright well kind of a. this is my first time ever running for office of any sort I've been behind the scenes a lot in in politics working for a lot of elections around here in Nassau County I but I. Never stepped out and run. I've I've done things for the party behind the scenes helping with build technologies that they now use to help push out the votes and I I'm I'm the Commissioner of Engineering for the Town of Hempstead and basically that encompasses a large part of district four. so I've gotten to know the district very well over the years and I've been communicating with groups on a on a very close level. And you know get get to know the district well and I I saw an opportunity here with the rice race so I I threw my my name in the hat to get nominated by the party and I got nominated you know it's something I always kind of aspired to do but the time needed to be right and the time felt right now and that's that's that's how I got here. And did you have to get the signatures and everything else once you got the party on and everything else? Yeah. How do you get the how to get the signatures actually you know so the the party obviously help me out in a very big way with that you know they help me all the all the Committee and all the clubs so I know these people very well you know these are kind of the the grass roots Republicans of Nassau County Long Island so they're able to get the word. Swiftly and it help me get petition sides I was actually during that time is when I had Corona virus, I was at one of the early Nassau County Corona virus people so I unfortunately wasn't even able to help out too much at that time in terms of hitting the streets. but yeah, I was able to get the petition signed and and get on the ballots. that with you and koby Doug what were your symptoms? What was the first sign that you think you have something in here? you know it it. Stuff you know I had I had a cough. you know I I was already kind of following the news pretty closely. I'm actually a little bit of a hypochondriac. so I was like, Oh man. I hope I don't have the have the Corona and I locked myself in my apartment and sure enough it it developed into coro and for me it was it was like a weak flu. you know I I was I was down and out. for about you know two weeks you know, lost my taste to my smell but yeah. It was at the time it was it was it was scary right because we didn't really know at that time obviously too how how bad things were We're gonna get and you know how bad the Corona itself actually was but yeah completely fine now, but yeah, it was one of the the early cases. there. You go the two in with us you know he not officially, but he's got a healthy weight as far as that the fourth congressional GOP side and they'll likely that. Off against the incumbent and a tough one, it got me right. that's gonna be an easy one there definitely not the ones that general election I mean what what is the what what are the top two or three things? that you're gonna put out there to so hopefully change the minds of mindset of that district mainly Democratic as you know the incumbent you know good reputation, Kathleen Rice, a fighter former DA and everything else. what do you? To fight for what what are the top two or three things you're gonna look to change that. As far as to followers, it kinda want here. Yeah. well so look obviously infrastructure was one of my top issues when I set out to run being the Commissioner of Engineering for the Town of Hempstead, which is most of the district intimately familiar with all the infrastructure issues and I think I know how to I wouldn't know how to you know go to Congress and advocate for federal dollars to start improving our area. You know this is one of kind of the original suburbs out here right and a lot of. Are crumbling at the same time or reaching their or already have reached their expiration date quite some time ago, so I'm gonna be advocating for federal dollars to improve the infrastructure around here things like also things like you know fortifying our South Shore against the You know the next inevitable big storm so thinking long term with that and taking action to you know prevent damage instead of waiting for it. And things like building flood Gates potentially on the South shore so when I set out was kind of the big thing and then you know Corona hit you know that that that changed the world, obviously in a very big way so kind of first and foremost is getting the country back up and running getting our economy fully open fully reopened and back to where it was and better than where it was and. you know and and getting us back to where we were back to normal in general. so, in addition to coro, obviously, we also have the the George Floyd incident. so it's kind of you know it's been I feel like America has been you know getting it's getting its butt kicked a little bit over here so these things didn't exist. what when I set out to run and now they do and so they're obviously at the top of my list and what needs to be done so getting the. To be fully open back up and running and working to to reunite reunite the country so my my campaign slogan is build a brighter future together and when I came up with that, you know, Corona had not yet existed The George Floyd hadn't happened yet, but it is already something I was thinking. Hey, this is this is what you know I need to do to help improve this district is get people together, get people on the same. You know politics is already pretty bad at that point, but now now it's worse than ever. So I think you know what kinda separates me from rice is the fact that I'm really looking to bring people together to bring the constituents together to align everybody under this common belief in what America is you know this belief that you know governments here to just provide us kind of. Our basics rights you know the rights to life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness and that's really what we should be looking for a government to do and I think when you talk to most constituents, especially here in Nassau County, no matter what party they're from. you know whether or not they're even registered to vote and you ask them to type of things they care about. That's really in their essence What they talk about you know they're they're Americans first and foremost they just want to. You know you know feel safe. be able to you know start a small business or you know just get a job be able to act as you know a free individual. you know practice their religion freely and just ask themselves and you know and and just participate in a free and open society. They may not say it in those words. But that's essentially what people want you know they just want. You know buy that home they wanna be and they wanna be able to carry out the liberties that they expect from this country and so I'm I'm looking to unify people around those very basic ideas, which are new ideas. I mean those are the ideas that this country was founded upon, but I think if we start to refocus there, we can align everybody on those ideas cuz that's really what unites us and this district is a very diverse district and you know. I think my hope is that we could kinda showcase to the rest of the nation. you know how how it is that we could all live together here in harmony as Americans and and not only you know live among each other but really benefit from each other's diversity and and flourish. so that's that's gonna become a big part of my message and you know I think we're I really have rice beat is you know just being able to communicate with people. as part of my campaign, what I did is I set up a text based polling system where we're sending out questions to people in the community on local issues. to get their feedback and then I'm basically promising to use that system if elected to help I would legislate in Congress so essentially giving people kind of a direct voice and vote and you know so I I plastered that phone number that text phone number everywhere on the Internet. I printed out T-shirts that. Wear it every day with it. I put signs up everywhere letting people know that this text based polling system is gonna work and basically people started calling and texting that phone number just to introduce themselves and then I I I soon turn that into my line. Hey you know text Doug or call Doug if you just wanna chat with him directly to get to know him and tell him what issues you care about and I've had hundreds and hundreds of phone calls and texts, and I think I think. Successfully responded to every single one, It's spoken to every single person and that's really you know what I tell them. that's really you know that's really gonna be part of what I'm looking to do is communicate with the residents to the best of my ability and after all, I think that is the role of a Congress person is to is to really engage with your constituents. understand what issues matter to everyone, collectively and go advocated on their behalf a pretty simple concept, but I think I think it can be done better. And I'm gonna I'm gonna really try to live up to that here in this district. you sound good. It sounds like you're ready for the fight. Let the games begin. I say as we towards the November the third I have a feeling we will talk with you many of times through that day Douglass Congratulations. best of luck. As I say to all candidates a platform is always ready. the stage is set for your voice. So yeah, I mean we appreciate a couple of minutes appreciate a couple of minutes this morning. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having me on. we'll see one other thing you know. I think if there's a there's a very stark and big choice that at hand here, you know and it's when people are gonna go to the polls for me versus rice. It's really they're kinda deciding you know what kind of world do they wanna live in? you know so. The agenda on on the left has has started to really oppose what people expect as as Americans and you know I think rice is adopting that a little a little too much. so you know this whole you know movement where people are talking about the fun the police you know I'm coming out and saying you know we need to truly support the police. you know I've talked about you. Obviously we have to unite people and bring people together but we. Have to first and foremost, make sure people feel safe because open and free societies do not function Cannot function without law and order and people feel safe. I think many agree with you the good stuff we'll talk to you soon. Congratulations. Alright. Thanks for having me on. you got it go too many the resulting one there and the is going to break. I'll tell you what I mean in school right to. the first.