Chuck Yates Needs A Job

0:20 Hey everybody, welcome to Chuck Yates needs job the podcast. Let's go to Alaska today. Why? Well, one, it's a beautiful place. Number two, a little more pertinent. It's the fifth largest oil

0:33 producer in America. Number three, and the real reason we're going, they got a Senate race going down in 2022. And my guest today is the Republican nominee for that seat, Kelly Chewbacca And is

0:47 it really Chewbacca? It really is. That's awesome. That's awesome.

0:53 That's awesome. My brother, Guinea is a big huge Chewbacca fan. So I got him a life size cut out for a birthday or something. And I think that's his most treasured possession. So I mean,

1:04 everybody loves Chewbacca, but the story is even better. I married into this name. So when I was in law school, they give us a sign seats, which is, you know, a little bit patronizing. But I

1:18 saw this guy's name, and I was like, Man, brutal name.

1:25 And we went around the room and he said his name and I kind of giggled because it's like, turns out my husband's family is from Africa. He had no idea he had a Star Wars name. And I thought it was

1:37 the coolest thing ever because I was like, he didn't giggle. He didn't understand why some of us were giggling. And his actual full name is Jean-Crician Coniqueuat Chebaca And he

1:49 said it like that. He doesn't mean you can call me Nicky. And I thought, Oh, poor guy. You know, no one can say his name here in America. So I learned how to say his name. It's probably why I

1:57 won the guy. But it turns out his dad actually grew up raised by a single mom, five kids and a mud hut in the rainforest of the Democratic Republic of Congo. And he came over here on a scholarship

2:10 and went and got his degree and his business degree and learned English all in four years. And then he ended up becoming one of the top executive vice

2:19 And so we're one of those blended families that absolutely defies this critical race theory nonsense that's infiltrating our public school system that tells us that there's systemic racism and the

2:31 entire system is rigged to keep whites and dominant power and all white people say everything with racism perpetually all the time and blacks can't possibly succeed in America. And the answer is just

2:44 our family's story completely defies that and I just refuse to let anyone, especially an authority figure put on my children though are all African Americans, that there's more obstacles to life

2:55 than the ones that they actually face. And so our family's story is just one of those unique American dream stories - You know, what my take on critical race theory is it's probably if I have a dear

3:09 friend named Seth who was teacher of the year in Colorado as liberal as they come, but dear dear friend, If Seth was teaching critical race theory. to my children what it purports to be, I'd be

3:22 okay with that. I mean, we definitely need to know the history of racism in the United States. We do have to own that. And it'd be very comfortable. It's just being used as a tool and it's not

3:35 what it purports to be. I mean, that's the real problem. So, I mean, to run around and tell a seven year old that they're in a certain bucket is just wrong And they can't get out of it. And that

3:50 their mom is evil because she's white. My daughter wrote a great essay on it. She said, What side of the classroom do I sit on again? I think you forgot that we went through the 80s and we bought

3:60 into what Martin Luther King Jr. said, that we were looking at content of character, not color of skin. And most of us are either in blended families or a one or two steps removed from blended

4:09 families. And we don't really divide on these black and white lines anymore. So we need to move into and contend for our society

4:19 integrated and doesn't want to stay in racist lines -

4:24 So you and I have never met. We have a good friend in common. And he's like, you gotta meet my friend, Kelly. She's amazing, really smart, an achiever. Why in God's name would you want to run

4:38 for the Senate?

4:41 What did Mark Twain said? America's only perpetual criminal class. I mean. All fair points. You know, when normal people who want to be left alone start running for US Congress, it's because

4:54 there's a problem. And I think that's what we're seeing. You know, when people with courage and common sense are rising together across the country to lead our nation forward, it's because it's

5:05 time for a change and we're at a turning point. But here's a little bit about my story. Back in the '70s, my parents moved to Alaska with a great plan and hope and time for opportunity and

5:15 adventure, but life didn't go according Sometimes it just doesn't. And they ended up homeless and they were living under a tarp for many months in a park in Anchorage. My dad had served in Vietnam,

5:27 so he was able to pick up a maintenance job at a telephone utility where he worked till he retired. My mom was able to get an oil job. She was one of the first Alaskans up at Prudhoe Bay when we

5:38 started the pipeline. And that oil job changed the course of our whole family story. They were able to bite their way into working class to get a starter home, a little fixer upper that was my home

5:48 and give me a totally normal Alaska childhood hunting, fishing, playing ice hockey, you name it. I was the first in our family to pursue a college degree. I started at the University of Alaska

5:59 and then went to Texas AM. And then I interned for Senator Ted Stevens and he said, Hey, you should go to law school. It was a great idea. It ended up being a really rough idea, but that's where

6:10 I met my husband. That was the best part of law school, hands down. The rest of it was just great preparation for running for US Senate, honestly. And then after that, we were the post-sign 11

6:20 class. And so my husband ended up getting a law firm job in DC. I can't think of a single Alaskan who wants to move to Washington DC. They did want to stay married. So that's how I ended up in DC.

6:31 And I got picked up at an office at the Department of Justice whose job it is to hold insiders accountable and shrink government and reduce costs and expose waste fraud and abuse. Think of it like

6:43 the anti swamp or like a bureaucracy whisper office. And that's what I got trained to do. And I had some fantastic cases, one that went all the way to the US Supreme Court that held Department of

6:55 Justice officials responsible for violating Americans constitutional rights. I got hooked. And I did that for several federal agencies, even becoming the chief data officer for the inspector

7:06 general of the postal service. And then I came home and I did that for the state of Alaska government for state agencies. That's my background. My husband in the meantime started a business. We

7:16 also started a faith-based organization that raises up leaders and we have five kids. That's what we do. That's our story - You know, we can tell you what's causing that just in case you're curious

7:26 - Yes. When you have five kids, that means that at least one of them was not expected. It's just, it's just be straight up - They were blessings. They're blessings. As I like to say, two out of

7:38 my three kids are blessings. So - Yes. And I bet that those blessings change on any given day - Yeah, I've gotten to the point where whenever I'm talking to one of them, I always say, I love you

7:49 more than your other two sisters. You

7:56 know, I just - Keep them guessing, right - Yes, exactly - Yeah, so, you know, that's our story. And people say, you know, if we elect you, how do we know you won't be like other politicians?

8:02 When I say, look, I've investigated government officials for 20 years. You are what your record says you are. They do what they've always done. We usually just don't see their record. I really

8:12 believe government's supposed to work for people. and that's what I've spent my career doing. And I really believe in family and I really love our community. And if you know my story, what I just

8:21 told you, you know, we're an Alaska made family. We are only here because of opportunities in Alaska, because Alaskans came around my family when we needed help the most they fought for us. And

8:33 that's what takes us to this year. So check out is watching television at the January of February, and I was screaming a lot. Maybe some people can relate to that. Yelling at your television from

8:43 your sofa because of what people in the Beltway and DC are doing. And in particular, Lisa Murkowski made a couple decisions that cost our state billions and honestly cost America billions. We were

8:55 on the cost of an energy boom and she shut it down single-handedly by being the deciding vote to push forward Deb Holland, who is advancing Joe Biden's energy annihilating agenda against America.

9:07 But that was my mom's job. That was the job that changed our family story. And while Askin should just be able to work but moved over our head and, you know, send it a little kid to college if you

9:17 want. And Lisa Murkowski killed that. And she did it by saying, I'm probably gonna regret this. I regretted confirming Sally Jewell under Obama's administration because she broke promises to me

9:28 and I heard Alaskans. And I think you're gonna hurt Alaskans too, but despite that, I'm gonna confirm you anyway. That's a DC insider who's not fighting for us, but fighting against us. And I

9:38 just decided, you know what? There's more expected of me as a daughter of Alaska and a daughter of a Vietnam vet than yelling at my sofa. I'm gonna stand up, I'm gonna fight for the Alaskans who

9:48 fought for me. I'm gonna fight for the country and fight for the freedom that my dad fought for. And that's what compelled me to get in this race - Now that's important. I went to college with

9:59 Glenn Youngkin, the governor elect now of Virginia. And I don't care what anybody says. Glenn's a good dude. He just is. You know, you don't change your stripes that much from college, you know.

10:13 I've seen him a few times since college. The thing that got me was listening to folks say, he's dangerous, he's a racist, he's bad for America, he's out to hurt poor people. And it's just

10:27 shocking that we've gotten to this point in America that that is the discourse. I mean, at the end of the day, I think you can say, hey, I favor markets, you favor government, we all want the

10:41 same thing, we'll better offer our children, et cetera. And to see the radical attacks. So, I mean, we've known each other 10 minutes now, I actually kind of like you now. And so I'm fearing

10:51 for you that this is gonna happen to you. And hopefully we can get past it. It brings me to something I wanna talk about. So you have fully embraced Donald Trump. I mean, he endorsed you. I'm

10:51 surprised you don't have a

11:07 MAGA hat on But other Republicans have had to dance around the issue in terms of Donald Trump. How do you think about that? How do you navigate what we'll call kind of the Donald Trump issue - So in

11:22 Alaska, we have values like talk straight. I actually think it's an American value. We're tired of what we perceive as politicians who sugarcoat things and dance around things. So let's talk

11:35 straight. In Alaska, we voted for Trump twice and he won by double digits. And Donald Trump has been the best president for Alaska that we've ever had. He got things done that nobody else has

11:46 gotten done. He opened ANWR, for example. We've been fighting for that for decades. He was great for our military. We have one of the highest percentage populations of military and vets than any

11:56 place in our nation. We are on the border of national security interests for the nation. We're closest to all of the Eastern nations, if you think about it, than any other state in our country.

12:07 He was great for our oil development, our rare earth mineral development. of Tongass, it's the largest national forest in America, and it's in our Southeast part of Alaska. He was fantastic for

12:19 policy. He also appointed common sense judges to the bench who actually protect our constitutional rights, not like activist judges that are eroding our constitutional rights, but the ones at least

12:31 in Rokowski supported and have been shutting down things that are essential for the life and health of Alaskans. We even see right now there's a bill in Congress that's imminently going to be passed

12:41 where just on the allegation that an active duty military person or a retiree is dangerous without any due process, they're going to come and take away their guns. This is alarming, and it's

12:53 outrageous. These are the people who put their life on the lines to defend our constitutional rights, and we are going to unilaterally violate their Second Amendment rights. And right now, Chuck,

13:02 we've been defining dangerous really broadly. The President says that if you choose not to get a shot, then you're part of the pandemic and a former CIA director has said that if you supported

13:12 Donald Trump and you're part of the Taliban. You're like a terrorist. And now we're gonna start taking away military personnel's guns for it. This is what Donald Trump did for us. And we

13:20 understand that. In fact, I'm here in Fairbanks right now. And I've got someone I met who said, Anybody can see. If you look at same period last year, America is doing a lot worse right now than

13:31 it did last year. We don't hear a lot of people talking about the eight women who've made sexual harassment or rape allegations against Joe Biden We don't hear a lot about that. No one talks about

13:43 Tara Reid or the fact that her mom made a contemporaneous phone call into the Larry King show to say, This happened to my daughter. We just sort of brush all of those issues under the rug. And all

13:54 these people jumped on the Joe Biden train for the 2020 election. In Alaska, we're really focused on policy. Right now our whole state shutdown, we're losing jobs left and right. We've got

14:04 companies moving out of the state. We have huge issues with our economy, huge issues with constitutional rates. We're really concerned about the immigration issue with the border. And so these are

14:14 the things that we're looking at when we say we're really glad when President Trump was president and we're really concerned that Joe Biden is our president now - And I'm on record as having said, I

14:27 don't like Donald Trump's tactics, but I understand them. I mean, I disapproved of him when Ted Kennedy used to do this. I mean, the confirmation hearings on Clarence Thomas and Ted Kennedy

14:41 rambling on about a land of back alley abortions, et cetera, and just the character assault we saw. I told Democrats, my Democratic friends that say, We really hate Donald Trump. I'm like, Well,

14:56 you kind of earned him. I mean, Republicans are tired of getting beat up. If you wanted to act like a bunch of gentlemen and sit around and discuss things thoughtfully, happy to do it, but you

15:08 don't do that So you're going to wind up with a Donald Trump. type person, even though I despise kind of the tactics, it's just not my personality. The other thing I've got to give Trump credit

15:19 for, and I was totally wrong, I was a big free trade guy. I mean, I always have been, I tend way more libertarian than I do, Republican. In fact, I've only voted for the libertarian candidate

15:30 for president, my whole entire and adult life. But I was wrong about that I mean, all we got to do is go through one pandemic and you can't get an N95 mask because they're all made out of China. I

15:44 think Donald Trump, there's something to the protectionism. And kind of the final thing that I see you tapping into as you talk, that I think Trump tapped into that people can't be dismissive of,

15:57 is there is truly a sense of economic, call it abandonment, if you will But truly people out there don't feel like the American dream applies to them anymore. And this is even interesting to take

16:13 it another step. And Trump tapped into that. No question. It's interesting because you see it on the right, the same folks that are equally fighting on the left, if you took away kind of the

16:29 names, their messages are very similar. It's this sense of loss that the American dream doesn't apply to them. They're being passed by The sense of that happens is not a right or left issue. It's

16:43 an American issue that he tapped into.

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17:37 It seems like we've really become Americans versus the political elite or what we kind of feel appear as Americans versus leftists. There's this very large collective sense of we've been forgotten

17:53 and we are unheard and it doesn't matter to anybody who has power who can actually help us And I think what I hear you expressing is people felt heard by President Trump and some of the way he

18:08 expressed himself. I mean, if you've been in the downtown part of New York, Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, it sounds like a Northeasterner. You mentioned Ted Kennedy too, same part of the country,

18:22 right? And so for those who are familiar with that, you're like, Yeah, that's the personality that you see. It was Chris Christie's style, right? It's the same kind of personality. It's not a

18:32 universal American personality. what his policy reflected and some of what his talking points reflected is what is in Americans' hearts. It's the, we stand up for the working class, we stand up

18:48 for the parents who want to be involved in their children's education now that we see what's happening in school. We stand up for the students who are using their voices and are getting involved. We

18:59 stand up for the people who want their jobs back. They're not looking for handouts. They just want opportunity We're standing up for Americans and their freedom and their opportunities to say, you

19:11 know what, I want to have a say in what goes in my body. We're standing up for just sort of these basic fundamental American ideas, American constitutional rights. We don't think that the

19:23 Constitution is an old relic document that we can take or leave. As Joe Biden said, we actually think it's important and that our politicians are supposed have taken an oath to uphold and And we

19:38 aren't in favor of this political elite that keeps imposing its autocratic will on us anymore. We believe that we are a people that have a government, not a government that has a people. And so I

19:52 think that especially the elections yesterday, you mentioned now Governor Yunken, he didn't have a problem being affiliated with Trump is what that election showed us Terry McAuliffe ran an election

20:04 that tied Glenn Yunken to Trump and Glenn Yunken won in a blue state. And I think the point is Joe Biden has turned a lot of people back to President Trump saying those policies, those actually

20:17 worked for America. And what Joe Biden's running is a leftist elite government solutions. Apparently they don't think that's an oxymoron driven platform and America is just categorically rejecting

20:30 that There are Americans across this country with common sense and courage. that are rising together to lead us forward. And Glenn Youngkins, one of them, and the people who showed up to vote,

20:40 you know, a lot of independents, I think even common sense Democrats, to your point, they just can't align with Joe Biden and this leftist agenda, the political elites like Lisa Murkowski, she's

20:51 his chief and neighboring officer, anything he needs done in the Senate, she'll push through. She even helped break the filibuster yesterday to push through this sham legislation that mass grades

21:02 is protecting voting rights And all it does is centralize power for elections in the hands of the DC elites so they can maintain control. That's the kind of stuff that I see America just

21:12 categorically rejecting -

21:15 So give me the two or three things the day after you're sworn in an office will be presumptuous. You're up 20 points in the poll. So we'll go ahead and what are the first two or three things you're

21:31 looking to do policy-wise. but I'm gonna put this framework on you. You're gonna have to do that in the face of President Biden, but I do think the Republicans will have the Senate and the House -

21:45 Yeah, that's right. And so we have to be realistic about what you can get done. And also there's value in just proposing things or stating things because it causes conversation and movement even if

21:59 you can't get them done My number one priority is jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. We've got to revive our economy across America and the main industry in America, or in Alaska is our resource industry.

22:12 So that's oil, it's gas, it's minerals, it's timber, it's our fishing industry. So much of that resource industry right now, in the name of environmental protection, Biden has outsourced to

22:26 countries that are horrible for the environment Iran and Iraq who aren't part of the Paris Climate Accord, don't have any environmental standards are. national security threats to us, they've taken

22:36 most of Alaska's oil production from us. Russia, China, didn't even bother coming to the Climate Summit this recent event that they just had. They've taken minerals, they've taken oil from us.

22:48 So we need to get back to the policies that Trump was was pursuing, which made us energy independent or energy sufficient, whatever words you wanna use, to your point where we're not waiting for

22:58 ships to come in so that we can power our homes and power our cars to power our companies. So we've gotta definitely change that around so that we can get back to having jobs in Alaska. We've gotta

23:11 get new lines of industry in Alaska too. So those are things I'll be focusing on first. Second, we need to advocate for our rights. So anything that is infringing on our second amendment rights,

23:22 it says it shall not be infringed. It doesn't matter if you like it or not, if you don't like it, change the amendment. So if there's anything right now, like this defense appropriation bills,

23:33 you know, take away the guns of our military personnel. We've had multiple attempts from Biden just this year infringing on those rights. We've also got these mask mandates. You know, there's no

23:43 legal precedent for a president to have a mandate. We have executive orders, we have laws, et cetera. But what he's doing right now trumps several congressional laws that protect the rights of

23:54 employees, protect the rights of our workers to have some legal exemptions for reasons to have shots put in your body that you don't agree with. So we need to advocate for that. I'm really

24:05 concerned about the administrative discharges of our military personnel who don't want to get this shot. And so if there's some way that we can reinstate benefits or reinstate pay for people who've

24:15 been wrongly discharged, I want to pursue that. We need to advocate for the rights of our people. This is a civil rights issue across our country. And protecting the rights of the people,

24:25 protecting the rights that are protected in the constitution is something that the Senate is obligated to do. And similarly on that, protecting the rights of our state. So we've got a lot of public

24:36 lands that need to be transferred to especially our Western states. And I'd like to advocate for that so we can maintain resource development. And we don't have to live on government handouts. We

24:45 can actually develop our own resources. I think that'd be great. Third thing is reforming healthcare. With Obamacare in place, it is killing Alaska. And I imagine it's hurting other states as

24:55 well. Now, we can't take care of our vulnerable. We can't take care of providers. We can't take care of businesses And our vets are hurting too. I wanna take a look at all of that and see what we

25:04 can do to reform healthcare to get it back to working -

25:08 So we've got a couple of minutes left and it's probably a whole podcast. But can you briefly explain to me the cockamamie voting thing that's going on with Alaska and how you're actually gonna be

25:22 elected? I tried to read it. I couldn't figure it out -

25:27 I will try and say it very simply I'm really encouraged about our prospects because we have rallied so much of the base in Alaska behind us. So this is how it works. Next August, we will go in and

25:42 there will be an unlimited number of people in my ballot, let's say 20 to 30. But that doesn't mean that they've all actually been running for our office. There will only be a couple people whose

25:52 names people will know. So be me and Lisa Murkowski. There is a Democrat that's about to jump in, highly funded from Chuck Schumer He thinks he can buy the seat, etc. Everyone will vote for one

26:03 person. The four people who get the most votes, it doesn't matter what party they're from, will go to November. Here are some important information to know. In Alaska and our statewide elections,

26:13 we always vote Republican. The Republican party does not like that their Republican primary got taken away. So they used party rules to officially censure Murkowski. She is not allowed to run as a

26:25 Republican in this upcoming election you will have to choose another designation. And then they officially endorsed me. So I am the Republican candidate. I've already won the Republican primary,

26:36 if you will, for this election. So the Republican on the ballot will be me. Come in November, I'll have to face Lisa in the final election. So it'll be me, Lisa, a very highly funded Democrat,

26:49 and probably a libertarian candidate. That looks just like Dan Sullivan's ballot last November. He's our other Republican Senator Dan Sullivan got 54 of the vote. Donald Trump got 53 and 12 of the

27:03 vote with a 10-point lead over Joe Biden. And then we have Republican governor, we have a Republican congressman, you get the data in Alaska. The first candidate in November to cross the 50 line,

27:15 just 50 wins. Lisa Murkowski has never had 50 of the vote in Alaska ever. In the 20 years, she's been in the Senate since her data pointed her to the Senate seat And she is at an all-time low in

27:27 popularity, like between 6 and 12. I don't really think that this race is about me or Lisa. I really think it's about Alaska and America. So if we just get the same voters who turned out for

27:38 President Trump or for Dan Sullivan, we win decidedly on round one, regardless of the ranking scenario - Gotcha, gotcha. And to the extent somebody doesn't get 50,

27:52 you say it basically goes down and takes your second choice, your third choice until somebody gets above 50 - Right, right - So let's say it goes, number one is Kelly. Number two is the Democrat,

28:05 number three is Lisa, number four is the Libertarian. That's how the polls look right now. The Libertarian would drop off. And then everybody's number two votes for the Libertarian get reallocated

28:16 to the top three - Got it - And then they see if someone crosses 50 -

28:22 Got it, that'll be interesting. Well, Kelly, I really appreciate you coming on the podcast.

28:29 folks in Texas, my audience is primarily oil and gas folks. And so I know there have been some issues with Senator Murkowski, particularly when it comes to voting to approve the Interior Secretary.

28:44 I mean, just I am generally of the mindset elections matter. You should vote to approve the President's pick, but at some point you got to draw a line and I think most of us in the oil and gas

28:58 business kind of feel like that should have been one of the lines we draw. It's an obvious line to draw and so I could really use help. My big challenge up here is just name recognition. The

29:09 Murkowskis have been there for 40 years. So we have to get out to the state and we have to get out media to let people know that there's an option. So please help me at kellyforakcom, K-E-L-O-Y,

29:18 F-O-R-A-Kcom And we can change out that Senate seat for a dependable America First Energy First vote.

29:30 The last thing I'll close on is I have been to Homer, Alaska. I went and spent four days over July 4th, probably about five years ago, four years ago, went into a bar, may or may not have had

29:43 one too many adult beverages. I walked outside at two in the morning, it was still bright light and I swore off vodka for a whole year -

29:54 Well, Homer's one of the most beautiful parts of the state, but yes, when it's the mid-summer here, the sun does not go down, so that was not because you consumed too much. That's just a reality.

30:06 Yeah, and it's fantastic. We have so much energy and so much fun in the summer. You all must come visit - Yeah, it was amazing. I can't imagine being there in the winter, but the summer was

30:17 beautiful, so.

30:21 Appreciate your time, Kelly - Lots of opportunities. Thank you so much and it's great to talk to your audience