Pennsylvania Democrat Rob Strickler runs to upseat Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-R)

Hey, this is saying art. If we cannot be complete unless you listen. To or watch We Talk with the Police, no doubt. So without further ado, we talk weeks after the Talking w PPM P Philadelphia one O six point five, the film We Talked Weeks after the Talk with your Boy and beautiful. Classy Lady Sparkle, and beautiful Laurence and the beautiful Denisa Henry. And so who's going to do the honors? I can do the honors? Okay, there, you let me spark Who we have to day? Who do we have to date? Uh? Today we have Rob Strickler is a grassroots candidate running for Congress in Pennsylvania's first district, focus on restoring trust in the political process and ensuring voters have a real fair choice at the ballot box after more than a decade of the same political family representing the district. He'll be joined by his agent, Tisha Crippen. Tish is one of the creators. If we talk weekly, and they will discuss the push of transparency, UH, community engagement, and taking the district back for the people already know what to do. Let's give a war. We talk weekly. Welcome to perhaps. Hi everybody, let's get around right there. Thank you for the applause. Absolutely, How are you? How are you? You know, we usually start to show with Howard your day, so we're going to start with you. And Tish already know how we get down, but I love to know how your day was today. How you feeling well? My dad is pretty good. I don't know if Tisha mentioned this to you guys, but I'm actually a former uh Democrat running for Congress. I suspended my campaign about a week and a half ago after some really ugly action by the local Democrats against a guy who just simply offered to do fundraising for me. But my day was spent walking around Laura Bucks County getting signatures for a candidate that I believe in, Lucia Simonelli, who is still running as a Democrat for Congress, and I think she's wonderful. But you know, on that, I think I had a pretty good day. Fantastic What about you? You know what? I had a fantastic day because I got to support what Rob shared today and signing a ballot for Lucia, and you know, taking some time to support some friends who are in the arts world here in Philadelphia. So it was a good community day for me for sure. Okay, fantastic. So you know, since you brought that up, I want to I want to jump into that, but before we do, right, I want to gauge your feelings. How do you feel that you had to do that step away from a particular party. How does that make you feel? You know? Well, first of all, please call me Rob okay, and beyond that, as far as walking away from the party, I've said this many times since I launched my campaign back in early July. A political party is like a To me, It's like a jacket you wear and if the jacket fits you, if it suits you, then keep wearing it. But when it stops fit, it's no longer a good fit and it doesn't suit you anymore, walk away from it, try a new jacket. Or if there's no jacket that that suits you, just go around with no jacket, you know. And I think that's what I'm going to be doing. I'm gonna stay at Democrat so I can continue to support Lucia, collect signatures for her, but also vote for her in this primary, because you may know, Pennsylvania's a clothes primary state. But after that, I am switching to an independent because I think both parties are just horrible and that's where I'm going. Wow, amazing. So so let's start from the beginning, right, because I want to talk about one year district, Right, what district were you running? And two what ultimately led you to the decision on stepping away from party, because I believe you've ran prior to right, you've ran before this time, right, No, no, no, no, this is my first time. It's my first time for running for any office. I went ahead and ran for Congress. Just a little tiny bit of background is I did that primarily because Donald Trump came back to power and our current Congressman, Brian Fitzpatrick wasn't doing the damn thing about that, you know, to stop the horrible policies and actions and all the steps towards authoritarianism that Donald Trump is taking this country. So I find I started to think about running. And then a candidate came forward who was more of like an establishment party candidate for the Democrats, and I found him wanting. I just thought he was uninspiring and wasn't going to win. So I thought about it some more. My wife and I talked about it and we launched our campaign, as I said, in July, and we went from there. And we started off, you know, basically I didn't want to go, you know, like head first into it. I went, I put up a website, and I got on social media, and I basically asked people. I put out my idea and said, you know, how do you feel about supporting this? Because I didn't even take donations at first. I wanted to find out what people thought about my idea and me because I don't want to take anybody's money if I didn't think this was a viable campaign. It turns out that it seemed to be viable enough that I can move forward with it. We started to raise money in the fall and continued on and you know, as far as to answer your question, which I believe was partly you know, why I would stop running at some point there there was has just been a tremendous amount of pushback from the local Democratic Party and for people who don't know, the district is Pennsylvania one. That's all of Bucks County and the eastern part part of Montgomery County. That's the area it covers. And really I was shocked. I was shocked at how adamant and how you know, hostile. The local Democrats and their committees were towards me entering this race. I mean, they really really really wanted their selected candidate to have an open field and run unopposed, and it just was terrible, really, some of the things that they did. I expected to be some kind of institutional support for this candidate because he's been a party candidate for a long time, or I should say a party member, so he has a lot of relationships. And that's that's fine. I can understand that, but the the dirtiness of the of the tricks is this terrible. And I could even take all that. I could take the name calling, I could take the lack of cooperation, the the just the sort of the stone walling, and I could We'll talk about vote builder, I'm sure soon. But the thing that the thraw that broke the camel's back was this guy from Nashville, a Nashville recording artist, a country Western recording our artist named Trey Taylor, found our campaign on social media. He offered the fundraise for us, because that's the kind of thing he does. He's like an independent, but he fundraises for different people who he he just wants to help them out, especially a so called outsider candidate, like a grassroots candidate like me. So he offered to do that. And then when we set up the venue and everything, had it all, you know, ready to go, we started advertising that and don't you know, somebody finds some old photo of him standing next to some you know, maga Republican. That's some fundraiser for some candidate that he supported, you know what, you know, playing the music for, because again he's he does these things for unity, and they pretty much like a pack of piranhas just savaged him. I mean they savaged him on social media and it disgusted me. You know, the guy's name is Trey Taylor. They were calling him Trey Trader and they compared him to Andrew Tate I think his name is, if you're familiar with him, the self proclaimed misogynist and accused rapist, and it was just terrible and frankly, I'm the kind of guy if I'm gonna run for office. Every word I've said I believe, I believed in it was the truth. And if I just found I could no longer stand up in front of people and say I'm running as a Democrat for Congress and mean it anymore. Because I was just so horrified by this. So I decided to suspend my campaign because I just like my heart just was not in it. And I decided to support Lecia Seminelli because you know, she's just really a great candidate and she and I had become good friends over the course of this, you know, running for office. And that's where I am right now, right Rob. I want to ask you now, for those who don't know, from democracrat to Republican, tell us what's the different to becoming an independent? That an independent is basically means you're unaffiliated. I mean, you're you. I'm going to do this after the primary. I'm going to change my affiliation. I'm not going to be a Democrat anymore. I'm just going to go to the Pennsylvania dot gov site and become an independent. If you run, if you're running for office as a Republican or a Democrat, well then you're running to gain their support for your campaign, hopefully their endorsement, and then if you win the primary, you have the party support. You know that if you're running for Congress like I was, the Democratic Party would presumably give me a couple of million dollars to effectively compete for this seat against Brian Fitzpatrick. You know, if you're running as an independent, then you don't have any of that. But there are quite a number of organizations out there that are in factorated to support independent candidates because they themselves are opposed to the whole idea of party politics. Why do you why do you feel like there's such or you've received such a lack of support from the Democrats or the Democratic Party. Well, like I said, I when the other guy, his campaign launched in April, and there was a lot of endorsement for this guy, including from the chair of the Bucks County Democratic Committee, guy named Steve Santa Sarrio, and also the chair of the Montgomery County Committee. Uh they Santa Sarrio, that of the Bucks County Democrats endorsed him on this very same day as his campaign launch. And I find that to be pretty unethical. You know, the chair of the of the the County committee and Doorston a candidate right off the bat. I mean, you know that that guy has all kinds of influence and the other committee members, the subcommittees, or most of them are going to follow his lead. And the reason I think initially why there was a lack of support is, like I said, they really wanted to have an unopposed primary for their candidate, you know, the longtime Democrat. Hopefully that would save let's say money, you know for the general election, and there would be no divisiveness in the party, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. But I ran because I'd listened to this guy. I was hoping that he would convince me that he would be somebody I could get behind and maybe work on his campaign and support him. He just was not. He was like a hundred other politicians that I've seen time and again. You're spouting the same tired rhetoric, the same political speak, you know, just really using a lot of words to not say anything specific. And I'm growing up in Lower Bucks County, Leviton area, paarloh Sales. All the people I know are going to listen to this guy and and just not be inspired to vote for him at all. And as I'm sure all of you know, you know, a lot of people don't bother voting at all, and this candidate is kind of the reason why I think, and I wanted to offer some alternatives, something to try and excite people. And then and so you know, after I you know, after I got into the race. I think there was about five other people who had never run for public office gotten the race as well. So they must have looked at him and thought the same thing. Mm hmmm. Because you were you were as a part of your campaign, you were staunchly against private donations and what you know, And I'm and I'm pretty sure of the answer to this, but what why were you staunchly against private donations? If you could say, well, I mean, I'm pretty sure you're going to agree with me, as most people do when I start talking about it. Private donations to political campaigns at the federal level was my main focus. I mean, you could say also for local and state, but it's poisoning our government. The policies that we get from our Congress and our president are just seemed to be controlled by Exxon and Chevron and Tesla and Etna and all the big corporations that put in millions of dollars every election cycle so they can make billions and billions of dollars with favorable legislation for themselves at the expense of everyday folk. Like you and me and all the people I grew up with again in Lower Bucks County. It's been that way. It's probably been the way for much longer in this but for the past fifty years or so when they really started deregulating, uh, you know, the way they run elections, and deregulating the tax code, not not deregulating the tax cod but altering it to make it more favorable for people who have already have a lot of money at the expense of people who don't have very much. And all the deregulation regarding allowing corporations to you know, get all kinds of tax savings and you know, run the corporations where they don't really have to worry about, you know, being you know, curtailing their pollution and global warming, greenhouse gases. It it's gone on far too long. And that's one of the things I was hoping and still hoping to change about our elections is I wanted to replace it with no private donations to candidates. Each candidate, you you register with the FEC like you already have to do anyway, and then you would get a web page on the FVC site and have a photo video a summary of what you believe in. Maybe you fill out a survey et cetera, et cetera, and then you would invite people to go there. You know, average citizens who would also have an account, just like you have an account like for your social security you know, with the government, and citizens themselves would decide who can get a government grant to run their campaign, a publicly financed grant. No massive war chest for any candidate, the qualifying candidates to just get the same amount of money. Everybody has the same amount and that's all you get. And if you run out of money before election day, too bad. You should have learned how to live in a budget before you ran for Congress. It sounds fair. Rob. With the Reverend Jesse Jackson passing away, you know, condolences to him. It seems like he challenged the Democratic Party back. In the eighties. Do you I think yeah? Do you think that the pathway now for independency is going. To be the way to go? Well, I can tell you this. You know, the number of people leaving the Democratic Party and maybe some are leaving the Republican Party, I don't know so much about that. And becoming independent just registered as an independent is increasing. It's definitely increasing in Lower Buck in Bucks County. In this district, it's probably it was like at eighty five thousand registered independence the last time I checked, and I think it was approaching ninety thousand. Because people are just disgusted with these parties. There is definitely a viable chance for an independent, I think, to win this seat this year if the Democratic candidate. And by the way, I keep avoiding voting saying his name because Letitia is my former campaign manager and he told me, don't say his name, you know, don't give him any more oppressed that he already gets. So I said, okay, so now this guy Voldemort, I won't he who must not be getting So I still can't get out of the habit of not saying his name. But there is definitely a viable pathway for an independent to run in this district if you can get the line's share of those independents, and you peel all some Republicans who are disgusted with Trump, you peel all some Democrats who are uninspired by you know, what they're doing and are tired of their corruption, and then maybe you adding some people just didn't even bother the vote in twenty twenty four, because there's a lot of them, you know, a lot of them I know personally down a lower bucks. And you know, as a matter of fact, I was knocking doors today and I knocked the door of a couple who were supposed to be Democrats, and I said, hey, I'm collecting, you know, signatures for Lucia Simonelli Democratic Congress. Oh, we're not Democrats anymore. We're you know, you're too late. We just changed, you know, both the husband and wife. And I told him what I said to you after this primary. I'm not a Democrat anymore either. I'm just doing this to help Luchia yet absolutely a viable path for an independent I think. And Letitia, I just wanted to say to you because I know you've been doing some amazing work over the years, and you know, we're so grateful to have you with us tonight. You've been his campaign manager, Like, how what are your thoughts on him having to suspend his campaign because you know, I'm sure that that a lot of his constituents are disappointed. What are your thoughts on that? And you know, how do you feel about that? You know, thank you for that question, and thank you all for having me. I met Rob, and I spent a lot. Of time. Really he's laughing. I spent a lot of time drilling him, asking him all the questions just to see if he means what he says he means, is he who he says he is? And one of the things that was very clear to me is that Rob is the real deal. Rob is a fighter. He's not playing and as you can tell, he's extremely educated and well versed in this game. And so when I started to see, you know, one of the best parts about this experience working with him was being able to see what happens in the. Background, and I was floored. I mean, can hear about it, right, but like to see it in real life. You're all party, You're like, this is how we got here, Lauren. You know, we covered when we were rooting. For Bernie Sanders because he was in Philadelphia eons ago. Now I know why he was never a real option for us, because the politics behind the politics are now on both sides, you know. And so when Rob, when these things were happening with Trey Taylor, and in mine add Trey Taylor is an African American young man that our party people were attacking. These were Democrats attacking this young man, and so they could have attacked Rob. Yeah, they could have attacked me. I worked for him. They was attacking this young man not even from the state, and you know, and calling it fair game. And it was just really embarrassing and disrespectful. And so when that was the straw that broke the camera's back for Rob, I said, oh, he really, he really, as we say about that life, you're not coming for He's not letting anybody catch any strays. He's not going to tolerate the disrespect. And I can stand behind that. So when he. Called and let me know, like, hey, look, I don't know if I'm messing with these folks, and I. Was like, hey, ma, I think I agree with you. We're in to keep our morals in tech, our integrity in tech. And you know, we hear these people say, oh, it's no party, you know, you know, party again, no people first? Yeah. First. So that's that's how I felt about it. And I just want to say a couple of things that. Firstly, the thing, I have ideas, and I think I have character and value and everything. But I think one of the most important things that I offered people was integrity. When I said something, I meant it and I believed it, And I just could not after seeing how they attack Trey Taylor, I could not feel good about saying I'm running as a Democrat for Congress. I just could not do that. And if you start lying about that, what else are you gonna lie about? I mean, integrity is something somebody can take your life, but they can't take your integrity. You can only give that away. And I wasn't willing to give it away, you know, for the Democrats, for not the local ones, I'm even the national ones, who I think they're no prize either of some of these people, you know, who make decisions at the top level. And I don't want to make this seem like I'm bashing only Democrats Republican Party. I've actually talked to a number of people who are still in or were in the Republican Party. They say it's the same thing, you know, on their end, it's just this party. Party. Politics have become almost like a private game to them, where they don't care about your regular citizens anymore. You know, it seems to be more about tying money into it. Two, getting the big donors getting the big you know, corporations to support them, and it's it's really disgusting. But I do want to tell Can I tell the story Letitia to how we met. I mean, it's a funny story. You can't, but I know you won't forget this story because you never can't. I just want to add one more thing based on what you said, because I want to add a little bit more texture to this story. That incident regarding Trey Taylor was one piece of this big pie where you know, we were going to democratic meetings, official meetings throughout the county, throughout the district. And these folks were being extremely disrespectful to people. And when I say people, there's been instances where party leaders were snatching microphones from women, disrespecting. I mean, it's not just that, it's this layer up. Wait real quick, So you're saying this is the democratic pe the people on the blue side, This is correct. Wow. And again, while always have Rob's back, Rob wasn't afraid to go to these meetings and literally call these people out. How dare you? You will not? We will not stand for this. And so when we think about and this is why I wanted to make sure Rob came on today's show, and everybody listen. When you think about being involved with. Politics and what we have going on, you have to really identify somebody who's going to fight for you in Washington, mte for you in Harrisburg. They're not just some guest man who's gonna do whatever whoever gave them the most money, the highest donation, and do whatever they say. Somebody who's going to say hell no, just like you would like to say. But they're speaking on your behalf. And so we have to send fighters. We have to send people who are gonna speak up and speak out, people who respect other people. And a lot of these folks in the party. And when I say in the party, these are people who sit on the boards. These are people who participant run these committees. These are people who are running Facebook pages for so called progressive reunifying sites. They are still acting like these disrespectful, zealous to what have you. As we see on the other side, they're doing the same thing. They're not causing unity, they're not creating unity. And the people have to take back their power and say no, we're not going to keep sending these jokers to DC on our behavior. True, Yeah, Rob, you wanted to finish the story before. Well, yeah, I mean first, I just want to talk about how Lichia Leticia and I met. I mean, just real briefly. It's because it's funny. We were not canvassing in December. You're trying to just build up support for the campaign supporter and I named Sherry Cook. We're knocking doors and we knocked on the door of the Crippon household and her husband. Her husband came to the door with the phone and he said, hey, how you doing. I said, Hi, I'm Rob Strickler running as a Democrat for Congress. Here's my pamphlet, and uh, you know, we're hoping that maybe a consider supporting me. And he listened and says, you know what, let me get my wife. He just got home from shopping. You know, she's not feeling well. She had the stomach ache, but this this is her thing. Let me. Let me get her. And then so he invited us in and we're petting their dog. There they're bulleted dog. It's a cool dog. And you know, just beautiful home, beautiful living room. He's back there at one of the back bedrooms and then he waves us back, you know, come on back. So I walk in there with Sherry and there's Letitia laying on the bed with like a throwblanket on her. She's holding the pamphlet like she looked it over. And she looks at me and she said, oh, so you're running for Congress, are you? And she starts thrilling me. She started, how you where do you stand on this issue? What's your well? You on social media? How about video that? Yeah? I have owned a video company, and uh, what do you? What do you want this? I felt like I should have had a snowpad and started talking to this woman like she she she I mean, she wasn't feeling well and she's like engaging me like this and uh she even called her mom and lives down in Virginia and uh and be seen to get through. But I was just so impressed with her. I told her right then and there, I want you working on my campaign. Will you volunteer for my campaign? And she was all core and I'll think of her, you know whatever, and then uh, so Sherry and I left and I remember saying to Schev, we got to get this woman working on the campaign. Yes, and then and she joined up and then uh, when the time came, uh, you know, my my former campaign manager had to drop out, uh, and I needed a campaign manager. And I started to think, Okay, well maybe I need a different kind of campaign manager. Maybe should start looking. And I thought, you know, I got this woman, Letitia Crippen, right here, right in front of me, who knows what's going on. She she understands where I stand on things. She's fearless, and she had she just full of ideas. I'm gonna ask her. And then we were we were off to the races. That's amazing. It's like it's like that Three's Company song, like come on, Kna knock on the door. And I'm just like not at all surprised because she's just so thorough and just so like just amazing and talented and on so many different levels. So I just knew, like literally where that story was gonna go. And and honestly, I feel sometimes I feel bad I regret my decision to drop out. Uh, for all the supporters and volunteers and put time and effort into this, and there were donors and and and also for the Yeah, I mean I really wanted to see what would happen with her as the campaign manager you know, to see this through at least through the primary and everything, because I know she had so many great ideas and but I like, I say, I couldn't do it. I mean I couldn't. I couldn't say I'm a Democrat and mean it anymore because my heart was just taken out by what happened to Trey and so many other things. Like Letitia said, I mean, there's a there's a I don't know how much you want to hear about everything that happened, but there's this thing with vote builder m M. It's it's software that you know, the Democratic Party makes available to Canadate to run for office. And we were given it in late October. We asked for it and were given it by the Bucks County Democrats and we used it for about two months, two and a half months, and we used it well. I used to be a product software manager at a software company and we used that database. It is actually kind of how we found Letitia, and we build up data and there are data to use that we're going to use so we could follow up with people to get petitions and everything. And you know, we we used that to guide the guide where we go and then January fifth. I remember distinctly getting up that morning and I got an email from my campaign manager at the time. We were cut off from a vote builder, just cut us right off. And we got an email from the executive director of the Bucks County Democrats, guy named Zach Kirk, who said that the Pennsylvania State Committee said told him that we were not supposed to have been given it because we were a federal candidate, not for free anyway. And I had to contact them, and we did, and they told us, yeah, you can have it, but it's six thousand, six thousand dollars now, and that's fine. You know, if if a mistake was made, then that's fine. They had told us it was six thousand dollars up front, I either would have budgeted for it or I would have used something else. But they made a mistake. And I said, okay, all right, when you know we don't have that money, can you just get export ordinated and get it to us. Oh, yeah, we can six thousand dollars. I mean that that is the kind of dirty tricks that these people have been playing, because I'm convinced. I don't have any proof, but I'm convinced that somebody talked to somebody and said, you know, this guy's gained a little bit too much momentum in the district, and we gotta we gotta like blunt blunt his nose. It's kind of like the way what the Democrats did the Bernie Sanders back in twenty sixteen on a small scale. Yeah, yeah, so I was interested. I always been a Bernie supporter, always been, you know, one to fill you know. I always used to say that, you know, I'm a I'm a. Democrat, I'm a registered Democrat, will Republican views who think independently. I will always say something like that, right. And as long as you know, Tish and I have been having conversations, this is aily similar to what we've been saying for a long time. And the way that I diagnose it. I believe that the problem is the close primary and the fact that Pennsylvania either you have to if you're a Democrat, have to vote Democrat in a primary, or if you're Republican, have to vote Republican in the primary. You can't truly vote. For the person who may be best for the job, and that person may not be a Democrat. If you're a Democrat, during a primary, right. And so the problem that I have is that one, I'm sure that that system will never be changed, but my own party, the challenge that I have is very disheartening to see that my own party was acting acting in a way that was. Very how can I put it, very. Unbecoming of a party that you point fingers at when it comes to Republicans all of the time, right right, And so that's challenging for me, which makes me constantly think, you know what, I don't. Know if this is the path that I would like to lead. And I'm seeing people who you know are making comments and saying that you're a person for. The people, and all of us can attest right. Anytime that we have candidates on the show, we always end with I don't care what part are you affiliated with. If you're for the people, then we're for you. There's no question. There's no question for. Me because miss Johnson may be a registered Republican, but I know miss Johnson has been don't want to work since I was looking up to her since I was a kid. So why wouldn't I vote for someone. Who is best suited for a particular job because I know they're doing the work, and so I have a problem with the way that the system is set up. This two party system has been in a constant conversation. Have to have discourse with saying how can we do better? Because I believe it should be more than just a two party system. The click part, the boxing out, the gatekeeping. I have problems with all of this, and I'm sorry that you actually went through that. But one thing that I will say is you're in. Good hands with this, right And it's good to see her doing the work for you because I already know the ethics, morals and values that Tis Crippen has because she has been with us. So I know that just because she's supporting you, I'm already there for you. Right because it speaks for itself. Right, And so off my box? Right now? What are the other This time went so fast? I can't believe it. What are the other things that you are doing right that you didn't mention that you felled the community and those who are watching need to know about Rob stripp. Well, I would say, I'm supporting Licia's Seminelli and putting all my efforts into getting her on the ballot. Right in the middle of ballot petition right now. And uh, you know, we know that once those petitions are are sent to Harrisburg, the committee people the establishment candidate, they're going to challenge them. So hopefully we have enough h signatures on there. And I'm actually appealing to anybody who hears this. Uh, if you live in the district, pao one and you you want to support Licia, because I swear to God, you know, Licia and I have been in contact almost like from the beginning when I launched it in July, and she contacted me and we had wonderful conversations multiple times. And our stance from policies and our values are so in alignment for different personalities of course. But if you if you like what I had to say at all, I beg you to contact me or Lucia Lucia's campaign Lucia for Congress dot com and offer to sign her petition if you are a registered Democrat in the in the district. But to answer the rest of your your question more fully, our campaign has a thing we call democracy Dogs, which is kind of a fun thing. We did you know I have dogs, I love dogs, and I would show up to events with with a dog in tow and people would look at her and say, oh, look at your cute dog is out here. Rallied for the democracy And I say, yeah, she's a democracy dog. And people love that. So we did a whole like thing about democracy dogs who made up buttons and everything, you know, bark for your rights, be a democracy dog. So we started doing a democracy Dog podcast to kind of raise awareness of the campaign. And I'm going to keep doing that. I mean, actually did have Licia Siminelli on our podcast the other week. I'm editing that to put it out there because we don't do it live, but I'm going to use that platform first of all, to try you mentioned like closed primaries. I want to allow independent registered voters to vote in our primaries, the taxpayer funded primaries that you have, like in this district, about ninety thousand people who or more actually including people who just you know aren't actually registered as independents who can't participate in that only registered Democrats and Republicans, and we taxpayers pay for that. And what really really angers me about the way the Democratic Party and this candidate Voldemort has had conducted himself, is we tax payers pay for this primary election and they're going to be so corrupt in the in the way they the the the the the dirty tricks. That's the only word I can think about it. Uh, the phrase I can think of. Uh, it's I mean, they're blunting a fair and ethical primary process on our tax payer buyd and I think that's just got to stop, you know, immediately. So I'm going to use the Democracy Dogs, you know, uh podcast as as a hopefully way to help. I'm really gonna just gonna focus like here in southeast Pennsylvania and see what good can come of that. Any chances you're run again in the future. Well, I don't mind saying right here and now that if the Voldemort wins the primary, if it's not one of the other candidates, I am already looking into running as an independent. Awesome as that. You're that exclusive. The one thing I have to overcome, though, unfortunately, is that I have you know, we were just at the beginning of the ballot petition period and that's when the whole Tree Taylor thing blew up. I have myself and others have presented petitions to get signatures, uh, so I can be on the primary ballot as a Democrat. They have I guess law or regulation here in Pennsylvania that said if you do that, then you cannot change your affiliation and run for office in that year. So I'm precluded from doing that. But I've reached out to some for some legal advice on that. But I think that's frankly, that's a violation of my civil rights. I personally believe that. I mean, why, why why would we have that law on the book? Why would I have that regulation? People change their mind. I'm allowed to change my mind, al and I and say and I, especially after what happened to Trey Taylor, why wouldn't I change my mind and say I'm done with this, I'm doing this. So I'm looking into it. Yeah, so it's now looking back and truly assessing the journey, right, And I'll ask the same question and you can ponder on this at the mister Strickler answer. But knowing what you know now, do you believe or what would you have done differently? Knowing what you know now? Well, I can say, as far as running my campaign, I think I would have started a little later. Would we started in July? And that's a long time to sustain a grassroots campaign. It off the ground and running. If I started in let's say September or something like that, financially it would have been easier, I think. Uh. Secondly, knowing what I know about the Democratic committees in this area, I would not even have bothered contacting them at wall. I mean, my former campaign manager suggested that I contact them, get meetings with them. You know, our strategy was not that I was going to win the endorsement. We knew that was never going to happen. We just wanted to commit enough of them that we should not allow, not have anybody be endorsed, you know, not you know, not get to the sixty percent of the votes that you would need to be endorsed. But the stonewalling and the foot dragging and the time wasted just trying to get in to talk to these people and then some of them, as Tisha mentioned, I mean I was at a meeting one time, having my speaking time in front of people. After all the more talked, you know, he's uninterrupted, and I was up there talking, talking, the chair of the Bucks County Democrats interrupted me right in the middle of my speaking time, right in the middle, and we got in the big argument over it. So really the thumb is on the scale with these committees, and I would have just bypassed them and done whatever I could, just to reach out the rank and file Democrats and say I'm running, you know, and I'm doing this as an outside thing. I'm not part of the pop party establishment. I hope you'll support me. That would have been my strategy. Yeah, and Tish, you know, with the understanding of the same question. But you being campaign manager. As a consultant, how would you what do you feel you would have done differently with knowing all of this, right, is there anything that you would have changed? Yeah, you know, I think having more time with those independent voters, the constituents at large, rather than spending time with the party itself. Let's just say we were still running as a party, going out into the communities and rallying up the churches, the moss the community based organizations and really getting the people more aware and rolled up around what the party was trying to tell them to do, versus them understanding that they have the power and they didn't have to follow the party's instructions if you will, because that's what they're doing. They were trying to tell them, Hey, this is the guy we say you're going. To vote for it. It's like, y'all don't have to listen to them, you know that, right, So, like spending more time educating them and getting them more fired up about being a part of this, I think would have been something that would have been would have led to more promise and been able to allow us to not have to worry about what the establishment was doing. Because, you know, Jazz and Crockett, it appeared that she wasn't even really the endorsed candidate from the part, you know, but she had the people they didn't even know who the party was endorsing into It was a whole scandal because she was engaged with the people at such a large scale. And I think that's important to continue to educate the voters. And I'll just add one thing, if you don't mind, real quickly, I wish the Democratic Party would do what Letitia just described. They have such an opportunity to be educators of voters, engaging voters. They could have said, Okay, we had our main establishment guy running, oh but look here are these other people coming in. Let's have some forums, let's have some group forums, let's you know, meet the candidates up on your website. Here, the committee websites are here are the five or six candidates running for the seat. Let people know who's running and then really don't have an endorsement. Just have an open primary and let that play out, because I think your rank and file voters are going to make a much better decision and more they're going to pick someone who's more likely to win than the committee, who, by the way, have gone over seven now against the Fitzpatrick brothers in this district. Interesting, I want to do you, missus Strickler. I want to do you a solid and I want to give you kind of like a last word for the plea to the people, so I can give you your own kind of clip right, and so I'm going to give you I want in thirty seconds. I want you to talk to the people whatever way you feel that they need. To be addressed. But I want to give you this moment to make that address to the community that's watching. Okay, well, thank you so much. And by the way, Rob please, but to anybody listening, as I said, I'm supporting Lucia Simneli. She's an excellent candidate. Lecia Forrocongress dot com. Regard you know separately though, you do not have to just accept what the Democratic Party feeds you as a candidate. You do not, and you should not. I'm requesting that you get more engaged yourself and find out who's running. You can do the ballot Pedia and that will list every candidate that's running in this race, and many of them have filled out surveys. It's an excellent source that people are really starting to use. Educate yourself and don't rely on what the party tells you because the party has a very poor decision making process as far as who they support. It's very transactional. You know, the party wants to know. I can't tell you how many times I've been asked, what have you done for the Democratic Party? You know, I want to talk about what I can do for people. That's That's that's where I'm coming from. That's right. Fantastic, fantastic because they're bullies. They sound like a mob. They sound like you. Know, made men look you bet down or lay down that type of thing, you know, and. Uh, it is what it is. So well. I'd like to thank you guys for coming to the show. One thing we say to the show is once you come to the show. You're always welcome to come back. But before we let you go, how can the people who watch and get in contact what you find out all that gooddle stuff? Contact me? I mean, I still have my campaign email. It's Rob Strickler for Congress dot com and the website's still up Rob STRICKLERD Yeah, Rob at Robstricker for Congress dot com and the website is also still up Rob Strickler for Congress dot com. If anybody wants to contact me, it's still up and running. And as I said, I'm looking into options to possibly run as an independent depending on how this primary plays out. Yeah, fantastic. In the last word, No, I thank you all for having us on the show, also just being a voice to educate the voters and the people on the process that impacts our lives day in and day out. You can always follow me at Madam, touch M A D I M til you see H on all social media platforms and make sure you like and subscribe that we talk weekly on you, Facebook and Instagram. Fantastic, fantastic, But there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. We talked weeks after the talking WPPMO P Philadelphia one on six point five fl we talked weekly is after the Talk with your boy Charlesberg and beautiful and beautiful Lauren and the Beautifulnisa Henry and I don't want you guys to go anywhere. We just had a dynamic sure with mster Schell. He likes Rob, so I'll call him Rob right now. And it's just stripping. Uh So, I want to say thanks for tuning in to the show, and I don't want you guys to go anywhere. When we come back. We got some cause news and bad news. We got this is. We even got some legal tea with tea and all this other kind of stuff in another interview. We have a jam packed show, so I don't want you guys to go anywhere. We'll be right back after this show. Peg Hey, this is saying shantee. If we cannot be complete unless you listen to or watch we talk With complex, believe me, Bat