And say good morning to my guest, Lorenzo Santos. He is running for the first U.S. Congressional
seat in Wisconsin. And thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me.
Thanks for having me.
Of course, yeah, microphone. I'm going to hear every single word you have to say. I want
to miss one word today. And let's give a little background. You're 36 years old in the
prime of life. By the way, just so you know, I've been through that. It's all downhill
from here. Okay. 36 is the pick. There you go. He's just going to fall off the cliff.
It's 40. No, I'm only kidding. Anyway, so tell us a little bit about yourself. Were you
from what you've been doing?
Yeah. So my name is Lorenzo Santos. I've been living in downtown ASEAN since 2018. I'm
military brat. So, you know, I've grown up living all over the country. I even lived in
Japan as a child. I've lived in Rhode Island, Maryland, Virginia, all over. I was active
duty in Norfolk, moved here in 2018 and started as a regional sales rep for a major manufacturer.
So I actually represented about 12 different states that I would travel to. And then after
I did that for a few years, I transitioned from regional sales to emergency management.
I've been doing that ever since and been engaged in and politics ever since. You followed
David Mac in emergency management because he was there for years. Yeah. He did that for
years. And now he causes emergencies instead of just a lot of good. I know he does. I love
David. Okay. So you're running for the first U.S. Congressional seat. Just your first
time you ever ran for office? This isn't. So I've actually run for Congress before I ran
the last cycle. And I ended up leaving that race to support a great public servant. His
name is Peter Barker. Oh, yeah. And that was a tremendous race for us learned a lot from
that experience. I also did run for county executive. Why do people put themselves through
this running for an office? Especially a big office like Congress. Yeah. Why do you
put yourself through it? Everyone's going to be examining you. They're going to go
through you. Oh, let's see. In the fourth grade. Oh, he got a D in math and the fourth.
They can be looking back at you. They're going to find everything every possible little
pimple in your life. You don't mind that. Well, I think it's important to know who the
people that want to represent you are. I think it's important to put yourself for that
kind of scrutiny. That's that's all right. And frankly, I wish we would have done that
a little bit more with some of the people that are in elected office right now. But I have
no problem with that. And I welcome it. You were you're a veteran. I am. I was French
on service. I was in the Navy. My dad was a Navy tail gunner for four years during World
War II. Very good. Yeah. There you go. All right. Hello, Nate. Now you were on a ship.
I was on a guy to Mr. Destroyer. The USS Oscars. So my dad was a tail gunner in a plane
before years. And my friends growing up. Oh, he was in the Air Force. I said, no, he's
in the Navy. They have planes. No, they don't. They have ships. I said, my dad was in
the Navy. They do have planes. I don't know. They still have planes. All right. Emergey's
management. Would you go to college? So I went to for undergrad, the Neal Academy and
Annapolis, Maryland. Wow. My masters. I went to University of George Washington. I actually
did that. You know, COVID was starting. I got to do that online. And we from originally
and if you say it already. So all over the place that I lived in the most as a child
was Virginia. You born in Virginia. Yeah. Okay. So Virginia, a Virginia. Oh, what's
got tonight? This is, this is truthfully the longest I've lived anywhere in my entire
life. And what do you live now in Wisconsin? So downtown. I live right there. Okay, local
yoke. Okay. I mean, the two bridges. I probably pass your house every day. You've got
a lot of folks. Yeah. I'm right on Main Street. I live on Main. So I pass your house
every day. I would know that it would have waved this morning. I didn't do that. Okay.
So why do you want to run for office? Why run for the first US congressional? That's a big
big deal. I mean, that's Congress. Yeah. It's a big deal. But what we're seeing isn't
even bigger deal. We're seeing a Congress and an administration that is forgetting the
big things. They're forgetting that working people are struggling. They're not concentrating
on how to make sure that we're supporting those people. I mean, affordability is a true
crisis right now. Healthcare is a part of that crisis. And we've seen this current Congress
and the administration vote in a way that is not congruent with supporting working families.
They voted for the largest tax cut, one of the largest tax cuts in history for the wealthy
incorporations while also increasing cost on people that are already struggling so that
they have less access to healthcare. I had a real problem with that. That does not represent
the first district of Wisconsin. And that's hurting everyday families. Canada for Wisconsin's
first US congressional seat Lorenzo Santos is here with me today. Now, do you know who you're
running again? I know you're running against probably Brian style. He didn't that he announced
his candidacy yet for reelection. Yeah. Yeah. He's been running. Okay. I didn't know that. Okay.
So he's on the Republican side. Do you know who your Democratic opponents are first? Yes. I have
a few, you know, I have to mention him. If you don't want to stay there, there are about four or
five of them out there and ready wants it. Well, yeah, it's an important thing to run. I don't want it.
Just so you know, sure. I don't want to deal with people. Yeah, probably because I would tell him
what I really think and you can't really do that all the time. Well, you know, I intend to.
Absolutely. I know, but you had to do it in a special you'd have finesse when you talk to people.
I would come out and say listen, stupid. And at least I'd vote right away. Let's talk about the
economy dropped about three thousand the stock market dropped about three thousand points gas
is about three and a half bucks a gallon now. It where it was like two and a half bucks a gallon
a couple of weeks ago. Yeah. And now it's up by a dollar. Food price is going up. What do you do about
it? Well, you don't start a war. That's probably the number one thing. You also do not have a whole
sale tariff policy that is really another sales tax on consumers that are already hurting.
This administration they have continued to show at every opportunity they have that they do not
understand government. They don't understand the economy. You know, one of Trump's biggest tools
at his disposal was tariffs and we saw what that did to prices. It did not help. And now starting a war
and around that is a chosen war that we did not have to be in. In fact, he just had a major player
in his administration responsible for counterterrorism quit and resign in protest. That shows that
there is a huge issue that this administration has has with understanding the way the world works.
This war is increasing prices crude oil, you know, fifth of crude oil and liquefied natural gas
goes through the straight of or moves. Now, having that as a choke point creates a bottleneck. And if
we cannot trade, then prices are going to increase. And we know right now it's not completely closed
off. And this is about diplomacy as much as it is military power. People are allowed or
ships are allowed to go through the straight of four moves as long as they're not associated with
the United States and Israel. And that's a real problem. Let's talk about health care for a moment
because I want to ask my mother. Yeah. My mother was a very smart woman. She was a real
independent smart woman. She knew what was going on. And I said, what did people do before
Medicare for old people? What and before insurance? And what they do? Did they died? Yeah. Yeah.
I see. I said, that's it, huh? They died. They couldn't go to the doctor. Couldn't afford it.
They died. So I'm a believer that everybody should have access to a doctor. You should have,
I mean, why if you're poor and you're not Medicare agent, well, he's supposed to just sit there
in an agony and die. I mean, I don't know how to handle that. I couldn't do it. Well, a lot of
these policies, we look at, you know, the GOP wants to brand themselves as supposedly for working
families. And they, one of the biggest things they do is they institute a bill that makes it
incredibly expensive to have your health insurance. And it skyrockets your health insurance costs.
And it actually takes away health insurance for millions of Americans. That's not at all
in line with, with a party that wants to support working families. Now, for business owners,
business owners, their costs to make sure that their employer employees have that healthcare
has also skyrocketed. So you're, you're, you're increasing the cost of individuals, of families.
And for businesses that are trying to make sure that their employees have these benefits,
that's a problem. And meanwhile, you're taking that money out of the hands of working families,
and you're giving it to people that frankly don't need it. You know, the richest among us,
the 1% that have not asked for this don't need it. And frankly, you're making sure that they have
more money when the people that have at least among us are going to struggle. And that's a real
problem that shows a severe disconnect with the struggles of everyday Americans. And I haven't
heard Brian style come out forcefully enough against. In fact, he actually voted for the bill that
did this. And, and he's going on these weird side quests about voter fraud that's non-existent
instead of focusing on the things that matter, whether it's affordability or healthcare for everyday
Americans. Let's talk about our democracy. Is it teetering? It absolutely is. Yes. And in part of
that is these voter bills that the GOP has instituted and Brian style is absolutely a part of that.
You know, voter fraud is so negligible that it will not have an effect. It does not have any effect
on the outcome of our elections. But to try and forward an argument that it is so pervasive,
that it does, that is a part of lowering the confidence in our democratic structure.
At the end of the day, there are only about 32 states in the entire country that do not require
a form of ID. Wisconsin requires it. So when Brian style goes out there and he says,
oh, there's voter fraud and we need to do something about this. It's not grounded in any reality.
It's not grounded in any real data. And frankly, he's wasting everyone's time with
legislation that is not serious because it's a distraction. So when the president wanted to
nationalize some of these elections, have the federal government take control of them.
Right. I assume that's not what you want. Well, the GOP loves to talk about, you know,
states' rights until it doesn't benefit them. They know that they forwarded some of the most
unpopular policies in a generation. And now they're trying to fix it by cheating.
That's unacceptable. And that's something that they hope that the American people do not
recognize and do not do anything about. They are hoping that they do not pay a consequence
at the ballot box. I think they know that they will. And I think they see the signs of that wave
coming that will happen to include the first district of Wisconsin. And they're doing everything
they can to try and mitigate that fact. Let's talk about a foreign policy. Why do you think
we're even a war now? And they don't want to use the word war because then Congress would have
had to approve it. So they use an encroachment or whatever they're trying to use. And the president
keeps forgetting the word. He throws war in there occasionally. Yeah. So why are we at war with a
ran? We are at war because we have an administration that does not understand what they're doing.
And that has been at every level, just about every policy they forwarded. We're at war
frankly because they're trying to distract away from the real trouble that they're in.
Trump loved to put out tweets about Obama's gonna start a war in the Middle East to distract
from the economy. Well, Trump has an economy that is in trouble. And we see that he started this war
which there has been no credible intelligence that there was actually an imminent threat from Iran.
And yet we find ourselves striking Iran, not just Iran, but you know Venezuela. He's talking
about potentially going to Cuba. These are misadventures. These are missteps that are unforced and
unnecessary. And he's continuing to just go off on tangent instead of focusing on this is supposed
to be supposed to be at America first administration. Why are we halfway around the world killing
innocent children? This is a problem. And if Brian style actually cared, he would say something about
this. We have to have a Congress that is standing up. Cory Booker just came out forcefully about
this. Congress has the authority to hold the executive accountable for its use of military force.
The president does have limited authority in this realm, but it must be in a case that we have
an imminent threat against the homeland. And there is no credible intelligence saying that was the
case. Israel wanted to go and strike Iran. The United States decided that hey, we should be a part
of this. And now we find ourselves in a potentially long term protracted war. We saw this with
frankly Vietnam. And we saw this with Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no easy way out of the
situation. And oh, by the way, he's also tanking the world economy on his way to doing something
that should have never been done in the first place. That's why our allies, who we should be
able to count on. But in this situation, they are seeing what a what a great miscalculation this
is. And NATO is not backing him on. No, they're not. And then rightfully so. Let's talk about
immigration and ice. Whatever that entails. Yeah, you know, I'm in emergency management. And
emergency management is meant to deal with the worst disasters that this country can face. And we
largely do so in the background. But FEMA, TSA, Coast Guard, different organizations that have
nothing to do with this fight. They are struggling right now, even says it. And we have unfortunately
Iran has a cyber capability. But we're not funding one of our greatest organizations that handles
cybersecurity for this country. The FBI is worried more about immigration than it is counter
terrorism at a time where because we are attacking countries around the world, they have awakened
their sleeper cells. They're not focused on what the FBI should be doing, which is investigating
those potential threats to the homeland. Instead, they've been resourced to worrying about
immigration. So again, this administration has shown that they don't understand how government
works and how the allocation of these resources should be. So we're in a real situation here where
government is not doing what they should be doing, that the mission sets, that different
organization should be focused on. They're distracted from. And eventually, that is going to have
real consequences that we have not seen yet. Now, you're going to be in a primary, right?
I'm going to be in a primary. Wait until the primary. So the primary. I am so confused in the case.
It's August 11. So we got a little bit of time. We have a late primary in Wisconsin.
And then the general election is the first Tuesday in November, like always. And this is for the first
US congressional seat. This is the one currently held by Brian style. Correct. And before Brian's
style, it was all right. All right. Yes. Yeah. He was a up here a lot. He always came into the
radio station. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He slept out from Jamesville to come here. But you were
you live right down the block. So that's kind of nice. I do. I do. So you're fully committed.
Fully committed. We were seeing that this administration has not slowed down. They, you know,
they went from protecting people that frankly should be held accountable with these Epstein files.
I call them the Epstein administration because really they have shown at every stop that all they
want to do is protect people that should be in jail right now. And we've got to make sure that
we do not get distracted by all these other things. Trump would rather have us focusing on.
And we stand up for the victims. You know, that should have been our focus. But he's over here
decapitating heads of other countries. When apparently, you know, they were supposed to be an
America first administration. And now we're halfway around the world. So I would like us very
much to get back to focusing on American families, making sure that American workers are taking care
of making sure the American economy is not being destroyed by these outrageous policies.
That's what we should be focused on. And that's why I'm running. Brian style has not stood up for
this. Frankly, he's incapable of doing so. He's too afraid to say anything to Donald Trump.
These people are, you know, they try to beat their trust and have this confidence. But they're
afraid of a damn tweet from Donald Trump. Give us your website. So it's Lorenzo for congress.
.com. F-O-R. F-O-R.
Lorenzo for congress.com. Yes. Okay. Well, good luck to you, my friend. Thank you so much.
And I'll wave to you when I got that mainstream. I appreciate it. Okay. Thank you very much
for coming in. I do appreciate it. Thank you for having me.
