Paul Smith on "The Final Salute" to Veteran Lester McMullen

It is a privilege to welcome on the news line Dr. E.J.

Antoni.

Dr. Antoni is chief economist at the Institute for Economic Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation, heritage.org, of course, the website.

Dr. Antoni, good morning, and thank you for the time, sir.

Well, good morning.

Thank you for having me.

Well, the big news that came out of Iowa this week, an announcement from the White House about this mega steel plant.

So we're fixated on details like how many jobs and where it's going to be located, et cetera.

The Iowa Legislature has a special session Friday to improve some incentives.

But in the broader scheme of things, for you as an economist, how important is this Masabi plant, Masabi Metallics, that's planned for Iowa?

I think it's huge.

Look, it's not just a matter of you're going to employ people at the actual plant.

Of course, that's the case.

But you're also going to create additional jobs because of that.

Think of it.

If you are somebody who works at that steel plant, don't you need somewhere to live?

Don't you need somebody to build your house or your apartment?

Don't you need to buy groceries?

You need somebody to be working at and running a nearby grocery store?

I mean, it really is amazing how just adding a single major industry like that can benefit the broader local economy in a lot of different ways.

So it's not just a matter again of, all right, it's going to employ a few hundred or even over a thousand folks.

There are a lot of what you might call spillover effects.

that are very very beneficial to the local economy as well.

That's exactly why I wanted to have you on the program because of the fact that you can put it into this context.

I mean we're dropping a pebble in the water in essence with this plant but the concentric ripples.

I mean that's going to transcend not just Iowa but because of where the plant is located that's going to boost Missouri and Illinois as well.

Oh certainly and another big thing to remember I think is the fact

having a business like this move in, it generates tax revenue as well.

And so, again, it's not just a matter of the people there who are employed and they spend money.

It's the fact that the business has to spend money.

All of that is taxed out.

Trust me, I'm a huge advocate for lower taxation, but the fact is more economic activity will bring in more tax revenue.

And this is the same thing that we see actually with data centers.

where data centers bring so much tax revenue to the local area that local governments oftentimes are able to reduce tax rates on things like property taxes, residential property taxes, because they have so much revenue coming in from another source, in this case it would be a steel mill, that you don't need as much revenue from other sources.

And that plays into how Iowa has conducted its business over the course of the last few years to where we had built such a surplus we not only could drop the individual income tax rate down to a flat rate but we met the target years ahead of time and still have a surplus.

That's the kind of stimulated economy you're talking about.

Oh, very much so.

It's exactly right.

I mean, look, as long as you can keep a lid on the growth of government spending, the exact opposite of what happens here in Washington, DC, basically, as long as you can prevent government spending from growing out of control, healthy economic growth will, of course, cause revenue to the government, those tax receipts, to outpace any kind of moderate spending growth.

And that means you will eventually move out of deficit into surplus like you're talking about.

And that's great for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that as the government's credit rating improves, as it spends less and less on a smaller and smaller debt, it needs to collect even less tax revenue from the people and thereby reduce the tax burden on families.

Dr. E.J.

Antoni is the chief economist at the Institute for Economic Policy Studies within the Heritage Foundation.

He joins us live on News Talk 1540, KXEL.

October is manufacturing month across the country, so this announcement is terribly appropriate as we focus even more on what is the single largest segment of GDP in Iowa, namely manufacturing.

As I recall, it was not that long ago that some folks in Washington said manufacturing jobs were never coming back, that manufacturing was dead.

Talk if you would about how this plant is an example of a broader plan to resurrect American manufacturing.

I think we're really in, we call it the synergy of different aspects of the tree.

Really, really start to take shape right now.

You have tax reform from the big beautiful bill, for example, provisions like full expensing so that you're not having businesses taxed on all of these assets.

Immediately, they're able instead to take that tax deduction immediately and not have to spread it out over the course of several decades, oftentimes until the asset is no longer even in use anymore.

This is a tremendous

pro-growth supply side incentive.

But now you couple that at the same time with regulatory reform.

And that regulatory reform is reducing costs for businesses and for households.

I understand a lot of that cost has been offset by the higher energy prices we've seen this year.

But businesses are not trying to plan based on one year of higher energy prices.

Businesses are trying to plan based on the next 10, 20, 30 years.

And what they're seeing is a much

friendlier regulatory environment with a much lower regulatory compliance cost.

So the result of all of that is that you are making it cheaper to manufacture here.

in the United States.

And you'll notice I didn't say tariffs in any of that.

And the reason for that is because tariffs have been a very mixed bag.

The kind of slap-dash way in which they have been implemented has basically raised costs for certain manufacturers and reduced them from others.

So on net, it's unclear whether it's been a positive or a negative.

As we look at this particular Masabi metallics plant,

it is not going to start producing things until the year 2030.

So that's a long game that these folks are playing.

What's the lifespan of a plant like this?

Because we will not see those benefits.

Yes, there will be construction benefits virtually immediately.

We will not see production benefits for three or four years.

But what's the lifespan of a plant like this?

because that seems to be generational in terms of benefit economically to the area.

Oh, it's measured in decades, not years.

I mean, these are pieces of infrastructure that last a very, very long time.

In the same way, if you look at something, not just the steel industry, but something like the oil,

industry.

We are building for the first time in decades a new refinery in this country.

Well, where have we been getting all of our refined products like gasoline, like diesel, like jet fuel from the other refineries that were built decades ago?

Again, you're talking about pieces of equipment, pieces of infrastructure that can literally last

century.

There are still pieces of equipment from Bethlehem Steel, for example, that are about a hundred years old and that are still standing.

They're no longer used today, but that was for other reasons, not the fact that the equipment actually physically wore out.

As you're well aware, I trust there is a great discussion going on in the state of Iowa on data centers.

It's going on nationally, but it seems that

every area of size in the state is having a conversation about it often with a lot of people standing and speaking at public meetings and ironically they're reading from their cell phones apparently not realizing that without the data centers those cell phones aren't going to be responsive and so from just a neutral standpoint what kind of impact does that sort of thing have if in the terms of the quality of the life of a citizen

What effect can that have?

Because we've been burned here in the state of Iowa with regard to infrastructure and it's a pass-through.

All the good goes to another state.

We don't get any benefit.

We just get the detriment.

Data centers are a bit different, are they not?

I think so.

Again, we mentioned earlier the whole phenomenon of data centers and property taxes, not terribly far from where I work in Washington, DC, is Loudoun County, Virginia.

which is kind of the data center hub of the state of Virginia.

They have made so many data centers there and those data centers generate so much revenue that people's property taxes have been going down.

not up in that in that part of the country think of that property taxes have become a almost a national emergency for a lot of a lot of parts of this country specifically because they have risen so much in just a few years that a lot of people are forced essentially to have to sell their homes because they can't afford the property taxes on them and this includes retirees who have paid off their homes

But they're effectively having to rent from the government if you want to think of it that way.

I mean, it really is amazing how something like a data center, again, can provide that additional tax revenue and provide tax relief to consumers.

But aside from the benefits, there are so many negatives around data centers that are just pure myths.

I was reading the other day, somebody was talking about how if you hold a compass,

near a data center, the compass will just start spinning in your hand because there's so much electromagnetic radiation emanating from the data center.

It's absolute nonsense.

First of all, that level of EMF would just dry all of the electronic components within the data center itself, but there's just no basis in factor reality.

for so many of the claims that are made against these things.

Now look, I'm not saying they're perfect.

I'm not saying there are no downsides to a data center.

You look, you should do a proper cost benefit analysis before you put one in your backyard.

But you should do a proper cost benefit analysis and not listen to all the doomers or the naysayers who don't understand any of this technology.

Our exit question for Dr. E.J.

Antoni, chief economist,

with the Institute for Economic Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation.

He's kind enough to join us on KXEL Live from his home base there in the swamp.

But do you have overall a sense of optimism that if the plan that the administration has set forth, including manufacturing, including stimulating job growth across the country,

Do you have optimism that that is going to give us the robust economy that has been promised if we just simply stay the course and let it play out?

Well, I think so.

Look, the economy has a ton of really, really powerful tailwinds right now.

We talked about tax reform and regulatory reform.

There's also this administration's pro-energy agenda, specifically pro-domestic, reliable, affordable energy, coal,

oil, natural gas, nuclear, forget the expensive and inefficient solar and wind.

All of that is, again, it's a tremendous tailwind for the economy.

But you have a huge headwind right now, and that's the artificially high energy prices that are the result of the Iran War, and to a certain extent also, not just the Middle East, but Eastern Europe.

The fact that the Ukraine has attacked all of Russia's major refineries, and now Russia has gone from being exporters,

to a net importer of diesel.

This is all a tremendous now headwind for the economy.

And so what we're looking at is effectively, I think if you do stay the course, but you also get all of these overseas conflicts wrapped up very quickly, you will be able to turn to growth, return to growth and return to very fast growth.

Unfortunately, I think at this point, that's a big if given how long both of those conflicts continue to drag on.

Quite insightful, as always, Dr. Antoni.

Thank you so much for being so generous with your time.

I hope we talk again sooner than later.

My pleasure.

Thank you for having me.

Dr. E.J.

Antoni is the chief economist for the Institute for Economic Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation.

He is also associated with

Unleash Prosperity as a senior fellow and Dr. E. J. N. Tony joined us live on the news line on News Talk 1540 KXEL, where Iowa comes to talk.

Pleased to welcome now on the news line Patrick Amorosano.

Mr. Amorosano is the author of the forthcoming book thanks to the good folks at Real Clear Publications.

It's entitled Honoring the Legacy of Charlie Kirk with a subtitle embracing the leadership of Ron DeSantis.

and exposing the illusion of JD Vance.

It's released on January 12th of next year.

You pre-order now at Amazon or wherever you get your good books these days.

Mr. Amorosano, thanks so much for taking the time and good morning to you.

Good morning, Jeff, and thanks so much for having me.

Not the first book that you have authored, not the first non-fiction book you have authored.

Why this topic at this time?

Well, to get right to the heart of it,

It's a book that advocates Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida, for president.

That's the long and the short of

it.

And the governor was in our studios right here.

I'm pointing, you can't see it nor can the audience, but I'm pointing to a chair where he joined us in studio during the campaign.

There's a lot of talk about all of this.

How does Charlie Kirk figure into it with the bottom line being your support for the Florida governor?

Yeah, great question.

So I've been following the governor really since COVID, but

in earnest since he announced in May of 2023.

And when he did that, um, I became active on social media and that's how Charlie Kirk caught my attention.

He, he was a big fan of Governor DeSantis called him America's greatest governor and the future of conservatism.

And so I started tracking Charlie throughout the process.

And when he passed in September of 2025, really kind of a gut punch for me, I think, collectively for a lot of people across the country.

And that triggered a deep dive into him.

And I discovered some remarkable synergies

Between his political path and policies and those of the governor so out came the book

Now in the subtitle you elevate governor DeSantis you also then use the phrase exposing the illusion of JD Vance What is it about the current vice president that does not measure up in your estimation?

Well, I devote the whole last chapter to the book

I think readers would be surprised by almost all the information in it.

The short version is that J.D.

Vance is not a conservative.

He's not a fiscal conservative.

He's a big government post liberal.

And he's really the invention of a group of men who

got together back in october of two thousand and nineteen uh... to groom him and make him the figurehead uh... for really effectively uh... takeover of the government by uh... big tech a i proponents uh... and other men whose views on the constitution are a lot different than traditional

constitutional conservatives.

Now, as I recall from the 2020 campaign, and please correct me if I misstate or overgeneralize, Governor DeSantis ran on his record, which by all accounts is quite stellar, no argument there, but also invoked

I I will carry forth Trumpian principles my phrase not his Without the baggage of Trump in other words.

This is the next generation.

I'm the logical person to take it forward Is that first of all is that accurate?

But second is that the mantle he would try to assume in 2028?

Do you think having studied all of this?

Yeah, I think largely, you know, that's that's true

The governor has tried, first of all, let me point out to you that I campaigned for Governor DeSantis in 2024.

I was in Iowa, in Des Moines specifically, and a couple of other counties during the last weeks, the last days of the campaign, knocked on doors in the Blizzard Forum, spoke at caucuses for him.

And so I became pretty conversant with the general attitudes of the Iowa electorate out there at the time.

And I think it can be accurately distilled.

The message I kept hearing from folks at their doors and at the caucuses was, we like Governor DeSantis, but

Donald Trump deserves another turn.

He's been screwed over by the Democrats and what they've done to him with the law fair.

And we just feel like he deserves another chance.

And that was the long and the short of it out there.

That accounts for the outcome of it, I believe.

And I wonder now, to myself, will we have a robust primary in 2028?

And will Iowans remember what they said about the governor in 2024?

Or will some be persuaded to anoint JD fans and skip the primary process altogether?

The book is entitled honoring the legacy of Charlie Kirk.

embracing the leadership of Ron DeSantis and exposing the illusion of JD Vance.

The author is Patrick Amorosano.

The book is released January 12th of next year.

Order it now, pre-order now at Amazon or wherever you get your good books and it's released in January.

Mr. Amorosano, kind enough to join us live on News Talk 1540 KXEL.

Can I point out to you, Jeff, that you can order the book

right now by going to doingjustice.com.

Doingjustice.com is the website dedicated to the book.

First two chapters are in it.

There's a bio of me in it.

If you

scroll down to the homepage, the bottom of the homepage of doingjustice.com, it'll send you to the real clear publishing page where you can pre-order the book.

Right now and not have to wait if you go to Amazon you can do a pre-order, but they won't they won't give you the book until January When it's officially released after all the you know the pre-marketing

so I'm looking at the Amplify publishing group page You just directed me to and we'll walk that back for people.

So when do I get it if I order it from this site right now?

Well, I mean as soon as they can ship it say it's right now.

It's in the way.

It's in the warehouse right now.

So

perfect

Well, and I appreciate that I did not have that information and just went with the default of Amazon.

All right.

Yeah,

I understand.

Doingjustice.com, doingjustice.com.

And that's where we'll take you because you can learn much more about our guest, Mr. Amorosano, as well as noted the sample chapters of the book.

It appears that in order to avoid discord,

within the White House or the current circle.

Folks who are in the administration who might otherwise take a run, in particular, I'm thinking of the Secretary of State, they're standing back saying, okay, you know, the Vice President is the heartbeat away, you know, it's kind of like it's his turn unless he stumbles.

I guess is what I'm thinking.

That's not sitting well with people like Ted Cruz who's just about ready to get his mail again here in Iowa He's been here so much this summer as he was leading up to the 2016 carcasses which he won Fairness suggests we remind people of that ran Paul no stranger to the prospects in the past So our do you think that there is room?

for a robust debate, because again, even if everyone on one side within the party lines up a certain way, I don't think Mr. Vance is going to just sail through.

Well, I hope not.

I hope that people have, look, we're all told to get out and vote, do our patriotic duty and get out and vote, but how many of us really drill down

and appreciate why we as individuals are voting for particular individuals and how many of us just go along with whatever people are saying who should be voted for.

I really hope that it's not an anointing.

Marco, of course, has deferred, said he won't run if Vance does.

We'll see how that shakes out.

There's probably going to be a lot of pressure on him to run, and he's a good man.

And you mentioned Cruz.

Certainly he's got some traction from back in 2016, although I think if you start with who has the best and most successful chief executive experience out there,

You know, there's no comparison.

I mean, it's it's governor DeSantis full stop eight years as the successful governor of the third largest economy in the country and the 10th largest economy in the world.

And what he's done out there down there is astounding.

It's it all in the book.

You go to that website doing justice.com and I was going to make a wiseacre remark about the weather.

in Iowa prior to the 2024 carcasses and something along the lines of, well, you could tell you were really for him because you trudged through some of the worst weather we have had in quite a while.

And there's a photo of you in a blizzard door knocking.

Yeah.

That's that's all right then.

Good.

Good on you for that.

The rest rest of us stayed home.

If you go to if I can just quick interject,

of

course, if you go to my my ex account,

at Patrick Amor, P-A-T-R-I-C-K-A-M-O-R 2024.

You'll see pinned to that account in exchange between myself and the governor when he went through.

I wrote him a letter and he acknowledged it.

So yeah, knocking on doors.

People remark when they see that photo that I don't have any gloves on.

So how can you do that in a pleasure?

You know you can't knock on doors with any you know sound if you have a big heavy glove on so you've

got quite a nifty hat though With the ear flaps now, so I mean it's fair.

That's fair Now I have to ask because and if I mischaracterize this, you know, obviously correct me go ahead in the wake of mr. Kirk's murder the vice president has

Made very clear that by his account he and mr. Kirk were close No

question.

Okay, so if Mr. Kirk were alive going into 2028 He's already shown through his comments.

He had already shown praise for Governor DeSantis You have the vice president in that connection Would that be a race?

that you think Mr. Kirk would be involved in, or would he say, look, they're two very different good people, and I'm not going to steer my followers one way or another.

Y'all fight it out, and we'll see you for the general.

Yeah, that is the ultimate question, Jeff.

You've gotten right to the heart of the book.

The book asks that very question.

What does honoring his legacy mean?

And I try to answer it by

Delving into and describing in detail the important aspects of all five of Charlie's books and of course governor DeSantis is two books and if you read those books it's clear that the that the Principles of Charlie Kirk that he espoused his whole career do not align with the ones that have been espoused by

J.D.

Vance.

Was Vance's friend?

Yeah, did he carry the casket?

Yeah, did Erica hug him in the first event on stage after Charlie passed?

Yeah, all of those things are true and I will far be it for me to get in between a friendship, but I want to believe that Charlie, if he was true to his principles,

would be in favor of a robust open primary and would not take sides and would let it play out.

And he did that in 2024, right up until the time it was clear to him from the polling that, you know, Trump was maintaining this long lead, a large lead at which time he urged

DeSantis to cash in his chips and and endorse so that there could be unity so yeah fascinating question and the other the other thing that we my point out in the book is that That we we the people Are really the ones who will shape?

Charlie's legacy over time by our actions by our sentiments by our votes

And so let's not leave it up to those in leadership at TPS USA right now who might be advocating, oh, well, it's Vance.

We've made this call.

Everybody's got to back Vance because he's being anointed.

This isn't a constitutional republic.

It's an aristocracy, and Trump is

Trump is the king and advances the next in line, so don't overthink it.

Just go in there and pull the lever for Vance.

Do we really want that?

Don't we want to hear from Marco?

Don't we want to hear from Ted?

Don't we want to hear from Governor DeSantis again and really have a robust primary?

I think Charlie would be in favor of that.

Honoring the Legacy of Charlie Kirk is the book by our guest, Patrick Amorosano, and again it's from the good folks at Real Clear Publishing.

Honoring the Legacy of Charlie Kirk, embracing the leadership of Ron DeSantis and exposing the illusion of JD Vance, get it now by ordering at this website doingjustice.com.

Doingjustice.com, first couple of chapters are there to help close the deal.

Patrick Amorosano, thank you so much for the intelligent conversation.

I appreciate it and I hope you come back sometime.

Jeff, thanks very much.

God bless you.

You as well, sir.

And Mr. Amorosano was kind enough to join us live on the news line.

On News Talk 1540 KXEL, where Iowa comes to talk.

News Talk 1540 KXCL where Iowa comes to talk and good morning coming up this weekend.

There will be a chance to remember Army veteran Lester McMullen Jr.

Now Lester McMullen Jr.

doesn't have family who are able to be with us to remember him, but.

Due to an effort with the Black Hawk County Veterans Affairs Office and Loc Funeral Home and a number of other folks who have an appreciation for Veterans service, there will be a remembrance coming up on Saturday morning.

We're going to find out more about that this morning from Paul Smith of Loc Funeral Home.

Thanks for being with us.

I'm glad to be here.

Thank you.

What can you tell us about Mr. McMullen and why it is that we're remembering him in this unique way?

So first of all, he does have some family.

We found a brother.

We had a conversation with him and he just in the last week and he told me to go ahead and proceed with escorting Mr. McMullen down to the Veterans Cemetery as part of the final salute.

So this was announced previously to that conversation, and what's going to be happening on Saturday?

So we will have a group of people that will meet us at the Lockett Tower Park Funeral Home, which is 4140 Kimball in Waterloo.

We'll meet at seven o'clock in the morning.

By seven thirty, we will be on the road with state patrol escorts.

And we are going to the final salute, which is a memorial service in Waqui and then out to the Iowa Veterans Cemetery for military honors and committal.

So Mr. McMullen died earlier this year.

He was born in 1965, so 60 or 61 years old.

Right.

What do we know about his service?

What can you tell us about his life?

I don't know much.

I know that he was an army veteran.

And other than that, really, it's sketchy as to what I know.

We know that he served honorably, which is why we can do what we are doing because he has an honorable discharge from the Army.

He can be part of this program.

And I know that the people of the Black Hawk County area are honored to be able to escort him down to the final salute.

This will be the fourth time that we have done this in Black Hawk County.

This will be the 100th person that the final salute has laid to rest in the Iowa Veterans Cemetery.

And we are both humbled and honored to be able to participate.

We're talking with Paul Smith of Locke Funeral Home about a ceremony.

recognizing the service and remembering Army veteran Lester McMullen Jr.

who passed away earlier this year.

His remains will be laid to rest in a Dell coming up on Saturday after he's remembered in Waterloo Saturday morning.

And you mentioned this is the third time, the fourth time now that you've been involved with one of these.

What have those three other instances been like?

What do you take from those as a participant?

It is both an honor to participate and it is a lot of fun.

One of the gentlemen who went with a couple of years ago on was one of the motorcyclists that went with said that he had never had so much fun on his motorcycle with flashing lights everywhere and no one chasing him.

It's a very unique experience.

I have yet to talk to anyone who participates that told me they didn't enjoy the day and they weren't honored to be there.

Fun isn't the word that would immediately come to mind for everybody.

Could you talk a little bit more about that?

I imagine there's sort of a sense of camaraderie, and certainly it is fun to have the right of way down one of these highways.

There is, and so we will have members of AMVET riders, we will have members of the American Legion riders, we will have members of the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association.

Patriot Guard riders will be there.

We will have classic cars, Corvettes, Mustangs, Camaros, people in general.

I don't care what you ride or drive.

It is to me more important that you are with us.

We will see fire departments manning the bridges, honoring Mr. McMullen as we go under.

it's just it's beyond anything that I can describe you really have to experience it to fully get the effect of it.

Do you have a sense of what the people go in the other way on on the freeway are thinking when they pass by this this parade of vehicles that

Has the right of way that has this state trooper escort you must get some interesting looks

there there has to be Them wondering what on earth is that now a year ago when we did this the procession was over a mile long So by the time we hit interstate 35

And we go south on Interstate 35.

We really mess up traffic.

We especially mess up traffic as we go through Des Moines.

And yet we will have all of the sheriff's departments of all the counties that we cross.

They will be there helping us.

When we hit Pope County in Des Moines, we will have the sheriffs of Pope County, of course, we'll have the state patrol.

We will have various city police departments helping get us through town.

and we just simply go and it's it's mind-boggling as you see cars stopped on on ramps because we're going by and then for them to watch this long procession go by they have to wonder what is happening but it it's quite the event

I've got to ask, I suppose, just what would be a technical question when you go through Des Moines, do you take the 235 route and go past the capital, which seems like it might be the easier way to go from a traffic standpoint?

No, we will take the north, interstate 3580 around the north end of Des Moines, and then we will get off at the Hickman Road exit and go west on Hickman Road or Highway 6 out to where the Lutheran Church of Hope.

Church is that we will be meeting at.

We're talking with Paul Smith of Locke Funeral Home about a final salute for Blackwok County veteran Lester McMullen Jr.

who died earlier this year with no immediate close by family and his remains will be escorted down to a Dell in the Iowa Veterans Cemetery on Saturday.

We've been hearing a little bit about what the experience is likely to include and

October 4th is Unclaimed Veterans Recognition Day, which is kind of a sad thing to think about in the sense that there are people like Mr. McMullen who don't have anyone there for them, but at the same time, this is a great opportunity to bring people together to show that they do care for veterans regardless of their situation.

And the National Funeral Directors Association says that if you took the weight of the remains of all the unclaimed people in the United States, whether it's veterans or it's civilians, if you took the weight of all those earns, it would equal the weight of the Eiffel Tower.

It's a huge problem.

It happens mostly by accident, but it happens.

And federal homes are left with these remains and frequently don't know what to do.

The final salute has come along and said, hey, these are people.

Each one of these earns represents a person.

And so we need to honor those persons, give them the dignity that they deserve simply because they were people.

Does this tend to be a more common situation with veterans for whatever reason, or in the course of a given period of time, are you likely to just as often see unclaimed remains from non-veterans?

It's scope-wide.

There's no way to pinpoint the demographics.

It's a problem with every person.

Are there some other programs for different groups of people that might be out there that if you find yourself with remains on hand that you have some way to remember them?

Well, the final salute is committed to every person deserves a final resting place.

And so they also have a program for non-veterans.

So if a person has the remains of somebody,

They can contact the final salute and Des Moines.

They could contact me at the funeral home.

I'll do my best to help in whatever way I can.

I can't make any guarantees, but I'm gonna try.

And you alluded to finding some contact with Mr. McMullen's brother in the week since this has been announced.

This planning has been in progress for about a month or longer, at least a month publicly, since we first heard about it.

Is that something that has tended to happen with something like this, especially where there's an opportunity to do something of this scale involving a lot of veterans group, when the word gets out there, that someone's remains have...

come to possession of the funeral home do you tend to find that uh... this is an opportunity to maybe reconnect with with somebody

facebook has been an amazing tool to put the word out and then people are able to bypassing the word to say hey you know what that's my brother or i know that family and start to make connections for us

well paul finally let me just uh...

take us back to Saturday morning at Lock at Tower Park Funeral Home.

Seven o'clock people are going to be gathering there.

Do they need to do anything in advance?

Do they just need to show up?

Tell us about the process of being part of this procession and recognizing Mr. McMullen.

This is the most, the easiest program for anyone to participate in.

show up.

We will have someone in the parking lot as they come in that will direct them on where to go.

We will start to put the the procession into line.

We will have a meeting with everyone there so that they understand just exactly what's going to happen to give them a few reminders so that we can move from Waterloo down to walkie as expeditiously as possible.

And that's all they have to do We will once we get to walkie.

We will have sack lunches for anyone who would like one, you know, we're gonna start early in the morning So we understand that it's a long day for the Black Hawk County people to be involved with and so we figured out Logistics for that I have been told that we have about

40 motorcycles coming from Cedar Rapids.

They're going to meet at 5.45 by six o'clock.

They will be on the road coming to Waterloo.

And so the last that I heard from the organizer of that, it sounds like we have 40 vehicles or 40 motorcycles coming from the Cedar Rapids area.

that will come to Waterloo to join in on the procession.

So if someone was in the Cedar Rapids area and they wanted to do it, they can connect with that group and come with.

So last question, Paul, for somebody who is hearing this, who would like to pay their respects to Lester McMullen, but for whatever reason can't commit to making the trip from Waterloo down to Adel.

Is there a way that they can do that, whether that's Saturday morning before this procession or at some other point?

So definitely on Saturday morning, so we will be leaving Waterloo at 7.30.

Our goal is to be in Ellsworth at the Love's truck stop at 8.30, and we will spend 30 minutes in Ellsworth for a break, give some of the motorcycles a chance to refuel.

hit the road again so if they wanted to be on one of the overpasses on highway 20 or on interstate 35 we're coming and they will know when we are there I had someone in Ames asked now how will we know it's you and said there's going to be flashing lights everywhere you will know it's us

Remembering Army Veteran Lester McMullen Jr.

on Saturday with a final salute and procession from Cedar Valley down to the Veterans Cemetery.

In a Dell we've been finding out about the plan from Paul Smith of Locke Funeral Home.

Paul thanks for being with us to share the details.

Well it's an honor for me to be here Tim and I appreciate you taking the time to put the word out to help us honor Mr. McMullen and to let the people of the

of the area know about the program.

This is the station where Iowa comes to talk News Talk 1540 KXEL.

This is Iowa Talking Points, the candidates, produced by Studio 5 at Mud Advertising and Totally Iowa Media, where you hear from candidates in the November 2026 general election.

Now, Iowa Talking Points, the candidates.

From Studio 5 at Mud and Cedar Falls, here is Jeff Stein.

Hello and welcome.

The office of the Iowa Secretary of State is in charge of business filings and procedures and in charge of administering elections.

Two candidates for the office will appear on the November General Election ballot.

One of them, the incumbent, joins us here today at the Iowa Talking Points Table.

He is Paul Pate.

Mr. Pate is a Republican, as noted, the incumbent Secretary of State online, pate4iowa.com.

Mr. Secretary, thank you for the time.

It's great to be here.

Why another term in office as Secretary of State?

What is it that you'd like to accomplish in the next four years?

Well, things have gotten so much more intense and we're a really complicated place in our society with elections.

The doubts people might have about the integrity of our elections, the cyber attacks we've seen over the years.

So I felt the job wasn't done.

I rolled my sleeves up.

I've been a part of this battle for some time, but I couldn't walk away.

until I felt much more comfortable that we've secured our footing here.

Islands count on good, fair elections, so that's why I'm running for your election.

Talk, if you would, about some of the safeguards that the Secretary of State's office has put in place during this current time in office, three terms seeking a fourth to help ensure the integrity of results.

Well, first, I got to point out that this is not a mad dash.

This is a marathon when we look at election integrity.

So I've worked very hard on everything from securing the cyber side because we have a lot of bad actors out there who are constantly trying to break in.

Think of it as

like burglar walking the neighborhood, looking for a soft touch, a house.

And they see the house, and then they go up and rattle the doorknob to see if they can get in.

I want to make sure they don't even think about the neighborhood.

So we do a lot on that front and have, and we'll continue to.

We have something that's very special.

I fought very hard to get us voter ID.

That's something that you can hear in Washington, DC, that the Democrats have been opposing.

But we have it in Iowa.

And that's one of those things you can make sure that only Iowans are the right

person is legitimately voting.

Paper ballots is very important.

We also have the pretesting of our tabulators that it's done publicly.

We have no internet connections to our machines, so there's nobody manipulating it from a different country.

And we have post-election audits, so we're actually doing sample hand counts to make sure it matches up with our machines.

But the most important part, the secret weapon, one that I'm very proud of in Iowa, and that's those 10,000

Iowans your friends and neighbors who step up and run these elections That's all I have the confidence in election night that I know the job is getting done

and you're talking about the poll workers who are there and again

It's a long day.

There's training in fact for that as well.

They don't just show up and make it up as they go along.

That's a big part of our job.

My staff puts together the training curriculum.

We work with making sure the county auditors who are our key partner in this.

This is what it's all about.

It's about building strategic partnerships in those 99 county auditors, the 10,000 poll workers, working with various other entities to make sure the islands get the integrity and the opportunity to participate in their election.

You

talked about the voter ID.

This was legislation that your office had suggested past the legislature.

Have you found that there were any people who have complained about being disenfranchised or that because of the I'll still say recent changes in Iowa law that there have been legions of people who have not been able to exercise their constitutional right?

Well, you would have thought that

I was the antichrist when we were doing it because there are those who thought those things would happen.

Not happening.

Not happening at all.

In fact, we've seen participation increase in Iowa.

We have one of the best voter participation participation rates in the country.

And I'm proud of that.

And we're going to keep building on that.

We have over 92% of Iowans who are registered to vote that are eligible.

We see good turnouts on presidential years for sure.

We want to work a little harder to get it higher on the other off years.

But no, it's very solid.

If anything, I think it's reassuring to Iowans.

someone's asking you know are you say who you say you are when you come in to vote

there was an effort made a few years ago to streamline some of the electoral processes especially with regard to school board elections

we

used to have those in September and I think the data you'll correct me if I'm wrong I think the data shows that sometimes those slipped past people and so

the law changed so that they were merged with a general election.

How did that work in terms of turnout and how receptive has the public been to that change?

Well, we're always looking for ways to improve and increase participation.

And I think that's what the legislature was trying to do on that front as well.

It's all somewhat of an increase.

It's not what we want it to be yet.

Some can attribute that to the fact that they're not partisan.

When you look at the election we're going into this November, it's a partisan election.

So you have the political parties who drive voter turnout.

They're the ones who do all those phone calls and go door-to-door and send the mailings.

When you talk about more grassroots elections, like city elections and school board elections, they're much smaller scale.

So they don't get the love and attention that maybe the other ones do.

I think that's more the cause and effect on that front.

and by having it on a ballot

where

more people show up, that tends to at least increase the visibility a little bit.

Well, it does.

You increase the menu, the items that are on it, you find something that appeals to people that might drive them to get out to vote on those particular elections.

But I think a big part of it is us doing more community outreach, continuing to remind people of why it's important.

I mean, our schools and education is a big factor in our tax base.

When you look at where your taxes go, those are where it goes.

So yeah, you ought to be voting in your school board elections.

And your city elections, as a former mayor, I can tell you there's a small minority of the ones who decide who's going to be on your city council and mayor's office.

So let your voice be heard.

Get out there and vote.

We talk about the November 3rd general election.

That's when the polls are open for an extended period of time.

But we also have forms of early voting.

And again, fairly recently, there was a bit of a tweak in terms of the period of time in which you could vote early in person if I have the terminology right.

Do we have the sweet spot now?

I mean, we had a certain window of time, then it was much more expansive.

Now it is

where

it is.

Do we feel like this is a good place so that people can have the time to be informed, not have candidates withdraw?

And we've had that in the past

where

candidates withdraw after voting began and that disenfranchises people.

Do you see any need to change any of these state laws on the topic?

Well, I'm looking very seriously at encouraging the legislature to give a couple more days early.

for the auditors to be able to start putting out the mail out ballots.

We need a little more time from administrative standpoint just to get those things processed.

And I also want to continue to caution the voters.

You don't get overnight mail delivery, folks.

So if you're going to do it that approach, you really need to allow for three or four days to make sure your ballot can get to you in time.

I instituted a very important process that I

promote regularly.

And that is, if you're going to vote by mail, you can track it.

You can go to our Secretary of State website.

You can see when the auditor received your request for a ballot.

You'll see when the auditor mailed it to you.

And then when you mail it back, it will show when the auditor received it.

I want you to know where your ballot is at so you have confidence that your vote got counted.

And again, that is a matter of kind of

tweaking the system as citizens respond to changing way of life, I assume.

Well, most certainly.

And, you know, we are a society right now that we want convenience.

And that's why I started online voter registration because everyone's walking around with a cell phone in their hand.

And that is one of probably the growingest area we're seeing growth-wise for people who are registering to vote.

They're doing on their cell phone.

And that's how they adjust it when they move so they can change their address.

the tools of today.

You have to embrace the technology.

Well, speaking of technology, you mentioned paper ballots.

Is there a conversation about changing our voting system in the state of Iowa that would make it much more screen-oriented, remote access, et cetera?

I don't hear that.

Just the opposite.

It was a period where we were advancing rather quickly on the technology side, touchscreen voting.

There was even conversations at one time of being able to vote on your cell phone.

But with everything that's happened in the last 15 years or so, we're actually did a hold or a pause on that side of it.

And we're focusing more on making sure people have confidence in whatever process we're using.

And paper ballots are easier to audit.

And it's something people can touch and feel.

I think that's here to stay for a while.

I know just from my own experience and I'm one of those who votes day of.

You fill the circles in, remind you of your old test of basic skills in school and you walk in and the machine takes it and you get your sticker and you actually see the vote go in.

Talk if you would for the folks who just may not be aware about what we call chain of custody.

Once I put the ballot into this machine

which I have to tell you looks too much like a shredder,

but I know it is

not.

The optical scan reader, what happens to it?

Sure.

Well, we have a really nice video on our website.

I point these things out because we want to make people comfortable.

A lot of first-time voters maybe have questions.

And it does walk through some of that so people know everything.

Like when I first walk into a polling place, what are they going to do?

And how do I handle my role in all this?

Yes, the security is so important.

So when that ballot is actually put into the tabulator, it is secured in a locked box.

And at the end of that evening, that contents is sealed.

And there are two people with these all the time.

That's why I want to underscore those poll workers.

You know, there's Republican and Democrat side by side holding on to this.

custody-wise.

It never leaves their possession and that is transported to the county auditor's office.

There's also some electronics portions of this that is recording some of the information.

So we have the paper ballots and that and they have to match eventually when we get them down to the county courthouse.

They will go through

collecting them and counting them all and then they have to do an audit procedure and a review procedure.

The ballots are still here.

We hold on to them for quite a while afterwards should there be any challenges because that happens quite often.

We had to recount a few years ago for a congressional race in southern Iowa over 300,000 votes cast and the winner was by six votes and trust me when you're counting that many counties it was a lot of time being spent.

Paul Pate is the Secretary of State for the State of Iowa.

He is a Republican seeking re-election.

Pate4Iowa.com is the website.

More with Secretary Pate as this edition of Iowa Talking Points.

The candidates continues in a moment.

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You're watching Iowa Talking Points, the candidates.

Here again is Jeff Stein.

And we continue with Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate.

He is a Republican seeking reelection.

Pateforiowa.com is the website.

You are seeking a fourth term this time out.

You mentioned in the last segment, your time as mayor of Cedar Rapids.

You are also in the Senate prior term in the office you hold now.

Give us a little more sense of the background because again, that's a rather diversified portfolio of experience.

Well, for me, it starts...

with my parents, because as a very young man, my parents had encouraged my brother and I that we needed to give back to our community.

We have a great country and a great process where you can go out and attain the American dream.

And I've been very successful in running and growing an asphalt paving company.

But you need to give back, whether it's to your church or to Boy Scouts or some other cause.

And one of the ways I chose to give back is I got involved in running for the state Senate.

Part of it was because I was motivated because I thought rising health care costs were really hitting hard and we wanted to make sure my employees had health insurance.

And also red tape, government red tape.

So it got me into the public servants of serving in that legislature.

And it was a very enjoyable process, frustrating as heck to be honest with you.

You know, ruling by committee with 50 senators can be challenging.

But in doing that, I learned more about the Secretary of State's office because it was one of the areas I oversaw

saw as a senator.

I saw that as a challenge because to me the office wasn't doing enough yet.

It needed to be more than just a filing cabinet where people sent papers and forms.

I thought it could be a real advocate for businesses and wear a white hat.

got me motivated to run and serve.

And we've been working on that as aggressively.

And the reason I'm still at it, quite candid with you, is it has changed so much.

Technology has changed.

When I came into the office, it looked like we had missed the whole Bill Gates era.

technology wise.

I mean, I was looking at, I thought looked like Radio Shack computers.

So and trying to get the technology upgraded and trying to cut the red tape, trying to make sure the office was responding to businesses the way I would think business would want them to respond.

Those were all priorities.

And then guess what?

We had COVID.

What was going to happen?

We weren't sure.

We were faced with a situation where how do you conduct an election that requires people to come in and vote?

And we're asking 10,000 poll workers who are mostly seniors who at that time were more susceptible to this COVID to be there to run our polls.

So we had to put it into crisis mode and we had to be pretty darn aggressive and planning and getting it done.

And I feel we did a great job on that front.

And right behind that, we have the cyber attacks.

And so it seems like this process just keeps coming and we have to always just.

keep in mind, we need to stay ahead of the game.

That's why I said earlier, it's a marathon.

You really do have to keep your eye on the ball.

Two very different aspects in the Secretary of State's office.

And as you mentioned, the county auditors handle elections.

But

at the state level, it's not the auditor.

It's the Secretary of State, but also the business aspect.

And to your point about business filings, this has changed greatly.

And you and I have talked about this before on the radio where

You just have all myriad of forms that would have to be filled out by hand and mailed in and wait for a certified copy and this is much different now than even when you took office this time.

What it is and sometimes you don't think that is the it's the sizzle but it really is when you look at the economic base of our state it's small businesses and my office handles over 300,000 small businesses a year plus

hundreds of thousands of other financial filings that are done is commerce.

And that's what the backbone of our economy is about.

And when I looked at this office, I thought you could do more.

We should be the portal for small business.

We should really be there to assist them in navigating a lot of the governmental barriers that might pop up, at least help them.

figure out which ones they have to do.

So we've done that.

In fact, one of my frustrations when I first came in was corporations had to fill out an annual report.

And they meant literally every year you had to fill this out and send your $35 in.

And I thought seriously, this is just another form you're asking the government.

for and in the money.

So I changed it to buy annual.

I said, OK, can we do it every two years?

Because when you're a small business owner, you're spending all day focusing on your mission of serving your customers.

The government is what you do after work.

And so let's make it a little easier on them.

So things like fast track filing because.

We wanted to make sure it was very streamlined to make it easier for the business to fill out the forms online in a few minutes.

The biggest change was the 24 hour call center.

We have real islands you can talk to.

When you can talk to them, what's your schedule looks like?

Because again, small businesses are so tied up on running their business under the eight to five window, they want to talk to somebody afterwards.

And a key factor here too is too often government is centered around a capital, whether it's Washington DC or a Des Moines in our case.

And that's not fair.

If you're from Waterloo or you're from Council Bluffs or you're from Lime Springs, you should have the same level of service as someone who lives in Des Moines.

And that is why I've done all these things to make sure we're accessible to them without having to drive all the way into Des Moines and talk to someone over a counter.

And I think we've come a long ways and we're going to keep doing that.

As I recall, not only did the reports for some of these business entities switch to biennial,

But a lot of the reports that used to have fees don't have fees attached anymore.

That's true.

And if you look at other states around us, we are probably one of the best on low fees, if any, access.

You can do a lot of searches on our business side that if you go to a different state, you have to subscribe to them.

And that can be a real burden for a lot of people who just need one piece of information.

I have to go pay for a subscription to do something.

So I think we've

We're far ahead of the game when you look at those particular scenarios.

We have taken the time to listen to the businesses.

When we redesigned our website for an example, we spent a lot of time getting feedback from businesses.

What do you want?

How do you want it?

So when we put it together, it would be there to help you in a way you would like to have it.

And that's the kind of way we approached our elections as well.

Listen to the client, try to implement those kind of things.

Is the office and therefore state government?

Is it more?

hospitable for business now than 10, 15, and 20 years ago, because my sense is that there have been a number of things that the private and public sectors have done together to try to make this a very friendly climate for the establishment of businesses.

And I'm just wondering if you think we've been moving in that direction and how we compare with other similarly situated states.

Well, I think we're way ahead of the other states.

We can do better.

I like to think my office has done everything we can, but it's human nature.

The legislature gets approached by a constituent with a problem and they pass a law to think that they think they're going to solve the problem.

Sometimes that solution causes a lot more paperwork.

And I tell them, let's be a little greener here.

Let's not quite kill so many trees.

And when you're trying to get to that solution, so that's a fine line.

But we've, I think we've made big progress.

We're working better as departments so that we can take some of the headaches away from the business as far as, well, wait a minute, all I want to do is get reinstated as a business.

Okay, let me work with.

job service.

Let me work with the the other two agencies to get your paperwork to you through our office.

So instead of me telling you to call three different agencies.

So there's progress being made, Jeff, but we've got a ways to go yet.

We really do.

And I suppose that's nothing more than if I'm the one calling.

It's all brand new to me, right?

I've never reinstated a business, etc.

You folks do it more frequently.

It's much more

expedient and efficient if the state just says here let's take you through it will be a lot quicker for everybody

well it is in the toughest part and my own staff have to tell me to just take a deep breath paul i'm not a licensed lawyer so i shouldn't be giving any legal advice out

And quite often when these businesses call you, they're looking for some legal advice.

And we have to tell them nicely, you know, this is something you need to talk to your CPA or your attorney about.

And that sometimes frustrates an entrepreneur because they're trying to resolve an issue and they got other things on their mind too.

And this just helped me out with this one.

Let's get this one resolved.

So I have to remind myself that I'm not an attorney and I give them the best answer we can.

And then hopefully they get their

their private sector help from their lawyers and CPAs.

Paul Pate is the current Iowa Secretary of State.

He is seeking another term on the ballot as a Republican, pate4iowa.com.

More with Secretary Pate as Iowa Talking Points.

The candidates continues after this.

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Watch all the programs in the Iowa Talking Point series online at IowaTalkingPoints.com.

Iowa Talking Points, the candidates, continues with Jeff Stein.

And we continue the conversation with Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate.

He is a Republican seeking reelection.

Pate4Iowa.com is the campaign website.

There is a Republican, you and a Democrat, who are on the ballot.

Just the two of you, as opposed to some of the other races, differentiate yourself from the opponent for those who may be trying to balance and make a judgment?

Well, I always applaud those individuals who are willing to get into the arena.

Teddy Roosevelt talked about that.

That's the starting point.

As I told you earlier, my parents encouraged me to do public service to give back.

I like to think that in my particular case, I'm building off a pretty strong resume.

When you look at my business background, running a company, understanding what's involved there, I bring that to the office and telling government, you too can be a little more efficient in running your operations.

This job is really pretty serious right now, folks.

And you really need to have somebody who's got their eye on the ball and knows what's coming at us with the cyber attacks that are going on in the world.

My security clearance is top secret.

I take it very seriously.

We constantly have to be on our toes to make sure we're doing the best we can in partnering with the people that I need to partner with to fight off any of these bad actors.

I'm one of the only secretaries in the country who is also a certified election administrator on a national level because I think it's important to understand the election side and be active in that field if you're going to be the commissioner of elections.

These are all very important.

We've seen a significant amount of retirees from our county auditors.

About half of them now have retired.

So that puts more pressure on our office to be training and preparing the next level of auditors coming in.

These are all, I'm not necessarily on the job type things you want to be doing.

You need someone at the wheel who really has the experience.

And I think I've done a good job on that.

90% plus of Iowans have been surveyed and polled and said that

We think our elections are great.

We're doing the perfect job.

I'm going to keep doing that.

And my big theme here is you don't look at this job as a Republican and a Democrat.

You really don't.

You have to be like a referee.

You don't get to wear the team jersey.

The rules are designed by the legislature and the governor.

We administer.

It's like a sporting event.

You don't change them in the middle.

And I think I've done a good job of that, keeping my eye on those rules and making sure both the Republican and Democrat candidates know

what those might be and can expect an honest and fair election.

That's all part of what I bring to the table.

And I'm not going to change that.

And the work's still out there.

We've got to deal with the social pressures right now because we're so polarized.

People are looking for confidence.

We want to make sure that we are doing it the way it should be done.

And Iowa's got a good reputation of that.

And I like to think I'm a big part of that in the things I've done as secretary and the things we're going to continue to do.

I want to talk for a few minutes about voter rolls and this transcends multiple election cycles but it seems to me that part of the job is to periodically take a look to make sure that if Stein moved from one county to another he's in the county should be not showing up two places etc.

There's a certain process to that but it seems that if an elections official these days takes a look at a

voter role, or if there is a review at a higher level, that all of a sudden becomes political.

Explain the process as you understand it and what you think the Secretary's role is.

Well, we want the best, the cleanest, the most accurate, up-to-date voter registration list there is.

And that's something that we continue to work on all the time.

And it's always very fluid.

and you're going to see adjustments.

The caveat I put out there to people is remember in Iowa we have same-day voter registration and I would I believe in that and I'll fight to keep that because that is your parachute if you will your safety net so that if anybody for whatever reason either got taken off a voter registration list or perhaps is still registering to vote gets to do that that is very crucial but also people need to know that we're not letting

Our lists reflect people who have deceased or moving.

There's a sense of vulnerability if that's happening.

So we have to go through a process of trying to update that on a regular basis.

And we're very clear on their procedures.

We don't do it just random.

We have a notification process we use.

We still have some weak links that we're trying to deal with because not everyone tells us when they move.

If you move from one part of town to another or a town, that's really a change and your precinct might change.

You might move out of state.

So I'm partnering with some of my colleagues, other secretaries.

We're looking at some ways to improve on that.

One of them is working closely with the driver's license folks across the country because they know.

When you move to another state, your driver's license gets updated.

Well, we'd like to know so we can update you if you've changed states.

But the key thing here is, is the voter registration list is a starting point to assuring Iowans that only eligible voters are voting.

And I don't think that's too much to ask.

So we're going to keep working hard to make that list as clean and update as possible.

You have indicated previously to me that the goal is to have as many people involved in the voting process as care to be and as would take it seriously.

There are some people who may not want to register because they are fearful that their location, their address would go out, particularly those who have been victims of crime.

There's been an initiative that your office has undertaken explain a bit about what safe at home is and why that's important for Your office to undertake something like that because it's certainly beyond simply the administration of a given election

Well, I glad you brought that up because there is the constitutional Responsibility of this office, but when you're in a statewide official you're in a leadership role

And I think that means that you can step up and you can be a leader in other areas that I think citizens would like to see happen.

And when I saw a program called Safe at Home being done in another state, I thought this is something Iowa should have.

And for those of you who aren't familiar with it, it is for victims of domestic and sexual violent crimes.

Because of voter registration and being a public record, and people need to understand that, your voter registration information is a public record.

That's always been that way.

I felt that this was hampering some of those folks from wanting to be a voter because they don't want the bad actor knowing where they're at.

We can't necessarily promote a witness protection plan type of initiative, but I can help in that regard.

So we started the program.

And we compared it to Missouri's, because they're a comparable population.

And they had about 300 people in their program.

And so we initiated the program.

And when the program works is, is we will provide them a alternative.

identity for address and frankly if the bad actor follows the address he ends up in the middle of Des Moines River which is appropriate but what it does it allows them for all their legal stuff voting anything they do they have a driver's license with this information and now they can use that to have some some privacy and be able to vote absentee in my office and handles your ballot so no one knows where they're at except our office we've now have well over a thousand people

in all 99 counties who are in this program.

And through that program, we also got involved in the human trafficking issue.

Iowa's a great state.

I think we are Iowa nice.

I'm very proud of Iowa and I'm proud of our communities.

But until people who are being abused, like they are in human trafficking, are saved and taken out of this situation.

We haven't finished our work and we do have human trafficking folks.

It is here and it's one of the most dark and evil things you can see because it's not like Hollywood movies.

It's not the white van pulling up and grabbing some young lady and putting her under sex trafficking.

It's much more devious than that.

It's families in some cases putting their own children into this situation.

It's people who are preying on young people's

So low self-esteem issues, the internet, and they're putting them out there and it's happening.

And I as a father of daughters and grandsons for that matter and granddaughters, I don't tolerate that.

I think we got to stop it.

So I started a program called Iowa Businesses Against Trafficking because we interface with hundreds of thousands of businesses in our office.

So I'm challenging my peers, my business peers, to step up.

do two things, to learn something about human trafficking and to do something.

It can be educating their employees, their vendors, their clients, putting more public awareness out, but we've done very well at that.

We have over a thousand businesses representing hundreds of thousands of employees who are getting that information and we hope to build this army to go out and combat it because Iowa is a great state, but it can be better if we send a clear message.

We're not going to tolerate human trafficking or labor trafficking in our state.

The program, IBAT program, has not been around all that long, but you have a lot of folks who have signed up.

And as I understand it, it's businesses of all sizes, transcending all different niches or categories of the business realm in Iowa.

It has.

Mom and Pop shops, chiropractors, bookstores, you name the entity, they're signed up.

And that's the way we want it to be because that's a good cross-section.

And again,

Iowans understand and when you ask them why they're even doing it, they'll go, well, why not?

We live here.

Our employees live here.

We want the best community and safest community.

And I'm very proud of them for doing just that.

So I presume safe at home and IBAT would continue and perhaps expand if you are returned to office.

That's a priority.

And I want to see that happen.

And we're very pleased to see the kind of community support we've had for those initiatives.

I could look forward to working more on that.

Paul Pate is the Secretary of State for the State of Iowa.

He is a Republican running for reelection.

You can learn more at pateforiowa.com.

A few more minutes with Secretary Pate.

When Iowa Talking Points, the candidates returns after this short break.

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You're watching Iowa Talking Points, the candidates.

Here again is Jeff Stein.

A few more minutes with the current Iowa Secretary of State, Republican Paul Pate.

He's running for reelection to a fourth term in the current tenure.

pait4iowa.com is the website.

In the last segment, we talked about a couple of the initiatives, Safe at Home, Iowa, Businesses Against Trafficking.

Are there other initiatives?

I know you've been working with various business entities over time.

Are there some other initiatives that, with a fresh four years, you might want to undertake?

Well, I want to continue building on some of our outreach efforts.

I started a program called the Kerry Chapman Cat Initiative.

When you're up in Waterloo, you ought to know who Carrie Chapman Cat is.