Transcript

Jenna Ellis: Rights that our founders recognize come from God our Creator

Jenna Ellis in the morning on American Family Radio. I love talking about the things of God. Because of truth and the biblical worldview. The U.S. constitution obligates our government to preserve and protect. The rights that our founders recognize come from God our Creator, not our government. I believe that scripture in the Bible is very clear that God is the one that raised up each of you and God has allowed us to be brought here to this specific moment in time. This is Jenna Ellis in the morning.

Major races in California, including the governor's race, are still uncalled

Jenna Ellis: Good morning. It is Wednesday, June 3rd and primary season is well underway with a lot of takeaways from big primary nights in Iowa, California and more so in Iowa, Josh Turek won the Democrat nomination for Senate while ah, Trump endorsed Randy Feenstra conceded defeat in the GOP governor's primary. So that marks I think the first bigger, loss for a Trump endorsed candidate overall in primary season. And this will shock everyone that major races in California, including the governor's race and the LA Mayor's race are still uncalled because as the Washington Post describes, that this is so funny. California is often slow to count ballots and the results could shift as more are tallied. So a, typical California where we won't know till you know, probably closer to November, who is actually advancing from the primaries there. But the big, the big thing out of California actually is that Karen, Bass, the really terrible LA mayor failed to get 51% of the vote and just outright win over also will be going to a runoff just whether or not Spencer Pratt, who has really had just some phenomenal ads, has run a great campaign, will be the opponent in that runoff. So it remains to be seen. But let's welcome in Steve Dase to talk all about it.

Steve Martin: Zach Lane nearly beat incumbent Randy Feenstra in Iowa primary

And Steve, you're in Iowa. So what's your take from your state's primary

Steve Deace: morning, Jenna? Well, I mean I was obviously very involved in this race here, in my own backyard. I was with Zach Laine and his team, in their suite, as the numbers and stuff were coming in. And I think there's a couple of things we can learn. I know that the media is going to talk about. Trump lost who? Trump lost an endorsement. But in many respects this is one of his most impressive shows of force. he took a very disliked US Congressman, that easily the most disliked by our base statewide member of our Republican ah, congressional delegation, mainly because he's just a, he's a Randy Feenstra, the a C minus, C plus congressman in An A plus district. it's a place Republicans cannot possibly lose out in that district. And he's just, you know, very, very, very mid, and he ran a campaign where he on purpose avoided the voters and just thought, well because I'm an incumbent, Trump will endorse me. Even though he has dog cussed Trump privately and publicly for years, he thought Trump will endorse me and I don't have to answer your questions, I don't have to show up at any debates, any forums and I can just, you know, the king just will anoint me and I can just bypass the entire primary. He took that guy, and I would, you know, based on my numbers, which turned out to be pretty good. I mean I almost nailed the turnout last night. Almost precisely what it ended up being. I think that he gave Feenstra a 10 point bump with an endorsement that didn't happen until three and a half days before the primary. And in a state that only has one fringe top 100 television market. So in many respects this was one of the President's most impressive shows of force, to resurrect a candidate as weakened and damaged as Randy and still nearly pulled us off. So don't believe the headlines that this is just some kind of crushing defeat or anything for the President. I mean he took, he took on what can only be described as a reclamation project and nearly brought those dry bones back. I think the larger story here is that Zach Laine represents what I think the coalition, the driving coalition on the right will be in the future. and that's maha, with Christian conservatives. And I think you especially see amongst our mamas and our nanas in the Christian conservative world, the Maha issues are surging. Post Covid skepticism about the overall medical industrial complex, vaccine industrial complex, what went on here. You guys lied to us about everything, during the most, the moment, the moment in modern times really since the Spanish flu a hundred some odd years ago that we needed you the most. And I think Zach represents that and that's going to present some challenges, just as the immigration issue, presented challenges for our party because the base wanted policies that the donor class did not. Even still a state like Iowa, which has a lot of big ag, you still have a lot of illegals working in these meat processing plants and everything else in a lot of rural cities in a place like Iowa. And so there's a constant, you know, given, you know, pin and pole or push and pull there about you know, how much are we going to really follow through on deportations when our, when our donors want the cheap labor going to see the same thing moving forward. I mean, Zach openly ran on Iowa having one of the largest cancer rates because of, some of the, fertilizers and contaminants used by big ag corporations in Iowa. openly ran on no H1B visas. I mean these are things that run really afoul of a lot of the bigger donor class. And yet those issues as a combination of slate, of the campaign so captured the imagination of our base that Trump is the most popular politician in the state of Iowa. And it carried a completely unknown, never before candidate in Zach Laine to victory over a sitting congressman and a U.S. president because he is the one that galvanized that energy. And if you look at a lot of our data here in the state, you can see this generational divide really happening on our side. the, the, the, I mean Randy narrowly won, the older voters, and then, and they were primarily the people that voted on, that voted early too. Randy nearly won the older voters and lost every other demographic. So there's a generational reckoning coming on the right. I, you know, I know we have and I think you're seeing some voices that are nihilistically attempting to co op this. That's what Tucker is trying to do. He's trying to make us, trying to capture that angst of the younger generations and say now's the time to turn on Israel and turn on Jews and become pro Islam. I think you're just seeing people who are just nothing other than just grifting ops like Candace and Nick Fuentes are trying to capitalize on this. But, but underneath the surface of those nihilistic figures, there is a real generational reckoning happening. We, we're going to move in some seriously different directions generationally here in the not too distant future on the right. And I'm excited about it, but I also understand that, because it's going to be much more in the direction of things I've always wanted us to be and much more in the direction of who Trump has always campaigned on, but then also been way more pragmatic about how to advance them or whether to advance them when he, after he wins. I think in many respects Randy represented Trump's self interest and Zach Laine represented Trump's base is interests. And so I think moving forward, post Trump, this is going to be the issue, confrontation on the right moving forward. And what will be fascinating on the Democratic side is how they respond to this, because I think more corporations are going to be open to going with them in the future, and against this coalition if they're more practical and pragmatic. And the top two candidates running in Iowa, Rob sand for governor and Josh Turek for senator, are offering that, but they're going to be very unique. The messaging you're going to hear from Rob sand and Josh Turek in this race is way more pragmatic, way more personable and inspiring than you're going to hear from Democrats everywhere else in the country. Everywhere else in the country, they've essentially gone full demoniac. And so a lot of these corporations, you know, there's a Monsanto like we have in Iowa and every state in the union, they're going to have to make a choice whether or not to amend their practices in order to stay aligned with where the Republican base is at, or whether to see if there's enough pragmatism in the Democratic side or they've just gone full, you know, Islamist. And this is, this is going to be fascinating moving forward, Jenna.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah. Wow, what a brilliant breakdown. And I think it is going to be fascinating moving forward when we actually have to discuss issues again, not just, well, this is what Trump wants. And so therefore, that's where the base gravitates towards, and to see, you know, know, where the base versus the establishment essentially, is going to clash and, where things are going to go from here.

Rob Sand: A lot of rural Iowans support President Trump

And that actually brings me to, Iran, because this is. This whole quandary is really fascinating because I don't think that anyone other than Trump would be able to still continue the bases of overall support, if it was anybody other than Donald Trump. I mean, he has so much, built in trust and so much political capital, and I think he's spending quite a bit on it. But the base overall is still with him. But is that going to continue if the Iran quandary, as you put it, quite perfectly, if that continues for much longer?

Steve Deace: Well, it's interesting too, a lot of those rural Iowans that love Trump, and I know that in some states where, you know, you're heavily suburban, Trump has been, more problematic. But for our state that's very rural, Trump's been a huge boost. And the final component, a lot of us that worked to turn this state red, he was really the final missing ingredient. He got those rural Iowans with his economic populism, to finally, who were always with us on social issues, to finally vote with US in partisan elections and not just on things like gay marriage or abortion. And the problem with that, though, now is those rural islands are also the ones that are paying $6 for diesel here. Right. And they're also the ones whose exports are getting. Have a tariff slapped on them. So they're kind of getting it on both directions now for now, because, and also because the alternative has not been great. But Rob sand here is going to specifically try to message at those people that Trump left you behind and deserted you. And so the, the messaging, that we're going to need is just better policy results. And I think the President has come to the same. I, was listening to your news update, and I want to take that point before we came on. I want to take that point even further. I think we're at the same inflection point with Iran that we came to with COVID in Trump's first term. And here's what I mean. When the president is maybe the best dealmaker in American history, he sees deals when others don't. his, his knowledge of the Arab world from all the years he spent building golf courses and casinos in places like Turkey and Qatar. I'm sorry, Turkey and, uae. he understood that there really is an Arab political class that is more Arab than Muslim that really talks the radicalization game. And, you know, like the, the younger princes of the, of the House of Saad really, just to keep their own radicals at bay, but would love to make deals, would love to be more Western, would love to have more of the accoutrements and stop endless war with Israel over the Palestinian question. And he parlayed that, into unprecedented success. I mean, he's the most Zionist president we've ever had. At the same time, he assembled the most comprehensive Arab coalition we've ever had. And that's where they're both sides, Both sides are united. They want the Iranian regime gone now. They're not going to be united on what they want in place. And that's where we're at right now. I think the president, where he has struggled, and this happened with COVID this happened when he tried to cut a deal with Democrats on immigration in his first term to get his wall. I think he struggles to, absorb the words that Alfred famously told Bruce Wayne, in the Dark Knight. Some men just want to watch the world burn. I think he's. His worldview of art, of the deal, just has a hard time accepting that there are elements in this world that cannot be bargained with, can't be dealt with. And the problem with Iran is precisely because they are the demoniac regime that we can't afford to let have a nuclear weapon. As he correctly points out, you know, when you come upon a. You know, when you come upon people who are the manifestation of a downed power line crackling with electricity, there's only two options. Avoid it, which most people have to do, or send in the people who know what to do to confront it. And we were, there's no deal to make here. There's no deal with Hezbollah to make. There's no deal with the Iranian regime to make. Even if they agreed to some deal in the next 10 minutes, there's nothing stopping us. We have a Sword of Damocles over our head at any point. They could break it. They could even just wait until, say, I don't know, early October and break it, try to inject themselves into the midterms. And so the option here was only. Was always only one of two things. Continue to isolate that, or, uproot them. The problem with uprooting them is we could end the Iranian regime to its fourth descendant, within 30 days or less. It took us three weeks to get rid of Saddam Hussein. 21 days. We could do it in 30 days or less. That's not the issue. The issue is what comes afterwards. And this is a way more sectarian mess than Iraq and Afghanistan were at the time. You have the Kurds in the north that have long wanted their own country. You have a surge of young, secular people that were flooding the streets with protests in Iran this winter. And that's where our Arab allies see the young ladies out smoking cigarettes and wearing bikinis. And they're like, that's not the Iran we want. Instead, we don't want those images projected back to the women in our country. And the Israelis are like, that's the Iran we want. All right? And then you have a huge Shia Muslim population as well. Then you have two different armies. You have the Revolutionary Guard, which, before we launched Epic Fury, had roughly 150,000 soldiers, according to our Department of War. And they're all bloodthirsty terrorists. That's the terrorist feeder network of the Iranian regime. People, terrorists come in serving and go out and going out, into other countries and other organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas. And then you have over 300,000 members of the Iranian army. We don't really know where they stand. They stood down during the protest, but they didn't do anything to help them either. We don't really know who their centralized leader is. Do they even have an El Sisi leader like the Egyptian army did, that we could put in charge and would be friendly to us? This is a sectarian mess. We don't know if the Shah, the grandson of the Shah, who's been living a life of luxury, can just walk in and subdue a nation of 90 million people. We don't know. And the Iranians know. We don't know. And the Iranians, the Khomeini, as I say, the Ayatollah regime knows we don't know. They also know that we have an election coming up. They also know that we have prominent voices on our side that have been, you know, railing against this and being Zionist cuckism from day one. In fact, they're broadcasting them on national television. They know all this. And so every negotiation, the other side gets a say too. Unless you want to blow the other side to smithereens. And we don't. We could, but we don't. So we're looking for leverage points. That's why we're now blocking statistics. Straight up Hormuz. We're hoping that we cannot, we can deny the Iranian regime goods, services, kind of like a siege mentality from ancient era. The problem is we're also laying siege to ourselves by driving up the cost of oil all over the world by doing this.

There aren't any really good options here, but we have to choose one

There aren't any really good options here, but we have to choose one. The president keeps looking for some third way. I, don't. There isn't a third way. You cannot negotiate with this. There's only two options, all right? You take the Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham option or you take the Olan McIntyre option. Right? And those are, those. Neither one of those options is great. They both are fraught with peril, but at least you commit to an action that comes to a conclusion. We are. We are just sort of sitting here negotiating against ourselves. And I think, we've cut.

Ryan Helfenbein: That's.

Steve Deace: That's the quandary here. Don't go in there unless you are willing to do what it takes to finish there. If you're not willing to do that, then you have to continue to isolate them as the president has done before. I think what we should have done is continue things like Midnight Hammer, which is strategic initiatives that could happen at any moment. Any moment. The Iranian regime could get up and, hey, that command center is gone. Hey, this leader, is dead that way. They're constantly under. They're the ones with their heads on a swivel. They're the ones looking both ways before they cross the street. They never know which way we're going to come, as opposed to sending this huge armada force that's been over there now for 96 days. 96 days. And so our people, we don't want to, we don't want to police Iran. They know we don't want to police it. And so now we're stuck in this thing where we're essentially negotiating against ourselves.

Jenna Ellis: M. And, so well said. And I agree with you that, you know, Trump had, because of the business mentality in his mind, he assumes that at the core of every regime or every nation, and its leaders, you want actually what's in the best interest of your people. You want to, develop, you want to have all of the things that Trump wants for the people of America. And I think that's the only reason that he ran for president to begin with in 2016 was because he wanted to continue living the American dream. And he saw this nation, going in a terrible direction under Democrats. And he said, I don't want this and I want to help everyone else. And that's what people love about, about him. But at some point you have to realize, I mean it's, it's, it's like, any other relationship. Like at some point, if, if the, if the other person in the relationship is only wanting damage, there's no negotiation. You just have to figure out the best way to exit and, and the best way to exit with the least damage to yourself and perhaps, you know, your allies overall. So which of the two options, the Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham versus the Orin McIntyre, do you think would cause, you know, the least amount of damage? And we only have about two minutes left up front.

Steve Deace: The Oron McIntyre version would now, but again, both of these have weaknesses. If we take the or McIntyre version, which is, I'm tired, boss, and just say, we've done enough, we're coming home. Okay, in a short, there'll be a huge short term rally to that, but we're always going to be looking over our shoulders. Is this the day they break whatever fake agreement they make? Is this the day that they do something stupid? Is this the day that there's a Hezbollah attack at a major US Event, all, right in retaliation, you know, and then maybe their quietest kept for months, and then they strike right before the election to try to, you know, turn the midterms right when it secures we have our M.O. back. You're living, you're looking over your shoulder the whole time. If, you take your own option, if you take the Lindsey granted Cruz option, that's the one where you're, you get the PTSD of Iraq and Afghanistan, comes back and says, okay, we get rid of these guys, but what comes next?

Ryan Helfenbein: Action.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah. So, so well said. And we only had about a minute left, so sorry about that, Steve. But, always appreciate your insightful analysis, as always. Follow him on X and, listen to the Steve Day Show. I do almost every day. I think it's fantastic. We will be right back.

Jenna Ellis: Arkansas has declared June Fidelity Month

Welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the Morning on American Family Radio.

Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. Well, we are a few days into June and that means the, the clash of the Pride Month coalition versus, I think, the the rededication and kind of the, the reclaiming of what, America has always been and also what our, our world has always been, which is actually under natural law and the traditional nuclear family. And so Arkansas has declared June Fidelity Month. so under, ah, Arkansas Governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, she's proclaimed June as Fidelity Month, a state observance encouraging residents to renew their commitment to God, family, community and country. And then also, Tennessee has, declared that their state as well, is also, saying that they are celebrating, the traditional or the Nuclear Family Month, which is great. But we still have some, Republicans actually, who are pushing and going along with this whole Pride narrative, including Congressman, Mike Lawler, who, is from NewSong York. So, you know, kind of no surprise there that he's just going along with the Rainbow Mafia. But he posted Happy Pride Month and said june is Pride Month, a time to celebrate love, acceptance and the freedom to be yourself. Happy Pride Month to all who are celebrating. my good friend Meg Basham, who writes for the Daily Wire, responded to that and said, basically, here's my position. I'm done with the GOP coddling this. And yes, that includes Trump. So everywhere I see it, including if I see it from our president or the White House account, I'm going to go to war with it. We should never have tolerated it. But the best time to undo that cowardice and capitulation is now. It must stop. I totally agree.

Ryan Helfenbein: Pride Month peaked under Joe Biden

And let's welcome in Rhyen Helfenbein, who is the Vice President of Communications and Public Engagement at Liberty University and the founding executive director of the Standing for Freedom center, which has been putting out actually a lot of really great content on the family on, why we are celebrating America 250 and kind of this reclaiming again of our spiritual heritage. So, Rhyen, it's been fascinating to me to see that, you know, Pride Month, I think, sort of peaked under Joe Biden. yeah, I mean, that. And that was the time, you know, I was in D.C. and you know, up in NewSong York, and it was like anywhere you went, you were just inundated with like, you know, the rainbow. It was like, you know, the rainbow threw up everywhere and you could just see, see everybody, celebrating it. Other than, you know, some of the woke corporations and the NFL and some who are really committed to this premise, I don't actually see as much of the overt pushing of Pride Month, which I think is a good thing. And then we have states like Arkansas, Tennessee, my home state of Florida, that are pushing back against this and saying, you know, like Meg Basham said, we should never have celebrated this to begin with. We should have never tolerated this. And we need to reclaim, what the rainbow actually stands for, which is God's covenant, with, with the world, that he'll never flood the earth again. which, you know, by the way, was, was, in, response to, in part the sin of homosexuality. So I think it's intentional that the Rainbow Mafia co opted, the rainbow as a, which is a Christian symbol, a symbol in natural law, a symbol of God's covenant, and they tried to make it their own. I think we need to reclaim natural law and everything that goes along with it.

Ryan Helfenbein: 100%. Man, there's, there's so much there, Jenna. And thank you for covering this, by the way. You know, I go back to something that Edmund Burke said many years ago, that the great British philosopher, a supporter of American freedom. But one of the things that he acknowledged very early on is that the family, the traditional family, God's design for marriage and family, the family is the platoon of freedom. it is the most essential atom of society. So many people have gone more of the way of libertarianism more recently. I think we're peeling back off of that because the libertarian mindset is atomistic, where it's all about individual liberty. And what we mean by that is individual, like to the, to the single person. And in reality, that's not how society really operates. the first loyalty, the first form of government, the first sense of belonging is always to the family. The thing that God instituted. Even before he instituted the church or even civil government, he instituted the family. And when we go back to the Declaration of Independence, our birth certificate as a nation, we hold these Truths to be self evident that all men are created equal and creation is in there. and so we have to think about created order. We have to think about God's design. and it's not working. this whole Pride thing, this element is not working. The live and let be is not working. One of the reasons why we're seeing such pushback on Pride has more to do with children. It has to do with the harm that is creating in the lives of children. When individual sinning, actually, then, you know, doesn't just stay with the individual, but it also has some impact on children. whose children are they? Who do they belong to? What is the kind of home, that they should be raised in? Same sex marriage has put a lot of children in harm's way. And then we also see surrogacy as well. And then the transgender movement, which has been all about indoctrinating children into this trans ideology. It has woken many people up to the realities of the entire LGBT movement. Because from the beginning, what we were told and what we were lied about, what many people lied to us about, is that this was all about what goes on in the bedroom. This would never be about Main Street. This would never be about public schools. We're going to leave you alone, but you got to leave us alone. Well, the LGBT movement has never left anyone alone. they've taken more and more and more. They want all of society to be a part of this cultural movement. And so we have to push back. I appreciate and applaud folks like Megan Basham and even Katy Faust, who's leading this greater than campaign to overturn Obergefell.

John Quincy Adams: Properly defining family government would force civil government reforms

Jenna Ellis: Yes, and so well said, Rhyen. And this is something that regular, listeners will know that I've been, emphasizing over the last several months. I mean, we talk mostly on this show about, about news headlines and issues within the realm of the civil government, because that tends to drive news of the day. But we have to tie that back into the church government and then also the family government. And so I've been emphasizing more and more how the foundation of the family government and actually properly defining the family unit, if we did that as a society, would force then the policy of the civil government to be consistent with natural law. And I think part of where we've, really gotten off on the policies that we are, arguing as Christians and conservatives, we're arguing the issues as kind of the branches without first defining the root, which is the family unit. And as you rightly pointed out, that's the first institution that God ordained even before the civil or church government. And when family is defined by the secular, modern society as just whomever adults feel emotional attachment to, then that, that begets a whole line of thought and policy and downstream consequences that we're realizing in the social issues, in the policy of our day, like Obergefell, that if, you know, just two men or two women or three men, want to have emotional attachment, then that can create a family and therefore a marriage. And then if we, if we allow that, as we have in society, then it comes with it, this constellation of rights that then says, well, if we are married, we have a right to be parents, we have a right to parentage, we have a right to, you know, all of, all of these things that impact the children. And as you rightly point out, Rhyen, I think that the, finally, the downstream has gone so far that society overall is realizing the actual harm of so called gay marriage, because of the impact on children. And I hope and pray that that will be the ultimate undoing of this whole fabric and synthesized, you know, fabricated fabric, of the whole left's trajectory and that we will unwind that and that will be the thread that we pull that will undo everything, that has become Pride Month. And I think that we are actually seeing that. But do you think that there is enough stomach on the right? because we still do have people like Trump, unfortunately, who just doesn't care about, you know, the social issues like Obergefell, gay marriage, all of that. And then people like Congressman Mike Lawler who are still buying into this because he recognizes that his base, ah, largely supports it in NewSong York. so do we have enough people on the right still that moving forward, are going to be willing to take up this fight and properly define the family?

Ryan Helfenbein: That's a great question. I look at political movements in the past and you think about things like abolition when it came to slavery, and then you even look at the civil rights movement. these were never majority movements when they started. you know, it was, it took a minority of people, it took this sort of dogged determination, this resiliency. And over decades of pushing, pushing, pushing, you know, finally, they achieved sort of a majority vote, you know, to push the nation in the other direction. So, you know, right now Trump is operating from a kind of pragmatism, again, you know, ultimate dealmaker. I'm so thankful for many of the policies. And one of the key wins, of course, was, you know, securing enough Conservative votes on the Supreme Court to overturn Roe versus Wade. That was a, that was a signature, a part of his legacy. Now, you know, has he always been a consistent supporter of the pro life movement? I wouldn't say so. but far more consistent than his Republican predecessors either way, this movement is always going to be, it's going to take sort of just like Jon Quincy Adams was sort of the hellhound of slavery, it's going to take hellhounds, for fidelity, that are going to continue to push and push and push and with resiliency into dogged determination, will ultimately win. But I do believe, Jenna, we're seeing so many cases that are coming out, these are tragic cases, where children have been harmed, where they've been sexually abused, where they've been put in same sex households, for example, to be molested. We've heard of situations where, and seen situations where, same sex couples have been prosecuted after they went through a surrogacy adoption process by which they bought a baby. This is a modern form of slavery. This is a form of human trafficking that has been allowed in our system and should not be. It's unconscionable. and I think that as more Americans are made aware of these kinds of situations, I think that it will lead to a greater public outcry, for justice and to see this thing moved in a different direction. We have a very Disney fi, I mean that, in every sense of the word, Disney fied view of the LGBT movement largely in the public, square, where it is all fantasy and it's not reality. And reality is this is creating significant harm, the most vulnerable among them, among us in this nation, and that is our children. so I don't necessarily look to Trump for that kind of leadership, but I do look to our friends and allies and I think it's there.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, yeah, I, I hope and pray that's true. And it's actually really, exciting, Rhyen, to see, you know, this kind of renewed momentum and this drive among Christians to, to have the right righteous desire to protect children, to protect them from harm, to protect their rights, to a father and mother, to their father and mother, and to make sure that we are protecting and preserving, in our civil society, the institution of the family that God ordained. So, we're already out of time this segment. We'll have to talk about this more, but pray for that. And, we will be right back with more.

Steve Deace: Foreign.

The Florida legislature has approved Governor Ron DeSantis's property tax proposal

welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the Morning on American Family Radio.

Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. Well, as of yesterday, the Florida legislature has Approved Governor Ron DeSantis's property tax proposal, which is widely popular among Floridians, myself included. Not just because we trust Governor DeSantis and we know that he actually wants to change things for the better for Floridians, but because the proposal itself makes sense. So the current plan that is being considered and, just passed out of, the legislature would raise the homestead exemption limit to $150,000 in January 2027 and $250,000 in January 2028, but would not apply to school district levies. And the controversy among some. And of course, you know, the detractors, of DeSantis and his agenda have suggested that the, local municipalities and counties wouldn't have enough budget in order to provide some basic services like fire, police, etc. But Florida's Chief financial officer, Blaze Ngolia, has been, traversing the state, with basically Florida's version of Doge, explaining how much waste is actually occurring at the local level. So, is obviously an advocate for this plan and actually thinks that it's feasible if maybe the government just stopped wasting money. So Blaze joins me now, and good morning.

There are misconceptions about what services would still be funded under Florida property tax plan

And, you know, I think that there's a lot of misconceptions about, what services would still be funded and how this can actually be approved in order to give Floridians property tax relief. And, hey, we can actually own our own homes.

Blaise Ingoglia: Yeah. And, Jenna, what you're going to see, and you've already seen it, and it will continue ad nauseam and probably get even worse, is the amount of misinformation and spin and quite frankly, scare tactics from local governments, to your point, saying that they are not going to have enough money to fund, you know, basic services. Fire, police, all of it is a lie. so when we do our, analysis of how much these governments are spending, we are basically comparing what we think the budgets should be compared to inflation and population, and then compare it to what they actually brought in and spent. So, in lay terms, let's say there's $100 million budget, and according to inflation and population, the budget should have been around 145 million, but they actually spent 180. that 35 million, that Delta. The difference between what they should have been spending and what they actually spent, we are terming as wasteful and excessive. Now, the key here is that we are still giving them credit to go from 100 million to 145. So within that 45 million, not to get too much in the weeds, is employee raises, increased costs, hiring more people. So all of that is already in our calculations. The number that we're coming up with is over and above that. That is just money they just quite frankly got because of a property tax windfall. And they chose not to give it back. They chose to spend it.

Jenna Ellis: Wow. And what types of things are they spending that delta on that are considered wasteful?

Blaise Ingoglia: So the biggest line item is the amount of government employees that they've hired over the last six years, and obnoxious amount of employees. So to give you an example, Miami Dade county over the last six years has grown in population about 65,000 people, but they hired 3,500 new government employees only for 65,000 people and spent $900 million, more just to accommodate for that budget growth. So while people are saying like, show me specific line items, there are, there are money going to nonprofits, there are money to go into DEI programs. there's, there's just some nefarious government actors out there just basically siphoning off the money. All that happens. Right. But the vast, vast majority is the amount of employees that they're hiring that are not needed.

Jenna Ellis: Wow. And, and nobody approved this, obviously. And Florida tax payers, certainly homeowners wouldn't, and so this is why this is widely popular. And so we've also, seen a growth in Florida, and I represent that, by the way. I mean, I moved from a now blue state that is just going the total wrong direction in Colorado to Florida because of Governor DeSantis leadership, your leadership, Blaze, Ngolia, and you know, others here in Florida that actually want to provide, you know, hey, life, liberty and happiness, right? To, to Floridians. And that's the reason that I moved. And this overall calculation of saying that if you're a homeowner, you shouldn't perpetually be paying property tax to the government has also really impacted historic Floridians whose property taxes have gone way up, because of this influx of people who are moving. And it's quite frankly unfair.

Proposal to cut Florida property taxes will go before voters in November

So what exactly is a homestead? Quote, unquote. And how would this affect, affect people who, their mortgage is paid off, but they're still paying property taxes. And also people who maybe are buying a home newly for the first time or looking at it, because now under this proposal, maybe they can.

Blaise Ingoglia: So a homestead exemption, in layman's terms is an amount, whether it is a dollar amount or a Percentage in the state of Florida, it is a dollar amount of what, they cannot tax on your home. So we used to have a 25,000 hour homestead exemption. So let' that you had a $200,000 house, you would be taxed off of $200,000. but if you have a $25,000 homestead exemption, then you're now taxed off of $175,000. So it's a way to shield, the government from, from taxing you, the reason why this is so important. And now the new limits, should they be approved? It was approved by the legislature, and now it's going to go before the voters. It moves that exemption up to 150,000 in year one and 250,000 in year two, which means in two years, if this gets approved and let's say you have a starter home, a starter home in the state of Florida is about 300,000. unfortunately the prices have gotten very high here. and you have a $250,000 exemption. That means instead of getting taxed on 300,000, you're only getting taxed on 50,000 because you take 250 off of the 300. And it's a big, big savings and it makes things more affordable, which is what our goal is. It's what we should be doing.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, absolutely. And I can't imagine that anyone, who is, is not wanting to just tax and spend and is the one who, you know, the people in office on the local level who think that, somehow this revenue is due them and then they actually have to maybe, you know, balance their budget a little bit. Like, guess what the homeowners do, right? Like, we, we can't just say, well, you know, our budget was supposed to be 10,000, you know, for this month, but we spent 18,000 instead. So hey, let me just, you know, send the bill to my employer and they'll make up the difference. I mean that's almost what's happening I feel like, with with the local governments is that they're not being fiscally responsible and nobody is actually requiring them to be. And so this measure, this proposal, as you mentioned, will appear on the November ballot for voters. And in, Florida, those, measures require that 60% threshold. I think this will get far and above, more than that 60%. What's your projection?

Blaise Ingoglia: So yes, I think it's going to pass. when you cut people's property taxes here in the state of Florida, it is very well received, generally but from now up until November, you're going to have local governments out there saying that hey, if you enact this property tax reform, we're going to have to cut police and you're going to call 911 and no one's going to come to your house or your garbage isn't going to get picked up or all the parks are going to close. We're already seeing it right now. So there will be a built in amount of the electorate that will believe that crap. and I view my job is going out there and telling people the truth of what they're actually spending on, ah, how much they're overspending and how much they are, basically how much local government is lying to them and with misinformation, trying to keep the budget. Let me just give you an example here just to get into some of these numbers. according to the Florida association of Counties, which tracks all this stuff, Alachua county, which is where Gainesville, is Alachua county will lose around 56 million in tax revenue, in the year, 2028. So two years from now, our calculations are already showing that they're wasting 84 million. So they only to our week, they only have to cut 56 out of the 84 that we think that they should cut. So they can't make an argument with a straight face that they need every dime when our numbers show that they're going to be fine. the way it is.

Jenna Ellis: Wow. Yeah. And, and how are they able to go out and fear monger in, in that type of way? I mean there should be some accountability mechanism to say, okay, you know, you can be against this proposal, but you have to at least be against it on the facts. You can't just go out and suggest, like you mentioned, you're going to call 911 and no one will pick up. I mean that's obviously not going to happen. And, and so how are they allowed to even get away with that kind of false advertising?

Blaise Ingoglia: Because, because they've been doing it since the dawn of time. The government has always spent, put misinformation out to try to get what government wants and in this case is more money. so they're using social media right now. if you're on, if you're in the state of Florida and you're listening to my voice, just go on Facebook, Instagram or X and you're going to see the official counts from these cities and counties, go out and say that, hey, you're going to gut the services, and we're going to lose this amount of money and it's just unsustainable. so it's a one way conversation that they're having. What they didn't plan was a conversation back with their constituents is that that's what the governor and I have been doing, telling them the information. So in a vacuum, it probably would have been very concerning if they were just listening to local government. But there were other good stewards of their taxpayer dollars, specifically me and the governor who are going to set them straight with the accurate information.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And you know, we saw the governor set voters straight on amendments three and four, in 2024 that were disastrous and thankfully failed under that 60% threshold which was legalizing recreational marijuana and basically allowing a Canadian company to come in and sort of, you know, take over that aspect of the business plan that they had for Florida as Well as Amendment 4 which would have allowed basically abortion, tourism and overrode the Heartbeat bill, which thankfully passed under a Speaker Paul Renner and Governor DeSantis leadership. So you know, we've seen Governor DeSantis be very successful at informing the voters before and I think he'll do a good job this time.

Blaze Ingolia: Florida's property tax initiative could set national precedent

And so, CFO Blaze Ingolia, last question for you as well. this represents, you know, one of the first, you know, major initiatives on something like this around the country. I know from people and friends in Texas, their candidate for comptroller, on the Republican side, Don Huffines, has said for a long time, and he ran on a platform for governor actually previously of Texas to get rid of property taxes, for exactly the same reasons that you and DeSantis are, are suggesting, you know, wasteful spending and we should actually be able to outright own our homes, not continue to pay basically rent to the government. And so how could this proposal if passed in in November with the voters, how could this set up legislation for similar proposals around the country?

Blaise Ingoglia: They just have to follow Florida's lead, as a lot of the country has been. You know, we're the first state, or one of the first states, universal school choice, banning dei, wholesale election reform, election reform to protect our elections, immigration law, all of that stuff. Just follow our lead. Look, Florida is sort of like the proving ground of good conservative, aggressive policymaking taking into account that government isn't always our friend, oftentimes it's working against us. and take the side of the people and the voters are going to reward you. So just follow lead, just do it. The voters are going to reward you. And not only that, you're doing the right thing. You're trying to keep more money in, in the constituents pockets, not in the hands of government. Because it's not government's money, it's our money.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah. So well said. Hey, doing the right thing. You never hear a politician say that, but that's why I so appreciate the statesmanship and leadership of you, Blaze ngolia and also Governor, DeSantis. DeSantis out of the great state of Florida. So thanks so much and we're already out of time but you can follow BlazeAngolia@gov gone Wild, on X and of course follow Governor DeSantis as well. and make sure that if you are in the state of Florida that you are voting in November because these are the types of ballot initiatives beyond, you know, everything else we've been talking about, the midterms, all of that that's important. the governor's race as well. You know, this ballot initiative is now going to, to be on the Florida ballot. And if you're not in Florida, pay attention to the ballot initiatives on your state and know how you're going to vote. Be well informed well ahead of November. And as always, you can reach me and my team, JennaAFR.