Transcript

Hamilton: God has called us to be ambassadors even in this dark moment

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Darkness is not an affirmative force. It simply reoccupies the space vacated by the light.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: This is the, Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite, delivering people.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Out of the bondage of mainstream media and the philosophies of this world.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: God has called you and me to be his ambassadors, even in this dark moment. Let's not miss our moment.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: And now, the, Hamilton Corner.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Good evening everyone.

Abraham Hamilton: What goes on in your house is far more important than White House

Welcome to the Hamilton Corner here on American Family Radio. I am your host, Abraham Hamilton iii, broadcasting once again from the home of Rick Greene on the campus of the Patriot Academy right here in Constitution City, Texas. We've been having an amazing time while we are, we are here. I had the opportunity, didn't know I was going to have the opportunity, but to address, a group of Patriot Academy scholars this morning, which was absolutely thrilling. we had a, session really, where there was kind of an ask me anything kind of deal. And it was, it was quite, quite, quite fun. it was mutually, edifying. I left just as encouraged as I hope the children in the class. Not children, young adults in the class left. it was amazing and amazing time. At this very moment, many of you, if not most of you, are making your transition from your part time jobs where you generate an income, do your full time jobs where you cultivate an outcome. And as you do so, I want to remind you to make your moves with, with intentionality. I'm broadcasting here from Constitution City. We got the corner Contingent on deck, Mr. Bobby still, behind the board, at our home base. And we have our friendly neighborhood woodaholic, leaping tall stacks of birch SAP, maple, you name it, he gets down with it. None other than Mr. Marty Sparks. And we're ready to rock and roll with today's program. And this is why, and sorry, this is where I say on a daily basis, what goes on in your house is far more important than what goes on in the White House simply because it is a true statement. Not because what happens in the White House is unimportant, but simply because you and I are directly responsible for what we have direct access, authority and jurisdiction over. That's just the simple reality. And we have to get out of this mindset and paradigm to where we muse about all of the wonderings and the fixings and the fusses all over the world, only to the point and purpose to where we do nothing about what's happening right in our immediate vicinity. I've been Saying for the longest, and I will continue to say that we must, we m must live locally, take full advantage of the time, the grace and the space that God has given us to get active, get engaged. we're still talking about enrolling people for the get off the couch ministry. We can't just keep complaining about Zoram Hamdani. And we're not battening down the hatches right where we are. You know, we have, the unfortunate reality is that we have mosques going up in our country at record paces while at the exact same time, certainly this is true around the world, that churches are closing. Even in our own country you have you know, the younger generation skewing towards socialism and things. And I'm pretty sure in many of those national surveys, that the people, in fact not just sort of, George Barna, our friend said that right here on this program. That's often when you have younger people responding to those surveys. They've heard the term socialism but they don't really know what it means. But here's the question, why do we got, why do we have young folks answering something they don't even know what they're talking about? You know, there's been a great chasm that has been created in our country and that chasm is a discipleship chasm. And as you've heard me say numerous, numerous times, darkness is not an affirmative force but it will reoccupy the space that is vacated by the light. And in many ways, in many spades, in many locales, there's been a great vacancy. And that the ideologies of the world have taken, have, have replaced the empty space and taken up root. And so we have to be committed to doing the challenging work of meeting people and communicating with them and reasoning with them at a heart and mind level. Making disciples is very, very challenging. But frankly that's what God called us to. And it's not something that we are to pursue in our own strength, excuse me, in our own capacity, but that we have access to the grace of God to obey what he calls us to. He indwells his people by his spirit. He doesn't say, hey now, go and do this in your own stead, but that he sends us out and he commands us to execute his commission, within the ambit of his authority. It is not by our own authority, it is by his authority. So as you're making your transition from your part time job where you generate an income to your full time jobs where you cultivate an outcome, let's do so with intentionality. Let's do so with resolve. Let's do so with conviction. All right, to the word of God we go. Proverbs chapter four. And this, this is a conversation that needs to be had more often In Proverbs chapter 4, verses 5 through 7 is where we're going to begin the program today.

Proverbs chapter 4, verses 5 through 7 says get wisdom, get understanding

Proverbs chapter 4, verses 5 through 7. And this is what God's word says. Get wisdom, get understanding. Forget it not, neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee. Love her, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get understanding. You know, during our conversation with Rick Greene yesterday, he was talking about within the context of the second Amendment, that we don't need, you know, merely a good guy with a gun to repel a bad guy with a gun. We need a good guy with a gun who is trained to use that gun. If you have a good guy who may be a good guy, but that good guy is not trained with that gun, he could cause more problems, than then solutions. And the whole point of that conversation was to encourage people to be trained with the firearms in order to take full advantage the full breadth and scope of our second Amendment. Well, what I'm saying here is that we have a society by and large that is reeling from an endemic communicable disease that is not Shmov at 19. But it's ignorance. I alluded to it earlier. Young people saying, we want socialism. But when you start asking the questions you know about, from the many according to his ability to the many according to your needs, you start talking about the dictates of socialism, you start asking, about specific questions. And people, especially those who said they supported socialism, would say, no, I don't want that. So why would. Then why would you then attach yourself to a label that you don't really understand what it means? It's because ignorance is somewhat in vogue. There has been, a demonization of people who communicate, with objectivity one and secondarily with certainty to where the only celebration, is for those who are consistently uncertain, you know, that it is somehow more wise to have no answer to anything but just have questions like, that's just. That's a foolish assertion. You know, the scripture says there are things that we can know. I say this so that you might be able to know that you might know that you might have a certainty, that you might have a confidence, that you might have a conviction. You know that is available to us, but in order to be able to have that type of conviction and types of certainty that's available to us is that we have to, as the Scripture says, study to show ourselves approved. One of the things that was so impressive from Charlie Kirk was as he describes it, was an autodidact that he, he learned so much on his own. Not, not going to any university or collegiate, educational route, but having studied on the terms of economics, having studied some of the classics, knowing who FA Hayek is, knowing, you know, who Milton Friedman was knowing, you know, about, you know, Misys. Mises, I should pronounce his name properly Mises. Having read Sowell's writings, having read Walter Williams writings, having read these things in order to have an understanding. but some of his opponents, only one they know, if they knew any economists, they would know, John Maynard Keynes, like that's all you know about economics. Yeah, you do not have a robust understanding of economics, you know, and you start talking about other things and other ideologies and other views and other ideas that we have access, this is an information age. We have access to so much information while at the exact same time we have so many people who are ignorant and they'll refer to things like, you know, face based media, social, instaface, gram as the ultimate authority on everything. It's like, dude, just because you read somebody's post doesn't make you an expert on what it is you're talking about. This is the era that we live in, but the scripture shows us it does not have to be here. You have wisdom once again being personified, communicated, from a father's disposition and literally, literally saying get wisdom, get understanding. Forget it not. Why would you have that admonition about forget it not? Because the opportunity exists to abandon, to reject, to forget the wisdom that used to be established as foundational, understood norms we've become conveniently ignorant of in our modern times. How do we get to a place where it becomes societally acceptable for some people to say some, some of the most idiotic things like, oh, a child knows as early as 2 years old whether or not they've been born in the wrong body? What are you talking about? That is an absurd assertion that we have terminology that we just throw around like it's a transgenderism. What does that mean? Trans means change gender, which once again there was a time in our national communication that we didn't use the term gender to apply to people. That's why we use the term sex. That's why the Civil Rights act talks about the prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sex. It didn't say anything about gender because we didn't use the term gender to apply to human beings. But the term gender as applied to human beings, ah, started being utilized as a step toward dehumanizing sex, using the amorphous psychobabble term gender in order to move society ever so imperceptibly. Which is why now we talk about sex as if. Hey, yeah, we've always. I mean, you talk about gender as if. Oh, yeah, we always describe people in terms of gender. But if you actually do the. Do the research and do the math, you realize that's a relatively recent phenomenon. So we have these things that we have conversations about. And it becomes a controversial statement for me to say. And I say this with no malice to no malevolence in my heart, no ill intentions. But no matter how much a person struggles, there is no amount of medication, no amount of surgery, no amount of chemical ingestions that can transpire, no amount of hormone digestion that can occur that will ever change a man into a woman. It cannot happen. Never will it happen. This is not merely a sociological construct, as some, like to say. This is a biological reality that is true. And down to the cellular level, to the DNA level. That is how we're able to exhume skeletons. And without any visible organs, we can determine whether or not the skeleton is one that belonged to a man or it's one that belonged to a woman. These are things that used to be understood, but it flows to the scriptural admonition, get wisdom, get understanding, and forget it. Not. Ronald Reagan popularized the phrase that freedom is never more than. Than one generation away from extinction. Well, I want to say something that the contending for truth is never more than one generation away from extinction. And we often think about these being challenges that are. That are indicative solely of my modernity. But I will remind you. What did Jude's Epistle say? That in the first century, the half brother of Jesus Christ. Naturally, I, wanted to write to you guys about our common salvation, but I was unable to do so. Why? False brethren have crept in unawares, perverting or twisting the grace of God into lasciviousness. This was contending that had to occur dating back all the way to the first century. And so in many ways we have. In. In the 21st century in America, we have been inherited to such a great and robust, history that certain things that we used to have common understanding for we now have to contend for and on certain space, in certain ways, on certain places. We weren't ready to have the kinds of conversations that were necessary. Which is why when you have the advancement of Antichrist ideologies and you have genuine questions offered by young people, and the response is, oh, yeah, you just got to have faith. You just got to have faith. But Jesus said that we were to love him with our heart, our souls, our strength, but also our minds. Our minds have to be included in our commitment, in our love for the Lord. And then you have the, the attendant command. And I've explained this before, From Ephesians chapter 6, the first half of Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, written in the indicative mood in Greek, indicating who we are now that we're in Christ. Transcendent, glowing theology about being dead in trespasses and sins, quick and alive together in Christ Jesus. Well, the second half of that epistle is written in the imperative mood. In Greek, an imperative is a synonym for a command. And we have commands like Ephesians 6, 4 fathers, do not exasperate your children, rather rear them in the paideia and nuthesia of the Lord. The discipline and instruction of the Lord. Well, the word paideia means the whole training of the mind and the morals. This notion of bifurcating academic matriculation from spiritual development is an unbiblical idea.

Joseph Parker: The secularization of America happened via discipleship

But in many times, in many ways, we seeded that ground and even that authority to God. Haters entrusted the cultivation of the mind generationally to people who deny the truth of our Lord. To say it simply, the secularization of America happened not merely or not because of a passionate evangelistic fervor amongst atheism. No, it happened via discipleship. A combination of neglect, and affirmative pursuit have come together to move our nation in a way that's hostile to our Lord. But glory be to God that the story has not ended, that we can disciple our way out of where we are currently. A discipleship minute with Joseph Parker.

>> Joseph Parker: Psalm 1. Beginning at verse one, it tells us these words. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, but. Or stands in the way of sinners, or sits in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. The most powerful weapon in the universe is the word of God, which is also known as the sword of the Spirit. As a believer spends time reading and meditating on the word of God, he or she is fortifying their mind body and spirit against the attacks of of the kingdom of darkness. Time Reading and meditating on God's word prepares us to step out onto the battlefield of life, to walk in victory. We as believers are wise to make it a high priority to read and meditate on the word of God every single day of our lives.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Shining light into the darkness. This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.

I Voter Guide is the preeminent voter education and guidance resource

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner. Abraham Hamilton III here, and I'm delighted to have, in not my studio, in Rick Green's studio, the president of I Voter Guide. I'm speaking none other than Ms. M. Debbie Wuthnow. Thank you so much for joining me here, on the program. I've been looking forward to having this conversation.

>> Debbie Wuthow: As have I Just love all that you do. I love having your wife on my team at I Voter Guide. And getting to spend time with you is always a blessing.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Yes, I've mentioned that my wife does span translations that work for I Voter Guide. So it's been quite a blessing. So for those who may not be aware, I'll say it this way because you don't have to say it, make it sound like you're bragging, but I'll say it for you. I Voter Guide is the preeminent voter education and guidance resource in the country, bar none. If you have an election in your area, you must use the I Voter Guide tool. Otherwise you, you will be cutting yourself off of a portion of what I was just talking about or access for information that you will not only vote utilize to inform you as you vote, but that will empower you to vote wisely. Now, with me having set it up that way, how would you describe for the audience, Debbie, what I VoterGuide is and how it should be utilized?

>> Debbie Wuthow: Well, to vote wisely, you need to know who you're voting for and what they stand for. And that takes time to research. And God, really, I would say God created ivoterguide for the church to know that about the campus. God has woven together this [email protected] he's called this team together. In fact, the reason we're together is our whole team just gathered in person for some training, kind of getting ready for 2026. But, we average about four hours of research on every candidate that we cover. Now, we don't yet cover the whole ballot. We start at the top and we go as far down as we can. It's federal races in all 50 states, statewide races in 40 states, state legislative races in 33 states, some school boards, some Judges, some municipals, some ballot measures. So as you said, go to ivoterguide.com and I would say go there first to see what we do cover, because we'll save you the research. We'll give you the information of who they've given money to, how have they voted on legislation and been scored by different conservative and liberal groups, who's endorsed them, how have they answered our survey, and really what for the average voter, which I would place myself in that camp, I am learning more. But we have this army of volunteers who help us rate every candidate on a political spectrum. We show it on a gas gauge. So it's a real clear little way to see, you know, where does each candidate line up from verified liberal to verified conservative. And that's just kind of a summary, but yet you can still click in and see all the information for yourself. And we provide that to you for free through AFA and supporters of AFA, @ivoterguide.com and it's even easier to use because it's a personalized ballot for every address in America.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Now, one of the things I know about I Voter guide is that it's nonpartisan.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Yes.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: You evaluate all candidates. You don't tell anybody who to vote.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Correct.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Who to vote for, but you just provide the information, frankly, in a neutral, in an unbiased manner.

I want you to explain what type of information you provide for candidates

Now, when we say you provide the information and you refer to several pieces of information, I want to invite you to do two things again to the first, partly you've already done, which is to share what type of information do you provide for the candidates. And then I want you to explain why that information is important for, the, for the prospective voters to know about before they cast their ballots. Yeah.

>> Debbie Wuthow: So, really the lane we're in is researching candidates and we try to aggregate every piece of political intelligence we can find. I mean, if it's out there and it's publicly available, and sometimes it's not, we have to file Freedom of Information requests sometimes to get the information it's public. It just takes a little more work to get how many voters are going to do that. So we do that effort and get you that data. So we start with, actions. Right. Actions of what? And this is to the why of, candidates will say what they think you want to hear to, to vote for them. Right. They know that. So sometimes they don't. Aren't 100% completely honest.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Are you saying sometimes candidates lie? I.

>> Debbie Wuthow: That.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Excuse me, misrepresent their position in order to get a vote, potentially okay.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Which is why we look at actions. Right. The best predictor of what you're going to do is what you've done. So we look and we start with what they're called, scorecards or vote ratings. So if anybody's held a legislative office, it could be a state legislator, could be in Congress. There are groups on both the right and the left.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: City council.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Not so many groups that score city councils. But we have another. We can talk about local races differently but at the legislative level there, you know, there's second amendment groups, there's pro life groups, there's conservationist ah, groups, there's green new energy groups. And they have will look for particular votes that that legislative body would take on their issues and then they score the candidates. So we gather everyone we can find. So it is, you know, liberal data, conservative data, and, and just aggregate it into one place because it's all just research and nonpartisan. And so that's the first action.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Yeah. So you tabulate the voting records for those who have held previous legislative positions to show how they voted on previous issues.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Correct. So for example, you know, in Virginia we just had election. We did, you've probably talked about it maybe, but the Republican candidate for governor was previously lieutenant governor.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: That's right.

>> Debbie Wuthow: But not many people know she served in the state. Delegate. She was a delegate. We had her scorecards as ah, a delegate to the legislature.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: And for those who may not be aware, in Virginia, the House of Delegates is how they describe their House of Representatives at the state level. Some states refer to their state, their state house, similarly to Congress as a House of Representatives, but Virginia refers to theirs as a House of Delegates.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Thank you. You're correct. So but we've gathered all those scorecards. We've been doing this since 2012. So we've got scorecards going pretty far back. If somebody was in the legislature and then moves on, we, we pull all that in.

>> Debbie Wuthow: It's the best predictor. Second best predictor would be money. As we know the love of money, the root of all evil.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: And we know colloquially follow the, the money.

>> Debbie Wuthow: So we have downloaded the entire database from the Federal Election Commission, which is where all the federal candidates report to state. So we know not just who supports their campaign, but who they as individuals have supported when they've given to activist organizations.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: So that's an important piece of information. So the Federal Election Commission is the body that tabulates funding for various candidates at previous stages who've given to the candidates. As well as those who may be the candidates if they held office, who they might have been, who they've given to.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Correct.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: And you accumulate all of that data?

>> Debbie Wuthow: Yeah.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: So like, like you said, how many citizens, in their daily lives have direct access to see candidate hm, John Doe is running for office. I wonder who has given to candidate John Doe. And to have all of that information at the click of a button where you can run down a list to see who's all given to candidate John Doe. Have the Democratic Socialists of America given to John Doe. Have the American Communist Party, the Communist Party USA given to John Doe. I wonder if the Human Rights campaign has given the John Doe. I wonder. So on and so forth. So you accumulated that information. So at the click of a button voters can see this is how they've campaigned. But look who all of these people. Look all of the people who've given them money. Why would they give them money? If this is his public campaign position.

>> Debbie Wuthow: They'Re seeking to have influence over them. That is, sometimes it's a pay to play. They want to have access to that candidate. But what we do is even more than that. Not only do candidates report, but political organizations, Planned Parenthood, nra, other groups like that have to report who give them money. So we know who the candidate as an individual, maybe even before they ran, has given their money to. so that's also very indicative.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: And so what if you have a scenario where if a person campaigning on a certain platform, but the organizations who have given to the candidate indicate one thing, and then you see that the candidate themselves have given money to certain parties, certain organizations, or even certain candidates that seem to either confirm or contradict their public platform. That's information a voter will want to know, I'd imagine.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Oh, amen. Voters want to know. And that's why we have an army of volunteers who comb through all that data. It's not just computer tabulated to create those scores on that gas gauge, but we have individuals who are using their discernment to know, you know, really, and digging deeper into, you know, what's going on with all of this to come up with those evaluations.

Using questionnaire to assess candidates' worldview can help predict how they'll vote on legislation

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Was there another piece of data you.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Wanted to point out? There were the two evaluations. There was the endorsements, which are like a job reference. These are, the people who have vetted these candidates say this is the best one in the race. Then there's the questionnaire.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: What is the questionnaire?

>> Debbie Wuthow: The questionnaire is we have about 35 questions we ask every candidate on a broad spectrum of topics we're really trying to get at, not just their political positions, but if we can get at their worldview and what drives and motivates them, then that can help us to predict how they're gonna vote on legislation. That's maybe not even an issue we know about. Who would have thought about mask mandates or vaccine mandates before COVID but if we knew that they, had biblical worldview, that we could predict how they might act in that instance.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: So with all of that information, I mean, I can let me just. In full disclosure, I use I voter guide myself before any election that I. The first stop, my first stop is I voter guide. I wanna put in my, a zip code. I want to have. I want to get my advance ballot so I can know one what are all the races that are up for election at this particular time? Who are all the candidates? And then at the click of a button, I can run down all of that information you just described, which moves me away from merely being a willing constitutionalist, a patriotic American, to being an informed patriotic American. And then I apply my own biblical worldview to all of the data that you and your team have accumulated in order to do so.

How many people are employed by ivoterguide and how many volunteers do you use

And now I refer to you and your team. How many people are employed by ivoterguide and how many volunteers do you use in order to do this critical research? An average of four hours per candidate.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Yeah. We have about 70 total staff members. We have about six or eight on our technical team that enable the website and create all the capabilities. We have a communication team, about five or six, and then the rest are researchers. That is really what we do. We've got somebody who manages the whole team. We have one individual responsible for each state and entering the candidates into each election, sending them the questionnaire. Make sure they answer the questionnaire. We have, so 72 staff, 70ish staff. And then the ratings are by panelists, volunteers. And we last cycle had 850 volunteer panelists. Those are really critical. And I believe any conservative that's out there should apply. We do vet you in the same way that we vet candidates. You have to apply and answer our survey. We call your references, but then we'll train you what to look for. We have found panelists not only help us in rating the candidates, but they find that they become a more informed voter because they know what to look for when they're looking at candidates we haven't covered. So for their city council, their school board, or, you know, races that we don't have the bandwidth yet to cover, Our goal is to go back to that level. We started it just in Texas. Full ballot. We'd love to do that nationwide. Not there yet, but, yeah, you learn. What do I look for? What are the little hints I look for, even when I look at their website or their social media? Because we've pulled together the links on ivoterguide for the candidates we cover, but we don't cover them all. So you can Google them yourself or whatever your favorite search engine is and find that information, know what to look for.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Mm,

You're already gearing up for 2026, working on the questionnaire

And the previous question was asked because I know you have an army of volunteers basically, and I think in 2024, or was it 2024, that you covered what, 15,000 races? Yes, yes, 15,000 races.

>> Debbie Wuthow: No, candidates.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: I'm sorry, Candidates. I'm sorry. Thank you for that correction. 15,000 candidates. Having this amount of information, this type of data available concerning 15,000 candidates. And I know because I'm here at the training that you're already gearing up for 2026, working on the questionnaire and things of that nature. Would you want to speak about that?

>> Debbie Wuthow: I would. So the first candidate filing deadline for 2026 is, the midterm elections and has already passed. There are two states that the deadline's already in. We know the candidates are going to be in Illinois and it could be Arkansas. So we're moving right, we're getting ready. So we go through a process of updating the questions we ask. Issues change. Some issues aren't as relevant and some come on the screen. We've added questions about, IVF and the chemical abortion pill. We've added a question about China and what's going on there. So we are updating the questionnaire. We're hiring new staff, training new staff to get ready for all those states, all those 15,000 candidates as we get ready for 2026. So we are hitting our big crunch. the first two elections are March 3rd M. Wow. Primaries.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Wow.

Voter Guide advocates for civic participation, but being an informed voter voter

So I started off the program talking about the necessity of getting wisdom and getting understanding. And I know one of the major things that I Voter Guide advocates for is not merely civic participation, but being an informed voter, a wise voter voter. what are some of the things that you are seeing? And I asked this twofold that got you to first want to be involved with. I voted initially, but then now on the other side of it, having been involved since what, 2000.

>> Debbie Wuthow: I joined the company in 2011.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: 2011.

>> Debbie Wuthow: God's idea that brought me here.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: But okay, 2011 to now where we are. What are the things that you're seeing that kind of reveals a chasm between a willingness to vote and doing so with information and voting wisely?

>> Debbie Wuthow: Well, you know, it's interesting, especially in part of that comes from participation in elections.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Right?

>> Debbie Wuthow: People don't vote because they don't know who to vote for sometimes, or they just don't understand the importance of it. So, that is part of why we really, participate in some of those local elections and those special elections is to encourage that because, you know, we see that ballots that get. Have an undervote that happens in, 40% of ballots. To me, that indicates the lack of information on who they're going to vote.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: For, what is an undervote.

>> Debbie Wuthow: So I'm sure I've done this. You go in to vote and you know who to vote for for governor, and you fill in your box and attorney general or. But you get to state rep, and I don't, especially in a primary, I don't know who these people are or judges or school boards. And so you leave it blank. You skip it.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: So you'll have a ballot where you have several races where someone votes.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Right.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: And then you have the down ballot offices that go without a vote being cast in either direction.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Right.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Sometimes the reason is because someone doesn't have enough information.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Well, you would what? I can't think of another good reason why they would not vote. We, they've gotten to the polls, they know there's an election. They've gone to vote for president or for governor, but then they leave it blank. And the only reason I can think of is sometimes we're like, I don't want to vote for the wrong person, so I'm just going to leave it blank. And to me, that's where the I, voter guide need comes in, is to give them that information. And in a nonpartisan race like a city council or school board, it will be more than half of the ballots that will leave that blank.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: That is a startling fact, because I have been advocating for a long time on this show for people to live locally. There's lots of attention. There's lots of attention that's been placed on, presidential elections, even maybe U.S. senate elections, congressional elections, gubernatorial elections. But the reality is usually, who becomes senators, governors, presidents. In many instances, they often start as local city council members, they often start as aldermen, they often start as precinct commissioners, and they later on become something else. And so that process often begins with a very, very small amount of voters with a very, very small margin that has led them to the office. The disrespectful music has started. So when we come back from the break, I want you to kind of revisit the point you just made concerning that undervote phenomenon and then to talk a bit about, the margins in many of these local elections.

Hamilton Corner features voter guide President Debbie on how to vote accurately

Okay. Because some may not know. They might think, oh, my vote doesn't really matter. But when you really dig into this and you see just how impactful you can be right in your own neighborhoods, I expect you to have a different perspective if you didn't have that perspective before. You are watching and or listening to the Hamilton Corner. My guest is I voter guide President Debbie. What now? We are having an amazing time here in Constitution City, Texas. where, as you've heard, I vote a guide is gearing up for the 2026 cycle where we want an army first and foremost of people who are born again as well as being born again, to be armed with the information necessary to be able to cast wise and informed votes when the time comes. Stay with us.

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American Family Radio host David Wheaton discusses today's featured news stories

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Today's issues.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Blaming a gun for a violent crime.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Or a murder is like blaming the.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Pencil for a misspelled word. Oh, I like that. That would be like a stupid who does terrible on spelling and he says we've had a rash of pencil oriented mistakes misspell words.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Today's issues weekday mornings at 11 Eastern, 10 Central on American Family Radio.

>> Joseph Parker: Will America resist an Islamic future? This is David Wheaton, host of the Christian Worldview. America's largest and most well known city just elected a Muslim to be its mayor. NewSong York City Mayor elect Zoran Mamdani is a self identifying member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Mamdani is the personification of the Red Greene alliance, the intersectional partnership of communists and Islamists with the goal of toppling America and Christianity. While individual Muslims are the mission field for Christians, Islam is a false religion of Satan that deceives billions. Jesus Christ is the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through him. Hear our most recent program on this topic@thechristianworldview uh.org and then tune in this weekend for another topic that will sharpen your worldview.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Listen to the Christian Worldview with David Wheaton Saturday mornings at 8 Central on American Family Radio.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: the Hamilton quarter podcast and one minute commentary are available at afr.net back to the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.

Abraham Hamilton III talks with I Voter Guide President Debbie West about local elections

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner, Abraham Hamilton III here with I Voter Guide President Debbie West. Now we are talking about being wise and astute citizens, taking full advantage of the resources that are available to us so that we would not just be engaged, but we're engaged with the information to allow us to do so with wisdom. And before we went to the break, Debbie, you were describing for us what an undervote is. And we got to the point, of the conversation to show, or to the point of the conversation where we were talking about the impact that we can have locally m and frankly, why it's so important not to allow undervotes to persistently happen. One we have the information to prevent that. But why also are these local, races, local, candidates so vitally important?

>> Debbie Wuthow: Well, I think, I'm sure you've talked about this, that the local officials in your city council or on your school board, they impact you much more directly than Washington or even your state capitol. They're setting your tax rates, they're setting your sidewalk rules, they're setting the curriculum at the public school that either your kids attend or their peer group will attend. So it's really, it impacts you much more directly. And participation is typically much lower if we look at typical voter turnout rates in those types of elections. So sometimes they happen in, in November when normal elections happen. So just to step through a few basic statistics, in, 2026 is considered a mid year, a midterm election. Average turnout, if it follows historical norms, will be about 40% of registered voters. That's a registered vote, but 40% that's in November in the primaries that are going to start in the spring, which is honestly 80 to 90% of legislators are chosen in the primary because the districts are drawn to favor one party over the other. So if you really want to have a great choice, you got to vote in the primary. And typical average turnout is only 20% of registered voters.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: And to illustrate that point, if you have a district that's joining a certain way that one party's candidate will win the ultimate general election, then the race is the primary.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Amen. Yes.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: So it doesn't really. The general is not the time or the place for that office to be filled, it actually is determined by the primary election. But turnout for the primary elections are usually about what, 20%. 20%.

>> Debbie Wuthow: registered voters.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Of registered voters. Not eligible voters.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Correct.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Registered voters.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Correct.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: So only 20% of registered voters for the majority of state legislators, they are elected by 20.

>> Debbie Wuthow: And Congress.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: And Congress, yeah. Yeah.

>> Debbie Wuthow: And you know, so 10% are choosing the winner. Right? 10% if it's 50%. Right.

>> Debbie Wuthow: But what's even worse is those local elections when they happen at different times and every state's different, every locality is different. But when it's just a city or school board election or a special election, typical turnout is 6% of registered voters.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: So when you have turnout at 6%, 20%. As we were just referring. Yeah, as you were just describing. What is often the margin of victory in those races?

>> Debbie Wuthow: Well, it, it can, it's, it's, it's one, it can be dozens. And so we started covering school. Dozens of votes of votes, individual votes. There's, there are all kinds of instances of, you know, there's one guy who, who didn't even go vote himself and he, he lost because nobody voted and he could have won. But we covered school board races in 2024. 4.

>> Debbie Wuthow: And about 300 races. And in a third of those races the winning margin was less than 400 votes. There are churches that could.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: One church in some places could have changed the entire result of those elections.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Yes. And the average on all those races was just 900 votes. So, so achievable if we the people, if the church would get informed and get engaged and, and be the light. Honestly, we can impact those elections.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: And I'm so glad you shared those statistics because so often, and I encounter people this way. I'm sure you do as well. Well, Abe, does my vote really count? Does it really make a difference if I participate? And the answer is yes. And here's how like to have an election at a local level to where it's determined, as you mentioned, by dozens of votes, dozens of votes led to the difference in the outcome. In the sense instance that is vitally important. But again, it takes engagement. But informed engagement usually will carry the day.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Yep. To know who to vote for. And to me it becomes a stewardship issue of, you know, duty is ours, you got to do your part. I always say at church, don't complain about it if you're not part of going to be part of the solution. Part of the solution here is to participate, to be informed, to do your research, start At I voter guide, know who you're voting for, know why, be informed about the issues. I mean listen to afr, read some articles, there's all kinds of sources to keep you educated on the issues and then you know, know what you're voting for. Know who you're voting for before you cast that ballot.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Well, well said.

Stiller talks about having vision for faithful service at every life stage

Now I, I often talk about on this show, your full time job versus your part time job and, and, and various life stages. We've actually been talking in that when our men's group at our, at our local church about the necessity of having a vision for a faithful service to the Lord at every life stage. You know and so in the body of Christ is one of the things we say to our church that you never find in Scripture, a biblical sanction for retirement that in the body of Christ we don't retire, we refire.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Amen.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: You know, if we, we have a magazine that's empty, we don't say oh my gun's no longer working. We, we drop the empty mag and we reload. I learned that this week and, and even if the Lord retrains us on a new or slightly different target, that we still remain engaged. And, and a part of your testimony to where now you weren't always president of ivoterguide, you're president now. but would you just share a little bit about how you got started initially with I voter guide and the life stage you were in at that time that helped to the Lord really set the stage to allow you to say hey, here's a target that I want you to take aim at. Yeah.

>> Debbie Wuthow: So I'll lay a little bit of foundation. So by training I'm an engineer. I have a master's in computer science. I had worked for Bell Laboratories for five years. But I knew I needed, I wanted to raise my own kids. I needed to stay home and raise my kids. So as soon as I had my first child I quit and I was a stay at home mom. Got involved in my church. I would run vacation Bible school, I would teach in Awanas. I was, I really discipled myself and my children through community Bible study. There's also that involved parent in the kids activities and all that stuff. I'm not a sitter Stiller, I'm a getter doner. So I knew through my discipleship God's plan planned in advance all the days ordained for me.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Amen.

>> Debbie Wuthow: And I'm looking at this empty nest going, I focused a lot on my children. What God do you have planned for me.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: So you advance through, pouring into your children and all of those things that you just described. But now your children now grown and as you said, you were looking at an empty nest.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Yeah, my daughter started college. That first of three was starting college. And so I'm not quite empty nest, but I can see it on the horizon. So I just started praying, God, I don't know what I can do, but a 20 year old computer science degree was a little out of date. You know, you don't tell God you can't do something because you know what's going to happen. Right? So I'm sure you can't use that God, but I have too many hobbies that I thought you got to just show me what you want me to do, God, because I have no idea even what to look for. So this is January of 2011. I went to my community Bible study teaching director because I'd been on the servants team and I said, would you be a job reference for me? I'm going to look in the fall. She comes back a week later and said, my husband programs this online voter guide and he's been complaining at the dinner table that he needs some help with the website stuff. She said, I asked him if I knew somebody with an aptitude, could you train them? He said, oh yeah. So she said, are you interested? M. Well that beamed like an open door, open window that I had been praying for. So I said yes. You know, I. My other discipleship is when you ask God to tell you what to do and he shows you, your answer's yes, I'm willing. So here I am, Lord, use me. I said yes. He interviewed me on the phone. Must have liked what he said because he said, send me a resume. I didn't have a resume, wasn't even ready. But so they brought me on board and I just sat at my kitchen table and he showed me how to do some website stuff. And I thought I saw it as God's calling. I saw it as God's provision to, plan my steps, but. But also to make me understand politics and to pay for college. Honestly, that was an element of it. So I just completely saw it as a calling. Three years later they named me Pay.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: For your children's college.

>> Debbie Wuthow: My children's college, yeah, I'd already done that, but so, three years later they named me director of operations, which to me was in my comfort zone. It was like being the mom, just m making sure everything gets done the way it's supposed to get done. And two Years later, when they called me and said, the board's named you executive director, I had a God moment where I said, God, this is not. Not.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: I didn't sign up for this.

>> Debbie Wuthow: I didn't sign up for this. What am I doing? And it wasn't a will you. It was a. They have in the statement. So I am like, okay, God, he says. And he spoke to me, not audibly, but, you know, I called you to this. I know. He said, you do know that I will equip those I call. I know. And he said, debbie, you represent the target audience of I Voter Guide. It's the Christian mom who's taking care of their family, but trying to be a good steward of everything that God's blessed them with. And they need to vote, but they don't know who to vote for. They need this research. So God has called a great team to I Voter Guide that created it, that created that make it happen every year now. But it's needed by people who don't know how to do that research. So that's who I represent. So while it was created by Richard Ford and Jim Snaringer, who really. That's a whole other story. He used me and wove me in to really help grow it. So they kind of created it, but it has grown, you know, used by millions of voters every election cycle. And Richard couldn't get out and present. I've gone out and created, you know, speak and do interviews and tell, people about what we do as kind of its ambassador, I'm on God's conveyor belt, just trying to keep my feet underneath me, man.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: I wanted you to share that testimony for several reasons. One, to certainly amplify and underscore the reality. it is, and I don't mean that as a moment of flattery, but having used the tool for years, it is the foremost voter education resource in the country. It, it truly, truly is.

One of the things we've talked about on this show is grandparents having vision

but also we, have people in all life stages in this audience. We have parents, we have grandmoms. One of the things we've talked about on this show is grandparents having a vision, for their life stage that we. You might be. You might be Graham, Graham or, you know, Gammy or whatever you want to do. Pop, pop, pop, pop. but that doesn't mean God is through with you, you know, and so if you are still inhaling and exhaling his oxygen, God has purpose for you in his kingdom. And so having your testimony that you're at a stage where an empty nest is on the Horizon. And you simply go before the Lord and say, lord, what would you have of me at this stage? And he says, oh, you're willing? Well, here you go. And so I'm sharing that, really, and I invited you to share it. but really as an encouragement for those in our audience right now, in this audience who are listening and watching this show, that you may be in a similar stage. Are you approaching an empty nest? You know, are you, a grandparent? Are you a great grandparent? Well, what is God calling you to at this stage in your life? What is God drawing you toward in this life stage? And one of the things that's a passion of my heart really, is why I call them our seasoned saints to understand that we need your seasoning. You know, we need to be salt and light and season. Saints have a lot of opportunity for seasoning.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Cajun seasoning be nice.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: That's right. Some, some Cajun seasoning, some blackened seasoning, some, you know, we need it all. And we are at a moment in our nation's history, that we need all hands on deck. And so it is so encouraging for me, and I pray that it's likewise encouraging for the audience here to recognize. Ooh, I haven't necessarily gone before the Lord for this particular life stage to be encouraged to do so. Now we have about maybe four minutes, four and about three and a half minutes left. what are, what are some of the things that you are looking forward to as 20, 26 rolls rolls around? And then secondarily the role that the informed, wise voter can play and doing as, Benjamin Franklin said, keeping our republic as we approach our 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Well, I'm looking forward to, really letting more people find ivoterguide. We have been doing some work to help more people discover it. It's really been a word of mouth tool as you people hear about on the radio. They tell their friends and their family. What I love about ivoterguide is it's nationwide, it's one website, as you said, and it's, it's personalized ballots in all 50 states so you can send it to your family across the nation. I'm looking forward to really growing our, educational content that we have through emails. we just did our first campaign training school to, encourage people listening, you know, everyday Christians, God may be calling you to run for office.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Let's drill down on those two for a moment. So your educational insights, what are those?

>> Debbie Wuthow: So we write an email once a week. And, it is on topics of like, what does the Bible say about immigration? How do you ask good questions of candidates? How do you even have sex? Civil discourse with people who don't agree with you. So it's in a way a political and spiritual discipleship that we are, seeking to do because civics education is kind of lacking. So, you know, how does government work? How should you reach out and participate in government? And it's just a once a week email. So I would encourage people, if you want to receive that, go to ivoterguide.com and you might get a pop up that says get our emails. You might go down to the footer or whatever. I've heard had people tell me that this is one of the best weekly emails that organizations, very educational, designed to inform you, but also give you something to share and forward to somebody else. They all become articles on our website, so you can go to our articles and insights. So we want more informed people, not just at ballot time.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Yeah. Not just ballot education, but even civic and spiritual formation education.

>> Debbie Wuthow: Yes.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Yeah.

>> Debbie Wuthow: So that's really my heart is that discipleship aspect that's been on our heart through 2025 as we get ready for 2026. And my other heart is to expand on what we can do more down ballot, because that's the need and so that it comes with financial support, because that's what it hinges upon is the bandwidth to do that and working with grassroots organizations that are also on fire and recruiting good candidates to run. so we want to partner with those people in those organizations. Somebody asked me, me early on, you know, I'm not a business major. They're like, what's the business model of my voter guy? And I was like, body of Christ.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: It certainly is. And look, the music is on. We're about to wrap it up. But you also mentioned identifying good candidates and helping them learn how they can run for office and providing information and resources in that regard as well. That's available at Iot.

>> Debbie Wuthow: God, is calling you. We have some tools. We can direct you to other tools. So say yes and then reach out and we'll help you.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Amen. If God is calling you, we have tools and we can direct you to other tools. If God is calling you, say yes. Debbie, thank you so much for joining us here today, folks. Thank you for tuning in to the Hamilton Corner. You all have a wonderful, wonderful week.

>> Debbie Wuthow: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.