Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome,
Speaker 1: and he is time now for our community connection right
Speaker 1: here on K one, the one you trust and in
Speaker 1: the studio with this here. We caught him coming and
Speaker 1: going because he's been all over the place, traveling far
Speaker 1: and wide, because congressional district too is just huge. It's
Speaker 1: Brandon Wade and he's a Democrat running for CD two.
Speaker 2: And first of all, welcome, thank you, nice to be here.
Speaker 1: Well, it's great to.
Speaker 2: Have you here.
Speaker 1: This has been a lot of real estate to cover,
Speaker 1: hasn't it been for your campaign?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Absolutely, it's the large district. Like I said, it's from
Speaker 3: the Kansas line to the Red River, so it's a
Speaker 3: lot of a lot of ground cover. I go from
Speaker 3: one Das and Copan ended up going all the way
Speaker 3: down and broken Bow and then back.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, wow that like I said, it is
Speaker 1: a lot. But you're talking to a lot of people.
Speaker 1: What are you hearing from potential voters? What are they
Speaker 1: what do they want to have done as a person
Speaker 1: who would be representing them in Congress.
Speaker 2: You're hearing a lot of the main issues you keep hearing.
Speaker 3: You know that you know the economy, the cost of
Speaker 3: pricing for everything, housing, uh, public schools, that's a big,
Speaker 3: big topic. Women's rights of course is another one that's
Speaker 3: out there, and just you know, the dysfunctional of the
Speaker 3: going and getting back to working with one another and
Speaker 3: not not fighting back and forth actually governing.
Speaker 1: That's that's kind of where you differentiate from a lot
Speaker 1: of people who are either in office are running for office.
Speaker 1: And I think being into a union negotiator probably helps
Speaker 1: shape your attitude on that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it definitely is made me who I am. It's
Speaker 3: you know, I tell everybody I'm a representative. I'm not
Speaker 3: really a politician. And that's you know, I've learned through
Speaker 3: the years of doing that how to represent people. You
Speaker 3: got to be able to listen to people first and
Speaker 3: forema so you understand what they need, want and then
Speaker 3: go work for the best deal you can from the
Speaker 3: majority of the people you're representing. And that's that's what
Speaker 3: I'm taking the CD two and trying to get back
Speaker 3: to Congress where we actually sat down and we agree
Speaker 3: that you know, we can disagree on what we can't
Speaker 3: come to and then come to an agreement on other
Speaker 3: things that work the best.
Speaker 1: Take a little bit from both how's your message resonating
Speaker 1: with people?
Speaker 2: I think it's doing fairly well. I mean it seems
Speaker 2: to be.
Speaker 3: Something that people want like and hear as somebody is
Speaker 3: willing to work with either side regardless of party affiliation.
Speaker 3: I think a lot of a lot of even traditional
Speaker 3: Republicans like to hear that. I think it's something that
Speaker 3: they want to get back to as well, where we
Speaker 3: govern with one another.
Speaker 1: Now, how are the traditional Democrats taking that message?
Speaker 2: They seem to be on board.
Speaker 3: I mean from what I'm hearing where I'm at, they
Speaker 3: seem to like the message. So hopefully I hope they
Speaker 3: are on board, because that's what we got to get
Speaker 3: back to. We need a balance. We really need to be,
Speaker 3: you know, fifty to fifty or close to it if
Speaker 3: we can.
Speaker 2: On representation, I mean, it takes both sides to make
Speaker 2: good quality bills that work for everybody.
Speaker 1: Now, you ran for US senator a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: that was an experience. You almost find yourself in the
Speaker 1: runoff there. Yeah, it was, you're like three votes, It
Speaker 1: definitely was.
Speaker 3: I just jumped into that and didn't know what I
Speaker 3: was doing, and that kind of helped get me ready
Speaker 3: for what I'm doing now, and it's definitely a little
Speaker 3: more prepared understand the steps involved in what you got
Speaker 3: to do.
Speaker 2: So it's definitely helped out.
Speaker 1: Very good, very good. Now you work in the oil business.
Speaker 1: But there are a lot of people who may may
Speaker 1: kind of shake their head a little bit too. Well,
Speaker 1: wait a second, many people who identify as Democrat have
Speaker 1: somewhat of an issue with fossil fuel. But I don't
Speaker 1: think that one size fits all.
Speaker 3: No, And it's you know, oil and gas in Oklahoma
Speaker 3: is a big thing. I mean it's always been. I'm
Speaker 3: in here more than forty eight eight years now to
Speaker 3: check and it's yeah, do to math real quick. But
Speaker 3: it's it's always been a part of my life and
Speaker 3: it's part of Oklahoma and it's not going away anytime soon.
Speaker 3: But we do got to move towards you know, more
Speaker 3: cleaner fuel or cleaner ways of producing it and knowing
Speaker 3: about it. And most of our big businesses and corporations
Speaker 3: in the oil and gas industry are working into that
Speaker 3: direction to try to figure out a better way to
Speaker 3: be cleaner. And so we gotta keep working that way
Speaker 3: while we keep working on better solutions to have cleaner
Speaker 3: energy out there. But you know, until we can get
Speaker 3: to that point, you know, we got to do the
Speaker 3: best that we can with what.
Speaker 2: We have and just continue to work to get better.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: It's it's something that we do got to address. But
Speaker 3: you know, wool and gas is not going away anytime soon.
Speaker 3: It's it's we're too relying on it and there's not
Speaker 3: enough other stuff yet to do. So you know, we've
Speaker 3: got to work together in that process. Unders understood.
Speaker 1: So you've got a big swath of Oklahoma. Tulsa isn't yet,
Speaker 1: but you've got to. I guess Bartles was really the
Speaker 1: the largest city, one of the largest ones that Muskogi
Speaker 1: would probably be in there too that you're in, but it's.
Speaker 2: A lot of rural.
Speaker 1: Yeah, ranchers have and people who live in the rural
Speaker 1: might have a little bit of a different expectation than
Speaker 1: folks who live with you know, kind of all bunch
Speaker 1: stuff in the city as to maybe what they want
Speaker 1: out of Washington, d C.
Speaker 4: Are you finding that, Yeah, you hear different subjects with
Speaker 4: you know, where you're at, on where you're at and
Speaker 4: who you're talking to, what people want, and it's again
Speaker 4: taking those things and kind of mixing them together where
Speaker 4: you can help both sides out.
Speaker 3: I'm a rural, rural kid, you know, growing up north
Speaker 3: up there in Copane out on ten acres, So you know,
Speaker 3: I understand the farmers and the ranchers, the cattlemen, you know,
Speaker 3: the people to produce our soybeans.
Speaker 2: And all that stuff.
Speaker 3: So you know those needs are needed and got to
Speaker 3: be took care of as well.
Speaker 1: Now I'm going to give you the stump right here.
Speaker 1: I want you to tell everybody why Brandon Way should
Speaker 1: get your boat.
Speaker 2: All right, thank you.
Speaker 3: I what I feel is just what I've said before.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm not a faulties. I'm a representative. I
Speaker 3: really understand how to represent people. I feel that we're
Speaker 3: sorely missing that in our Congress right now. We're not
Speaker 3: able to work with one another, and we need to
Speaker 3: remove the people that don't want to work with one
Speaker 3: or the other, be based on party affiliation, and get
Speaker 3: back to working with the people and representing the people
Speaker 3: that you're there to represent. I've done that for over
Speaker 3: seventeen years with our local union here, and you know,
Speaker 3: I feel like some may say I've not done so well.
Speaker 3: Some may say have done a great job, But that's
Speaker 3: part of it. You never make everybody happy, but it's
Speaker 3: I feel like I've done a good job for the
Speaker 3: majority of the body. And that's what I would do
Speaker 3: with Oklahoma CD two. I'd represent them as a majority
Speaker 3: and do the best I can to help bring Republican
Speaker 3: and Democratic views together to make something better for everybody.
Speaker 3: So I just feel like I'm a better person at
Speaker 3: solving solutions to problems, you know, working with one another,
Speaker 3: reaching across would be across the aisle and then having
Speaker 3: a conversation that need to be had to create bials.
Speaker 2: That's going to work for everybody.
Speaker 1: Now, if folks are interested in hearing more about what
Speaker 1: you've got to or perhaps maybe they want to, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe assist you here in the last few days coming
Speaker 1: up to the election. Do you have a Facebook, patro
Speaker 1: website or maybe both?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I got both. I've got a website. Uh that's
Speaker 3: Brandon for Congress dot com.
Speaker 2: You can get on there.
Speaker 3: There's a links where you can reach me by email.
Speaker 3: I think it has even got the phone number of
Speaker 3: cell number in there you can call. Also got Facebook,
Speaker 3: I'm on all the social media stuff. You can look
Speaker 3: me up and find me in there, that's a waited
Speaker 3: for Oka CD two.
Speaker 2: I think on.
Speaker 3: Facebook, I think I got my personal I think it's
Speaker 3: one of my personal accounts. I don't remember, you know,
Speaker 3: did you change over so many times trying to get
Speaker 3: the But yeah, you go to those places, reach out
Speaker 3: and uh, there's things we can do. You still trying
Speaker 3: to knock doors when I'm back in this area, or
Speaker 3: if I'm going to be in an area that you're
Speaker 3: from in the listening area, if I happen to be
Speaker 3: in one of your areas and we're knocking doors or
Speaker 3: doing an event and somebody reaches out to me, Hey,
Speaker 3: if you want knock the doors, I'm always willing to
Speaker 3: go hit on some doors and talk to the people
Speaker 3: because that's where it's at. You got to be able
Speaker 3: to have a conversation with the voters out there and
Speaker 3: let them know that where you are and what you
Speaker 3: stand for, and answer the questions they need to have answered,
Speaker 3: you know, because everybody's got issues, and some have different
Speaker 3: issues than others that are more important to them than
Speaker 3: the last place you might have been. So you definitely
Speaker 3: got to hear what everybody has.
Speaker 1: That needs to be took care of, you know, when
Speaker 1: you're talking about your contact points, you even had your
Speaker 1: phone number on there. It wasn't until and I've lived
Speaker 1: I'm an old guy. I've lived in a lot of places.
Speaker 1: But until I moved to Oklahoma, did I ever hear
Speaker 1: anybody who was in representative government, whether it be city hall, county, state,
Speaker 1: or even running for a federal office, say yeah, just
Speaker 1: call me on my phone. Usually you have six layers
Speaker 1: of people to go through, but here in Oklahoma, they
Speaker 1: want to hear. They want to hear directly from the people.
Speaker 1: I think that's just kind of cool and refreshing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's important.
Speaker 3: I mean, if you've got a question, you need to
Speaker 3: get with somebody that and once I get elected, hopes
Speaker 3: that I'm getting elected. Once I get elected, you know
Speaker 3: my staff is going to be told the same thing. Yeah,
Speaker 3: when the people call, they need to you need to
Speaker 3: listen to them, and I need to know what they're
Speaker 3: asking about. I want to take care of that solution,
Speaker 3: and I'll have to rely on my staff to also
Speaker 3: help get that took care of.
Speaker 2: We need to address those situations.
Speaker 1: You say, you grew up in Copan and you're working
Speaker 1: here in Bartlesville and you've seen about every square inch
Speaker 1: of c D two. Oklahoma is a beautiful place.
Speaker 2: As it is that eastern Oklahoma definitely, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: And when you were talking about the economy, what are
Speaker 1: people really kind of honed in on as far as
Speaker 1: the economy? Is it the food prices? Is it the
Speaker 1: rent or what is it? It's really kind of a
Speaker 1: bug what I hear.
Speaker 3: It's it's a combination of both the food prices are
Speaker 3: too high, utilities, and then housing, you know, the rising
Speaker 3: costs of housing with the inflation being up and stuff
Speaker 3: like that. It's starting to them down some, which will
Speaker 3: help some of that. But you know, people are walking
Speaker 3: into those mortgage rates that fluctuate.
Speaker 2: When that goes up, so does your insurance prices, you know,
Speaker 2: so it's hitting you on both sides. You know, your
Speaker 2: your your mortgage rate goes up some and then.
Speaker 3: Your in your insurance goes up as well. So it's
Speaker 3: a combination of all of it. And we've got to
Speaker 3: sit down and we got to come to.
Speaker 2: A solution that works.
Speaker 3: And you know, if it's seriously price gouging that's going on,
Speaker 3: then we need to look at, you know, capping some
Speaker 3: of these costs and getting back where the American people
Speaker 3: can get by.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I think you kind of hit it
Speaker 1: on the head. I think that is like the big
Speaker 1: thing that folks are worried about. It. It always comes
Speaker 1: down to the pocketbook. You know, you've got kids, I've
Speaker 1: got kids. Heck, our kids even went the school together.
Speaker 1: And we know what that that dinner table thing can be.
Speaker 1: You got walk coming up, okay, and then you got
Speaker 1: to kind of get the budget going and seeing where
Speaker 1: you can make things happen so that everybody can be
Speaker 1: taken care of properly and what have you. So this
Speaker 1: is these are real conversations that are happening at everybody's
Speaker 1: tables these days.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, it's you know, everybody's got to got so much
Speaker 3: money to work with in the household and they got
Speaker 3: to make ends meet the way they can sure, and
Speaker 3: so that's you know, we got to do what we
Speaker 3: can the best way of that. Our government the same
Speaker 3: way when we talk about balancing a budget, I mean
Speaker 3: we need to get back where we balance a budget
Speaker 3: and we look at our expenses of what we're spending
Speaker 3: and got our wasteful spending, you know, and get back
Speaker 3: to being financially responsible.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's that's something that I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people want to hear, you know, is that, Okay, I
Speaker 1: gotta I gotta fix my check booky come on, uncle
Speaker 1: Sam Victures show me the way.
Speaker 2: So this is great.
Speaker 1: And again you can be reached through social media and
Speaker 1: if you go to the Facebook page or the website,
Speaker 1: it's got the phone number. There, got an email. And
Speaker 1: I understand from a lot of folks that you're very responsive.
Speaker 1: Within the day, you'll get back to them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I tried to. I mean, it's my days are long.
Speaker 3: They four in the morning and sometimes don't endntil eleven
Speaker 3: or twelve a night, So you know, I run on
Speaker 3: four hours sleep a lot of times. But I'm still
Speaker 3: working through this process as well. I mean, I can't
Speaker 3: afford not to work and not to have insurance and benefits.
Speaker 3: So when I say I'm a worker, man I am
Speaker 3: I'm lunch.
Speaker 1: Hour here with us today, Folks that right now, I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not lying, am I?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: No, I'm excited. I left from work to come here
Speaker 3: to do this. I'll be right back to work here
Speaker 3: a little bit and then back on the campaign. Traughout
Speaker 3: the while. Wow, it's just the finances, aren't you know?
Speaker 3: I don't have the big donors that a lot of
Speaker 3: candidates do. I don't have, you know, big donors from
Speaker 3: out of state. The biggest donations I've got from out
Speaker 3: of state would have been through our international They donated
Speaker 3: to me, and then most everything else comes from small
Speaker 3: donor you know, normal working class people like us give
Speaker 3: a little bit here and there.
Speaker 1: How big of a factor is dark money played in
Speaker 1: the campaigns in Oklahoma.
Speaker 2: I think it's huge, and I'd like to see that
Speaker 2: go away.
Speaker 3: I don't know how if we really can ever get
Speaker 3: it pride out out of government or out of our politics,
Speaker 3: but we're really doing to limit the funding. I would
Speaker 3: love to see this level of play in field and
Speaker 3: put it to where this is an X amount that
Speaker 3: US House can use raise and run on and then
Speaker 3: just put it there that that's the cap mount and
Speaker 3: you can't make no more than that and love the
Speaker 3: best candidate win. I would love to get back to
Speaker 3: that day, but I don't know that we'll ever see
Speaker 3: it with way.
Speaker 1: Money dig the old genies out of the bottle. Yeah, well, Brandon,
Speaker 1: I wish you the best of luck. And folks, if
Speaker 1: you want to have a conversation with Brandon Wade, he's
Speaker 1: just a phone call away. And once again just check
Speaker 1: the the social media and the website and you can
Speaker 1: you can get probably get a pretty good audience with you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, reach out to me. Let me know.
Speaker 3: I'm read to answer any question people got. If I
Speaker 3: don't know to answer, I'm gonna tell you I don't know.
Speaker 3: I mean, we we all don't know everything, and we
Speaker 3: got to fund research it or find people experts to
Speaker 3: bring in to help us with those questions.
Speaker 1: So very good, Well, good luck to you, and I
Speaker 1: hope to you real soon.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: I told Brandon this is the first time I've seen
Speaker 1: him sit down in six months, and you said, well,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, because he does has to get up
Speaker 1: and go. But thanks for being with us today.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I appreciate you all. After some record highs yesterday,
Speaker 2: we finally get a