Speaker 1: Billy Cunningham, the Great America, of course announced it made
Speaker 1: a few days back to Evanor Mike.
Speaker 2: Dwine, let's picked the new lieutenant governor. And when we
Speaker 2: spoke with the governor, he kind.
Speaker 1: Of indicated he was thinking outside the box a little bit.
Speaker 1: But Jim Trussel is a name well known in the
Speaker 1: Buckeye State. She spent many years as a football coach
Speaker 1: at Youngstown State, had some moderate success in Ohio State,
Speaker 1: won the national title, and thereafter he went back to
Speaker 1: Youngstown State and served as president there for about ten years.
Speaker 1: And now he's the new lieutenant governor in Ohio. And
Speaker 1: first of all, Lieutenant Governor, Jim Trussell, can you tell
Speaker 1: the American people how the process began that Mike DeWine
Speaker 1: asked you to serve as the lieutenant governor kind of
Speaker 1: walked us through what happened to be goes this pick
Speaker 1: is somewhat out of the box.
Speaker 3: Well, absolutely, But first I would be remissed if I
Speaker 3: didn't say, it's an honor to be on with the
Speaker 3: great American and on this Abraham Lincoln time, you know,
Speaker 3: one of the greatest Americans as well. But I have
Speaker 3: to tell you I know part of your viewing listening
Speaker 3: audience is up near where my dad grew up, and
Speaker 3: today would be his one hundredth birthday. And I always
Speaker 3: thought my dad was a great American. He grew up
Speaker 3: in Aida, Ohio and went to Ohio State. Paul Brown
Speaker 3: recruited him there, and then, like all those great Americans,
Speaker 3: decided to enlist in the war efforts and went over
Speaker 3: and served so that we can have a dis free
Speaker 3: country we live in. So it's an honor to be
Speaker 3: with the great American on this great American Day. And
Speaker 3: the process that occurred started February first, actually maybe the
Speaker 3: day before that. The governor said he was going to
Speaker 3: be in my neighborhood. I had just gotten done with
Speaker 3: two days of Baldwin Wallace University board meetings. He said
Speaker 3: he was going to be in the neighborhood and could
Speaker 3: he stop by, And of course, the governor says, he's
Speaker 3: going to stop by, absolutely, and he was going to
Speaker 3: be with Fran and I think they're going to a
Speaker 3: basketball game with grandkids or something. And so he stopped
Speaker 3: by and he sat down and kind of looked me
Speaker 3: in the eye, and I could tell this wasn't a
Speaker 3: social call, and he said, I've really been given this
Speaker 3: a lot of thought. I've been thinking about what we
Speaker 3: need and what I need and so forth. And he said,
Speaker 3: you know what, I'd like you to consider the lieutenant
Speaker 3: governor position. And then we talked for ninety minutes or so,
Speaker 3: and I had a chance to visit with my wife,
Speaker 3: who Ellen said, you know, it sounds like God's got
Speaker 3: more work for you to do, and you love trying
Speaker 3: to help people, and you're a workaholic. Why don't you
Speaker 3: go do it?
Speaker 1: So here we are, Jim Trust before that conversation, did
Speaker 1: you have any idea, any hope, any inkling you were
Speaker 1: to get into politics, not just politics, but you're going
Speaker 1: to be the lieutenant governor state of Ohio.
Speaker 2: Was that even on the horizon before that meeting?
Speaker 3: No? No, you know, I've always felt like I've been
Speaker 3: in public service because I've been trying to serve students,
Speaker 3: serve university, serve communities, and so you know, at every
Speaker 3: turn I try to find ways where I can add
Speaker 3: value and serve. You know, never was it the idea
Speaker 3: that I thought I would serve in government. But you know,
Speaker 3: what do they say if you think you have plans
Speaker 3: God's up there laughing, you know, And I think that
Speaker 3: was the case.
Speaker 1: As far as I asked Mike DeWine this question, and
Speaker 1: other politico as I talked to Alex Streutzafiel, who, as
Speaker 1: you know, is the chair the Republican Party, does Lieutenant
Speaker 1: Governor Trussel have any desire to run for governor next year?
Speaker 3: You know, you'd be surprised that this is the first
Speaker 3: time someone asked me this. No, I'm just kidding. This
Speaker 3: the probably the hundredth time. And you know what's funny.
Speaker 3: What's funny is when I got my first real job
Speaker 3: of my life. I had been a paper boy and
Speaker 3: i'd you know, cut grass and all that. But my
Speaker 3: first real job was as a graduate assistant teacher and
Speaker 3: coach at the University of Akron and I had to
Speaker 3: meet the athletic director to get the final approval. And
Speaker 3: I walked in and he told me not to sit down,
Speaker 3: and he said, I only have one piece of advice.
Speaker 3: If you want to reach your potential, if you want
Speaker 3: to have success here and in life, keep your mind
Speaker 3: and your rear end in the same place. And he
Speaker 3: didn't say rear end, by the way, And then he
Speaker 3: told me to leave, and as I walked out, I said,
Speaker 3: for the rest of my life, I'm going to do
Speaker 3: all I can do to keep my mind in my
Speaker 3: rear end in the same place. So the answer is
Speaker 3: my mind in my rear end, just like they were
Speaker 3: at Youngstown State when I was coaching there, I wasn't
Speaker 3: dreaming about going to Ohio State. When I was at
Speaker 3: Ohio State coaching there, I wasn't dreaming about being a
Speaker 3: president someday. And I certainly haven't been dreaming about being
Speaker 3: a lieutenant governor or a governor. But I can promise
Speaker 3: you this, I'll keep my mind in my rear end,
Speaker 3: in the place that I am, and that hopefully I
Speaker 3: can add value. And just like all the other chapters
Speaker 3: of my life, when I turned to the next chapter,
Speaker 3: a lot of times it's the unknown.
Speaker 1: So you're not foreclosing the possibility of you putting together
Speaker 1: an exploratory committee in the next few months and running
Speaker 1: for governor. I hear the answer is you don't know.
Speaker 1: But you're not saying no. You're not saying yes. You're
Speaker 1: saying you don't know. You know what I'm saying. You're
Speaker 1: not saying yes. You're not saying no, you're saying I
Speaker 1: don't know. So by saying you don't know, it's not
Speaker 1: a no or a yes. So is the answer yes
Speaker 1: or no? Or is it I don't know?
Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you the answers. I don't even know
Speaker 3: what an exploratory committee is. You mean we're going to
Speaker 3: go sail somewhere and find an island? I mean, yes,
Speaker 3: I don't know what an exploratory committee is. But you know,
Speaker 3: it's funny. I remember when I got to Youngstown State
Speaker 3: as the coach and they said, you know, I had
Speaker 3: been at Ohio State as an assistant, and they said,
Speaker 3: is your goal to get to a house state as
Speaker 3: the head coach someday? I said, I don't know, but
Speaker 3: I'll tell you this. If I'm not very good at
Speaker 3: Youngstown State, that's not I'm not gonna have to worry
Speaker 3: about that anyway. So I'm going to try to get
Speaker 3: as good as I can at what I'm doing, and
Speaker 3: I don't know what the future holds.
Speaker 1: Well, what do you How would you respond to some
Speaker 1: in the state of Ohio. There's about twelve million of
Speaker 1: us here that would say, what does Jim Trussell know
Speaker 1: about politics? What does Jim Trussell know about lieutenant governor?
Speaker 1: What does Jim Trussell know about public policy? What does
Speaker 1: he know about the budget? What does he know about
Speaker 1: the marijuana reform laws? What does he know about sales
Speaker 1: tax or the equalization formula of public education? So how
Speaker 1: do you respond to those who say Jim Trussell doesn't
Speaker 1: know anything about what he's doing.
Speaker 2: How would you respond to that?
Speaker 3: Well, I would start with the first one you had,
Speaker 3: You said, what do you know about politics? I guess
Speaker 3: I don't look at this as politics. I look at
Speaker 3: this as serving and trying to keep in mind the
Speaker 3: needs of every Ohioan, of every conversation. And then you
Speaker 3: rattled off a bunch of the things, and it's been fun.
Speaker 3: I was just sitting in on an ed board meeting,
Speaker 3: which I learned as editorial board, you know, I hadn't
Speaker 3: done those, And I listened to the governor talk about
Speaker 3: the school funding. I listened to him talk about the
Speaker 3: marijuana situation and the tax for the potential help for
Speaker 3: stadium in the state, and on and on and on
Speaker 3: and so I'm not an expert really on anything. I
Speaker 3: never was. I'm a good listener, I'm a good learner.
Speaker 3: I've had the ability to connect people together and try
Speaker 3: to work hard together. I think the expertise that the
Speaker 3: governor hopes I can bring is the expertise and education
Speaker 3: and workforce as it pertains to the outcomes. To me,
Speaker 3: the number one outcome this state needs is we better
Speaker 3: increase our workforce to meet the opportunities that are great
Speaker 3: leaders on both sides of the Isle and Jobs Ohio
Speaker 3: and everyone else have brought to us in the form
Speaker 3: of whether it's Intel or Andreil or keeping Sherlin Williams
Speaker 3: in Cleveland. Though the things going on in Cincinnati and
Speaker 3: the Dayton Coalition, we've been brought some unbelievable opportunities. My
Speaker 3: hope is that I can contribute toward us making sure
Speaker 3: we can execute on those and that begins with education
Speaker 3: and building a workforce. And that's where I'm fairly certain
Speaker 3: he's going to ask me to spend a lot of time.
Speaker 3: I've already spent a lot of time with JP, Mascife
Speaker 3: and Jobs Ohio. Over the years. We've got our region
Speaker 3: up in Youngstown that I worked with, the LAKEA River Region,
Speaker 3: I've worked with the team Neil, I've worked with the
Speaker 3: Central office there I've tried to talk about how do
Speaker 3: we integrate all the way down into the early years
Speaker 3: of making young people aware of the advanced manufacturing that's happening,
Speaker 3: the AI, all the different things, because we've got an
Speaker 3: amazing opportunity. We have an amazing opportunity in Ohio. We've
Speaker 3: got Ohio River, We've got Lake Erie, we've got natural gas,
Speaker 3: We've got all these new companies who are in a
Speaker 3: location that is within five hundred miles of I don't
Speaker 3: know how many million people. Now. My biggest thrill as
Speaker 3: a coach who's going and trying to win the Big
Speaker 3: ten or the national championship, my biggest thrill now is
Speaker 3: to see if we can go and create that workforce
Speaker 3: that will allow us to be winners in these opportunities.
Speaker 1: Well, since you're now the Lieutenant governor, there's a bill
Speaker 1: coming through the General Assembly that would fundamentally change the
Speaker 1: marijuana money distribution from the townships and the cities all
Speaker 1: into the state fund. There are many township officials I
Speaker 1: know quite unhappy with that. I expressed this to Governor
Speaker 1: Mike Dwain. A lot of city leaders are unhappy. There
Speaker 1: was a law passed by the voters, and now the
Speaker 1: legislature wants to change it. They want increase by fifty
Speaker 1: to one percent the tax on marijuana. The bill took
Speaker 1: three hundred and twenty five million dollars out of the
Speaker 1: pockets of drug dealers and put it in the sales
Speaker 1: column of the state of Ohio. And now many in
Speaker 1: the industry are saying, the State of Ohio is going
Speaker 1: to kill the golden goose by increasing the price in
Speaker 1: marijuana is so much that individuals that use marijuana. Of
Speaker 1: course I'm not one of them. I assume you're not
Speaker 1: one of them. They're going to go back to the
Speaker 1: dark market. There's going to be more people, more money,
Speaker 1: a hand of drug dealers. And so do you have
Speaker 1: an established position yet on the marijuana reform bill coming
Speaker 1: through the legislature?
Speaker 3: You know, I don't. In fact, the first time I
Speaker 3: heard in in depth conversation about it was earlier today.
Speaker 3: One of the things that I've grown to learn here
Speaker 3: in the first few days of being in this opportunity
Speaker 3: is I got a lot of reading to do. I've
Speaker 3: got a lot of learning to do.
Speaker 2: Learning and yep, oh, I've.
Speaker 3: Got to listen. I've got to learn and I've got
Speaker 3: to make sure that I understand. And then people love
Speaker 3: anecdotes and they love data. I just want to make
Speaker 3: sure that the data is verifiable, that the anecdotes are
Speaker 3: that makes sense, They're not just you know, one offs.
Speaker 3: And but uh, it seemed to me listening to the
Speaker 3: editorial board questions to the governor, uh, that there'll be
Speaker 3: some good conversation about this.
Speaker 1: Have are you a registered Republican for the last decade
Speaker 1: or so?
Speaker 2: Have you been a registered Republican.
Speaker 3: As far as I know? Yeah? Uh?
Speaker 2: And did you vote for Mike the Wine each time?
Speaker 3: I believe so? Yeah, I mean each time for governor
Speaker 3: that I voted for more than one time. You have
Speaker 3: a number of great American I'm one hundred years old.
Speaker 3: I vote. I might have voted for Mike Dwaine seventeen
Speaker 3: times for all I know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think he's one in seventeen. All right, we
Speaker 2: got to run.
Speaker 1: But Jim Tressel, new Lieutenant Governor of high let's get
Speaker 1: the lines of communication open. I love the idea you say, essentially,
Speaker 1: you got two ears and you got one mouth, and
Speaker 1: so you have a learning curve. But you're bright and
Speaker 1: you're gonna you're gonna learn and you're gonna get on.
Speaker 1: But thanks for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. Lieutenant
Speaker 1: Governor Jim Trestle of Ohio State and Young Sound State.
Speaker 1: Let's do it again in the next few months.
Speaker 3: Yes, sir, you're a great American.
Speaker 1: And God bless Abraham Lincoln and God bless Jim Trestle. Jim,
Speaker 1: thank you very much. All righty, goodbye, Let's continue with
Speaker 1: more the line becomes available five one, three, seven, four, nine,
Speaker 1: seven thousand. Bill Cunningham Live with you every day. You're
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