- We're joined by Dr.

Gene Douglas.

He is a Republican candidate for U.S.

House in that second congressional district up around the Triangle area, if you're watching outside the Raleigh County.

Yeah, challenging Deborah Ross, the Democrat.

You've done this a time or two, Dr.

Douglas, running for federal office.

Why bring it to North Carolina and why run in this district?

- Well, I came to teach chemistry at UNC Pembroke in 2005.

And so all the different places I run, I've been working as a chemist or as a chemistry professor or science teacher.

And so basically in the different places where a Republican, a suitable Republican didn't represent me in my district or my state, I would just be involved in politics as a normal person.

But when I got in areas where I could contribute something, and I told you a story in our initial chat about why I got involved in politics in the first place, which kind of dragged me into it, basically I decided that I would take on the incumbent on that policy and I had a great time running for US Senate in Hawaii in '98 and 2000.

And basically I went after Senator Daniel Inouye because he helped destroy the Hawaii sugar industry all on his own.

- Now you went to New Hampshire too.

- Yeah, well, I got a job teaching chemistry in New Hampshire from Hawaii.

And basically I ended up running for Congress there because conservatives asked me to as a conservative alternative to Charlie Bass.

And so-- - But Charlie Bass is a Republican.

- Well, he's a RINO Republican.

And basically President Bush was president at the time and he would not support President Bush's agenda in Congress, he voted with the Democrats.

And particularly on the issue of abortion, he wouldn't even support the abortion ban.

So it's a situation where conservative pro-life people in New Hampshire, pro-life, right to life was very active at the time, along with Gordon Humphrey, part of that group.

And I was very happy to run as a conservative alternative and I had a great time.

And Charlie Bass beat Katrina Sweat, which is what really mattered anyway.

And then I come to Wake County to be near my son and his family and found Deborah Ross as congressman, not Dan Bishop or Hudson or Rauscher.

- I want to ask you, your flavor of conservatism or republicanism, I'm asking this about the candidates, because inside of parties now, philosophies are being identified.

You have your conservative, social conservative, your libertarian Republican, your establishment Republican.

Now you've got MAGA out there.

Where do you fall?

What, do those labels apply to you?

- I'm a blend.

I was a supporter of Ronald Reagan back from 1976 because he was a former union leader and then decided to run for president and Gerald Ford was running and so I voted for Gerald Ford in the general.

But it's a situation where basically I thought that Ronald Reagan would have a different kind of politics for Republican politics and I was, it paid off royally.

And that's President Reagan as president and what he was doing in Central America and destroying the communist menace there, or trying to, was very, very important and even got me involved in politics in the first place because that's the first time I ran into Senator Daniel Inouye and his hypocrisy.

And so it's a situation where basically I've gotten involved as a candidate where I could be effective and where no one else was representing my views.

And yet I feel it's very, very important to as part of the second district, if I represent the district, to represent everybody, not just the narrow special interest groups of things, libertarians, Republicans, Democrats, unffiliates, everybody, in a proper, responsible way to help the government do its job of, the federal government do its job of interstate commerce regulation and against foreign enemies and domestic enemies.

- Looking through your campaign, it's a conservative platform.

You want lower taxes, you want smaller government, local school control, pro-life from conception through natural death.

- Correct.

- Does that play with second district voters or do you just want an alternative out there to let people have something, I guess as opposed to another platform?

- Well, I believe it does because basically, basically a lot of second district voters want it regulated.

They went along with the Republican General Assembly in North Carolina and voted to regulate it, that it would not happen before 12 weeks.

And so it's a situation where they're welcome to regulate it but my view is that it should be protected from conception all the way through natural death.

And the thing is to avoid, to use birth control methods that essentially kill the child that results from it, instead of abstinence or instead of sterilizing themselves, I think is irresponsible.

And I do not believe the killing of unborn children is appropriate and it should definitely not be paid for by taxpayer supports but basically it's very personal to me because my mother went through hell and at least three of her grandchildren were killed by older siblings.

And it's a situation where I know how it affected my family and I had brothers and sisters perhaps who were dead or niece and nephew, whatever else.

And it's a situation where basically it's very, very personal to me as it was to my wife.

And she got involved running for Congress against Patsy Mink, she won the primary in '98.

And basically she had abortions happen in her family too.

So I know how it destroys other people's lives, innocent people's lives, not just kills the baby.

- I've interviewed Democratic and Republican candidates, challengers in this seat and not from that literal seat right there.

And they're all saying the DC doesn't listen to people, whether they're Republican or a Democrat.

They're saying the establishment of either side listens.

Is DC listening to the voters after the voters elect them?

- Well, a lot of people don't understand the nature of a congressman.

The US Congress is set up to be a representative body and basically if I was to win, I'd be one of 220 Republicans.

My job is to represent the district and to be involved in the committees, designing legislation that helps everybody or as most people as possible.

It is not desired to essentially get money when we have a $39 trillion deficit or $40 trillion deficit, get money from Washington DC that just prints it to benefit local benefactors or NGOs or other things like that.

That's not its job of the federal government.

The federal government job is to regulate interstate commerce, the interaction between the states and support enemies, foreign and domestic.

That's my view about what the Congress is doing.

That's the constitutional view.

- What do you do with national debt in this country?

It's $40 trillion.

Let's set aside the national deficit, which is the every year overspending.

What do you do about that if you're running as a conservative on low tax, small government?

- Well, basically you've gotta decrease the size of the federal government and bring back duplicative functions back to the local and state governments.

There is loads and loads of bureaucracy in Washington DC being paid to essentially micromanage local businesses, state businesses, all sorts of things happening in North Carolina that basically requires duplicate paperwork or has duplicate regulations that people have to be hired to do that.

The federal government needs to be out of that business and essentially give the responsibilities back to the states and local governments where it belongs so that they are accountable to the people, particularly.

With what happened in Cary, for example, the people of Cary trusted-- - Cary, North Carolina.

- Yes.

The people of Cary trusted these people that got elected and they spent thousands and thousands of dollars on personal purchases and such like that and essentially betrayed the people of the thing.

So here in Wake County with the Wake GOP, it's together we win and I am standing essentially to say yes, it's time for a change and it's time for a change in the second district particularly but that's mostly Wake County.

- If you get elected, how would you maintain that level head to not fall into the entrapments of office where there is big money, there is big power, there's influence, there's cable news out there to make a celebrity out of you or a villain if you're not careful?

- Well, I spent over 30 years teaching chemistry all over the world, four years in Kazakhstan, one year in Iraq and many, many years here in the US and it's a situation where I've learned to deal with the system but essentially I've learned to do my job and my job is not to necessarily interact with the noisy people but to do what's required to if I was a congressman to represent the district and I admit that I originally when I got involved in politics I saw myself more as a, this was many years ago in '98 as a senator, a deliberative body more but now with all my experience and everything else I think I've got a lot more to offer in the sciences and everything else regarding developing a future for our country instead of essentially whining and complaining about how Republicans have essentially been the racists for years when in reality the Republican Party was started by Abraham Lincoln to essentially abolish slavery and it's a situation that dynamics of what's going on regarding the Democrats demonizing Republicans when we've been trying to, in good faith, to work with the American people to do what's right and to spend money wisely whether it be balanced budget amendments and other things that Republicans have been trying for years and that basically the Democrats act like they, the things and who knows how much money has been promised by the Democrats who you interview of what could come from Washington to benefit these local groups.

Well, that's not the job of the representative.

The job of the representative is to manage things properly and let more people in North Carolina keep their money.

- The last few minutes we have left, I wanna go to international affairs 'cause you've written in your sub-stack about the relationship with Israel.

What should America's relationship with Israel be?

And then we'll step to the next question and be what happens if you go to office and we're still in the Iran conflict?

But start with Israel.

- Well, we might as well start with Israel.

Iran, the government of Iran since the Shah, before the Shah, they had good relations with Israel because of Esther, the book of Esther.

And that basically it's related.

My view of Israel has been our ally in the Middle East against the Soviet Union encroachment in Egypt and Syria and all the other groups that ganged up on Israel again and tried to wipe them out.

That's all related to the communist atheists and the Nazis and Germany and others that wanted to destroy the Jewish people.

Well, the Jewish state was set up as Israel, essentially, which was another return from all over the place back to Israel and basically decided, the UN decided to give it a state where they could live in peace and such like that.

And it's the most democratic country in the Middle East.

And it's our responsibility as an ally to help defend our ally, particularly when their enemies are enemies of the US too, because the, as has been said, death to America, death to America, death to Israel.

And wipe them all out.

And it's a situation where it's related.

We are trying to get rid, make sure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon and that protects Israel as well.

- Do we stay in Iran?

Do we deepen the entanglement in Iran to provoke regime change?

Do we pull out in the name of economic development and gas prices and all the other inconveniences that come with any international conflict?

- No, I believe that basically that millions of people died on both sides between the fight between Iran and Iraq.

And I think President Trump is doing the right thing in defanging Iran, so essentially makes them impotent so they're unable to attack their neighbors effectively.

And so that there will not be millions of people dying like there was in Iraq and Iran fighting for years.

And it's a situation where basically I worked for a year with the Kurdish area of Iraq at the American University of Iraq, Soleimani.

And President Trump, when he became president, helped get rid of ISIS by helping Peshmerga and the Iraqi army destroy ISIS, as well as destroy the Shiite groups that were sponsored by Iran.

So yes, it all works together.

And we help our allies in the Middle East.

- If people in the 2nd District or North Carolina or around this world wanna know more about the Gene Douglas campaign, how can they look you up?

- Well, I have my website.

It's very simple.

It's gdouglass, with two S's, dot U-S.

I have a sub stack, so I've got a lot of information there.

And I did it on purpose because I want it to be an educational site, not just a site with bells and whistles that doesn't tell anybody anything.

- This is Dr.

Gene Douglas, the GOP candidate for the 2nd U.S.

Congressional District, challenging Democratic incumbent Deborah Ross up in the Triangle region of North Carolina.

Dr.

Douglas, thank you so much for your time and your insight.

- Well, thank you very much for your time, too.

I appreciate it.

And God bless everybody in North Carolina.

I wanna represent everybody properly.

Thank you.

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