JAHD KHALIL: Mr.

Reid, thank you for joining us.

Just to start off, can you tell Virginians who you are and why you should be the lieutenant governor?

JOHN REID: I'm delighted to be here with you, and I'm delighted to answer that question.

That's what I've been doing for the last couple of months, and every opportunity I get to speak to a small group or a large group, television, radio, I want to do that.

I'm a native Virginian.

I was born in Richmond at St.

Mary's Hospital right down the street from here and grew up in Henrico County.

My dad was running for office at the time that I was getting ready to graduate.

He was representing or wanted to represent Henrico in the House of Delegates.

And there are two things you don't want to be, right?

A preacher's kid and a politician's kid.

So, I got the heck out of here and went to Baylor University, got a degree in political science, worked for President Reagan in Los Angeles.

I was his last press assistant and intern in 1993, and then 10 years here in Richmond at the ABC TV station, and then I went to go work for Sen.

Allen in the U.S.

Senate when he was on the Foreign Relations Committee.

Ran the communications operation in Washington, went to the United States Chamber of Commerce as the head of editorial communications where I traveled all over the country, meeting with big shot corporate types, Fortune 100 CEOs and vice presidents, all the way down to folks who had just arrived in the United States and were trying to start businesses.

It really gave me some insight into the commonality between the little guys and the big guys and what makes it possible to run a successful business in a state or a region.

And I'll talk about that here in Virginia, 'cause preserving Virginia's business climate that has been so successful for so many years with Republicans and Democrats, if I'm being honest, that's really important for all of us going forward.

And then I went overseas during the war and was in Kuwait and Bahrain and went to Baghdad and helped train up the new Parliament in Baghdad.

And then I worked for the veterans in New York, in Manhattan, the Iraq, Afghanistan, Veterans of America, trying to get services for them through the VA.

And then for the last eight years, I've been a commentator on Virginia politics and national politics at WRVA, one of the oldest radio stations in America.

It's 100 years old, this year.

And I always tried at the radio station to invite people on the air who disagreed with me, because I'm not scared of people who disagree with me.

I enjoy that interaction.

I'm a partisan, I'm a Republican.

If you want to get in a fight, I can get in a fight.

But I'd prefer that we find a way to work things out.

And I hope that that will be a refreshing mindset and attitude at the Capitol.

JAHD KHALIL: How would you use the Office of Lieutenant Governor and how would you work with the governor's administration outside of your official powers?

JOHN REID: I've been told over and over again that the Lieutenant Governor's job is not that complicated.

It's break tie votes, preside over the Senate, and then make sure the governor's alive every morning, right?

But I'd like to be an ambassador for the state of Virginia, to go out and sell the state to people who are trying to decide whether they're going to bring new jobs to Virginia or whether they're going to take 'em to Tennessee, whether they're coming to Abingdon, or whether they're going to go to Charlotte.

And you ask about how I would work with a governor?

I've seen a lot of governors come through.

I've known, on a personal level at least, to say hello, every governor since Mills Godwin, when I was a kid.

Every decision that I would be making and everything I'd be advocating would be, does it make the people more free?

Does it make it possible for more people to work and earn a living so they can feed their families and be prosperous?

JAHD KHALIL: When you said you want to make sure that any sort of policy makes Virginians more free, what do you mean by that?

JOHN REID: Well, there is a tendency when you are a legislator, to legislate, right?

I can fix this, I can pass a law, and this will solve the problem.

I can create a bureaucracy and they will fix this.

I can spend money here and that will fix the problem.

That always feels good and sounds good.

I don't think it generally works in practice.

We wind up spending a great deal of money, we wind up regulating people, and then sometimes, the results are even worse than they were before we got involved.

So, I would like to be very light-handed, and I'd like the state to be light-handed when we regulate people.

JAHD KHALIL: Reproductive healthcare, whether it's abortion or contraception or IVF, all those sort of things is a big topic these days.

Can you talk a bit about where you stand and like how the government should be approaching those issues?

JOHN REID: Well, it's been a big topic.

I'm 54 years old.

I can't remember a time where we haven't been discussing this.

I think the problem we've got now is that we've lost the middle ground on this issue.

I mean, I'm in the minority in Virginia.

I'm pro-life.

It's true.

And I know that my attitude and my belief system probably doesn't match on this issue with the vast majority of Virginians.

So, what do I do?

I do what I always do.

Where's the common ground?

The constitutional amendment that's been proposed, which I think will probably wind up being a pretty significant part of this campaign and debate, before it's all said and done, allows day of birth abortion.

And so I'm not really interested at this stage in arguing about what week and what trimester.

I would just like to stop that kind of extreme position from becoming the default position in the state.

When I talk to parents, some of whom are pro-choice, where abortion would be on the table, I haven't asked them what week they would personally have a problem, but abortion is an option for them.

When I talk about not demanding parental consent for an underage minor child, they say, what?

They're taking away my control of my own child, the role that I should play in probably one of the biggest decisions that a young woman could make in her life, that seems wrong.

So, I think the place of commonality here is going to be stopping that kind of extreme position from becoming the law in Virginia, and certainly not a part of the Constitution.

JAHD KHALIL: Right now in Virginia law, it requires parental consent for an abortion.

So, just to be clear, that's the law right now.

JOHN REID: Yeah, and that's the way that should be.

I think one of the things that I think everybody should be on notice about is that across the state of Virginia, Virginia parents, right wing conservative parents and left wing parents who are going to vote democrat generally do not want the government between them and their kid.

JAHD KHALIL: Does that extend also to, for example, like gender in schools, for example?

So, like if there's a young trans teenager that wants to identify a certain way and the parents agree with them, do you think that should be allowed?

JOHN REID: Yeah, the only time I would advocate interfering is the physical mutilation of a child.

And as a gay candidate, I've been around this collection of issues and people who have been dealing with these issues for 30-plus years.

And I've seen up close the passion that many people bring to the issues, the regrets that some people have.

I mean, I'm really not interested in being in anybody's bedroom.

I'm not interested in micromanaging your life.

You get to make those decisions.

But I do think we as a society are reasonable and responsible if we say, "Don't cut yourself.

Don't do something that can't be reversed until you are an adult."

The rest of society doesn't have to change the entire way it's structured in order to cater to those individuals, in the schools with underage kids, or as adults.

And so we have been reasonable in this society by saying, it's responsible to have female locker rooms that are exclusive to women.

It's responsible to have female athletic teams where women who are physically positioned in a different way than men can compete against other women.

And we can judge their achievements in their peer group.

Now, how do we deal with people who are in the midst of the trans issue in their lives?

I think that's got to be dealt with carefully, hopefully with respect for other people.

But it doesn't mean that the rest of us have to change how we operate.

JAHD KHALIL: So, it sounds like youre opposed to any sort, like basically banning gender-affirming surgeries, but something like puberty blockers or hormone treatment for, that's something- JOHN REID: Yeah, I just don't think that any of that is appropriate- JAHD KHALIL: Even like the medication sort of things?

JOHN REID: Yeah, it's not like I'm sitting on the sidelines just commenting on it.

I've kind of seen it up close, and that's my assessment.

And there are a lot of other gay men and women who are scared to say it because they don't want to be canceled.

JAHD KHALIL: There was a federal court case here in Virginia where basically, a transgender boy's ability to use the bathroom that he preferred in accordance with his gender identity was upheld by a federal court.

And then the Supreme Court, which at the time was also a conservative majority, basically denied to hear the case.

But this was an issue for school boards because they were running into the issue of whether they were going to run afoul of federal law and some of these things.

So, I guess this is something that any sort of government official would have to navigate, and it sort of, I think, would complicate some of the stances that you're talking about.

JOHN REID: I don't think it complicates it, especially with the interpretation that we're now getting from the Department of Justice related to Title IX.

I think that was deliberately excluded from the conversation previously.

And my intention as a leader is not to squash other people or what they want to do, even if it's something that I look at and go, "I don't get it," or, "I'm not on board with that."

You don't have to cater to me as a private citizen or as a lieutenant governor.

You shouldn't have to cater to your government either.

If we are going to live in a free country, you can do what you want.

But we've got to figure out how to protect other people and protect what I think, again, is reasonable and responsible for women.

And the Title IX interpretation that we're now getting, I think is the correct one, to say that women have a right to compete against other women in sports.

Women have a right to these private spaces.

I mean, there are two different stories that I've seen.

One is people who truly are dealing with gender dysphoria.

And then there's another group that I think is a different type of mental illness, which is predatory.

And that puts people in danger.

And I think we need kind of clear leadership, common sense leadership to say, "You know what?

If I have to make a decision, if I have to decide what public policy is going to be, I'm going to protect women and their safety."

JAHD KHALIL: I wanted to talk about affordability.

That's a big topic.

I guess what would guide you in your stances whether you have to break a tie?

I'm just going to give a few examples of things that are out there.

So energy's a big one.

Whether energy is more affordable, should the state be sort of supporting cheaper energy through various means?

When is it necessary for the state to intervene in these matters?

JOHN REID: Yeah, well, let's take the energy situation in particular.

I think we're setting ourselves up for a huge problem where it won't be an affordability question.

It'll be whether you can get the energy you need.

And I've lived in parts of the world where at certain moments, there wasn't... You go in and flip the switch and there's nothing that's going to happen.

We can't allow that to happen in Virginia.

And I think we've been very shortsighted.

Previous leadership in the state has been shortsighted to start to hamstring the experts who are making money, I'm not going to deny it, who are making money, but their intention is for everyone to be able to walk in and have the air conditioner blowing at full blast when it's 94 degrees outside, and that the heat will come on when it's below freezing in Virginia.

And I think we've put ourselves in a tough spot by closing down some of the resources, by hyper litigating to prevent some of those resources from being tapped in our own backyard.

And we are going to have to be politically and emotionally mature people and recognize that we can't have everything we want without making some sacrifices.

And I think that the price will drop if we enable all of the resources that are out there.

I'm pleased that Gov.

Youngkin and some members of the General Assembly have sought out the small modular nuclear reactors.

I know that's scary for some people.

We have so many pristine areas of Virginia.

I respect that, I want to preserve that, but I'm also a realist.

There's a way to balance our desire to maintain the pristine nature of Virginia's mountainsides and natural resources and protect those natural resources while also making sure that we've got energy in the pipeline for 10 years out, 20 years out.

JAHD KHALIL: How threatened do you think these landscapes or like flooding in Southwest Virginia, for instance, is caused by human-induced climate change?

JOHN REID: I hesitate to use the term climate change.

We make changes all the time that do impact the natural circumstance.

There's been flooding all across the state.

You know, I made a point, and all my advisors said, "You're wasting a weekend to go to Tangier Island."

I went out to the Eastern shore.

They need to know that I care about what's happening on the eastern shore.

And I wound up, this was not planned, with the mayor of Tangier in his boat looking at his property and some of the erosion that's occurred, and they've got a plan that if we could come up with the money in cooperation with the feds, would help preserve that land mass, which is eroding pretty quickly.

Now, do I think that's because of pollution?

Do I think that's manmade climate change?

I don't think so.

I suspect that if you didn't have houses there and we weren't doing everything we were doing in the United States, there would still be the erosion from, I mean, they basically are living on a small little island that's right there at sea level.

Yeah, I mean, I think that's a vulnerability.

We can do some things to help prevent that erosion.

And I think we should take a look at how we protect it.

JAHD KHALIL: One of the things that you mentioned earlier was kind of your role as second in line, if the governor's unable to serve.

If, due to some circumstance, the governor while you're serving is unable to serve, what would be your first actions as governor?

JOHN REID: Oh, gosh, no one's asked me that.

To maintain stability, whatever would be needed at that moment to maintain stability.

I'm not taking this job thinking, "Oh gosh, I hope Winsome or Abigail drop dead."

(chuckles) No, I just want to do a good job in this role to influence the legislative process and to have hopefully a response, be a responsible voice, as these things are adjudicated to the capitol.

So, I don't know that there would be anything other than to maintain some sort of stability, and of course, depending on the circumstance, for the people of Virginia to feel like they have an experienced and a thoughtful and a competent person in that role.

But I don't anticipate that.

I really can't imagine a normal scenario where that would happen.

JAHD KHALIL: What do you see as what's at stake in this election?

JOHN REID: Well, Virginia and Virginia workers have been blessed for decades talking about that common ground.

Republicans and Democrats have agreed my entire life that being a right-to-work state was important.

I mean, think about it.

Chuck Robb, Jerry Baliles, Doug Wilder, Tim Kaine, Mark Warner, all Democrat governors.

Some of them I have actually known and had conversations with, some of them have been on the television with me when I was an interviewer on the radio program with me.

They've all agreed, up until recently, that this was really, really important.

Why is it important?

Because we're the northernmost state with the right-to-work clause, which means that workers aren't forced into a union if there's a vote to unionize.

And that is a huge selling point for Virginia when we were trying to recruit businesses and new jobs.

One of the reasons I decided to run is that I was so distraught with I think the behavior of some of our elected officials and some of my fellow citizens in 2020 with the violence that was on display.

I also thought that the government overreached during COVID, which was frustrating to me to keep the ABC stores open, but to close the churches, to keep the big box stores open but to close the local stores, that was troubling to me.

It is one of the reasons why I think I need to be at the capitol, to kind of throw down the gauntlet and say, we're not going to allow that to happen again.

I think the government is poised to overreach in a lot of different places.

And I would like to be one of the people to tug on the reins where it's responsible and say, "No, no, no, let's let the people live their lives and not become dependent on the government, and not become subject to the government."