We're back now with gamer Representative Farhat from Dearborn.

Let's do O.T.

and the first part of the program.

For those of you that missed it, the question was who's your candidate for governor?

Yeah, You know, I mean, it's still an evolving primary, right?

You're seeing people jump in.. You're gonna punt right.

No I think it's it's premature.

We're two years out.

This is what's crazy to me.

Everybody and their cousin is running.

Come on, man.

I might jump in, Tim.

I don't know.

All right, well, let's put that Should we put your name on the list.

No, No, No, I would I wan explore the Senate run but you have to be 30 to run for that.

And that's so the Constitution prevents me from doing that.

But, you know, I think it's, in all seriousness, very premature.

Still, two years out, it's still really early.

There's a lot of exciting candidates, lets see them, flesh out their policy for the state.

Let's see their economic platform.

Let' see their platform for housing.

Let's see what they going to do for families like mine, districts like mine before, you know, I commit carte blanche behind supporting someone.

Well, let's talk about Garlin Gilchrist.

He announced this week.

What do you think his path is for becoming governor?

I think he has an exciting path.

You know, he has the ability to resonate with a base of voters that I think, you know, whether it's Benson.

Secretary of state Benson can't you know, I think Chris Swanson can be very interesting.

I think it's going to be, you know, a really interesting two years, you know, Have you ever have we ever had people announce this early this.

But if you announce it this early, I mean, from a historical lens, have we ever seen a two year campaign?

Whitmer announced really early but she scared everyone else away.

Yeah.

I mean, we're going to see a two year campaign to your campaign of fou I think, very serious candidates right three the Democratic primary.

Right.

Mike got five actually You got Aric Nesbitt right.

But you know, he's my Republican colleague across the pond.

We're going to see a two year, two year campaign here.

I mean, that's something that I think people in Michigan should really tune into, because you're going to see a lot here of what these candidates propose to do for the state.

And some of them are in a position to help.

You know, Garlin Gilchrist is in the Senate, right?

He has influence with the policy there.

The mayor of Detroit obviously is the mayor of Detroit.

Benson you know, she loves taking away these tickets.

But you know what else could she do for us?

What would you think about voting for Duggan?

You know, I haven't ruled it out In all fairness, I haven't ruled it out.

Republican made a lot of gains in Dearborn this last presidential election.

And what type of Democratic candidate would restor some of that Democratic support?

Yeah, I mean, you need somebody who's willing to come in and have tough conversations, right?

Who' going to roll up their sleeves, hear the hurt they're going through.

Right.

You can make no misrepresentation representations about this.

Trum was willing to come to Dearborn and have a tough conversation o the Palestine-Israel conflict.

He was able to do that.

He went there.

He had that kind of he gave a commitment for ther to be a cease fire on day one.

Things that, you know, without qualifier really we didn't see Democrats do, despite kind of the internal push that myself and others have done.

You can sa his rhetoric has been terrible.

You can say all these things.

But the truth of the matter i there's a cease fire right now in the Middle East.

And for a lot of people, they look at that and they see his appointments to Arab Muslim ambassadors.

I mean, one is the mayor of Hamtramck, 15,000 people.

One is the mayor of Dearborn Heights, 60,000 people.

Who are now going to be the ambassador of Kuwait and Tunisia.

This is not without recognition for my community.

If I'm being honest that this is an individual who came here and, as you can say, rewarding loyalty, but also uplifting people from that community.

So that's something, you know, I think that Democrats have to match their energy.

They just have to match that energy.

So the secret is showing up, showing up and following through.

Right.

We know a lot of politicians have shown for.

Governor Whitmer's don a great job at following through on a lot of the community she has in my district.

Right.

It's one of reasons why you'll see them maybe for Trump this time.

Also go back and vote for Whitmer.

If she runs again, who knows?

She might run in 26.

We don't know right?

She hasn't entirely ruled out, you know, So there's certain open seats that I don't think she's ruled out entirely.

But, you know, someone lik Duggan has a lane there, I think Yeah, Duggan.

Duggan supported yo in your reelection, didn't he?

Yeah, he did.

He supported me.

I think he supported a a bunch of candidates in southeast Michigan.

And so what is it that that appeals to to you about him?

It's it's you know what it is?

It's this I think people are tire in politics of seeing leaders, you know, do the double talk are not being consistent.

Right.

I think with Duggan he's been a fairly consistent guy and had universally, you know, universal approach to things.

Right.

You you never surprised to see Duggan take a certain stance or not because he was always just consistent.

And I think people want that type of consistent leadership that isn't phony.

The change of the wind that doesn't, you know, suddenly trying to become at the forefront of things because the politically relevant.

Right.

I think people want certainty that they don't have people are going to able to run government in a way that they can depend on or they don't have to tun in every night and worry about if government is gonna be funded or not.

Right?

They want leadership.

They can just get it done.

I think that's what's inspiring about him.

You know, there's other things that are inspiring about Garlin and even Chris Swanson, who I think people aren't getting the credit he needs.

This guy's going to go out there and do a lot of serious work.

Chris Swanson is.I didn't hear Benson on that list.

Benson is the front runner.

So it's it's hard to, you know, how much more are you goin to give somebody credit, right?

I mean, if we're accepting the premise that she is the front runner, then you have to look at these other folks and see what are they going to do to catch up.

That's why it's a two year campaign.

That's what's interesting.

Did you hear that thu over a Democratic headquarters when you said you wouldn' rule out voting for Mike Duggan?

I think that a lot of times they've done thuds when I said stuff.

Yeah, that's my point.

The argument would be a goo Democrat would never say that.

And I think, you know, I'd pose, you know, right now what is a good Democrat?

What is a good Democrat?

We have a brand that I think is broken, candidly.

You have a brand in DC.

Look at DC, how they're fighting.

The House Democrats say not t vote on a continuing resolution.

Chuck Schumer within 24 hours does a heel.

So what does it mean to be a Democrat right now?

I think that something that's very much still in the air and while, you know we're figuring that out and I'm committed to making this party the best they can be, right.

A party that can get back to the basics of fighting for working families, a fighting for the labor movement in our state, a fighting for folks trying to make their ends meet right.

I think you can't rule out solutions that get us to that end, right.

I think that's one of the reasons why I'm watching and seeing who it is that emerges from this Democratic primary that's willing to meet people where they are, talk to the pain they're experiencing, and actually commit to getting things done in a serious way.

We've had enough of the headline warriors.

We've had enough of that personally.

Me, I've seen it.

You know, I have a lot of regret and maybe in the last two years in the trifecta, of what didn't get done, I'm very proud of things that did get done.

But you know, right now I think people want a new, fresh relief in politics.

They want something different and they want a solution oriented.

Someone from a distric that does have a lot of nuance that isn't necessarily as red and blu as much as a mix of viewpoints.

What do you think the the Democrats should be doing in terms of coalition building?

Like, can they keep every factio they have in the tent right now.

So I want to pitch a interesting stat to you folks.

Trump won Dearborn my my district by 48%.

Trump Trump won by 40 and 40%.

So was 48% Trump, 30% Harris and Stein I won with 74, right?

I think what folk need to be looking at is, yes, it can be a big tent, bu has to be an authentic big tent.

And you have to actually make space for people to be in it.

Right.

You know, working families are struggling and, you know that's going to put you at odds sometimes with othe stakeholders in your big tent.

But there's a willingness of walking in a room and saying it's now the turn of working families.

It's now the turn of the of the people who are struggling, right, of the single moms of the world.

It's their turn.

It's the turn for first responders who've been long neglected.

So this is why I do the public safety trust fund.

Right.

They have been neglected for so long.

Right.

Our communities which is a top ten crime state, I mean, why do we don't talk about those issues in a way we're proud we put it.

We were proud to be fighting to making neighborhood safer.

We're proud to be investing in security so a mom can let her kid walk in the front lawn of their house.

When I knock doors in the doorway, that was the first thing I heard.

A lady was terrified to le her kids play in her front lawn.

Terrified.

We worked on the public safety trust fund.

We got CVI groups in there.

Detroit's in its first drop in homicides in, what, 70 years?

Right.

And violent crime in 70 years.

These are the types of things I think Democrats should be proud to be championing and getting done.

The logical extension of what you're saying here is that you should now sit here and say you would also not rule out voting for a Republican for governor.

No, I think, you know, Republicans I think what you're saying is you're trying to connect what Trump did maybe to other.

I think.

No, I'm just saying, if you're open to the best person who can do the job, you can't rule out a Republican.

And if your philosophy is sound and solid.

I think for me to be consistent in what I'm saying and not to contradict myself earlier, what I would say is tha a Republican option for governor is not on that I'm necessarily considering because I don't view it, I think it would be very hard to find a Republican who's going to be vehemently pro-labor, pro social entitlement programs, things that I've said earlier that matter to me.

Right.

And if you find that person, let me know.

I'll sit down with them.

But I don't think we're going to find them.

Right.

I think instead, you're going to find, as they're Duggan being a lane or the Democratic bench.

And I think that's what it is for me right now.

And if one of those candidates came to you and said, Would you be my LG candidate?

You would say yes in a second?

I'd say, let's make sure there's not a constitutional requirement for age.

Well, let's assume that you meet the constitutional requirement.

You know, listen, I can't say what I would do in two years.

I don't know.

Representative, you love this game.

I love I love solving problems Tim.

I love solving problems.

That's what I came here to do.

I came here to get to the bottom of the big issues people are facing, the chronic underfunding of our neighborhood, police services in our CVI groups, the chronic underfunding my roads.

Right?

I mean, it is things that I've come here to do.

I want to see those fixed.

But you don't want to die in the Michigan house.

I at some point I got to have a family and I got to raise a family at some point.

And it's tough to do that while being in Lansing as often as I am.

You know, it's a lot of time commitments.

Last question I've got is you represent, obviously parts of Dearborn.

This is a statewide television show.

What is something about Dearborn that you think the rest of the state doesn't know that they should know?

I think people need to know.

Dearborn is the intersection of America.

I mean, you have Ford's headquarters there.

You have the rouge plant there.

You have a hospital there.

I mean, truly, it is intersection work.

It's a working class city, a blue collar city.

Right.

That I think agrees with the majority of Michigan and folks that are watching this statewide, we might just have better food, which is something I'd say probably as well as what better foo and a better cultural exchange.

But we relate a lot to the same struggles that people in this they are facing broadly.

Right?

We struggle just like anybody else to pay our bills, right?

We see the price of eggs in ou grocery stores going up to $11 a case just like everybody else.

And what we look for is leadership.

They can actually fight hard to get that done.

We don't need the headlines.

We don't we need people that can get it done.

They're not afraid to dig in and get work done.

And that will define what they say.

You know, you ask me tough questions, folks and I think I take them head on because that's what people want right now.

And in Dearborn, you know I would love for you all to know that, you know, we'r just like the rest of the state.

If we've got an extra minute to feed my curiosity.

You're an ideas guy.

What the heck is Michicoin?

Mishacoin.

Yeah.

Cryptocurrency.

I mean, look, I mean, think it's worth exploring.

You're seeing a huge boos into the crypto space right now federally in Florida and other states.

Florida has Miami coin, right?

I mean, let's explore this stuff.

Let's if there's something to it, we should take advantage of it.

You know, Michigan consistently ranks 42nd, 43rd, 44, 38th in education in reading and economic development, etc., etc.. You know, maybe we can get ahead of a curve and try to be top te before everyone else catches up.

And that's what I try to do with a lot of my ideas that I introduce is to try and catapult us to the top ten sphere.

That's where we should be.

Practical Question How confident should we be that a budget gets done by July 1st?

I think, look, if you're asking me, as you know, the Democratic, you know, member on the committee, I think I'm willin and members are willing to work every single day to make that happen every single day, including weekends.

Right.

We will be here nine to however long they want.

I think that's a better question for Speaker Hall and what he'll do when the budget comes over from the Senate.

If we'll take early action on that or if they'll take longer.

You know, I always joke he has like 15-30 comms guy running around, get that many.

If you want to d a forensic audit on the budget, you just get that many people budget people get 30 budget people to do it then.

You can get it done by July, I think firmly.

Representative did you have fun?

It was a good time.

Do I get a mug to take home with me?

It's yours.

I need a clean one.

I'll get you a clean one.

Thanks for joining us.

Thank you.

Also, thanks for a great panel.

More off the record right here next week.