From WXXI news.

This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Well, the race for the 25th Congressional District features.

And incumbent Democrat Joe Morelli, who joined us on Connections last week.

And a Republican challenger, Virginia McIntyre, who joins us today.

McIntyre him under county legislator serving in her first term.

She's focusing her campaign on concepts of putting the community first and fighting political machines.

She speaks about being a different kind of candidate, an independent voice, someone willing to work at times in bipartisan fashion when necessary, and someone who wants to go and do things very differently in Washington compared to the incumbent.

Virginia McIntyre for Congress.

Dot com is her website.

Virginia McIntyre for congress.com.

And it's nice to have you.

Thank you for making time for the program.

Thank you so much for having me.

It's such a pleasure to be here.

It's a great chance to introduce yourself for voters who may not know much about you.

So I want to start with a little bit of your background.

Tell me a little bit about your background and why you decided you wanted to run for the seat.

Yeah, I and I, and there it is.

So I was born and raised in in gates.

I was actually, I should qualify that with.

I was born at Saint Mary's Hospital when they were still having babies.

My parents had a house and an ice, and then they split up.

And I was one of the first kids to actually live in a divorced family and go back to live with my grandparents back in the 80s.

I mean, it was something that really wasn't that common when I got to kindergarten.

And my mother was in law enforcement, which was rare at that time.

She was really a trailblazer.

And she ended up working at the Rochester Psychiatric Center, and she was the first female sergeant there.

Which, again, that was a place where they had said they would never have female sergeant.

So it was a very big deal when she was promoted.

But I at that time wanted absolutely nothing to do with any of that.

I wanted to follow in the footsteps of Renée Fleming.

I wanted to be an opera singer.

I could sing before I could talk at 18 months old, I was literally singing the alphabet as my grandmother was taking me around.

And I'm named Virginia Eleanor for my grandmother, who was Virginia Eleanor.

I was very close to my grandmother.

And she suffered from Addison's disease, which is, an illness that most people don't know.

I lost her, when I was 12, which kind of shaped my life, because that kicked off a series of mental health issues that at the time, you didn't talk about, facing death at such an early age, facing losing someone that you love at such an early age.

I went through my teens very differently than many of my peers that were looking forward to things like homecoming and proms.

You know, I was an artist writing dark poetry and trying to sing opera and do things that were very, very different, than others and felt that I, I wanted to fit in so badly, but I felt I just couldn't.

Which I think is.

So it's, it's, it's relevant to today because that's how these kids feel everywhere we go.

I got to speak at a university last week, and I was a university teacher over in Italy for years.

And it's just that feeling of they think they're alone.

They think nobody's ever gone through.

They see a person that's an adult.

And this happens a lot with people.

You see a person that's an adult and they look put together, and you don't realize that there's a story of frustration and mental health challenges and resilience, that led them to be put together and that you can do it too.

And I think, too, oftentimes if we don't talk about the struggles that we faced in our past, then those kids don't hear it for the future that says, keep hanging on and keep trying.

And, you know, having that grit that we like talking about that American sense of grit.

So anyway, I did graduate high school, although like I said, it was a lot of struggles with depression all through high school.

I had actually been on television a couple times before I graduated high school.

I won awards as an opera singer, which was something that no one else in my family had ever done before.

There were people that loved music, but nobody was as obsessed with this as I was, so I already started studying languages.

I had studied French in elementary school because I had the opportunity.

I was on a scholarship for Allendale, Columbia for three years of my life.

And then I went back to Chile and, all throughout high school, I studied Spanish, and then I wanted to study Italian because I knew I was going to sing.

And then I because of the depression, I hadn't signed up immediately for, university.

And so I went to MC for two years, and that was wonderful.

I actually, I loved MC at MC, I discovered a love of history, and I did a course in, psychology and in comparative mythology.

And, Joseph, Joseph Campbell's, theories, really made an impression on me at that time.

And then once I discovered this love of studying, I became this Hermione Granger of every single class went on to study at purchase.

By the time I was done with purchase, I graduated magna cum laude.

Even though I was working, I had to work.

I didn't have the money to pay for university without working, so I was waitressing almost full time while taking on what was basically almost a double major of languages and singing at the same time, and graduated in 2001 and hadn't planned for a master's program.

Put myself into purchase.

While I figured I would kind of, apply for other schools.

And then 9/11 happened and they opened up a friendship with the conservatory in Montilla, Italy.

And I went from being a girl that didn't even have a passport to getting on a plane, not really sure of where I was going.

They said Montalvo, but I couldn't find it on a map because on some maps it's listed as Mantua and just went.

I dove into it.

Did you speak much Italian when you went?

No.

And it was.

I got the full experience of how hard it is to adapt to another country.

It was, you know, I and I taught people English over in Italy for years.

And a big part of this was explaining to them how hard it was for me, because everybody you see a person that's fluent in a second language and you think it just happened in one day, and there's a lot of erroneous information out there.

There are these urban legends that if you just go and you live in that country for 2 or 3 weeks, you're going to be fluent.

That is not how language learning happens.

And unfortunately, it discourages people from learning when they find themselves up against that brick wall.

When it comes to language learning, not a lot of people at the time that I went over to Italy.

So I went over to Italy with this idea of being there for six months on a student visa, went through that whole very confusing process.

And let me tell you, the process itself is a mess.

It's confusing.

Got over there.

Didn't really get any help when it came to navigating what I was supposed to do when I was over there.

They don't.

I thought, as an American university student that there would be dorms, there would be a campus.

There was nothing like that at the time.

They initially put us in a hotel.

I didn't have the money for that.

I was using student loans to pay for everything.

And then I went into, We found an apartment.

That apartment had a contract, and I was set telling kids at the university about this the other day.

That had a con.

I thought it was a contract that was registered on the books because the university or the conservatory director was there when we signed it.

Turns out she never registered that contract and then began trying to extort me for money, telling me that she would get my student visa revoked if I didn't give it to her.

Which was crazy.

And, that happened after they had already so we get to Italy in January, that they wanted to send over boy and a girl.

So one of my friends went with me, and by April, they were asking us to stay.

I was so excited about staying.

I was like, you mean I can stay here and do my master's program here?

So I was super excited to just stay in Italy and absorb all that European culture.

The European Union had just started at that time.

And so I stayed.

She flipped out.

My my roommate that went with me at the time, he's he was homosexual and did not like the, the climate there for people, that are LGBTQ.

I he didn't like that and said he was leaving.

I looked over and said, I'm going to crack this code.

I'm going to fit in.

I'm going to figure out, how to live in Italy because it was my dream.

Anyway.

It was a dream that it was happening.

And so the landlady put somebody else in the apartment, which could have been very dangerous.

I'm lucky to be here.

Right.

By a great bit of grace, that person turned out to be like a big brother to me.

And he helped me navigate what was happening to me when they started trying to make false accusations and extort me for money.

And he dragged me down to a police station, which I was terrified to go to.

I was just so sure that if I went there that they were going to revoke my visa, and helped me to get out of the situation and get into safe housing.

And from there, when I finished my conservatory, diploma, I opened up my own tax code and ended up living over in Italy.

As for how long?

For 20 years of my life.

20 years?

20 years.

So it started out thinking, okay, it's going to be six months, and then six months became three years, and then three years just it flew, it became 20 years.

So why come back then?

Oh, boy.

I was very the short version.

Yeah, exactly.

I'm sorry.

Oh, no.

No, it's so long.

Wait.

We could probably talk about this all day.

No, people want to hear about other things, obviously.

So I was teaching at the university level, and I was very sad about the way students were treated over there.

And I was really dedicating a lot of time to reforming the way that the university and the high schools were or were teaching and treating students, and it was taking up all of my time because I wasn't really paid for that.

You know, I was paid the hours that I was in, in the classroom, but I wasn't paid for anything outside of it.

And I was getting all these calls from kids.

I was supervising theses theses.

I was the most popular supervisor because I actually did the work.

I would get kids that had other supervisors that would call me and say that, you know, their supervisor hadn't even reviewed their materials.

And it was taking up so much of my life that I wasn't building a life for myself.

And I realized I looked out at these kids who I adored.

And I realized, you know, if I stay here over a certain age, I'm going to be buried here like it's.

And I'm going to get so old that I can't go back.

And is that what I want?

And I realized that I hadn't seen my home and almost 20 years I hadn't seen my mom until, I mean, I'd seen her.

She'd come to visit.

But that's not the same thing.

And I realized that I wanted to live out my days in America.

Not like that, but in the county you grew up in.

Exactly.

Okay.

Well, I'm that okay.

That when I initially came home, I thought, well, I'll come back to America and I'll travel around and I'll sing in different places.

And, I mean, that was the idea of having my home base here.

But then traveling and singing in California or singing in Texas, singing in other places.

I mean, we were looking into it, but my mother was so sick when I came home that that everything got pushed to the side, everything got pushed to the side of how am I going to help her?

Because she's always helped me.

I almost lost her in 2021.

I mean, she almost died by the time I came home.

I booked my flight in January, but I came home made first, and, she went into the hospital on April 19th.

And so it wasn't that I booked my flight because she was in the hospital.

It just so happened that right before I came home, she went into the hospital.

We couldn't change the flight at that point, and I was afraid I was going to come home and not have her because her gallbladder had gone septic, her kidneys had shut down and she had Covid.

And we just I got I was I was sleeping in four hour shifts because I was afraid if I slept more than four hours, I was going to get a call that we lost her.

It was it was, one of the most stressful periods of my life.

And after 20 years in Italy, I just.

I walked away without even having a going away party, because I was so afraid that I was going to get a false negative on a Covid test that was going to block me there, and that I wasn't going to get to come home, in time for her now.

Thank God I did.

She got better.

We got her.

She was on dialysis.

They had put her on the list for kidney.

They denied her the kidney because she didn't feel comfortable for her beliefs to take the vaccine.

And I called the doctor's back and said, okay, well, I'm going to get her off dialysis.

And they thought I was crazy.

I said, nobody gets off dialysis.

Once you're on, you're on.

Three months later, we had her off dialysis.

Of course, I always say that's by grace.

It's a miracle, right?

But it was also changing her diet, doing other things, to support her.

And once that happened, the question was, what do we do now?

Like what's happening in our country that has led us to a point where they're denying people medical treatment because of their beliefs.

And that's when I got involved.

Really.

That was the beginning of my getting involved and saying, I thought maybe I could do some fundraising.

I could do concerts, I could, you know, and then it turned into me drafting up a petition that went out at the time about government overreach.

I didn't put my name on it.

I wanted it to be a community petition.

That people started saying, well, who drafted this?

Because I had the help of a lawyer.

We were looking at this and I brought it down to Albany.

And then it was me going door to door to get people involved on both sides of the aisle, because I was told there were certain parts of gates that just weren't represented in local politics.

I got onto the Comprehensive Plan board and I said, no, that's terrible.

And it happened to be the part of gates my mother lives in.

So I went door to door and I didn't worry about party affiliation.

I just started telling people, you need to be involved because we're so lucky.

Living in Italy for 20 years, they have a very different form of government.

They don't feel, and we're seeing this right now.

They don't feel they have a voice in their government all over Europe.

This is really the way that people feel.

And we do our government is based on we the people.

Our government is very unique.

I was watching, believe it or not, I was watching Reagan talk about this.

I never liked Reagan when I was a kid, but now I'm watching different clips of things that he said broken down.

And as he was saying, our government is unique because other governments give you the law of what you as a citizen are allowed to do because of the law.

Our government is very different.

The We the people concept of our government is we the people allow the government, not the government that allows us and that led me to be much more involved in politics, to respect the American system more.

I went over to Italy as a kid, like a lot of the kids are coming out of college today with a lot of criticism for our system, and I came home with someone that has a deep respect for our system because of the voice we get to have.

I'm just disappointed that I think many people don't feel they have that voice any more.

We're supposed to be the boss of the elected leaders, correct?

Not the other way around.

Amen.

That is exactly what it's supposed to be.

So Virginia McIntyre runs for county legislature.

You win.

You're serving your first term.

Now you're running for Congress.

And after we take this very short first break, we're going to come back and talk about some of the reasons that you want to take that next step up and go to Washington, what you want to do there.

And I know I've got emails from yours.

We've got a bunch of emails already, a connection to a story.

We'll share more feedback.

And the website for the candidate is Virginia McIntyre for congress.com.

We're right back.

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Our college is doing enough to support students struggling with mental health.

I'm Evan Dawson on Thursday, October 22nd, Connections is leaving the studio and you're invited to join us at noon at the Little Theater for a live conversation about mental health on college campuses, what's working, what isn't, and what students say they need.

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Reserve your seat at WXXInews.org Connections.

This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson, so, Virginia McIntyre, the Republican running for Congress in District number 25.

By the way, the the Democrat in that race is Joe Morelli.

He was on this program a week ago.

Now we have the Republican with us.

And your campaign often talks about a couple of things that really motivate you.

The first is on putting community first.

Amen.

Yes.

What would that mean from a congressional standpoint?

Okay.

So I mean, it's already something that happens in the legislature quite often, right?

When I ran in 2023, there was a primary on me, which is a very rare thing.

I'm sure if you followed Republican politics, it doesn't happen very often.

And that really has a great deal to do with the fact that I was an outsider, at that time.

And obviously I get along with everyone now.

I don't want to bring up or hash out any of all of those old discussions, but what it comes down to is that I was elected by my community and therefore am tied to them in my voting because I did not have any sort of, at the time, financial support until I won the primary.

But even then it really wasn't because I had won my primary in that year.

There wasn't a Democrat opponent.

So there was no need to.

So I won my race based on my interactions with the community.

And that comes with consequences.

So the consequence of that is that I have always voted and oftentimes voted been the only Republican to vote on certain issues, because I see them as something that my community, because I know them.

It's 25,000 and some odd people, but I know so many people in the community and spend so much time with them, both Democrats and Republicans, that when I vote, I vote with a peace of mind of knowing I am voting the way this community wants.

The implication is that you think your opponent in this race does not do that, I absolutely do, yes, that is definitely the implication.

Okay.

So the implication is I'm outright stating it.

Absolutely.

I mean, I've talked to person after person in fact, even a great many Democrats who I don't want to out.

But I mean, I've had private conversations with Democrats and even some elected officials that just do not feel that he is supportive of them in any way, that he listens to them.

They feel like there was a kind of whip correct on them.

And if you fall out of line, you know you're going to be kicked to the curb.

Well, that's the second theme that I hear often from your campaign is Political Machines.

And yes, that they're not healthy and they're not healthy.

They're not healthy.

That is what we're seeing.

Look at Republicans get upset when I when I talk about this being a both sides issue.

But it certainly is right how some oh boy.

Everybody okay.

Democrats stand at the podium and scream Republicans.

Right.

And oftentimes of course, they're screaming about the president.

Republicans scream at a podium, stand on a podium and scream about Democrats, and they'll scream about Mondale.

That's not healthy for us.

That's not healthy.

And half the time you're you're attacking the people that actually voted for those people.

It's we've got to focus on issues.

And oftentimes that standing at a podium and screaming about something doesn't come with actual action that brings to the well-being of your community.

So if you don't have something constructive to say that leads to action, then it's better to not.

Which I have chosen to do.

Much to the dismay of many of the Republicans that I know, it's better for you to not make that statement and only make the statement when you are proposing some sort of legislative action.

Period.

Do you think the president is essentially running a political machine in Washington?

That Congress, which is Republican, now does what he wants?

No, I don't think that they I think that they're two separate things, quite frankly, because we we see that, in fact, Republicans complain often about the fact that Congress doesn't do what the president wants.

You get a lot of the president's the people that love the president, okay.

And some of them are independents.

Some of them are Republicans that will complain that Congress isn't doing enough of what they feel he wants.

Who is saying that?

Oh, gosh, there are definitely that's not so much here.

But I mean, they are definitely Republicans in in the Republican base in general.

So, again, we have to separate what people say in district 25 and what people are saying that.

Yeah, I'm just trying to get a sense of what you would like to do in Washington.

This is what, according to Yahoo News, this is what the president said just three days ago during a midterm campaign rally in Bullhead City, Arizona.

The president bragged about not needing congressional approval to do just about anything.

He said, quote, I don't go to Congress.

Like, remember Joe Biden, Sleepy Joe, if they would just give me approval in Congress, well, you're not going to get it, Joe, if you ask.

So you just do it.

You're the president.

And well, it doesn't sound like the president thinks he needs Congress, but he does.

And they and they have blocked a great many things that he has proposed right now.

What have they blocked?

Oh my gosh.

There are, there are there are funding issues.

There are again the I what, what I hear especially when you're, when you're listening to what's happening online, there's a complaint that all of the things that he wanted to do that the Republicans will take, a step back from it.

And I always say to people that complain about this, those Republicans are trying to listen to their districts.

I would assume, right.

I would assume I would hope and I would assume so.

I don't want to assign ill will to any of them.

And in my case, there probably there are a lot of issues if I'm going to listen to our community.

Our community doesn't like it when he talks about that stuff.

Just like that, our community district 25 absolutely hates comments like that.

They have talked to me about how much they dislike comments like that, which is why I did not seek the endorsement of the president.

I did not say you did not seek no.

Oh, you to know.

Well, I mean, I I'm getting to know you.

Oh yeah.

So a lot of our listeners want to know are do you consider yourself a Trump Republican, a Maga Republican?

I can well, you know, I consider myself a Republican locally, but an independent nationally, that is I the local party is very different than and New York state Republicans, blue state Republicans are very different than red state Republicans.

I was listening to the debate between, you know, Lawler and Connelly and listening to Mike Lawler take some very, in my opinion, moderate stances.

On on a lot of issues like immigration and other things.

And I think that the, the voters in a district like district 25 want a more moderate stance.

That's what they have.

So what are some examples for you?

So where do you think you break with either the president or in general break out a lot of look, I have that's the reason that we need to talk on a radio show and not in the comments sections.

Right.

Because I don't want there's always any with that.

I would like to endorse.

Yes.

I mean a comment sections of a there are tons of people that want answers and comment sections.

And I specifically waited until I was talking to you so that we could talk about this so that there's no confusion.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

So I had the opportunity to sing the national anthem at the rally in Syracuse.

I was called by the Trump team directly, and I said to them, I have promised even the Republicans, there's a lot of Republicans out there that feel that they've broken with the party, and they will never vote Republican again.

And they complained to me about it.

So I get the emails, I talked to them at the door because they they really don't like where the party's going.

And I said, I need to be independent of that to be able to vote for this district as they need me to.

And if I go to that rally and I sing, it's going to be seen as an endorsement of him, and it's going to be seen as an endorsement of the RNC.

Now, not going comes with aside from the fact I'm an opera singer, I would have been on national television.

There is a part of it that even if Joe Biden had asked me to sing, you're singing for a president.

But I said, there are things that are just way more important than my singing career and get myself on national news or getting that funding because it would have, I'm sure, come the blessing comes with funding, right?

But that's not important.

At the end of the day, the voters of this district that have trusted me with a message that I'm going to listen to them, that would have been going against what they wanted.

So I said, no.

Do you have some voters, though, who wanted you there and were stuck with your decision?

Yes.

And they've told you that, of course they did.

Oh, I have a lot of Republican voters.

That's the reason we have to talk about this live and not in comment sections.

I have some of my dearest friends that are very upset that I am not pushing a message that is more conservative.

I am already standing up right now because I believe that the most important thing like Abraham Lincoln himself said back in the day when he was talking about at that time the abolitionist movement, he said the most important thing is the Republic is keeping the republic together.

And we're at a point where we feel so divided because people feel they can't trust you.

If you're out there saying you're going to listen to the community and then you disappear after the election, which is something that I have worked hard not to do since to my 2023 election.

You've got to prove to the voters over and over and over again that you're going to keep your word, because these days politicians don't.

And so my goal, I say, especially with this, this came up and I was grateful I respectfully declined.

I didn't I didn't want the rejection of the president.

Do you think that's too strong a term?

I think that's too strong a term.

It's a rejection of endorsement of any political figure.

Okay.

I'm not endorsing any other political figure except for my local people.

We've got a local slate of candidates that are unique.

The local party has chosen candidates to sort of take a new direction of the Monroe County Republican Committee, which I have a huge amount of respect for.

You look at Kellyanne to Florence, who's running for assembly.

Carlina, Washington.

These are two teachers, all right, which we generally think of teachers as being more liberal that are out there running on, hey, you know, the education system and our kids, they need help.

We've got to increase our literacy rates.

We've got to make sure that the money that we're investing in education is really going to giving those outcomes to our next generation.

That's a very unique message for Republican candidates.

And yet here we have two women that are out there saying just that.

Okay, so to your point then to make sure we're clear on a few things.

So let me just ask you then a few follow ups to that.

I take your point that you think it's too strong to say that was a rejection of the president.

Yes, it was a rejection of the endorsement, rejection of endorsing.

And I understand in the same way that you would have said no to Biden.

Okay.

Well, yes, I think that it's, yes, but I wouldn't have said no to singing at an event for if I were called to Washington to sing for I don't even know what right.

It's a different thing if you're called there by a president.

It's another thing to sing at a political rally when you have a district of people that feel very strongly about the person that's holding that rally.

Yeah, sure.

A rally is very different.

So I rejected the endorsement.

Okay.

It would have been a type of endorsement and I rejected it.

I am grateful that that was very sweet of them to offer.

Like, I want to be kind about it, but you can be kind about something and stick to your guns, which is exactly what I have done in my legislative career.

You can look at every single time I've broken with my party on a vote.

I'm not out there bashing my colleagues.

I understand that they have their they have their communities, that they represent, right?

Just like I don't bash my Democrat colleagues.

You know, I have people that are that I'm friends with that we have very, very different ideas.

I mean, there are tons of times when I voted with Rachel, and a lot of the Republicans are constantly upset about things.

She says, hey, I respect the fact that she feels very strongly and that she's representing her community.

Carolyn Delvecchio Hoffman we talk all the time.

She is representing her community.

I've got to represent the community that I'm currently representing in gates and be loyal to them and what they elected me to go to do in the legislature.

And that same concept holds true if I'm running for Congress.

I'm running for Congress of the 25th Congressional District, which is a de plus 11, or at least a D plus nine.

We've got 85,000 more Democrats and Republicans.

They've been very clear about how they feel about Donald Trump.

We did some polling.

He is most certainly underwater in this district.

It's not I'm not bashing him to say that, but we have to understand what the voters want and give it.

Okay.

So a couple things and have you voted for President Trump in the past?

I prefer to keep my voting private.

I did not vote in okay.

I did not vote in 2016, and I did not vote in 2020, the only presidential election because I was in Italy.

Yeah.

And the only presidential election that I have recently voted in was the 2024 election.

I'd prefer I don't want voters to be influenced by my we're constantly putting these politicians up there for their own personal ideas, their own personal ideals, their own personal ideas.

My personal ideas should fall a little bit to the background when we're talking about how important it is for us not to be influencing the voters.

So let me try to be fair and substantive.

I'm not trying to pin you on something as a gotcha.

I'm trying to make sure because what you're describing yourself as is a local Republican, an independent nationally, a voice that isn't just going to go and say, Mr.

Speaker, what do you want me to do?

I'll do it.

Absolutely.

You're going to be an independent.

I've already called the Republican, the Republican Congressional Office and told them that.

And they believe it or not, they are very understanding of that and said I would even be allowed to caucus with them as an independent.

Okay.

So I respect the fact you don't want to tell us who you voted for in 2024.

I am curious to know what you felt like on January 26th, 2021 oh January oh, I was in Italy at the time watching it.

Disappointed?

Disappointed, really?

That comes off of a year.

I mean, we were talking about Italy right now, right?

We're seeing unrest.

We're seeing people feel like they aren't heard.

And I watched everything that was happening with my, my friend and his husband in Italy.

We were we were getting ready for, an online concert series that we were doing, and.

Yeah, I was concerning and disappointing that this is to this.

We have come I mean.

We came off of a year of unrest all over the country.

It was just constantly watching.

I sat in Italy and watched the American people tear each other apart constantly.

And that's one of the things that actually, when I got the chance to get involved in politics, that's one of the reasons that I've said, I don't want to go out there and vilify anyone, right?

It's this idea that we're vilifying this whole group of people because of how they're voting, whether we're vilifying people for voting for randomly or vilifying people for voting for Trump.

That's not it's completely unfair to go after your neighbors in this way constantly.

And we've got to find a way to come to the table together and heal.

And that was definitely not a moment of healing.

No, no, no, I agree with that.

But that's also the only time in my lifetime, maybe the only time in the history of this country that we haven't had a peaceful transition of power and attempted blocking of it.

But I've also heard from a lot of conservatives who call me and say, yes, but it's because the real winner of that election was being denied.

Do you and I accept that we had a president from 2020 to 2024 and his name was Joe Biden?

And you're not changing that, right.

But you accept that we had that president.

Do you accept that he actually won the election legitimate?

Of course, we've already answered this.

Two people, we're done.

That election is over.

Done with that now.

So when you go to Washington then and you're willing to break with Republicans, are there is there an issue or two that you tell voters, say, look, I'm absolutely I'm not going to line up with the typical Republicans on Xyzzy.

Well, the first one is energy.

Everybody's upset about the energy companies.

Everyone is upset about this.

So in 1992, they allowed for energy companies to be bought out by foreign companies.

Right.

And since then that in 1998.

And by the way, this was something that when RGA was then sold off, my opponent was in favor of making the conditions better for that, that sale rather than the I mean, we found the article today, we were looking at it rather than the I think it was like 600 million that they were looking at giving to the actual ratepayers at that time.

It's a mess.

The energy system is a mess right now.

And part of that problem is that they're foreign owned.

President Trump made a whole I mean, it was there was a big discussion about TikTok being owned by China.

Okay.

Why are you not that upset about critical infrastructure where if it were to go down, it would be a national security risk being owned by foreign companies.

So, Josh Riley, who's a Democrat out in New York, 20 and New York, 19, has proposed something called the Keep It Lights Local act, which would at least, if nothing else, bring back that idea of 51% of this company has to be owned by an American, by Americans, period.

Because people are very upset.

I get it from both Democrats and Republicans.

They're all upset about the way our energy policy is playing out and the bills themselves.

So while the I voted down the study in 2024, because that's what my constituency that I represent, gates overwhelmingly wanted me to do you about the county legislation.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

But when it comes to this policy, we need to press the president on this.

We need to press the president on.

Hey, why is TikTok more important than our critical energy infrastructure?

And why isn't this being called a national emergency right now?

Let me make sure I understand that in 2024, when you're on the money, you are on the moon or county legislature.

You voted against a study about a possible public takeover of our geni.

Yes.

Under the grounds that you think your constituents didn't want.

Oh, they absolutely did not.

I've never been applauded for a well, I was applauded for those who won't do, but I, I, I was applauded for that particular vote by different groups of constituents.

They were very it's not they don't want a public takeover.

They don't want a public takeover because they don't trust Monroe County to handle it.

Well, okay.

But that doesn't mean that they like their utility.

Absolutely not.

And that's what I said at the time.

I made a point.

If you go back and review what I said, this is not a vote.

Remember, I refused to take PAC money.

I haven't taken any PAC money from any of the PACs.

And I refused to be bought out by anybody because I see that whether it's right or not, I see it as a bribe.

And I think that's part of the system that we need to start reform in immediately, because all these PAC donations make people ask questions.

When you do get up and vote on something about why you're voting on them, right?

That's the political machine that we're talking about.

Everybody seems to be taking this money.

And I have said, absolutely not.

I don't want it.

I don't want anything to do with it.

Because it gets in the way of your decision making process.

Have you found fundraising harder?

Yeah, of course we need money.

Yeah, but that doesn't matter.

I've got to stick true to what the people want.

I don't want the people that everything I bought and paid for by somebody.

And win or lose, that is a more important message to get out there and pound home than anything else that I can do.

That's why we didn't accept the endorsement.

Like I said, it's not that I'm saying that I because I know Republicans get very upset about stuff like that, but it's that's not what I'm saying.

I'm saying that everybody seems to be bought and paid for by someone.

I want to only be working for you.

And if I have to kind of grind my teeth down and work harder and deal with having less money to spend on this campaign because of it, then so be it.

So let's do this here.

I've got your phone calls and emails lined up here, and our last segment with the candidate, Virginia McIntyre.

We're going to run through anything that you want to hear from her.

She is the Republican running for Congress in district number 25.

And we always tell you before you vote, listen to the candidates at length if they're willing to.

Come on.

And I appreciate the fact that Virginia McIntyre, the Republican, is here today.

The Democrat in the race is Joe Morelli.

He was on this program last week.

We'll come right back with your questions for the candidate next, support for your public radio station comes from our members and from Bob Johnson Auto Group.

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This afternoon at four.

This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

This is not a lightning round, but we've got to move fast here because there's a lot of questions here.

So real quick, do you have a political hero?

Oh my goodness.

If Abraham Lincoln.

No.

Again that's not a bad one.

I know that's a good one a good one.

And and John F Kennedy, you know, he looked over and said, ask not what your country can do for you.

Ask what you can do for your country.

And I truly believe that.

And Susan B Anthony, let's I mean, every woman in Monroe County should hold Susan B Anthony up.

She is.

She fought for our right to vote.

And by the way, she was supported at that time by the Republican Party, which is why we did my launch at the park right near.

We thought we could do it in front of of.

We thought we had permission to do it at her house.

And then we ended up doing it at the park just to make sure that we keep them nonpolitical, but.

Absolutely.

Okay.

Paul in Brighton on the phone.

Hey, Paul.

Go ahead.

Yeah.

Hi.

I like what I'm hearing.

I'm a Democrat.

I'll get that out of the way real quick.

What?

I like, what I'm hearing.

And what I would like to know is, when you're.

If you're elected, how are you going to actually make things happen?

What do you get into the sausage making machine?

How are you going to make things happen?

Absolutely.

So I think that there are things that people want us to stand at a podium and talk about, and the energy policy from before.

I am really looking forward to if he'll do it.

I mean, I haven't asked his permission yet because I'm not in office, but if Josh is in there and he'll stand at a podium with me, I'm going to champion this issue and be a thorn in everybody's side until it becomes something that we're constantly talking about, because I think it's that important.

So I think that that is part of making that change.

I think that listening to the people and continuing that contact with the people, because people get very, very upset when they're when the people, they're public officials.

I don't like the word politician right there.

Public officials are only available at election time.

That's disgusting.

You public servants?

Yes.

Better?

Yes.

And.

But people use that word.

But then they don't mean it, right?

I'm out there picking up trash on Saturdays.

I won't be able to do that when I'm in Washington.

But I want to make sure that I'm constantly in contact with the people, because I think that that's the most important aspect of being a representative.

That's what I'm running.

That's the job that I'm running for, is to be your representative, which means I have to be in contact with people, all kinds of people.

That's what we've been doing.

We've been going to a lot of different places where they're generally not, overwhelmingly thrilled with Republicans.

And we go and we listen to what people have to say.

And, that has been something that I've been doing since, since even before I got elected in 23.

I think it's important you have to get out of your comfort zone, and you have to talk to the people.

They have to feel that you're listening to them, even if you can't do exactly what they want, because the rest of the community may want something else.

That was Paul and Brighton different.

Paul on email wants to know if you think, is there anything that you would object to from what you've seen from the behavior in the last two years of ice?

Yeah.

Well, it's funny, like I said, I was listening to to Congressman Lawler, who again, I listen to him because there's a similar make up of his district said.

And he actually was talking about reform.

And, and first of all, body cameras, I mean, body cameras are fundamental for us to understand what's happening because if we don't have those body cameras and people are just taking cell phone videos, you can get them from all different angles.

We need the body, the body cameras to be on each and every one of them.

And also, clear uniforms with badges, clear uniforms with badges.

So you know who and that he suggested that I listen to him suggest that.

And if and I'm assuming that there are a lot of other Republicans that would agree with that.

So if if there were to be some sort of bipartisan legislation of, of reform, of those kinds of things, I think that that is something and most Republicans agree with the body cams, that's not something that's going to upset anyone.

Do you think that the the shootings that resulted in deaths in Minneapolis, the Ice agents were those those are, those extrajudicial killings tragic, but absolutely true.

Were they justified shootings?

Oh, boy.

Well, those have to that has to be reviewed.

And I don't think that I should be making, claims on any cases before reviewing them.

But I think that part of the problem is, is that I know it from my own personal experience.

Right?

I come from a law enforcement family, but when I myself had had thought that I was being threatened as far as my visa status in Italy, I was afraid to go to law enforcement.

So you've got people that are panicking around law enforcement because they're you're not dealing with those local police that they know you're dealing with these outside agents, and then you have the agents that are terrified because they think that they're that they're being attacked.

So it's both sides right now.

Both the agents and protesters and others are not thinking straight when they're in those split second decisions that they have to make.

That's why local officers being involved is really the best way to handle these situations, so that you're not having people deal directly with the Ice agents themselves.

Let's get here.

There's a couple, one from Jim and one from Jill.

Jim, should the January 6th protesters who were found guilty and put in jail have been pardoned, as they were?

Yeah, there were.

Apparently he did a Blake and pardoned for like 300 and some odd people.

Without looking at each individual case, they should have looked at each individual case.

The blanket pardon shouldn't have happened, but I think I think blanket pardons in general show a lack.

And this is on whether you're talking about things like bail reform or when you're doing a blanket pardon, you're not looking at the individual cases and whether or not they should be pardoned.

So I don't believe in Blake and pardons.

I don't believe in any sort of reform to our justice system.

That would include blanket release of people that, for whatever reason, are incarcerated.

Joe wants to know, should Congress have had a say about whether to go to war in Iran?

And if you were a member of Congress, how would you vote?

Yeah, this is this is a big one that keeps coming up over and over and over again.

The for I again, I don't have it right in front of me.

The War Act allows a president to take certain military action without going to Congress.

Although I do believe that the community itself is divided on this issue.

And I think that the community needs to have a say in what we're doing.

And right now they haven't.

And right now, what I'm hearing from the community while I'm out, boots on the ground, is that they're split.

There's a number of people that are concerned about the issue of nuclear are meant, and then there's a number of people that say, hey, we don't want to be involved in any foreign conflicts at all.

And right now we're looking at kind of a divide, which in my opinion, we need to talk to the community more.

It's for me, I'm hearing at 5050 and, what I want to know before I make a decision on that is how the community feels.

I think it should be the community to make this choice.

It's, it's your money that we're out there spending.

So you don't have a personal feel.

Take yourself out of running for Congress.

If someone came to your door and said, you good with this or war.

Okay, so I feel there should be less military spending in general.

Okay.

And more focus on the threats like the grid, which come down to being a national security threat.

And we're not looking at it, we're not talking about it.

And yet we could be attacked at any moment.

And when and if the grid goes down, all of our systems go down.

Right.

But the reality is, is that I'm not going to Congress to do what Virginia wants to do.

I'm doing going to Congress to do with the community.

There's going to be something that your own moral instincts, I mean, in the 1960s, in the 1950s, big majorities of this country would have told you if you were their member of Congress, please pass a law saying black people can't marry white people.

I don't think you would have gone to Congress and said, well, that's what they want.

Well, there's a constitution for that, right?

The Constitution does not allow us to discriminate against people in that way.

I guess I'm trying to figure out if there's a way for you to kind of discern, okay, I got to represent the community here, even if I'm not good with this or if there's some lines that you say, I'm not crossing this, I feel very strongly about this.

They elected me to be their representative.

I'm going to go vote this way.

I again, I feel that when I get up to vote right now there, let me give you an example.

Okay.

So I, my mother was in law enforcement, big law enforcement, family, the public defender, has to be reappointed.

And there was a great deal of she had said a bunch of things about law enforcement that the Republicans were up in arms with, but so much had gone into her being in that position, specifically Frank Oak, her before me.

There was a lot of back and forth about that, and he had received so much community feedback to support her that he did.

And that is actually what led to my primary, basically behind the scenes, that when I got up, I could have I could have just voted against her and she still would have been reconfirmed.

But the reality is, is that I have to vote with my community.

I can't vote based on what I want.

You can't poll people on everything you do, though, right?

Well, that's why you have to be involved with them.

You have to know what their to know what they want.

We have digital.

I mean, I have a whole bunch of people asking me, we have digital technology that makes it possible for us at every turn to know what people think and feel in a day.

In an age where emails, surveys, online, we have so many different ways to talk to residents.

And if you're out there with a community, you get a way of you get a way of knowing how they feel.

A lot of Americans.

So we were talking to somebody about this in an email.

The platform of 2024 of the presidential campaign for Trump was really the synthesis of it was cheaper gas and no, no, worse.

Yeah.

Right.

Yes.

Okay.

And I have a lot of Republicans behind the scenes that are frustrated with the fact that they don't feel that that platform.

And so that's a 5050 issue when you're talking to people, it is a 5050 issue.

It is a 50.

But even Republicans are telling you the Democrats don't love the Iran war.

Well, because those same people will look at me and say, I understand why he has to do it, because nuclear weapons, I understand why he has to.

So there's a lot of people that feel very, very strongly.

And this is I've had a lot of Democrats tell me this too.

I would have thought that there would have been a clearer, divide against this in the community because it is such a left leaning community.

And I'm very surprised at the number of Democrat voters that have said to me that they're concerned about nuclear arms in Iran.

Okay.

So when I have that many and I've got Republicans, I've had a couple Republicans get in my face and absolutely say that they're not for it whatsoever.

I think that what we have to do is to make sure that when this conflict does end, and hopefully it will end as soon as possible, because that's what people really want.

People really want to see this thing over.

Even if you agree with it that we do not have a disastrous pullout like we did from Afghanistan, because that is still fresh in people's minds.

We had boots in the ground in Afghanistan.

It's true.

We don't have any boots on the ground in Iraq.

But if the pullout if if pulling out of Iran were to be seen as a running away with our tail between our legs, that definitely would create a problem.

So there has to be a graceful way for this conflict to end that does not compromise national security and embolden them to do that thing that everybody is worried about with nuclear arms.

Can I at least get like a, yes.

No.

And if you didn't, Congress should have had a vote initially on that.

That's, I believe it is.

I have to look it up because you're asking me about it, and I should have had this in my head before coming on today.

There is there is the.

I believe it's me.

Is it the war powers that allowed him to do some military action before going to go?

Well, this president says he can do anything you want.

Yes.

Well, and Congress and Congress in general, there are definitely things that have been blocked by Congress that he wanted to do.

And, that's why negotiations go back and forth and back and forth.

Do I think that Congress should have a say now?

Yes.

Okay.

I guess instead of looking at what has been because it's there at this point, Congress should definitely have a say now into whether we continue.

That's a better way of looking at it and turning Congress before me.

I was not, and the community itself should have a say in the money that we spend and how we spend it.

All right.

Going fast here.

John wants to know, would you support a national ban on abortion?

No exceptions.

A national ban on abortion that would go against the Roe versus Wade ruling and against the will of the people that was expressed with the proposition one.

So, no, you would not support that?

No.

Okay.

I in general and I have already expressed this to several pro-life groups.

So they do know they are aware.

Okay.

What is your position personally then generally on abortion?

Oh boy.

Okay.

So I am a woman who has personal experience with abortion.

And I think that there are not enough women like me that actually get a seat at the table to talk about this.

If I could change one event in my life, that is the event I would change because my little boy would be 23.

So sorry.

So, I think there need to be more women at the table that understand the heartbreak that women like me feel.

And we're not getting enough powerful women out there that are talking about this issue.

I think that we are at a point and I talk to because I'm personally pro-life and I talk to pro-life groups quite a bit about this, that we are at a point that this is no longer a legislative issue, and we should not be legislating our way out of something.

We didn't legislate our way into.

I've waited to talk about this bill because my mother has told me that she would never want to know.

And so I, I feel that she shouldn't have to share that burden that I bear with me.

If that's something that she does not want to hear me talking about.

On the same token, we have to start looking at what drives women to make this choice and have a structure in place to help them.

We have a birthrate problem in this country.

People don't seem to want to be mothers.

They don't seem to to want to have families anymore, whether they feel they can't afford it or whether they feel that they are that that they can't find the right person.

It's it's sad.

And we've taken this issue of the decision that women make to end a life.

And we've taken all of women's rights and made it about the decision to end a life rather than the incredible power that we have to nurture it within ourselves.

Women have so much of an ability to care.

Women are the caregivers out there generally.

You know, women my age are taking care of both their parents and they're driving their kids around to soccer practice and all of the various, the various appointments that their kids have, and they're running themselves ragged while they're working full time.

Women have so much of an ability to wrap their arms around a community and love that community.

We are the beating heart of this country, and I feel like because our rights are so attached to this one issue that New York State has already voted on, we're limping around with a broken heart, and I think that we need to find healing in that.

So how do I think it should be handled?

While I went out there?

I've sat on boards where I've sat side by side with people that have gotten up, and they've said that they're on the board of Planned Parenthood, and I've had to get up in a room and be polite and respectful and, and say to them, well, I'm pro-life, but because I'm pro-life, we're going to find common ground on things like the Head Start program.

We're going to find common ground on the nurse family part, the nurse Family Partnership, where you're helping these young mothers to have those babies.

I think that there has to be a way that this shifts into a different dialog.

It's more of a spiritual conversation at this point than it is a legislative conversation.

And the overturning of Roe versus Wade and the New York state vote on proposition one really took that off of the table from the federal perspective.

Thank you for making the ten this hour has flown by.

We should have done two.

I know I'll come back, but you can come back.

I would love to come back.

You're welcome.

No matter what happens.

Look, you're going to be serving people in some capacity no matter what happens in November.

So please come back on this program.

Absolutely.

Virginia McIntyre and the website if you want to learn more about the candidate, the issues or background, it's Virginia McIntyre, MC I NTR yes, sir for congress.com.

Her opponent in the race is Joe Morelli.

He was on this program last week.

Now you've heard from both of them.

We appreciate that from all of us at Connections.

Thanks for watching.

Thanks for listening.

Thanks for being with us.

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