A Working Mom And Army Veteran Explains Why Accountability Beats Party Loyalty

Congress doesn’t just make laws, it sets the moral temperature for the whole country. When that temperature feels off, people notice, and they stop trusting everything downstream. We sit down with Haley Dollar, a mother of four, Army veteran, author, and Libertarian candidate running for Congress in Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District, to talk about what she thinks voters are sensing right now and why she refuses to squeeze her views into the usual Democrat vs Republican box.

Haley lays out what “libertarian values” mean in practice: constitutional limits, personal freedom, and a neighbor-first culture that doesn’t need party permission to do the right thing. From her perspective inside federal agencies and as a veteran, she describes how corruption and lack of accountability can show up in everyday workplaces, not just in headlines. We also get into why political outsiders struggle with funding and access, and why she believes transparency and directness scare the system more than any polished talking point.

Some of the most intense moments come when we discuss congressional workplace misconduct, secrecy, and the public cost of protecting powerful people. From there we shift into real-life policy that hits families now: homelessness and criminalisation, healthcare affordability, food safety, rising taxes, and the broader cost-of-living squeeze. Haley also shares her unconventional campaign approach, including a May 29 charity fundraiser in Norfolk that blends civic work with performance and community building.

Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s fed up with politics as usual, and leave a review so more people can find the conversation. What’s the first accountability change you want to see from your elected officials?

Transcript

Welcome And Candidate Snapshot

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to Listen Up Podcast. And today we have Haley Dollar. She is a are you still running?

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Yes, I am.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 0:18

I am running for the seat, the congressional seat in C D three.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Okay. All right. I know you ran in in 2025, right?

SPEAKER_02 0:28

Yeah, I ran for the delegate seat in the 70th against Shelly Simons, but you know, lost my primary in the Republican primary. But you know, it's how we learn.

Why Libertarian Values Fit

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Right. So Haley is a mother of three. Four. She's four. That's right. Yeah, twins, right? Mother of four. Um, she is an author, and she is a libertarian. Right. So you're gonna have to explain all of that. So she's done quite a few things. So um, thank you. Thank you for coming on and talking with us. Welcome. Okay. All right. So one of the things I want to talk about is you're a libertarian, and usually right now, we're in a political environment where it's independents are getting lost. It's the Democrats or the Republicans. Why are you a libertarian?

SPEAKER_02 1:30

So I carry the libertarian values, which is about preserving the Constitution and about protecting the people. And when it came to my race last year, I learned a lot. The libertarians didn't ask me to run. I had a previous Republican delegate come to me directly and say, I think you would be great at this. You should run. Let's go. And I thought, well, I've never done that before. I could be about this. And from the background and from the forefront of running a campaign, a very small one, you know, having no knowledge, you know, I'm not a political science major. If anything, I'm more knowledgeable in healthcare and the law. You know, currently working on my third master's at William Mary right now as a master's of law, but falling back on my, you know, two, I have a master's of science in health education, a master's of science in emergency and disaster management with a concentration on homeland security. So I have all of this knowledge, I have all of this experience wrapped up. And I found that when it came to a two-party system, I really just did not fit in with either. And neither one was really too happy about me being there. There were members of the Republican Party that loved me. They loved what I stood for. They were more, you know, moderate or progressive. And when it came, you know, to about uh November of last year, I got a call from the state party chair. And she said, How would you feel about running as a libertarian? And I said, Well, tell me more. And the more we got to talking, I attended a few meetings and I was just sold based on the fact that it's not about party politics. It's just about doing the right thing, actually exposing the issues that are there. And let me tell you, the longer that I've been in politics, the more that I've learned needs to be addressed. And people are terrified. They are scared to speak up. They are they're scared to point things out when it's almost obvious. I mean, I went to do a photo shoot at Congress and to do a tour um two months back, and I published the photos. It was supposed to be like an Elle Woods going to Congress moment. You know, I've always loved legally blonde. And it turned into learning about the expose of the sex cages underneath of Congress, which apparently many people know about, but no one's addressing. And I learned about this shortly after the that the last 80-20 vote where they voted against, you know, releasing sexual misconduct charges and files in Congress. My opponent, um Bobby Scott, you know, voted no on that. And I have, you know, I have issues with I have yeah, and I have issues with the fact that the men and women that we have put into these offices that have this influence, that have the power to shape our very lives, can't keep it in their pants on the clock. And if anything, when, you know, when it comes time to settle lawsuits with their staff or their family members or whoever they're doing this with on the clock, we're paying for that too. And I have major, major issues with the fact that these people that we've elected, you know, if they can't keep it in their pants, if they can't do the right thing on the clock, then what else is it that they're doing? We're seeing so many issues within the party, so much money and fraud and programs, you know, not just within the state of Virginia, but all over the country, where they would be allowed to go unchecked if there weren't advocates, people like myself and you, that are willing to go ask questions, that are willing to be on camera and say, Well, I don't really understand what you're saying. Can you explain it to me? Can you give me some more details? And you always know when people have something to hide, when they might regurgitate a lot of text, but they're giving you no context. And I started to see that at a lot of meetings that I went to. And when it came to the libertarians, it's simply do the right thing. Follow the constitution. You know, we have our rights as a country. We're supposed to be free. A lot of it's if you're not doing anything truly malicious or evil, you know, it's the mind your business lifestyle. And I like that. Be neighborly, you know, love one another, community. That's how it should be, and that's how we I feel will prevail as a nation. And I think that this current political climate is ideal for that because a lot of people are sick of things going on on the Republican end. There are people that are sick of things going on on the Democratic end. And a lot of a lot of people are, you know, lost right now because they feel that there is, you know, what can we do? Everything's already so messed up. What can we do? Is there anyone who can truly do anything or is going to be willing to do so without backdoor deals and major lobbyist money?

Congress Tour And Personal Stakes

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Right. So I agree with you. As far as if you take a look at the elections, there's a larger block of people that do not participate in voting than it does for either one of the parties. So uh there's something missing, and I don't feel like it's being addressed. So I I do agree with you. Um, you were talking about the sex cages in Congress. Um you you've experienced, I don't know if there's a reason it's pretty personal for you, but you've experienced sexual abuse and then even some uh human trafficking, right? Yeah, so that's just something that's kind of uh uh personal to you, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:29

No, it's it's very personal to me because I don't want to see people being taken advantage of, and I don't want taxpayer dollars funneling that kind of lifestyle, you know. Um uh one of the congressional aides, what was it, four or five months ago, literally set herself on fire. And you can't show me, you know, I can only imagine some what someone had to go through for them to get to that point.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Right.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

And I understand that it is a very stressful job, but as you you being a survivor yourself, you know, I feel that we can see things that other people don't see at first. We can see red flags, we can see patterns. And after going up to Congress, you know, touring the halls, seeing the crypts, you know, walking through the tunnels and all of that. I just I had the absolute ick. I had the absolute ick, and I thought to myself, who would want to work here? It just felt awful, just bad energy, almost just like evil. And it's funny because people like to allude the fact that, you know, I've in my last campaign I got called the Antichrist and evil and a witch and all of this, and found it, you know, somewhat humorous that, you know, here I am at our nation's capital, and I'm walking out like, oh, didn't like didn't enjoy that experience. And it wasn't anything that you know any of the people that were working there did or said. It was just, you know, when you walk into a space and you're just like, hmm, I don't know how I feel about that.

Army Medic To Federal Whistleblower

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Right. So I want to talk a little bit about your background. You were um you're an army veteran, and you were in the military for what five years?

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

And you served as a a medic. Yes. So something like that means that you are your interest is definitely people taking care of people. So um let's talk about how that's affected you now. Just being in the military. Obviously, you want to serve, but let's talk about how being in the military has affected you in your view of um the government and politics now.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

It's a love-hate relationship, and it wasn't just serving in the army that you know has caused that um feeling because my closure of working with the federal government as a GS11 employee, you know, I planned on doing at least 10 years buying back my time and, you know, just riding it out, you know, maybe hitting GS 12 or 13 and you know, sitting like everyone else does on a position, doing a good job. But after working for multiple agencies, you start to see the corruption in real time. You see that there is no accountability that good people are ran through and let go when certain people are allowed to extort money out of taxpayers' pockets and these budgets that they put out there. And it gets to just be, you know, what when an example of this would be I I worked at the VA and I had a direct supervisor who clearly had issues with disabled veterans. The person who was in the position before me, they went out of their way to try to trigger his PTSD. I while going down to the union office to report, you know, negative activities, because I had people like stealing stuff from my office and like all kinds of nonsense, you know, they were trying to push me out. And unlike peers of mine, um, who are you know still coping with PTSD and it's an ongoing process. But my many years of working in the entertainment industry, I learned how to control my triggers. And sometimes it's so bad that you can't. And if that's you know the kind of night I just stay at home, you know, stay at home, spend time with my family, a hot shower goes a long way. But when people go, people I've noticed, you know, if they want to be truly evil towards you, they will go out of their way to try to trigger my PTSD. They'll get in my face, they'll scream at me, you know, they'll make, you know, and it's wild to me because I, you know, because I have, you know, two four-year-olds, I have two toddlers, you know, someone in my house is always screaming. There is always everything's an emergency, even when it's not. So I've gotten to the point now where I'm not very reactive. And if anything, I'm probably more terrifying because I look emotionless because I'm just like, okay, what's happening? Okay, all right, not an emergency. Let's go. You know, I'm used to having to deal with real emergencies in real time. But what politics has taught me is that, you know, it's a dirty game. People told me it was cutthroat. I didn't realize how cutthroat it was until I had to worry about people camping in my cul-de-sac, trying to figure out where I live, where I go. Um I'm actually about to pursue um civil litigation against a volunteer with a company right now because she has been, you know, slandering and defaming me to lobbyist groups, previous delegates, law enforcement. And it's wild because someone who I've never done anything negative to is already actively in the background trying to blackball me in politics. And what's wild is it's like to a degree, I'm on I'm on your team. A lot of the things you stand for as a Republican woman, you know, I don't agree with everything, but a lot we have a lot of common ground there. And it's wild to see these like 50, 60, 70-year-old women taking out these like mean girl roles. And I think that's why the party itself is suffering as a whole statewide, is because you have a lot of you know, young people that want to volunteer, that want to do good, they want to do good in their community. Well, I know for a fact that they are because we've seen like low turnout numbers. We see that their budget.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

I want to come back to that. Okay. Well, one of the things that especially after what happened last night. Yes. So um one of the things I do want to um say is you're run running as a libertarian, if you're running as a libertarian or you're running as an independent, I the both parties, they have it set up so it's very difficult for one to get funding to challenge them, and then two, you have um these people that, like you said, being mean girls or mean guys, and they had this this political agenda uh to smear or fueled with hate, just hate and malice for no reason.

Campaign Strategy And Charity Performance

SPEAKER_02 14:44

But you know, I find that you know, yeah, it's it's a challenge. But here's the thing the two-party system, I don't have to I have to play by some of their rules now when it comes to the state and the fed, you know, when it comes to all of that, right? You know, the law is the law. But within party politics, they have a lot of rules and etiquette. And the thing is, as a libertarian, I'm not bound by those same rules. So if we're talking about, you know, the French and Indian wars, right? Who won? The people that didn't play by the rules, the people that didn't hit you just face on and do exactly what you were gonna expect, that etiquette. And throughout my campaign over the next few months, I'm gonna do a lot of things people don't expect. I'm gonna do things that, you know, are gonna cause a lot of reactions. And, you know, I've gotten some feedback and most of it's good, some of it isn't, but it's fine. You know, I'm treating this campaign like I would any art, like any performance, any choreography, any choreography, any tour I've ever booked, any artist I've ever managed, I'm treating it as such. And so they are treat, yes, the Republicans and the Democrats are going to treat this like any good old political race. I'm not treating this as such. I am treating this as a full-blown opportunity where, you know, for example, on May 29th, we are hosting a fundraiser in Norfolk. I will send you the flyer. It hasn't been released just yet, but I'm giving you a heads up on that. And we're gonna raise a bunch of money for a local charity that I'm very excited about. And I'm gonna be performing. I don't know when the last time you saw a con a potential congress congresswoman or congressman perform when it wasn't giving a speech, but I will be performing. I will be making um a statement, I will be raising money for our local community here in Norfolk and the seven cities.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

And I've been can't tell you yet.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

Well, let's just let's just say I will be so so I I you know I do the acting and the modeling, but one of my favorite pastimes, you know, surprisingly, as you know a mom with kids, I fell into drag. And so I have performed at drag shows as a cisgender, that's what they call it, woman, and it's called hyperfemme. And so it's just like super woman. And so I have gotten to dress up like Dolly Parton, like um Ursula from The Little Mermaid. You know, I've gotten to do a little bit of all of that and just performing like a pop star. And you know, I've done bingos and brunches, and you know, it's it's so fun. And so I will be debuting a new character. Um can't give away too much.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:43

But I will, I will, I will say that um you may see a congressman in his best form if you come on May 29th. My interpret my interpretation of that at least.

Virginia Referendum And Redistricting Fallout

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Okay. Yeah, so I want to go back to yesterday was April 21st. And um, we had a vote in the state of Virginia as a referent on a referendum to expand the Republicans for Congress and so that we could add more seats to Congress. Uh what are your thoughts about one? Because we were talking about the Republicans, how they turned out um, and what effect do you think it's going to have on things?

SPEAKER_02 18:40

Well, right now, as I read, you know, a few hours ago, it's been tied up in the courts, which was expected, because anytime there's a constitutional amendment, it has to, you know, pass the whole constitutional muster and review. And you can expect lawsuits almost immediately with any imminent change, you know, when it comes to the lobbyist interest groups, um, even just attorneys that are impassioned, you know, like Tim Anderson out in Virginia Beach. He's always super involved in the community and ongoings. Um, but we just have to wait and see where the cart, like where the where everything falls. And either way, I win. You know, I'm a libertarian. You know, if the lines stay the same, they're the same, it's the same geographic I planned on working with. And if it changes, then I get to inherit the beautiful city of Picosin, which I'm very familiar with. You know, I've had multiple opportunities where I've, you know, spoken with their mayor, city planner, their chief of police, like really lovely gentlemen. And I think that, you know, we can build a really great relationship and help build up the city and their economy there. You know, they have there's a lot going on. They've got a big seafood festival, just local commerce, and the area is really up and coming with a lot of the new developments and housing.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

So either way, I'm excited of how it's up and coming with the um the mindset that someone outside of the Democratic Party or someone outside of the Republican Party can be a representative for them. This is one of the things that I I'm I'm from uh Philadelphia. And so I'm a little more, I guess I would say, understanding of other people and their representation. And one of the things I've noticed since I've been here is it's not as um open or or open-minded as far as anything outside of what they've been doing for years. So I think you have a a tall hill to climb, but I I agree with a lot of the things that you said. So do you think we're in a position right now in this area where you can make a difference? I know personally can make a difference, but you can make an inroad to show them that you can make a difference.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

Well, Al, I rock marched a lot in the army, and most of it was uphill, unless I was in Georgia. Um so I've done I've done I've done a lot of walking in boots with a lot of weight on my back, most of it uphill. You know, some of it was flat, you know, it was a nice little break here and there. But the thing is, I know it's an uphill battle. And but once again, let's get back to the current political climate. It's anyone's game. It's absolutely anyone's game. And like I said, I feel like I have an unfair advan an unfair advantage because I don't have to play by the same rules that they do, and nor will I. And there I there they're there there I.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Their ideas is something different.

Homelessness Policy And Community Care

SPEAKER_02 22:03

Yeah, and their ideas of playing dirty aren't the same as mine. Everything, everything that I plan to do is going to be so different than from what anyone's experienced in politics. Because at this point, you have to grab people's attention. They want to be entertained. I mean, TMZ is literally following around members of Congress now because that's how bad it's gotten. And people and the people are demanding that. That's what they want. I saw someone the other day that said, please start following these people around like y'all did Britney Spears in the early 2000s. Make sure they're doing their job. Put pressure on them. And I think that's why I'm not well liked in some circles because I'm about accountability and I'm not afraid to take criticism, especially harsh criticism. I'm not afraid to answer questions, some of which we may need to sit down and have in private, you know, depending on company. But I'm a pretty open book. And I think that's what scares a lot of people is I can't be influenced and controlled other than within the realm of I want to do the right thing and impact the most change for the most people. I just want, I want our community to be more safe, more sound. I want to ensure that our unhoused populations are taken care of in the summer months, which isn't happening right now. I want to ensure that churches can, you know, focus on being, you know, worshiping bodies instead of having to bear the full weight of what the state should be doing right now to help the unhoused, to help those who are in poor situations right now that need assistance. You know, we have so many valuable resources in our communities. If we were able to just connect on a better level, communicate on a better level, put, you know, a lot of politics aside and just say, instead of being, I'm not helping you unless X, Y, Z, it shouldn't be like that. It needs to be. And a lot of libertarians are really against, you know, public welfare and handouts and things like that. But I'm a firm believer that as a single mom, as a disabled veteran who has been homeless, and I was homeless when I was in college, sleeping in my car before I joined the army out there in Hampton in Newport News. You know, a Chevy Cavalier is not a comfortable spot to lay your head, but it's better than being outside in the elements. You know, I've I've lived that life. And show me someone who works there, especially in City Council and Hampton when they just did the vote to um criminalize homelessness. You know, nobody, nobody wants a bunch of people walking around, you know, without a coping mechanism, without help and therapy and whatever it is that they need. But at the same time, how is criminalizing people who are already disenfranchised, who already have close to nothing, how is that going to help them? Other than filling our prisons with people, which is also going to come at the taxpayer expense. What we need to do is focus on healing our communities, finding ways to heal our economy so parents can step back from working two or three jobs so they can be at home, so they can be present for the games, so they can be there. Every issue we have falls back on poverty and greed right now. Those who are suffering the most, I see them every single day. I have people that come to me that just need$50 to make it another week or two, they need grocery money, and they have to give forward their most valuable possessions to try to do such because they have nothing else, and they have no one else. There are so many people that you yes, sir.

Cost Of Living And Corporate Accountability

SPEAKER_00 25:53

How do we get people are just me and um there's very little will goodwill? How do we get here?

SPEAKER_02 26:13

Because we're surviving. We all it's kind of like the concept of you put frogs in a pot, or even if you put a crab or a lobster in a pot, if you don't if you don't throw it in the pot while it's boiling, it's not gonna try to jump out. But if you slowly heat the pot, it's not gonna know you're cooking it until it's too late, right? We have been in this pot for a long time, and this isn't even the heat cranked all the way up. But what I can tell you is right now, not just in Virginia, all over our country, people cannot afford life-saving medications, they can't afford basic procedures, they can't afford insurance, let alone premiums. They can't afford, you know, name-brand foods. And some of the name-brand foods that are out there on the market right now, we're finding out are poison. How many times have we seen recalls in the last five years about arsenic, lead, things like that being in baby food, formulas? That's how we've gotten here. As Americans, with the cutbacks on many federal programs when it came to safety, reliability, accountability, screenings on things, as we've scaled back on different agencies and programs, we're starting to notice that our quality of life is slipping. Because when corporations are allowed to play by their own rules unchecked, they're of course going to provide us with the lowest quality they can at the highest price, whatever they feel they can get away with. Because at the end of the day, people are still gonna pay. I see it every day when people bring jewelry into my store. Um, most dramatic example I've seen thus far was a woman was going through a terrible situation, told me directly, you know, the marriage was filled with domestic violence, and she just wanted to get rid of this ring and she needed money to get back on her feet. I looked this ring up on Reed's Jewelers today. It goes for$8,500, right? But with the systems that we have, with the ratings that I do, I take measurements of everything I everything I do, a whole process, and I do, you know, compared to market value. Materials and that alone, you know, completely covered, and that it was one of the biggest diamond sets, completely iced out, you know. The most my system told me I could give her was like$800,$850. So that tells me that on the retail market, there are some industries that are literally, you know, taking a product, you know, a base value, and they're charging a hundred percent over what the value in it truly is. And people aren't aware of that, you know. And I told her, I was like, look, please go try to sell this independently first. And then if you can't come back to me, at least you know where I can meet you. And she came back, and thankfully, this was during the gold boom. So the prices had gone up quite a bit. So I was able to offer her quite a bit more. But I see it every day when people are having to liquidate assets. And what's even worse is when they've gotten to the point where they have literally had to liquidate everything of value, and they have nothing left and they're scrambling to try to find something. And you would think that it would be because of, you know, drug dependency and things like that. And we do see that occasionally, but no, I think it's just because people are suffering that most employers aren't paying, you know, a fair wage right now. And yet, like we like we're learning, they're charging the most. I mean, we're about to be taxed to death when it comes to DoorDash, mattress tax. Um, I don't know how many, and you know, with the new um proposals for taxing firearms and ammo, an additional 11%.

SPEAKER_01 30:06

Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

So it's just it's so how much how much are we going to be taxed to death before we start throwing stuff in uh you know off the main bridge?

SPEAKER_00 30:17

It makes people angry.

SPEAKER_02 30:18

Well, it does. Well, I mean, look at our history, the Boston Tea Party, and that was just over tea. They were so angry over the tea tax because and the papers tax that that was the literally the final straw, and they went and threw it all in the river and said, Well, kick rocks. So, at what point are we as Americans, as Virginians, gonna say, Okay, kick rocks? Because we know they're never gonna completely unredact the Epstein files. We know that they're robbing us. I just saw another article about how um allegedly Abigail Spamberger's husband has a contracting company that they just allotted a contract to for millions of dollars. Um, you know, and if that is true, I don't know how that's not a conflict of interest. And it's right in front of our faces. They're they're playing us as the American people, as Virginians, right in front of our faces, even with the language on the vote, yes or no. It was confusing. The marketing was pure manipulation. I was sitting there watching it, like, and but the thing, and I do marketing for a living, so it's like I can read through the lines and I can see what you're trying to do. I don't like it when people have to be deceptive and marketing because the average voter isn't gonna do research, they're going to trust you as their elected official to tell them how to vote and expect you to tell them how to vote within their best interest.

Where To Follow And Final Ask

SPEAKER_00 31:39

Well, I appreciate you coming on to tell us uh where we can find you and and then what events you have coming up and the date.

SPEAKER_02 31:51

Okay, so you can check out my website,$4forva.com. At the bottom of that, you will be linked to all of my social sites. I have all of them, and there's also like an access box if you want to send me an email. My phone number is on there, if you want to give me a call and big surprise announcement coming out this week. But yeah, May 29th charity show in Norfolk, Virginia. It's gonna be awesome, and you're invited.

SPEAKER_00 32:19

Okay, all right, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 32:22

You're very welcome.

SPEAKER_00 32:24

And we'll catch you next time on Listen Up. If you enjoyed today's episode, I'm gonna ask you to click on the links below. Follow, subscribe, become part of the conversation. And remember, listen up.