Candidate Interview-Tech, Trust, and the Future of Kenton Co. A Conversation with Jordan Baldridge

In this episode of The Blue Dot Podcast, Natalie MacDonald and Brian Koehl speak with Jordan Baldridge, Democratic candidate for Kenton County Commissioner (District 3). Jordan shares how his background as a senior software engineer, new father, and lifelong Northern Kentucky resident shaped his decision to run for local office.

The conversation covers the role of county commissioners and key issues facing Kenton County, including zoning, the Site Readiness Initiative, data centers, housing affordability, privacy concerns, and support for trades and technical education. Jordan emphasizes the importance of listening to constituents, protecting community health and the environment, and balancing economic growth with quality of life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Blue Dot, Northern Kentucky's premier political podcast. Brought to you by the Kenton County Democratic Executive Committee. Welcome back to the Blue Dot Podcast, where we have another great candidate interview in store for you today. And this one is for the County Commissioner position in District 3. Thanks so much for joining today. I'm Natalie McDonald.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

And I'm Brian Cale. Local government is where decisions most directly affect people's daily lives, and the County Commissioner is one of the most important and extensive positions. There are three commissioner districts in Kenton County. So if you live in Kenton, you get to vote for all three districts, regardless of the one you live in. And today we are joined by District 3 County Commissioner candidate Jordan Baldridge. Jordan, thanks so much for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Thank you guys for having me. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Yeah, thanks so much for being here. And you have a really fascinating background. You are a software engineer who has extensive experience in AI, among other things. But I'm going to hand it over to you. Can you tell us about yourself a little bit and what motivated you to run for this position?

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Sure. Yeah, hopefully I don't go too lengthy. But uh I am a senior software engineer. Um, and I do work in AI and I use the cloud. I'm also a new father to a six-month-old as of uh March 24th. And you know, I grew up around here. I didn't grow up in Canton County. I grew up in neighboring Campbell County, lived in Cold Spring and Alexandria. Uh, actually lived behind St. Joe's Cold Spring, which is where I went to school as a kid, and then eventually moved out to Alexandria and I went to Bishop Rossert. Throughout that time, I was raised by working class parents who worked at Thriftway. My mom now works at the PBA in Campbell County. And my dad, he's been a businessman, business owner. He's had a ton of jobs, and he's a handyman, he can do anything and fix anything. Growing up, I was really, really interested in politics and really history, but it kind of grew into politics. My dad was a city councilman in Cold Spring, and he is a councilman now in Alexandria. But then additionally to that, my grandparents really had a lot of effects on me. My grandpa on my mom's side, Papa Geiskon, he was an IRS auditor, so he worked for the government, but he was also a World War II veteran and he taught me a lot about sacrifice and war and the horrors of war and standing up for people and fighting for what's right, even when it's scary and terrible and terrifying. My grandpa on the other side, Papa Baldridge, he also was in World War II, but he was in Panama, so he didn't quite have the uh the fighting experience. But he grew up in Moorhead, Kentucky. He grew up with nothing. He and my great uncle, his brother, they would tell us stories about them walking up and down the mountains of Moorhead and having to hunt and fish for food because it was during the Great Depression and it was Moorhead, Kentucky, long before any of the development that they have now. And you know, he was a huge success story. He taught himself a lot about math. He became a railroad engineer, and I would spend Saturdays cutting grass over there. But cutting the grass meant I'd go over there, have some coffee, and talk to him and my grandma. Then we'd cut the grass, take a break, eat some lunch, talk some more, finish cutting the grass. It's dinner time, we're gonna talk some more. So I'd be there all day. And, you know, I was raised in a very Catholic and Baptist household. My mom's Catholic, my dad's Baptist, very Republican. But even and so I was pretty conservative as a kid, but I was also very curious, and I always questioned things a lot. So as I got into high school, um, and especially college, but really in high school I really started questioning things, uh, especially during the Bush years and the war on terror and all of that. And, you know, sometimes we would argue. We had a role in our family, don't argue about politics. So naturally we argued about politics. But uh, you know, I one thing that I always appreciated was that they always wanted to listen. You know, even though my grandma and grandpa, you know, they didn't always understand my point of view or understand my questioning things, they always wanted to listen and they were always there to listen and support me. And so and they really emphasized that, you know, as long as you were working hard, as long as you were trying, that that was the important thing. You know, it didn't matter how much money you made, it didn't matter what your role or, you know, where you got necessarily, but the fact that you were at least trying is what mattered to them. And, you know, my grandma, I mean, all my grandparents kind of grew up in hard times. They all grew up during the Great Depression and none of them really came from anywhere fantastical. But Mama and Papa, especially they I mean, Mamma grew up on a chicken farm outside of Chicago in Illinois, uh, with lots of fun stories about that. They were two people that, you know, they weren't really fully educated. My grandma was a nurse, but you know, that back then it was a little bit different becoming a nurse, especially during the war. But they sent every single one of their kids to college. And then every one of their kids sent all of their kids to college. So it's just this amazing story, like the Baldridge family kind of has like the real American dream story of coming from nothing and being able to create a better future for the next generation and the next generation. Last year, last year I found out that we were pregnant, that we were gonna have a kid, and I was super excited. And then shortly after that, uh a friend of mine, a friend and mentor uh uh in my team lead at work, he suddenly passed away from cancer. And he left a 10-year-old and his wonderful wife, and that scared the heck out of me all last year. All last year. I spent so much of last year just being worried about the pregnancy, being worried about the world that was kind of coming up um around us, you know, everything everything we've seen, uh, from the terrorists to the chaos and everything. And I I really was really, really worried. And then as it got closer to when he was being born, um, I was like, you know what? I want to do something. I want to get involved, you know, I want to try anything, anything, you know. So I went to one of the Kenton Dem's happy hours, and that's where I met our chair Danielle, I met Sarah Frelick, uh, one of the other county commissioner candidates. That's where I met Melissa Strange. It's also where I met John Bussey, my opponent in the Democratic primary, and everybody was just so welcoming and so kind. And of course I told them, Oh, you know, I'm about to have a my son's about to be born here soon. And they all joked, oh, we're not gonna see you again. Which was true for a little bit. But once he was born, my my son Hayden, once Hayden was born, I just all that fear went away and it was just replaced with just this immense love and this desire to protect this boy, this little boy who's just coming into the world. And, you know, just to protect the life that I got to grow up in. You know, I I grew up playing in the woods and riding my bike around the streets and just hanging out with friends and doing things, you know, and we had the internet, of course, not quite like it is today. But, you know, we we were really free. It was really nice. Like we lived a very Kentucky lifestyle, you know. You didn't really worry about anything. And just with some of the things that we have coming on, you know, into the world, like you have weird digital surveillance and cameras everywhere, people want to put manufacturing everywhere and kind of harm and destroy the environment. And I decided I want to fight for a better future for my son, to make sure that he gets the same opportunities that that I had to grow up having some freedom, to grow up in a world where we have trust in each other. Yeah, it's one thing. Like I live here in Lakeside Park, you know, in Kenton County. It's pretty conservative. There's lots of Republicans. Most of my family is Republicans. And if you watch the news, you would think that we're all at each other's throats and we all hate each other. But we don't. We're all neighbors, we're all family. And that's the other thing is, you know, I want to fight for my son, but I also want to show the world that we can all work together, that nobody should be scared of each other. And that honestly, like when I first signed up to run, it was a little scary. I was like, I don't know. But honestly, you know, this experience so far, I'm less scared than ever. I've met the candidates on both sides, and you know, everybody's been very nice, very respectful. And so, you know, so far it's been a very positive experience for me. Sorry if that went on too long, but really at the end of the day, it's all about my son.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

No, I think that makes sense. I mean, there's nothing like um, you know, an event like that to make you start thinking about uh, you know, how you want to have a good future for your child, you know, and and family planning all of a sudden, you know, what are we gonna do as a family? Where do I want my family to go in the future becomes a priority? My question is um around that is you know, we hear a lot of our candidates talk about they don't feel like their children or their generation for the younger generation, such as yourself, much younger than myself, are gonna be able to enjoy the types of things that their parents had. You know, like as you said, your parents were able to set you up so your future was better than theirs. You know, every year or every generation we seem like we've progressed, or that's been our goal. And all of a sudden, I think many people believe that all of a sudden that's not a given, and we really need to fight to take that back. And it sounds like that's kind of where you're coming from as well, in terms of is my son going to have as good a life and and hopefully a better life and better opportunity than I had? And perhaps right now you feel like that may not be the case and you want to be a part of making a change, making that happen.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Absolutely. Yeah, no, that's that really is where a lot of it comes from, too. I mean, when I came uh of age, you know, whatnot, when I went to college was right at the height of 2008. You had the 2008 election. So you had that was so exciting. You had Obama versus Hillary and and Obama versus McCain, and that was exciting, and then you had the 2008 financial crisis happen.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

And that's when things kind of started feeling like they were hitting a wall. You know, I was so excited when I went to college. I had all these dreams and ideas of what I was gonna be and what I was gonna do. I was gonna get my degree in three years, I was gonna become a lawyer and get my law degree, I was gonna be a civil liberties attorney and fight for the constitution. And by the time I graduated with my degree, I was burned out. I was done. Uh, I didn't I when I graduated, and you know, it didn't help that some people around me kind of had the same attitude, but by the time I graduated, I was like, why did I even get this degree? What am I gonna do with it? There's no jobs, you know. I have a political science degree and a nonprofit uh administration minor. I'm like, what it what am I gonna do with this? I can't start a nonprofit on my own. And so I just really, really struggled with that for a long time. And, you know, that was really, really hard. And a lot of people also struggled at that time. You know, so many people did. And, you know, I kind of had a bit of a failure to launch. And luckily enough, you know, I I met my wife when I was working at Pizza Hut when I graduated college. A year later we started dating, and then a year later we actually moved to Indianapolis. And I did not want to move to Indianapolis, but I knew I wanted to be with her, and that was the best decision ever made because eventually we would move back here, and I got an opportunity to get into IT. And now I've created this really great IT career that I love. But it was really difficult. It was really difficult. I mean, there were for the majority of the years until about eight years ago, I was making 10 to 12 bucks an hour, and it is not really possible to have much of a life on 10 to 12 bucks an hour. And now, you know, it's 2026, it's almost 20 years since I went into college. It's been, you know, 13 years since I graduated. And it's harder than ever. You know, one, we haven't increased the minimum wage. So people who are just getting into the economy are just already being set at that same base cap at the bottom, which is not great. But the education system has become more difficult for people. It's become even more expensive. I was pretty lucky I had a lot of uh scholarships when I went to school, so I didn't really pay too much. But my wife, she's got a lot of student loans from her master's degree. I have friends that they're paying off thousands of dollars, and it's crazy. And that's just to get the education. And then if you look at the job market, the job market is just getting kind of decimated. And you know, we supposedly had a good month in March, but we'll see when they readjust those in another month, like they've been.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

Right. Yeah. But the jobs number readjustment is always like, oh, okay.

unknown 12:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

It's always, oh, hey, we got a bunch of jobs. Oh, actually, we lost some jobs. Yeah. So that's worrying, but that's like the situation has only gotten worse. And there's not a lot of lot of opportunities being made for people out there. You know, whether it's just getting an education, you know, there's not as much scholarships and the scholarships aren't covering as much because the cost is going up. By the time you graduate, there's not as many jobs because they're automating things. I mean, I love technology, I do, but there is a double-edged sword to it to where as the technology gets better, that they need fewer people. So, you know, what do you do now with these people that got these degrees? You know, even if they got a degree and got a job, it might take even longer for them to move up out of, you know, the entry-level position of the job. And, you know, in IT, they're talking about AI just destroying the entire entry-level job, which is how I got in. Basically, I was the IT guy for the IT company, but that opened doors. So then I got to do entry-level consulting, and then I moved my way up, and now I'm a senior. But you have to be able to have those open positions at the bottom so people can get that experience. I just want to do what we can, at least at a local level, to help support families so that people can have opportunities. And so, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

So let's talk let's talk about that role. Let's talk about the county commissioner role. Yeah, I know some people may not really know what the commissioner does. I think it's a really important position. There's a lot that goes into it. It's very kind of intricate. So if you could tell us a little bit about what that role is and what kind of leadership you think that you can bring to that for uh for Kenton County right now. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Yeah, so the county commissioner is part of the fiscal court, which is your local your local county government. Yeah, basically your judge executive, so it's Judge Knockelman, is essentially the president, and then you have the county commissioners are your congresspeople. So we have to represent the people of Kenton County. And in doing that, you are, you know, you're setting and approving budgets. You're setting zoning and doing zoning laws, you're doing ordinances or bait the basic laws that govern your county. And so what I want to do, the important thing for me there is to help ensure that zoning is protecting people and their homes and their families, that we're not, you know, selling out people just for easy money, whether it be manufacturing or a data center. I want to make sure that we are protecting people using our laws. So, you know, some people want to put flock cameras out there or different little surveillance cameras out there so that they can track and monitor people. And I know that technically there's no legal right to privacy in the public, but I still think that we should severely limit, if not ban that, from being something that we implement here because of how technology can be abused. That's the double-edged sword of technology, is that you have all this data and it can be used and misused by people. And the county commissioners, their job is to protect and grow this county. And if you are only focused on growing businesses, but not the people, not making sure that they have opportunities, not making sure that they're represented, then yeah, you might bring in more tax revenue, but are you actually doing what's best for the people that live here? And so that's what I want to do is be a voice and the eyes and ears for the people. Because part of my job as a consultant and IT engineer is to just listen to people. It's just listen. You know, all you have to do is ask someone a question and they'll tell you how they feel. And right now, our county government likes to prescribe a lot of things. Um, and they do this in these public-private partnerships, which is part of the job because you are trying to raise money or trying to raise revenue, but you have to take into account the people that live here and what they want and what they need. You know, right now we have the B Northern Kentucky and the county are kind of pushing this SRI out there in southern Kenton County. And they've done this every couple years since 2014, which is essentially the entire term of everyone that's been on the on the court right now. And year after year, these people say we don't want it. And they say, Oh, we're not really planning it. But then they bring it up again and they bring it up again. And it's like, well, you clearly you want it. Clearly you're planning to do this at some point. And so, you know, either they need to listen to and work with the people if they want to actually do that and implement it instead of planning around them, they should plan with them, or they should listen to the people and say, Okay, what do you want? What do you need in this area? And so I think that that's really what, you know, that's the tactic I would take is go to the people and say, what would be the best way to support you? You know, well, how can we make what you need happen?

SPEAKER_02 17:38

Yeah, I was gonna say, why don't you give a little more detail on SRI? Um, some of our listeners may not know exactly what that is. Uh the site readiness initiative. Is that is that right? We did talk about that in one of our earlier uh podcasts. Yeah, can you give us a little more detail on that and you know what you see as the pros and cons of it, if there are any pros, uh and you know how what your role in you know kind of monitoring that, uh making sure it is the best for the people, what you would do.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Yeah, so the site readiness initiative, it essentially it essentially is a study that the county commissioned Beat North of Kentucky, a nonprofit corporation, to essentially find where we can do more manufacturing in the county. Essentially, the way that the county government looks at it, the current fiscal court, we need more mu we need more money and more revenue coming into the county. That's how they look at it, which, you know, to a degree is true. And so they commissioned Bee Northern Kentucky and said, hey, we've got a bunch of warehouses. We don't want it warehouses anymore. We want manufacturing because those create good jobs. And they do create good jobs. I'm not I'm not bashing manufacturing. That's definitely a very important job. My wife's grandpa, he worked on uh the Chevy plant out there. And so, you know, manufacturing is very good jobs. Like I'm not trying to bash that and say we don't want that. But the SRI, basically, they've identified where they want to put the manufacturing plants. Instead of asking around and saying who wants to sell their land, you know, who wants to carve off a piece, the B Northern Kentucky in their study, they identified the ideal locations for manufacturing. So essentially what they've been doing for years is saying, we like these spots over here in South Kenton, and we want to put manufacturing plants here. So even though the people say we don't want to sell our land, we don't want to do that there, they keep pushing that. And it's funny because if you go to the county uh commissioners or the county website, there is a pay a web page that has a bunch of links from all the different documents that they've generated over the years about the SRI. And in one of those documents, it says, Oh, this is not a plan. Well, one of those documents also is the SRI itself, where it says, This is the plan. This is the plan for manufacturing. And so it's it's kind of talking out of both sides of its mouth because you know, they're saying, Oh, it's not really a plan, but that's the whole point. The whole point is you're planning to have manufacturing. And, you know, I'm not against manufacturing, you know, whole rent. Like if we can find a good place where, you know, someone wants to sell their land, it's going to work out well, you know, it helps develop the area. I mean, they're going to have to put in, you know, all of it and the various services, plumbing, electric, everything like that. So, I mean, it will create jobs, it'll create jobs for the construction crews, it will create jobs for the manufacturing. But one, we need to make sure that people actually want to. And then two, we need to make sure that it's going to be the type of manufacturing that isn't going to destroy our environment. There's a lot of manufacturing that is good that you know you can do in a in a warehouse, and that's not going to destroy the environment. There's other manufacturing that is going to have a lot of runoff, that's going to drain your electrical grid, that's going to drain your water uh resources. And so I think just being responsible about it is really the important key, but really also primarily listening to the people. So when you keep saying, hey, we found the perfect piece of land down here in southwest Kenton County, and they say, We don't care, we're not selling our land, then you take that advice and say, okay, I guess we'll find somewhere else. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

Yeah, there's that famous case in Mayville where the mother and daughter is refused$26 million, I think it was, to sell to a data center. And they were given that option and they said, no, we don't want to sell our land. So good for them for saying that's not what they want their land to go to. But you have that. The point is you want that choice, right? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Yes. Yeah. And it's very commendable of that, of that family. You know, what that's one thing too is like these people in South Kenton, a lot of them are people are farmers. They have farmland. And that's the part of the problem is that they have farms. You don't want to put manufacturing plants next to a farm. Even if it is a clean plant, you don't want this giant manufacturing plant next to your farm. That's, you know, that kind of takes away from the character of the environment, let alone, you know, any destruction to the natural environment. environment. Um, but on the flip side, I would say support the farms, support the farmers. You know, we're looking at some kind of wild chaos out there in the economy and potentially our food supplies. We might need those farms. You might want those farmers producing more, more wheat, more beef, you know, that might be a little bit more important than a manufacturing plant.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

Yeah, for sure. It's it's interesting the when you think about all of that and it's it's critical to our infrastructure. But if you were elected, if you were elected to this commissioner pri I mean we talked all about a couple priorities you're thinking about, but if there were some maybe a couple top top two, top three real issues that you you want to focus on improving in that position.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

So obviously you know I I love IT I use the data centers. I depend on the data centers, but I don't want a data center in our county. So number one would be ensuring, and you know, I know Sarah said the same thing in hers. We aren't even sure if that's really something that is up for debate. We don't know. But that's also part of the the issue with the SRI is we don't really know what they're planning to bring out here. We just know that they want to develop it. Well if it comes to a data center I'm a hard no on that. We don't really know all the full effects but we're starting to see them in certain areas. You have higher electric bills, higher water bills. They just came out with a study talking about that it creates a heat island. It literally increases the temperature of the ground and air around the environment for miles. And you know not to be glib but for years uh I've called this area the Ohio see Ohio River Valley, I call it the Ohio Cancer Valley. My grandma had cancer, my buddy just died of cancer a year ago. I don't want any other things in this area that could potentially harm the health of people. So I don't look at it, it's not I'm against AI. I love AI. My job is deploying AI right now. My I look at it from a public health issue. And to add to that, I, you know, I do think that we need to support some of the ideas that people have had of, you know, we need to have more family centers. We need to have more health centers out there for people. At a time when they're cutting a lot of costs from the federal government, we need to make sure that from a local side that we are protecting our healthcare system and our hospitals and creating more choice and more options for people because that also drives down prices. More, more options helps bring down the price. That's the issue with the housing market right now. On the housing side I think that we need to explore different housing options. We need to figure out how do we create more homes for people when the homes that we that we have are already too expensive and there's not enough. But that's part of what the county has looked into as well is that we are do have a housing shortage. How do we make those more affordable? I know they have a housing fund that's going to go to the developers so that that helps spur them to build but why don't we have a housing fund for first time home buyers? Why don't we have things like that? You know so that that's more of a theoretical thing. That's more of something we'd have to explore more but the data centers is a big one. I want to make I do want to restrict if not ban the flock security cameras just because I I'm sorry I find that creepy and weird. I don't want my kid being tracked that is not the way that is just that's just not Kentucky that's just not how Kentucky is it's so strange. I don't know why I get I get that you know you want security but we all take our shoes off at the TSA and that's not saving lives either.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

Right.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

But on the flip side something a little bit more positive and more more more supportive is I want to really support growth in the trades and technical that's one thing is so like I do have a degree in political science. What I've really learned is that it helps me learn that degree it does it's not really applicable to a lot of your life unless you're obsessed with politics. But it's all about research it's all about learning new things. And so that has helped me in IT but part of that too is that I wish I would have gotten a trade when I was in college. I wish I would have gotten an actual skill that if when I was on hard times I could have gone out and you know I if I had been an electrician or a plumber, I would have had a real skill that is always in need that someone is always going to want. And so that's something I kind of look at it as a duality. You need the old school skills, the trades that are always going to be necessary, but you also need some new technical skills. You need to have technical knowledge for the new economy that's coming. But I also think it actually goes beyond just jobs. To me technical technological education it should be for children. It should be for the elderly because we need people to understand how to be safe on the internet how to see when someone's scamming you how to identify a deep fake or AI manipulation. I mean that's that's going to be a huge issue coming up. And so it it really goes beyond just jobs. It's really about safety and really understanding the world around you. And one thing I wish wish I would have gotten my grandparents more of this I wish I I would have actually tried because with cell phones and computers, you know, elderly people that can't leave, that can't get out of the house that's a lifeline. That's a way for them to connect with anyone and everyone anywhere. And so but we also want to make sure that they understand how to use it properly and how to you know stay safe how to not get conned or scammed by people because there's a lot of people scamming people now. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:25

Yeah. Well I I was interested in your um a discussion on the trades. I had looked at your website and that was one of the things that was mentioned that's always been kind of near and dear to my heart because I worked construction for many years and then I ended up in IT as well almost by accident. Sounds kind of familiar. And um I I just think the trades are so critical and there's good money to be made and as you said I mean that is one thing I don't think we're going to be able to train AI to install your HVAC system. I mean somebody needs to bang that ductwork together and it's a very you know those are noble professions that are valuable and somebody can make a very good living doing that so I'm all for pushing that as well. You know county government like all government and really most things in business as well you know you need to be able to collaborate. You need to be able to work with others and you need to work with people sometimes who don't share the same opinions or the same ideas or the same goals as you approach working with people and having an IT background gee I never ran into anybody and you know any of my customers who didn't agree exactly with what I was you know professing. How do you work with people who may not always agree with you? You know how do you see yourself in that position and how do you manage those types of relationships?

SPEAKER_00 28:38

Yeah so I'll give you a little bit of background. When I was younger I've really always felt like I had a need to be right. I really thought I always had to be right about everything. And I would argue and I always had to be right. One thing I love about IT is it taught me to be wrong. It taught me to embrace failure and to know that I didn't wasn't always going to have the all the answers or the right answer. And that things are more collaborative. You know when you're when you're in college or when you're growing up you're writing a paper and you're like oh I'm right so I'm gonna say exactly what I think and what I what I think is best. But when you get in the real world what you realize is that actually you don't have all the information. And and even if you have a lot of information there's someone else who might have a different perspective on it.

unknown 29:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:16

And that's something I actually just talked about actually in a meeting earlier today was we were talking about you know documentation and some of the requirements that we needed and oh do we know what we need and one of my fellow workers coworkers was like why don't we just ask them and that's that's how I look at things. It used to be that I I thought I had ideas and you know I do want to have ideas. But at the end of the day I just want to ask people I want to hear what someone else has to say and what they think is best because I can have my idea for what I think can help Kenton County. Kenton County uh is uh 170 18000 people I'm pretty sure everyone has different ideas and I want to hear those ideas you know I'm not I don't live in South Kenton uh my grandparents they lived out in the uh out in kind of the the sticks of Campbell County there but I don't know what's best for them. They c but I can listen to them and they can tell me. And so if I disagree with somebody, you know, if I'm coming at it and saying well I think we should do this and someone else says well I don't think we should do that. Okay, well what do you think? What what could we do? Can we meet in the middle? Is this you know just a hard no you know how do you find that? And so to me it's just listening to people.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

And there may be more than one right answer, right?

SPEAKER_00 30:35

That too. That too there's not only just one right answer.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

And that kind of leads into my next question when you have when you have two good options you you are going to be facing a primary challenger.

SPEAKER_02 30:48

Nice segue yes see how that just worked right in right in here.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

But no you are you are gonna you are gonna be facing a primary challenger for for this seat. So can you tell us a little bit about what sets you apart or maybe why you think your vision is a little bit better for for Count and County or your approach.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

Yeah so I will say I'm a little bit younger than John. Just a little bit but you know our backgrounds and I will say we actually do have somewhat similar backgrounds because he isn't a business owner but he still has clients that he has to answer to. But there is a difference between being a business owner and being a consultant being a collaborator and that I can take ownership over what I do but I don't own the tools. I don't own the business I'm not the decision maker at the end of the day but I am there to guide people towards the right decisions and then help implement those solutions. And that is a skill that I had to develop over years and years of failure. Over years of struggling to start struggling to find my place in the world uh there used to be a lot of talk about um what do they call it but basically in IT they're I forget the term but people feeling like they don't belong or feeling like they're pretending imposter syndrome. Yes, yes, yes imposter syndrome. For years I dealt with imposter syndrome and I'm like I don't belong here. And then I would talk to other people with you know that are above me uh you know my managers or even you know some of the people that are kind of above them and they had the same degrees. They went to the same schools they had some of the same teachers they went to through the same thing. And so I I come at it with a perspective of I've lived through the 2008 crisis. I lived through 2020 and COVID. I've lived through these things as a young man, as a young person. And I know what it's like to struggle. I'm you know I still struggle some days you know unfortunately. And so I know what a lot of younger people are going through and older people because that's the thing too older people are being faced with these struggles as well. People who thought oh you know I got this good job I have this career I'm saving up for my 401k and then you know unfortunately these company a lot of companies they get incentivized to do layoffs and we know what's next. What do I do next? I have I have actually have a buddy. He's about he has the same birthday as me uh about I think he's about 20 years older than me. We just got lunch on our birthdays March 9th um but he was he was faced with that situation of what am I what do I do now? And so you know I try to stay humble and stay connected and remind myself of where I came from. I remember making$12 an hour and how hard it was that when my wife and I first got married, we lived it was the house across the street, we lived with my best friend. And they were both they were both kind of the breadwinners and I was I was barely able to do anything. I was busy cooking and cleaning to make up for the fact that I didn't have the money that much money to pay for the rent. And so I think I can bring a perspective of knowing what it's like to struggle and knowing you know not to say that that John doesn't know because I don't know his full story. But I'm a little bit closer to that time in my life and where people are now possibly than someone who owns a very successful business. And that's saying I'm not poo-pooing that you know if I could own a great business to where I didn't have to work for somebody else and didn't have to worry about money that would be fantastic. That is the American dream. But you know unfortunately not everybody gets to live that life and I can bring that perspective. Sounds good.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

Very good well we are wrapping up getting close to wrapping up and you know before we let you go I know you listen to the podcast we do a lightning round with all of our guests if you'd be up for that.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

Yes I I am ready for the lightning round are you ready? All right well this one I think is maybe a soft ball I don't know uh we'll give it to you start them out easy Natalie start them out easy easy or maybe it's hard I don't let's see let's ask you what is the best thing about being a new father see it is a softball but it's also hard because that's what I thought maybe this is hard because it's probably so much right it is it is just the it's hard to describe it is just because it's so life changing it has changed my life entirely I used to stay up all night you know at work hang out with my wife and then I would stay up all night playing video games I can't tell you the last time I played a video game. But just just holding my son seeing him smile hearing him laugh it's just amazing. It's just amazing. It's something I want everyone to experience fatherhood is the best part of fatherhood.

SPEAKER_01 35:27

I love it. I was I was afraid that I would tear up I'm a big sap you know it's like oh I don't know how he answered this it might make me tear up I didn't want to get too sappy. I didn't want to get too much You almost got me you almost got me and and just give it a few years and he'll be playing video games with you.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

So no I know that'd be fine.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

All right this one's a little easier would you rather spend a week in the mountains or by the ocean?

SPEAKER_00 35:47

When I was younger it was mountains. But when we got married we uh honeymooned in Jamaica and that was Jamaica. It's not just the ocean it's Jamaica. I want to go to Jamaica.

SPEAKER_01 35:58

That's it very specific.

SPEAKER_00 35:59

Yeah love it.

SPEAKER_01 36:00

Oh yeah all right which movie could you watch on a repeat over and over again? We all have one.

SPEAKER_00 36:05

I mean any Star Wars movie but if I have to pick one movie if I have to pick one movie it's gonna be Batman 89 and who was Batman for that one? Michael Keaton. That movie came out the year I was born and it is still like the best it's the best.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

The Michael Keaton Batman. Yeah oh yeah okay all right all right if you're if you're gonna read a book how do you do it paperback or audio?

SPEAKER_00 36:28

I really prefer paperback but with time and my shortened attention span of holding a book it's audiobook. It's audiobook I could listen to that clean the house carry carry Hayden walk the dogs it's audiobook. You could get a lot done you can be in the car pop it on yeah yeah you can travel yeah there you go all right favorite landmark in Kenton County actual landmark is probably the robling but my favorite my favorite part of Kenton County is honestly just my little neighborhood here along like I don't know if I want to dox myself but but but here it's a little corner of a Dixie and turkey foot um that's close enough. But uh just walking this little this little uh neighborhood here I just love I just love seeing the little lakes. I have all my neighbors and neighborhood friends and their dogs and I just love that. I just love our neighborhood. See that wasn't so bad.

SPEAKER_02 37:26

No well Jordan uh thanks so much for joining us it was really good getting to know you better and I know our listeners are really going to appreciate that as well and probably a lot of them are really going to be able to relate to your to your experience and your background as well which I I think is awesome for a candidate and gives you a step up for sure. Um and then how can anyone everyone learn more about your campaign and get involved?

SPEAKER_00 37:50

First off thank you very much I really appreciate the opportunity to come here and introduce myself more to you and your audience and uh hopefully I get some other people more excited uh for the campaign. Right. But if they want to reach out to me my website is Jordan4fo Kenton dot com. So you can find out more information there. My email is Jordan dot for four at Kentonky at gmail.com so they can always email me there. I looked me up on the socials I'm Jordan a Jordan Balcherford Kenton County Commissioner. It's very long but you can find me on all the socials I've got a cell phone number out there that actually goes to my phone. So if anyone wants to reach out to me they can reach out to me through text or even call me. I try to be an open book for anyone so yeah feel free to reach out in any way shape or form I'm happy to talk to anybody.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

And you got a kickoff event coming up right an official kickoff.

SPEAKER_00 38:43

I do thank you for bringing that up I have an official kickoff here on the 21st and it's gonna be up the street at one of our uh precinct officers homes so hopefully I'll see some Kenton County residents as well as some uh fellow Lakeside Park residents here and I look forward to meeting more of you. And I'm sure you'll have all that on your socials right yes yeah it's all my socials and I'll I'll keep blasting it out there too so it doesn't get lost. Yeah it's the way to do it. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 39:11

Thanks so much so much for being here we certainly appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 39:15

Thank you. Thank you very much. I really appreciate you guys having me on take care.

SPEAKER_01 39:19

You too and that's it for this candidate interview. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don't miss any of our upcoming podcasts or exclusive material. And don't forget you can join the conversation at our Facebook and Instagram pages or at bludoppodcast.com. Until next time stay curious keep the facts in focus and never stop fighting for what matters. Peace out everybody