Candidate Interview- Vincent Thompson, US Senate

In this episode of the Blue Dot Podcast, hosts Natalie MacDonald and Brian Koehl sit down with Kentucky U.S. Senate candidate Vincent Thompson—a farmer, conservation leader, and small business owner—to explore the personal experiences driving his campaign. Thompson shares the powerful story of losing his wife to a prolonged health battle, shaping his top priority of reforming the healthcare system by removing insurance from medical decision-making. He outlines three key pillars of his campaign: healthcare reform, stronger representation for Kentucky communities, and expanded early childhood intervention, particularly for children with special needs.

Drawing on his rural roots and extensive work in conservation and agriculture, Thompson emphasizes the economic struggles facing everyday Kentuckians, from rising costs to limited opportunities. Throughout the conversation, he advocates for unity over partisanship, practical solutions over politics, and a renewed focus on helping working families. The episode offers an in-depth look at a grassroots candidate focused on lived experience, community engagement, and restoring a sense of humanity to public service

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Blue Dog, another Kentucky Premier Play Podcast brought to you by the Kennedy County Democratic Executive Committee. Welcome back to the Blue Dog Podcast where we spotlight voices shaping our future. There are quite a few candidates running to take Mitch McConnell's U.S. Senate seat, and we have one more candidate to sit down with to tell us about their campaign, and we're going to do that today. Thanks for joining. I'm Natalie McDonald.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

And I'm Brian Cale. That's right, Natalie. And today we're joined by Vincent Thompson. Vincent was raised in Harden County. He is a farmer and small business owner based in Rineyville, Kentucky, where he has raised beef, cattle, and goats on his family farm since 2008. Thanks for joining us, Vincent. Really happy to have you today. Welcome. Happy to be here.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Yes, and thank you for joining us today. You've been active in local conservation and public service. And uh as Brian said, you are a local farmer. But we're gonna hand it over to you to tell us a little bit more about who you are and what inspired you to run for U.S. Senate.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Well, thank you for the chance, uh Natalie. Uh my name is Vincent Thompson. I'm running for U.S. Senate. If you've seen any of my TikToks or my Instagram posts, it says uh my logo is Kentucky Distilled Solutions for a Stronger America. That's both because I'm uh in the heart of bourbon country and uh we were looking for a catchy slogan as we were driving in the state, and uh it fit the what I was trying to get across because uh as we know, bourbon is actually a chemical solution, and uh if I get to DC, that my plan is to bring solutions just like Kentucky brings bourbon to the world. I'm gonna bring that to our country and maybe even the world.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

I love it. So what's uh what uh is motivating you your run for U.S. Senate? I mean, I'm sure there's plenty of things, something that rises to the top that made you say, you know what, I'm gonna I gotta do this.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

So my campaign has a three-tier approach. Um that doesn't mean that anything is that I'm not listing off as have any lesser value, but these are the three reasons that I decided to run. So the most influential reason, my wife passed away in 2020. She uh had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 2015, and we were uh she was going to at first Harden Memorial. Well, now it's Baptist Harden in Elizabethtown, but uh her doctor quickly realized that he she was out of his wheelhouse. He was used to dealing with much older patients that had her congestive heart issues. So he sent us up to um the team up at Jewish Hospital, the uh heart and lung transplant unit, and uh we were up there for probably two or three years, and no, actually it was longer than that, it was probably more like four years. And so during that time she was um she would get in great care. I have no qualms with any of the hair that she got at Jewish, but there were some issues coming down uh under the Bevan administration that was really cracking down on uh, you know, cities, especially Louisville, that um had more pro-choice options for women, and they were really it was under attack. So the nurses and the doctors were just in mass exodus. And our last doctor we had there in 2019 said that what they were hoping for, they were trying to get her, she had in a large upper left ventricle, and they were hoping to bring that down, put in uh had had surgically implanted what's called an L BAD. Well, sometime during that span of time she had uh can developed a staph infection, so they said at that point that you know we've done everything we can. You have to have a heart transplant. And the closest place she'd go to was Vanderbilt, um, which we didn't get a chance to go there because uh she was a uh for a short time she was a special needs teacher. She'd gotten her master's in special education and she had to go on disability because of all the things going on. So she she uh the insurance she had was uh state uh disability insurance. Well, insurance would not allow her to go to Vanderbilt. They said that she had to exhaust the state hospital, which was um University of Kentucky. So we started University of Kentucky in January of 2020, and as we know, March 2020, that's when COVID really sunk in it, sunk its teeth into the country, and she was in a sedated coma for about four months while she uh she lost the use of her lower right lung that'd be on oxygen. She was on what was called an ECMO, which did all the circulation of her body and blood. And she came out of that right before her birthday, May um 3rd of 2020, and I had put together a giant Zoom call because everybody was getting used to Zoom at the time, and I had about 60 people on that call, her family, my family from all over the state and country, and she was just ecstatic to see them. She was on oxygen, she was going to be on oxygen for the rest of her life, regardless. And then she did all the physical therapy trying to get through it, and she got to she finally got out of the hospital just before our daughter's birthday, August 1st of 2020. She got out on July 30th, and again, she was on oxygen, but she was she had survived miraculously, fortuitously, however you want to look at it. And then uh it's normal to go back in the hospital when you have that LVAD. So she went back in about a week, two weeks later, and that was kind of expected. But then slowly from August until September, she kept going back in, going out. Again, that was back and forth throughout that time, but then finally towards the end of September, she went in never to come back out. She passed away October the 11th, and apparently she had somehow contracted E. coli, and that was the final straw. So that's the number one point of my campaign is the fact that insurance has no business in healthcare. Their job is to reimburse health care providers. That should be between the health care provider and the patient, full stop. And that is my number one mission uh upon getting elected. I'm going to put legislation forth that gets insurance out of healthcare because as of right now, they are pretty much a middleman that we don't need. We're already spending around$8,500 per citizen of our contributed tax dollars for health care. It's more than enough to get basic care. But then insurance by itself is already adding an additional$3,000 to$4,000 per insured individual to get the service that they are already paying for. So my goal is to get insurance back into reimbursement out of diagnosis and get the doctors and nurses more power to the patient.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

I'm really sorry to hear that that you had to go through that. It's heartbreaking. But there's definitely something needs to be done with the insurance, the way that insurance works in this country for sure.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

And I think just healthcare and healthcare in general, you know, is just one of the top topics. So go ahead, Vincent. I I interrupted you there.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

No, no, you're fine. I wouldn't even interrupt you. Um I mean it crosses party lines. You know, I'm a Democrat. I've been a Democrat all my life. My father was a Democrat all his life, he's still alive. My grandfather, until he passed away, people have asked me why I didn't switch to Republican because that seems to be a strategy that people adopt to try to get elected in Kentucky. And I don't feel like that should be the case. Party should not be um the focal point of our politics. It should be about uh when I vote for somebody, I vote for the individual. And, you know, no, maybe we disagree on certain topics, but the basic humanity is the most important thing, in my opinion. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

You mentioned, uh I think at the top that um you had three main areas. Did you cover all those, or was that all in the health care, or do you have a couple of others that are really really driving you?

SPEAKER_01 6:57

That that was pillar number one. So pillar number two, I alluded to that earlier with when our before we got started with the podcast. So I'm the chairman of the Harden County Conservation District. The conservation districts were established right after the Dust Bowl to make sure that we never had an issue like we had with the Dust Bowl blowing prime soil across the country. Even it made it way all the way to D.C. And that's where uh Hugh Hammond Bennett was able to get his legislation across because I don't know whether it times it or not, but it came to D.C. just at the right time. And so I've served in conservation for around 15 years. I'm the chairman. I've been the chairman for I think 13 of those years. So I've been actively involved in local funded conservation practices to preserve our soil and our water. So after my wife passed away, I kind of leaned more into conservation and I was at I got invited to be on, I got I was asked to serve on the state board, the Kentucky Association of Conservation Districts, which is this second pen that I told y'all about. I'm a lifetime member. Well, the state association decided that I was probably a good candidate for what the NACD was establishing at the time called NGLI, next pu Next Generation Leadership Institute. And also a funny side note, uh, one of the key contributors for that program who has passed away now, but uh Billy Joe Miles out of western Kentucky was a key contributor to that program. So it was important that Kentucky got somebody represented because he's from Kentucky. So I got involved with that program, spent all of 2024 traveling around the U.S., started out in San Diego in February, but then we quickly went to D.C. in March for the spring flying. Our goal at the time, we were essentially lobbying for under the IRA bill under President Joe Biden, there was$45 billion allocated for conservation and agriculture practices. We were trying to make sure that that was guaranteed in the next farm bill, which has just recently passed, so it's taken this many years to get that accomplished. But my goal was to do that. And our one way we were trying to work on that goal was to speak with all of our senators. I was a member of a cohort of five individuals, one from Guam, one from Tennessee, one from North Dakota, and one from Oklahoma. I met with eight senators while I was at D.C. and they were none of them were Kentucky senators. And I did get to meet with staff, and you know staff does a lot of the legwork, but I felt like$45 billion should have afforded me two minutes of their time to at least speak my piece. And I gave them the benefit of the doubt because it's a busy time of year. Everybody's in D.C. try to get their stuff. There's lobbyists everywhere. But we again we traveled the country for the rest of the year, and then we were back in D or in the D.C. area in September. We actually went to the Fish and Wildlife Training Center in West Virginia, but we spent one day in D.C. I went back there, I met with the same eight senators. My two senators give didn't give me the time. And once I learned that McConnell was retiring, I said, if there's ever a chance for me to get this position, it's when I'm not facing an incumbent. But that is the second reason why I'm running, because we have to have representation of every Kentuckian in D.C. I feel like I've done my best to prove my capacity and willingness to do it because I, as of right now, I've visited 87 counties across the Commonwealth. I don't think I'll make all 120 by the primary, but that was my goal. But sometimes we fall short of goals. So that's my second pillar. We deserve representation. We haven't had it for years. So that's the second pillar of my campaign. And uh I'll be happy to go into the third one, which really ties into that one a little bit, but it's about the so my wife was a special needs teacher. Um she only got to teach for a year and a half before she was put on disability. My daughter, our daughter has autism, and I know full well how hard it is to get early childhood intervention with children that have special needs. Our daughter was uh non-verbal until around three. Fortunately for us, my wife knew the signs to look for. She got us involved in the program, she got everything applied for, even through all of her sickness, she did this. And during that time, she was trying to impart upon me, my hard-headed country boy head, the fact that the needs of these children and how much advocacy they need. So the third pillar of my campaign is the fact that we have got to get early childhood intervention from the ages of three to seven are the most crucial time to get this accomplished for children. We are seeing a such a mass increase of mental illness and drug abuse in this country, and they can all directly be attributed to the fact that we are allowing our kids to come out of their primary education ill-equipped for the world that they are being brought into. And that's just so mental illness, early childhood intervention, continued education intervention, and assistance on getting these people to become productive members of society while still affording them the benefits of security that we should all as Americans be guaranteed.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

I just really appreciate how you've uh thought through those and also just the passion behind those, you know, what's what's driving what's driving your uh campaign. It's good to hear.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

And I think a lot of people can identify with those issues. And I know you said you've been to 87 counties, you've been all over the state, which is, you know, I know you set the lofty goal to hit them all, but what you've done is impressive in the 87 um counties that you've been in. So when you're traveling across the state, when you're listening to the people, what are what issues are you hearing from the people? I I know you touched on education and healthcare. Are those the main drivers? I mean, you can identify with that. What are people saying to you? Are they feeling these same things?

SPEAKER_01 12:14

So the unfortunate circumstance of running for office is you're limited, limited on the time they're affording you to get your message across. So I don't get a chance to really dive into other issues from the stage. But during my travels and crowd work going among people, of course, my stories immediately hit close to home with almost every single person. Every single person has had some family member, somebody closed or just a couple steps removed that have had those healthcare problems. It always boils down to what we talked about what you said in your um in your question earlier was about kitchen table issues, the fact that people cannot afford. We were already in a state of hand to mouth, and now we're trying to feed ourselves foot to mouth, trying to pick up any scrap we can pick up off the ground to get something accomplished, to pay, you know, almost five dollar gas prices. I'm a farmer, diesel prices are approaching six dollars. We're not spreading fertilize this year because it's just too expensive. All that stuff comes through the straight-of-for moves. Um, Russia is one of our largest uh imports for fertilizer, chemical fertilizer. You know, some people are fortunate they have, you know, hog barns or chicken barns. They got plenty of free fertilizer that they got to get rid of anyway. That's great. I think more people should have that access available to them. But for the majority of farmers, fertilizer is impacting them. People that are trying to grow their own gardens, small businesses that are uh doing nurseries or greenhouses, they're still having to have face these cost impacts. It has once upon a time, maybe it was the the lower to lower upper class, middle class or lower class that was trying to worry about these costs. But these costs have now creeped all the way into firmly middle class territory where everybody's being impacted by it. It's affecting their long-term savings, it's affecting their children's potential education. I've I've worked with scholarship committees, I've upgraded scholarships for years, and without providing any confidential information, like people who should on paper should look like they can afford to send their kids to college, can no longer do it. Their children are applying for scholarships, they're applying for predatory student loans. All these things are just pushing this problem further and further down the track on when it has to be dealt with. And we have so much accumulated wealth in this country, especially over the last 10 years with, you know, IT and technology, AI is fast on our heels, if not already passed our, it's already probably already superseded us. But the fact that though there's so much money being made, but that money is being funneled directly to a few individuals. And I'm I'm not I'm all for free market enterprise. I'm all for people making and making money and becoming wealthy. But I don't want you making all your money, all your wealth off of me, off of the people that are not able to have that security. Security that they're the insecurity they're facing affects mental health. Um it affects their ability to be, you know, on the ground parents, it's making them work forcing them to work two, three jobs just to make ends meet, and even then not making them meet. Um we are see we fortunately we've not gone into full-blown recession, but the fact that we what once it was able available an ability for us to, you know, cash in on some pre predetermined wealth with our homes, now be if you have to try to get a new interest rate on a home equity loan, it's just it's not feasible. All the all the things we've put in place to try to help people rise above, it's obviously not enough. Now, I don't have a one-step solution to get this problem accomplished, but through other people that I've talked to, they are struggling. 100% struggling. Unless and I've not really had the fortune of speaking to anybody ultra wealthy. I've not taken any like large campaign donations. The few that I've taken, I felt bad about taking because I know these people, they can't afford it, but they know that change needs to come. So I've focused on trying to just get my campaign moving at this point, and when I win the primary, all of a sudden, donors will show up because nobody wants to back a horse until it comes through the starting gate on primary day. That's just that's the blatant, honest truth of politics. And I'm not complaining about it. I understand the reasoning, but speaking to every voter that's listening to this right now, I don't need your money. I need your vote on primary day. It's been hard to find a chance to speak long term and in depth because everybody's limited on time and everybody's scheduling the things at the same time. You know, everybody's trying to squeeze into this little window of opportunity at the end of the workday or on the weekend, and there's only so many hours and so many minutes in the day, and I'm only one person.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

Now that's why we uh one of the reasons we're we're so happy we're able to provide this platform to candidates. Yeah, because you know, like the forum that I met you at uh in Boone County, it was a great event, but you know, you have to limit when you have five or six on a panel. I mean, you have to limit the responses to a couple of minutes, and you know, you're just getting wound up and your your time's up, and uh it makes it difficult. It makes it difficult for people to really uh you know get a sense of your capabilities, your experience, your vision. I saw on your, it might have been on your Instagram or website, the the parable about the farmer who gave good seed corn to all of his neighbors because when the wind blew, the pollen blew, you know, uh across all fields. And if his neighbors had poor seed, it would only, you know, deteriorate, you know, his yield and his crop as well. So in other words, you know, when we're we're all successful and we we all have you're sharing those resources, I mean it helps everyone. I just really like that approach. And sorry if I was long-winded. No, you're fat. I was inspired by what you what you're saying. Um, and you know, you've had a wide range of jobs. I guess you've worked in some retail and insurance, and you know, you're a farmer now, and then you've been to DC, you've been all over the place. How has how else has that shaped your view of the economy and and and what you feel you can do to benefit, you know, your constituents once you're in the Senate?

SPEAKER_01 18:09

I've worked at every level of the economy. My first job, of course, I was raising tobacco on the farm. My first pickup truck was bought with hard hard-earned labor. And uh then the we had the tobacco buyout, the tobacco settlement, and that's been a great boon for farmers getting the cape money, especially with Kentucky doing such a good job of implementing that transitional stage of the the crossover. And then uh I worked in the CD and music store. Um, that's where I picked up my first guitar, it's where I learned to play guitar, and then I was a bartender, and then I worked for uh one of the largest insurance companies of uh Humana. And then I came back home. Uh I was studying philosophy with a minor in theology and anthropology at the University of Louisville. And hindsight 2020, I should have stayed and finished my degree because I was wanting to be a professor of philosophy. But uh I got afforded an opportunity to work at uh Dow Corning, which is now Dow Chemical. My dad was working there, do it working in his retirement. I got afforded the job uh there, uh making great money. And I'm not I don't complain about it. You know, I was working midnight shift, I was a zombie, but the money that I was able to put away in 401k bought my my family's house. And that's that's the way it's supposed to work, right? And then once we got through that stage, my wife said that she never would have, she was about ready to leave me for good because I was just unbearable on midnight shift. And I I said, okay, well, here's here's the trade-off. Like she wanted to be a teacher. I was like, so you're gonna be the you know, the primary breadwinner and the insurance, and I'm gonna work on the farm and I'm gonna have our children at the time. We were planning on having many more, and just having that true hands-in-the-dirt mentality that I've grown up on that I wanted to pass along to my children. And then I worked during the time I found it wasn't enough to really be doing farming, so I was selling insurance. I worked with Knights of Columbus first because I'm a Catholic, I'm a third-degree knight, and got that job, was making decent money, but it's hard going in, the same thing with politics. It's hard to go in and ask people who were in dire straits to part with more money. Then I pulled away from that and really leaned into farming. I was getting involved with more boards, I was on the Cattleman's board, extension council, things that were really community-oriented to get me involved with the programs that were available, and then that got me in conservation, and then they worked directly with the National Resources Conservation Service, NRCS, which is an affiliate of USDA, getting that money on the ground, getting it to the producers, they're learning the application process, learning the grant writing process. It just totally built my ability to work in the confines of our government structure. That's how it all works. You know, federal money comes to the state, and then the state divides it up based on necessity and you know, location, what like what if your soil's you know at risk of erosion or if you're in a watershed district, if you're in the mountains and you're in a flood zone, those kind of things. So I have I have as much or more knowledge to put forth in our state and also with our country now that I've gotten involved at the national level. I've heard the stories, I've visited with we've I've been to conventions where they're talking about these issues that every place is facing. So I am more than equipped to go into DC ready to run and get both the bills that are so important to me because of my reasoning for running, but also what's directly impacting every single citizen of this country. We have to have food security, we have to have water security. That's the bare bones. People have to have that. I'm leery of saying that's a human right, but if it's not a human right, it's the it's the next closest thing.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

I mean, clean clean water. And food, yeah, absolutely. And and one of the other reasons why Brian and I like to do this podcast is we want to elevate rural voices. We want to give people from all over Kentucky a platform. And you are, I think, you are the voice of rural Kentucky. So thanks so much for sharing all of that with us. And I was just curious thinking about that, what view do you think federal policy can do, or what can federal policy do? You do to support our local rural communities.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

So we have to have federal dollars allocated, and then we have to have state legislature that is going to allocate them properly. As of right now, there's been so many cuts, especially to education, but into healthcare, even with our state legislature. And I'm I've worked countless budgets. I know the tedious task placed before them on trying to put 100,000 here or a million here. I get all the problems with that. But that's another thing you asked me about. What I've heard from people across the state, they're so downtrodden by all the cuts being put into, you know, core issues. And I even understand on the on the side of the legislatures. Like they're trying to get this m we're trying to get into a state where we are actually more eligible as a state to get more federal funding. And you have to have um a good savings account, a good nest state put aside so that you're eligible for those higher credit ratings. But when you have people that are desperately dependent upon certain social programs, you just don't get to put aside a billion dollars or 500 million. You only get to put aside 250 million, and then you put those 250 million to the most crucial programs, which are not going to be enough. It's never enough. But we have to have our citizens in mind when we make those decisions. And I worry that politics, that you know, allegiances, all these kind of things are affecting people who many of them I know are good, decent people. Like I've spoken to them on countless occasions. I've worked with them. I I know they have similar aspirations to me. They're trying to get these things accomplished. But when you get so many powers above you that are pulling the strings, you can't make the proper decision, in my opinion. And like I said, I'm I'm not beholden to anybody at a corporate level. You know, I'm not going up there to become, you know, a wealthy individual. If that happens, I'm fine. But you know, make the money that's allocated you for your salary as a as a representative and then sell your books and make your money on your books. Don't be working on your next lobbying job. Don't be working on your next pharmaceutical job. Don't be telling your significant other that, you know, you got this inside information that's only available to key government figures. Right. And again, I'm not I'm not trying to inhibit them, prohibit them, these people from making money. But you don't have to make all your money that way. There's other ways to make money. Make a good living, take care of the people around you, take care of your neighbor. If they need help, don't be hoarding your wealth because at the end of the day, you can't take it with you.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

You cannot. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 24:28

Yeah, I you know, to to do some of the any of the things you're wanting to do, uh, you know, you're gonna be going up against that brick wall. You're gonna be going up against up against people who are seeking their own ends, and sometimes the ends are the same, but the means are different. So, you know, how are you gonna navigate that uh that partisanship and uh the partisan divide in Washington? I mean, what skills do you think you bring to uh be able to talk to people who maybe want eventually the same thing, but they have such a different way of going about it? You know, how do we agree on a path that, you know, will will translate into success for all?

SPEAKER_01 25:06

So the lessons that I've learned through the conservation district are going to be monumental for my campaign and for my uh tenure. I have worked across the aisle with Republicans, and party has never come up into our discussion. It's about taking care of soil, taking care of water, these core concepts that we have to have. You know, sometimes party comes into if we lean into some conversation, but as the chairman of the board, it's my job to rein those conversations in and get focused on the task at hand. And I have got 15 years of experience getting to the task at hand, balancing a budget while still making sure that people have access to programs that are going to give them a just a little bit of a leg up. You know, we're with the CATE money I was talking about, County Ag Improvement Program. That was all established under the tobacco settlement. We're working on right now, trying to get a YAEPE program with as which is a youth ag incentive program. Getting some money in these kids' hands, high schoolers, you know, middle schoolers, early college, trying to get them started on their path, whether it be, you know, with a show animal, a beef animal, a goat, a hog, something like that, and to get them the scholarship they need to go get to become a large animal vet, which we're in short supply of, and that's why Kentucky still, as of right now, as far as I know, you know, they have a full incentive program. Like if you become a large animal vet and you work 10 years, your student loans are reimbursed full stop. We've we've got to put programs like that in place, not just in agriculture, but throughout every trade that our country is dependent upon. It main when I when we award these kids, uh we award we we're in 27 schools now, or no, 24 schools in the county. When I took my tenure on, we were in three or four. Um so that's been a main goal of mine. Uh with not it's not been just me carrying the load, like we have a a coordinator that does a lot of work, our board does a lot of work, we have a lot of volunteers. But when I when we get those we do about three students per school, so at 24 schools, three, that's 60, 72 kids. If one of them moves on to become a leader for from our simple investment of time and just a little bit of treasure, a little bit of money rewarding them saying your ideas, your youthful exuberance can be an impact to somebody, maybe even a lot of somebody's. That's what we have to focus on. We have to focus on the ones who have the chance to make an impact in our future because I'm I'm 45. I don't have I mean, if at best I'm, you know, halfway through my life. So I have a short amount of time to get these kids involved to maybe provide them with just a a glimmering hope of what you can get accomplished with 4-H, with FFA, with local involvement. And even if I don't become elected official, like I told you, I spoke at the FFA FFA banquet. It was their first ever. They had, you know, it was middle schoolers, first time they'd ever done all the official dress and done the full parliamentary proceed procedure of running a meeting. But I was so proud of those kids, and I was so I was such it was such an honor for me to be chosen as a keynote speaker just because of my involvement with my campaign with their greenhouse. We're all looking for these glimmers of hope.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

Now, I d I love your perspective. I love your inspiration. I think it's such a good message, and I'm so glad that you're you're sharing it with us. And, you know, you are going to be up against more challengers in the primary. There are other Democrats who are running. So aside from your really dynamic background, what sets you apart from these other candidates?

SPEAKER_01 28:33

I think it's the fact that I've put forth all the experience that I have and, you know, going to the people on the ground. Like I know people are trying to do it, but I don't know anybody, maybe one or two other ones that have reached as many counties as I have, but they've also had other circumstances that made it, you know, not easier, but more feasible to get that accomplished. You know, I'm I'm a single father. I'm fortunate to have a large family if they help with my daughter. Uh, my mother-in-law is still actively involved in her life, taking care of some of her education. My mother-in-law is a retired special needs teacher. So again, that's an incredibly fortunate circumstance that I've been given, even with all the unfortunate circumstances that I've had faced in life. You have to recognize the fortune when you find it. And that makes me appreciative of anybody that provides, you know, suitable input to get things accomplished. If I don't know an answer to something, I'm going to start looking around until I find somebody that might have a little bit more expertise. And then I want to find somebody that has an opposing view to them so that I can find somewhere in the middle. Because, you know, for any progressive ideas that I have, they might be matched with some conservative ideas that I have. But the middle of the road is where most of the people lay. And we need to do a lot of progressive things in this state and country, but we also have a lot of core tenets that are really they've been, you know, held at ransom by the conservative groups as things that we should be fighting for. It's like those should those are guaranteed. Like we may need to do some alterations, I don't know, we may need some modifications, but that's what we have amendments for. That's that's the process of going to become a senator, become a um a House of Representatives member. We have to talk about these things and find what impacts the most people, and then we have to do our best to take care of the outliers as well.

SPEAKER_02 30:13

Well, Vincent, um, it's been a very interesting conversation. And I we we had a question about what was what was the one message that you want you know, you would want voters to take away from this conversation. I think if they anybody who's listened to this, if they don't have the message yet that you're very passionate, if they haven't gotten the message, then there's you know, there's no hope for them. I mean, your passion, your love of the state, and and I think just your focus on you know the little guy, the common person, you know, your neighbors and giving everybody a leg up, you know, is really uh commendable and I think that's shining through in this interview. Is there anything else that you want to make sure that uh our viewers and listeners know and take away from this conversation?

SPEAKER_01 30:54

My message when I've had the opportunity, I feel like my message, I play guitar and I sing, and my message comes out in that song, I sing my old Kentucky home. It talks about the love for the state, the fact that we recognize we have problems, the fact that we we know that hard times will come. It's a matter of what we do in those moments that either make it better or make it worse. And I we're in one of those hard times, but our country has come through hard times before. We've we've united. And I know we're facing what seem to be insurmountable obstacles with like, you know, social media being so divisive and giving everybody a platform and you know, not not really having accountability on whether it's somebody that's actually has a vested interest or whether it's some bot overseas that some foreign actor is trying to, you know, degrade our democracy, degrade our republic, being aware of that, but also having just a little bit of hope that we maybe can make a difference, even if it's minimal difference, minimal difference for the better ends up rippling out to becoming more and more differences for the positive. Hope, good cheer, and friendliness.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

We need more of that because like you said on social media, yeah, we have a very toxic leader. All of that accumulates, right? So we need more good, we need more positivity and hope. Um and you know, so yes, we we do like to do a lightning round with our guests to get to know you just a little bit better. We talk a lot about policy and all the all the really uh you know deep stuff. And so we like to lighten it up at the end with a little bit of uh lightning round. So I do have five rapid fire questions for you if you were up for that.

SPEAKER_01 32:27

Sure. I'm happy to all right.

SPEAKER_00 32:29

Um one word to describe Kentucky. What would you what one would you use to describe Kentucky?

SPEAKER_01 32:35

Home.

SPEAKER_00 32:37

Love it. Short and simple. Um what is the elaborate a little bit? No, I love it.

SPEAKER_01 32:43

I love it. My family has lived in Kentucky since before it was a state. Um my great great great great grandfather, I'm actually a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. The women in my family are members of the Daughters Revolu American Revolution because we have an ancestor who fought to get rid of a theocratic dictatorship, a tyranny that was prohibiting this country from moving forward. And I didn't serve. I don't get to take any credit on that regard. But the fact that I have ancestry that did that, and ancestry is so important to me. You know, I've got a historical site that I rent out as a venue. Um, the reason I even have it is because I have family lineage there. Family is important to me, and I've got family all across this state and country and even world. So when I say Kentucky and home, that's what it means. It's like this is where my ancestors chose to stay, and I'm still here. Um, you know, it that's like whenever I'm on the beach for about a week, it's like it's time to get home. It's time to get back to Kentucky.

SPEAKER_00 33:40

No matter where where you go, it's always good to be home. That is for sure. Alrighty, what is what is the what is the biggest it issue that voters are not talking about? Just one issue that you think people aren't talking enough about.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

It might go back into the divisiveness and everything. Like everybody's kind of holding up in their corners, and I've got problems with how President Trump has been handling things. But if I become a senator, he's the president until he's not. My job is to get things accomplished, but my job is also to work with whoever is in a position of power, to not make waves, to not rock the boat so much that you you burn a bridge, make sure that those bridges are available because in our past we we look back fondly on the fact that once upon a time parties worked across the aisle, and there was a reason why they were able to work across the aisle because they kept the business in the business setting and they remembered their humanity when they left it. And I'm worried with our attention spans, with our divisive nature, with our you know, our instinctual drive to become tribal. We are burning bridges when maybe there is some minimal progressive change that can happen if you maintain, you know, a cordial demeanor and remember that somebody's human when you're talking to them, that they have hopes and dreams and all those kind of things. It's just it I I've met many of them who are absolutely not gonna vote for me because I'm a Democrat, and that's fine. That's it's their vote, it's their right. But for everyone that I meet, I've got to try to make sure that the 10 that I do meet that are open-minded see me as an avenue for progress, not for something that's going to hinder them.

SPEAKER_00 35:11

Bravo. I will we'll we'll lighten it up a little bit with this one. Um, do you prefer coffee or sweet tea?

SPEAKER_01 35:17

Water. I can't drink caffeine.

SPEAKER_00 35:19

No, all right. Oh, that's fair.

SPEAKER_01 35:21

My sister makes decast sweet tea for my dad, but uh yeah, I can't drink caffeine at all. I'd I'd be up for five days. I I drink water like it's going out of styles. But if I get a choice of decaf sweet tea, sweet tea all the way.

SPEAKER_00 35:33

All right. Sounds good. And you mentioned that you uh play the guitar. I know uh you played on the on the trail, but when you're around the campfire with your friends, what's your what's your favorite goate song?

SPEAKER_01 35:42

Um, so we were actually playing yesterday um at my brother-in-law's and sister's. Um we get we try to get together as many Sundays of the year as we can with our, you know, immediate family. And uh, you know, I was singing a a song. I'm mod I'm renowned for modifying songs to where it fits my life, um, but it it follows the same tune and progression as other songs. But lately I've been playing um, there's a song, it was by Wayland Jennings called Amanda, um, but then Chris Stapleton redid it and did an excellent job. Both of them did an excellent job. Um, but I changed Amanda to Samantha, my wife's name, and then I changed some of the um the details of it. Like he says, Chris Stapleton says he's pushing 40 while still wearing jeans. Well, I'm I'm 45, so I'm pushing 50 by by all mathematical measures. So I changed that part. But uh that's been one that I've been kind of falling to. So, but definitely right now, Amanda rephrased as Samantha has been my go-to campfire song, but many of them come to mind. Folsom Prison Blues, um, you know, Family Tradition by Hank Williams Jr. Just I don't know, I probably got 40 or 50 catalog songs in my mind, plus songs that I've written that people will request request.

SPEAKER_00 36:48

Great talented. Um, all right. One last question for you. Who is one leader that you admire that can be famous, not famous? One person you admire.

SPEAKER_01 36:58

That's a tough one. I've got a lot of admiration for many different people. I'm not usually uh speechless, but it's hard to just nail it down to just one. Um I've I've definitely got a gift of Gab, and that came from my mom. My dad's more of a reserve type.

SPEAKER_00 37:11

I was gonna say you can always go with mom or dad because you know that's Well, I I will do that.

SPEAKER_01 37:16

Um, you know, both of them are leaders that I respect immensely. But just going back to my mom, um, well, my dad too. Uh my oldest sister passed away from uh SIDS when she was um about four months old. And they were a young couple. My dad was uh 20 when they met and she was 16. By 17 it and by 21 they had a child that had passed away. And I'd always known that all my life. But going sometimes you have to experience some type of uh some tragedy to really grasp the impact of it. And losing my wife and knowing they lost her at the start of their young life and their marriage, the leadership that they put forth, I'm I'm one of five living children. I've got four older sisters who were all in high school when I was born. But yeah, just the leadership of my parents, the fact that they they held together a family of five. I love them dearly. Um I can't say enough appreciation for what they have done for me and for my sisters and for other people across the county and the state. Like my dad was one of eleven, my mom's one of seven. All these families still come around. They want to talk. My dad's name is Norb. They want to see Uncle Norb. They want to see Aunt Bonnie, they want to hear her stories. So that's impact that most people take for granted or don't want to recognize because it's not flashy, it's not, you know, worldwide recognition. It's the fact that there are people in this world that knew that my dad had a tremendous farm pond of bass and crappie and bluegill and catfish, and he just liked for them to come out there and they won't always wanted to pay. And he was like, no, I don't want payment. The fact that you came out here and visited me, the fact that you like to do it, the fact that you're keeping me up to date on the fish population. My mom raises flowers, daylilies, irises, and anytime there's, you know, a tragedy or um a celebration, my mom is the first one there with one of her prized daylilies that she has taken great care of, putting into a pot. That's leadership. You can't buy that. That's not worth any money. It's just invaluable. So their leadership in my life is the reason that I'm probably the primary reason that I'm standing here today, along with all the other trials and tribulations that have I've gone through in my life that have led me here. Um I wouldn't be here without them. So their leadership is probably where I have to let that rest.

SPEAKER_02 39:24

That's a great tribute. I I hope my kids say something half as nice about me one of these days.

SPEAKER_01 39:30

Well, we've had we've had many a knockdown drag out fight on the farm because that's part of when you're in a family business, and especially when it's a farm family business, like personalities come into clash quite often. But you s you you say your piece, you go off and cool down, you say your apologies, and then you sit down to dinner, or you sit down and enjoy the time you got together when you don't have to make these hard decisions. And that's the same thing with politics. Like you go in there and you say your piece and you fight your battles, but at the end of the day, you remember your humanity, you remember that you're not the only we're I'm not the only one in this situation. There's other people involved, and many people have many things that they want to try to get accomplished. So let's do our best to try to get them accomplished together while having the best net benefit and mitigating the worst things that you know seem to be coming out right now.

SPEAKER_02 40:17

Yeah, that's true. Well, so thanks again for joining us, Vincent. And where can listeners learn more about your campaign, maybe get involved? Uh learn about your story and your vision.

SPEAKER_01 40:27

So um I I've pretty much done everything. I've pretty much been a one-man show with some key volunteers, uh, but it's pretty much been me taking care of things and the best way I found to manage that. Uh I built a Facebook uh page, Vincent Thompson for U.S. Senate, which is connected to my Instagram, which is Vincent Thompson, U.S. Senate. I'm on TikTok at GuitarPick and Vincent. But that's the best way to find me. Uh Vincent Thompson for U.S. Senate at Kentucky Distilled Solutions for a Stronger American.

SPEAKER_00 40:54

Awesome. Well, thanks again. Thanks so much for being here. We appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 40:57

Thank you all so much for putting it on. I'm so appreciative of you all. I hope you all have a great day. Me too.

SPEAKER_00 41:04

And that's it for this candidate interview. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don't miss out on any of our upcoming podcasts or exclusive material. Until next time, stay curious, keep the facts in focus, and never stop fighting for what matters. Peace out, everybody.