A Voice for the People: Brant Owens Runs for Commissioner

Brant Owens, candidate for Campbell County Commissioner (District 3), joins the Blue Dot Podcast to discuss his vision for more transparent, responsive local government. A lifelong resident and active community volunteer, Owens shares why he’s running, emphasizing the importance of showing up, listening to residents, and making long-term decisions that strengthen infrastructure, growth, and quality of life. Tune in for a practical conversation on local leadership, development, and giving citizens a stronger voice in county decisions.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:08

Welcome back to the day we are interviewing another local standard for the Brian Cale.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Local government is where the road for many of the policies and actors that directly affect the daily lives of its citizens. As we discussed before, the role of county commissioner is one of the most consequential. Like Kent County, Campbell County also has three commissioner districts, and voters countywide get to vote in all three races, regardless of where they live. Brent Owens is running for the commissioner position in District 3, and we are looking forward to learning more about his goals and priorities to be successful. Thanks for joining us, Brent.

SPEAKER_03 1:01

Yes, first uh, thanks so much for being here. And you know, you've really been involved over the years with several Newport and Northern County organizations and activities. So it seems like from your background, the run for Kent County Commissioner is kind of like the next logical move. So I'm gonna hand it over to you to tell us a little bit about yourself and uh talk a little bit about what inspired you to run for this position and why you think you're a good fit for it.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Sure, appreciate that. But um, so I'm a lifelong Campbell County resident, other than a couple of years in downtown Cincinnati and a couple years in Covington, but the vast majority of my life's been in Campbell County, grew up in Bellevue, graduated from Highlands. I've lived as far south as Alexandria and Highland Heights, Campbell County, Newport is where I live now. So I've been all over the county. Uh consider myself a city kid, but I do know virtually every corner of this county. A few years ago, my wife and I found ourselves as empty nesters, and if you've ever been through that after our daughter graduated high school and moved away, all of a sudden, who are you? What do you do anymore? You're not going to soccer every weekend, you're not chasing a teenager around. So we started volunteering in the neighborhood, meeting new people, uh, just with the attitude of let's make some new friends. But we met a lot of people. We started going to more meetings. Uh turns out my wife and I are pretty good at this, at getting to know people, rolling up our sleeves, diving in, and the better you are at something, and the more people like being around you, the more they tend to hand you or ask you to become involved in. So you get deeper and deeper. I became chair of Newport's Westside Citizens Coalition over the previous year. I gave that up back in March when I decided to do this on the board of the emergency shelter of Northern Kentucky. I've been in various leadership roles with the uh Northern Kentucky group of the Sierra Club. Uh, and then off just planting trees. Oh, I forgot I'm also chair of Newport's tree board, helping take care of our urban forestry here in Newport. But what you learn is showing up is about 90% of the game. If you show up, you can make things happen. And these small, underfunded groups, but with some very passionate people, were able to make some real positive change. Then back in 2024, I thought, you know, what if we could get a little more resources? So I decided to run for uh Campbell County of Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor. It's a mouthful, but it's a low-level position, but they do have some resources involved that I felt maybe weren't being utilized as well as they could. And if I could win that position, not only could I help Newport, but Bellevue, Dayton, some of the other river cities that maybe aren't on the radar what can largely be a rural type of board. I didn't win that race, but I learned a lot. I learned that I actually really do enjoy getting out and meeting people and listening and finding out what's bothering them or what challenges are they facing. Um so we put that race to bed after I lost in November 2024, but just kept showing up and being involved. And then I was approached and asked by a few different people if I would consider running for something in 2026. I it was not on my radar screen. I had just started a new job earlier in the year back in 2025. Did not want to burden my new employer with that, but County Commissioner came up. Now, what I'm not is somebody who's just gonna run for their own ego. Uh if the job is being done well, great, let that person keep doing it. But I looked at the person holding that seat here in District 3, which is the River Cities, and by the way, it is a district situation, but it's still a countywide race. So no matter where you live in Campbell County, you'll be able to vote for me in November, I'll be on the ballot. But the person holding that seat had been there for over ten years, and really nobody's done anything about it. There's not a lot of administrative role to that job, not a lot of authority. It's voting, it's representing the people, but there's also a bully pulpit involved. You pick up the phone as county commissioner, people are gonna answer it. You're gonna get connections, you're gonna talk about what resources can we bring. Uh and I just didn't feel like that voice was being heard or being amplified. And if there's one thing I know I can do, I can show up, and there's another thing I know I can do, I can talk and meet people. So I felt like that needed to be a more active role. And then you dive in even deeper and you see it's years and years and years of just unanimous votes and unanimous votes with very little discussion and almost no dissension. Is that county commissioner who's supposed to be representing the people as a check and balance against the judge executive who runs the fiscal court? Or is the person holding that seat now really the voice of the judge executive coming back to the people saying, Here's what you're going to get? I feel like it should be that person asking, what can the county do for you, as opposed to coming to you and saying, Here's what you're going to get from the county. And once I realized that that's what was going on, I thought, yeah, I can do that job, I can do that job better. It deserves to be done better, and the people deserve better as well. So that's why I decided to run.

SPEAKER_02 6:17

Wow, that's uh you kind of answered my question that was coming up with uh, you know, the county commissioner position, it doesn't get a lot of attention, but it does have some real and significant impact. And I was gonna ask what in particular motivated you to step up and run. I mean, I think besides perhaps the rubber stamp kind of nature of the person currently holding the position, you've seen other things in the county, uh in your community that you think, hey, I could I I could address that in this role and make and make an impact.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Absolutely. And I think it's it comes down to priorities. Uh I get asked a lot about policies. Policy is great, policy is needed. Policy is not the starting point, policy is the ending point. It starts with priorities, and my priority would be is what we're trying to do making life easier and better and more palatable for the people that already live here in this county. There are real challenges. Is a new grocery store that's a half mile from two other grocery stores the kind of thing that's going to help somebody with their day-to-day life? I don't know about that. Now, I don't know that a county commissioner can do anything about that either. But where there is a decision to be made, my lens, my priority would always be: does this improve the lives for the people living here today? And will this improve the lives for five years, ten years, twenty years down the road? And if that answer is unclear, then tougher questions need to be asked. So, yes, it is an administrative voting position, but it is the fiscal court. It is the way I explain to people, you know what your town council is, your city council, your city commission. This is the city council of the county. The judge executive is the mayor of the county. Those four people together run the county government. Technically, they run the budget, but if you run the budget, you run the government. And they set the direction. And I just don't think the direction has been real clear. Been looking down the road very far, been more reactive instead of proactive.

SPEAKER_03 8:25

I love the way that you just described that in saying that they are the mayor of the county and how all of that works. Because I think a lot of people don't have a lot of knowledge, but you can do your city council. Right. But how this whole structure works, and I really like the way that that you broke it down there. And count is really growing, they're evolving at really face-to-face-to-face council that a lot of things are changing. Especially with land use and zoning and new developments that you said at the grocery store down the street. Really necessary. So, how do you address all of these challenges and still be able to make it competitive with growth, but being mindful of things like well, these data centers, what do people really want?

SPEAKER_00 9:07

Yeah. And it's the challenge with a camp with a county like Campbell County is yes, you have your county government, but you also have, I think, 15 different municipalities inside this one county. And to a large degree, the city government decides what happens inside of the city. Now, in the unincorporated areas and some of the smaller towns, they outsource some of this to the county level government. So the county government can't necessarily decree what's going to happen here and what and where, but I think there is a collaboration that's needed and a leadership that's needed. There are more resources available at the county level, more connections, more access that a county commissioner would have than maybe a city council member or a smaller town mayor. But it's bringing all those parties together, maybe bringing in people from the state, whether it's the bureaucrats or the elected officials, and trying to set a course. What are our priorities? Not just as the county government, but as the people inside of the county, as the towns inside of the county. What do we want to look like? You know, one thing I really harp on is you look at Newport, for example, in its heyday, there were over 30,000 people living here. Now it's probably around 15 or a little bit less. There was a lot more density here. You can add density where density already was or already is. The infrastructure's here, the roads are here, the sewers are here, etc. If you don't do that, or if you have policies that discourage that, and sprawl starts happening further and further to the more rural parts of the county, well, now you've got to have new roads, which means you've got to maintain them. You've got to build the pipes, you've got to hang the electric wires, all of that. And that may bring immediate growth, but it also brings longer-term cost of maintenance to uphold all of that or to maintain all of that. And I think we've already seen that there are areas in this county that need to be better maintained than they are. Why are we adding new construction on top of that? So it becomes more of a, as opposed to what is happening right in this little corner of the county, if we need more affordable housing, where's the better place to put it? What can we do to get things out of the way to allow that to happen? Mass transit. You need density for mass transit. If we keep pushing further and further and further out into the undeveloped areas and developing those, well, mass transit doesn't make sense to go all the way out to the Pendleton County border and back. But if we have more people here in the urban core, the suburban areas, and some developed areas in the rural part, all of a sudden mass transit can make more sense. We're not relying upon our cars so much. If gas hits $5 a gallon or more, I have alternatives, whereas today I don't. So that may have wound myself around a little bit. Maybe that didn't exactly answer your question, but I think it comes back to, you know, the county can only do so much officially, but the right person in those roles can do a lot more than just what the position says it can do on paper.

SPEAKER_03 12:12

No, I think that answer you answered it perfectly. I was all that's all I was gonna say. Is that that's that was a perfect answer.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

Yeah, I love the uh talking about the collaboration we had a a previous guest on that, you know, talked quite a bit about the interrelatedness and interconnectedness of all these different government entities and how they're kind of layered and tiered, but they all have to work together. That that collaboration, is that something that you're not seeing today with the county commissioners, or maybe you don't know? Is it something that, you know, especially when you're talking about bringing down like state representatives, et cetera, and and doing like maybe these forums or roundtables, perhaps? Is that something you could structure or formalize that you think would benefit constituents?

SPEAKER_00 12:55

I think those conversations are often happening. Uh maybe there are certain favored parties that get talked to more versus others. Politics in a small, you know, Northern Kentucky is a big area, it's also a small area.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

There are personality conflicts that you may have to deal with, but and there are quasi-governmental agencies, there are nonprofit agencies. What I think is maybe missing are two things. True transparency. If decisions are being made, do people know who are making those and why they're being made? And I think sometimes there are decisions here involving tens of millions of dollars, if not more, that we're not quite sure exactly how that happened or who made that decision. And then also public involvement. I like to use this analogy. If I really want to know what my wife thinks of something, I don't put it on a post-it note and put it in the spare bathroom that she doesn't go into with a question mark. I go find her and I ask her. If I don't want her involved, then maybe I use the post-it note and said, Well, I put it, you know, you didn't see it, that's not my fault. Sometimes I think when our local governments are holding public information sessions, are they really looking for public input or are they checking a box and saying, We did it, you didn't show up, shut up, I don't want to hear about it. We need to flip that around. We need to be interested. You know, we had a big upset in the primary in the Campbell County judge executive race, and quite honestly, I think what drove a lot of that was people felt like the county government just did not care what they thought or what they said. I have a concern I'm bringing to you, and what I'm hearing back from you is you're wrong, you don't get how the system works, things are going great. Well, I don't feel like things are going great, and when you're telling me they are, then you're no longer doing the job for me, and I'm gonna put somebody else in that off.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

Right. I uh especially with the I I love the grocery store example that you start up because I think I know which grocery store you're talking about, but did they go out into the neighborhood and did they find out from enough people, uh map of people that said, we need a more full service grocery option that we can walk to, because maybe many people in that area don't have cars, aren't able to drive, or are somehow, you know, constrained in other ways. And if that conversation took place and that decision was based upon talking to the constituents and finding out there was a true need, great. But was that what really happened? And you know, we don't know. Uh I there was no transparency, all of a sudden it just appeared, as far as I know.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Yeah, and it's like we live in a country of private property rights, and I totally respect that. If a certain company wanted to buy that property and the property owner wanted to sell it and it fit within the zoning, and everything was above board and legal, great. But and you know, that was I think within the city limits, so the county wouldn't have a lot to do with that decision anyway. But to your point, how do you get there? That is a dangerous intersection. I believe somebody was hit and killed earlier in this year just trying to walk home from work or get to a bus stop. That is a horrible stretch of road if you're a pedestrian or a bicyclist. It's it's designed to get cars through very quickly, very rapidly, and nothing else. I live in Newport with the new West Newport Kroger. I can walk there. I can take a bike there. I have. I love that. That's what we need to focus more on. Instead of stretching things out and dumping these massive parking lots that are 90% empty 90% of the time, when things become walkable, when things become a little more dense, when things are done with purpose and linked together, and this project works because it's linked to this project, which is linked to this infrastructure, things tend to work better as opposed to, well, that sounds great, throw that over there, and oh, that's new, throw that over there. Now you've got this hodgepodge that unless everything's going perfectly well, I got a car and I can afford the insurance and I can afford to maintain it, and traffic isn't terrible, it works great. But once one of those little things starts to fall apart, the whole system starts to cascade and no longer works for the regular person.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:17

You're just stimulating all kinds of thoughts, especially when I was at the at the candidate forum last night in Campbell County and uh there was some good conversation there. But when you're talking about the development heading southward and, you know, in the county when perhaps there's the availability for more density that already exists, you know, with infrastructure in other areas. Part of that drive may also be that we learned last night just how difficult, or again, it was reinforced, how difficult it is to be a farmer. And there are many farms in South of the County and make a farm work, and many are are selling their farmland because it it's not viable anymore to be a farmer. And I don't know if that's anything that a county commissioner can do, but it's just like a trend that we see that makes this land available and it makes it enticing to develop it instead of you know leave it as farmland and maybe look for that development elsewhere.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Yeah, I mean, there are you know global happenings that a county commissioner can't control. The factorization or or mass production of food is one of them. The family farm is tough.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Farming was tough when a lot of people were farming, it's especially tough now that even fewer people are farming. But there is a legacy there. There is. I love the idea that I live in Newport, but if I really wanted to, I could jump in my car and within a 15-20 minute drive be whether it's AJ Jolly Park or a friend's farm or somewhere way down on the banks of the Licking River on a canoe, and we don't want to lose that.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

Right.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

So it's again, it's being purposeful. You can't freeze time, but you can make choices. You can involve the people who live there and say, What is it you want to see? Or this is coming and this is going to have this effect, how best do you want to adapt to it? You talk about the expansion of 536 in the southern part of the county. To a large extent, that is needed. It'll take a lot of the truck traffic off of 27, but be right behind that. You expand a road, then those property owners that are of that mindset are gonna say, Well, now this is a lot more valuable, I can sell it. And now another strip mall is going there, or a grocery store, or a grocery store, or you know, uh five more car washes, uh, a fast food restaurant. So getting ahead of that and proper zoning, proper master planning, working as a county commissioner so that the county's master plan and Alexandria's master plan and Grants look if they have one in Cold Spring, don't butt heads, but at least overlap or coordinate somewhat. So that you know, I remember as a youngster, Campbell County High School, the old one, which is now the middle school, felt like it was forever and a day out in the county. And now it's nonstop development all the way there. You lose something, and you again you can't freeze time, but you can make sure that the people that are there understand what's happening, get their input, and I always believe friction makes the best policy. If you're in a room full of people who are all in agreement, you're gonna have blind spots, you're gonna make some wrong decisions. You bring in more opinions, you bring in more people, you bring in people that actually live there, you're gonna learn some things and you're gonna make some different decisions.

SPEAKER_03 20:45

Yeah, and that diversity, I think, is really important. Diversity of your leadership and the people who you would you would have around you. You spoke um earlier about the uh upset that you saw in the primary and people are just getting fed up with not having transparency. You will be facing Republican incumbents in the general election. And they've held the position for over ten years. So if you can lend a little bit of insight into to more about your why you are the right person for this and what sets you apart from them.

SPEAKER_00 21:15

Again, it's it's a district that runs countywide. But if you look at what district three is, the bulk of it is the river cities, Bellevue, Dayton, and Newport. I grew up there. There's a little bit of Fort Thomas in that district, I think just enough to allow somebody from Fort Thomas to run. Because now they got the entire county that they can get to vote for them. And a a chunk of Southgate, which makes sense. That's Newport adjacent. That person should understand the river cities. That person should be visible in the river cities. I was volunteering at a litter pickup in Dayton a few weeks ago talking to a Dayton City Council member who had no idea who their county commissioner was. That blew my mind. If you're not going to get out and do the damn job, you shouldn't have the job. You're holding the seat. For what? Because you think maybe your turn is up for judge executive at some point? Probably not anymore. Or y you like the c the paycheck and the benefits, great, they're there. But then you should be working to earn that. And you know, at the end of the day, it comes down to a choice of the people. If that's what they want and they're satisfied with, they can vote for that. But between now and November, I'm going to make as much noise as I can. And if I win, November and beyond, I'll keep making as much noise as I can. I'll say it over and over again. I show up, I'm visible. You know when I'm in the room, I'm going to talk to you. You're going to know me. And if if I'm in that position and you've got a problem, a complaint, you can pick up the phone, you can email me, and you will get a response. We may not agree on it, but you're going to know you've been heard, and we're going to see if your point's valid, what can we do with it? So it's it's again, it's that job is a privilege. Earning that is a privilege. It should be treated as such, and not just as hey, I was next in line, I got it, the party machine put me there, and I've just been coasting for the last 10, 11 years, and I'm hoping that I can just coast back in for another four-year term, which will then be by the time that's up, would be 16 years of that same person in office. And I don't know that anybody can name one thing they've done. In my small time as uh chair of the Westside Citizens Coalition here in Newport, uh, at one point we raised over two thousand dollars uh for local food banks uh when the first Doge snap cut started coming in. Our team helped put together the grant that won a million dollar tree planting grant from the Biden administration, which was then yanked by the Trump administration. So even without that chair, that position, that authority, if you you can get things done. Now just imagine with somebody with that attitude and those connections and those people working with them that had the title of county commissioner and that authority and that budgetary control behind them, I think you can do a lot more for this county than what's being done. It's a wasted opportunity. It's to use a sports analogy. If you got a dead bat at third base, you need a bat at third base. Doesn't matter how good their defense is, that's a that's an offensive position. This can be an offensive position, and right now it is not.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

Yeah, I think you mentioned last night we were talking, you know, 10 years of basically unanimous decisions. So, you know, where's the voice, right? I mean, where's the friction that you talked about that really drives good policy? It's been absent. So and you wanna you wanna be the person to maybe bring that back and and get some ideas flowing and get some constituent uh interaction and involvement uh in making these decisions for the county. I think it's a great thing.

SPEAKER_00 25:04

Yeah. I think uh when you have a judge executive in that position for the twenty-eight years that Mr. Pendry was, and he he's a he's a he's a fine person. I think he did a great job for a long time. But at some point I think the priority became we gotta keep these meetings to an hour, as opposed to we gotta get things done in these meetings regardless of how long it takes. And that you know, when you're in that a any position for that long a time, you know, I'm showing my age. Chuck Noel won four Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers. At some point, he was fired. Because he stopped winning Super Bowls, I mean he got too comfortable. Anybody in any position for that period of time, you know, you can get too comfortable and things start to show.

SPEAKER_03 25:52

Yeah, and you're talking about being visible and and how important that is. And you know, just being in the room, being present, talking to people, it it motivates people to get out and vote, first of all. Um, but it also gives them a voice and a voice through youth and uh getting to know you, uh you obviously uh like talking to people, but for the purpose of our viewers who may not know you, uh, we do a a little lightning round to get to know you a little better if you'd be up for that.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 26:18

Okay, all right. These are always these are always fun. If you could be a member of any band or musical group, which one would it be?

SPEAKER_00 26:26

Uh I've been a fan of the Rolling Stones since I was in my preteen years. Still am, still love 'em. So if I could somehow flip into there, I I'm not a musician, but if I could snap my fingers and even just be the bass player, be a percussionist, something on stage.

SPEAKER_02 26:44

Or dance like or dance like Jagger, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

Yeah, exactly. I I don't know about that. At 80 years old, that's Yeah, no kidding. But I would yeah, I would love to have been uh in some of the the events that they went through over the the decades they've been around.

SPEAKER_03 27:00

Can you imagine the stories? My God, the story of their life. It must be incredible.

SPEAKER_02 27:04

Yeah, back back in the day when, you know, in the late 60s and 70s when I was growing up of stones or beetles, right? I mean, you could tell who a person was and what kind of person they were. They liked the stones or the beatles, and I have to admit, I always hung out with the stones people. They were a lot more fun.

SPEAKER_03 27:21

All of that track. All of that tracked, right? All right, the next question. You obviously are brain that you have your eyeglass lapel, you always have your white ones on. We know and love them. What happens if they break and they're out of stock and you have to go to a new color? What are you gonna pick?

SPEAKER_00 27:37

Brian sponsored this question last night at the meeting we were at, and I said, Oh, well, I can tell you or I can show you tomorrow surprise because I want the surprise. So I'm gonna move my camera here. But if these were to break, oh my god, I have a whole collection. So I am uh not lacking for eyewear, but these are the signature ones. I have a backup pair that are slightly less white, but it's so if something were to happen to these, I can still show up and you'll probably still know who I am just from the glass. And I honestly I had been I was picked out of Pride the other weekend. I've been and other things are I said, are you Brant? I said, I wouldn't have known if it weren't for the glasses. Without them, I'm another nondescript middle-aged white guy, but I stand out in the room. It's great.

SPEAKER_03 28:20

You have a wall for them because I just have mine like laid on my desk, you know, and then I'm like, where's this color? Where's that? You're organized, I love it. Good stuff. All right, we do like to give shout outs to our local establishments, eating and drinking places. So if you, what's your go-to kind of favorite spot to grab a drink or grab a bite to eat?

SPEAKER_00 28:40

Oh, I mean, we moved to Newport because it's so walkable. So there's a lot of great establishments here, and I'm probably gonna tick somebody off by not mentioning them. But combination of convenience, food, beverage, and just who you might see when you walk in. Uh, we love Woodencast Brewery down on York Street.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:00

Across the New Kroger now. Really good beer, really good atmosphere. The food is really good, and they've got a fantastic bourbon selection, and they do a pretty good job of mixed drinks behind the bar. So it it checks all the boxes. If it was just all I wanted to drink, it might be someplace. If I just wanted a quick meal, but that you walk in, no matter what mood you're in, you can probably find what it is you're looking for.

SPEAKER_02 29:22

I haven't been there in a while. I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to check that out again. It's been a while since I've been down there.

SPEAKER_03 29:27

I got it on the list. I got it on the list.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

Good.

SPEAKER_03 29:30

All right. Here's uh what's a little more serious. The past or present, is there a politician who's inspired you?

SPEAKER_00 29:38

Uh you know, it's Jimmy Carter, not known for being the greatest president. I think a lot of that was circumstances beyond his control, but history is what history is. But what I really admire about the man is he had a whole life before the presidency and he had another whole life after the presidency. Absolutely honestly, if you look at if you were to name the top five most interesting things about Jimmy Carter, being president might be number five. And so even after his defeat running for his second term, he kept showing up. The public service service, the dedication, the true compassion for humanity. You know, if if I could pull off ten percent of the genuineness that he had, I I feel like I'd, you know, I've improved myself quite a bit.

SPEAKER_03 30:31

It's hard to argue with him being inspiring, like you said, even after before and after his presidency. What an amazing, amazing man and and legacy. So good, good one. And then lastly, the day's over, you're getting ready to take off the glasses and and chill out. What do you do to uh unmind?

SPEAKER_00 30:48

It depends upon the day. Uh I'm a husband, uh father, a grandfather now. We've got a couple young grandbabies running around. I do like spending time with family, but running a campaign is nonstop action. So if I really just want to shut everything out for a while, I I just bought an e-bike back in the winter. I like the bike ride. The e-bike makes it that much easier as my body gets older. But when you're on a bike, there's nobody else there. You're whipping by people, you're not stopping to talk to them. It it gives you a little bit of time where you can just be by yourself, but still be in the middle of everything. And whether it's running errands or just riding the bike for the heck of it, it helps clear the mind, gets the adrenaline going for a little bit, and if you ride long enough, it it helps you fall asleep and stay asleep the rest of the night when you finally get home.

SPEAKER_02 31:41

Yeah, sounds good.

SPEAKER_03 31:43

I love it.

SPEAKER_02 31:43

Well, yeah, those are great answers, and it was really uh fun and refreshing and informative, you know, talking with you today, Brant. You know, thanks so much for joining us. So, how can uh all of our listeners and viewers learn more about your campaign and get involved?

SPEAKER_00 31:58

The website is BrantOwens.com, the B R A N T O W E N S dot com. A lot of information there, but it's fairly static. It's a website. Uh really there's a link to my Facebook page there. I'm much more active on Facebook slash Instagram with day-to-day updates and ideas. So if you want to know what I'm doing, I think it's uh facebook.com slash electbrandt Owens, but if you just search Brandt Owens for Campbell County Commission, it'll pop up. And uh and then if you if you see me out and about with the white glasses, hey, walk up, introduce yourself. You got a complaint, I'm happy to hear it, and uh maybe I'll buy you a coffee, buy you a beer, and we'll try to hash things out.

SPEAKER_02 32:42

Yeah, I I I I do want to give a quick shout out on your Facebook page. We we spoke about this last night. I mean, you have some really um I'll call them ruminations, you know, some interesting kind of thoughts and ideas, and you kind of said, you know, your background is in sales, and you learned early on that everyone loves a story, and you've done a really good job on your Facebook, I think, telling some stories that people can relate to and they can also see how their lives could benefit through, you know, having you as county commissioner you know, through some of those stories. So I I encourage everyone to go out and take a look at some of those as well.

SPEAKER_00 33:17

I appreciate that. Thanks, Brian. Thanks, Natalie.

SPEAKER_03 33:23

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