The People's Voice
WFUZ-TV | The People’s Voice Podcast
The People’s Voice shines a spotlight on the individuals shaping Coastal Alabama, Northwest Florida, and communities across the Southeast. Each episode features candid conversations with local leaders, public officials, business owners, candidate for office, advocates, and everyday citizens who are working to create meaningful change.
From local politics and policy to grassroots initiatives and community success stories, we go beyond headlines to explore the real issues impacting our region. Our mission is simple: give the microphone to the people, encourage informed dialogue, and highlight solutions that strengthen our communities.
If you care about civic engagement, regional growth, and the voices driving positive change, The People’s Voice delivers authentic conversations that matter.
The People's Voice
John Frankman: The Cost of Conviction
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Tonight on The People’s Voice, we sit down with John Frankman, former Army Special Forces Captain, Green Beret, and Republican candidate for Florida’s 1st Congressional District.
After serving in one of the military’s most elite units, Frankman’s military career took an unexpected turn during the controversy surrounding the Pentagon’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Now, he’s taking that fight to the political arena as he challenges incumbent Congressman Jimmy Patronis and what many conservatives view as the Republican establishment.
Joining Blair Castro and Thomas Jenkins, Frankman discusses his military service, faith, constitutional principles, the future of Northwest Florida, and why he believes Washington needs leaders willing to challenge the status quo.
Can a Green Beret outsider take on a sitting congressman and the political establishment behind him?
Watch now and decide for yourself!
Good evening. Welcome to WFUZ TV, the People's Voice podcast. I'm Blair Castro with Thomas Jenkins. And today we have John Frankman joining us in the studio. He's running for Florida's first congressional district as a Republican in the Republican primary, which is August 18th. Thank you for coming in today.
SPEAKER_01Hey, thanks so much for having me. Really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00So we'll get into what compelled you to run for this seat right now at this moment in time. What is the driving force?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I was a Special Forces Green Beret, uh, signed the seventh Special Forces Group. That's what brought me to the first uh Florida's first district, that area. Uh so seventh group is in Crestview, I live in Destin. And it was the COVID shot that forced me out of the military that first got me involved in politics. I started advocating for service members who were negatively impacted by the VAX mandate, would go up on the hill. And it was when I was on the hill talking to different representatives and their staffers that I saw that a whole lot wasn't getting done that should be getting, should be done. There's a lot of common sense stuff that people should be doing, and we just need better representation in Washington. Um but when it came to this race at this time, I ran into special election, dropped out when Trump endorsed Patronus last time, but um just over the last year, couple years, have just been very disappointed in Congress. We have the House, we have the Senate, we have the presidency, but it's been one of the least productive sessions uh in just kind of congressional history, at least, at least of recently. Um so just kind of looking at um, you know, Fleur's first district, we it's the most conservative within the state of Florida. It's the most veteran-desally populated district within the country. We have more veterans there than anywhere else. Um, and we were formerly represented by Matt Gates, so a firebrand, a real fighter. And just looking at what hasn't happened within Congress and what the things that Patronus really hasn't connected with the people on, that's what kind of inspired me to run. Looking at we need to really take advantage of the majority we have. We can't just be America in a slower decline. We actually have to try to steer the country around in order to take ground back in order to really secure the future.
SPEAKER_02What has uh Patronus done that's not been like really pleasing? Because we don't really hear about it over here on this side.
SPEAKER_01It's it's not any specific things. It's just kind of like what has been done sort of across the country generally. Yeah. Um, I think specifically with military and veterans issues, we have the most veteran-dense district in the country, nearly 100,000. We have five military bases. Um, he didn't even have a veteran on his staff until I challenged him in the primary recently, so almost an entire year. And what that's led to is that's led to veterans trying to reach out to his office for help on VA claims and not getting access. It's led to another year of not having a VA hospital within the district, where the nearest VA hospital is in Biloxi, which is hours away. Right. They only service 20,000 veterans. And the VA clinic in Pensacola, we service 30,000. The VA clinic in Eglin Air Force Base and Niceville services 30,000. So we have more of a need. But to just send out a letter asking for another study, that that isn't enough.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It's been a real hot button issue here in Alabama as well. It's just it's egregious the amount of travel that veterans have to do to get to a qualified hospital and not be able to attend a doctor.
SPEAKER_01I mean, there's things of that nature. And then there's just those 80, 90 percent issues that uh the American people are on, which which some of our representatives are not, kind of the Uniparty establishment. And he's kind of shown that he's truly an establishment person when, for instance, we had the vote on whether to release sexual misconduct reports filed against members of Congress. And he was one of the hundreds that voted to cover up those reports, send them back to the ethics committee. Furthermore, he was at a Republican executive committee um in Okaloosa County and was asked about the Epstein files and said he wanted to move on past those files. There's no more work to be done on the documents, and when pressed on accountability, he says they're out there for the whole world to see. So isn't really interested in accountability. He has shown that through his votes, has shown that through that uh statement about the Epstein files, has talked about pay-to-play politics at a Byron Donald's fundraiser. So just we had a firebrand in Matt Gates. We had a real grassroots fighter who didn't take any kind of pack money, any uh special interest money, but now we're just having someone who is more interested in doing whatever party establishment wants them to do, hasn't really established himself in the area. You know, when he ran, he didn't live in the area, lived in Panama City, which is outside of Florida's first congressional district. And you all had Gabe Element on this show, I saw. Um, and her commercial is hilarious. I don't know if you've seen it, but like I laughed about it, shared it with some friends. I mean, and she starts out saying, you know, welcome to Florida's first congressional district, Jimmy Patronas. I'm gonna give you a tour because you don't actually live here. I I've run into people at grocery stores where they see him running for Congress, they're starting to talk about, well, who's our current congressman? They don't really know his name, but they know he doesn't live here. They know he's from Panama City. And that's the problem when you don't have that kind of connection with the people and to not have in-person town halls to only have uh just audio phone calls, call-in town halls, teletown halls, where you can control the questions. So there just needs to be that connection with the people. Um, and I think you can just highlight entire Florida politics of what's happening right now. When you had the special elections, you had both Randy Fine and Jimmy Patronas kind of being preordained establishment folks through endorsements. We're seeing it now with the District 19. Uh, we saw it with with Byron Donald's kind of being preordained as the next governor. Um, and then in Florida too, with that in power. So the RPOF and that whole kind of political machine is somewhat picking and choosing. And we just really need to get back to um where people have more of a say in who their representatives are.
SPEAKER_02So, what are some of your how would you do things differently and what are some of the goals that you have if you're elected?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, so what I would do differently is I would hire veterans on my staff immediately. Um, and Matt Gates wasn't a veteran himself, but was very effective because he had multiple veterans within his office to liaise with the different military bases to figure out what are the needs of Eglin Air Force Base, NAS Pensacola, Pearlbert Field, Whitingfield, um, helping people to process their claims. That's something that's free, and you don't actually have to pay any money to do or make any, you don't have to make any deals in Congress or work with others. That's just something you do in-house in service. Um, I mean, you had the Epstein Files discharge position. I would have signed that with Rep Massey immediately. I know there were only three female members of Congress on the Republican side and Massey who signed that, but that's another 80-90 issue where we don't want this two-tier justice system. Um and then what what about what happened during COVID? What about a fight for medical freedom? Um, I would be fighting for a medical freedom amendment to make sure that the atrocities that happened under COVID never happened again. Our founding fathers would have, who were so smart, had such a division, separation of powers, would have never envisioned whatsoever that we'd have had this kind of medical tyranny happening against us. We need a medical freedom amendment. We need to hold drug companies accountable. Um, but you know, what would I do differently? It's something. Like I'd be fighting for those values that really won us the 2024 election. Now we just have to put in practice, not just allow ourselves to be governed just by executive orders. We need Congress to follow it up to ensure that in two years or four years, whenever Democrats come back in power, they don't just undo all the work that's being done now.
SPEAKER_00So going back to the medical freedom issue, um, what's going on right now with the reinstatements that were happening for the people that were discharged for refusing to get the COVID vaccine? What's the status of that in the most part?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a great question. So under the COVID Vax mandate, you had about 8,600 people who were kicked out of the military, and you had about 80,000, 90,000 who were quote unquote voluntarily separated. That's individuals such as myself who, after facing a lot of problems with their jobs, losing out on missions, deployments, and essentially having to choose whether to stay in the military and wait to get kicked out or leave on their own terms, left. So of the 100,000 that more or less were forced out, only 150 have come back in. That's the last data I've heard of the last month or two. It might be, you know, maybe a couple hundred at that point. But if we're putting that in perspective, that means for every thousand service members who is forced out, only one and a half has come back in. And why is that? The process is still overly bureaucratic. Um, the back pay piece, we were promised full back pay, but if you were kicked out, your back pay is subtracted from everything you made as a civilian. So if you were supposed to get $400,000 and you made $200,000 as a civilian, you're only getting $200,000. Then if you're someone such as myself who is quote unquote voluntarily separated, you're not entitled to any back pay whatsoever. Um, and then the most important thing is that there's been no accountability. Some of the highest ranking people who violated our religious rights, who violated the law, and it was unlawful because there was no FDA-approved drug available to service members at the time. It was only emergency youth authorized, so it was an unlawful order. Pete Heggseth has acknowledged that himself. Um, you know, it's like, why would you come back to an abusive relationship if there's been no kind of correction? Yeah. That's kind of what's going on right now. And my fear is that again, if we have a Democrat administration in the future, another kind of quote unquote crisis in the future, that this kind of infringement on personal liberties and especially of forcing our military members to take experimental vaccines is going to happen again.
SPEAKER_02Do you feel like the military under this administration is headed back in the right direction?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. It's it's going so much better. I mean, when I got to Seventh Special Forces Group, we had a transgender major special forces Green Beret, uh, who was leading a company. Um, we were having all kinds of weird trainings annually. We had to do the uh extremism safety stand down. So we're getting back to a place where we're looking at what is competence, um, that's the measure, the metric of what we're looking for, um, and getting away from a lot of the DEI nonsense. But there's so much more that has to be done. I think that also that especially has to be in getting rid of the bureaucracy, getting rid of rid of a lot of the woke generals who maybe are camouflaging themselves right now under the Trump administration to just kind of play ball, but who later on might rear their heads um against their own service members if and when the leadership, civilian leadership in the presidency tells them to.
SPEAKER_00So going back to your background specifically, aside from your time as a Green Beret and your time in the military, or feel free to dive in a little more with the details on your military experience, your other experience that you think leads you to be the best candidate for this position.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I have kind of a unique background where not only was I Special Forces Green Beret, um, which I think that's that's essential because it the the area is the most veteran densely populated district in the country. It really deserves a veteran to represent it to take care of a lot of those veteran and military issues to make sure. I mean, the military is the bread and butter of the district. There's so much money that comes in because of it. Um, and it's it's strategic for the national defense of the country. So there's that piece there. Um, there's also I had I spent four years studying to become a Catholic priest before going on active duty, um, which is something unique. And I was able to study at seminary, Mount St. Mary's seminary, Catholic University, get a lot of good religious formation. That a lot of that helped me to make the decision to not get the COVID shot, to stand on principle. And my motto and what I aspire to be is a fighter for faith and freedom. So I want to take those solid Christian values. I want to take that military special forces green berry training, and I want to use that to represent the people of Florida's first congressional district. And I love the district so much. It's, like I said, most veteran density district, super military, super conservative, very Christian-oriented, uh, amazing people with amazing conservative Christian values. Um, and I want to squeeze every single ounce of bread out of it as possible. That's what that district deserves. We we went from Matt Gates, like I said, who was an absolute firebrand and he was beloved by everybody. Um, but I want to take all that fire I have in my belly and bring it to pool force to put Florida's first district on the map and to really steer um the country in a in a better direction.
SPEAKER_00So this is just a little two cents. I lived in Pensacola, you know, my whole life. I'm like a Pensacola person through and through, and I've worked in politics now for 21 years, most of it there, and most of it in Florida's first congressional district, um, and in Escambia County in Pensacola. And I ended up moving to Alabama two years ago, which is where I'm at now, which is not that far away, like 45 minutes down the road from where I lived in Perdido to here. Um, but it is truly like a whole nother world politically. And I think if you're somebody that is concerned about um different values overtaking, like within the past two years, even alone, like the Escambia County or, you know, Northwest Florida that I knew no longer is there. And it's like a whole different world compared to right over the state line here in Alabama. So in my mind, I think some of that attributes to conservatism like decreasing. I I definitely think it's a struggle to keep those values up, especially with everything seeping in. Like you want growth, you want development, but I think at what cost? Because with it comes, you know, a lot of other qualities that people might not be thinking about. So, what is your thoughts on, I guess, maintaining the level of the values that you, you know, say that you care about, which I believe you do, you have the background that attests to that. Like how would you preserve that, I guess, um, but also be able to move forward with the times?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, as far as preserving those values, um, it's trying to inspire the next generation of voters, the next generation of Americans. And a lot of people say that uh politics is downstream from culture. I want to bring culture up to politics. I want to use all of the faith values, all of the education that I've received within spiritual formation, within the special courses formation, um, to make solid conservative arguments that are in line with the faith. So I think we need congressmen who are gonna inspire people to understand why do we believe what we believe as conservatives, that are gonna use their position not only just to vote and to legislate, but also to just be forces for the culture. Um, so again, like with Matt Gates, he had his podcast. He was definitely very good at inspiring young people to come into the fold to vote, to get involved. I think we need more representatives like that that are going to try to inspire the next generation of voters, the next generation of American citizens. Um, as far as, and you you do adapt to the times by um, you know, there's a big divide in there's a divide in the Republican Party, right? I think we all see between some of the older voters, some of the younger voters, um, with what does America First mean? What does MAGA mean? Um, so it's being able to understand and bridge those and try to help kind of the older voters understand where the younger voters are coming from. Because right now, in the difficulty that a lot of younger people have, they're concerned about affordability. They're not necessarily as worried about what we're doing overseas and our threats in the Middle East. They're concerned about how are they gonna buy a house? Yeah, um, how are they gonna start a family? Um, so I think a lot of those issues need to be addressed if we're gonna maintain a lot of younger people coming to the Republican Party. And we have, I mean, the next generation of uh American males is a very conservative cohort. We're having way more converts to Catholicism, uh, more people are seeking traditional Orthodox Christianity. Um, so I think you just need those inspirational forces in in politics to help bring them there and to influence the direct direction of the party. Um, as far as the growth piece, I think that's much more of like a state and local issue. But what I will say to that is what can a representative do to influence that area? Well, you get to know your county commissioners, you get to know your school board directors, you get to know your state representatives. Um, and rather than having like a local establishment that kind of is a good old boy system, you help to promote the solid candidates and maybe advise people about the ones that aren't so much. Um, you don't necessarily dive in outside of your realm. There's so much to be done at the federal level, but you recognize that there's some things you can do to highlight certain county commissioners and other things you can to highlight others, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00Definitely. Um, for uh my experience working there, I actually never had a bad experience with Matt Gates, and people feel very strongly about him one way or the other. Um his office was really great, the staff was really great. I did a little bit of work uh for him here and there, and it was always a good experience. He always treated everybody. I love the open gates days. I liked how interactive he was with the people. Even when he first ran, um he was always out there doing stuff all the time, and it really felt like he was kind of like one of us. And now I don't feel like that was Patronus at all. I I've never even met the guy. And he's probably one of the only representatives I haven't met, like even here in Alabama. I'm on like not like you can't do it with everybody, but like, you know, I know my congressmen and our senators, and I know people, you know, you you have if you care about getting things done in your community, then you kind of need to interface with these people and know. And I just feel very detached from Patronus. Um, I don't live there anymore, and it's not really his job, but I I liked, I just see what you mean about having that kind of constant communication and a relationship of some sorts, and it really is a detachment that I think is a problem. I think it goes back to establishment people, and like you said, there's some establishment people as well on a local level, on a state level, there's like these little groups. And that brings me to my next question about funding and pack money. So, what are your thoughts on that? And what kind of money are you taking or not taking? And what is your thoughts on that?
SPEAKER_01Well, I mean, one thing that I liked about Matt Gates is some of the reforms he was pushing for in Congress was having term limits, not allowing for special interest group money to influence politicians by cutting that off, and not allowing for insider trading. Um, and you're never gonna have a perfect system, but our founding fathers, when they created this country, they created it with checks and balances. They knew that our human nature had a tendency towards weakness and a lust for power. Um, and the system that our founding fathers had was very solid for the time. We need to continue to, in their same sentiment, in their same mindset, continue to adapt that. Right now, our politicians aren't as responsive to the American people, the people they're supposed to represent, because they're largely motivated to get re-elected and largely influenced by their larger donors and their special interest groups. So one of the biggest questions I get on social media is will I take APAC money? My answer is I will not take APAC money. It's not because I have anything against Israel, it's not because I'm pro-Israel or against Israel, it's because I'm America first. To be America first means that you just can't be taking any kind of foreign money whatsoever. You have to be doing things on behalf of the American people. Um, and what does America first mean? It means what benefits the individual individual American who lives down the street, who lives in the community, what's good for them, and what does it necessarily help them? And when our interests, America's interests, and the people of America's interests align with other countries, great. Let's work with them, let's make it happen. When it doesn't, let's make sure that we're not being overly influenced by some other nation's uh prerogatives or desires. Um and you know, I I don't think that any big pharma people are gonna give me any money anytime soon. I've made it pretty clear I'm gonna be totally in medical freedom. I don't think anyone on Epstein's uh client list is gonna be giving me any money anytime soon. So so I think just by being pretty bold and uh just you know, not just talking the talk but walking the walk. Like I and that's something I try to point out is like, oh, you're just another politician, you're just gonna, you're just saying good things right now. It's like, no, I lost my job. I spent, you know how much special forces training can suck at times? Like in Ranger School sucks. Like you're a lot of people don't envision it, but you're um sleepwalking, you're so tired. You're like sweating ammonium from your body because you're working out so hard, you're physically burning muscle, and to go through that training for years and years to get to seventh special forces group where you want to go, and the next job assignment is your dream assignment. Uh like it's ironic, but I was supposed to teach ethics at West Point, and I was prevented from teaching ethics at West Point for an ethical decision I made, which by and large, looking at the stats now, I was right about. Um, but I'm willing to, at great personal sacrifice, do the right thing and stand by principle. So, what I'm telling you right now is how I'm going to operate and work. Um, and that's what I want to kind of motive share with the voter, and I hope that message gets out.
SPEAKER_00So I wanted to ask a little bit about your family. What is your tie specifically to Northwest Border in terms of destined where do you live now? How long have you been here? What made you choose this place to call your home?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I was born in Los Angeles and I grew up in the DC metro area. My parents, they split up when I was younger, and my stepdad was in the military. So I moved all over the place, switched schools about every year since third grade. Um, so really didn't have quite a home growing up. Was pretty moving around all over the place. But in 2020 is when I got stationed here. Well, my first trip down here was during Ranger School. So it was at uh 6th Ranger Training Battalion. A not so fun time, but uh definitely grateful to get through the training. Very grateful for all the ranger instructors for all the amazing training they gave me. Um, but I got here and just fell in love with just how conservative the area was. Absolutely love the beach. Um love the church community, the crossway communities I've been a part of, the medical freedom community that I joined back in 2021 when we were all fighting the BAX mandates together. Um, and when I got out of the military in 2023, it was my first chance to really choose where I was gonna live. The military wasn't sending me anywhere. My parents weren't moving me anywhere. And I chose to reside here. And I kind of think about the scripture where Jesus Christ sends his uh 72 disciples out two by two and says, Where you're accepted, stay there. And I feel as though I've just been planted here, have been flourishing, and have made really good, solid connections. Um, very much ordained by God's providence. Since getting out of the military, since being able to connect with so many different uh amazing people.
SPEAKER_00So, do you have any uh notable endorsements so far in your campaign that you'd like to mention?
SPEAKER_01Um, let's see, when is this playing? Because then I can probably share it depending on what's gonna what's gonna come.
SPEAKER_00Like a week from now.
SPEAKER_01A week from now. Yeah. So some of them that'll be coming out, um, and I'll publish them more publicly later on. So uh Catholics or Catholics is endorsing me. Um, and just kind of giving the seminary background, um, that kind of makes sense. Also, Stand for Health Freedom is also endorsing me as well. Um, and uh Republican Liberty Caucus. Um, and one of the things with Republican Liberty Caucus is that if you look at the Liberty Score, uh Jimmy Patronas has one of the lowest liberty scores when they did their annual scorecard. Um, but I kind of stood there and fought for our liberties uh even before entering politics whatsoever. Um so just very liberty-minded, really want to protect and fight for all those. And then also there's a Medal of Honor recipient, um, Bod Bob Patterson, who lives within the area, um, and that's a great military endorsement. Uh, Dr. James Thorpe, as well, who's also very much in the medical freedom community. So those are a few of the ones right now.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's awesome. Um, regarding the liberty scores, shout out to our congressman, Barry Moore. He has one of the highest.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, he's he's solid. I know um somebody who's helping out with my uh campaign is a big fan of his. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, please I like him. Um I like him better than when Patronus was my rep, to be honest. So um back to random question about you were talking about going to seminary school. So I assume you want to be a priest. What was it that kind of changed and pivoted you where you were like, I don't want to do the priest tract so much anymore, or maybe you still will later.
SPEAKER_01What's the oh no, I don't think my wife would feel very good about that. But um no, so I converted to Catholicism when I was 15 and first thought about the priesthood while going through the religious Christian initiation of adults uh process. Um, and to go to seminary doesn't mean that you're necessarily going to get ordained. It just means that you're gonna take that next step of discernment, that next step of really considering what is God's will for you very seriously. Um, so while in the seminary, I really devoted myself to prayer study, all the formation they gave me. And it was going into the last year where I started having some questions, talked to um my spiritual director at the time. So, spiritual director is the priest you meet with every other week to really go over everything in your prayer life, everything going on in your formation, your school, academics, everything. Um, and he said, you know, if if this is what God wants you to do, she should give you that grace, that joy, the desire to do it. So I just went through a period of prayer fasting. Um, some of the Catholic viewers might be familiar with Exodus 90. Well, I did that with the founder of Exodus 90, Father Brian Dore, while out at Mount St. Mary's Seminary. And it was just going through that process that I just had the clarity and the peace to step out of the seminary, knowing that this isn't necessarily God's will, at least for the time being. And just from that, uh, found out that I was gonna go as an on active duty as an infantry officer, found that out on Easter Monday, which I found was very providential, very much God saying, John, I love you, but I'm still gonna challenge you. Um and yeah, it I just have no regrets for any Catholic viewers right now who are thinking about the priesthood. I urge you to consider it, consider going into seminary. Same with females, if you're considering religious life. God won't steer you the wrong way. He'll strengthen you given when you give him the time uh of your life. And even if you don't get ordained, you don't end up in religious life, it's gonna go with you forward and help you in all other areas of your life. Absolutely. So now that's kind of a weird endorsement you don't get much from.
SPEAKER_00So I'm working at a congressional race here in Alabama, and one of the things my candidate gets told, and he is a very conservative candidate who also, you know, will not take APAC money and has a lot of like uh values and stuff that he is really stands firm on, but he gets told sometimes, like, how do you think you even have a chance going up against the establishment? You know, what what makes you a viable candidate? So, what would you tell the people who might have that criticism that you're not like the the chosen one? How do you think you have a chance?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I mean it's a David versus Goliath battle, but with God, all things are possible. Um, and I only entered this race because I believe that God is calling me to run again and to challenge Jimmy Patronus and to try to represent the area of Florida Swiss Congressional District. But what I'm seeing is I'm seeing a lot of grassroots movement within the district. I had over a hundred people come to my campaign kickoff. I've had over a hundred people who've signed up to be volunteers uh on my team to help with the campaign. And everywhere I go, I'm getting different uh recognition. Some people randomly pay for my breakfast or come up to me and say, hey, I'm excited to vote for you, or know who I am. And that word of mouth is spreading. Um I think that if on election day, as many people know who Patronas is and what he stands for and what his values are and who I am and what I stand for and my values are, I think we're going to be very successful on August 18th. Um, but it's up to God and it's up to other individuals to get involved. And regardless, God calls us to be faithful, not necessarily to success. So all these fights are definitely worth having. Um, even let's say the fight that we saw with Thomas Massey, it's very unfortunate that he lost. Um, but that that's sparking a movement right there. Um, so we just need Americans to get involved, to really fight for the values they believe in. Um, and there's always hope. And with God, all things are possible.
SPEAKER_00So, for my own knowledge, who else is running against you in that primary besides Patronus? Is there other candidates in that primary?
SPEAKER_01There's another candidate, uh Navy officer who jumped in a bit over a month after I did as well.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So it's three. Um and are you the only one from the Destin area?
SPEAKER_01Yes, only one who's out in Destin. That's correct.
SPEAKER_00Okay. And for those watching, the first congressional district includes what counties?
SPEAKER_01Go ahead and Yeah, so it includes Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, and half of Walton County out to 331. Um, so we have Freeport, but then the second district has the Puniac Springs.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01That's a good trivia question where if I didn't get it right, you'd have to be concerned about the A few cycles back, it used to be different and go a little bit into Bay County.
SPEAKER_00It was like uh Okaloosa and then into Bay and Walton, and it was they'll have to redraw those maps every now and then.
SPEAKER_01It's like every 10 years, it feels like well I think we were wondering how it was going to get redrawn this time. But I think maybe with uh Scambia County uh going uh blue during the last special election, maybe they uh decided to help us have us keep part more of Walton County than I thought we might have retained.
SPEAKER_00So what are some issues that voters are bringing up to you that they particularly care about? I know the veterans issue is you know clearly a big one. Um aside from that, like the average person on the street, what are some things that they're kind of like what they'd like to see changed in Congress?
SPEAKER_01I mean, they want accountability for sure. Um most people just don't know what's going on with the Epstein files, why there hasn't been people arrested. Um, that's that's a huge one uh that people are concerned with. And then people I know back in the COVID era don't know why hasn't Anthony Fauci been prosecuted. Um that's something I greatly wonder too. I mean, they left grandparents to die alone in uh nursing homes or in hospitals, and they gave them drugs that they knew would kill them. Um those are some of the things that people are are worried about. I mean, affordability, that's a huge one, depending on kind of the the age bracket that you're in. Yeah. Um, you know, some people are concerned, like, hey, what are we what are we doing on Iran right now? Uh what's kind of the what what is the intent right there? What's the end state um and the goal? And that's one of the the concerns we have when we go to Afghanistan or Iraq or the war on terror. What's the end state that always has to be clearly drawn? Um I think immigration is another one. And it's like, why hasn't there been done more with immigration where the mass deportations? Um let's see, what are some other ones? Voter ID. I mean, that's another huge one. It's just safeguarding our election. So I think the SAVE Act not passing is absolutely absurd. Um, I think that shows that Republicans were never really serious about getting it done. And yes, we can blame Democrats for not voting it in, but we should blame Republicans for waiting for a midterm year to try to get it passed rather than having that already uh filled out, legislated, voted on, and waiting and sitting for President Trump on January 20th when he was um sworn in. That that's my thoughts on it, at least.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. Um I know those are definitely issues to me, the accountability thing in particular, and that just thrown out there too, that goes down to your local officials as well. It's not just on a federal level. I think there needs to be accountability, especially for these predators and people doing crappy behavior all the way down the chain. I think it goes from your local person all the way up, and we just don't see it as much as I would like to see. And of course, the affordability um as a person who's in my 30s and still, you know, wondering why life is so expensive no matter what we do, and we do all the steps right. We go to college, we do what we're supposed to do, just to, you know, be struggling the way other generations didn't seem to have to struggle.
SPEAKER_01Well, affordability, it's just so simple. Like people are asking, what are you gonna do to fix affordability? And it almost feels stupid to answer because it's so simple. Like if you it's it's in it's how much we owe. It's $39 trillion in debt. It's if you have $10 and $10 apples, every apple is gonna be worth a dollar. If you have $20 and $10 apples, it's gonna be worth $2. We are now $39 trillion in debt. And the reason why our wages haven't kept up with inflation is because the government keeps printing out money. It's the invisible taps. And the only way that we're ever gonna get out of this is if we actually get representatives who are serious about cutting down on federal spending, shrinking the size of the federal government, paying off the deficit, that we're gonna be able to obtain the American dream for the next generations. If not, I'm sorry, but it's just uh, you know, our whole country and system could collapse.
SPEAKER_00And to do that, you have to cut programs some of the time. And that's where everything gets tricky because everybody gets mad when you cut their program. But at the same time, you're like, we have to weigh like what do you really want to do? Do you want to level out that budget or do you want to cut some of these things over here and make some people angry?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I mean to that, um, you know, even when you're examining something like the one big beautiful bill, a lot of people look at the pros and the cons and so many good things involved in the bill. Absolutely. And then some people might look at the con and say, well, the price tag is one of the cons. Well, you can't just weigh the price tag out as a con within within the pro-con list. Like a family, when they need to buy a new car, they're gonna look at what is our budget to buy this car right now? Um, and then once you establish that budget, then you look at, well, what's what can we actually get that's within the budget? So, what a govern federal government needs to do is then you look at what is the budget, what amount do we actually have to spend, and how do we maintain within that? Um, and even if you're gonna pass some omnibus uh spending package or if you're gonna continue going forward, which I never want to have to vote on any omnibus spending bill. I want to go back to single subject spending bills, which is one of the reasons why Matt Gates ousted Kevin McCarthy because he was so tired of the omnibus bills and spending packages, is let's at least shrink the percentage. Let's say, oh, you want to keep everything funded the same way proportioned. Have we ever considered just like cutting it by 20% and letting letting every agency just figure it out, uh giving them some autonomy to figure that out? I don't I don't know. But this just isn't working for the American people. If if our federal government were a subscription service, uh every American would be trying to redefine the terms right now or getting out of the contract. Um so we really need to just make some bold moves and decisions going into Congress to kind of redefine that contract to figure out how much juice are we getting out of our federal government and just I don't know, cutting certain systems and getting more for the American people.
SPEAKER_00As a representative, if you're elected to Congress and the president or the leader of the party wants you to vote a certain way, and you know fundamentally if you don't do it, you're gonna get a lot of backlash, would you still do what you feel compelled to do or what people told you to do, or would you feel like the pressure from that leader?
SPEAKER_01I would do what's right. Um yeah, I I would do what's right. Now, I I you have to look at it and see what is this specific issue for sure. Um, if it's not a the things that are morally black and white um that come down to like faith and principle, you can never cave on. Um when there are those, there's those kind of gray areas, um, you can potentially see where is your district in. Um but if there's something that you just know to be right and know to be beneficial for the American people in your district, um, then you have to make that vote on principle. And that, you know, you shouldn't be running for office just to stay in office. You should be running for office in order to serve the American people and to make the best decisions that you can in order to guide them. So um, you know, with with the prayers of with God's help, with the prayers of the people I'm representing, uh, pray that I will be strong enough to make the right decision.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I feel like there's a shift in the Republican Party right now. And I'm this is just me talking again. I'm somebody who I find myself aligning with the Thomas Masseys and the Marjorie Taylor Greens and even like, you know, Tucker Carlson and that genre of Republican or conservative, I think I align more with that. And I see what's going on on like the kind of the other side, and it just doesn't resonate with me anymore. And I feel like at what point, you know, is there that shift going to happen? So, what are your thoughts on that current sort of divide?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, it's it's becoming very stark. And uh, it's really unfortunate that we had, what was it, 20, 30 million spent in the Thomas Massey primary when all polymarket predictions are saying that Republicans are likely to lose the midterms. Um so yeah, I think the Republican Party needs to get away from just trying to protect the establishment ways. Look at what is it that their voters want, um, what is it that the next generation of voters want? Because you look at the Massey primary, and it's 55 and up that we're going for Ed Galrine, it's 55 and below that we're very largely going for Thomas Massey. Um he's a representative that I've really enjoyed getting to know going up on the hill. Um he was very much a huge fighter for service members during the BAX mandate and was one of the most responsive offices to me when I reached out to him way back in 2021. Um but I think that yeah, the party needs to look at what are the problems that young people are facing, how do we get them involved? How do we make sure that we're staying viable? Um and how do we try to make that divide um that some people might not see? Some of the older Republican voters might not necessarily know why are young people upset about affordability, but if they're just blaming uh young people on ordering DoorDash and buying $7 lattes, then they don't quite get um so it's just that educational piece, um, the conversation piece. But uh I think we need to always be trying to I don't know, focus on working on the future party. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02In our experience, the younger people just don't show up to shit. They don't do anything. It's just always we're always the youngest people in the room.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. No, I I feel that at uh RECs and things like that.
SPEAKER_00It's very much like that just in Alabama as well. Um, in that we just had a primary and they were saying it was the lowest turnout in Alabama's history for a primary. It was at white.
SPEAKER_0222 percent. 22 percent. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, I mean, that could just be Republicans not delivering enough wins for the people to feel motivated to come out and and vote. Um yeah, I don't know. Stricky.
SPEAKER_00And I think a lot of people feel like their vote doesn't matter because, like, for example, you know, we're getting Tommy Tupperville as our new governor. People, you know, he's gonna be the governor. Like we're calling it there's no real choice.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00You get like 90% of the vote, it's kind of like, well, you know, why bother jumping into something or why bother showing up to vote when it's already kind of predetermined there? Um but we started the show and keep going and trying to get people to care because it it's more than just the governor, like you're also choosing your senators and your state senators and your state house and your congressmen and everything else. Like, and if you don't show up, then you have no say in it, and then you have no right to complain later, which I know you will anyways, but still show up.
SPEAKER_02Complain in the comments so that we get more views.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01No, it's always a fight worth having, at least. So you just continue to go on out, and we don't want to um like I said, I you know, I'm very grateful that Trump is president, but I still think that um just the direction the country's going, especially and I think that the federal deficit is the biggest crisis that we're facing. Yeah, I think this is this is Rome right before it fell, um, just kind of bankrupt in itself, expanding itself further than it needs to be. Um and if we don't get this in control, it could lead to the collapse of society. And not a lot of people, not enough people really understand that. I think maybe the older generation that's continuing to build, they have their houses, they have their assets. They're like, you know, why worry? But um, it's a huge, huge concern that we need to be tackling.
SPEAKER_00Also, foreign nations taking over our land. We were talking about this with other candidates. You know, Chinese is buying up all the land here. We got these data center things going in, like the farmland is being converted. Like when we tried to order food earlier, there was no eggs, there was no milk, there was like it's got to the point where we have to wait to a certain day of the week for Walmart to restock or whatever, because the shortages are getting to that point where it's like, well, that's really concerning. And people don't think about it. They're just like, I'll check back in a couple days. But like that shouldn't be happening where we are.
SPEAKER_01No, we shouldn't be allowing any foreign nations to buy a plan, especially our adversaries. I mean, um, I'd I'd rather focus a lot of our efforts on China and making sure that China's influence doesn't come into our country. Um and you can you don't need to just do that through military efforts, but um, we have the acronym dime in the military, diplomacy, information, military economy. So using those elements of natural, natural power in order to influence and get get what we need, um have kind of like whatever's in our best interest um attain that. But yeah, we can't be allowing for, I don't know, Chinese individuals to be buying up our land and to have allow for so many Chinese students to come into our universities, steal our data, steal our technology, and bring it back to um the People's Republic of China. That's just a huge problem.
SPEAKER_02We were giving a statistic that China owns 25% of Alabama's pigs. Oh, that's that's crazy. Yeah. We didn't know that until they came on the show and told us about it.
SPEAKER_01Oh, and then it's crazy with uh what Bill Gates owning a bunch of farmland and then we can get into the uh the ticks, yeah. Given people. I mean, I have a friend who has that and uh feel absolutely terrible. So it's not a conspiracy theory. No, no. There's uh no, I do think it's funny when um some people think certain things are conspiracy theories, like the uh what is that, the air um the weather manipulation? Oh yeah, cloud seeding. Cloud seeding, yeah. It's like cloud seeding is a conspiracy, and then it's like the government scientist and Florida legislator. We're gonna ban it.
SPEAKER_00I I was never a conspiracy person until the past couple years. Now I found myself like going down the rabbit hole like the other day when that dude was supposedly in a mask online. Like I was like, yeah, it is a mask, and I was just like fell full force into it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no retirement.
SPEAKER_00I can't help it.
SPEAKER_01No, I mean I wasn't either, and I had gotten every shot up until the COVID shot in the military. Um, but certainly going through that and just because you can go, let's what what do we have to admit about COVID time? We have to admit that our um health agencies were willing to allow for millions of people to die by not giving them preventative treatments that people have found out worked and they were sharing that had worked. Um so they were also putting people on Remdesivir, which was not helping, was killing people on the um the respiratory machines as well. That was not helpful. They were pushing the COVID shot, which just was also killing people. So they were everything they were doing, they were willing to do that and for profit. Um, and that's absolutely terrible. And it's it's a hard thing for people to cognitively accept because it's a very dark view of the world. Um, but it's something that, you know, and that's not even getting into was the Kobe Cha a bioweapon that we engineered in order to keep people from having more kids? Like we're not even getting to that point. We're just getting to what is it that we have to accept about how the events played it uh played out. Well, we were stopping preventing medicines, just huge problems. Vaccine passports, I never want to see a vaccine passport mandate again. No, so I will fight for the Medical Freedom Amendment, I will fight to uh get rid of the Childhood Vaccine Safety Act, so hold drug companies liable for their injuries. That needs to happen. And when money isn't enough to deter certain um big pharma actors from doing bad things, if if money is just a calculus like, hey, we're just we're gonna still allow for people to get injured as long as we're still making profit, no, then we get need to get into jail time. So um we really need to hold these big corporations uh accountable. We really need to get back into the antitrust laws and breaking up a lot of these bigger oligopolies to making sure that we maintain a free market economy. Um, because right now we're just not getting the small businesses started. And that's largely due to just larger corporations working together, owning up 80, 90% of a market, and then squeezing out all of the competition. And that's uh really hurting the American dream.
SPEAKER_00Tell everybody where they can learn more about you, how they can donate, and remind them when and where to vote.
SPEAKER_01Yep. So uh like I sometimes I tell people you want to follow me, first follow Jesus Christ. If you still want to follow me after, um you can find me on social media. I'm an X, Instagram, Facebook, John Frankman F L. So John Frankman Florida. And my website is franklyforflorida.com. So that's frankly in Florida all spelled out.com, Franklinforflorida.com. You can donate there. Uh, you can buy merch, hats, uh, t-shirts, yard signs. Uh you can sign up to volunteer. And this is a grassroots fight. Um, I'm not gonna win without God's help, and I'm not also gonna win without the help of other supporters, other people who care enough about their country to donate some of their time, energy. Um, so if you're willing to do so, please go to my website. I ask you to please keep me in your prayers as well. Um, but yeah, thank you so much for having me on the program. And the election is August 18th. So if you live in Florida's first congressional district, uh please be a registered Republican. If you're not registered Republican yet, please do so before the primary. And then uh I hope to have your vote uh and earn your vote on August 18th. Thank you so much for being here. Yeah, thanks for having me. Appreciate it.