Faith, Leadership, and Legacy in Public Service | Chase McDowell | #iolglobal

Welcome to Lead with Legacy™, the official podcast of IOL Global, where we explore leadership that outlives titles and trends through conversations rooted in integrity, conviction, and purpose.

In this episode, Amanda C. Chambers (CEO, IOL Global) and Sloane Lott (Director of Operations, IOL Global) sit down for a podcast interview with Chase McDowell, an Arkansas native who is running for Congress. Chase shares how growing up in Arkansas shaped his view of responsibility, how faith anchors leadership through hardship, and what legacy means when your work impacts families and communities.

We talk about:

- How growing up in Arkansas shaped his view of service and community

- Why faith isn’t about perfection (and what sanctification looks like in real life)

- Leadership lessons from hardship, loss, and “trial by fire” seasons

- The kind of legacy he hopes to leave, at home, in public life, and beyond

Lead with Legacy™ explores leadership that outlives titles and trends, through conversations centered on integrity, conviction, and purpose.

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Learn more about Chase McDowell: McDowellForArkansas.com

Learn more about IOL Global: IOLGlobal.com

#LeadWithLegacy #IOLGlobal #FaithAndLeadership #Leadership #Legacy #Arkansas #PublicService #ChristianLeadership #Purpose #Integrity #Conviction #ServeGod #ServePeople

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Lead with Legacy, the official podcast of IOL Global. Here we will explore leadership that outlives titles and trends. Through conversations with faith-based and marketplace leaders, we will discuss integrity, conviction, and purpose. To learn more about us, visit us at IOL Global dot com. Hello, and welcome to the Lead with Legacy Podcast. Today we are incredibly honored to have Mr. Chase McDowell with us. I am gonna let him introduce himself a little bit, but we are really honored to have him. He is currently running for Congress, which is really amazing. What an incredible guest to have on our show. And so thank you. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for being here with us today. And tell us a little bit about yourself and what you have going on.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Ladies, I appreciate y'all having me on. It's always fun to be on an Arkansas podcast because I feel like I don't have to go into the full explanation of what Arkansas is. But uh yeah, I'm originally from southwest Arkansas, so I grew up in a small little town called Stamps. If you don't know where it is on the map, don't feel bad. No one knows where the county is either. But we're about to because of the new lithium that we found. So I'm really, really proud, and God's blessed us down there in the south with a lot of these rare earth minerals. Yeah, I'm originally from Southwest Arkansas, which is Southern Arkansas University. Um, and then I worked in independent pharmacy for a long, long time. I worked for a company that was family-owned uh out of Shreveport, Louisiana, and I traveled around the country, and uh it's kind of one of those uh things where I went into small businesses and I tried to help them survive PBMs and a lot of the business things that go along with healthcare. Right off the bat, I was like, hey, let's fix health care. Um, and then in 2018, 2019, I was invited to the White House. We had they had a medical kind of like uh symposium type thing, but they were inviting people from all over the country. I was fortunate enough to have worked with a gentleman in Virginia uh that his relative was a senator that I had kind of sat down and talked with, uh, and they were like, hey, I think you would be great if you know, you need to attend this. So I was fortunate enough to get to do that uh to try to fix health care. And then of course that just kind of segued me into politics, which that's what I went to school for. So it was a natural progression. But um, you know, I got to work with some great folks, some great governors across the country, some great senators and congressmen. A lot of those, unfortunately, have said, hey, I that's all I could do in Congress. Now I'm back in the private, they're back in the private sector, trying to make America great that way. Um, but you know, I've been very, very fortunate in my life uh for the 32 years that the Lord's put me on this earth that I've been able to just kind of, like I said, you know, he opened a door for me and I walk through. You know, I tell people they always say, Well, you you seem very confident, you seem very comfortable in doing this. And it's like, well, I'm not the leadership, uh, God is, so it makes it real easy and real simple. You just follow. Now, sometimes it's really complex and it's hard. Sometimes I say, Lord, all right. But you just keep on walking and uh, you know, you just you do, you feel comfortable because all of this on earth is just kind of meaningless because we have an eternity that's after. And, you know, so I try to do the best that I can for our country and try to bring people, you know, closer together if I can in the meantime. But yeah, I'm I'm really not that interesting of a guy. That's what I always pick with people when they they want me to go in and talk about myself. Yeah, I'm really just a normal guy uh that tries to speak up for normal people. I'm not extraordinary in any way other than I'm made in my savior's image, but that's about it. Uh, but so all of us are.

SPEAKER_02 3:21

It's probably probably good enough. And the fact that you recognize it, and I think I think you're on the right track there. And yeah, again, what an honor to have you on with us. Um, very, very cool. This was this was not a meeting that we had organized. So it's really just like kind of divine that we got to get together. We had a referral from another guy um that we had on the podcast, Brian Norris. And so yeah, it's it's really great. Super glad to have you. I am going to let Sloan ask you a couple of questions and we'll just dive into a few things and and kind of see how the conversation flows from here.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Yeah, absolutely. So I am Arkansas born and raised as well. And I think that just being in Arkansas, growing up in Arkansas, and especially my family, you know, from Arkansas too, it's really shaped my understanding of responsibility and leadership. How do you think that growing up in Arkansas has shaped your responsibility and your leadership?

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Yeah, so you know, I grew up in a little Mayberry town, okay, very Norman Rockwell. And uh, you know, my family owned a trucking company. And uh so I I I grew up, you know, around how business operated. My grandfather was a mechanic, my dad was a truck driver, and uh I I think I was seven or eight years old, and my grandfather told me I I worked on trucks with them and you know, greasing trucks and doing all that kind of stuff, all the grandsons did. But he said, You go in there in that office and you sit down there with the girls, which would have been my aunt and my mother, and you figure that out because I want you to know how business operates. I said, Okay, good. So from a very young age, I understood taxes and different things like that, but I also understood what my family small business did. My grandfather was a very good person. He was really big about letting people borrow money from him. He would keep the money, and then when it was over with, he would give it all back to them. Uh, he probably would not be happy. He's passed away now, but he would probably not be happy with me telling that. But what he taught me in that moment is you can help people out, let them learn their lesson, but still help them out. And that's just kind of the Arkansas way. That's not anything, again, extraordinary for us because that's the way Arkansas is. When I left Arkansas, I found out, wow, we really were kind of the last refuge of what we think America is supposed to be. And I say all the time on the campaign trail, I've never tried to make Arkansas like Washington. I want to make Washington like Arkansas because I think Arkansans are great people. I think a few years ago there was a survey that came out that said we were the most unfriendly people in America. And I messaged John Thurston and I said, What is going on here? He said, Well, you usually have to pay for those surveys, and we just don't pay for that kind of stuff. I said, Well, no, we don't pay to be popular, we don't pay to be nice and be kind, but that just shook me because I said, Well, I've been to I've been to 48 states. At that time, I think I'd been to 46. And if you've ever been to, you know, I'm sorry, the Northeast, trust me, we're not we're a lot nicer than that. And we come with chocolate gravy, and they don't. So, I mean, you know, there's a major difference between us and them. But uh, no, being in a small town, you have to fight for everything you've ever had. You've got to compete against big corporations, you've got to compete against big cities. Uh, I went to a school that constantly was the funding was being cut. So, you know, I went to Tyson and I got those half a chickens and we barbecued them and we sold them to do things that we wanted to. So we started that at a very young age. So if you wanted something out of life, you had to reach out and grab it. Now, I do say, and I do tell people, since I'm so close to Texas, I lived in an area called the Arkla Texas. It was Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. And we said that because no one remembered us from Little Rock, Austin, Baton Rouge, or Washington. So we were an island on our own. Uh, but I do have a little bit of Texan in me on that front. Uh, I always pick that because I was born in Texar Canada, Texas, because that was the only place that really we could be born. They gave me the shot of that Texas pride, and that's why I'm a little bit more energy and a little bit more driving factor than some other people in Arkansas. But uh, Arkansas too, to have that passion, that drive, and be proud to be in Arkansan. We created such beautiful things in this country over the last hundred years. I'm gonna do it in the next hundred.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

I'm I'm gonna speak too. I so I'm not from Arkansas. I've been here a while now, I think a little over a decade now. But originally, so I actually spent over 30 years in Georgia. And I I'm gonna attest to you that Arkansas is a very, very nice state. The people here are very, very friendly. One of the very first things that I noticed when I came out here was where I came from, it was so busy. It just, you know, everything was just a hundred miles an hour all the time. Um and one of the very first things that I noticed when I came here is like all the men opened the doors for the women. But nobody in Georgia, I was gonna say at home, it's not home anymore, but nobody in Georgia did that anymore. And and I guess I just got so conditioned to it, like they would literally just let the door slam. And I was so conditioned to it that it was very strange for me when I came here because you're going and out of the gas station or the store, um, you know, that doesn't have automatic doors, and all the guys are opening the doors, and there's no ulterior motive, it's just it's the right thing to do, and that's the way they were raised.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

And we know that our ancestors will come back and hitting our tails if we don't.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

There is no ulterior motive. That's a trait, that's a long trait, is what that is.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Exactly, exactly. Yeah, but as somebody coming from another state, that's something that really, really stood out to me because I was like, wow, these people are really, really nice. They're all very friendly, and everyone would say hello. So yeah, I can absolutely attest to this the complete opposite here um from what I was used to. And it's a much slower pace here, but not in a negative way. I've really learned, and things are really busy for us right now, so that doesn't really count. But I have learned that I live at a much slower pace and just enjoy things much differently than when I lived in the city. I grew up in Marietta, Georgia, which is just north of Atlanta. So very, very busy place, just really hectic. And um I grew up in that really, really fast pace. Everything's gotta go, go, go, go, go all the time. Um, so it's been nice to be here. And I think Arkansas gets a bad rap. Um, you know, generally speaking, I don't think people that haven't been here and don't know people here don't know that there's a high high quality of people. It's beautiful here. The seasons are just absolutely gorgeous, and there is so much to do here. One of the other things that I really love is where I came from. You couldn't just, you know, if there was a creek or a river or something, you can just stop off and you know, enjoy that. You had to go to the park or to, you know, and pay to get in and and all that. And that that's legitimate. Like it's like it was like that everywhere. And there were some beautiful places, but there was a process to getting into them. And here in Arkansas, you can just go anywhere, you know, as long as you're not in somebody's land where they're gonna shoot you, but not everywhere. As a gener but as a general rule, there it's so neat to me because you'll just be driving down in the country and there'll be pull-offs, you know, to a creek or you know, a little stream or something, and and you're welcome to just stop off and enjoy it, and it's a lot of fun. You can have a lot of adventures that I didn't even know that kind of thing was accessible. So I like that a lot about Arkansas.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Even to that, if you go on someone's land most of the time, you know, you just ask them, Hey, do you care if my kid fishes here? Yeah, of course they need to. So a lot of times it's very open. Uh-huh. I've I've spent a lot of time in Georgia. So I actually had worked with Governor Kemp too. So I spent a lot of time in Georgia. Uh, you know, like I love Savannah, I think Savannah's gorgeous. And we can't get there in Arkansas because we don't have an ocean. So the difference with Arkansas, and what I'm trying to save here is that we are very nine to five, focus on your family on the weekends, spend time together, still the front porch, everybody's together, and family's a unit. And you want to save that, you want to protect that. And um, yeah, in bigger cities, because so many people have moved from other other parts, and my district is very, very much a melting pot. It's from all different, it's a very transient district when you're talking about Little Rock. What I want is for the people that move to our district to become Arkansas. So I want you to be able to experience that. Now, I do want to turn the volume up just a little bit on the speed because there's a lot of things I think that happen that we're just kind of like, oh, that's Arkansas Way, so you know, it'll be six months. No, I think we need to speed some of that up for the taxpayers. But on the outside of government and everything, yeah, I like this blow face. I like the fact that, yeah, you do go mud riding and you do go through these things and you just kind of relax and enjoy yourselves. And I think that's a great thing that we sell to the world is hey, you still can't slow down. You can look at nature and you can say, hey, somebody had to create that. There's no way this is all happenstance. And I think that's the difference between Arkansas and a lot of other states. When you start replacing all of the beauty with man-made things, then you start to kind of be like, oh, well, we did all of this, and then no, there's a divine creator because there's no way that all of this just happened. I mean, if you go to the mountains and then I mean, you look at our state in general, you have mountains and then you have flat plains where I'm from, you have beautiful rivers and different things like that. There's just no way that that's happenstance. I'm sorry. It's harder for me to believe that than there is a divine creator.

SPEAKER_02 11:51

Yeah, I agree. I agree. The only negative I would say is we don't have Savannah. So because I do love Savannah.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Yeah, we don't have Savannah, um, which is a beautiful place. I usually try to go at least once a year.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Yeah, I grew up, my friends and I used going to Tybee. Like we would we would leave work on Friday, we would drive down, we go to the crab shack. Shout out to the crab shack. I miss that so much.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Beautiful place.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

Yeah, and so I mean, I had been doing that since well, we went as a family when I was really young. We went to Tybee Island before Tybee Island was really like a whole thing. And we went to the crab shack when it was literally just the shack. And so I that would be the biggest thing I missed.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Well, I always joke with people up north because they always say that southerners are so far behind us. So the first indoor plumbing was in Savannah, Georgia. So we're not going to go down that road. We created a lot of great things during the Industrial Revolution. So I I think y'all need to, you know, put a pause on thinking that the South's not that great because uh that little house on, I can't remember which park, because of course there's a hundred parks, but uh, it's not on Forsyth, but it's uh one almost as famous as that. They were telling me about the gentleman he had indoor plumbing before the president and all that kind of stuff. I was like, wow, this is impressive. But yeah, if if people that are listening or watching us have never been to Savannah, Georgia, it is a beautiful place and you need to go see your and and Georgia in general.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

I do love Georgia. I loved growing up there, had a great growing up. Um, but definitely, definitely differences between these two states and and shout out to both of them. But if you haven't been to Savannah, definitely go to Savannah for sure.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

From Charleston, but we won't go there.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

We're gonna start a whole debate with everybody.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Charleston people are beautiful and nice, but they're very, you know, they have been there for a long time. But Savannah, every time I was in Savannah, they're like, hey, you can come over, we're having a ball. Why don't you come over and hang out? So they're more family friendly, I think, in Savannah and more warm and welcoming. And Charleston is very, if you want to find formal dining in a very, very upscale event, Charleston is your place.

SPEAKER_02 13:39

And it is gorgeous. Charleston is motherboard.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

All the architecture.

SPEAKER_02 13:43

You're making me really feel like I need to take a trip now. I gotta get up.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

You get both states to send me a check for advertising.

SPEAKER_02 13:49

Yeah, exactly. Can you guys send us a check for advertising? We'll take we'll we'll come there and and do a little video for you.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

All right, we got off topic, so we'll let Sloan bring us back in. Yeah, come on, guys, let's let's bring it back in. No, I love it. Um now y'all have got me wanting to go to Georgia. Maybe I'll I'll just uh clock out and head there soon. But Arkansas, it's obviously being here, living here, it's it's had a huge influence on you, but it's not the biggest influence. I would say the biggest influence is your life in your life is your relationship with Jesus. And uh, you know him as your Lord and Savior, and you came to know him early, right? At like at 11, you you started that. Would you share a little bit about your your testimony with us?

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Yeah, so you know, my grandparents, I have to thank my grandparents. My grandfather was a deacon in the Baptist church, and uh, he was just very firm about me going to church. And I've always been, I guess, an old soul. So I was very attentive. Like I never went to children's church. I think I can barely remember ever going to children's church, but the whole thing was no, you're gonna sit in the pew and you're gonna listen. And I had a um, I just had a wonderful pastor as a young kid, a brother Bobby, was just wonderful. And he was he was never a performative preacher, if that makes sense. He was just very big about going into the nitty-gritty of scripture and historical context that goes along with that and full in detail of scripture. And that's very, very hard to find nowadays because you can you can take a scripture, and part of, I'm gonna be honest with you, I get in a lot of trouble sometimes in Arkansas because people will throw a scripture out and I'll get up right behind them and say that is not the context of that scripture. So I'm very big about correcting people because the thing about it is is you could very easily use scripture to win office. And I don't like that. So, first of all, I do like to keep them separate because I am Baptist, and if you ever look at the tenements of the Baptist faith, we're really big about separation of church and state. And the reason why, you know, is you this this is nothing compared to making sure people go to heaven. That's that's the first thing. Okay. And everything that I do, I have to stand before my Savior one day. I have to stand before God, and he is the final judge, and we're forgetting that part in modern Christianity, that the final judge is God, not, you know, I I'm not afraid of the devil. I'm terrified of my father, even though I have to love him and he loves me and we have a good relationship, but I'm terrified of my creator, not the created. And that's uh that's something that I think Christians are missing out of today, is they won't always the villain, but it's like you actually are, because you are the sinner. So I think we miss that. And I think having that baseline of I don't want to say true Christianity because that means that everybody else didn't get it, but for me, I feel the true word of God was given to me at a young age. That's why I surrendered my life at 11. And I knew, I mean, he asked me every question under the book, and I just knew that I was saved. The funny thing is, is I wanted to be baptized that Sunday, and the heater for the baptismal was out. So when I was baptized, I truly felt my sins had been cleaned because it was extremely cold water. But when they baptized me, I literally gasped because of how cold the water was. So I did have a physical experience when I was baptized. But uh, you know, my life didn't get easier because I became a Christian. If anything, it became harder. And I try to explain that to people. Your life's not going to be easier because the devil's always trying to knock you off your pedestal. And uh, you know, I have situations with my family, uh, I have situations just across the board. But the one anchor that always holds me every day is I say, hey, I'm not the one that's in charge of my life, so we're good. It's tough, it's hard, but I think when you get older and you start to figure that out, that hey, you know, I used to want to take on hell with a water pistol too. Like I was that energized and I still am energized about it, but I also understand that my will is not to be done. It's God's will. And that takes a long time, definitely, you know, if you're a male, because in scripture and the way life is, you're supposed to be the man and you're supposed to fix the problems. But I can tell you this, it's I think it might be harder for us sometimes to say, you're not number one, you're not number two, you're down on the pecking list here. And, you know, before the video got started, I said many a times the Holy Spirit has to grab my tongue sometimes because I get angry. It's justified anger, but I have to understand that my temper can turn people off. And um, you know, I was really beneficial to go to a church that did mills on wheels, did things for the community, but did not accept government tax dollars. So I am very, very firm on that too, is that the church has to send independently from the government. So if I give you a bunch of tax dollars and you turn around and do it in God's name, he didn't none of that was good with him because he he's like, no, no, no, you have to give the sacrifice. That is the whole point of it, is that you have to do this in my name and you have to willingly do this in my name. So, you know, I get a little pushback from some of the big, big money churches because they a lot of their programs run on government money. But my whole thing is I'm trying to protect the church. I'm trying to protect the validity of what we're doing as a church and as a government. And so my testimony has just been a situation of a lot of hard-not life. I'm not gonna lie. Family members being sick, family members passing away, me taking care of them, my dad being in a wreck, my parents getting divorced. I mean, there's just a lot of those things, and they got divorced right before 30 years. So it was kind of a wild, I just there's always a new issue, a new problem that pops up. You know, this campaign, we didn't get the money that we thought. I had $500,000 that was coming. It came with a lot of strings. I said, sorry, cut the strings, move on. Lord will provide. So there's a lot of faith in everything that I do. Do I always get my way? But if I ever went starving, as you can tell, I've never gone hungry. And I have never ended up in a situation where I've had to turn to drugs or anything like that, not shaming the people that do. But one of my my number one goals in life is I never turn people away from Christ. And, you know, we do have another problem with that sometimes, is you we want people to come to church, but we only want the perfect Christian to come to church. And I'm the one that, hey, no, if you got liquor on your breath, that's good. Come on in. This is where you need to be. But we still have some of that old mentality, and that is a southern quality that we need to fix a little bit. That is more of a southern quality. I'm not gonna go as far as Unitarianism, and we're not gonna go as far as Episcopalian and all that kind of stuff, because you do have to follow scripture. But what I will say is I have always tried to lead my life of I'm not gonna judge you, you don't judge me. I'm not the judge. I'm gonna tell you, hey, you maybe shouldn't do that. Uh, but you plant the mustard seed and you let it take off. And you know, I've had many of people. I've had Muslims and Jewish people and uh Catholics and Mormons and different people that have converted over to, you know, Christianity, and that's their life's changed. And I told them I said, no, it's not gonna be easy, it's gonna be hard, uh, because the devil's always gonna put something in your way um and you're gonna fail. And when you fail, you get redemption. You pray about it and you try not to do it again. But uh I've never professed to be a perfect Christian because I'm not. Uh I make mistakes uh all the time, and most of mine is anger because I get angry because we spend money erratically, and people lie to folks. You know, uh, I I try to, I'm really big. I I think I'm very empathetic. So when I look at people and I see like we steal money or we money's been misappropriated, I think of, you know, like my dad worked crazy hours because he was a truck driver and I never got to see him, but he paid in taxes. So I always think that's my daddy's money that he had to stay away from me and it's being stolen. And uh so, you know, that's just the kind of guy I am. I pray to God all the time, try to make me a better man. I feel like I'm I'm doing okay, but never perfect. Uh, you're always aiming for uh for perfection. But, you know, I'm happy to be a child of God. I've never denied that in front of anybody. Uh I correct people very quickly uh if they are leading people down the wrong path, like prosperity gospels and stuff like that. We we I'm very firm. I mean, the governor was not happy that I uh was furious that Ola White was here in Arkansas because she's led the president down a wrong path. Selling Bibles for $5,000 with his signature and different things like that, it just it infuriates me because he doesn't know any better. I mean, he's a he's a man from Bronx, New York, or Brooklyn. And uh, you know, that's that's a different level of Christianity than when you are in the Bible belt and uh you hear the truth. And uh, you know, that hurts me to know that the leader of the free world has said three times he doesn't know if he's going to heaven or not. I do. I Belong there. I can tell you that. I'm a sinner and I'm just grateful through grace that I'm able to go, but I know my name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and I want him to be that confident too. So hopefully we can have that conversation if I'm a congressman for sure.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

And I appreciate your transparency in that. I I love that you you say like I'm I get angry. You're like, it's okay, right? It's okay that you get angry. I get angry. You know, when there's unjust things happening or or things that aren't right, it is okay. It doesn't make you not a Christian or less than a Christian. Also, like when you were talking about there isn't perfection, there is no perfection. And I think that that is sometimes where we all get lost. One, because we're trying to attain that when we're never going to attain it. And also, there's a I think there's a lot of people who don't or won't come to Christ because there is a perception that everything has to be perfect. It's not. That's not the truth. That's that's a false gospel. There's a process, there's a sanctification process that we go through. And each of us, it's different for every one of us because the Holy Spirit's gonna speak to me and say to me, Amanda, you don't need to be doing this or saying this or acting this way or going to these places, and he's gonna say a completely different thing to you. They may be similar in nature because there's some standards that we have, right? But that process is unique to each of us. And we're walking through that walk every day. I was also, excuse me, saved very young. My dad was a minister. Um, and so I grew up immersed in all of that, grew up in a megachurch. Um, and and now and I've seen every different kind of church that there is, literally. Because when IOL was started, my parents were doing consulting work with churches and and there was no within the Christian realm, there was no differentiation of, you know, are we going to Baptist or are we going to the non-denominational? And so we would visit a lot of churches because part of the process of helping them in their growth was to go to that church and see how they run their service and how they do things and meet the people. And so I've been to a lot of churches and seen a lot of things. And and I think that that's just a disconnect that we really have, especially now. I think it always has been, but especially now is that people think, well, I can't do this Christian thing because I cannot be perfect. I can't stop doing this thing or that thing. But the answer to that is that God will provide a way for you to stop doing the things that you don't need to do. And you don't have to wait, like you said, until everything's, you know, hunky-dory and perfect, because it's not, it's not gonna be that way. Um, every single one of us still fail every single day. Um, and you are 100% right. Satan is gonna slam you. I've I've been through many, many of the same things. My my dad almost dying three times, literally, my mother dying walking through cancer with her for four years. And there are times when you stop and you're just like, okay, why? Why? Why are we doing this? Why is this happening? And then it does times sometimes seem like you come to a plateau and then boom, there's something else again. But I I would I would agree with you 100%. What has kept me grounded is my faith. What kept me going is my faith. My mom, when she was walking through her her journey with cancer, you know, there were really hard days, don't get me wrong. Um, there was really hard weeks, but she never ever lost her faith. There is no doubt where my mother is, and there is no doubt that I'm gonna see her one day. And for me, that's all the difference in the world. I agree with you. We have a creator that created us for a reason um and for a purpose. And it's it's our should be our goal and our job to live out that purpose and to listen to what his purpose is and not ours. So that's my soapbox. I but I think you'd be a great preacher. I was thinking about that too.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

No, no, no, no, no, no. So, you know, and I tell people too, I you know, when people ask me, I'm a Christian first, I don't think being a Baptist saves me. So don't don't think that, oh, because I'm throwing Baptists around. No, but that's the doctrine of which I I subscribe to. So there's a lot of people that, you know, there's different doctrines, and that's the one that I personally subscribe to. And I've changed denominations, I mean affiliations too. I I used to be SBA or Southern Baptist until I saw what was going on with the you know, the Southern Baptist, and uh I moved to missionary. And uh, so you know, and I've been ABA before too. So I mean there's been a multitude of different things, but as you become an adult, what I try to get people to understand is you have to have a relate, it's your personal relationship with God. And you have to do that. And if you'll open up and read scripture, the Holy Spirit tells you the interpretation of scripture, okay? You have to listen, though. You can't make it what you want it to be, or you can. You can take any scripture out of out of out of context and make it to be anything you believe. I mean, that's why you have white nationalists and you have these different groups that use scripture inappropriately. But what you do is you're you're condemning people to hell. And, you know, that's part of the reason what I do love about the president on this is he doesn't kill people willy-nilly, because I think he does understand on the back end, or at least I do, when we're talking about a war with China, you know, if we did that and I killed a hundred million people, I've condemned them to an eternity of hellfire. And I don't want to do that. And I think you need to have those types of people that serve to understand, yes, I'm angry at those people. And I will protect America at all costs, but it should be the last thing because to me, even on death row inmates, two minutes before death, if they accept their savior, there they are. And it's not my place to condemn death. I didn't create it, so therefore I shouldn't take it away, which I know is controversial to some people. They believe in the death penalty, and I'm not saying I'm I've told people that's the hardest thing for my whole job is do I or do I not. I think that there's worse things than death that you can do to people, forced labor and different things like that that I think are a whole lot better than a death sentence. But I want to save everybody, and I want everybody to be a Christian. It's hard at a federal position or in politics because I don't want to use my office to do so. I want to do it through what I do, and hopefully my me doing the right thing and telling the truth will bring people to God. But I do not want to use a congressional office to force people into Christianity or to have a forced religion in this country because what do I pick? Who do I choose? You know, I if I choose mine, maybe that's not right. So, you know, it's it's one of those things where you have to have a personal relationship with God, and you can't force people into Christianity. You lay the mustard seed and then the Holy Spirit takes it from there. And that's the that was the hard part for me as a young Christian, a new Christian, is I was like, oh no, I'm gonna force them into it. And it's like, so you think you're more powerful than God? Like that's the sometimes we have to check ourselves as Christians that yes, the Holy Spirit lives within me, but I'm not the creator. I am his created, and therefore he has to, you know, he has to take it from there. So that's the hard part for me for Christianity, because I know that there's so many people out there. I've had people spit in my face at protests and different things as I'm moving. And I'm like, if you just could click in to Christianity and actually feel it, yeah, you you wouldn't be this way.

SPEAKER_02 28:32

I think when it clicks, then you feel that way all the, you know, pretty much all the time, right? I think we were having a conversation about that the other day. It's like you look around and you're like, it's so hard. Like you can see people struggling, like the struggle's not necessarily gonna go away, but it's different, right? It's like the kids say now, like it hits different. You know, it's it's different when when you're walking with Christ and you can go, okay, honestly, at the end of all of it, at the at the very core of all of it, everything really is gonna be all right. It might be crumbling right now, it might be a disaster right now, and that's hard when you're in the middle of it, right? And it's very tense and it's very stressful, whatever the situation is. But if you're a Christ follower, you know what the end result is, right? And so I think that for me, I think that helps. And I I look at other people, like you said, who are struggling without Christ, and it's a different level of struggle. And you just want to kind of you know, if you would just if you would just surrender, um, then you know, things would be different. Is it gonna be perfect? No, but it would be different, a different level.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

So different kind of peace. So it's just a different kind of peace. You're you're still you still have anxiety and you still have all of them. I'm not, you know, I don't want people to believe that, hey, once you you're just walking around with rose-colored glasses. No, but what you do know is when at the very for me at least, when I've hit basement rock level, and and I talk to God all the time. People ask me, do you pray every day? I do, and I have full conversations. Sometimes I have to have full conversations when other people are speaking. I'm like, Lord, we just got to talk about something right now because I can't hear what's going on. But uh, you know, I sit down, I'm like, hey, you've always had me, you've got me in this. Hey, I'm here again. You've had to put me down in this position again. I'm sorry, you know. Uh I know I got too big for my britches. I thought I was too great and mighty, and I'm not. So thank you for putting me in this spot. And I think when you have that relationship, where it's not always the father that's condemning you, right? Like it's not always the judge. But to me, I think there's there's two levels of Christianity, or there's there's two levels of relationships that I have with God, which is one that yes, he is my judge. He's my judge, but then he's also my father. You know, my dad, uh, after the wreck, you know, he has some conditions that make him a different. We I have a new dad, right? Not the guy that I grew up with, but it's good. We have a good relationship. But now I've been moved to the front of the line of the family because I'm a son of the son, right? So here we are. I'm I am now Mr. McDowell, I guess, and and I'm 32. So it's kind of different, you know, it's you know, however. But the thing about it is is sometimes I have to sit back and I have to say, okay, God, what do I need to do in this situation? What do I have to do? But the thing is, is what I find comfort in is I do still have a father. And I have two. I have my dad, new guy, different, you know, mentally, but that's okay. And then I have my heavenly father, and uh, I'm very, very proud that the rock, the foundation that I have, will never change. So with all of my family dying and all of the things and all of that change and turmoil that happens on earth, I still have the rock and the foundation, it never changes. So that's a different piece than I think people that, you know, unfortunately do not have that. And I've never been to a funeral of someone that's not saved. So I don't know what that's like. I can't imagine the pain that people go through in that situation. I hurt because I'll never get to touch them and hug them again on this earth, but I'm never really so despondent that, you know, with my grandparents and and everything, I I'm not so despondent. I mean, I still have pain, you know, it'll hit me sometimes. I mean, the my ring that I wear is my grandfather's. So sometimes I have that pain, but then I'm like, hey, it's gonna be okay. I'm gonna see him later, right? And for people that don't believe that, I would be despondent. I would be just a wreck. So I can see where people maybe turn to drugs and turn to different things and they live a horrible life post-loss of a family member. I could see that because you think you'll never see, or you you believe, they believe that they'll never see him again. So I have to have empathy and sympathy for those people. And uh I think that's another thing that we have to look at. It's not everybody that's on the street that's homeless deserves to be there, number one. I don't think anybody should, but also let's look in the situations of what's going on there. Life's hard. It's not easy. Uh, we think it's all a Hallmark movie, but very rarely is that the case. Maybe 15 minutes out of a day, three years from now, you'll have a Hallmark moment. Uh, but other than that, it's pretty dang rough. I mean, I try to give people a lot of grace in that. Uh, that's why I'm so focused on trying to get people that have been in prison into jobs and, you know, a new life and all that kind of stuff, because who are we to not give some redemption or grace to people when that's our whole purpose? Is we're supposed to go out and reach people. I mean, look at the disciples, look at the people that Jesus now not going to go the hippie route where everybody, you know, goes the hippie route with Jesus and says, Oh, he just said everybody was okay. No, I'm not going there. People change their life, but that's the first people he went to, or the not so great people of the world. And he said, Follow me, change your life, look how great things are. And of course, the first person that went and ascended with him was a thief. So you have to look at that and you have to say, hey, we're all children of God. We might not all look the same, we might not all believe the same, but we're all made in his image. So therefore, if I condemn that person, I'm condemning the image of God. So you got to think of that. And that's where I say my anger sometimes after I'm over and I've been angry at the opposite side of the aisle because I want communism or whatever. I have to sit back and say, Well, that's as much my brother and sister as, you know, Billy Graham wants.

SPEAKER_02 33:48

That's one thing I really love about our church, and Sloan can speak to this a little bit too, is um we we have a huge celebrate recovery program at our church, which is just beautiful. The work that they do in that program is is absolutely amazing. And we have such a wide range and diversity of people that now attend our regular church services because of that program. Um, and it's really, really beautiful to see. It's beautiful to see people who have been through the trenches and and have had unfortunate situations and, you know, done drugs or, you know, had alcohol problems or whatever, and they can come to this program and learn how to be redeemed and refreshed in Christ and and learn these principles that maybe they never knew about before. So not to not to preach on that, but that's one of the things that I really love about our church is because there is no divide there in our church. It's just everybody is welcome. Everybody come, just come, come as you are. Um, and that's how I feel it should be. I don't think there should be like a distinction, like, oh, you have to wear a suit or, you know, and I I'm not gonna say like I was raised wrong because I think there's some reverence to that. I think it's important. We've taught our kids, you know, when we go to church, you know, we get up and we get ourselves together and and we go and all of that. I don't think that's a bad thing, but I I also don't think that anybody should ever feel like, oh, you can't come here because you're not good enough or you don't have the suit code or whatever the case may be there because it's for everyone. And that's one of the reasons I really, really love that program. And I love that that program, I love to support that program. Even when I was going through my grieving process of losing my mom, that program is not just for alcoholics and drug addicts. It's for being in grief and walking through hard things. Um, and they have some really great principles that go along with that that are Christ-pointing principles and and all so good and so solid and and really help you just sit and think about yourself and okay, as you know, because we have a tendency like to blame as human beings. It's so and so's fault and said, no, it's really my fault, you know, um, it's it's me. I'm the one that's angry or frustrated or mad, but let's figure out why um and get to the heart of it. And I think Sloane could probably um attest to a little bit of that too. Um her and her husband have served in that program quite a bit um and been involved in that. And it's it's really beautiful to see people come through that and and be restored.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

It is really great. I love to watch um just the whole family restoration, right? So you'll see one parent who maybe has struggled with substance abuse or grief that they didn't know how to handle biblically. You know, they have had people come alongside them and just to watch the whole family be restored is really uh really beautiful. We have the privilege tonight to serve. We we do CR on Friday night here at our church. And I have the privilege I will get to spend tonight with toddlers. And we like to say there's no toddler like a recovery toddler. Like there is just, it is, it is wild and we love every minute of it. There's just no better place to to serve. This is definitely where we're we're called right now, and we're gonna hang out here and just seeing how much we've learned from people. Like I've learned just as much from a felon as I have our preacher, you know? And so that's one thing. There's a lot to learn in the hardships, right? And there are things that hardship or failure can teach us that success never will.

SPEAKER_00 37:01

I've always said that.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

That is just it's the truth, right? We we're gonna learn more from those failures than those successes. Do you have any examples of where a hardship or a failure taught you more than you think had you been successful, had you not endured that hardship? What would you missed out on?

SPEAKER_00 37:18

I mean, there's been many of trial by fire situations for me. Um, some of those have been, you know, uh I ran a campaign for Jan Morgan the last three months uh when she ran it in 2022, and uh that was extremely tough. We really, I mean, we put, I don't know, 35,000 miles on a vehicle. I and I joined her campaign right at the end. I just told her, I said, Jan, I said, you're you're you're being sold so differently. And it just, you know, I I came back to Arkansas and I was like, let me, let me, let me try to help you. I just went up to her, Jan, and I had, you know, talks back and forth online and different things like that because of because I I had followed her and I I just went straight up to her, shook her hand, and I said, You need help on your campaign and I want to help you. And that was all we had to do. First of all, I think she was shocked at someone with that bold to just come up and tell her. But I was like, Jan, you're not being sold properly at all. Like this whole thing, like it's just wrong. And you know, so so so we really thought we were gonna do it, right? And that that's probably been my worst loss was because she would have been the best thing for the state of Arkansas. Uh, and it didn't happen. And and when the president lost in 2020, because we knew we were doing that healthcare bill. And we I what the hard part for me was I knew that the American people were gonna be punished for what we had done four years ago. So sometimes it's not necessarily a direction of what me, myself, it's I was working for a cause that just failed, and I knew the punishment and the pain of millions and millions of people. That is what's hard sometimes with this job. And it will be hard and it will be a struggle for me, and I will get white-headed if I'm a congressman and things that I know can save American business and stuff. But I know that struggle because I my heart's a little bit too big, probably shouldn't say that as a congressman, but my heart's just a tad bit too big. So I think of the mom and the dad that's working 60 hours a week and they got to drive 45 miles one way or 45 minutes to go to work, and then they get home and their kids hadn't done their class, their their schoolwork, or they try to help with math and they can't like that kind of stuff, it bothers me. It's a it's a dredge on me. So what I have to pray to the Lord is turn it all off for me. And that's the hardest thing for me on a trial by fire is all of the mistakes that I have made have been teaching, have been teaching moments, but the hardest thing for me is I think in the big picture pain. So it's it's hard as a Christian sometimes to sit back and try to not fix everything and try to replace yourself and fix it all for God. And that's the hard part for me, is the trial by fire as a Christian of trying to be the one that tries to fix it all. And that's not the place because what I know as a Christian and what I should know when I'm doing this is that trial, that error, that pain, that trial by fire, they have to go through it as a Christian too, Chase. You can't be the only one that does that. So it comes with maturity of being a Christian is that pain, suffering is also part of the Christian relationship with God because He has to put you through that. It's not testing of the faith. Maybe, I don't know. I'm not I'm not omnipotent. But what I do know is this that's part of Christianity. It's part of your faith and walk with God. That's the hardest part for me, is the trial by fire for everybody else. It's hard for me to not just want to step in and fix it and protect them and say, no, no, no, no, I don't want you to go through that. No, they've got to. And that's the hardest part for me.

SPEAKER_02 40:26

It's the refinement, right? We have to go through that refining process. Um, and it's hard. It's it's really hard to watch other people go through it too, and still stand by and be supportive and kind and generous and loving when you just you one want to fix it, or you want to just shake them and say, Stop, you know, there's a better way. And and you're right, the struggle doesn't go away. It's just a different walk. But if we don't go through those struggles, we don't get the refinement. So we want to be respectful. Oh, go ahead. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 40:52

I want to say I didn't go through struggles. I mean, like going through college, had just enough to buy, you know, a subway sandwich. And like I I went through all that. For for me, though, people will see that as a struggle. For me, that's just being an Arkansan, right? So I think that's another thing of being in Arkansas. It's like what other people would consider a struggle. We're just like, well, that's just life. So that's just reality. Yeah. And my story is not any different than three million plus people that live in the state, right? So yeah, I've went through struggle. But the hardest thing for me has been the loss of family because I had such a close knit. So I've been through that. Don't act like I hadn't and where I'm just oh, just sorry for all the people that went through struggles. But you know, like 2020 was rough on my my life. It was very, very hard, you know, and uh almost lost my dad and almost last lost him three times in one year because he had pulmonary embolisms from the wreck because we couldn't get in and all that. So, like, yes, it's I've been through all of that, but now that I'm on the other side, I'm like, oh well, yes, that is still a crisis that I had in my life. But I'm a person that once I'm through it and I'm good, I remember it, but I don't really think about it again, you know.

SPEAKER_02 41:52

Like I'm like, no, you don't stop and live there, and that's good. We're not supposed to, you know.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

I'm just a different, I'm different on that. So I won't go, oh, whoa, is me. I just go, hey, well, yeah, that was a struggle. We got over that hump and we move on.

SPEAKER_02 42:03

Hey, man. Well, we want to be respectful of your time, of course. And I don't think we talked to you about this yet, but at the end of each one of these podcasts, we ask the same two questions to every guest. And one of the reasons is because not everybody will answer the same way. And these are just two questions that we kind of came up when we were um brainstorming about this podcast. And so um, I'm gonna let Sloan ask you the first one and I will ask you the second one, and then we will wrap it up.

SPEAKER_00 42:25

Sounds good.

SPEAKER_01 42:26

All right. So we just want to know about a leader who's deeply influenced your life and why they did, how they did, why do you still carry their influence with you?

SPEAKER_00 42:34

Well, that will be Mr. Ronald Wilson Reagan. So Reagan is a very big nice. So Reagan sounds a lot like my father's father, my grandfather. He was always one to tell a joke. And I hope that through my leadership, if I can make people feel that comfortable and I can do it in a way to where I'm not um smart, Alec, where we can try to bring some of that comedy back. Because I think I think comedy is is worldwide, but I think comedy belongs in America. Like I think we're very comedic people. Like we love to laugh, we love to have a good time. I mean, that's our whole country, if you really think about it. We looked at all of that formality and said, yeah, that's not how you live life. Like we are rough around the corner and a little on the edges. And even when you think of architecture and all this stuff, like that's the American way, is we just do things better, a little bit different, right? Uh, we're just not so regimened. And and what I loved about Reagan is he came in, he took a people that were beaten down and broken from Nixon and that scandal, and then from Jimmy Carter and hostages and oil and all of this stuff. So I feel like we're still in the same position today as we were when Reagan took over in the 80s. But what I would love to see is just it's morning in America again. And that's what I would love to see is America comes back and we understand our what we are, and that we are one people, and that we are one voice, and we are the goodness and graciousness and that shining city on the hill. And the whole, the whole package, I I subscribe to it. Uh, I believe if they say it's propaganda, good. But it's good propaganda. Like I want that for people because I want the one thing I want for the American people is this. I want you to have a career that when you are away from your family and you come home at the end of the day, you can say, Yeah, I did that today, or I created that. And after 30 years, you can say, I was dedicated to whatever that may be. Because we're here for a short period of time. The Lord's blessed us with every second that we have, and we should be able to use it in a way that we love what we do for a living. And that's what I want for Arkansas. So many people don't get that. They get that in Georgia because they have many industries that they can go to work in. But we don't have that here. And one thing that I've really butted heads with some of the comfortable people in my district is they're like, well, there's plenty of jobs. There's not plenty of careers, right? $17 an hour, I don't even think that's a that's even that's to me, that's a high school wage, right? I want a career for people that can go buy a brand new house and a brand new car and go buy that washing machine and dryer, and it's American made and go buy those things, right? And uh my vision of America is a country that we don't really have any problems. We just kind of we've got some scuffles and we don't like high taxes and you know the normal things because I can't fix everything, but at least these temperatures of 211 degrees because water boils at 212, that's 211 all the time. I would love to get us down to about 180 degrees, okay? Where we're not just blowing up over every little thing that happens. And I think Reagan was good about that because Reagan time was rough, definitely the first four years, interest rates went through the roof, and we had to fix everything and we had to adjust an economy, which we're having to do now. And I'm just that type of guy. I think I fell into Reagan's shoes. I have a lot of his books, I read his books, I listen to his speeches. Sometimes when I'm working out, people think I'm a nerd on that. But I, if I want to be a leader, I have to try to emulate people in that manner, and that's what I want to do. And then, of course, Billy Graham. I think Billy Graham is someone that I really look up to because Billy went into all parts of the world and said, You are Christ's child. You just have to accept it. And uh that was the first, you know, to me, preacher that really from the south, of course, for his generation in the time that he was doing that, that was so revolutionary to say we are all God's children. And uh, you know, as much as people believe that, you know, white Christians believe that Jesus was white, I've never believed that a day in my life, never been taught that. He was Jewish and he came from, you know, he even spent time in Israel. Like, I mean, in in Egypt, like we get that. Like, I don't know where that that message has come from, but if I can break that barrier down too, to say, no, we all get to heaven and we all spend the same time together in heaven, like that's that's the messaging that I want. So those two leaders are very close to me. I know people, some people don't like Billy Grammill. That's okay. I do. And I think that he was a good and moral man. So we're gonna, we're gonna, you know, those were my two guys that I kind of look up to.

SPEAKER_02 46:39

Good choices. I love that. And I I just absolutely, it's so fun that everybody's answers are so very different and for so much, so very different reasons, but not bad reasons, not good reasons. So all right, last question before we wrap up. When you think um about legacy, because of course we've named this the Lead with Legacy podcast, when you think about a legacy, what do you hope your leadership leaves behind?

SPEAKER_00 47:01

Well, I told everybody I'm only going to do this for a maximum of 10 years. And I hope 10 years from now, when I hand the keys over to somebody, I hope they're better and smarter than I am. And uh I hope that in that amount of time, I have changed the metric that Arkansas schools are the best in the nation, that we leave the world in energy production uh because we can through nuclear power and the lithium that we have. I hope that we can build an economy that I've moved the baseline income for my district from 62,000, 79 to 80,000 to 85,000. I just want to see growth and development as much as I possibly can in a place where none of my children go hungry and that my mothers are living. They're not dying after birth, and that my infants are not dying, and that we have hospitals that can bring uh, you know, new life into the world. And that's what I'm hoping to have so that we can truly actually be the most pro-life state in the Republic, even though we say we are we're not, uh, when you have that many deaths. You know, you got to look at it that way. But I want quality of life to not just be that Norman Rockwell and not just that beauty that we have of a good people, but also that we have clean streets and safe communities and we have a beautiful America that we used to have a long, long time ago, to where, yeah, if you forget to lock your door, big deal, right? And I think that that is kind of the America that I want to see and the legacy that hopefully I can leave behind. But it's gonna take the American people wanting that as much as I want it. And I think that they crave it. I think that the American people crave it. And that's what I'm hoping I can tap into. And if people will give me that that leadership, uh if they'll give me the opportunity, I will make sure it happens one way or the other. We will get it done. And uh that's that's my focus for sure.

SPEAKER_02 48:35

Wonderful. All right, so before we close out, tell us a little bit how how can people find you? What's the best way to connect with you?

SPEAKER_00 48:43

Yes, so it's gonna be McDowell for Arkansas, it's my website, and that's also my Facebook. Uh, and then McDowell 2026 is my ex account. So my guys do the X account. I don't, I mean, I tell them what to say, but I never liked Twitter and X, and I don't understand it. And I've re-quoted and retweeted and done stuff, and they're like, no, don't do that. So I let them do that. But Facebook, I'm very active on that. I think I have set for I think I've set for six days straight worth of interviews. So they're all on Facebook. You know, they're ranging from 30 minutes to two hours long. So they're all on there. People, I've been as transparent as possible. I tell everybody my exact plan and path. They can use it against me when I get to Washington, but I've told my message because why not? I mean, why try to hide or conceal things? This is what I want for America. It's all on there. If anybody wants to look at all that stuff that's on there, it's how to handle AI and a lot of different things that are coming. And uh, you know, that's where they can find me. And uh hopefully, hopefully y'all do. Y'all check me out. Uh on the donate on the donation thing, you know, I've told people if you feel like donating, donate, but I never asked because I haven't put in the work yet for you. So next go-around, I'll be like every other politician. This is what I've done, and this is why you need to donate. But for me, uh, it's hard for me to ask for money when I haven't actually delivered for you as a congressman yet. So uh this is just one very year-long a job interview, is what this has been.

SPEAKER_02 50:03

We are incredibly grateful. I feel really honored that we had the opportunity to have you on with us and got to talk to you on multiple levels. Um, wanting to learn more about you and what your platform is and what you're doing, and thank you for the work that you're doing because it's important and it's hard. You're doing a tough job that is not easy, and people don't like some of it. And so um, thank you for that. Thank you for what you're doing. Thank you for coming on and talking to us. Thank you for sharing your story and your walk with Christ. I think it's so important. I don't even know that we'd have a whole agenda or a whole defined purpose of exactly what this podcast is supposed to be, but it's really interesting the things that God's doing through it and and how these conversations flow and go. And, you know, it it wasn't, and we said in the beginning, like it's not gonna be our design, it's just whatever the Holy Spirit leads. And we just felt like we wanted to do this as a collaboration. So it's really fun to see the people we're having on here and the conversations that we're having. And um, I feel the same way about it as I do at church. Like everybody's welcome to come on it. Let's just come on and have good conversations. We don't always have to agree, but we don't have to argue about them either. And and I just I I think it's a really fun thing that we get to do now. So I'm really honored that we got to have you on here.

SPEAKER_01 51:06

Some go ahead. Yeah, Lord willing, uh, next time we have you on, we'll be calling you Congressman McDowell. But I think that would that would really be great. But I tell you, no matter what, no matter what, we'd love to have you back. Um, your your insight has just been has been really refreshing. And and we just appreciate your heart for the Lord, your heart for people, and that you're willing to share that that heart with with the public. You're not hiding it. Yeah, so don't forget us when you get to the top, okay?

SPEAKER_00 51:33

So I keep telling my stuff. I said, when someone keeps calling me congressman, I'm gonna be looking for the congressman. That's me.

SPEAKER_02 51:39

Nah, you'll get used to it.

SPEAKER_00 51:40

No, well, I've just never been big about titles. I'm Chase McDowell. That's just the way I look at it. And I think it if everybody in Washington was that way, we'd probably be better off. But uh probably I'll use the title when I need it to visit Arkansas. But other than that, when I come home, y'all better call me Mr. McDowell or just call me Chase. That's that's perfectly fine. But uh yeah, when I'm arguing against those other folks, yes, it'll be Mr. Congressman. But uh I'm here at home, I'll just always be Chase.

SPEAKER_02 52:03

Well, we wish you the absolute best. We look forward to seeing what happens and and also having you back when you when you're in the in there with the big wigs or bigger wigs. Um but we appreciate you very, very much. Thank you so much for being on with us today.

SPEAKER_00 52:15

Thank you. Thank you.