 Hello everyone, I am here with Senate candidate for 2020 Steven Cox He's running in Kentucky against someone who you may or may not have heard of His name is Mitch McConnell and he is one of the worst politicians if not the worst in the country doing just Irreparable damage and he is here to tell you why he's the best to go up against Mitch McConnell Thank you so much for coming on the program Steven Thank you for having me. Yeah, so I wanted to talk about this primary because there's a number of people currently running I know there are still some candidates that are jumping in the race, but a lot of people thus far They're more familiar I think with Amy McGrath who is someone who I believe was recommended by Chuck Schumer to run And we got a little bit of a snippet of you know What she's going to do to defeat Mitch McConnell and I'm gonna play that clip for everyone very briefly So they can get a test a taste as to why she has a very horrible strategy You know Kentucky voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump and you can say Kentucky's a very red state But it's a very pro Trump state and if you if you think about why Kentuckians voted for Trump they wanted to drain the swamp and Trump said that he was going to do that Trump promised to bring back jobs He promised to lower drug prices for so many Kentuckians And that is very important. And you know what who stops them along the way who stops The president from doing these things Well, Mitch McConnell And I think that that's really important and that's going to be you know My message that the things that Kentuckians voted for trump for are not being done He's not able to get it done because of senator mcconnell Essentially what she's saying is i'm going to run a pro trump campaign I'm going to be a pro trump democrat The problem with this strategy is first of all, if you run as republican light Nine times out of ten voters are going to opt for the real deal and second of all All that it would take for this type of campaign to implode is donald trump to say four words I endorse Mitch McConnell. So steven What are you going to do to defeat Mitch McConnell because I don't think anybody is under the illusion that this is going to be an easy process But what is your strategy because I think it's clear that nobody has faith that any magrath is going to be able to pull this off Well, I mean honestly my strategy is One i'm a working class person. I know a lot of people around the state and a lot of people around the state Know me just as a you know a regular person And um, i'm being very unapologetic very genuine in everything that I do um If my stances aren't popular I'm still rolling with them I've made some people mad, but um You know, there's a reason I take the stances I do it's because I believe in them and you know You know with with Amy, especially, you know, you'll see her flip-flop on some things just given public opinion but That is um That's part of the strategy. I'm going to take to Mitch McConnell um He's not real well liked by anybody by any means um But what happens time and time again is the people that run against him try the republican light way And um, you know voters don't turn out for that I mean there are actual progressive people everywhere in kentucky. Kentucky used to be heavily You know a blue state, but over the last, you know, 30 years It slowly went more red and red and red because you know their first Reaction is oh the republican one. That means I should be more like the republican No, it means you need to get out there be honest genuine inspire people You know and stick to your guns You are running on a very progressive platform. You support medicare for all free college You essentially check all of the progressive boxes so to speak But what it seems like you're kind of implementing is a um A stacey abram's type of strategy which she did in georgia where rather than trying to run to the right You just have a massive get out the vote campaign like you get people in kentucky Who are non voters and you get them to come out and vote. Is that the type of strategy that you're trying to carry out here? Absolutely, absolutely. I mean you saw it in the 2016 elections. Um You know with with the presidential election Uh, you know, hillary, you know, she won the popular vote But still that wasn't enough to you know clinch it because electoral college And it's because people weren't inspired to vote for her. Um, I mean I voted for her Just because I felt like I'm definitely not voting for donald trump but I mean it's it's Awful that you know, we have to make that sort of decision like I don't really like this candidate But it's the best chance we have of not having that candidate You know, we should really have good candidates with actual ideas that will help people Yeah, and part of the problem is that you have so many people who I think Are misguided who run for office and they try to replicate the strategy that republicans Have been utilizing like, you know the same problem back in 2014 with allison londragon grimes You know, she was criticizing mitch mcconnell For not being right-wing enough, you know, she was saying mitch That's not how you hold a gun and I have you know used her ads As an example of how you don't run a campaign because here's the thing If you give voters an option between someone who is a republican and someone who is saying no, I'm the real republican They're not going to believe that like they're not going to buy that you're more conservative When you have a d next to your name like for these voters I don't think you can win them over like I and you can kind of give me your thoughts on this Like this strategy this idea that we need to win over trump voters I don't think that is a strategy that will be conducive to win I mean sure you can maybe get back some of the voters that were previously pro obama But then flipped and went to trump But I mean I think that the problem with the democratic party and where they've gone wrong Is that they listen to strategists they listen to these people who say no, this is a red state So you have to be a moderate you have to be relatively conservative But what do you say to those people who say steven, you know, you're running against mitch mcconnell This is going to be a bloodbath if you are going to go to the far left Which we know that they will call you in the event you win the primary I mean how do you respond to that because I think this type of criticism is absolutely inevitable But you have the right strategy and this strategy has led to progressive victories in democrat victory So how do you respond to that if they bring you on for an interview you just win the primary and they say Okay, so mitch mcconnell is going to win. I mean, what would you tell them because I think that Even though we have the right argument that is backed by empirical evidence Um people don't believe it because it seems counterintuitive and I think that I can get that just instinctively But how would you explain this to people? well, I mean honestly if I were to um I mean, they're gonna they're they're gonna call me far left. They're gonna call me a socialist I mean, that's kind of his key word right now is you know fight socialism But um, you know, if I ran to the right and tried to appeal to those people They're still gonna call me a socialist and it's just gonna You know alienate my actual audience of people that believe in me and you know I want to move forward with you as ideas or I can you know stick to those ideas stick to my base and just grow it and You know the truth is Even if they don't like my ideas, I guarantee they'll like somebody being honest with them for a change And if that gets some of those voters over that's great, but that's not who I'm trying to get out to vote I can't guarantee. I mean, I can't I can't um, you know Expect them to win this for me. I've got to get the people that are tired of everything we've got and Think that if they vote for Amy, it's just going to be like voting for mcconnell anyway We need to get rid of those sort of doubts Get people out to vote organize them say hey, you know, steven cox may 19th 2020 get out there We need you, you know So talk about mitch mcconnell because you said that he's not very popular in kentucky and you know more than anyone else And part of like there's there is this issue where politicians are not very popular But they keep winning but name recognition is such a powerful thing So can you explain what people's grievances are with mitch mcconnell because I could name like a thousand But what are people in kentucky saying about mitch mcconnell? Why are they dissatisfied with him? Well, you know, that's the interesting thing some people don't really know exactly why they're dissatisfied. They just know that he's a bad person um And then you talk to actual people around the the state and they have interesting things that aren't always to do with policy I um, you know, I worked for a retail drug chain and I was talking to some of my You know peers in peduca and they said, oh, yeah, you know, I he came into my store one time And he was just absolutely rude. He was a sniveling little, you know, did to the and You know, like, okay, so it's not just policy. It's the way he acts people dislike him um They can see through a lot of the facade of how he panders Not everybody does because some people they you know eat up to pandering but I mean, he hasn't done anything. He votes to cut medicare. He votes to cut health care in general I mean the whole reason that we have a need for campaign finance reform is because He engineered our current system a campaign finance so that superbacks can just, you know, throw everything out So talk a little bit about that because I wanted to ask you I feel like one thing that That It's incredibly popular is when you talk about corruption and mishmackano is the corruption king So I feel like that's one way that you can absolutely hit him if you're running against him not this Oh, well, he's not helping trump carry out his agenda nonsense. Mishmackano is as corrupt as they come So talk a little bit about that. Have you heard anyone in kentucky express concerns with corruption with his wife in trump's Administration being overtly corrupt with the conflicts of interest Well, I mean not just that but you look at his net worth Um, it basically jumped from two million to 28 million In a matter of like six years So, you know, what's that about? Obviously, it's not because of his pay because his pay is 175 thousand dollars a year and it doesn't add up Also, you know, his family or well, you know, his wife elaine chow Her family they own a large shipping business three times in the past six years three times You can you can google it they keep getting busted because Their boats are being used to smuggle cocaine and into the u.s. I mean, that's where you hear the whole, you know, cocaine mitch thing it's like Why why does anybody, you know Put up with him eat up being there as that Uh, you know scarier things that are happening. He's uh Bringing in, uh, you know an aluminum factory to kentucky. So that'll bring jobs, but It's heavily funded by a russian oligarch um So it's kind of a deal with the devil Um, not to mention, you know, he's not pushing forward with any of the uh the voter protection laws that they're pushing into congress because He owns the best entry interest in the companies that create the voting machines Which is kind of a scary thing, you know, even for me looking forward like Okay, is he just gonna, you know, hack the vote if it doesn't go his way? I don't know But I mean he might have that ability because He owns part of the machines. Well, it's just a matter of why wouldn't you want, um, election security because you can't have a democracy Function properly if people don't have faith In democracy and they're like what you're speaking to really is a microcosm of you know, broader issues There's a conflict of interest Everywhere when it comes to Mitch McConnell. He's so corrupt that it's just brazen and shameless So I don't know why the people of Kentucky continue to tolerate this and it seems like there hasn't really been someone who wants to run against mitch that Calls it like it is Until now with you So let you're gonna, you know, if you win the primary you will be going up against mitch And that's when you can hammer him for the corruption for everything that he's doing But you're in a primary currently So you've got to win the primary in order to take on mitch mcconnell. Can you talk a little bit about the dynamics of this primary? I know that you have at least two other primary opponents But talk about the people who you're running against and how you're different from them Well, um There is a mic. I can't really think of his last name. You know, he's got the no labels Uh ad going around right now. I'm different from him because I'm actually from Kentucky um People don't realize but he uses the label. He talks about no labels, but he uses the label of kentucky farmer He's a journalist from wisconsin. He moved here in 2006. I'm glad he he likes this place And you know, he wanted to move here But you know when you call yourself a kentucky farmer that makes it sound like, you know, you've got roots here And he's not a kentucky farmer. He's a guy who farms in kentucky Um As far as you know, Amy McGrath, she's the you know, best known person um I know I'd like to think that her heart's in the right place, but she's either pandering to try to get votes with her strategy And you know that that just means that she's lying or She actually does want to support trump, which is you know scarier Um anyway, because how can you be a democrat that wants to support the leader of the republican party? You might as well be a republican Yeah, and when I saw that I thought man, if I were in kentucky to hear a democrat Basically promote themselves as pro trump It's nauseating, you know, it's just unacceptable and and I I agree with you. I don't think that like she's a bad person I think her heart is in the right place. I think she is doing what she thinks Will make her electorally, you know successful But it's it's a it's a disaster like it's we're watching a train wreck in real time And of course if she defeated mitch mcconnell in the event she won the primary I would be thrilled I would vote for you know a ham sandwich over mitch mcconnell. Anyone is better than mitch mcconnell You know, so I would be excited with anyone defeating him But we have to get someone who knows what to do a get out the vote campaign Where you energize the left in kentucky and nobody has said that they want to do that except for you So let me give you one last pitch the website is coxford us.com If you want to make this happen If you want to try to take on a political behemoth then you have to support someone who knows how to do that And I think it's uh, steven gox. So make your last pitch and just share anything that you think my viewers should know Um, well, they should know that I am pro choice um, there was a little bit of a debacle with that just because Um, originally I'd taken a stance of saying that I was pro life But I believed in the constitution which gave people the choice But really, um, you know, I talked to several women about that and they let me know. Well, it's okay to not be For abortion, but as long as you believe that it's people's choice and that means you're pro choice So yeah, absolutely 100 pro choice. That's a good clarification not taking any, uh Donations from corporations special interest groups nothing like that. It's 100 by the people for the people Um, I'm not going to be bought and sold because the only thing I want Is progress That's that's excellent. Now, let me ask you because you you touched on the pro choice thing Let's say I'm a republican voter in kentucky and I say steven Life is absolutely precious. How can you say that you're personally pro life but support somebody's right to End what they deem life like what how would you respond to that? I mean, I honestly I do believe that all life is precious And with that, I believe that free will is something equally as precious Um, you know people a lot of times when you say you're pro choice They want to act like that you're not going to be a religious person. I am a christian I believe that You know, god gave us free will and with that free will was supported by the constitution It is no one's place to choose a person's path, but their own And people really need to grab on to that they need to stop using god as a crutch To try to shove their ideas in people's space because that's That is not god But then there's the rebuttal we ban murder. It's not legal to murder someone So the way that I think, you know, there's a thing about that um A lot of people when they say, you know, when they talk about the bible and I I know this is the humanist report, but I'll give you a little bit of, uh, you know, a little bit of Hit me old old testament knowledge um If you look into old testament knowledge And you look into what the punishments were for what it was an eye for an eye I mean, if you murdered somebody you would be murdered if you caused a loss of life You would lose your life if you caused a loss of property You would have to lose part of your property or make amends in the case of miscarriages or abortions That was counted as property loss religiously I mean, I don't believe that life starts at the first breath because You know, I know how brains develop. I understand science, right, but religiously that was The law, you know, and this is such a wedge issue. It's gonna come up Like I have a feeling that this will be something especially in kentucky where this will come up Look, this is my advice to you. This is what I would say if I were in your position I am unapologetically pro-life in every sense of the word But that means I support choice and the reason why is because regardless if we have abortion Abortions that are legal or illegal abortions will continue to happen It's just a matter of if we make it illegal then this will lead to, you know Unsafe abortions and that means that women are going to die. So I'm pro-life But that means I protect women's lives and also I'm pro-life in the sense that I don't support wars like mitch mcconnell He supports every single war and he doesn't care that there are women and children being bombed in yemen By saudi arabia and they're using our bombs So I think that when you really if you broaden what it means to be pro-life and explain why that leads to you being pro-choice I found like you're not going to convince 100 of people But I think that it's a really it's logically soundproof. I think and people can't question it But what I think your best I mean, honestly hope is to get them to understand Yeah, if you if you honestly support life and you believe that life is precious you're going to arrive at pro-choice It's just a natural outcome Um, because what they consider pro-life Has nothing to do with actually caring about life At all I mean it's it's pro-birth But I mean once a person's born you want to say that you know taking care of them as entitlements and you know unnecessary benefits Yeah, or hey, you know, you want to support what isa is doing at the border Is is is that pro-life? No, they're treating those people like animals Exactly and honestly I guarantee that a lot of these people have animals as pets that they treat better than we're treating the people at the Border yeah, which is sad which is super sad and bodily autonomy is a human Right. So look, you you know the campaign just started So you have a lot of time to kind of like listen to feedback and what types of questions will come up And it seems like the abortion one has come up So, you know, I'm glad that you still have a lot of time and it looks like You know, you have the right approach in terms of getting out the vote And that's really what I wanted to hear like I never want to hear someone Who's you know a progressive running in a red state say look, I'm just gonna I'm gonna shift to The right in order to win votes from republicans because it's it's not a strategy That will ever I mean, it's gonna work sometimes right? I mean Joe Manchin did it But I mean most of the time if you want to win anybody like Joe Manchin nobody like everybody hates Joe Manchin Nobody likes him so you activate your base. So thank you for understanding that So, uh, it's cox for us.com. If you want to support him, um, tell us what we can do Well, yeah, um, definitely cox for us.com Go there you can sign up to be a volunteer It's got a link a donation link that is a secure link to act blue And you can follow me at steven cox usa on twitter You can also go to facebook.com slash cox for ky That's cox f or ky Um connect with me there If you want to actually help um and and you know do things I have all my Contact information completely public if I get elected to the senate, it'll still be public I'll be here for the people and you know, if you want to help me just reach out to me I'll talk to you just like we're talking right now And when's the primary? Primary may 19th 2020 so you've got plenty of time to take action if you're in kentucky Um, and certainly if you don't live in kentucky, I'm sure that you will have phone bank Phone banking established for people outside of the state, correct? Absolutely, absolutely. There's actually been a lot of support come in to say hey, you know, we'll gladly make phone calls for you Okay, well we're gonna get this set up That's great. Well, thank you so much for coming on the program Stephen will be following your campaign and you know, we we wish you luck because so far It seems like uh, nobody else has the right strategy and I think that you um, you have the right ideas and um Let's just hope that we can take down mitch mcconnell because that would be um, that would be pretty great for the country To say the least especially great for kentucky One way or another. He's done. He's done. Yeah. Yeah bad person horrible politics. Uh, let's get him out Stephen Cox. Thank you so much for coming on the program