 And I guess today, folks, is Wenge Newt Newton. Newt, as they call him, OK, is a Merrill candidate in for the St. Petersburg, Florida. We have a Merrill election this year. Newt has been, is a representative in St. Petersburg, Florida. Newt, welcome to TFNN. Welcome, thanks for having me. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. So tell the folks, number one, why you want to be mayor. Oh, well, after, and you already stated some of it, after serving eight years on the St. Petersburg City Council and four years in the legislature, I returned home with the relationships and bridges that I built to continue moving our beautiful city forward. I think that now is the time to have someone with those, with that pedigree. I'm the most experienced candidate in the race. I'm the only lifetime member of the Florida House. I'm a lifetime member. So day one, I get to walk on the floor and start lobbying with my colleagues to help them get me up that $10 billion wheelbarrow cash they don't know how to spend. So it's going to be great. So can you tell the folks a little about how you started? I know you actually started. My understanding is that you started as you're in the neighborhood, the bottom line is that you were getting, if you can explain to them how you started. OK, first and foremost, I was born and raised in Midtown, South St. Pete. It's the most impoverished area in all of Pinellas County. And it's been that way for the last 20 years or more. We had some people in charge of it that want to be mayor for the last 20 years. And it's still the most impoverished area today. I came back. I finished a career with Xerox Corporation. After 11 years with Xerox Corporation, I returned home. And the area where I was born and raised that was it was just in bad, bad shape. So my candidacy, my political career was born out of necessity. And for the last 12 consecutive years, I've been advocating and fighting for the least of the area's greatest neglect. If you look at my record, after serving eight years on the council, I served under three mayors, not one, not two, but three. I was mayor Baker with that overnight success, which is beautiful downtown. I've served with Mayor Foster and I served with Mayor Christman. So I had a front row seat to the end of the world. So I know exactly how it would not to do. Now, what do you think can be done? Now, folks, right across the country, we all have great cities. And inside of these cities, of course, the bottom line is that there's pots of cities that people haven't got educated. They're impoverished. We're trying to get them out of it. What do you think we can do in order to basically get South St. Pete into a better situation? Well, I would say let me mayor. I was born and raised in that community. Single divorce mom raising eight kids on government subsidies. You're talking about food stamps, welfare, government cheese, free lunch, reduced lunch, summer jobs, absolute jobs, you're talking to it. I'm a living testimony of what could be. Because if you like stats, a single black male or a single black female raising eight kids in those conditions, I should be dead or in jail. Not one of 120 members, 40 senators, governor, CFO, ad commission, attorney general. Not one of 164. Seven counties, four in 12 cities and 22 million people. So I'm going to do what I know will work for me. A lot of those programs and necessity things and safety net things are not there anymore. A lot of the money that flows into that area, but for the poverty, the housing needs and infrastructure, I find that less than 15% of that money is used to that end. So we need someone intentionally that's going to make sure that happens. And as mayor, I'm going to make sure we have a grocery store. I'm going to make sure that every young child that want to work can work. I'm going to work, make sure that every young kid that want to participate in a literally program can do that. Because that way, then we won't have to have our law enforcement dealing with the young people because that's what's going on now. And I don't mind the doubles workshop. So if we don't have a structured plan to help these kids with their literacy, with their job growth and also the education using the education ecosystem, we're going to have more of the same. I mean, what you see happening down there now with the shootings and everything, those are what I call chickens coming on the roofs. Yes. Don't want to arrest more juveniles than St. Pete. And what Newt is referring to folks, okay? And this has happened in all cities across the country. The bottom line is that, you know, if I scroll back five or six years ago, we had a huge problem with, you know, kids stealing cars and it happens everywhere. Believe me, I grew up in South Boston, and plenty of cars are stolen South Boston. The bottom line is that what our problem now kind of is, is that, you know, that's when they were 14, now they're 18 and there is a problem. And unfortunately, you know, this problem is like within a seven or eight square blocks and unfortunately they're shooting each other now. So what do you think the community can do about that? Well, what the community can do is, I would say stay vigilant and stay informed. Inform yourself, don't fall for these buzz lines from these politicians like a four, I support affordable housing, who wouldn't? I support affordable housing in the pursuit of affordable home equity, home ownership, equity and generational wealth. Also, if we train these kids up, the Bible says train up a child, didn't say a black child, didn't say a white child, didn't say your child or my child. The Bible says train up a child in a way he should go. When he's older, he won't falter from it. This is not rocket science. Again, I'm a living testimony of what works. I know exactly what to do. And the community, they know new, the voters know new and they know that they're gonna get from me because like I said, I served eight years on this council. Not everybody's served in this city. So they don't really know what's going on. When you've been up in Clearwater for 20 years, it's kind of hard to know what's happening in South St. Pete, you know. It's very difficult to be able to have programs. For instance, I'll give you a prime one. When I was on council, I'll summon you job program, my absolute job program. Yes. I have enough money in the budget for 160 jobs. Hear me now, 160 jobs. Well, a thousand kids wanted to work. Right. So the harvest is plentiful, but the labor's a fair few. Also over the summer, the police chief Harman would tell me that they arrested between six to 800 kids. So you got a thousand that wanna work. You got jobs for 160, but we arrested six to 800. Those are permanent arrest records, which mean no military, no education funding and no jobs. Also last year in the state of Florida, we arrested 54,725 to a 17 year old, 65% black boys and girls. I'm telling you, I'm a student, just like you said, a reverse engineering. When we go back 12 years when I was on that council, I made a motion for a million dollars for you summering out the school job opportunity. And that motion would die for lack of a second. You know, but sitting next to me, it was one of the colleagues running for mayor that wouldn't even second a motion. So now they're surprised that you fast forward eight years, if you back up 20 minus 12, he would have been eight. So you fast forward 12 years. Now they're 20 with backgrounds, can't work. All they left is a list of activity and crime. Yeah, they're gonna be out there trying to survive and doing crazy stuff and end up harming each other. And that's why I can see the aspect that's why these jobs are so important, right? People with jobs and careers don't do that. A young kid working, I mean, that's how they trick me. I got to know at these high school in 81 where I met coach Dudley, who's now, we served eight years on the council together. He's now on the school board. Coach met me when I was 15. He told me a little poor black boy from the South Side, St. Pete, the most impoverished area in the whole county. He said, Newton, you can be whatever you wanna be. And I believe him, I believe him. He also told me if I stop running around with those bad kids and get better grades, they can help me get out the school job.