Hello, my name is Leslie and I am the host of the Why Not Today podcast.
This is a podcast to celebrate people who have been courageous and said, why not today?
I started this podcast in honor of my father, Patrick Cain, who often said, why not today?
I am based in Reston, Virginia, a planned community right outside of Washington, DC.
And thanks for joining us today.
I'm super excited to have Merritt Hale as my guest today.
And before we hear from Merritt, I always like to talk about connections and you never
know where you're going to meet somebody that's going to lead you to the person to connect
with you in your life.
I was just actually getting my hands done earlier and sat next to a lady and stuck up
a conversation and we had all these things in common and you just never know.
So it's just being friendly and talking to people and building those connections.
So I'm really excited that we have Merritt Hale here today.
And I know Merritt because of his mother.
His mother is actually a Mary Kay consultant on my team and we were just trying to decide
how long ago it was.
It was a while ago.
Merritt is only 28 years old and he's got some exciting things going on.
I was talking to his mom the other day and she was telling me what was happening.
I'm like, I would love to hear his story and what courage means to him and why he said
why not today.
So before we start, why don't you introduce yourself Merritt, tell us a little about you
and a fun fact that people might not ever know about you.
Absolutely.
Well, thank you very much for having me, Leslie.
My name is Merritt Hale.
The big thing I'm doing with my life right now is running for Congress in Virginia's
sixth congressional district.
I grew up in Virginia, born and raised my whole life.
I went to the University of Virginia, served as a naval officer for four years.
I got out, worked as a systems engineer supporting the intelligence community before running
for Congress.
And let's see, one fun fact I guess would be that I was a cheerleader in college.
Really?
Yes.
Yeah.
Interesting fact.
And I don't think I knew you went to UU.
I actually went to Virginia Tech.
So rivals there.
Yeah, and I don't know if I knew that you were in the Navy.
So that's kind of cool too.
You know, your mom and I have kind of known each other, but lost touch and not talk that
often, kind of loose track.
And as we were talking about when we started, like you were a little kid with your mom started
Mary Kay.
It's kind of fun to watch people grow up.
All of a sudden it's like, we're not getting old, but you guys are.
So before we kind of hear your story and what you're doing running for Congress, like that's
super exciting.
And I so admire you at 28 years old.
You're the second person we've had on a podcast running for an office, which I, as I said,
really admire because that is definitely not me.
So for you, what does courage mean to you?
Being able to do the hard things in the face of adversity.
And I think a lot of that comes from knowing what your core beliefs are and being able to
stand by those beliefs when the world challenges you with whatever inevitable life circumstances
the world will throw at you.
And you're fairly young and you've had some hard things happen with your dad.
That's definitely not an easy thing.
I've heard from your mom, so that was definitely a hard journey and having to be courageous.
And I'm sure being doing hard things and courageous things to help your mom and support her.
What's happened with your dad?
Absolutely.
So let's talk about what have you done in your life that took courage.
So right now you're running for Congress.
So talk about that.
Tell us the story behind that.
Yes, absolutely.
So as I said, I got out of the Navy.
I was working as an assistant engineer and I never pictured myself getting into politics.
What got me into it was my dad, which you alluded to.
He was diagnosed with degenerative brain disease, Alzheimer's, and he passed away on December
24th, which was Christmas Eve of this year.
It was incredibly hard on my mom and myself, my family, my sister.
And obviously losing a loved one is never easy and he was a massive impact on my life.
He was a great father, like the best you could hope for.
But what made the situation even worse for our family was having to deal with the VA
and all the other government bureaucracies surrounding the healthcare system.
And that's what inspired me to run for Congress was I didn't want any family to have to go
through what my family went through.
When you're losing a loved one and going through those challenges in life, you don't
want extra burdens from the government and systems that are supposed to be taking care
of those loved ones.
They shouldn't be a hindrance.
They shouldn't be something additional on top of that stress.
So that's what got me into it.
But obviously running for Congress is a small commitment.
It can be very nasty and people take very personal attacks at you.
Thankfully, we haven't had much of that yet, but there's always the potential and you have
to really choose what's important to you and do that self-reflection.
So tell me, so was it like, okay, one day you just woke up and thought, I'm going to
run for Congress?
Or what was the motivating factor?
I love people's stories.
What motivated you to say, okay, I'm going to do this?
Yeah.
So as I said, I've always followed politics, but being up close and personal and seeing
the effect that it can have on people's lives is what really motivated me to do it.
So the idea was in my head.
To me, my faith is very important to me.
And I felt that tug, like this is kind of a calling.
Like I feel like this is where I'm being led to go to go serve.
And then obviously you have to do your research, figure out if it's plausible if you can have
enough money and the resources and the time.
And as I said, just having, you have to have the support of your family and your loved ones
because no one can do it by themselves.
And it's going to take a toll on everyone around you that you're doing this.
And you have to make sure that they're up for it with you.
And once they gave me their blessing, I said, all right, that's all I need.
I'm in it.
Let's go do this and hopefully make an impact for people.
So when did you make this decision?
Right around after my father died, early January.
And then what did that look like?
How do you run for Congress?
Like, what do you have to do?
Yeah, there's no Google form that says this is how you run for Congress.
They intentionally make it very hard.
You know, the good old boy system is not meant.
Congress is supposed to be representative of the people.
No one's supposed to be able to do it, but it's become such a system where you have to
pay thousands of dollars just to set up a campaign, much less to actually run it and
do all the marketing and advertising you need to do for it.
So you have to, we had to get 1500 signatures, 1000 technically, but they throw out some
to get on the ballot.
So we did good old fashioned door knocking and get out in the community, meet people.
You have to set up all sorts of regulations with the FEC and the IRS and all the nice
little government agencies to qualify and make sure you're following campaign finance.
And that's all the technical stuff, but the fun part's been just meeting people, getting
out in the community and really seeing what affects everyday people, what's important
to them and how much of an impact you can have in your government.
And so where is the district that you're running?
Yes, it's a very long district, which is a lot of fun to drive with gas prices the way
they are, but every 10 years they do redistricting, so it's the new six district.
So it's Clark and Frederick counties, which are some of the northernmost counties in Virginia
on the western side, all the way down to Roanoke, so the 81 corridor basically.
And how many people are in that district?
It's almost 800,000 I believe, about 540,000 of those are registered voters.
Yeah, so it's quite a good number of people and I think a lot of people don't realize,
especially in off-year primaries, it's only a few thousand people who come out and vote
and out of those hundreds of thousand who actually get to choose who represents them.
So it's crucial that people get involved because obviously you're not going to agree with everything
any politician says, but you need to get involved and hold our elected officials accountable.
And that's how our system's supposed to work.
What does that look like to get on the ballot?
So what have you done so far and what do you need to do?
Yeah, so getting on the ballot, as I said, the biggest hurdle is getting those signatures.
So you have to go out, we did get that, that took a lot of time.
It sounds simple to get 15,000 signatures, but you have to make sure they're all registered.
You have to make sure, yes, 15, sorry, 1500.
That was like 1000s a lot.
Yeah, yes it is.
We have to make sure they're registered voters and you have to compare it contrasted to the
registered voter list.
And you have to make sure that they're legible, which is another fun thing.
So did you travel up and down all the way and hit all different areas on 81?
Because that's a lot of area.
Or just constantly on your area.
Yeah, so for door knocking, we focused a lot on the northern part just because it's easier
as far as driving.
But I've done a ton of campaigning throughout the entire district.
I've been down in Roanoke and Battata and the central part of the district, Harrisonburg,
and Rockingham, you learn all the places and all the other places very well.
But I mean, I've lived in the area my entire life.
I know the area, but it's a lot of travel.
Yeah, so now that you're on the ballot now, is that correct?
Yes.
You voted in with primaries?
Yes.
So you're running against you?
What does that look like?
Yes, so I'm facing an incoming congressman.
He was the representative of the old sixth district, which is now the new sixth district.
He's been in there since 2018.
He's been in politics for about 20 years.
Career politician, nice guy, but it's me and him in the primary.
Then the winner of that will move on to face the Democrat, Jennifer Lewis in the general
election in November.
Okay, and so when's the primary?
June 21st.
Okay, so you're coming up soon?
Yes, but early voting.
It's a good time.
Hopefully we can share it.
Absolutely, absolutely.
Early voting has already started, so they changed up the rules a little bit with all the COVID
regulations so people can already go out and cast their ballots.
So it's a sprint to the finish here.
Right.
Oh, that's exciting.
So in my eyes, you're super young to be running for Congress, but is that a true fact?
Are people running that young or are you below the average age or above?
Yeah, so obviously most people in Congress are a lot more old than I am.
We'll put it that way.
But there are younger people than me who are in Congress.
Madison Cawthorn, who he just actually lost his second election, but he was younger than
me, 25.
Bo Heinz, I believe, he was just elected at 26.
AOC was elected, I believe, when she was 26 or 27.
So yeah, there are definitely people younger than me.
They call them the baby of the house.
Yeah, well, I bet.
But it's rare.
Yeah.
So I've actually had the privilege with being with Mary Kaye, to lobby on Capitol Hill on
behalf of Mary Kaye, which has been really cool to have that opportunity.
And we've met with Congressional offices and Senators Office.
And honestly, who you meet with, I always say they're 12-year-olds, but they're 20-somethings
right out of college is who you really talk to.
So I'm sure it's a breath of fresh air to have somebody young in there.
So I interviewed somebody, I don't know if you've listened to this episode, but you'll
have to check it out.
Maybe I'll connect you guys.
Sarah White, who is running for representative in false church.
And then there's somebody else I know that might be a good connection of just grassroots.
It's another Mary Kaye consultant.
Her husband ran for treasurer or something in their county.
I'm not sure the exact title.
What is, but it was, they live in Grundy, Virginia.
Do you know where that is?
Did you discover that part of Virginia?
I'm not familiar off the top of my head with that.
So it's still in Virginia, but it takes you all day to get there.
So it's past Blacksburg, all the way down.
I think you actually, I went through tennis back to West Virginia or Tennessee to get
there.
It's way down the end.
And it's a very, very cool area.
They've got howlers.
And it was like one gas station and one hotel in the town, but he ran against an incumbent
that had been in office forever.
And it was knocking on doors and they had all the money, the incumbent had all the money
and they didn't.
And he won, but it was knocking on doors and nobody thought he'd win.
And they basically told him, don't even bother making like a banner for election day because
nobody's going to pay attention to that thing, but he won the election.
So I did the good resource to talk to about somebody that's gone through and just knocked
on doors and, you know, one person can make a difference and they tell one person and
they tell them one person and it's just, you know, growing it that way.
You just never know.
100%.
And that's one of the benefits of the modern age is we have social media and technology
and the incumbencies aren't as entrenched as not so much the good old boy networks and
the smoke filled rooms anymore.
It's a lot easier to get your message out there and people can easily compare and contrast
your different ideas.
And I think that's a really good thing for our country.
Yeah, absolutely.
So when you made the decision, like have you been all in or have you thought, what the
heck am I doing?
Yeah, no, I've been all in.
I mean, once you commit to something of that level, you can't go in halfway.
You've got to be all in.
It's not fair to the people who you're going through this with and your supporters if you're
not going all the way in.
So that's not to say that aren't days that are very hard or disappointing.
And they're obviously are days that you're riding high and feeling good, but you got
to get through the lows and not get too high with the highs and just stay low ahead and
keep going on forward with it.
So is there anything that you've regretted not doing in your life that you're like, I
wish I would have done that or I didn't mind you that or?
Not on a massive scale.
I mean, there's always like relationships with people that you wish you could have said
something different or, you know, isolated events.
But for the most part, as I said, I was very blessed to be raised with a very good family
and parents who gave me the support structure I need.
And to me, I said this in the military to my people, you can kind of start backwards
with how you define the outlook of your life and to your point, what courage is.
I'll get is what happens when you die and if you have that faith figure, God, whatever
you want to call a religion, if that's what's important to you, like follow that code and
you can't really go wrong.
I mean, life's going to be scary and there's going to be bad things.
But if it's in the for a greater purpose, then that's kind of self reassuring and that
kind of gives you a clarity to go do what you need to do.
Yeah, leave that legacy, make a difference.
Absolutely.
Because we only, you know, none of us know if we're going to be gifted tomorrow.
So you might as well make a difference today.
No, we're not going to really talk about what happened yesterday because that's what we
are missing and sad, but yeah, you just never know.
And yeah, life is short.
I mean, how old was your father when he passed away?
He was 77.
He was born in 1944.
A lot older than you.
Yeah.
So my dad passed away nine years ago and he was probably about the same age, but I'm
a lot older than you.
But yeah, it's never easy losing a parent.
I don't care how old you are.
You know, one of the things talking about regrets is, and I tell people often, like,
do the thing, make the connection, spend the time that people you care about because just
like you know, you never know when they're not going to be around.
And your dad with his brain disease was like, was there physically, but not always mentally?
Absolutely.
And yeah, I mean, I think anyone you ask will say with some of the laws, they, they regret
not doing more with them.
I was fortunate that my dad and I had a close relationship.
But obviously, like hindsight being 20, 20, there's always the I wish I'd done, you know,
something else more, but that'll always be there.
And you just got to live true to yourself.
Exactly.
So what encouragement would you give to somebody else to do something courageous or be brave
or say, why not today?
I would say, know what you want and go get it.
Know what's important to you.
If you want to be the best painter and that's what defines who you are, go do it.
Don't let anyone tell you not to.
If you want to go be a preacher, astronaut, it doesn't matter.
It's what's important.
It's what's in your heart.
You set your own course in life.
Circumstances matter.
But the person you are is irrelevant to those circumstances.
You can always overcome what's around you and the most important things of person's
character.
So that's how we should get each other.
Yep.
Absolutely.
I'm actually reading a book and I wish I knew the author had it in front of me, but
basically talking about your calling, what your calling is.
So whether it's, she said a painter or a politician or a preacher, you know, whatever your calling
is, that God has that calling for you and yet this book has a really good analogy.
Like there's a whole puzzle put together and God has all our pieces out there.
When we don't, we aren't true to our calling.
Then that piece kind of falls apart in the whole scheme of things.
And so, you know, when you're called and it's, you know, it's that nudge, just that God
wink.
It's the do the thing that's scary and we rarely regret do the thing that's scary.
And I say this often on podcasts.
I always tell people like, think about the outcome like, yeah, it's hard and it can be
scary, but think about the day that you win the election and how exciting that's going
to be.
And I might be there cheering you on.
Celebrate it with you.
Absolutely.
I think you're right.
It's usually the things we don't do that we regret more than the things we do end up
doing.
Because even if you fail on what you're doing, yeah, exactly.
Even if you fail on what you're doing, you're going to get something out of that experience
and the journey there.
But you don't gain a lot from sitting on the sidelines.
Absolutely not.
Yeah.
So I've referenced many times a book that I read right before I started doing the podcast
and it's called from Daniel Pink called Regrets.
And just talking about we rarely regret the things that we do.
It's more the things that we don't do.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
So I did this in honor of my father, who as I said passed away nine years ago and I
started this podcast in his honor and he always said why not today and he was a problem
solver.
And so I always try to connect back and I interviewed somebody that like I never met
your dad.
I'm like a lot of people haven't.
But when I do the interview, I try to kind of connect back to what I've heard your story.
And I think one connection is the dad thing that we both have that connection with our
dads.
But also my dad didn't run for a big office but helped in the local community.
And he was always a problem solver and he saw problems like okay, there's a way to solve
this and I can definitely see that in you.
And a very positive, faith filled young man that's just ready to tackle the world.
And I think that's who my dad was.
And it's fun to watch and I'm excited to cheer you on and watch.
So tell us how can people find you?
How can we support you?
People I have people all over the listeners podcast.
I'm actually, because my business is now virtual, I'm not home and nor at my house
very often.
I'm actually down near Roanoke right now, Smith Mountain Lake, which I know is not your
district.
I looked it up.
It's right, but it's closed.
Less than an hour from Roanoke.
So tell us how people can find you and connect with you and support you.
Absolutely.
So if you go to MerrittHaleForCongress.com, I have a unique name, M-E-R-R-I-T-T-H-A-L-E.
So not many other things will pop up, but MerrittHaleForCongress.
You can check out my website.
I try and lay out my values and my beliefs there.
If anyone has any questions, they can feel free to reach out to me.
On my website, I also have a Facebook and a Twitter at MerrittHale.
And I would appreciate any of your listeners if they want to go check it out, follow along,
maybe send a small donation if they believe in my message.
I'd be incredibly humbled by that.
Okay.
So, and I will share how to contact you with show notes and stuff with the information.
So yeah, as far as finding this podcast, we're on Spotify.
We're on iTunes.
I am working on a website.
We're not quite there yet.
We're going to have some fun merchandise.
I just met with somebody today.
We're going to have some cups and some t-shirts on why not today.
And I really want to start a movement.
Encouraging people just to say why not today?
So thank you, Merritt, for joining me.
It's been fun to kind of hear your story and we can't wait to cheer you on and hear the
results.
And this podcast will air on Saturday, which is the 28th of May.
So a good time to have this as it is Memorial Day weekend and you were in the military.
So appropriate that it's at that time of the year.
So thank you again.
And I'm excited to have people hear your story.
Actually, thank you so much for having me, Leslie.
You are welcome.