Welcome back to the left of Old North.
I am your host Adrian.
And I'm CJ.
And today we are going to be taking a look at a bunch of different things.
It always seems like something new is happening every single day in politics, especially in
North Carolina.
There's always some new development and I swear it doesn't feel normal right now.
Not at all.
But we're here to try and capture a little slice of it.
So first up, just want to say at the back half of this podcast, we got to sit down with
Mayor Pro Tem of Boone, North Carolina, a progressive Democrat and 25 year old Dalton
George.
So be sure to stick around for that.
I think it was a really great interview.
Well yeah, it was.
I mean, you know what, it is our first one here on the left of Old North.
We're the first of many.
Oh yeah.
So, but first and unfortunately, as what seems to be always in North Carolina news right
now, we've got to talk about Riggs versus Griffin.
The most incredible ego soothing campaign that I have seen in a long, long time, not
since 2020 with the dregs of the Trump campaign.
So where are we at right now, CJ?
So let me just preface all of this by saying that this is apparently the only race across
the entire country that is not done, that was held back.
Only one that's not done.
And so this is, it's just, it's the campaign, it's the election that we'll never see.
What we did have just a recent development, I believe it was yesterday if I'm not mistaken,
yeah, yesterday, February 7th.
And it is when a Wake County judge in Wake County Superior Court ruled against Griffin
saying that essentially the Wake County Board of Elections were right to rule the way they
did against him.
Right.
And of course, you know, as of recording, as of to my knowledge, there hasn't been any
announcement of an appeal, but I would be willing to bet a lot that he's going to appeal
it, he's going to try to appeal it to like circuit court, regional court, whatever it
is.
And the ultimate goal is to end up in North Carolina Supreme Court where Griffin has some
besties.
Yeah.
His potential, if everything goes his way, his five Republican buddies on the Supreme
Court may be able to shake loose a win for him.
Now that's not a guarantee.
Maybe cooler heads will prevail.
Let's just say we're not super optimistic about this 5-2 split.
And keep in mind that Justice Riggs has already recused herself from any involvement with
this case if it does go up to the North Carolina Supreme Court.
So...
Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off there.
But you want to know why she recused herself?
Because she has in tech, which Griffin does not have.
Yeah.
And, you know, far be it from us to assume outright that Republicans do have integrity.
When time and time again, they have done their damnedest to prove they don't.
It's almost like a challenge.
Like, you think we can't go lower?
Watch.
Watch us.
And it really, it really is sad, especially when you hear, continuously, still hear some
Democrats, both statewide and national, calling for bipartisanship with the very people who
are trying to undermine our elections.
From the inside.
Not through, I mean, whether it's through a violent coup, like they did on January 6th,
or whether it's through a coup with Elon Musk just straight up taking over the passwords
at the Treasury Department with his gaggle of 20 somethings.
One of which is named Big Balls, apparently.
I don't.
How long handle?
I have not been following that one closely enough, but CJ, you go right ahead.
Unfortunately, I've read that earlier and I really miss who I was before I read it.
You know, one of his cronies apparently goes by the name Big Balls online.
It's so stupid.
It's proof we just live in absolute dumbest timeline.
Yeah.
Some people say that Harambe being shot was the trigger event that separated us from the
good timeline.
And you know what?
I'm inclined to believe that.
Anyway, we're getting way off track.
Yeah, I agree with that.
But I mean, so one of the big stories with this whole Regs Griffin case is the fact that
this revolves around 600,000 challenged votes.
Now, again, remember-
60,000.
Sorry, way off there.
Yeah.
If they could get away with 600,000, they probably would.
Probably.
Sorry, 60,000 challenged votes.
And Adrian, I believe you had a little bit of experience with this today.
Yeah.
So as part of a push to make sure that the people who are being targeted as part of the
60 to 65,000 voters that they want to take off of this election, you know, completely
toss those ballots out.
We've been going door to door.
A bunch of us have been going door to door in my county to alert people and let them
know, hey, do you know what's going on?
And also, do you realize that your ballot is one of the ones being challenged?
And I got to tell you, I talked with at least a dozen people today.
And if anybody's done canvassing, you know that that's actually a pretty good result.
That's a really good result.
Wow.
Like 12 people in one day.
That's pretty good.
But it was good.
Everybody was very respectful, even the ones that were, you know, not our party or anything
like that.
But the look on some of these people's faces when they fully realized that their votes
were some of the ones being targeted, like one woman, I mean, she she seemed to hold
it together, but she almost broke down crying in front of us because and she told us a story
that I mean, and I'm not going to name names, obviously, because these people will be contacted
by the N.C.D.P. or the media in their due time.
I don't have to talk them specifically on this one.
But one story that I heard from a woman was that she had her kids with her all day and
she you know, she couldn't take them to school for whatever reason.
And so she had to make sure that she could get off of work, she could pick up her kids
from like a daycare or something and that she could go and vote.
And then to be told three months later by some 30 something year old guy walking around
in her neighborhood that her vote might not count in the first place.
That's that's kind of devastating.
And the problem is that a lot of these Republicans don't actually see that the people that they're
trying to throw out, they're real, they're real people, they're registered voters, they
got out to the polls and they did their civic duty.
And you want to shit all over that because you because your ego has been bruised because
you can't believe that out of five million, almost five million ballots, you came up short.
Was it by a hair?
Yeah.
You came up short, Jeff.
So own it.
Own it, man.
Like it's it's it's sad at this point.
It really is.
And it's even worse for the people who it's actually affecting like this.
Like these voters that I talked to today.
Yeah.
And I mean, I think I've said this on here before.
I think it just proves this whole case, this whole situation just proves that Republicans
don't care about free and fair elections, which we knew that just from the you know,
everything they've done over the past, say, 15, 20 years.
Yeah.
And this takes it to a whole new level, you know.
Right.
And part of me wonders if this is in a way a test case almost.
Oh, absolutely.
And you know, do this.
See how they can do this on a national level.
See what they like to do.
I think you had a great analogy for this that you told me the other day.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Yeah.
So I was driving to a event the other day and it hit me.
For those of you who may not have ever seen Jurassic Park, like the original, like 1990
three version one, pause this, watch it, come back, please, because you're missing out.
Two in the movie, one of the dinosaurs on the island is a pack of velociraptors, incredibly,
incredibly intelligent animals there.
They kind of become the main villain to my movie.
So next to the hubris of man.
But so there's a scene early on before all hell breaks loose where our main characters
go to the raptor pen and just kind of take in the violence, the veracity that these animals
have and the gamekeeper guy by the name of old Dune talks about how the cage is electric.
Now there's this one leader in the pack was having the others throw themselves at the
fence to test it for weak and systematic.
And that's what's going on with the Republican Party right now.
That's what you're seeing with executive orders, which we'll talk about here in a bit.
That's what you're seeing with cases like this, things like the bill out in Tennessee
that was trying to make it to where lawmakers could not vote in favor of a sanctuary city
law would literally make it a felony for them to vote.
These are all just little ways they're trying to test to see what the public will push back
on the Democratic Party as a whole will push back on and what they can get away with.
They are trying to see if they can get past that fence and run completely wild.
And so far they've they have already found a few vulnerabilities, probably more than
a few.
Yeah.
Namely that you can just attach anything to a so-called hurricane relief bill and you
can just pass whatever.
So like, yeah, they are testing the fence.
They are trying to break through.
Jefferson Griffin's race is, I call it an ego soothing, but it really is just one chess
move in the game that they're trying to play.
Yeah.
And more people need to be aware of that because like some of these people that I talked to
today, they didn't realize that these judges serve for eight years.
In North Carolina, these Supreme Court justices serve for eight year terms.
They don't serve for life or anything like that.
So you know, it's not going to be up on the next election.
It's going to be two election cycles, like full on presidential cycles before we can get
this guy out.
And by that point, most people will have forgotten that this was ever a problem to begin with.
So this is the kind of thing that we need to keep in the conversation.
And if we don't, then people are going to forget.
Yeah, they are.
And we can't let, you know, as a party, as people who care about democracy, as people
who care about the future of this country, but you know, this state, we can't let them
forget.
Yeah.
We wouldn't be doing our job.
We wouldn't be doing our duty.
Right.
And by the way, it's not just candidates that they're throwing at the fence to see what
we'll get through.
It's a lot of bills.
It's a lot of bills that they know will either get a lot of attention and fail.
I mean, Trump's kind of doing this with executive orders, but we'll get to that in a little
bit.
Here in North Carolina, we have no shortage of just bills that are kind of outrageous
when you really read into it and you start to understand like what exactly because like,
let me put something out here that when you read some of these bills, it's so innocuous.
It feels so innocuous.
It's just like, oh, yes.
Okay.
That's what they're proposing.
Got it.
But then it's like, well, you put the pieces together, you put the puzzle pieces together
and you're like, oh shit, that's what they want to do.
Like this is real.
They want, okay.
So CJ has a list of a bunch of these bills and I want him to, I think that you are very
good at kind of giving us a great summary of what these bills do and I will give it
in layman's terms.
Okay.
Well, so first of all, I want everyone to know that any bill that is introduced by either
the house or the Senate in the North Carolina General Assembly, you can look it up on the
General Assembly's website.
And I think people should do that because they should see what is on the docket, what
is being discussed, what might be coming up for a vote very soon.
And so this past week we saw three big bills kind of come up, two in the house, one in
the Senate.
And we've already seen people like Anderson Clayton, the North Carolina Democratic Party
chair amplify these, talk about these a little bit.
So they're big.
So the first one, I'll just do the Senate.
So this is Senate Bill 58.
So S58.
Again, you can look this up on the General Assembly website, ncle.gov.
So this, and I've taken this summary from the UNC School of Government website.
This expands the legal proceedings the attorney general is barred from participating in under
General Statute 114-2.8 to include challenges that would invalidate an executive order issued
by the president of the United States.
So in short, in short, if Trump wants to just put out an executive order, they want to make
it impossible for Attorney General Jeff Jackson to fight against it, to bring suits against
its actions, to really address it at all.
And I mean, there are already limitations thanks to SB 382 from last year, that there
are already limitations on what the attorney general can do now in North Carolina.
So now they're adding even more restrictions to what the attorney general can do in terms
of bringing lawsuits and fighting against actions of the General Assembly.
So they are trying to take the Council of State check on the law out of the equation.
They want to make the attorney general a legal arm for the NCGA, not the actual executive
legal, I guess, attorney for the state.
So it's a weaponization of law that is just so egregious.
It makes my blood boil a little bit.
And I want to take a second and talk about the fact that, one, in my opinion, they did
this because they get pissed that he signed on to a lawsuit by multiple state's attorneys
general to go after the Birthright Citizenship executive order that Trump signed.
I guess it's about that.
So they're trying to do this as punishment.
But another aspect of this is obviously the more attorneys general you have signed on
to a lawsuit, the stronger it is, the more support it has.
So this is people on a state level trying to help out Trump on a national by trying
to neuter the attorney general's office in North Carolina.
Yeah.
So even if he wanted to sign on to these lawsuits that all these other attorneys general would
sign on to, he legally, by the law of North Carolina, would not be able to.
Yeah.
And it's not...
Here's the thing.
This is specifically talking about anything Trump does.
You can go after, I don't know, tobacco companies like some have before, for example, in lawsuits.
You can go after other organizations in lawsuits.
It's just specifically, you can go after the president's executive.
Absolutely ridiculous.
Yeah.
Absolutely insane.
And I'm trying to remember who...
Because you know what I think...
I know one of them was Bobby Haynes.
Yeah.
Let me look this up because I feel we need to call these people out by name.
So...
Senate Bill 58.
This was the primary sponsor is Moffat...
How do you say his name?
Hanig?
Yeah, Hanig.
Settle Ford Heiss and Sari.
Yeah, Benton Sari.
Yeah.
Those are the people, those are the senators that you can ask, what the hell are you...
Yeah, the precedent for this is not good.
Yeah.
No, it's not.
The other two bills are on the House side that we're going to talk about.
So first one is House Bill 66, H66.
So this amends the general statutes concerning early voting procedures so that the early
voting period is reduced to start not earlier than the second Monday before an election
which a voter seeks to vote and not later than 3 p.m. on the last Saturday before that
election.
Currently, early voting period begins not earlier than the third Thursday before an
election in which a voter seeks to vote.
Adrian, would you like to condense that down really quick?
They want to give you six days to vote early and that's it.
Six.
That's all you get, not counting the weekend or excuse me, not counting a Sunday and they're
going to cut the time that you would be able to vote early on Saturday by two hours.
So if you have work on a Saturday and you get off at four, tough luck.
Sorry you didn't get there on time because now the law says that you're only allowed
to early vote for six days the week prior to an election.
So cutting it down by half essentially.
And let me just say really quick, the primary sponsor on this is a relatively new guy if
I'm not mistaken.
Paul Scott.
He has had one term in the house.
He is the rep for Cleveland in Rutherford County.
Rutherford County is where I grew up.
So real great representation.
So this guy, Kidwell Tyson Gable.
I should have known it was Keith Kidwell.
Almond Biggs, Branson McNeely, Penny Pike, Strickland Ward, White and...
Bill Ward.
I should have known it was freaking Bill Ward.
So those are the people who have signed on to House Bill 66.
So these are the people who want to execute order 66 and reduce your ability, your opportunity
vote.
And that is absolutely...
We in this country need to make it easier for vote, not harder.
The whole point of this is to...
And we see this happen on national level and state levels all the time.
The whole point of this is simple.
It's to disenfranchise voters because these people don't want you to be able to choose
your representative.
They want to choose their voters.
They want to make it to where working class people who can't afford to take time off,
can't get to the poll.
They want to make it to where people of color who historically have had so many damn roadblocks
put in front of them to vote, can't get to the fucking poll.
It's ridiculous.
Yeah.
No, that...
You should be getting worked up.
You should be.
Yes.
You should all be getting worked up.
Everyone listening to this episode should be getting worked up about this.
It's like I said, it's so innocuous, right?
It just seems like it's the item of the day kind of thing that they're just going to vote
on it.
And you saw how many sponsors are on that bill.
This is something they want to pass.
There is a plan in place to eliminate early voting in North Carolina and across the states.
It's slowed down quite a bit because of this last election.
I think Republicans finally caught on that, oh, we do actually have early vote, like people
that would vote early as Republicans.
So they've eased up on it a bit.
But never, never mistake that these people, if given the chance, would absolutely take
it away completely.
If they could wave a magic wand, they would 100%.
As we see more and more of a growing call in super conservative circles, maybe not even
super conservative, but just conservative circle for voting to be one day and one day
out.
Oh yeah.
This is a very popular, sorry.
There's no real call for, you know, election day to be a federal holiday.
Nothing, right?
There's no, there wouldn't be any plans in place to make sure that every vote in site
is staffed adequately, has the stuff they need, et cetera, et cetera.
There's nothing in place for that because they don't care.
They don't want to.
They have a bootstrap mentality about it because, I mean, you talk to some of these conservatives,
they will tell you, oh, well, that's just too bad.
Maybe you should have planned better.
Maybe you should have worked harder.
Maybe you should have made sure you had off that day.
You know, all these excuses.
And meanwhile, you're like, well, don't you think it'd be better if you gave people more
opportunity to do that?
No.
The logic is so backwards, but it doesn't matter because as long as they have the feeling
that they can win on election day, that is what they are going to continue to do.
It doesn't matter how many there was an old, there was an old adage, as long as you can
get the apples, it doesn't matter how many apple trees you cut down.
So don't expect that because for the sake of democracy or for the sake of Liberty or
for the sake of the constitution that they want to keep the apple trees in place.
Hey man, as long as we're winning, it doesn't matter.
I can take those apples and I can plant new trees.
I don't give a damn about your trees.
Sorry.
That's a metaphor, but you get my point.
Yeah, no, I do.
So what's that last bill?
Yeah.
So this is House Bill 64.
Now, strapping in this one, it's a lot, but just stick with it for a second.
This one's a doozy.
So House Bill 64, H6, subject to approval by voters at the statewide election on November
3rd.
So remember that part.
Amend Section 5 of Article 3, the Governor's Clemency Powers of the North Carolina Constitution
as follows.
It gives the governor's clemency power to instances where a person has been convicted
and their sentence has commenced, makes clemency subject to the approval of a majority of each
house of the General Assembly, was subject to regulations relative to applying for pardons,
acquires the governor to reconvene the General Assembly if clemency is granted when it has
adjourned, sign, die, or for more than 30 days, specifies that if the governor does
not reconvene the General Assembly, the grant of clemency fails.
If approved, this will be effective upon certification by the State Board of Election.
That was a lot there, but Adriana, I'll let you take it away while I look at the sponsors.
I can sum it up in five or six words.
Neuter the governor's pardon power.
Take away the ability to preemptively pardon, to pardon without somebody actually having
been tried and gone to jail or anything like that.
The entire point, and this is just from a baseline constitutional law perspective, the
entire point of the executive power of pardoning is to be a check on the courts and the state
house and senate.
I mean, it's the same way at the presidential level.
People might not like pardons, and I understand why they don't.
People didn't like it when Biden did it, and people didn't like it when Trump did it.
But here's the thing.
I unequivocally understand the purpose of it being there, and it is to be a check on
the legislative and the judicial...
That's why it exists.
So if you take that away from the governor, once again, these all seem to have a common
theme, don't they?
This is yet again, the General Assembly of North Carolina attempting to neuter the other
levels of executive or judicial power and place it firmly in the hands of themselves.
Oh, you want to pardon that guy?
You better get our permission first.
Excuse me, that's not how this works.
Oh, really?
And then they pass a bill and saying that's how it works.
Give it 15 years.
Give it 20 years down the line.
It's just normal now.
Yeah, yeah.
And just so you all know who all has sponsored us, the primary sponsor is Brian Echeverria.
He is a new rep out of Cabarrus County.
Looks like his district is just a little south of Concord, just outside of Charlotte.
But he's the primary sponsor.
And then you have Mike Clampett, Setzer Brody Kidwell.
There he is again.
Kidwell again.
Loftus Ward again.
Willis and Winston.
You're going to see a lot of these types of bills in the House are going to be sponsored
by Keith Kidwell and a relatively new guy to the scene, Bill Ward.
This is, I have a very specific hatred of Bill Ward, not just because I ran the campaign
against him, but he is part of that group of MAGA Republicans that will do whatever
it takes to win.
So he is a very dangerous man.
It doesn't matter that he's 74 and that he's from one of the most remote House districts.
He will do what it takes.
So stay aware.
And like all of this kind of like follows a thread, doesn't it?
Like it really all seems like it's the same theme of the type of governance and the type
of policy positioning that Republicans have.
Exactly.
Yeah.
You had a great, or you have a great term for that, that somebody else mentioned.
So what you're seeing on a state level and on a national level, especially is what Steve
Bannon, and I'm not saying this to give him credit because he's absolutely awful.
I mean, hate the player, but hate the game too.
I don't know.
He's a good player.
He is, but I will clearly hate him.
Anyway, he calls what Trump is doing with all these executive orders and whatnot, flooding
the zone.
The whole idea is think about like you're out in the ocean and you're bobbing along
and you're trying to get to shore or you're trying to get out and you're just hit by wave
after wave after wave and you are not making any progress whatsoever in your goal at all.
Every time you think you get half foot out, another wave comes and hits you drag.
That's what this whole thing is.
It is designed to keep on hitting you and hitting you and hitting you with all these
terrible executive orders and all these absolute bat shit crazy things that are being said
and done by Trump and by elongated muskrats, all his crew.
It's just to wear you down and make you give up.
It's designed to drain your energy.
Yeah.
Or to distract your energy.
You start fighting against things that they never plan to actually win and then they do
or sometimes they do and they are shocked that it actually won.
Yeah, they are.
And I mean, don't get me wrong.
What is being done right now on a state and national level, especially national, is absolutely
absurd and incredibly dangerous, especially if you're someone who knows your history and
has studied history and has studied the rise of authoritarianism and dictatorships and
whatnot.
Not saying this to try to make you go, oh my God, but to make you aware of what's going
on, what's happening.
Yeah.
We are watching someone let his, I don't even know if you call him his second in command
or what.
No, he's letting a billionaire oligarch control him.
Yeah, no, he is.
But he's also letting that billionaire oligarch get into sensitive information.
Everyone listening to this right now, everyone on this recording, you, me, our data is absolutely
compromised at this point.
Musk and his little muskrats have social security numbers.
They have all this information.
Yeah, they've threatened to stop the flow of funding for numerous organizations.
Yeah.
And here's the thing.
If you are Trump and you have someone who is willing to do your bidding no matter what,
you can get away with whatever the hell you want.
You can do away with checks and balances without even having to change a single line in the
constitution.
If you took over Germany and turned to a dictatorship using the constitution in 54 days, I think.
Yeah, 54 days.
And here's the thing.
We're seeing the rise of fascism is not just something that we've been sounding the alarm
bells about because it's like, oh, we signed and here's the things that are happening.
But it's the pattern of recognition.
And one thing that Hitler did, that Mussolini did, that Franco, that many dick like Stalin
and all of these people have done throughout history, they didn't ask permission.
They just did it.
This wasn't something that went through the legislative process and got approved.
If they want to do it, they'll just do it.
And we're seeing those kinds of tendencies with Musk right now where they're just straight
up barging into places and demanding for the thing.
They're demanding resignations.
They're demanding all the data.
They're demanding all of the records.
They're demanding access that they should not have access to.
And then when it comes time for people to push back against it, they're like, hey, you're
not allowed to do that.
They are full on going with the age old adage, ask for forgiveness, not permission.
They're not going to ask permission.
So don't expect them to.
And you think Trump's going to stop him?
No, he wants this to happen.
He wants the chaos.
He wants the distraction so that he can get away with whatever he wants to do.
Trump just made billions of dollars off of his crypto pump and dump scheme.
He does not care one bit.
He doesn't because let's be real and let's just say what we've known for years.
Trump does not give a shit about, he does not give a shit about me.
He does not give a shit about this country.
The only person he cares about is himself.
The only thing he cares about is enriching himself, increasing his power and keeping
himself out of jail.
Whatever it takes to do that, whether it is tearing down the systems of checks and balances
that make up our country, whether it's giving the keys to the asylum to the inmates high
on ketamine, whether it means literally taking the constitution and wiping his ass, whatever
it takes.
He does not care.
No, they don't care.
We have a Congress that is dominated by Republicans and a Supreme Court that doesn't care because
well, they see Trump one as a useful idiot who can help advance their own goals.
Also, why should they stop him?
Hey man, they have job security.
Yeah, exactly.
And they're unfortunately, well, unfortunate for us, fortunate for them, they're on the
winning side.
But I do think we're sort of ending this on a dour note and I don't necessarily want to
end it on a dour note right before we're going to talk to Dalton.
So I want to end this with something that we tend to do a lot on this podcast, which
is to plea to people that are our age or younger that if you're sick of these dinosaurs being
feckless and just completely incompetent, do something about it and start acting now
because it's never too early, it's never too, you're never too young to start affecting
change and I think Dalton is a really good example of that.
He is.
So we're going to hear from him.
Keep in mind that politics is never set in stone and sometimes you've got to ride out
the wave and you got to know how to float, but never be afraid to fight.
Never.
So with that, I hope you will stick around with us for this interview.
Dalton George, the mayor pro tem of Boone, North Carolina.
Thanks so much for listening to us.
Yeah, but the first part of this.
So enjoy today on this episode, we actually have a special guest, our first time having
one.
So this is Dalton George.
He is the mayor pro tem of Boone, North Carolina.
So Western part of the state home of Appalachian State University.
And yeah, I thought just kind of give you a little overview of how this particular interview
came to be.
So and Dalton, please stop me if I get any of these details wrong.
But no, go ahead.
You're doing great.
But you know, Dalton and I, we met probably what 2017 ish 2018.
Yeah, yeah.
It's been a while.
Yeah.
Nearly a decade.
Yeah, which makes me feel so old.
But you know, him and I, we both kind of started working with the Watauga County Democratic
Party and just kind of went from there.
Both of us went to App State.
We're both students there and graduated.
And I know, Dalton, you kind of stuck around and did a couple of things.
So what can you tell us about that?
Your kind of journey?
I know you're on city council.
I know you're currently mayor pro tem.
What all is that like?
Yeah, yeah, I just couldn't quit the place after graduating, you know, I find whatever
way I could to stay around.
You know, as you remember, I was kind of involved in the county party and was doing a lot of
activism through the city council, the town council and introducing ordinances really
related to tenants rights and kind of hit this point in my life was about to graduate
and talk to a couple of people who lived here.
And you know, the transient nature of a college town was there was a lot of fights getting
started, but there wasn't a lot of folks able to see it through.
And I really kind of had this realization, I wanted to try to be that person.
And you know, one thing led to another, you know, originally applying for a vacancy on
the council and then running and winning election and then recently was reelected in 2023, which
is what ended up making me mayor pro tem.
But you know, it's been a learning experience politics up here in Watauga is a blood sport.
You'll remember that CJ I always joke around that the Watauga County Democratic Party is
a Spartan model of political organizing, they kind of put you out on the cliff.
And if you don't live through the night, it is what it is.
That was definitely my introduction into paid political work.
And for good reasons, I think it prepared me for a lot.
And then, yeah, and naturally kind of gravitated towards public service in a number of ways
activism and then into elected office.
So it's been good mayor pro tem is is interesting.
It's vice mayor.
And every time you introduce yourself as mayor pro tem, usually people go, oh, you're the
mayor, it's kind of like the office assistant to the assistant manager or whatever the joke
is.
But it's it's nice.
I enjoy it.
And I still get a vote on council.
But I don't know if it's the mayor or doesn't.
So it's the best of both worlds.
All the prestige and none of the are all of the risk, maybe.
Yeah, yes.
Less risk than.
But that's that's all really interesting.
Now, Dalton, I think just for context, everybody needs to know how old you are.
Yeah, OK.
I'm 25 years old.
So when I first got started in all this crazy business, I was the youngest officeholder
in the state when I first got that vacancy and was appointed.
And you know, nobody told me that holding a title for being the youngest isn't that
great because you get older.
Right.
Should have should have known about that.
And so I've since lost it to some amazing youngins across the state.
You know, I'm somewhere on the scoreboard, but I've kind of quit taking count.
I just say I'm one of the youngest.
But yeah, 25 years old.
Well, and I bring it up, you know, not to highlight your age necessarily or that you
are, in fact, getting older.
It's that, you know, there are lots of young people around the state and nationally that
feel that they can't get involved or can't run for things because they're not old enough
slash experienced enough.
Right.
Yeah.
You certainly don't feel that way, it seems.
No, I mean, and I love that question.
Anytime I get asked a question in that way, Adrian, I always say that, you know, obviously
we have more to lose.
That makes sense.
But but it's incredibly easy to have an impact on the community, especially in rural areas.
I always joke that, you know, I'm not the smartest person in the town of Boone and I'm
definitely not the most educated.
I don't come from a blue blood background.
But I worked really hard.
I mean, I saw what I didn't like in this town.
And I just started going to meetings and making public comment, talking to my neighbors at
my rental complex that I was frustrated with the property managers and organizing them.
And it was through that kind of dogged determination that I did end up getting some experience
that I think translated really well to holding office and it didn't take a lot of revolutions
around the sun to do it.
Right.
Like it was just through talking to the people in my community that were dealing with these
issues.
And that was really profound.
I mean, in a lot of ways when I was running, I felt like one of the most qualified candidates
because I served on a town board and towns are always looking for people to serve on
advisory boards.
I had introduced ordinances that were passed as an activist.
And again, it wasn't through any sort of like, oh, I've got a law background.
It was just seeing something that I really wanted to tackle.
And that was profound.
And I always tell young people that I'm like, yo, if you're thinking about running for office,
if you want to hold public office, where I always recommend people start is just doing
the work, right?
Whether it's volunteering on a campaign or organizing locally with a nonprofit, I think
that shows a level of credibility and it kind of allows you to move away from your age a
bit.
Now that's not to say folks, I mean, I always kind of get like, I remember when I was running,
I had a couple of people try to explain to me very basic things like, oh, you need to
know a lot about zoning if you're running, you can't just be this young and with your
hair on fire.
And at the time I was serving on our like planning board, right?
So I was like, I get that dude, but you get that.
But overall, I think it made it to where it was less about my age and more like, hey,
I'm the renter that's renting alongside y'all and dealing with these issues.
Hey, I'm the guy that's served on the board and I'm the guy that's introduced things as
a citizen.
So yeah, it was nice and doable.
I mean, if I can do it, I think a lot of people can.
What do you think has been the most surprising thing about both running in such a rural area
and then seeing the town grow and then being in charge?
Yeah, I mean, I think the most surprising thing about running in a rural area or a small
town is, and this is true for really politics in general, but you know, the perception people
have of you is often so far from the truth, either for good or bad, right?
I mean, I meet some people that think I'm like, boy, wonder and I can solve everything,
right?
Never meet your heroes.
And I mean, some people that are like, oh my God, you were a public enemy number one.
And now I'm talking to you and you're incredibly reasonable, right?
And it's like problem solver.
And it's funny in that way.
So I think recognizing that, you know, in this, especially in a small town, people are
going to talk, people are going to have a perception of you.
And really just through getting things done, that's how you improve it through being accessible
in the community.
But that's something I think everybody encounters when they run or do something public.
You know, the growth of Western North Carolina is a whole other story.
I mean, it's tough.
I actually recently, this is the first time I'm saying this publicly, but I'm like in
the process of trying to buy a house here and I'm in closing, which is huge.
But Boone's like one of the most expensive areas really in the state.
I mean, we have such limited housing stock and it was a really heartbreaking experience
because I was buying from an investment company that bought from an heir, you know, of a longtime
family and obviously paying a lot to do that.
And you know, I could move outside of the town.
I could move to a more rural area that doesn't have these growth pressures from out of state
and from more metropolitan areas and really thrive.
But I'm committed to this place.
I want to live here.
And so it's financially less efficient for me to do so, right, to put roots down here.
And that's tough.
Like, you know, being young and holding office in a town that's growing, that's got people
from out of state moving here and so on and so forth, just a ton of growth, a lot of investment,
it displaces people.
And when you're somebody that's not resourced like I am, right, you're just a regular guy,
the prospect of putting down roots is really scary.
Yeah, understandably so.
I mean, I imagine especially after just everything that's happened with Hurricane Helene and
whatnot, which I'd like to get to here in a minute.
But one thing I was kind of curious about, you know, you mentioned, you know, the town
being what it is.
What is it like?
Or I should say, again, like I said at the beginning of this interview for folks listening,
you know, Boone is home of Appalachian State University.
So it has what I think like 20,000 or no, not 20,000.
How many students does that have about 20,000?
Yeah, yeah, you're right on the money.
Yeah.
So what is it like, you know, one, I guess being an alumni of App State, but what's it
like also being, you know, Mayor Pro Tem of Boone, the city it's in?
How do you kind of reconcile those two things?
What's that like?
And how do you kind of interact in an official capacity with the university?
Yeah, yeah.
Excellent question.
I'll say this, right.
And I'm going to torch the General Assembly early.
You're going to be like, dang, Dalton, let us get there.
But you know, we are not.
You'll find very quickly we're not scared of making our positions on certain people.
So I'm in good company.
I mean, the Board of Governors is really bad.
I mean, that's the heart of it, right?
I mean, at a point very recently, the General Assembly appointed people that viewed education,
higher education in the state that used to be a state of the art flagship system where
people across the country would travel to try to emulate.
And they turned it more into a business, right?
Heads and beds equals success, you know, educational attainment, classroom size, that type of stuff
is less important.
And obviously, we want our public universities to grow because we want people to be able
to attend public universities, right?
But at the same time, like, it has to be intentional growth has to be growth in partnership with
the town.
And really, the university has been a pretty bad partner.
This new interim chancellor has been a lot better.
I will say that I'm hoping that she gets the full time job.
Now the town's not included in even that hiring process, which I think is kind of offensive,
you know, nobody's even been consulted to serve on that committee.
But Deanna Ballard, a former state senator is on that committee.
So it's kind of like that's interesting in terms of building relationships.
But you know, on top of it, I'll use this as an example.
I say this till I'm blue in the face.
But the General Assembly brings a lot of money to the university for growth, 200 million
plus pretty much every budget.
And the town gets about two to three million.
I think this last budget we got around six from the General Assembly.
And when you really think about it, it's like our public employees are the ones plowing
roads so people can get to school.
Our fire department is the fire department that services the university.
The amount of students, they don't just stay on campus, right?
I mean, that's stuff that the town uses.
And obviously, they generate economic success, too.
I mean, I'm not going to say I like the fact that we're a university town, but it's about
good partnership.
It's proportional investment in the communities that are dealing with a lot of these externalities
that growth is creating.
Really small example, when I tell people this, their minds are blown.
We had to buy a two million dollar fire truck to service effectively the dorms on campus
that are bigger buildings than anywhere else in town.
And we were not assisted for a number of years from the General Assembly, even though they're
the ones that provide the funding to build those big buildings.
And so it gets really maddening.
It sucks to see, you're an Apple alumni, too.
And man, it's like I've got to the point where I almost root against our football team because
I'm like, Lord, like, like, I just you know, it's so frustrating that I want to be a proud
alumni.
I mean, the faculty there are amazing, the professors, the student body is great.
And obviously, student athletes, I joke about the football thing.
I mean, there's great human beings on that campus.
I love the university, but the administration and the direction out of Raleigh has made
it really hard to want to rep that.
You know, my grandma will get me upstate pajamas every Christmas.
And I'm like, Ma'am, I don't know if I'm aware of these as much as you want me to.
I'm a little mad at him right now.
I mean, I can't blame me for wanting to root against the football team.
They've kind of made it easy this past season anyway.
Yeah, that's beside the point, though.
That is interesting, though.
This almost it's I mean, because it has to be a symbiotic relationship at some point.
And it's clear it's not right.
Yeah.
And you know, and it's something that I hear about, you know, from other public universities
too.
I mean, I've got friends on city councils and like a chapel and stuff, and they don't
really feel super included in the process or the direction the university is taking.
And so, you know, it's not unique to upstate.
I think it's a little more difficult because, you know, we're typically a Democratic council.
And then we've got a, you know, a Republican in the state House and state Senate.
And that's not to say they haven't helped us in some ways.
I mean, they have.
And I mean, I'll definitely give them credit when they deserve credit.
And there are things that I can point to that they have done and helped.
But it makes keeping those channels open a little bit harder.
And I think, you know, Chapel Hill where they can probably more reliably have a conversation
with their state House rep about the direction.
Now I was kind of curious, you know, you mentioned kind of like town resources, like fire trucks
and like, you know, that's not stuff which kind of makes me or makes me try to think
of this as a good segue.
Maybe it's not, I don't know.
To what Hurricane Helene was like there in Boone, what you kind of saw on the ground,
not just as a citizen of Boone, but also what you saw from the point of view of Mayor Pro
Tim of someone, you know, kind of in charge of helping out with the efforts and whatnot.
What was that like?
Yeah, no, what was that like?
Because that is a very out of the ordinary situation.
Definitely.
Yeah.
And I appreciate the opportunity to be able to tell some of the story.
I mean, I haven't told like kind of the whole thing, so I'll try to hit, you know, a lot
of it.
So, you know, it started.
We kind of saw the hurricane coming.
We knew that it was going to cause some damage, right?
So our public works are out working ahead of time clearing culverts.
They're rock stars.
I'm going to get to them later, but really kind of trying to mitigate possible kind of
problems that we'd have that we couldn't get to during the storm.
So clearing debris, that type of stuff.
Now I'm in DC for work that Thursday, I believe, and I'm trying to get back.
They canceled my train.
I took a train up there, you know, because of carbon output.
So I get a rental car and I have to go to the train station in Greensboro to get my
car and get back up the mountain talking to my dad.
My dad's like, you know, you shouldn't do that.
It's already dumping rain.
And I wanted to get back because I knew I'd never forgive myself if I wasn't there to
be able to help in whatever way I can.
And I'm not acting like I'm a rock star.
You know, I'm not EMS train, but I've got two hands and you know, I can help somebody
bring somebody some water.
And I knew I'd never forgive myself.
So I hauled up the mountain, got in about two or three, you know, our driveway's already
got a rut in it.
It's pouring, but really the problem hasn't started.
You know, it's just dumping water.
And then it, you know, it evolved and you recognize how bad it was.
I was obviously staying home for that first day because nobody could really get out other
than emergency services.
But as soon as the storm cleared, I really went to work on relief work.
So I was bringing water and supplies to areas that were hit the hardest trailer parks in
our town.
Some multifamily complex is checking on folks in that way.
And it was heartbreaking.
I mean, I was going into these trailers, bringing people water and I was wearing my town council
badge and you know, it was so early in the process.
We didn't even know what was going to happen.
I didn't have service.
I couldn't even tell what was going on, what the coverage looked like, what the FEDs were
saying they were going to do to help us.
And it was a risk, you know, because I didn't want to go in there and tell people I didn't
have the answers, but I was pretty honest.
I said, look, you know, I want to show you that somebody that's in a position like this
cares and I don't really know what the road's going to look like from here, but I promise
them to fight, you know, hard for you to get the help that you deserve.
And so that was a lot of it the first day or two.
You know, make sure folks were safe, got some people some life saving medication.
And then it evolved, right?
Then it evolved into actually embedded with our planning staff.
And so our planning staff, they were rock stars.
Some of them were commuters into town.
So it was hard for them to get there.
And one of the ways that we could expand the services that our planning staff were doing
in this damage assessment, this initial inspection period was by pairing council members with
a planner because they have to go out in pairs.
And so I was pulling 14 hour days with our planning staff, going out into buildings,
looking at damage, you know, being there to support.
A lot of it was just them having a body.
They just needed somebody to be there with them for safety sake.
But it was surreal, you know, and the days really blended together.
I had no access to information.
I had, you know, we didn't get internet back for four or five days and, and cell service
was, you know, you could get a text out every now and then.
But I really just gave myself to that work and, you know, kept my head down and, and
we slowly improved.
You know, I think the town fared better than the west end of the county.
Obviously, the storm was a little further west.
But you know, I think sometimes you'll have this attitude with Boone where they're like,
oh, well, Boone looks okay now.
So it wasn't a problem.
But you know, folks see those pictures of King Street underwater and it's like, no,
we got hit hard.
We just had some folks and not saying that other towns didn't work hard, but we had folks
that were just real amazing at doing work before the hurricane, during the hurricane,
and after the hurricane to the point where we were back online with major services, you
know, within a week, a week and a half, which is not the story of a lot of towns.
And I guess the one thing I'll say too, you know, the public works piece, I write a column
for Beacon Media and I wrote this piece recently about how the public works employees really
impressed me.
I know we saw a lot of feel good stories about the firefighters and the police and they were
amazing too.
But I think it just shows America's relationship with blue collar labor where these guys that
have shovels and t-shirts are coming out there digging out culverts, removing debris in the
middle of the storm.
And the corporate hotels aren't offering them a free right, but they are for the firefighter
and the policeman.
And I want them to do that for the firefighter and the policeman.
But I also want them to do it for the public works employees.
We had guys sleeping in vans, sleeping in the public works facilities, pulling, you know,
24 hour shifts.
And that was really incredible and it really endeared me to their work in a way.
I mean, I've always loved our employees, but I was like, y'all are my heroes.
And a lot of my friends in the police department said the same thing about public works.
They were like, these guys are rockstar.
And that's, it's interesting in bringing up like just this blue collar, these guys who
are clearing out culverts type of guys and showing appreciation for them.
And I mean, we definitely have a soft spot in the heart for like sanitation and water
and all that stuff, like the non-sexy local government.
But I am willing to bet, and this is not an indictment on them at all.
I am willing to bet that they vote Republican most of the way, almost every time, as a lot
of blue collar workers do.
And my question is as a democratic area, as a democratic town council, what are the kinds
of things that you think can better ingratiate that maybe the NCDP or heck, if they'll listen
to you, the National Democratic Party could do to better ingratiate themselves to blue
collar workers like them so that they understand that the kinds of things that we advocate
for actually serve to help them as well.
Yeah.
Heavy question.
Yeah, it is.
I'll just speak, I'll speak from personal experience because, you know, and I don't
know if this is the way you're mapping on the strategy, but you know, I was talking
earlier about the perception of being elected.
When I first got elected, because I was young, because I was taking on landlords, the perception
was I'm like, you know, this lefty that's unreasonable, right?
Like, you know, this anarchist, I'm going to destroy the town.
I mean, that really was the perception.
And there's a lot of raised eyebrows about me.
And that's not to say that I'm not progressive.
I make that clear to everybody.
I don't, you know, I don't hide that.
I've introduced a lot of things that few other towns have.
I view government as being an incredibly important part of helping working people.
Right.
I mean, that's, that's my foundation of my political.
And I make that clear, but also, you know, a lot of the staff that I have the best relationships
with and I don't know how they vote for sure, but I bet they do vote Republican.
But what I, it's just about relationship building.
You know, I get in there and I talk to these people and, and I, they realized very quickly,
we grew up very similar.
You know, I'm in rural North Carolina, I grew up single parent family.
My dad was a blue collar worker.
Right.
I mean, that type of stuff.
And, and just through talking and shooting the breeze with them, you know, being funny,
I mean, I genuinely, and maybe that's the question, the answer, Adrian.
It's like, I think we just have to be funnier.
I really do think that's like, I think that's like the, the answer.
I mean, working people don't want you to come to their door if you're the NCDP or the democratic
party and talk about how bad life is.
Because we get that, you know what I mean?
Like my dad didn't have insurance the whole time I was growing up.
Nobody's knock on his door and say, oh my gosh, you know, it's so terrible not to have
insurance and this is, you know, people are dying.
You know, it's like, they get that they get that better than anybody else.
How bad things can be, what it's like to, you know, have a check bounce, what it's like
to not be able to get important services, to skip a doctor appointment, an dentist appointment.
They want to hear how bad things are.
They want somebody that can show they can get something done and they want somebody
that can make life a little bit more enjoyable.
I think humor is the way to do it.
And so, you know, the way I've always gotten along with the many Republicans in my town,
some of which actually vote for me, right?
Even now they know I'm a leftist through being funny and accessible.
I think that's really the heart of it.
Yeah.
I think that's a great answer.
And it's something I've kind of talked about before is that a lot of Democrats take themselves
really, really seriously and trying to push sort of a more dour message of like everything's
falling apart, only we can save it kind of thing.
And I'm sure that a lot of for a lot of people that doesn't work.
And I think your approach is a really good one of not necessarily just being more humorous,
although that is definitely a benefit.
A boon, if you will.
And you have this ability to connect with people.
It's something that I think is missing from just the national feeling of politics right
now as a whole.
It's a sense of sincerity.
It's a sense of community and just being normal, so to say.
I say normal as in like your everyday person, you know, not coming from a place of superiority
or that.
Right.
And it's you know, I work hard to do it.
But I think you're right.
I think it's the sincerity.
I think it's I think it's showing that you're a real person.
And you know, it's I mean, there's so many stories I can tell during the hurricane where,
you know, I would introduce a moment of levity or just crack a joke or, you know, just offer
support, you know, shake somebody's hand and just look them in the eye and tell them how
much I appreciate them.
You know, they'd see the mud on my boots and they'd know I was out there.
There's one of my favorite firefighters.
He was our emergency response like captain.
So this dude was working, you know, like the 24 hour shifts like bags under his eyes.
He was a real he was a real hero.
And I love the dude to death.
Again, I don't know how any of them vote, but I'm just this is a great example.
And I'm covered in mud.
I've got these got my hard hat.
I've got my like boots on and I'm in for one of the briefings and he comes in and he's
up there at the podium giving a briefing to staff and he sees me dressed that way.
And he points he's like, look at you, man.
And like busts out laughing.
I mean, and you know, it's just that rapport.
I think folks really do see that I try my hardest and, you know, I'm just out there.
I'm willing to do whatever I would ask anybody to do.
That's part of it.
You know, I guess a quick aside on the being funny and being genuine.
We have a lobbyist for the town of Boone.
A lot of folks do.
And there's a couple of people in the General Assembly that dislike me because I'm pretty
frank and, you know, it makes my lobbyist's job harder, which I get like and he went to
kind of tell me, hey, man, you know, you got to start behaving.
And I kind of lit into him.
He's now somebody I admire.
But I said, look, I know what people say about me and Riley.
I know what the other party says that I'm young.
I don't know how the world works that, you know, I'm this lefty, the silver spoon, whatever
they say.
I said, I want you to know I resent that.
That's exactly what I said.
I told him a little bit about how I grew up and I told him a little bit about who I was
and what I believed.
And by the end of that conversation, he was like, you know what?
I'm so glad you told me this.
I'm going to try to get things ironed out.
I mean, it was less about reprimanding me and more about, OK, there was this perception
of this guy because he's a Democrat, because he's progressive, because he's young, that
if you sit down and listen to him talk about who he is and what he comes from, you realize
very quickly that you're shadow boxing.
The person you hate isn't even real.
Yeah.
These scarecrows are put up to make it seem like all Democrats, all progressives are this
way.
But I think you're a living example that that's not the case.
That's good to see.
The quicker we break down these kinds of barriers, the better it'll be.
Also, I do think it's funny that pretty in character for a lobbyist to just plead with
you to play ball.
Right.
And you know, and that's that's the dynamic.
I think a lot of progressive city councils are having to contend with this.
We want appropriations.
We want funding from the General Assembly.
And we're outspoken.
I mean, there's a connection.
And it's what does that balance look like?
What does it look like going to bat for your people and also trying to get funding for
projects?
And I think I've struck a balance.
I mean, y'all can look at my Facebook and see me criticizing the General Assembly.
But I think I've got to a place where I've found that balance.
We'll see.
We'll see what we hear in the future.
Well, so while we're talking about the General Assembly, I was kind of curious, you know,
just from your experiences as Mayor Pro Tem and, you know, living in Western North Carolina,
like what is there any like dream bill, so to say, that you'd love to see go through
the journal?
Yeah.
I mean, you know, I got that I got that kind of discussion topic really for you.
And I really thought about it was in bed last night thinking like, what would be my dream
bill?
And I think that's one of the things I'd say.
And this might be a cop out.
Y'all might be like, y'all might roll y'all's eyes at this.
But I think it would hammer on a lot of things I want to do that are my mini dream.
And that's, you know, some sort of home rule push, probably be a constitutional amendment,
you know, more local control in our communities.
And, you know, we've seen with these recent Senate bills that remove towns ability to
zone and control what's going on in their jurisdiction, the limitation of rent control,
the ability to tackle ballyin lords in any real way.
I mean, you know, environmental plastic bands, things like that.
All these things are preemptive.
And the thing that kills me all is like, you know, I hear all these people talk about small
government parties, and there is not a party in Raleigh, let's make it very clear, that
believes in a local community's ability to govern.
And if you call that small government, which to me, it seems pretty apt, right?
Then there's not a party that believes in that.
And if anything, the party claims to be small government is actually continuously and maliciously
taking rights away from local governments to legislate.
And so what that what that does is when I'm in the grocery store, and somebody comes up
to me and tells me they're having to move because the rent's too high and their landlord
maybe isn't repairing, you know, whatever the case may be, and they're giving up on
this place, I have to look at them and say, well, some joker in Raleigh 20 years ago,
wrote a bill that said the town can't do anything about rent, right?
And I have to have that comment.
And that's incredibly frustrating.
And I will say Democrats, you know, they were they were on board with some of these things
too.
They've done the pass, right.
But I would love to see a conversation in Raleigh about what does what does home rule
look like in North Carolina?
What's the appetite there?
And the thing is, Republican legislators in small towns want that.
I mean, like the ramifications of this Senate bill that's taken away local control, that
affects Republican communities, too.
There is a definitely an opportunity for bipartisanship there.
Absolutely.
But and I'm not rolling my eyes.
I actually agree that I think that that would be a great thing to see pass.
But I am, of course, skeptical because you're asking the General Assembly to give away some
of their power.
Right.
Yeah, that's I think it's a good answer.
That is definitely a dream bill.
Unfortunately, right now and probably forever.
Well, I sure hope not.
We've got a couple of minutes left.
So Dalton wanted to ask you, what is your go to cookout order?
Yeah, maybe the hardest question of the day.
OK, so don't judge me.
I do cheese cases.
I don't know why, but I like the cheese more than the chicken.
So I hit the cheese quesadilla, Cajun fries, the classic honey mustard chicken wrap, Cheerwine
to drink.
That's that's my classic.
And you know, there's some variations, but the sides are always going to be Cajun fries,
honey mustard chicken wrap.
You know, you don't move off of that.
So let me let me ask you a little follow up with that then.
What's your cookout milkshake then?
OK, this is oh, no, I don't know.
I might lose my next election in a landslide.
I'm not like a huge milkshake guy.
Oh, oh, man.
All right.
Well, that's the end of this interview.
No, not even the not even like the summer fruity one.
No, you know, if I get ice cream, I'll do like the Cheerwine or root beer float.
Like that's like that's it for me.
OK, so you're a big Cheerwine.
Cheerwine all the way.
Yeah.
Well, not even really drink soda unless I'm like going to a cookout.
So I got it like I got to go big.
OK, OK.
Well, I certainly hope that that didn't cost you your next re-election.
And no, but thank you for the answer.
I my my daughter loves the cheese quesadillas.
And that's about the only thing that she will leave from cookouts.
So you won her vote at the very least.
OK, good taste.
Good taste.
Yeah.
But Dalton, it has been really, really good having you on today.
I feel like if our listeners learn anything, it's that young people can make a difference.
Don't define yourself by your age.
And the roadblocks that we put up are often in our own minds.
And, you know, pride and prejudice can get the best of us.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And thanks for having me on, y'all.
CJ, it's great.
Have a little Wotaka reunion.
And yeah, enjoy the show.
Listen to a couple of episodes for coming on.
So excited to see what else you all release.
Oh, thank you.
And where can people find where can you people find you?
Oh, yeah.
So Dalton for Boone on Instagram and Facebook.
And then it's John Dalton George on Twitter.
And it's John without the H. It's it's not confusing enough to have three first
names.
We also have to spell.
So yeah, and that's where I'm usually at.
Shoot me a message or something.
And yeah, we can definitely chat.
Well, thank you for thank you for coming on today, Dalton, as our current president of
the United States would probably say, keep an eye on Dalton.
He's a comer.
So we've got we'll keep an eye on you.
And hopefully that's like further down the line.
I hope that you're running politics does not end just as the mayor pro tem.
We would like to see you do more further down the road.
I'm sure that C.J.
would agree with me.
Oh, yeah, most definitely.
Well, I appreciate that, y'all.
And then, yeah, I guess I'd be remiss if 2025's municipal elections.
My term's not up.
But, you know, I guess that's am I allowed to do a little plug real quick about local
elections?
Plug away, please do.
OK, cool.
I know we were winding down, but, you know, you're talking about the president, you're
talking about the federal government and our general assembly that we're just being let
down left and right.
I tell people I'm like, I think a strong local government really could be kind of an umbrella
against a lot of the mess that's coming out of Raleigh and Washington.
And you know, now more than ever, you've been thinking about running.
If you have somebody in your community that you want to run, if you want to get involved
on a campaign like I think 2025 is the year to do it.
That's how we build out a bench of people.
That's how we get strong local policy that protects our folks.
I'll use the non-discrimination ordinance we got passed here in Boone as an example.
Right.
I mean, we get so distressed.
What's going on in Raleigh and Washington, we can do things locally to protect our neighbors
and our community.
It just involves getting involved.
So yeah, that's a quick plug.
And that's all I got.
Oh, thank you for the plug.
And thanks for coming on.
Thank you.
And like you said, nice little Watauga County Dems reunion right here.
Let's not wait, you know, let's not wait a few years before we do this again.
Amen.
Amen, brother.
Well, appreciate y'all.
Take care.
Thank you, Dalton.
Once again, we want to thank Dalton for coming on the podcast.
It was a great time.
And of course, like I said, go and look him up on everything and follow him.
And in the meantime, make sure to follow us and subscribe because we are definitely going
to have more guests on the podcast very, very soon.
So, you know, make sure to stick around for that.
Oh yes.
And just remember to take any action that you can right now.
Run for office.
Use your voice however you can.
And also, as a side note, let us know what you think about this episode.
So, you know, let us know what you think about the interview and this whole format.
Yeah.
Comment your vitriol at us on YouTube or slander us on Facebook.
Clip our clip our stuff out of context and post it onto Twitter.
You know, whatever you need to do to make sure that people understand that what we're
trying to do with this podcast is to help North Carolinian, especially young progressives,
Democrats, liberals, leftists have a voice.
Let's come together and stay on the left of old North.
Thank you for tuning in.
We'll see you next time.