Hitting close to home

Support for First Coast Connect is provided in part by Baptist Health and North Florida TPO. A memoir that hits close to home. Welcome to First Coast Connect. I'm Ann Schindler. Today, an author who says she loves Florida enough to hate it, releases a new book of essays on life in the Sunshine State. Later in the program, a conversation with congressional candidate Michael Kerwin and a new staging of a Tony Award-winning musical about mental illness. But first, my next guest is a writer-born and raised in Tampa Bay, but well-traveled throughout the state, including here in Jacksonville, where she spent summers as a child. Rachel Knox is the author of Anywhere Else, a book of essays on Florida that simultaneously skewers and venerates her home state. She joins us now from Florida's West Coast. Rachel, thanks so much for being here this morning. Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be here. Well, we're delighted to have you. This is a great read. It is a fun read in many cases. It's also sometimes really an upsetting read. And I think that showcases the contradiction of Florida that you present in this book. What made you want to write it? Really, the impetus came. I grew up in St. Pete. I lived here most of my life. And then I moved to New York. I lived there for about a decade. And I noticed that whenever I told anyone I was from Florida, they had a reaction that really surprised me. Everyone seemed to have their own idea of what Florida was like. It was often very different from my own lived experience of being a Floridian. And so I thought, okay, there's something there. I think I need to kind of explain how complex. and contradictory the state is for people who aren't familiar. And you talk about that, you know, that Florida sometimes is like a love it or hate it state, especially for people who are unfamiliar with it, that it has become a bit of a joke or a GIF or a meme. And, you know, around election season, you'll see the Bugs Bunny, you know, sawing off Florida to leave the rest of the nation. And I think that it's fair to say that this book, is an attempt to kind of rest back that reputation, to sort of reclaim it, as it were, as somebody that's from here. And as we said in the introduction, really does love, deeply loves Florida. Yeah, I kind of just felt like I was sick of defending us all the time, that I wanted to explain that we are much more than our Florida man headlines. But that also there is a kernel of truth to some of the stereotypes, right? It's complicated. But I love Florida. And like I say in the book, I think that gives me license to be critical. It's kind of like one of those things where you say it.

Sharing them might be too vulnerable. It might suck all the air out of the room. It might render you a victim, and that might not feel like an identity that you want to attach yourself to. But what I wanted to do was really show the lived impact and how... Thinking about those things on an individual level, what pieces you choose to embrace or reject can complicate someone's life. And especially by sharing that story of Eileen Werneros, who I think people don't necessarily know how much individual violence and assault she experienced before committing her crimes. I really wanted to showcase that impact of assault and trauma and how. it can make you do things that you wouldn't normally do and that empathy is a really powerful thing to extend to people. Trying to understand Eileen Wernos, this serial killer who was executed for her murders of men. She was a sex worker. She killed several men. Crimes that she admitted to said that they happened when she was being abused or assaulted. But she had also endured, as you alluded to, a great deal of violence in her life, sexual and otherwise. And you as someone who grew up in Florida and grew up in some... situations that were difficult in their own ways, but also, you know, you were poor when you were a child, there's some crossover there. You really look at your shared experience and then the divergence, you know, kind of how one opportunity, perhaps, or one small variation in your life allowed you to have the life that you have versus the life that she experienced. And it's a very empathetic. look at somebody that I think is often just widely reviled. Yeah, she's just a figure that I kind of really feel fond of, and that might sound surprising to a lot of people, given what she did. But really what I talk about in the book is the main difference between she and I. We experienced very different levels of trauma and violence. Mine was nothing compared to what she endured. But one of the major significant differences was I have a supportive family, and I have a family that loves me, and that... has always shown me great deal of love and kindness and affection. And the impact of that can't really be understated. And I think just showing that someone's life circumstances can deeply affect the paths they take, the people in their lives, people who give them kindness and empathy, show them that kind of unconditional love really has a huge ripple effect throughout their lives.

If you're just joining us, we are talking to Rachel Knox about her new book of Florida essays called Anywhere Else. If you have a question or comment for the author, you can join our conversation on air by calling 904-549-2937, or you can go to firstcoastconnect.org to find all the ways that you can connect with us. So you... also get very much into the story of Florida, different places in Florida. You write about where you grew up and kind of the beach bar scene being a server for many years that you write about the Everglades and your experience is there. I want to ask you a little bit about some of your Northeast Florida writings, including about Ralph Waldo Emerson, who I was unaware had spent some time in St. Augustine, actually has a very... strong memorable description of the city that you quote in the book describing St. Augustine as an ancient fortified dilapidated sandbank of a town. But you also quote him as saying that describing it as a clear place. And you do a lot of digging into his personal journals, the letters that he had in his correspondence with his brother while he was in Florida convalescing. And you... speculate, but don't assert that he may have been gay or queer. Talk a little bit about, you know, kind of how that area of scholarship, why you pursued that, why you wanted to bring that part into the book. Yeah, and thank you for making that distinction so no one comes after me. I am speculating, not asserting for sure. Yeah, I was doing a project where I was looking into some archives around St. Augustine and I found these journals of his time there. And I was just so excited to see this like Titan of American literature talking about Florida. It's pretty rare, you know, to have someone chronicling their individual experience here. And while I was reading, I found this passage where he just describes. walking around old St. Augustine, he was there convalescing from consumption. And they thought that the tropical air would be good for him. He was pretty young. And he's talking about rolling an orange with a stick down the shores of the beach. And it just sounded so like my own teenage years, wandering the beach. And I was like, wow, what an interesting thing to think of. And then I found a passage where he's on this boat. And I don't know about you, but I'm a huge. lover of romance novels. I love to read romance and my time off from scholarly academic things. And I found this passage that read remarkably like some of the introductory passages and the romance novels that I love. And I thought, what's going on here? And so I dug a little deeper. He's talking about a man that he meets on a boat on the way to Tallahassee from St. Augustine. He befriends this man who is a descendant of Napoleon. The French Napoleon. His name's Achille Marat. And they end up encountering a hurricane on this boat, this big storm. And they have quite the bonding experience. And it really intrigued me. So I had to look further into it and found some interesting, maybe steamy things. Yeah. And what is that? I mean, why is that reflective in some ways of the Florida that you're, the story that you're trying to tell in this book of essays?

And how do you think it helps people understand either this city of St. Augustine or the state as a whole? I think when it comes to Florida, a lot of the current debates we're having seem new, but are actually very old, right? Conversations about censorship, about identity. And in particular, the time that I was thinking about all of these things and researching them was when the don't say gay bill was being introduced. And it felt really important to me to link these stories to... Also other parts of Floridian history, in order to kind of show people that there have always been queer people in Florida and there always will be. It is not a new phenomenon. Florida has always been a place people went to live freely in lots of different ways. However, you might interpret that. We have a long history of queer writers all the way back from Tennessee Williams and Elizabeth Bishop up to now. You mentioned the bookstore that I work at. It's a queer-owned bookstore in St. Pete, which is an extremely queer-friendly city. And I think that it's important that people recognize that lineage as being just as... endemic to Florida as anything else. You also uncovered a 1914 film called A Florida Enchantment, which you write about, you say that it's problematic in a lot of ways in terms of how it explores gender and also the fact that there are actors in Blackface, which is obviously an anachronism that does not, is unacceptable these days for reasons, a variety of reasons. But it also, you found it. affirming in some ways and really radical. Yeah, if anyone has not seen that movie, I highly recommend that you watch it with the obvious knowledge that it was made in a very different time and social climate. But the movie is an extremely... a transgressive movie for the time period. And even now, if we think about the roles that are being played, who is playing them, the love story within this movie. It concerns really a main character who presents as a different gender flip-flopped throughout the movie, depending on the environment that they're in. There's a lot of really interesting conversations about gender and sexuality in this movie that is so old. It really surprised me.

One of the chapters is titled motel art, and I want to ask you about that because you talk about a really deep dive you did into art that you encountered as a child. You were raised in a fairly conservative religious environment, and that's the art of... Thomas Kincaid. And you talk about it as both something that is kind of mocked as a, you know, not having true artistic value, but also having a place in kind of the canon in terms of, you know, art appreciation. Explain to us a little bit about, first of all, you know, what it is that you feel like the work of this artist, this. kind of shopping mall artist, as you call him. What does he tell us about Florida? What does he tell us about art? Yeah, Kincaid is one of those subjects that much like Florida, I love to hate and hate to love. I find his art. fascinating and also really comforting and nostalgic because it was kind of everywhere when I was a kid not only in my church, but my grandmother's house on mugs and, you know, trivets and pot holders and fridge magnets. He was an extremely popular commercial artist with a certain demographic. And in my case, that happened to be... religious, maybe working class people. And his art is full of really cozy, very welcoming spaces, cottages and bridges and lakes and ponds and churches and things like that. And when I looked a little bit more into kind of how his art became so prolific in the demographic environment that I grew up in, I was shocked to find out how mass produced his art was. that a team, an army of assistants and people would kind of fill in little highlights of printed versions of his original canvases and those would be sold in galleries and malls. And I kind of just found him to be from like an American artist perspective, kind of an outlier in that he really wanted to be taken seriously by the quote unquote real artists, but also really wanted to be commercially successful. And often those two things just don't intersect. So looking into how he became who he was and how his art found such a huge audience was really fascinating to me. You talk also in that chapter about some crossover that you see between the work that he produced and the work of the highwaymen, which is a group of African-American artists who made and sold prolifically throughout Florida along the highways. Some of it was sort of this like background art.

you'd see it hanging on a motel wall, but it has gone on to be appreciated. Some of the artists are highly valued. And so I'm just, I want you to kind of flesh that out a little bit for our listeners, what connections you see there. Yeah, if you look at the images that you are showing here, you know, the highwaymen and Kincaid often chose very similar subjects, but their styles couldn't be more different. And their circumstances of creating their art could not have been more different. The highwaymen were often painting these Florida landscapes, often trees, water, ocean, sunsets, things like that. this particular material, Jepsen board, which was kind of like really thick cardboard. They were painting in the trunks of their cars. They were traveling up and down the state selling these pieces of art to doctors offices, motels, individual homebuyers, really hustling to make a living off of the painting. Sometimes they would sell them still wet. And I found their commitment to sharing their skills really interesting. They were a collective that learned from Beanie Backus, who was a white artist who taught two of the original highwaymen who taught many others. So they had this real lineage of sharing this skill. And I found their commitment to... collectivism versus Kincaid's kind of individual quest for artistic glory to really be kind of a metaphor for Certain types of Floridians, certain types of people who are trying to make art in a world that privileges often the individual over the collective. And to me, the highway men's art always just struck more of a, I guess if we want to use the language of Kincaid's kind of religious art, I found the highwayman's art to be a lot more divine or kind of spiritual than Kincaids, even though they were essentially painting the same things. So interesting. I mean, this book does this kind of high-level analysis of certain things, you know, talking about art, spirituality. It's also this deeply personal memoir. And I'm curious how you came across this form that you wanted to kind of mash together. I mean, it works very well and pretty seamlessly. But how did you decide that you wanted to do this in an essay? form and how did you decide how you were going to mix those two really disparate elements?

Yeah, I don't think it was my plan to do things that way. Originally, I really wanted to write maybe a more scholarly kind of academic book. But I love memoir. I love reading firsthand accounts of people's lives. I'm extremely curious. Some might say nosy person. I've always been more intrigued by... how people experience the world around them, the art, the music, the pop culture, than even the things itself, the movies, the music themselves. So as much as I tried to kind of keep myself out of it, I couldn't really help it. That's just the way that I view the world. I make these connections. And I felt like a lot of the Florida books I had read took a much more... male perspective on some of these things, if you will. A lot of our kind of titans of Florida writing, first person writing anyway, not fiction, tend to be from men whose books I love. But I really thought maybe it would be a good thing to let my own sensibilities kind of guide the analysis I'm trying to make. And You also, you know, to bring it full circle, are offering this book as a critique and a celebration of Florida. And you do have some advice that you get to for visitors kind of towards the end in a chapter that is titled. I've got to check it. My God, Rachel, how can you live here? And you kind of answer that question, but I thought that you had some pretty clever advice in terms of, you frame it around food. Tell us a little bit about that recommendation that you have for visitors or transplants. Yeah, I think people often don't realize how diverse and incredible Florida's food is. It's one of my favorite things about the state, and I think you can tell a lot about a place by its foodways. So one of the things I recommend, obviously, is Stonecrab, one of my favorite Florida delicacies. I absolutely love Stonecrab season, the Cuban sandwich. I think Tampa's version, I have to go on the record here as saying is the original and superior to the Miami version. Hopefully I don't get hate mail for saying that, but check the history books. I think they're on my side. The Pub Sub, right? I think people don't put that in the canon, but it's definitely a Florida staple. I love how you describe it being made or assembled at a glacial pace, too, which is part of the experience, right? It is. You have to earn it. Yeah. And first and foremost, you say, stop looking for a good bagel. Yeah, they're just not here. And people have been contentious with me about this one, but I stand by it. I'm waiting for the next great Floridian bagel. Shirley, you lived in New York, so you have some expertise on that subject. I'm a tough critic, yeah. Well, Rachel Knox, the book is called Anywhere Else. It is a great read and a wonderful tribute to Florida. Rachel, thanks so much for joining us this morning. Thank you so much for having me.

All right. Up next, five days out from the Democratic primary, we sit down with one of three congressional candidates hoping to oust the Republican incumbent. Welcome back. The Democratic primary will decide the shape of the November race against Republican incumbent Aaron Bean. Here to discuss the final sprint to Tuesday is one of three candidates for the Democratic primary. Michael Kerwin, candidate for U.S. Congress, Florida District 4. Michael, welcome back to the program. Well, thank you so much, Ann. pleased to be back. So thank you. Well, we should note we have interviewed Michael Kerwin's opponents on the program. You can find those links online on our election coverage page. If you have a question or comment for the candidate, you can reach us on air at 904-549-29-2937, or you can email comments or questions to First Coast Connect at wjCT.org, and we do have some calls and emails that we've been getting. But I want to start last couple weeks, I would say it's fair to say this race has been getting a little chippy. You're... your campaign sent out, I think what is being described as kind of an attack mailer on one of your opponents, L.J. Holloway, showing her shaking hands with Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback, himself a bit of a lightning rod, very controversial. You describe him, or the flyer describes him as a right-wing extremist, and you're certainly not the first to do so. Is that image... in the flyer, which shows James Fishback and L.J. Holloway shaking hands. Is that a fair use of that image? Can you tell us a little bit about the origin of that image? Sure, happy to. This race has been chippy from the start for 11 months now that we've been in this race. I feel like I've been personally attacked nonstop. And so... This race has gotten down to the wire here, so we've got five days to go. And we felt that it was important to explain to voters that my opponent, Ms. Holloway, is the choice of the Republicans. And they have put out a poll. They have put out various efforts to promote her and to try to encourage her winning this race. And so we feel it's only... fair for the voters to be better informed. We've been waiting for others to point out some of the issues there. And unfortunately, it's us down to the candidates having to step up to raise those concerns. What concerns do you have about Republicans backing her? Why do you think that's happening? And what evidence do you have of that? I mean, we know that there was this recent poll by kind of a perhaps a more right. leading poll group, Tyson, which found her with a significant seeming lead. What do you think about the poll results? And why do you think that she's been embraced by the Republican Party? Yeah, the Republican Party has embraced her for no surprise. I mean, she has lost to Aaron Bean, the current incumbent, by over 56,000 votes.

in 2022 and 2024. And so they want to see a repeat, a rematch of that race. There's been no improvement. The numbers, the margin has been virtually the same, 56,000 plus votes there. And so polling is expensive. And to put out a poll takes resources. And so to invest in that suggests they want to see a certain outcome. And as you know, polls can be written and they can be manipulated to produce whatever result you want. So we feel that Ms. Holloway has done a lot of things that... needs to be called out. And basically, it's time to do that. She's failed to file her financial disclosures. She just recently filed her disclosures about her donors. And that was only because people were complaining. And a number of donors weren't included in her disclosures. And so when they complained, she amended. which doesn't give you a lot of confidence that it's picking up everything. And then candidates have to file their personal financial disclosures. And she's never done that. She filed basically for an extension in 2015, but she's never filed. So we've got 10 years of a backlog of never filing those disclosures. So there's a lot there. On your show, you heard her talk about being a lawyer. You got her to admit that she didn't pass a bar exam, but she continued to say she was a lawyer in D.C. And on the campaign trail, you hear that repeatedly, that she's a lawyer. And a lot of people believe that. A lot of people believe that she has all this federal experience, which is a series of internships to a large extent. She touts Carrie Meek. And so we've reached out to former Carrie Meeks. She's passed away, but we reached out to her former chief of staff. And he confirmed she was an intern. And so voters need to better understand the candidates they're voting for. And so that's what we're trying to do. I want to take a call from Wendy in Mandarin. Good morning. Wendy, go ahead. Hi, good morning. Mr. Kerr, when you were stating that Lashonda Holloway works with Republicans, when that, in fact, is not true. And you sat on a ethics committee. So how is that ethical that you're spreading life? You know, we're things that she's the choice of the Republicans. That's what we're trying to say. Gotcha. We've got a call from Carol on the north side. Good morning, Carol. Go ahead. Hi, Mr. Kerwin. I just received the two very negative mailings that were mentioned earlier, and I know for a fact that some of that information is false, I'm just concerned that...

I'm disappointed, I should say, that that kind of mailing would still go out in 2006. And that's the first time I've really heard anything from you. You haven't been at candidates' forums on the north side. And I have a problem with your concentrating at the last minute negative about the black candidate and those kinds of mailings, too. the black neighborhoods. I'd rather have heard what you're going to do for those black neighborhoods. That's why I was interested in being at those forums. What forums are we talking about here, Michael? I'm not sure what she's referring to. I've been to quite a few forums. There may have been a forum that I've missed, but scheduling is often difficult on these campaigns. So there's been lots of opportunities. I've been. all over this district from Fernina Beach to Green Cove Springs. And I've been on the north side quite a bit. All right. We've got a call from Lynn on the north side. Good morning. Lynn, go ahead. Good morning. I have a question about these massive data centers. that are supposedly moving in and going to be sucking up all of our power and water. What do you know about that, Mr. Kerwin? Is this something that's just going to get rubber stamped or is there anything that Congress can do about it? Well, clearly this is a growing concern. People across the country are outraged at the impacts that these data centers are causing. The Wall Street Journal recently ran a story showing that many data centers only pay 35% of energy. bills that you and I pay, that utilities are often discounting them as being a large consumer of power, so they're giving them discounted rates, and that needs to change. And so we really need to come up with regulations of these data centers, not only to address their power usage and how the cost... get reflected, but also the water usage and other environmental impacts. And hopefully Congress and the states can act quickly to do that until they do, perhaps a moratorium is necessary so we can stop this further degradation of our communities. We've got a call from Joseph. I believe this is Joseph. Go ahead. Hi, is this Kathy? Yes. Go ahead, Kathy.

Yes, I wanted to talk to you about our current Supreme Court, which really has lost the trust of many voters. And you have a background in law and serving on Jacksonville's Ethics Committee. Can you talk more about your thoughts on the Supreme Court and what would you do if elected about these serious issues with our Supreme Court and the trust that's lost there? Well, there's so many issues there. I'm not sure we have enough time on this show to talk about everything that needs to be done there. The first should be that the Supreme Court needs to adopt a code of conduct for themselves. And since they're unwilling to do that, I think Congress should offer one up to them. Congress also needs to assist this court in addressing a number of the issues that have been raised, such as official acts. There's a recent Supreme Court case that would suggest that an official act is never a crime. The president has interpreted this as a get out of jail free card. And I think the proper interpretation is a crime can never be an official act. And so we need Congress to help the courts and this president understand what the official acts are and clarify that. Congress has a lot of power. And Congress has not been exercising the powers that it has under the Constitution and provided by the founding fathers. So Congress could actually create special courts that deal with a lot of the issues that the Supreme Court is struggling with or isn't properly addressing. We could have a court that addresses gerrymandering issues and official acts and other things. So we could create courts with special jurisdictions. So there's so many things out there. And one of the other things would be an age limit too, I think. I think it's time. that we start looking at age limits. Would you support a larger court that's certainly been bandied about as an idea and something that Democrats have tended to support because of the lifelong tenure of the assignment and the current political balance of the judges? I think there's a certain size where it becomes unwieldy. Do you have simply a race to keep expanding the courts? And so that's the challenge with that. So I'd prefer to leave the court at its current size, but maybe pursue some of the other ideas that I've already mentioned. But I think a term limit or an age limit is probably appropriate, not just for Congress, but not just for the Supreme Court, but also for Congress and the president. What's the appropriate age? You know, that's a great question. But I'm thinking 80 seems to be the number of it jumps out. We need to realize that father time catches up with all of us. And there's some people that can perform really well past 80, but there's a lot that can't. Sure. We've got a call from Donna in Avondale. Good morning, Donna. Go ahead.

Okay. And first of all, thank you so much for introducing me to Rachel Knox. What an amazing, interesting woman, she sounds. But I'm so happy Michael Curran is running against Aaron Bean for Congress. I, this is so exciting, I think, for our area. I wanted to ask about Social Security and Medicare being taken away or the success of it or I'm concerned that we've paid into it. And I'm unsure of where we're going from here. Can you tell us what you, what would you do? Well, thank you for that. Social Security and Medicare are a vital part of our countries. social contract. I mean, you worked your entire life, your career, paying into these programs with the expectancy of a certain benefit. And to think that in five years, that benefit might be cut by 20% or more is not right. And so we need to address the funding of those programs. And the longer we wait, the more expensive it becomes. And so we need to be addressing that funding now and not later. And so there's a number of ways to go about it, a number of levers that Congress can push and pull on to address the funding to fix this issue. And it can be is raising the cap on wages subject to Social Security contributions. It can also be raising the employer contributions to the program as well. So there's a number of things that we can be doing. And so both of those, I think, are worthy of exploration. We got an email earlier this morning from Jim in Riverside. His question, he says the Iran War has no plan, has cost American lives, squandered billions and raised prices. Yet Congress has abdicated its authority and done nothing. If elected to Congress, what would you do to get Congress to assert its authority? Well, I think Congress has failed. president has abused the War Powers Act here. So I think the War Powers Act needs to be amended. I think the War Powers Act, it needs to be clarified that a president cannot attack another country without congressional approval. This is outrageous where we're at right now. I think we're in a situation where Congress has to authorize replenishing the munitions that have been depleted, but we need to make clear that... replenishing those munitions is not approval of a war against Iran. Congress needs to say the 60-day clock under the War Powers Act has long passed. And before we continue this conduct against Iran, the president needs to come forward with a plan and seek approval for a declaration of war. That's where we're at. So I think Congress needs not only pursue amending the War Powers Act to make it clear like I've described. But they should also consider impeaching Pete Hegesoff. I think we have a clear example of the Secretary of Defense that has grossly negligent here by allowing us to be in this position where our munitions are so depleted. There's been a lot of reporting lately on the question of how our munitions have been depleted, what that means, not just for the war in Iran, but for the future of Taiwan and China.

and the future of Ukraine, which also is reliant on some of those same weapons and now doesn't really have any more of those. And so there is a significant level of global instability that comes with... that munitions depletion. I mean, short of something like impeaching, you know, the Department of War's leader, what do you do as a congressman to, you know, alleviate something that we know, you know, takes years to remedy in terms of building new Patriot missiles or whatever? Van. shows just how serious of a problem that we have gotten ourselves into here. And that shows why the War Powers Act needs to be changed. That shows why Congress needs to have input. And that shows why someone needs to take a fall here. We need to establish the fact that there should be consequences and Hexuff needs to go. Congress needs to... work to make sure that our munitions supply levels get replenished as quickly as possible. So this is a national security risk. I want to take another call. We've got a call from D on the west side. Just briefly, D, please go ahead. Are you there, D? Go ahead. I think we're going to take another. I'm so sorry. Can you hear me? Yes, go ahead, please. Sorry. I feel like I constantly see people, politicians in D.C. lying. You know, I mean, taking money from groups from special interests and then it feels like there's essentially no accountability. So I guess my question is, what would you, Michael, actually do in terms of, I guess, holding these politicians to... a higher standard in making sure there are, you know, actual consequences when they cross the line. Well, Congress has to act collectively, but I agree with you that people are outraged. We have too many problems and they need to be addressed and especially the ethical conduct of congressmen. We need to adopt a stock trading rule so people aren't benefiting from inside information when legislation is being considered. We need to address Citizens United. That's the Supreme Court case that allows entities to contribute money into political races, and that needs to stop. We need... We need to do a lot. But those are the things that come to mind. Yeah. Well, we're going to have to take a short break. We are talking to Michael Kerwin. He is a congressional candidate. We're going to come back on the other side of the break with more of your questions. And our questions, we'll be right back.

Welcome back. If you are just joining us, we are continuing our conversation with Congressional District 4 candidate Michael Kerwin, and we are taking your calls and questions at 904-549-2937. I want to start with a call from Hila in five points. Good morning, Hila. Go ahead. Hi. I just have a question that concerns housing affordability. I don't know, a single young person. around here who thinks they'll ever actually be able to afford a house. And rent keeps eating up more of everyone's paycheck every year. Michael, what would you do to make housing more affordable in the district? Thank you. Yeah, it's not only in the district, but it's across the country. And one of the things that's really impacting housing is the same that's impacting the cost of living in all areas. And that's the tariffs. All the imported goods are 10 to 15%, sometimes 50% or more higher than they need to be. This tariff policy that we've got is crazy, and this is the president exercising. And Congress needs to take that power back. The Constitution gives the power of tariffs and taxes to Congress, and they need to take that back. And so we need to rescind these tariffs. And so that will impact the cost of housing going forward. Congress did one thing this past year that was actually notable. They had bipartisan legislation to create a National Housing Act, which in part addressed. limiting Wall Street from competing with you for purchasing existing single-family homes. And so that's great. One of the things to note about that is there are about 30 extreme MAGA Republicans that voted against it, and our representative, unfortunately, was one of those that opposed legislation that was trying to help housing. So, again, voters need to keep that in mind as they think about who they want to represent this district. Next year, when I'm in office, I'll look to see how the housing market has improved based upon this National Housing Act and see if we need to make further refinements to it. But those are just some of the thoughts on how to address housing. I want to ask you a little bit more about your opponent. if you make it through the primary to the general. And this is also an email Sue has sent related to it. It says Aaron Bean has not had any in-person town halls that I'm aware of. And he has had these telephone ones that I've listened to a few times or listened into. But all he does is talk about is loyalty to Donald Trump. How does he view his job representing us that this is for you, representing us as opposed to following the party line of MAGA? We should say we have repeatedly reached out to Aaron Bean's office to see if he would join us. to discuss the election and his incumbency, and we've not heard back. Yeah, the question of town halls is one that comes up repeatedly. People want to interact with their congressmen. And a recent story, I forgot whether it was in the New York Times or one of the publications out there, showed that during this recess period in August, only 12 congressmen out of 435 are holding town halls this month. Twelve.

So I will make the promise right now on this show that once I'm elected November 3rd, I'll go ahead and schedule a town hall to occur soon after I'm sworn in. Whether or not... We have them every month, whether or not where we have them, who knows. But I'll go ahead and make the commitment that we'll do town halls. Yeah. And just, I mean, big picture, we are now, as we said, kind of heading into the final stretch here. A couple more days of early voting. Tuesday is the primary. What are you going to be doing in the next couple of days to either, you know, get the word out on your election or... you know, advance the conversation in terms of what you would like to do if elected? Well, the whole campaign is designed to peak during the last month of the campaign. So August 18th, Tuesday, that is the poll that matters. That is what matters. And so we are continuing to ramp up our activity, whether it's radio, whether it's streaming services. We've done our direct mail. We've done canvassing. That'll continue. The sign waving will continue. Lots of phone banking going on. So we've got some great volunteers, and we're getting the message out. You know, we were talking a little bit on the break about how this campaign has been difficult in some ways, personally, because of the... tenor out there of discourse. And, you know, you left a job in the law, a career in the law to take on this candidacy. I'm just wonder if you can reflect a little bit about what you've learned in this time and what it says to you about civic participation writ large. Yeah, it's been an affirming experience. I'll start by saying that. I wasn't planning on entering this race until last year and just seeing the dysfunction occurring in Washington, seeing Congress failing to do its job, and seeing this administration taking the country in a path that I disagreed with, and seeing how we have failed to challenge this incumbent and realizing we need to do things differently if we want to see change. And so that's what compelled me to enter this race. Once I've entered the race, I have met so many people, wonderful people. And from Green Cove Springs to Fernina Beach, it's a big district. And I've really enjoyed understanding what the needs are of the community. So it's been eye-opening, hearing a lot of the challenges that are out there. All right. Michael Kerwin, candidate for District 4 in Congress. Thanks so much for being on the program today. And thank you for listening. I'm Ann Schindler. You've been listening to First Coast Connect on WJCT News 899. Support for First Coast Connect is provided by Baptist Health and the North Florida TPO.