From Broken Past to Bold Future with Ron Armstrong

[00:00:09] Speaker A: I actually broke down and when I was reading this to somebody, I just got a text message from our lead gang member of this entire community. He just said, hey, man, thank you so much for what you've done for our city. He's like, you got my vote. Thank you so much for what you've done for our community and our kids. It's really cool when you go into these communities, communities not many people will go into, and you hear like, hey, Mr. Wrong, we're voting for you. But what has changed my mindset in this is I just met with a very large pastor of Jacksonville and I said, where are you at? And he says, we're not where we thought we would be. We got Donna in the office from the black community. And I said, well, y' all doing that again. And he said, nope. People are tired of hearing the same old dog and pony show and not receiving any kind of action. [00:00:57] Speaker B: Welcome back to Code Red. I'm Zach Terry, your host. And on this edition, on this episode, we have Ron Armstrong. Ron is a pastor, he's a minister. He runs not for profits. And he is running for mayor of a large city here in the southeast, Jacksonville, Florida. It's quite an undertaking, and I want you to hear the story and learn the principles that have led to his wanting to lead in this civic arena. Welcome to Code Red. Well, Ron Armstrong, welcome to the Code Red podcast. [00:01:39] Speaker A: Thank you. [00:01:40] Speaker B: It's so good to have someone who's as. We encourage our people all the time to get involved in civic organizations, to get involved in the political process, because we need people who represent Jesus Christ in those areas. And I don't know your full story, at least firsthand. I've read about you kind of stalk your social media, that sort of thing. But I want to hear it from you. Who, who are you? Where do you come from? And what brings you to the point in life that you're going to tackle something like running for mayor in a major, major city? [00:02:18] Speaker A: Yeah. First off, thank you so much for having me. What an honor it is to sit here. And I think the journey starts at the very young age of 12. I tell people all the time is, you know, my life was just, you know, I was developed in a trauma filled life. And so is that local or no? So I grew up in Daytona beach and so Volusia county was my hometown, Holly Hill, and so grew up there. And the reason I can't remember, you know, before 12 years old is my father was the heroin addict. [00:02:47] Speaker B: Gotcha. [00:02:48] Speaker A: My mom was the full blown alcoholic. And so my kind of stories were coming home from school, finding my parents passed out on the floor, my dad shooting heroin in the room. And it was just something I wasn't used to. And so really have never seen. My parents together grew up in a household where kind of drugs really just made their way into our family at a very young age. And so it kind of attracted that bloodline and generational curses and it came from my grandfathers and their parents. And so it kind of streamlined into my life. And so when I kind of, you know, understood what was going on around the house, then it was my turn to play with it. And so 12 years old is when kind of I was introduced to the drug world in Daytona and started running with some really heavy people around the city and doing some things that I know I shouldn't have been doing, but it's all I knew. [00:03:40] Speaker B: What was your gateway? [00:03:42] Speaker A: You know, So a lot of stuff, a lot of different things. So it started out with smoking weed and then doing crack cocaine and then running with some big drug dealers and doing some things in the shorelines that literally, you know, were against the law. And so that all came to a head. From 12 to 16, never got caught. Skipping school, barely graduated. But then one night, you know, was my kind of eye opening experience when we got pulled over for doing some crimes that we knew it was just a matter of time before we got caught and got caught. Caught a couple felony charges and kind of thought that was my wake up call. But the problem was that my parents went missing and so didn't know where my mom was. She took off. [00:04:25] Speaker B: Are you an only child? Do you have siblings? [00:04:27] Speaker A: Okay, yeah. So it was just me and mom took off to South Florida. She got involved with a biker gang called Hell's Angels and my dad took off and he went to Texas on a drug run. And so it was just me. I was, you know, as the phrase would say, couch surfing and trying to find a place to stay and. But when I got locked up in Daytona, that was kind of my eye opening experience. And the judge basically said, hey, you're, you're going to catch three felony charges, which was probably about a 10 year sentence for the things that we, we did. Or you can leave Volusia county and you can make a phone call to a family member, close relative. And so I called my uncle in the panhandle of Florida off the Gulf of Mexico, and I just said, hey, can I come stay with you? And so I got out of there and I thought that was my reset to life and no word from my mom, no word from my D. I was on my own, but then moved to a small town called Perry, Florida. And, you know, a couple traffic lights, no big grocery stores. Everyone knew everybody and got involved in high school, was clean for a little while. No drugs in my system. But as you know, like small towns, when somebody does something, everyone knows about everything. And so I was invited to a party and a really good looking girl invited me to this party. And then that was the start again to my drug addiction. So, you know, in these small towns, there was a lot of drugs that was known for drugs. And so I was reintroduced to cocaine on a very heavy level. And it just kind of took my life for the next 10 years and got into all types of things from drug trafficking to running trap houses and, you know, being heavily addicted to multiple drugs and drinking every night. [00:06:10] Speaker B: Was it still in the panhandle? [00:06:12] Speaker A: Yeah, still in the panhandle. But I thought, you know, it's funny because I believe now you got God uses a lot of wake up calls in your life and he kind of knocks on your door and you can either listen or you can kind of shut the door. And so that came again when I got a phone call that my mom was found on the streets of West Palm Beach, Florida, and she wasn't going to make it. And so she tried to get out of this biker gang and the biker gang basically beat her, you know, to the, basically till death. So she was on life support, got a call, went down and seen her hooked up to all the machines and just thought that that was another start for me, but it wasn't. You know, even seeing my mom hooked up to life support and seeing the kind of state that she was in, it was really, for me, like I just wanted to run even further and even harder. And so went back in, got back into drugs and, you know, for the next probably 10 years of my life, just travel the United States doing work, tried to commit suicide multiple times, airlifted to multiple hospitals, kind of went down a really just dark path, seeing my friends get killed in front of me. And it was just the reality, like it was just something I knew was not right. And it wasn't normal for somebody such a. Such as, you know, young age as I was. [00:07:29] Speaker B: What age were you at this point? [00:07:30] Speaker A: So I was 17. And the one thing that my father always taught me, he was, you know, he said, if there's one thing you can learn on the journey of life, even in the middle of his addiction, he said, learn how to use Your hands. And because one day we'll come to a point where no one wants to really work anymore. No one wants to use their hands. And it's honestly the age we're living in now is everything is, you know, technology driven. And so I traveled the United States doing construction. And then one day, you know, I was 22 years old, I was running to trap house during the day. [00:08:04] Speaker B: Explain what that is. Trap house? [00:08:06] Speaker A: Yeah. A lot of people really don't know what that means, but that's just a drug house. So my drug of choice at that time still was cocaine. And so I was trafficking cocaine from Florida to Georgia. And so we would store it at our house, and ours would be kind of a delivery drop point. And so at any given time, we would have cocaine all over the place. So one day we heard a knock at the door, had about 10 people in my home, and the next thing you know, my door was kicked in. And it was the, you know, what they would call the feds. So four of my people got locked up. They went straight to prison. And then I never was touched. And so I saw that as just, you know, now as being a believer. God's hand was just truly on my life. [00:08:48] Speaker B: At that point in your life, I mean, I know you weren't raised in a Christian church context, but did you have any faith system or any like. Like, would you have considered yourself a believer in God at that point, or where were you at spiritually? [00:09:03] Speaker A: No. No one even talked to me about anything on your radar? No. No church, no Jesus, nothing like that. And so when that happened, I kind of just ran harder and fled the state. So I made my way up to Virginia and D.C. and chasing work. And so that was probably for the next four years. And up to 24 years old, you know, I was just wore out. I was tired. And I got a call from my mom in South Florida. So she made it out of the hospital, got off of life support. She was recovering, and she went straight into a rehab facility. And in this rehab facility, she told me about this experience that she had with Jesus. So on the back porch of this rehab facility, she called me up and she said, son, I just. I had an encounter with God. And she said, you know, the Lord has something planned for you that I can't even imagine. Like, I've been praying for you. And at this time, I didn't really want to hear it. Like, I was making tons of money, had everything I needed. But she called me every day. She was just telling me about Jesus every day. And I didn't want to hear it. And so 24 came around. My last stop was Hamlet, North Carolina, and I lost my job and so stole a bunch of company property because of my addiction. Came home, and the CEO of the big company and couple sheriff's office officers were in my front yard. And I was right back to where I was when I was 16. So I had a decision to make. Either to get locked up, or they just said, hey, we're just going to call it quits. You know, we don't need you employed with our company anymore. So I put out my resume in 2009, and a gentleman in Jacksonville, Florida, with Sunbelt Rentals called me up, and he said, hey, you have a very impressive resume for such a young man. I'd love to meet you in South Carolina. Let's talk about a job in Jacksonville. And so we met at a cracker barrel on 95, and he offered me the job. And so 2010 made my way to Jacksonville. And at this time, I was closer to my mom, which really all that was, you know, it was a meaningful moment for me because I didn't have a mom growing up. My dad was still out of my life, and so came to Jacksonville, took a very big contract with the Navy, did amazing things, managed about a $6 million project. And it was in that moment, in 2010, 11, my crane operator walked on the flight deck of a United States destroyer and just walked straight towards me. And he said, hey, man, I want to invite you to church. And I was like, I've never been. I don't know what that means. Like, he's like, I'll pick you up on Sunday. Just come with me. And that was the invitation that changed my life. And so walked into a church for the first time at 25 years old, heard the gospel, and, you know, God grabbed my life, and the rest is history. [00:11:49] Speaker B: Wow. So at that point, had you dropped out of high school? Did you finish high school? [00:11:55] Speaker A: I just got by. [00:11:56] Speaker B: Okay. [00:11:56] Speaker A: Yep. [00:11:57] Speaker B: Just got my high school graduate in Perry. Okay, cool. So, and so from there, your career, I know that you've done some, like, not for profit work and been involved in some ministry. It's in the area. How did that develop? [00:12:12] Speaker A: Yeah. So when I gave my life to Jesus, he put me on this path. He said, hey, it's, you know, now it's time to get to true work. And so the only. The best way I can say it was I felt like the Holy Spirit was saying, hey, the life that you lived is no longer the life you're gonna live, and there's a new life that you're gonna live. And so he sent me straight to international mission work. So he sent me to Haiti for a good while, came back from there. He sent me to Brazil for a good while. [00:12:37] Speaker B: Were you working with Austin Holmes or no? [00:12:41] Speaker A: So the church of 1122 did some mission trips, and they were looking for some leadership stuff. And I was just saying, hey, I'll go. And so I think that's the biggest thing that I've learned now is, you know, after following Jesus for 15, 16 years is I've just always said, yes, Lord, where do you want me? Send me. [00:12:57] Speaker B: Have you met the Holmes family? You know, Austin or Lockwood Holmes? I'll try to make a connection for you there. But they've got a great work in Haiti, and it was probably connected if it was 1122. [00:13:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:10] Speaker B: To what Austin's doing, But they've got several businesses in Jacksonville that they're involved in, so. But a great work in Haiti. So you. You. You went on. You were in country in Haiti working. [00:13:22] Speaker A: Yeah, we. Port au Prince was kind of our thing, and then went into lacays for a good while and did mission work there, came back home, went into Brazil, Voodoo capital of Brazil and Cado in the mountains. Came back from there, went to Israel. So I was on this path of just really wanting to serve and came back, and then the church offered me a job to help build their hopes closets in Jacksonville. So ran that for three years as the store manager and kind of really brought ministry into the corporate world, and which was something I loved, was seeing the gospel transform people's lives inside of a, you know, an average thrift store, and so loved every minute of it. It was great. And then 2017 came around, and I was sitting in service one day, and God said, hey, it's time for you to go back into corporate America. So went back into corporate America, took a VP job in Jacksonville, made tons of money, helped the company do some amazing things. And then I was just. My heart was not. Was not set on my true purpose yet. And so wrestled a little bit with the Lord, went through some prayer and fasting for a good while, and then the Lord revealed where I was supposed to go. And, you know, I'll never forget, it was just kind of like a dream. One night he said, I'm going to send you to a place you've never been before. And so that's where I was sent in 2018 to the murder capital zip code of Jacksonville, the 09 zip code. And he sent me right into the murder Capital apartment complex, the old Cleveland Arm Apartments in Jacksonville. And so, yeah, we started our nonprofit there, left Corporate America in 2018, and so been running nonprofit work for the last eight years, and it's kind of where we are now. [00:15:02] Speaker B: Okay. When did running for office come on your radar? And how did you go? I mean, you know, I think my son's a political science major at uf, and, you know, probably the typical route would be to start smaller, kind of work your way up. Jacksonville is quite a city. [00:15:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:22] Speaker B: And there's a lot of issues. [00:15:24] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:15:25] Speaker B: And it's a. It's a, you know, just highly contested office you're running for sure. So I know a little bit about mayoral politics. My grandmother was mayor for 16 years in our hometown back in Alabama, out of here. And so I was door to door, putting up signs, all that stuff back in the day, you know, grew up around a lot of that, but I can't imagine what would, you know, entail a race. And it's 2027 would be the election. Right. March of 27. I'm. I applaud you for starting this soon because it will take that, you know, to build the recognition and knock on the doors, shake hands, all that kind of stuff coming on shows like this. I really, really applaud the. The effort and the work. But. But how did that come on your. On your radar? [00:16:15] Speaker A: Yeah. So. Never thought I'd be in political office or running for office. Never was on my radar in about eight months. [00:16:23] Speaker B: Are you a junkie or you. You are a junkie? [00:16:25] Speaker A: Junkie. [00:16:26] Speaker B: Political. Are you a political junkie? [00:16:28] Speaker A: No. I mean, I don't even know half the stuff that's going on. And I think that's, you know, the crazy thing about this was so eight months ago, our nonprofit has been in a great spot. God has been so faithful. You know, he's allowed me to start a coffee company. I mean, everything was running so smooth and still is to this day, and the work that we're able to do. And I just asked the Lord, I said, lord, is there another thing you need me to do? Is there another season? Because I had all the right people in place and just was praying one day and went out to mow my grass on a Sunday. Never forget it. And I wrote this down, and I'm mowing my grass and just heard, clear as day, mayor. That's all I heard. Mayor. And I was just kind of taken back, and I was like, what? And so I Walked in, and I told my wife, I says, babe, I said, I think the Holy Spirit just wants me to run for mayor. And she says, yeah, it sounds about right. And I was like, I'm not. I wasn't expecting you to say that. But it's the same thing he did with the nonprofit. When he said one word, local poverty, that's what I did. And when he said one word, coffee company, that's what I did. And to look at where it's at now and the ministry that happened. So I've been very familiar with that one word from the spirit of like, okay, Lord. And so that's what I did. I wrote it down. We fasted, we prayed, we gathered friends and family. We've got the permission from the elders and our pastor. And I said, all right, Lord. I said, the only way that I'm gonna do this is if people show up, if they believe in this. And so we sent out probably about 50 texts to some family and friends and said, hey, we want you all to come together, and I just want to share a vision that I believe the Lord has given me. We had 160 people show up, and it was just this phenomenal worship experience, because I think what we've noticed is even in the political agenda, it's a massive undertaking. But in all reality, there's been so much peace about it, because I know that a lot of people are tired, and we've never really had a spiritual forerunner or a pioneer that has really declared the gospel from a political level in Jacksonville. And then I researched the history of the Huguenots, and back in the 1800s of where this all started for Jacksonville. And so it started to make sense, and then doors just started opening. [00:18:48] Speaker B: I want you to unpack that in particular, because I find it fascinating. But tell me a little bit about your coffee company. [00:18:56] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So in 2021, with our nonprofit, our kids in our community had a hard time find. And so came home one day, was driving home, and I literally passed an auto dealership on Mayport Road, and I saw this huge white military bus. And the Lord was like, buy that bus. And I was like, okay. And so, got $5,000, bought this bus, pulled up in my front yard, didn't even tell my wife. And I said, you know, went inside, got her, walked her out. She's like, what are you doing? And I said, the Lord said, buy this bus. And so we transformed that into a full espresso military school bus. And year one, it did 60,000. Year two, it did 120,000. We were hiring our kids. It was great. It was all over the news, blah, blah, blah. And then God just started opening up more doors. And so now we have four locations in Jacksonville. [00:19:50] Speaker B: It's like a food truck style. [00:19:52] Speaker A: Yeah. So we have our mobile unit as one, and then we have three brick and mortars. [00:19:55] Speaker B: Okay. Where are they located? [00:19:57] Speaker A: So we have one off of University Boulevard by Jacksonville University. We have one downtown. We have one at the beaches inside a famous bakery called Senates. And then we have some on the south side. [00:20:07] Speaker B: Cool. I'll check those out. I love coffee. [00:20:10] Speaker A: You should have told me. I ordered bright. [00:20:11] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, man. Well, we just got back from Honduras. [00:20:14] Speaker A: As you know, that's where our beans come from. [00:20:16] Speaker B: Okay. I sort of imagine a lot of. Lot of great ranches or farms down there. So do you. Do you source it already? Roasted. Do you roast your own beans? [00:20:27] Speaker A: No. Our being come straight from Honduras and we've got a roaster in Jacksonville is very connected to there. And it's obviously been one of my dreams ago to find out exactly where the bean comes from so you can tell the full story, but. Yeah, that's awesome. [00:20:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I started when I came to Christ in 94. The first person to invite me to church was a Guatemalan gal at my university. [00:20:50] Speaker A: And. [00:20:50] Speaker B: And we ended up going to her hometown on a mission trip. And I was able to, like, see it from the plant, you know, the whole process. It was so cool. I need to do that. But yeah, Honduran, that Central American coffee in the highlands especially, it's really interesting because even, like in Cuba, the best cigars are no longer Cuban. They're Honduran because they've got that volcanic soil and. [00:21:16] Speaker A: Yep. [00:21:16] Speaker B: The elevation, and it's just perfect for creating that product. So the Lord gives you the word mayor. [00:21:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:24] Speaker B: And then you start moving toward pulling your friends together, getting that affirmation from your church. How do you create a battle plan for that? [00:21:35] Speaker A: I love that word, battle plan. Yeah, we're still figuring that out. My biggest thing was I knew I couldn't do it alone, and so I needed people to join me in this journey. And it was probably about 30 days. He. He allowed me to just be close with him. But then once 30 days got over with, people just started showing up, whether that was somebody from marketing, somebody from strategic leading, somebody from political background. And so now we have this incredible diverse team that has stepped in, because I think the reality when we were able to share the vision was it was just different. And so what we've Noticed in Jacksonville has been, I hate to say, it's a good old boy town, and everyone knows everyone. There's about 12 to 15 people who financially own the city. And so in order to get into this, these gatekeepers, it was impossible if you didn't have any kind of background. So when we showed up on the scene and people started hearing about, like, who is this Ron Armstrong running for mayor? There was no backgrounds, there was no ties. I wasn't bought, I wasn't paid for, because money does a lot of things in the political realm. And it was just different. And the only way that I can describe it was God was sending people every day, whether they were donating, whether they were helping with that battle plan, whether they were helping with, you know, vision. And these were people from Texas or Jacksonville, South Florida. And I've only been on the road 115, 130 days so far, and we've got a long way to go. But it's been really neat to see the ripples that have started, because one of my faith, we haven't had a really strong follower of Jesus. Everyone claims they're Christian, but a true follower of Christ that has taken a stand in the political field because I think everyone is afraid. Like, hey, you really can't mix those two things. But we've found out that actually you can, because it's where it's actually started from. And so now seeing the people of faith that are getting behind the kind of movement has been incredible. [00:23:40] Speaker B: I was listening to a conversation this morning on the way in, and the guy was talking about. He said, I don't really worry about government. I don't step into that sphere because I'm all about gospel. And the Great Commission said for us to go into all the world, make disciples, baptizing and teaching. And the first thought that came to mind is, why, when we. We know that's true, but why do we segment out government leaders from that teaching? Because, you know, every realm of existence is called to. To. To bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:24:18] Speaker A: Amen. [00:24:19] Speaker B: And that means the pastor's office and the mayor's office, you know, and so, you know, just coming from that. That. That family that had that engagement in civics, I saw there's a lot of similarities between the mayor's job, especially in a small town, and a pastor's job, because everybody has the sense that. That they pay your salary, you work for them in some ways. So it's not unusual that, you know, late at night your phone will ring and a problem that you may not think is worthy of a nighttime phone call. She would get calls, hey, there's a dog barking in my neighborhood. Can you get somebody to take care of? Well, that's the same kind of call a pastor may get. You know, pastor, you know, this is your issue, and somehow we're supposed to solve it. But so there's things that. That ministerial heart that you have will serve you well in that capacity. I can't imagine. How do you. How do you. Your infrastructure as you're building it out. And I know it's kind of putting the plane together in mid flight, but the people that God's brought around, you do. Do you have, like a regular standing meeting? Do you do that online? How do you. [00:25:28] Speaker A: Yeah, so there's zoom there, because now we have people that are not from Jacksonville that are advising and part of our team. So some of them are in Texas because they have the political background. We have zoom calls. We have weekly meetings. It's a lot, obviously, and being married, three kids, running a multimillion dollar foundation, a coffee company. And so there's a lot of moving parts that are going on. But I think it's. It's what I've been created to do. And so, you know, I've been able to be ordained as a pastor through this whole thing that I've been working on for a full year. That was a huge win for me personally. Was nominated to be a pastor for the homicide unit for the Jacksonville Sheriff's office. So I. I see everything that's going on in the city. Do I have every answer to every plan? Because everyone wants to kind of put on their political hat and say, well, how are you going to oversee the millage raid? Or, you know, how are you going to oversee a $1.9 billion budget? And I think that's the problem, is people are so quick to go after something rather than just take a step back and realize, like, you can't manage a $1.9 billion budget, but the right people can. It comes down to team and leadership. Same thing as a pastor running a church. And I think a lot of times people just think, like, one person is supposed to have the answer to the problems of Jacksonville, but I just see it as like, it's the body of Christ, like, it's the right people that will care for the city of Jacksonville. [00:26:55] Speaker B: So I was speaking. My assistant that you met earlier, her husband works for the fire department in Jacksonville, and he just wanted to let you know that if you win, he would like to be your Chief. But he was asking about some of those issues and, you know, things that. The overlap between state government and city government in Florida is interesting. [00:27:17] Speaker A: Oh, it is. [00:27:17] Speaker B: You know, and some things come out of Tallahassee that affect those firemen over in. [00:27:22] Speaker A: Yep. [00:27:22] Speaker B: Jacksonville. And that's a lot to try to, as you said, wrap your mind and your heart around. How do you. How do you prepare for that? Like, what do you read? What do you. How do you get ready? If God is in this and he, you know, you win the election, he will. He will appoint you or not. Right, right. He's sovereign in that way. But assuming if he's calling you, he must have a plan here. [00:27:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:47] Speaker B: So how do you. What. What do you do? What are you reading right now? [00:27:51] Speaker A: Politics for Dummies? No, I mean, it's. There's a lot of. Lot of codes. You're always picking apart the city budget. So there's an 800 and something page budget right now that I'm just constantly studying because you want to find out, as a taxpayer, no matter what, you want to know where your money's going. [00:28:11] Speaker B: Right. [00:28:12] Speaker A: How is it being used? How did you know? How do you best steward people's talents, their treasures? But even like JFRD is one thing that I'm so passionate about is I want to get those men and women to a 2472. And so the reason for that is, like, we are so burnt out when it comes to our first responders. They're not even getting enough rest, and no one's thinking about, well, how do we fix that problem? Well, St. John's they just had six suicides from first responders. And you go down here and talk like, what was the problem? Everybody's tired. [00:28:44] Speaker B: And so explain. So I didn't ask you that question. Yeah, that was his question is, what are you going to do with that? Because I didn't know where you were at on it. I didn't know if you had read on it. So how did you come to that, even knowing that issue? [00:29:01] Speaker A: So big, big component of my. That I think the Lord wanted me to run on was mental health. And so I see every suicide. So last month we had 30 suicides in Jacksonville. No one wants to talk about the suicides in the city. So there's a suicide happening every single day in the city of Jacksonville. Wow. And so you take those 30 people. Well, you want to find out what. What happened? Why? Well, we just had. Eight months ago, we had a police officer do the same thing. So my buddy is on the fire department, St. John's County. He calls me and he says, hey, man, we just lost four people, first responders, and due to suicide. And I said, man, this is a big problem. He's like, yeah, people are just tired. We don't have enough rest. We don't have enough resources. So I met with the chief before he retired, and I said, hey, man, what's the solution? And he says, a Kelly Day. And I says, all right, tell me more. What's a Kelly Day? So it's a. Basically, it's a rest day for both agencies, but the problem is that you have to hire a whole nother shift. Well, that shift costs money, and so we're talking millions and millions of dollars to get 100 to 200 more JFRD or Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. And no one wants to spend that money because it's not a priority. So until we have somebody in office that prioritize mental health from a first responder standpoint, it's just going to be that same old thing, you know, constant. Get it done. How hard can you work? And I just think from a family standpoint and a mental health standpoint, like, you're putting a lot of people at risk. [00:30:29] Speaker B: Absolutely. We're located on Amelia Island. You've driven over here to be with us. We have a large presence in Jacksonville and Duval county through our radio ministry. That's going to be this. This program. Some people will be hearing it on the radio for the first time. So we're. I'm not a voter in Jacksonville, but a city of that size is going to have ripple effects. It's going to affect all of us. We go on date nights. We're going down to Neptune Beach. We go to. We're going to Town Center. We're going downtown, whatever it might be. Downtown is a dangerous place. It feels dangerous. When we go down there, and I'm taking my wife, I tell her, I want you to be carrying. If you're in downtown, you know, what have you seen and what kind of ideas do you have to correct that? Or is it doable? Can you. Can you revitalize a downtown Jacksonville? [00:31:28] Speaker A: Yeah. So what people don't realize is, through all the research that I've been doing, we spent $8 billion in the last 10 years on downtown Jacksonville, and we still don't have a product to show for. And so I'm just scratching my head in the fact of, like, we've been doing this for so long, and yet we still do not have anything. Where has the money gone to and so for me, what people don't realize is when you take an office as a mayor in a big city like Jacksonville, you have such a short period of time to actually do the work. So if we walk through the timeline, year one, you get elected, that's an administration year. Like, you're making sure you have the right people in place, that the right protocols are there. Like, you want to make sure you have a good handle on what's getting ready to happen. Year two, you might be able to start getting in the community and start getting a feel for everything and okay, my initiatives can start coming into play. Year three, you're already thinking about, well, who's going to run against me for my next term. So now you're trying to put together a plan for your campaign for year four, because year four, you're campaigning to win your seat again. Because the reality is, you know, we've had one term mayors and they haven't done anything. And so if you win second term, that gives you another four years, then you can kind of take a breath and say, okay, let's get back to our initiatives. But people think like, as soon as you get in office, you got to start getting right to work. And I do believe that's part of it. Well, you have such a short window to do the actual work. And so downtown Jacksonville, like right now, they're spending billions of dollars on development. But even if Donna Deegan, if she gets back in office as an incumbent, yes, she'll have four more years. But the problem that we've had as Jacksonville, every mayor that has come into office, their initiatives are wiped off the table because we have a pride issue. The new mayor comes in and says, I ain't doing none of that stuff. I'm doing all the stuff I want to do. And we've never had a great turnover. We've never passed the torch in the right way. And so we've had a challenge as an administration and leadership of saying, you know, I think we've got to put our pride down and say what truly is working for the city and the people, rather than just saying, well, I'm gonna go paint rainbows on the sidewalks for my initiatives. Well, that doesn't align with me. So it gets very confusing. You've gotta take off very small bites. And like right now in downtown Jacksonville, I got three kids, I don't want to go nowhere near downtown. And so it's a problem that I think is going to be ongoing for the next 10 years. [00:33:54] Speaker B: Anytime I go into a church, I Look for other churches that have the same demographic, same city makeup, that sort of thing, and try to find best practices. What's worked when I came to Amelia island, are there other coastal cities where First Baptist Church has flourished? And so I'm looking for those, identifying those, trying to connect with those leaders. Is there a city that you think may serve as a blueprint for Jacksonville that where a downtown has been revitalized and things have been, you know, turned around and you've seen it come back to life? [00:34:31] Speaker A: Yeah, I would say Tampa. So Tampa had this window of a 10 year span where it was completely garbage as what people would say. And then in 10 years, they just turned it around. And it wasn't just with development, it was with community voices, it was with leadership, was people joining their hands together and saying, if we don't change something, like we are not going to have a downtown in Tampa. So now it's a destination. So we've got to get to the mindset of, like, how do we create a destination for where people can actually enjoy their city? Because Jacksonville is the highest transit city right now in the nation. Like, people are saying, oh my gosh, Jacksonville is being flooded with 1.2 million people. But what they're not talking about, people are leaving every single day, going to U. St. John's county, coming up here northward. And so there's something missing where people don't want to stay in Jacksonville. [00:35:23] Speaker B: Right. What do you see as the church's role in that? How would, how can a city government align with what God's doing through the local church? [00:35:32] Speaker A: It's my sweet spot. So I do believe God called me to run for mayor to activate and to encourage the local body of Christ to get in the game. There was a bill that was just passed for, from the state level, but now on the Senate's level, is that churches can now endorse. Now we gotta be very careful in that because, you know, somebody that you trust that you want to get behind is one thing, rather than slinging names that you know. So there is a bill that's passed now and I think that should have been a light bulb for the pastors and the local churches, like, hey, we're not going to lose our status. We can actually talk about this. We can have voter registration, we can endorse a candidate from stage, somebody we truly believe in. Because the reality is we only had 21% of people show up to the polls in Jacksonville at our last mayoral election. 1.3 million people, and we only had 21% of people show up. And so our current mayor, she only received 110,000 votes. I mean, the churches in Jacksonville, we have over 2,200 right now. If you just got the local body involved, we're not saying to win, but just to make an impact. I mean, I think there's just so much. [00:36:41] Speaker B: It's huge. [00:36:41] Speaker A: It's huge. [00:36:42] Speaker B: And pastors are afraid of it. They are not just for the. The. What is. People would consider the legal restrictions or whatever on a not for profit that, you're right, have been. The Johnson amendment is, you know, this. This. In some ways, it knocked out the Johnson Amendment or the threat of that. The truth is the Democratic Party had been using the churches in minority communities for years, and they never enforced the Johnson Amendment, but it scared everyone else to death. And so it will be interesting to see many, many churches, because they want to reach everybody. They take sort of an apolitical perspective on it, you know, but in. In so many ways, the civic government is stepping into what we would consider moral and ethical territories. I'm thinking about things even like the expansion of, like, legalizing marijuana. Considering your background, how will you approach that? [00:37:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, a lot of people have brought up my drug abuse. They've already started using that on the campaign. You know, he's only been clean for 15 years. Years. How can he. How can he run a city? And I think a lot of people are just looking for someone like that because there's nothing to hide. It's full transparency. This is who I was before Christ. This is who I am now. And even with the legalizing of marijuana, we had a conversation with a Democratic Party, and they said, you know, how can you even run for an office when you yourself were smoking weed and now you're gonna ban it from a state or ballot perspective? And I said, that's who I was. That's not who I am now. And so I know what that did to me then, and I know what it can do to people now, because I think we've gotten to a place even as a society is where we become dependent on something, and when we become dependent on it, then everything else falls through. [00:38:47] Speaker B: So you would oppose? You would oppose. [00:38:49] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely. [00:38:49] Speaker B: Okay. [00:38:50] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:38:50] Speaker B: Yeah. It's the kind of thing even people that I know that are in favor of it being legal, they don't want to walk down the mall and smell that everywhere they go. And it's becoming that Gainesville right now. Everywhere you go, my kids are in school down there. And everywhere we go, you're smelling it, even though it's, it's not legal, they're not enforcing that any longer. And so you don't want that. And just generally speaking, from a very practical approach to it, any young man that I've known who started that, I can't think of an exception to where this guy, man, he was really struggling in life, but you know what made the difference? He started smoking weed. Now he's the winner. You know, I can't think of any of those examples. I'm sure it's helped probably in medical cases for some people. But with, with statewide initiatives and things coming out of Tallahassee, I know right now there's some issues where the Doge, the state Doge is wanting to come into Jacksonville and it seems like Deegan is putting up a few roadblocks for them. Do you see yourself working well with whatever if it is a conservative administration at the state, do you see that being something that you could dovetail with effectively? [00:40:10] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm all for them. They're actually there today in office and starting to do their work. And I think it's beautiful because what I've noticed, and I'm not in office yet, but what I've noticed from the outside is there is a lot of leakage. And one of my stories that I just did two days ago was Donna Deegan, she came out to the news station, said, hey, we're building a six million dollar cover for our veteran wall and I'm all for veterans. And it just didn't make sense. $6 million for an area that was going to be used once or twice a year. Why not rent tents when we have those kind of events downtown? But that was just something small, $6 million of taxpayers dollars that are going to something that was not even local. So she wanted to hire an outside company from Orlando to come in. And it just doesn't make sense. And so the biggest one that I have right now that when I do get in office that I will fight tooth and nail for, is there are three organizations that are doing the same exact thing in Jacksonville that are averaging about 70 to 80 million dollars in of taxpayer dollars. So the funds come in the city, the city allocates them back out to certain areas and then it goes into the community. The problem I have is everyone's doing the same thing. We have over 30 board members overseeing each one of these executive salaries that are through the roof. And it's just too complicated. And so I think one of the gifts that God has given me in my lifetime is just Looking at problems and calling them out and saying, why are we using so many resources in so many areas when we can kind of slim down? So I will save Jacksonville some money and I'm going to be super excited when, you know, you can stand on the doorsteps of city hall and say, hey, we just found a million dollars. We just saved the taxpayer a million dollars in Jacksonville. We're going to continue to dive into this, but it's already happening and city council is already finding money. So I think it goes back to the good old boy system is when you're in charge and you have developers that you've been eating dinner with for 30 years and there's deals happening in your, your homes. I get it. But I think it's just time for someone else to come in. [00:42:22] Speaker B: Yeah, there's, there's a reason that massive donations are made to campaigns we mentioned earlier, the Huguenots, this, this area and people, these stories aren't known widely and even in our area, but this was an area that people came to for religious freedom. [00:42:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:42:41] Speaker B: And so I'm sure you've heard about some of the prophecies that were made early on. Tell us about those. [00:42:47] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, and I'm still learning. I was just on a prayer call, excuse me, two nights ago, and from people all over the region and they are just praying heavily over Jacksonville because they just believe something is coming. There's a shift, there's this, you know, this prophecy of a gun handle that the trigger's been pulled back. [00:43:07] Speaker B: So that's David Yanny Cho. He was the pastor of the largest church in the world at one time in Seoul, Korea. And, and he came to the states and that was one of the prophecies that he made is that the state of Florida, it resembles a gun. And he believes that the first movement came out of the Gulf coast and then the second one would come come out of the Jacksonville region, which we're pulling from Amelia here, Fernandina. [00:43:37] Speaker A: But y' all get some of that. [00:43:38] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, but that's, that's an longtime prophecy. When was it Rebalt? When he was arrested, he quoted a psalm. And the psalm had to do with it being a catalyst, with this region being a catalyst for the gospel, for religious freedom, which, you know, not just in a self serving way, but we as pastors, you know, we want to be able to know that our rights are protected, that, you know, getting the job done is our business, but in the Lord's business. But if, if I go to jail, if if everybody wants to talk about national politics and what's going on with ICE and all those things, but if I'm imprisoned for preaching the gospel, it's going to be the sheriff, most likely, that comes and arrests me. And the federal government really can't come into an area unless the local government, the sheriff, says it's okay. How will you lead in a way that will ensure religious freedom? What is your thought on the people who are in those offices championing those causes? [00:44:55] Speaker A: Yeah, so it's different right now. We have a far leftist administration, and so I know some of them very well, and we just had a conversation two weeks ago. They were in our community and literally look them in the face and you know they don't stand for what you stand for. Four weeks ago, we just met with the leader of the LGBT community because they heard that I was running for mayor and quickly wanted to know what I was going to do to support their community. And it was very simple because I looked at this leader and said, do you agree with what I stand for as a Christian man? And she said, no. He said, I don't know what, you know. [00:45:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:35] Speaker A: They said, no. And I said, okay. So are you. Are you going to ask me, do I stand for what you believe in? And that person said, yeah. Do you believe in what we stand for? I said, no. I said, so right off the bat, we are on the same playing field. You don't agree and I don't agree, but how do we move forward? How do we support each other? And we got to this kind of conversation where it didn't really end with what we're going to do about it, but we just realized it's okay to not believe and support what you're doing because you're doing the same thing for us. But how do we join hands and move forward as a community? Because as the LGBT community, they believe that love wins everywhere. Well, we believe love wins everywhere, too, but the message is completely different, and it's the same thing in administration. So the thing that excites me the most is the church. The local body has never had a voice inside of the administration, from a mayor standpoint, seat at the table, and never had a seat at the table. We have not been supported. They took away our prayer breakfast is they've took away the support from the church. They're not giving any money to the churches. So I think that's another reason why the Lord has called me to do this and to fight, because what a beautiful picture. If the church actually had a Seat at the table right. In Jacksonville. [00:46:49] Speaker B: Well, and I think I applaud you for having those conversations with. With groups that you may not align with so many times. If we can just have a civil conversation and be able to coexist in the same area. I really don't wake up in the morning thinking about who somebody else sleeps with. That's just not on my radar. I've got other things to worry about. I have my convictions and my belief systems. But even though somebody may be diametrically opposed what I would hope for their life, I do believe that there are a certain amount of civil liberties that, as a citizen, that I want them to enjoy, just like I do. And so I applaud you for, you know, I encourage you to keep those conversations going, even with people that you disagree with. I'm assuming you're a Jags fan. [00:47:38] Speaker A: It's funny. I am, but I don't watch football. Okay. So the. [00:47:43] Speaker B: The. The redo of the stadium, that's, you know, that's a big topic right now. [00:47:48] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:47:49] Speaker B: How much should the city be involved in that? What's your take on. I mean, does the city own the stadium or is it the bank that owns the stadium? [00:47:59] Speaker A: So it actually just went through another thing with. Gosh, the bank. The bank had it. Jags bought it, then it went back into someone else. Now Shad Khan's in it. And so there's a lot of moving parts. And I haven't met Shad Khan personally. I heard he's a great guy. I heard that he supports a lot of things in Jacksonville. Very grateful for what he's done for the city, but at the same time, we've got to look outside of Shad Khan. And so we've got to continue to make sure that our communities around this stadium are taken care of, which right now, a lot of residents and families are being pushed out. And so that's my biggest thing. The stadium is going to move forward no matter what, whether they're going to raise the taxes on the actual people that may come if Donna wins her second term. We can't afford it. We're already in debt in Jacksonville, so we're pulling money that we don't even have. We're putting stuff on loan that we don't even have the money for. Do I think it's going to bring a lot of revenue to the downtown area? Yeah, I think Four Seasons, the stadium. But who can afford it? And so these are people that are going downtown that can afford it. These are not average people that are living on the outskirts of the stadium. They just can't afford it. It's too expensive. But it's also what else has to happen downtown in order for this to be a final destination for Jacksonville. So the next big topic is the jail. And so the Jail is a $1 billion project as well. So that they want the jail to get out of downtown, which makes sense. I totally agree with that. But we can't afford it. But yet we are going to raise taxes in order to do such a large project. So, you know, until I have all the information, I really can't make a decision like being pro for it. Not. We have close family members that are Jags players that, you know, they're not even concerned about it. This is. This is an inside business deal. And for an average person like you and me, we really don't even have a seat at the table. [00:49:59] Speaker B: No, I agree. If coming from both in your not for profit work and your life, you've really invested in difficult parts of the city that have had high crime, and I'm assuming you have good relationships in those areas. And so at the same time, most of those communities are not typically supportive of a Republican candidate. So do you think you can change that? Do you think you can have some minority support? Do you think you can have some. Maybe rally some people from parts of the city that don't always engage in the civic process? [00:50:37] Speaker A: Yeah, it's actually been funny. So I just got a text message from our lead gang member of this entire community two days ago, and he sent me a message on Facebook and he and I actually broke down. And when I was reading this to somebody because it meant so much to me in the fact of, like, this guy is, like, in the streets, there's stuff that, like, you don't find on this guy. But he just said, hey, man, thank you so much for what you've done for our city. He's like, you got my vote. Thank you so much for what you've done for our community and our kids. And it just meant a lot. But, you know, it's really cool when you go into these communities and communities not many people will go into, and you hear like, hey, Mr. Ron, we're voting for you. Or like, you're the mayor of the city. And they understand because I've been with them eight years. But what has changed my mindset in this is I just met with a very large pastor of Jacksonville and took him to lunch. And I said, hey, man, where are you at, like? And he says, we're not where we thought we would be. And I said, well, what do you mean by that? And he said, we got Donna in office from the black community and he was in charge of black votes matter. And I said, well, y' all doing that again. And he said, nope. And it's been the same story with every mayor. So every mayor walks the black community. The Hispanic community looks great on a campaign show. We're going to do X, Y and Z. Well, now you're two and a half years in, coming up on three years, and you haven't done one single thing for the community. And it's once again, people are tired of hearing the same old dog and pony show and not receiving any kind of action. So to answer your question, I think absolutely we're going to have some support. [00:52:14] Speaker B: If, if that, if you can get the support of that community, you can win that election. [00:52:18] Speaker A: I believe so. [00:52:19] Speaker B: Period. Yeah, you know, the little bit, it's not apples to apples at all, but, but, but that was the key for, for my family and my grandmother when she was mayor, if she could get the support of the minority community, because they do. They, they, they know how the system works. They've been taught it for generations. And if they get behind you, they're, they're loyal, they're, they're going to, they're going to vote, they're going to be there. And so that's key. But it's difficult. It has been difficult for conservative Republican candidates, even though there's so much we agree on. [00:52:53] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:52:54] Speaker B: You know, they're typically have a traditional worldview about so many things that it should be something that, that we can fellowship over and, you know, see a lot of things the same way. A stumbling block, a difficulty in that. Let me ask you, how would you approach this from all the research that I did on what are the, the trending topics in Jacksonville? What are the things that, you know are going to get the most? Tweets, retweets, all that kind of stuff. And I've never done that search before, but I asked Grok to tell me, what are people in Jacksonville mostly concerned about? [00:53:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:53:34] Speaker B: The number one by far wasn't a close second was ice. And what do you do with immigration in the city of Jacksonville? And it was all over the map. Some very strong opinions both ways. So from the mayor's office perspective. [00:53:49] Speaker A: Yep. [00:53:50] Speaker B: To what degree are you going to cooperate or not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement? [00:53:57] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think we're making this very, we're making this too complicated because I have A very close story that I always relate to. Illegal immigrant was driving one night under the influence, killed one of our friends in a car accident, no documentation, clearly illegal, and got away with it. And so whatever the state attorney's office did, don't even know where he's at. But we lost a very close loved one because of a situation. I'm all for people coming to Jacksonville, but just do it the right way. And so we do have people that are on the streets that I think that are running businesses that are living in homes that are here illegally. But I think it needs to be a clear message, like, if you're going to be in Jacksonville and not try to do anything to become legal, there are going to be consequences to that. [00:54:52] Speaker B: So you're in favor of cooperating with ICE fully on? [00:54:55] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:54:56] Speaker B: And would you favor a fast track for amnesty or for citizenship for those who are already here? [00:55:03] Speaker A: Yeah, and I think that is a great point because look at our small businesses in Jacksonville. Almost 68% of businesses or small businesses in Jacksonville, I don't know how many of those are ran by people that are outside country owners or whatever that case may be. But I think we need to find out who is here legally and illegally, because I think that has a lot to do with business as well when. [00:55:26] Speaker B: It comes to group dynamics. And it's not been as bad in Jacksonville, thankfully. But it, you know, any day, you may wake up on any given Monday and look at the news that morning, and we're having, you know, major protests that are going to close down the city streets from the mayor's office, from the cities that I've observed, the cities that have gotten more of that to where gridlock, everything shut down for hours or for days is because the mayor allowed it to happen and, you know, pulled back the. The law enforcement there. In Jacksonville, how do you ensure freedom of speech and our right to protest, not encroaching on those rights? How do you enforce the statutes and the limitations of, you know, what a person can do when they're trying to let their voice be heard? [00:56:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it comes back to partnerships. So we do not have a healthy partnership with the mayor's office and Jacksonville Sheriff's office right now know TK Very closely. He's doing an incredible job. He's faced with a lot of challenges currently, but he doesn't get the support that he needs from the mayor's office. There has to be this dynamic of whoever is in office from JFRD or Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, there has to be this three court strand that's not easily broken, and we haven't had that yet. And until we get there, I think there's always going to be a disunity amongst the administration of the mayor's office and law enforcement. I mean, if we look at what Mayor Degan's office did. Right. When she got in office, she was snatching down statues, historical monuments that I still believe need to be up. But everyone wanted to throw in the race card. And so we really haven't had a mayor who wants to get in the middle of the mess to talk about it because they think that, you know, there's some, you know, their job may be on the line or the reputation, but I think it goes back to people are hurting and they don't know how to deal with their emotions. And so when they don't know how to deal with their emotions, we see some of the stuff that's happened in our city. [00:57:45] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:57:46] Speaker A: And the other part of it is, I don't even think half the people that are at these protests know even who they are now. [00:57:53] Speaker B: There's buses, there's big money behind a lot of those things. Yes. You know, when you. As we get closer to the, to the election, you have kids. How old are your kids? [00:58:06] Speaker A: So Jubilee is. She's 4, Remington is 7, and Ezekiel's 8. [00:58:12] Speaker B: Okay. So there. I would think it would be better that they're that age instead of teenagers when you're, when you're stepping into this arena, because things are going to be said about you. [00:58:22] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:58:23] Speaker B: Stories will be made, made up, and things will be dug up. All this type of stuff. How do you, how do you shepherd your family through that? Your wife's going to see all those things, she's going to hear all those things. Have y' all talked about it and kind of, what's your approach to it? [00:58:37] Speaker A: Yeah. So it's already happening. We've already gotten some letters, we've already gotten some stuff on social media. And because I'm an outsider and I do have a lot of dirt, and they're going to bring it up, they're going to post stuff. And even when I met with Daniel Davis, they did the same thing with him, and they put out some really aggressive stuff. And my. My plea to that would be, is this how it always has to be? Like, can we not just run a clean race? And I think that's why so many people have been turned off by politics. But it's. Now it's. You know, I told my wife, she has One job in this whole thing. If she ever thinks that the time is to end it, I'm ending it. And so a lot of times you get in these rooms, which I've been in lately, and you hear that people are now divorced or they've had affairs or the money has gotten to them, and it's just a broken system. And the enemy has done a fantastic job of slithering his way into these types of offices and arenas, but that's not going to happen with my family. And she was on board. And as a minister of the gospel, that's our first priority is our family. So. [00:59:43] Speaker B: And we need that as citizens. We need people who are in leadership, just championing their family above the city. You know, we need. We need you to keep that strong. What kind of practices do you all have? Do you do date nights? What do you do to. [00:59:57] Speaker A: Yeah, date nights are good. We love sitting on the back porch just eating ice cream and drinking a cold root beer, watching Shark Tank. That's our. That's our love language. Is sitting down and watching all these people make tons of money off of the stupidest ideas. I'm just like, what did they. A scrub daddy. [01:00:15] Speaker B: Does she have any background in this? Does she know what she's getting into with it? [01:00:18] Speaker A: No. She's been a faithful minister of 1122 for 14 years. She's one of the originals left with Joby Martin. And she's. She is just a Bible nerd. She went to college. Her bookshelf is loaded up. She teaches, she preaches. So that's all she does. I am the radical, you know, having the faith to do these types of things. And she's always just been like, hey, if you believe God's calling you to do it, then I'll support you. [01:00:45] Speaker B: How has Joby been as far as. Can he endorse? Can he. How does he feel about it? [01:00:50] Speaker A: So I met with him in his office. We sat on the chair and had a really big opportunity from a company standpoint, making tons of money or do this. And I didn't know at that time what I was going to do, but he looked at me and said, hey, man, if you do decide to run for mayor, would love to support you. Wow. And so that's a big. [01:01:08] Speaker B: That's a big problem. [01:01:09] Speaker A: It's huge. We haven't dived in. Dove into it just yet, but, I mean, God's using that church in big ways. [01:01:17] Speaker B: And I would understand if he said, because here's the thing. If a mega church pastor endorses it, carries it reveals his influence really as much or more than it will yours. I remember Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama. Chris always was hesitant to get behind the Christian candidate. And it wasn't that he didn't want him to win. He wanted. Scott Dawson is a good friend of mine. Scott ran for governor in Alabama, and he always wanted Church of the Highlands support because they have campuses all over the state. But if. If he supported Scott and Scott lost the election, that would say something about the influence that Church of the Highlands or Chris has over the state. And so even though he was by far the obvious Christian candidate, Chris was always hesitant. So I would understand that from Joby, if Joby was hesitant to get behind anybody. But. But, man, that would. Between that and if you can get influence in the minority community in Jacksonville, it'd be huge. That would be. That would be massive. What about fundraising? What is your plan for raising the funds? Because it's an expensive thing to run for mayor. [01:02:38] Speaker A: So last election, Daniel Davis raised almost $8 million. It was the highest raised amount of money in an election for mayor. [01:02:45] Speaker B: A day out race. [01:02:46] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. She only came in at like 3.5. And so right off the bat, that was one of my biggest fears, like, God, how are we going to do this? And he's made it very clear and then also had some confirmation through other people that if he puts me in office, it's not going to be because of millions of dollars. It's going to be because of the voices of the people. You know, I'm not saying we would hit some numbers, but I'm guessing I would love to get in office at a half a million dollars and show the world that it can be done. Because everyone thinks, oh, you need millions and millions. That's all the conversations, like, how much money you got in your bank? And so we've been on 100 and something days, we've raised $25,000. And it. That has allowed us to do what we need to do. We're a year and a half still out. And as closer we get, you know, we know we're going to need more funds to ramp up on some things. But, like, our social media has just been one of our biggest things. The flyers that we're passing out, we've done some community meetings. So we don't need a lot of money. What we need is just people to understand, like, who I am, because name recognition is big in Jacksonville. But at the same time, you take Daniel Davis, who raised over $8 million, and you know, he lost and so that should show everyone it's not about money. [01:04:04] Speaker B: Right. [01:04:04] Speaker A: And so I'm a big, you know, believer that it's not going to be with millions of dollars and then it's going to show the state of Florida than other cities. Like, hey, man, did you just see what happened in Jacksonville? Like, that guy just won with half a million dollars. So that's kind of where we're at. [01:04:21] Speaker B: I think you can raise more than that. I think even if you hit the big numbers that Davis did, you can't replace just hard work, boots on the ground, you know, getting out in the communities, meeting people, there's just no substitute for that, you know, and it's obvious that you've been doing that. People that I've talked to in Jacksonville have already met you and they're saying good things about you. And so I hope that that continues. If somebody's watching or listening and they want to get on Team Ron and they want to learn more, if they want to donate and support what you're doing, how do they go about that? [01:04:57] Speaker A: Yeah, you just go to our website, www.theronarmstrong.com Theron Armstrong, the Ron Armstrong has all of our initiatives. Simple, easy way to donate. We've got swag on there. We've got people that are already buying shirts from in different states, which is cool because people send you pictures from the mountains of the Carolinas. So, yeah, that's all you need to do. [01:05:19] Speaker B: Excellent, excellent. What's your social media? How do we follow you? [01:05:22] Speaker A: Yeah, so, Ron Armstrong, that's my platform. It goes over to Instagram, but a lot of my personal stuff, because I'm just a, you know, I feel like I'm just who I am. [01:05:31] Speaker B: And I'm sure all that's on the website as well. [01:05:33] Speaker A: Yep. [01:05:34] Speaker B: Awesome. Well, brother, our prayers are with you. Wish you the best. Keep in touch. Maybe we can do this again before. Before the. The vote comes around. [01:05:43] Speaker A: Thanks, brother.