ROM REDDY STOPS IN TODAY (Candidate for Governor) 4/27/26

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Hey Liz, how are you?

SPEAKER_03 0:31

Good. All right. For for people who haven't uh met you yet, tell us a little bit about your background and why you decided to run.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Well, before I do that, I I heard your commercial for two men in the truck. Maybe you need to recommend that to the state because they uh they they they budgeted$37 million to move their agencies from a building they own downtown to a building right outside Columbia that they're leasing from the biggest donor to the Republican Party. And it's$37 million to do that. So maybe they need to check out two men in the truck. But uh but uh a little little background on myself. I'm very, very actually very similar to the president. Um I graduated from the uh Wharton Business School um and I have never run for office. I spent my entire life in the uh private sector building businesses, starting up businesses. I started, I bought my first business in South Carolina in 1990. And I actually did my first of two startups uh in South Carolina in 2008. Um so yeah, I have a lot of connections, and I removed the headquarters for another business to from Atlanta to uh Daniel Island in 2014. Um so never run for office, didn't want to run for office um until I saw that everyone running was part of this, you know, cabal. You know, the people have been in office forever, 53 years in office. And uh my you know, my biggest question, uh Liz, and I think your listeners would be interested in this, is uh there's not that much policy differences. You saw you saw it in all these conversations, and all Republican candidates are more or less the same thing. They want small government, less taxes, on and on. There was a slight difference. I'd say the only difference I saw was an abortion when Norman says he will sign this new bill that actually would put women in prison for two years. Um uh crazy stuff. I I said put on a referendum and ask the people, which is how it should be. But other than that, there's not much policy differences. I think the big differences is who can get it done. What these these these to get it done, I'm telling you, when I was at Exxon for 10 years, we spent so much time on executive development, which is do you have the skill sets to get to an executive level where you can get it done? And we trained people, we made sure they had the experiences to do that. No one does. You know, Nancy's talking about her stuff, she has zero executive experience, none whatsoever. Um, you know, Norman's experience as a real estate developer 20 some years ago, 25 years ago. Uh think think about an iPhone that's you had or a whatever, uh a mobile phone from 25 years ago. It's obsolete. Those management skills no longer work. The systems, the AI, all of these things available today in management is nothing to do with 25 years ago in real estate development. Alan, of course, has been the uh state lawyer for 15 years. Um, Alan, I think, is a good guy. I know Alan well. I think he can do well, but he's got he's got a punch his ticket in knowing how to run something. He's never run anything in his life other than being a lawyer. So, you know, this this is this is it. You know, we have no exact we all talk about the same things, but in 10 years ago, South Carolina was at the bottom in education, roads, violent crime, median family income. Ten years later, we are at the bottom. So I think it's uh it's it's it's uh we have to flop over to saying who can get it done? Is it the guy like Norman who says, uh, listen, I'm going to go out and clear out the career politicians when he's been a politician for 20 years, and then he wants to say term limits. So the term limit starts at what, 30 years? So this is all happy talk as opposed to talk on how are you going to do it.

SPEAKER_03 4:32

Now, what are some of the things that you would do when you if and when you become governor? Because we know that the structure we've been told is not really set up for a strong uh government uh position um in actually like a lot of people say, well, they're doing this in Florida and Ronda Santa does this and that. And while we admire a lot that he has accomplished, a lot of it is because of the way it's set up. Are you are are are you able to do the things you want to do and talk about doing? And what are those main changes you would want to see?

SPEAKER_00 5:09

Well, let's let's start with the first thing you said on the gov governor's authority, where it's Article 4 of South Carolina Constitution says the governor is the supreme executive authority, just doesn't act like it. How does he how can he regain the power? Because go back to the Constitution, we've got we have to have three co-equal branches. That's what our founders said. They said we have to have three co-equal branches, so each branch holds the other in check. The executive branch is supposed to hold the legislative branch in check. The executive branch is supposed to hold all these agencies and all that from keeping them from going after the citizen. And right now you have a very weak executive branch. He's got two powers, he cannot use them. One is he's got a line item veto, which even the president doesn't have. But in a Republican supermajority state, apparently he can't uphold a veto, which only requires one-third of the House and one third of, or one-third of the Senate. So that's a failureship of leadership. That's a leadership failure. That's not anything wrong with the system. The second is he has to do what the president is doing, which is reassert executive authority. So you go to these commissions and these boards and you say, You're fired. And they say, You can't fire us. You know, we were a part of the legislature. Says, wait, you're part of the executive branch, you're fired. And force them to challenge it in court. And I think we should have a great uh set uh lawyers there uh who also come from out of the state because lawyers in the state are another cabal, and and we just let them challenge it. And I think you win, and that's how you reassert because the constitution, including the South Carolina Constitution, is very clear. The governor is the supreme executive authority. The legislature has taken over the executive branch through these wards and commissions. Uh, DOT, it's all about roads. It's a nine-member commission, eight appointed by the legislature, the ninth appointed by the eighth. So no one is in charge. I'd get rid of them and I'd say, I appoint a transportation secretary who knows something about construction, and I do because I ran a construction company in 50 states, and and they report to me. I want to be in charge. I don't want all these commissions. I say you're dismantled. He says, Oh, you can't dismantle us. I just did. See you later. And unless we have this type of strength and reassert the power of the executive branch with the tools that we have, we don't need a constitutional amendment for it. Um, I think this is all a big story, they say, Liz. They say, Oh, this is the governor's week because many years ago the legislature says if a black person is ever appointed governor, we're going to keep him weak. All of this is nice theater, but it you know, it's it's not it's not constitutional.

SPEAKER_03 7:54

It's very interesting because I I feel like you're the only person that has expressed that in the sense of I've been here and I've lived here for 13 years. I'm originally from New York. Um and I uh have always been told, oh, well, you know, what do you expect the governor to do? It's a w it's set up as a weak governor. Um and I never really understood that. That didn't make sense.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

I just read Article 4, and everything that uh Rom Reddy said is exactly true.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

It is true. And it is the Constitution. And uh the second piece of it uh your listeners need to understand is that the other thing is. Are they making excuses?

SPEAKER_03 8:31

That's what I'm thinking. They're making excuses. It is all a lot of excuses, and you say why special interests that are paying all sorts of things.

SPEAKER_00 8:39

That is 100% correct. So where does the special interest show up? 31% of the legislature are trial lawyers, less than 1% of the working population in the state are trial lawyers. So this trial lawyers is where all the dark money comes in, all the hidden South Carolina's 40 out of 50 in donor disclosures. So the all the dark money comes in there and they control it and they want the power. So they just tell everyone, oh yeah, no, no, the governor is weak. He can't, and the governor says, Yeah, you know, like you know, I I think I like my motorcade with the flags flying on my pocket coaches. I'm good. And and and everyone is happy. It's a good old boy system, and if we're going to keep it that way, we're gonna lose the state. We we really are. You know, don't forget where we are on this state, which is we are endowed by our creator, is the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence says, our rights come from God. Government's job is to protect those rights. We have completely strayed from that, and now we're afraid. We take we think our rights come from government. And and unless we take this back, it's a once-in-a-generational opportunity. I don't think it's ever happened before in South Carolina history where someone like me is running with no contributions, not one dollar from anyone.

SPEAKER_03 9:59

Totally self-funded.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Totally self-funded, and people say, Oh, he's he's a rich guy trying to buy the office. And say, No, I am the I am the rich guy who was successful in America, which I will never apologize for, and I'm trying to keep the office from being bought, which is what has happened year after year after year. It's bought by these donors and these special interests. And and this, and and I don't think there will be another candidate in our generation simply because it's so expensive. You're looking at a, you know, maybe a$10 million race, uh, with all the dark money coming in. And I don't think there'll be another candidate in our generation that says, I'm going to run without any money. So I think it's a historic opportunity for your listeners to say, if we are serious in 2026, the 250th anniversary of restoring what our founders said, and this is the last sentence of the declaration. It says, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and sacred honor to defend the Declaration of Independence, which basically says our rights come from God, and government gets job is to protect those rights. They were prepared to die for it. Well and if we want to ever go back, this is our chance.

SPEAKER_03 11:18

Rom, I I have to say, um we I did not feel protected at all during the the whole COVID scandemic. Uh we l so many people I know lost their lives through uh you know bad hospital protocols and drugs. We found people lost their jobs because of vaccine um requirements, you know, businesses, you know, people's lifelong their lifelong money had had been lost in businesses. I mean, what is your response to um how it was handled here in the state?

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Uh it was tyranny. And and the state claims they didn't. They'll they're lying because I was running a business and I had 500 people and they told me it's$2,000 per person per day fine. I called the governor. I'm on record. I called the governor and said, Governor, I'm not going to do it. I will not ask my people to put something in their body that they don't want to keep a job that they need. And I said, I'll take the fines, I'll do whatever. I talked to Ron DeSantis, who then challenged it in federal court. I spent$400,000. I actually ran TV ads saying this is a hoax. This should not happen. I refuse to allow my people, any one of the 500, to take a vaccine. And I said, I mean, I listen, even for a mask, if you want to wear one, wear one. You know, this should not be me mandating what you do with your life. And uh, I walked away from a Green Bay Packers practice field because they said the five people coming in there have to show certificates of vaccination. I said, I'm not gonna do it. Walk away from it. Tell them to go to hell. So this is what we did. This is this is the real world. This is the world I worked in. And then you got the fake world of the, you know, the administration saying, Oh, we did this and we did that. That is not true. South Carolina did not do that.

SPEAKER_03 13:09

Exactly. They actually, I have the governor on video saying, and in an executive order, that he would have the people arrested if they open their business and they're non-essential in that first week of April 2020.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

And they closed the beaches.

SPEAKER_03 13:24

And they close the beaches. And they closed the beaches.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

They close the beach, probably is the best area to be in, right? Because it's wide open. Like what I mean, even if you buy all this fake news, which which by the way was fake, um, and uh but but regardless, that is not the job of government. That's the fundamental issue. Government certainly can educate, they can put out both sides of the issue, but it's for the people to decide. This is what our founders said. It is said it it it it again, it simply says governments are instituted amongst men, deriving their powers from the consent of the governed. It is our consent, not their consent. And if we don't understand that, uh Liz, we're gonna lose this state, we're gonna lose this country.

SPEAKER_03 14:10

Rom Reddy, uh Republican candidate for governor for June 9th. I wanted to give you this last minute here to ask for the vote.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

Well, you know, I'm not going to ask for anyone's vote. I think I've I'm here to give people a choice. They have to decide whether they want 53 more years of all this happy talk and no results. No results. Just look at the results. I will change it. I will fix it. I have four principles that I will not waver from, eight things that I said I'll get done, which is on my website, readyforgovor.com, Red D Y for Governor.com. If I don't do it, I will not run again. Plain and simple. Can't be any simpler.

SPEAKER_03 14:49

All right. Thank you so much, Ron. I know you're going to be doing something um like a Zoom call or something that's going to be happening tonight.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

It's uh Yes. I do two Zoom calls a week. I encourage you to attend them. It's wide open. I take any questions, it's a lot of fun. We we post them on the website at the end of the week for the next week. We do two a week, Monday and Wednesday this week. We'll do two more next week as well.

SPEAKER_03 15:15

All right. You can follow uh along on Ready for Governor on the Facebook page and on the website R E D D Y. Thank you so much, Rom. We appreciate your time.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Thank you, guys. You're your your your patriots.

SPEAKER_03 15:27

Thank you. Thank you.