Gaines for Girls with Riley Gaines - Running for Congress and Standing Up for Girls' Sports

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00:00:30.000 Welcome back to the Gains for Girls podcast.

00:00:35.920 This podcast was created to highlight and share and spread awareness

00:00:40.400 of the growing number of stories that are adversely affecting women and parents and children.

00:00:47.200 And today's episode is no different.

00:00:48.880 This is someone who is actively fighting back against that

00:00:52.400 in a place, in a climate where it is desperately needed.

00:00:56.040 Today's guest is Michael Markey Jr.

00:00:58.700 He is running for U.S. Congress in Michigan.

00:01:02.240 So check out our conversation.

00:01:05.320 Well, Mike, thank you so much for joining the Gains for Girls podcast.

00:01:09.120 I wanted to give you the opportunity very briefly to introduce yourself,

00:01:13.380 talk about what you're doing now, and what your future looks like.

00:01:17.140 Sure.

00:01:17.700 So my name is Michael Markey.

00:01:19.620 I'm running for U.S. Congress here in Michigan's 3rd District.

00:01:22.920 It's what they call a D-plus-1, but it's been a Republican district for 100, I think, out of 103 years.

00:01:29.640 So it is certainly one of the districts we can take back.

00:01:32.880 The NRCC has labeled it as one of the top take-back.

00:01:36.100 But I can tell you the moment I got in the race, my opponent, Hillary Skolton, 0.98

00:01:39.740 who's a first-term incumbent now,

00:01:41.640 she said her very first act in Congress was saying a baby who survives a failed abortion

00:01:47.120 doesn't deserve medical care.

00:01:49.440 So oftentimes people say, well, that's an abortion issue. 1.00

00:01:52.100 Clearly it's not, because to have a failed abortion, you had to have access to abortion.

00:01:55.820 And it is just absurd to me that you could say a baby who, against all odds,

00:02:01.020 survives a failed abortion wouldn't deserve medical care. 0.99

00:02:03.940 So that was the moment.

00:02:06.020 I had a lot of people telling me that, hey, Mike, you've got to get in this race.

00:02:08.700 And I kept saying, we'll see.

00:02:10.160 Let's see what kind of congresswoman we have. 1.00

00:02:13.300 But that really told us everything we needed to know.

00:02:15.920 Even for the state of Michigan.

00:02:18.120 But before we get into anything else, I have to ask myself,

00:02:21.760 knowing that you're a Harvard graduate, what is your institution doing?

00:02:27.400 Yeah, you know, like I've told people before, I was a Division I baseball player.

00:02:31.700 I went to Eastern Michigan.

00:02:33.760 And over the course of my career, as it kind of evolved,

00:02:37.220 I started getting some negative feedback when I tried to kind of go into more of the academic circles.

00:02:42.340 People saying, well, I mean, Mike, come on, you've got a degree.

00:02:45.420 You've got an undergrad, a bachelor's from Eastern Michigan.

00:02:48.540 And so I got sick and tired of having the negative feedback.

00:02:50.820 So I figured, let's take that off the table.

00:02:52.400 I'll go to Harvard.

00:02:53.680 I really never thought I was going to have to defend that decision.

00:02:56.380 But again, here's, I mean, one of the themes, and we talk about it a lot in our district,

00:03:02.120 in our campaign, though, is that what Democrats do is they want to take the good of something,

00:03:07.020 but they don't take the negative.

00:03:08.260 They just want to take, you know, this one piece.

00:03:10.280 Well, you've got to take it all.

00:03:11.460 And so what the president at Harvard did, I mean, number one, she got into her role by plagiarizing.

00:03:17.460 We've seen that now.

00:03:18.920 But her speech in Congress was, again, almost as abhorrent as Hillary Scolton's.

00:03:23.380 Yes, you cannot create a culture of instability and not take the side and put a safe environment

00:03:30.360 for your Jewish students.

00:03:31.540 So myself and Elise Stefanik, I think we were some of the first to come out asking for President

00:03:36.680 Gay's resignation.

00:03:39.180 Well, that's amazing.

00:03:40.580 And it was successful.

00:03:42.120 And I imagine even, of course, the state of Michigan, you have University of Michigan.

00:03:46.440 There's a lot more, I think, that needs to be exposed in higher ed, and especially our

00:03:51.960 leaders in higher ed.

00:03:53.860 But you got in the race.

00:03:55.320 Did you have any sort of political background before this?

00:03:58.880 Or were you someone who just kind of saw a need and was willing to put yourself out there?

00:04:05.060 So I actually had a quick background, I guess, in politics.

00:04:08.780 I was one of the ones who ran for governor in the state of Michigan last year.

00:04:12.980 They disqualified our campaign due to signatures, which is a different conversation.

00:04:16.800 You know, we had entire petition sheets that they said were obviously fraudulent and where

00:04:20.880 every single person on the sheet signed a sworn statement saying it was their signature.

00:04:25.340 But you know what?

00:04:26.300 You're a former athlete.

00:04:27.500 I've had games where I would say the ump made the wrong call.

00:04:30.180 And you can do one of two things.

00:04:31.820 You can concentrate on how they, you know, they messed up the call.

00:04:35.460 They took the game out of your hands.

00:04:37.400 And then you can let that flow into the next game.

00:04:39.220 And what happens then?

00:04:40.160 You're going to lose that game, too.

00:04:41.760 And so instead, I mean, it was harder for me to say this a year ago.

00:04:44.460 But it was, all right, the ump made a wrong call.

00:04:46.840 It's time to lace up our shoes, our spikes, and let's get out there again.

00:04:50.680 So I created a super PAC helping try to defeat Gretchen Whitmer last year, traveling the state

00:04:56.760 with some of the grassroots organizations.

00:04:58.300 And then when Hillary Skolton flipped our seat, a lot of people said, Mike, you got to

00:05:01.840 get in this race.

00:05:02.460 And again, I said, you know, she ran on a very message that said, I'm going to hold

00:05:06.840 Democrats accountable, which is unique, right?

00:05:08.800 Democrats don't say that.

00:05:09.840 And I'll be really an ally to Republicans on some common sense issues.

00:05:14.660 So I said, let's give her a shot. 0.98

00:05:16.380 And then her first, you know, her first weekend, it was babies who survived failed abortion don't 0.93

00:05:21.200 deserve medical care.

00:05:22.600 Then she ran it.

00:05:23.500 And I mean, she kept giving us gifts.

00:05:25.160 She then ran an appointment ad that said, white males strongly encouraged not to apply.

00:05:29.580 I was like, well, I wasn't planning on it, but come on now.

00:05:32.800 And from there, she supported a bill that said the government should have the right to censor

00:05:38.240 what they think is hate speech.

00:05:40.400 She then voted for a bill that would take away gas appliances, gas heating and cooling. 0.99

00:05:47.080 And so, I mean, here in Michigan, we just had a little bit of snow.

00:05:49.440 Where I'm at, we had almost, you know, maybe 20, 25 inches.

00:05:53.040 And a lot, I think 172,000 people across the state of Michigan were without power.

00:05:57.500 I'm very thankful we had a gas, you know, furnace.

00:06:01.500 I know neighbors had gas generators to keep everything running.

00:06:06.040 And so this is the, you know, it's a common approach by the Democrats that they know better

00:06:10.180 than we do.

00:06:10.860 And they want to take away individual choice.

00:06:12.780 Of course.

00:06:14.720 And we know how that turns out.

00:06:17.320 Not necessarily here in Western civilization yet, but that's the goal.

00:06:21.100 You look at other countries that have really taken on this Marxist socialist regime,

00:06:26.600 and it's not pretty.

00:06:28.340 But Michigan, especially, is so interesting to me because it's one of the few states that

00:06:33.460 has so many women in these elected official roles. 1.00

00:06:37.560 You have, as you said, Gretchen Whitmer as governor, unfortunately. 1.00

00:06:40.660 You have Dana Nessel as attorney general.

00:06:42.860 You have Jocelyn Benson as secretary of state.

00:06:45.960 And if I'm not mistaken, I think women make up a very large portion of the legislative body 1.00

00:06:50.900 as well.

00:06:52.400 Yet, despite having all of these women in these powerful positions, Michigan seems to be one 1.00

00:06:59.260 of the leading states, along with others like California and Massachusetts and these other

00:07:04.380 blue states, in actively and openly discriminating against women and girls.

00:07:10.160 And they use the abortion issue as kind of like this guise, as if they're trying to protect

00:07:15.280 women's rights. 0.96

00:07:16.440 But that's not what is happening.

00:07:19.500 So I guess my question for you is, why does it most commonly seem to be women trying to 1.00

00:07:26.620 dismantle and being successful in dismantling women's rights to privacy in our bathrooms and 1.00

00:07:33.480 locker rooms and our rights to safety in our sports and in prisons, an equal opportunity?

00:07:39.340 I think sometimes there's a assumed credibility, like women can talk about women issues different

00:07:45.800 than men can talk about women issues, and men can talk about men issues differently than

00:07:49.020 women can talk about men issues.

00:07:50.600 But I think more succinctly or more importantly here, this is a big difference between Republican

00:07:55.620 leadership and Democratic leadership.

00:07:58.160 I mean, within my district, there's a community called Rockford.

00:08:00.900 And in Rockford, the public schools just hid the fact from a set of parents that they were

00:08:06.540 helping one of the parents' kids, they were helping a kid transition and weren't letting

00:08:12.300 the parents know because that was the right thing to do.

00:08:15.260 No, it's not.

00:08:15.780 You bring the parents involved.

00:08:17.140 The parents should always be involved in decisions, especially something such as that.

00:08:22.620 I mean, let's make it really simple.

00:08:24.220 Like my experience as a behavioral advisor says, kind of talk about issues, but in something

00:08:28.700 that maybe we're more familiar with, people would be out, you know, Democrats would be

00:08:34.080 outraged.

00:08:34.980 If a teacher took a 16-year-old to the mall to get this big old tattoo across their back

00:08:40.560 of like, you know, the tiger from Rocky.

00:08:43.260 I love the movie Rocky.

00:08:44.300 So I think of like, we just watched it the other day.

00:08:46.320 So think of that Black Jackie war. 0.89

00:08:47.800 Can you imagine a kid coming home and say, hey, look what I got back here.

00:08:50.600 People would go, I can't believe it, but you can, you can get rid of a tattoo.

00:08:55.320 And by the way, you can put a t-shirt on and you won't tell, but transitioning is completely

00:09:00.480 different.

00:09:01.180 And I mean, this is body mutilation.

00:09:02.760 This is something that you can't go back.

00:09:04.820 And so thankfully those parents that have gotten a lot of support in our district, they're,

00:09:08.320 they're suing the school district over it as they should.

00:09:11.200 Well, yeah, as they should.

00:09:16.360 Okay.

00:09:17.080 Only 10 more presents to wrap.

00:09:19.000 You're almost at the finish line.

00:09:20.600 But first there, the last one, enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.

00:09:37.000 You're right.

00:09:37.640 The tattoo incident is far less severe than what's actually happening.

00:09:43.800 And that our elected leaders, Democrat leaders are voting for.

00:09:47.020 We just saw this week in Maine, they introduced a trans trafficking type bill that Michigan

00:09:53.160 has taken on as well.

00:09:54.440 Basically saying Maine will be the sanctuary state, blah, blah, blah.

00:09:59.920 Leadership.

00:10:00.840 There was a couple of emails that were sent to leadership.

00:10:03.580 Actually, I would argue thousands of emails. 0.97

00:10:06.460 Ultimately, they postponed it because they're cowards.

00:10:08.940 Their vote where they were going to decide if they wanted to advance with the progression 0.63

00:10:14.220 of this bill.

00:10:15.580 So, yeah, that's absolutely insane.

00:10:19.940 We've talked about your opponent.

00:10:22.560 She is a sitting Democrat member of Congress now.

00:10:25.840 Representative Scholten.

00:10:27.020 Last year, the RNC polled that she is 70% more extreme than the average American. 0.74

00:10:34.540 And, of course, we've talked about her voting record on abortion and the gas issue and different

00:10:38.660 things.

00:10:39.420 But she voted in opposition of protecting women and girls in sports when this bill was voted

00:10:45.240 on in the U.S. House.

00:10:46.180 That can't, I mean, I can't imagine that represents Michiganders. 1.00

00:10:52.940 And do you think she really believes that she's on the right side of this issue?

00:10:57.460 I do think she believes it, which just shows how delusional they can be.

00:11:02.560 And it's not the popular opinion.

00:11:04.660 And, by the way, we shouldn't be trying to legislate just because it's popular opinion.

00:11:08.040 This is a difference between right and wrong.

00:11:10.680 Probably the most common counter argument I get from people is,

00:11:15.660 is this really that big of an issue?

00:11:17.660 And why are we attacking it now?

00:11:19.440 Well, you know, when something's right or wrong, you don't wait for it to be a big issue.

00:11:24.140 You step in.

00:11:24.840 And that's what takes courage.

00:11:25.840 When it's wrong, it's wrong.

00:11:26.920 And you step up and protect, especially we're talking about young girls.

00:11:30.540 And also, when you normalize radical ideas, you know, I've got a firm believer of this.

00:11:36.500 When you normalize radical ideas, what once seemed radical will seem normal.

00:11:41.200 But we've got to work on how we message this, work on how we explain this.

00:11:44.820 And, again, I'll use my experience as a behavioral advisor.

00:11:47.220 Like, if we just talk as advisors, financial advisors, we just talk math, people are like,

00:11:50.560 oh, boy, they don't want to talk about it.

00:11:52.140 So we've got to use, again, analogies and things we're familiar with.

00:11:55.240 So the example that I use, I've been using it in district a lot, and it's worked well.

00:11:59.380 And it's worked well with some of these middle voters who we've got to bring to our side.

00:12:02.980 I bring up Michigan.

00:12:04.640 So I grew up a Michigan fan.

00:12:06.060 You can judge me for that.

00:12:06.980 But it's kind of how I connected with my dad.

00:12:09.340 And so when Michigan came out this year, the NCAA said Michigan's been stealing signs.

00:12:14.400 The very next opponent on the schedule was Michigan State.

00:12:18.740 And Michigan State's coaches and athletic directors said, we're not sure we're going to play Michigan this weekend.

00:12:23.100 Because now that, you know, they potentially know our signs, they've got an unfair advantage.

00:12:28.240 And our players might get hurt.

00:12:30.360 And let's back up for a minute.

00:12:31.820 I mean, I was, again, a former Division I athlete.

00:12:33.520 These kids, these boys, men, really, right, they're in the finest athletic shape they'll be in their lives.

00:12:41.100 These are a couple hundred pound, you know, athletes.

00:12:44.360 And their coaches are looking out for them saying, hey, if we put them in an unfair situation, they might get hurt.

00:12:51.380 And so, and outside of Michigan fans, there's a ton.

00:12:54.480 I mean, I saw an article the other day saying Michigan should have an asterisk on this national championship because they had an unfair advantage.

00:13:01.400 You know, you don't see people saying the same thing, you know, in your sport.

00:13:06.240 Well, that should be an asterisk.

00:13:07.940 And let's take it back and go, wait a minute.

00:13:10.840 You have an uproar that Michigan had an unfair advantage.

00:13:13.140 Now, instead of making this a values issue, let's make this an unfair advantage issue.

00:13:17.620 We had this uproar that Michigan was stealing signs.

00:13:19.720 What about men transitioning into girls and playing against female in their sports?

00:13:24.240 It's an unfair advantage.

00:13:26.040 And we're putting them at risk of getting hurt.

00:13:29.120 So we need to protect our girls.

00:13:30.740 I mean, I've got an 11-year-old daughter.

00:13:32.420 She loves playing basketball.

00:13:33.740 And, you know, she wants to play every sport there is under the sun. 1.00

00:13:36.720 I'm not having her.

00:13:37.760 I mean, I'm sorry.

00:13:38.640 I'm not having her in a locker room with a former guy, a biological male, who's suddenly going to say that's not who I am.

00:13:47.280 That may be true.

00:13:48.360 That's fine.

00:13:49.040 That's a decision you get to make.

00:13:50.420 But it's a decision I get to make.

00:13:51.620 You're not stepping in the locker room with my daughter.

00:13:53.600 You're not stepping on the court with my daughter, unless maybe you're the referee.

00:13:56.800 But we need to uphold these standards, because I'm going to go back to it.

00:14:01.480 When you normalize radical ideas, what once seemed radical will seem normal.

00:14:06.680 Yeah.

00:14:07.320 No, absolutely.

00:14:08.120 I mean, even if you think five years prior to where we are now, there's no way we could have imagined that we would be legislating on if men should be allowed to compete in women's sports.

00:14:18.660 Heck, even the definition of a woman in the U.S. House now, the Women's Bill of Rights has been undertaken by Representative Debbie Lesko and Representative Diana Harshbarger, and it's literally a bill that codifies the word woman.

00:14:33.460 So you're exactly right.

00:14:34.660 It kind of makes you question, what are our limits?

00:14:37.480 If we're willing to deny this, what's the next thing?

00:14:40.660 So I certainly agree there.

00:14:42.000 But I don't know if people realize, just as of recently something I've noticed, I don't know if people realize how quickly the Republican Party can lose the majority in the U.S. House.

00:14:54.060 I mean, even right now we have one Republican member actually from Kentucky who's out after a car accident.

00:15:00.320 We have two Republican members who are receiving treatment for cancer.

00:15:03.380 We've seen several over the past few weeks Republican members who have announced their retirement.

00:15:07.820 It is crucial that we not only keep our red seats in office, but flip the blue seats to red seats.

00:15:18.060 So I guess my question for you is, what can we as common sense Americans, every day, your average person, what can we do to ensure that we have people in office who represent our pro-America, pro-parental rights, pro-child safeguarding, pro-truth values?

00:15:34.520 Well, I think it's pretty easy.

00:15:36.780 And one of the things that I hear from people is they'll say, well, Mike, I'm not in your district.

00:15:40.620 And I kind of say, so what?

00:15:42.340 You know, if you're not in my district, it just means simply you can't vote for me.

00:15:45.520 But it doesn't mean that my votes aren't going to represent you and your ideals, our ideals, right?

00:15:50.240 And so what we need to do a better job as Republicans, and this is an area where Democrats beat us, is that they'll get behind candidates across the country.

00:15:57.780 And they'll do these small-dollar donations, $5 here, $1, $10, and they get behind these candidates and really help push them past the line.

00:16:06.240 Now, I just turned 40.

00:16:07.720 I've been running a business for over 20 years, which didn't really seem real until my team.

00:16:12.240 And they're like, hey, this is the math.

00:16:13.820 And I'm like, boy, you know.

00:16:15.720 Yeah, I know.

00:16:16.280 Oops.

00:16:16.860 How did that happen?

00:16:17.700 But, you know, what I've been telling people is go online, go to michaelmarkeyjr.com.

00:16:23.940 So it's michael, M-A-R-K-E-Y-J-R.com.

00:16:27.960 And I'm going to ask a favor.

00:16:29.500 You know, start with a buck.

00:16:30.580 Start with five bucks.

00:16:31.860 But put it on reoccurring, because what I want you to do is hold us accountable.

00:16:35.040 And so let's start that relationship now.

00:16:37.800 And in three months, if we're not doing our job, we're not upholding those values that you, you know, put a little bit of that support.

00:16:43.980 Like, if what we've said today makes sense, which I hope it does, then put five bucks, ten bucks behind us.

00:16:50.480 Put it on reoccurring.

00:16:51.240 And then if we, you know, if we fail at that trust, let us know.

00:16:55.600 I don't think we will.

00:16:56.860 But let us know.

00:16:57.700 And that's how we start beating Democrats, because we've got to have everybody doing this, everybody getting behind candidates that make sense so we can flip seats like mine.

00:17:07.420 I mean, here's a seat that was Republican for the last 50 years, 100 out of 103 years.

00:17:11.680 We've got one of the, I mean, Hillary's, we talked about Hillary Schoolton's voting record.

00:17:16.960 She's voting in lockstep with Rashida Tlaib. 0.98

00:17:20.000 That's who we've got to be.

00:17:21.300 But we need money to let everyone know, here's what she's been voting on.

00:17:26.220 Because she's, of course, not going to admit to some of these things.

00:17:29.060 But that's what's cool about a voting record.

00:17:31.320 So get behind us.

00:17:32.200 Give us some of your support.

00:17:34.080 Let us earn it.

00:17:35.140 Let us get in a relationship and earn it.

00:17:37.040 And we'll continue to earn it.

00:17:38.620 And if for some reason you feel like we didn't, let us know.

00:17:40.660 But that's how we win this.

00:17:42.080 And that's how we win seats like this across the country and let Democrats know how radical and extreme they really are.

00:17:50.220 Absolutely.

00:17:51.020 Which is crucial in states like Michigan.

00:17:53.660 And I was telling you this before, but every time, it's so unique.

00:17:57.600 Every time I'm in Michigan, it's different than any other state.

00:18:01.400 The people there seem so fed up.

00:18:03.400 They seem so angry.

00:18:04.740 Really in the best way possible, though, because it's very clear to me that they're ready to roll up their sleeves and do something about it.

00:18:12.060 But you're right.

00:18:12.840 This is not unique, I guess, to Michigan.

00:18:15.460 I think it's now spreading across the country.

00:18:18.160 And I've also said time and time again, it is crucial for people to financially support in whatever way you can the people who are actually on the ground doing the work.

00:18:27.680 No, not everyone can run for office.

00:18:30.220 No, not everyone can be involved in the same way that you are and that I am in front of a camera on a stage.

00:18:38.140 That's not everyone's forte, but everyone has a role.

00:18:42.420 It's necessary and urgent to restore sanity in this country.

00:18:47.360 So one more time, I just wanted you to be able to plug your website.

00:18:53.100 You know, how can people find out more information about you, you know, your key issues, your congressional race, and ways to support you in your efforts?

00:19:00.780 Yeah, so you can find us on Twitter.

00:19:02.100 You can find us on, I was going to say all the social media things, but we are not on TikTok, and nor will we be.

00:19:08.440 So you can find us at Michael Markey Jr. on Twitter.

00:19:11.840 It's Vote Markey on Facebook.

00:19:13.780 But the best where you want to get all the information is Michael Markey Jr., M-A-R-K-E-Y-J-R.com.

00:19:20.520 And then reach out.

00:19:21.520 Let us know.

00:19:22.200 You know, let us know what we're doing well.

00:19:23.860 Let us know what you didn't like.

00:19:24.980 I'm not saying we're going to, you know, we're not pandering, so we're not going to change just because you go, I didn't like you said that.

00:19:29.680 But, you know, you're a former athlete.

00:19:31.880 What's the very best thing we get?

00:19:33.740 Feedback.

00:19:34.680 I love doing it when coaches are like, hey, I'm not playing you today because you didn't do these things.

00:19:38.400 Or here's the things you need to improve on.

00:19:40.140 So I love feedback.

00:19:41.220 Our team loves it.

00:19:41.840 That's what we're built on.

00:19:42.720 And that's really what we need more is accountability, which is a form of feedback, certainly.

00:19:47.640 Absolutely.

00:19:48.480 Constructive criticism.

00:19:49.740 Right.

00:19:49.960 That's how we grow.

00:19:50.720 That's how we unite, ultimately, which is what this country is desperately in need of.

00:19:56.140 So thank you.

00:19:57.240 We will be following along your race.

00:20:00.080 I imagine a ton of other races.

00:20:02.600 This is a pretty important year for our country, for the state of Michigan, a lot of these blue states.

00:20:07.860 So we're grateful for you and your efforts, and we will be following along.

00:20:12.180 It's important we get behind people like Michael Markey, people who are doing the work to combat this movement we're seeing across America.

00:20:20.520 It's crucial that we flip these blue seats, whether that's the local level, the state level, the federal level.

00:20:27.200 It's crucial and urgent that we flip them red if we want to maintain sanity, common sense, and normalcy in this country.

00:20:36.600 Thanks for joining.

00:20:37.900 Make sure you check us out at OutKick.com.

00:20:40.400 Like, subscribe, anywhere where you get your podcasts.

00:20:42.680 And we will see you on the Gains for Girls podcast next week.

Gaines for Girls with Riley Gaines - January 24, 2024

Running for Congress and Standing Up for Girls' Sports

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