The Charlie Kirk Show - Vivek's Vision for Ohio

00:00:00.000 Hey, everybody.

00:00:00.000 Kristen Wagoner, president and CEO of ADF, joins the show.

00:00:04.000 And, most importantly, Vivek Ramaswamy, running for governor of Ohio, joins the show.

00:00:09.000 What is his vision for Ohio?

00:00:10.000 What does it mean to be excellent?

00:00:12.000 That and more.

00:00:13.000 Get involved with Turning Point USA at tpusa.com and become a member today.

00:00:18.000 Members.CharlieKirk.com.

00:00:20.000 Members.CharlieKirk.com.

00:00:22.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:22.000 Here we go.

00:00:23.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:00:25.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.

00:00:27.000 I want you to know we are lucky.

00:00:29.000 To have Charlie Kirk.

00:00:31.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:00:34.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:00:35.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:00:36.000 His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA. We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.

00:00:53.000 That's why we are here.

00:01:23.000 Defenders of free speech in all different venues, especially on college campuses, including speech that you don't like.

00:01:30.000 Joining us now is Kristen Wagoner, President, CEO, and General Counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom.

00:01:36.000 Kristen, walk us through what's going on at the University of Memphis, what happened last evening, and the reason that we decided to kind of call the bluff of University of Memphis regarding Kyle Rittenhouse.

00:01:46.000 Well, last night was a tremendous victory for TPUSA, Kyle Rittenhouse, and the right to speak freely on our college campuses.

00:01:53.000 I think we have to go back to really a year ago, last March in 2024, when the TPUSA chapter at the University of Memphis decided to sponsor an event with Kyle Rittenhouse.

00:02:05.000 And they worked with the University of Memphis officials, created a ticketing system through TPUSA, and had the event all planned out to host about 300 kids, students.

00:02:14.000 And it was open.

00:02:15.000 But what happened in that instance is that the university interfered with the ticketing system.

00:02:21.000 It allowed disruptors to virtually take all of the tickets.

00:02:25.000 And then it allowed a mob rule to take over that event. 0.99

00:02:29.000 And it had to be shut down because the university officials and the police refused to protect the speech of TPUSA and of Kyle Rittenhouse.

00:02:39.000 So last night, after Alliance Defending Freedom sent a legal demand letter with very specific demands to the university, the university complied with those demands, and TPUSA was able to move forward.

00:02:50.000 So we're so grateful for their courage and glad that they were welcomed back to campus.

00:02:54.000 We also got one of the policies changed so that future students won't have to endure this again.

00:03:00.000 That is wonderful.

00:03:02.000 Let's go to Cut 235 and play the news reports of this.

00:03:06.000 Action News 5's Bria Bolden joining us live now from the University of Memphis to explain, Bria, why Rittenhouse has been allowed to be back on campus despite all the pushback.

00:03:19.000 Yeah, well last year Kyle Rittenhouse abruptly left the stage at the UC Theater after pushback from University of Memphis students.

00:03:26.000 You know Memphis, excuse me, members of Turning Point USA... University of Memphis chapter, the group that invited Rittenhouse to campus were escorted off campus by Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers after being run off by students.

00:03:38.000 Turning Point USA is a non-profit that advocates conservative views on college campuses.

00:03:43.000 Rittenhouse is set to make his return here to the U of M tomorrow evening to discuss his 2021 trial and the Second Amendment.

00:03:51.000 Kristen, tell us more about the encounter and the victory here based on that news report.

00:03:56.000 Yes, well, at ADF, we have about 450 legal victories on college campuses.

00:04:01.000 And I have to tell you that in seeing many of those victories play out, the circumstances of this particular campus incident are some of the worst that we've seen.

00:04:09.000 where at the University of Memphis at this event a year ago, not only at the last minute did the university essentially take over the ticketing system to allow even more disruption to occur, but it didn't even provide reasonable steps to protect the safety of TPUSA members, as well but it didn't even provide reasonable steps to protect the safety of TPUSA members, as well as Kyle Rittenhouse, leading them out in front of a mob and having that mob then chase those TPUSA members, threaten to kill them, spit

00:04:39.000 It was just the circumstances were so deeply disturbing and fell so far short of constitutional and state law requirements.

00:04:47.000 The university officials are not allowed to let mobs rule and to essentially engage in a heckler's veto.

00:04:55.000 So again, Again, it takes courage to stand up, but thank God for these members who did, as well as for Kyle.

00:05:00.000 And thank you for ADF for defending our students and doing a great job there.

00:05:04.000 In closing here, Kristen, just tell us more about the great work that ADF is doing and how people can support it and get behind it.

00:05:10.000 Oh, thanks for asking.

00:05:12.000 Well, first I would just say we have a student's rights handbook on our website, adflegal.org.

00:05:17.000 We provide all of our services free of charge, and we believe that censorship, not only on campuses but in our workplaces and through both government collusion with private collusion online, is the biggest issue that we have to fight today.

00:05:32.000 So a lot of our resources are going towards that, as well as fighting gender identity ideology and expanding parental rights, because we do believe...

00:05:40.000 We believe that gender ideology has been a Trojan horse to essentially compel speech by the government and to take away our rights. 0.85

00:05:47.000 And when we allow censorship to continue, we know that most countries around the world have free speech protections.

00:05:54.000 It's only a matter of whether citizens insist that the government provide it.

00:05:58.000 So we love being able to serve organizations like yours and the good work you're doing.

00:06:03.000 Yeah, so tell us just quickly more about the transgender identity fight.

00:06:07.000 How is that proceeding in the courts, men and women's sports, locker rooms?

00:06:12.000 I know that some of the proponents of the more radical gender ideology use the Civil Rights Act.

00:06:18.000 How are you guys thinking about this legally at ADF? Well, we're thinking we're going to win, and we're going to keep at it until we do win.

00:06:24.000 It feels like we're starting to turn a corner.

00:06:27.000 But, man, Charlie, I think it's so important to go back to the beginning because it does dovetail closely with the work that you're doing on campuses.

00:06:35.000 And really, the very first case that was filed in the United States was a case ADF file, but it was on behalf of three young girls who were in high school.

00:06:44.000 They were freshmen and sophomore, and two boys had come in.

00:06:48.000 They were previously competing three weeks earlier.

00:06:53.000 We have seen twists and turns along the way, and I'm thrilled to see President Trump kind of finish what he started in the first term to again stand for equal opportunities for girls.

00:07:19.000 We have a lot of fighting still to do, as you can probably tell, with the cases that have been filed.

00:07:25.000 And we know that the issue isn't just solved at the federal level.

00:07:29.000 We have to have Congress pass legislation.

00:07:32.000 And we also need to have states fall in line to protect the rights of women and girls. 0.68

00:07:37.000 So there's a long legal battle ahead.

00:07:38.000 Let me just say this.

00:07:39.000 We have two petitions at the U.S. Supreme Court right now on this issue, and we need the court to take the issue up because 25 states have passed laws to protect girls, and the ACLU is challenging the rights of these states to protect the rights of girls.

00:07:56.000 Has the Supreme Court yet weighed in on this topic?

00:08:00.000 In history, or have they just kind of punted and delayed so far?

00:08:04.000 Largely punted and delayed.

00:08:05.000 I would say that there's a decision called the Bostock decision, which involved whether sex included gender identity in the employment context.

00:08:12.000 And that was several years ago.

00:08:14.000 And I would say activists on the left are trying to use that decision to say somehow that that means that women don't have equal rights.

00:08:22.000 They're misusing that.

00:08:24.000 And in that Bostock decision, the Supreme Court carved out, essentially, and said, we're not saying that this applies in any other way.

00:08:31.000 So we believe that the court...

00:08:33.000 The Supreme Court is going to affirm these rights when it does take this case.

00:08:35.000 The last thing I would say on what the Supreme Court is doing right now is, first of all, they're considering whether to take the women's sports issue. 0.91

00:08:42.000 We have two petitions that are asking them to take these cases.

00:08:45.000 And then the second thing is in June, probably about June, we will see the Supreme Court decide a case called Scrimetti, which involves whether states can pass laws to protect young children from undergoing cross-sex hormones and permanent irreversible harm.

00:09:02.000 That decision could also impact the rights of women and girls moving forward.

00:09:07.000 And we're thrilled to be able to have helped pass legislation in 26 states where states have passed the laws to protect minors.

00:09:14.000 So we have to think about this both in terms of a political issue, getting good people in office, then in terms of a public policy issue, getting them to pass good laws, and then also defending those laws in court and preserving the rights of families to be able to raise their children consistent with their values.

00:09:31.000 This is a good way to end.

00:09:32.000 Let's play cut three of President Trump and the governor of Maine going back and forth around this very topic.

00:09:37.000 Let's play cut three. 0.94

00:09:38.000 I understand Maine is the main here the governor of Maine.

00:09:44.000 Are you not going to comply with it.

00:09:47.000 Well, I'm we are the federal law.

00:09:51.000 Well, you better do it.

00:09:52.000 You better do it because you're not going to get any federal funding at all if you don't.

00:09:56.000 And by the way, your population, even though it's somewhat liberal, although I did very well there, your population doesn't want men playing in women's sports.

00:10:04.000 So you better comply because otherwise you're not getting any federal funding.

00:10:09.000 Every state, good, I'll see you in court.

00:10:11.000 I look forward to that.

00:10:12.000 That should be a really easy one.

00:10:14.000 He's ready to fight on it.

00:10:15.000 I know ADF is as well.

00:10:17.000 Kristen, thank you so much.

00:10:18.000 Thank you.

00:10:19.000 I appreciate it.

00:10:22.000 Hey, Charlie Kirk here.

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00:11:24.000 As you know, I am moments away from going on campus here at University of Florida.

00:11:28.000 Tomorrow is Florida State University.

00:11:31.000 Monday is University of Southern California.

00:11:33.000 Next Thursday is Cal Northridge.

00:11:35.000 That is four in one week.

00:11:37.000 It's a lot.

00:11:38.000 We're covering a lot of space, a lot of terrain.

00:11:41.000 I get asked frequently, Charlie, what are the dialogues look like?

00:11:45.000 And these videos get seen millions and millions of times.

00:11:47.000 This video in particular has already been seen, I think, 10 to 12 million times on TikTok and Instagram combined.

00:11:52.000 It's going super viral.

00:11:53.000 But it was a really interesting window here.

00:11:56.000 Because when people saw this clip that I'm about to play for you, it connected some dots.

00:12:03.000 I get asked all the time, Charlie, what is the next generation of teachers look like?

00:12:09.000 And every single one of you that are sending your kids or grandkids to public schools have a moral obligation to watch this one minute and 23 second clip.

00:12:19.000 This one minute clip.

00:12:21.000 Shows you exactly the type of person that has become a teacher and wants to teach your child.

00:12:29.000 That is teaching your kid.

00:12:31.000 When you send your kid to grade school that is publicly funded or government funded, to middle school, high school, or college, they are at risk of being influenced by people like this.

00:12:41.000 You are handing over your children to a pseudo-indoctrination state.

00:12:47.000 You are handing over your most prized possession to...

00:12:50.000 A enterprise that believes things that are directly contradictory to your values, that are adverse to your worldview.

00:13:01.000 This is not just a random college student that came up to me.

00:13:05.000 This was at the University of South Florida.

00:13:07.000 This is a current teacher and also was a candidate for state senate.

00:13:13.000 And might I add...

00:13:14.000 Sometimes people say, oh, Charlie, you're only debating college kids.

00:13:17.000 First of all, people will no longer say that after next week based on a certain program that I'm going on.

00:13:23.000 Secondly, no, it's an open mic.

00:13:24.000 Professors have come up before, teachers assistants.

00:13:28.000 This guy is a former candidate state rep and a current teacher.

00:13:31.000 Anybody is welcome up to the mic.

00:13:33.000 Anybody.

00:13:34.000 Just so happens college kids tend to overwhelm the population.

00:13:38.000 And most college kids are voters.

00:13:40.000 Can we stop acting as if that it's some sort of protected species?

00:13:43.000 They're 18 years old.

00:13:45.000 They can buy a gun.

00:13:46.000 They can vote.

00:13:47.000 But stop acting as if that they need to kind of be, oh, you're not allowed to talk to college kids.

00:13:51.000 Oh, only professors can talk to college kids.

00:13:53.000 Got it.

00:13:54.000 So professors are allowed to talk to college kids, but Charlie Kirk can't talk to college kids.

00:13:57.000 Why am I such a threat talking to college kids?

00:13:59.000 I didn't even go to college.

00:14:00.000 Okay.

00:14:01.000 Listen.

00:14:01.000 Drop what you're doing.

00:14:02.000 If you have a kid in public school, I hope you understand that they are likely to have a teacher like this.

00:14:08.000 They are likely to have someone like this influencing their worldview.

00:14:12.000 Play Cut 101. You're a teacher.

00:14:14.000 Yes.

00:14:14.000 What is a woman?

00:14:16.000 What is a woman? 1.00

00:14:18.000 Oh, buddy.

00:14:20.000 All right.

00:14:20.000 So, we define gender as a set of preferences that you have.

00:14:25.000 Excuse...

00:14:25.000 Gender...

00:14:29.000 Gender is a set of preferences that we have.

00:14:35.000 Woman... 1.00

00:14:37.000 Woman is a social construct that we've agreed upon. 1.00

00:14:40.000 Typically, we imagine womanhood as makeup or whatever. 0.99

00:14:47.000 There is a difference between the word woman and being a biological female. 1.00

00:14:53.000 Woman is a social construct that we use. 1.00

00:14:56.000 Listen for a second.

00:14:58.000 I'm telling you what it means.

00:15:01.000 Woman is a social construct. 1.00

00:15:03.000 We agree on these set of preferences.

00:15:04.000 If I tell you that I'm a man, it's because I want you to know that I like these set of preferences.

00:15:10.000 If I tell you I'm a woman, it's because I want you to know that I agree with these set of preferences.

00:15:13.000 Can men give birth? 0.99

00:15:15.000 Can men or can males? 0.98

00:15:18.000 Because males can't.

00:15:21.000 Listen for a second.

00:15:23.000 If you listen to your bio professors, you'd understand there's a difference between biology and what we think about.

00:15:29.000 So I want to thank you for proving a great point.

00:15:31.000 You are why we should eliminate the Department of Education.

00:15:34.000 Thank you very much.

00:15:37.000 So a couple things.

00:15:38.000 Normally I tell the crowd to chill.

00:15:40.000 But him being a teacher and a state representative candidate, and it being such an outrageous thing he was saying, I let him go.

00:15:50.000 And I think for good reason.

00:15:51.000 I wasn't encouraging it.

00:15:52.000 I wasn't saying, you know, continue.

00:15:54.000 I was just being neutral.

00:15:55.000 I was listening.

00:15:56.000 Because I also wanted to demonstrate on video how much things have changed.

00:16:01.000 Four years ago, if a teacher would have come up and given that explanation, all the kids would have just been listening.

00:16:06.000 What's Charlie going to say?

00:16:08.000 What's going on?

00:16:09.000 Now they have the self-confidence to say, that is complete BS. Stop it.

00:16:13.000 You're a teacher.

00:16:14.000 One of the kids said, you're not getting my hands on my kids.

00:16:18.000 And so typically, I want to give everybody the opportunity to speak.

00:16:23.000 And of course he did.

00:16:24.000 He had the mic.

00:16:25.000 But a little bit of that background chatter, a little bit of the clamoring.

00:16:30.000 I think it was actually healthy here.

00:16:31.000 I think it made for a better video and a better dialogue.

00:16:38.000 Hey, everybody.

00:16:41.000 Charlie Kirk here.

00:16:42.000 Brand new year, brand new opportunities to change the world for the better.

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00:17:42.000 Joining us now is the next governor of Ohio.

00:17:45.000 Congratulations to my friend and great patriot, Vivek Ramaswamy.

00:17:49.000 Vivek, welcome to the program.

00:17:50.000 It's good to see you, Charlie.

00:17:51.000 How you been?

00:17:52.000 I have been great.

00:17:53.000 Tell us why you are running for governor and your vision.

00:17:58.000 Look, President Trump is going to do a great job in the next two years.

00:18:02.000 But what that means, Charlie, is that a lot of programs from education to health care are now going to go back down to the states and to the people where they belong.

00:18:11.000 That's true federalism.

00:18:12.000 That's what our founders envisioned.

00:18:14.000 But that means we're going to need strong governors prepared to take those programs and do the right thing with them.

00:18:20.000 I look at my home state of Ohio.

00:18:21.000 I was born and raised here.

00:18:23.000 I've lived most of my life here.

00:18:24.000 I'm raising my two sons here.

00:18:26.000 We're a conservative state in our electorate.

00:18:29.000 We need to actually be governed like a conservative state.

00:18:32.000 And if we are, this can be not just one of the better states in the Midwest.

00:18:36.000 I think it can be the best state in the country to raise a family, to start a new business.

00:18:41.000 And also something I'm passionate about, you know this, Charlie, is giving our kids a world-class education starting at a young age so that we're beating China and the rest of the world in leadership. 0.73

00:18:51.000 And I want Ohio to be the model for showing how that's actually done.

00:18:55.000 So in some sense, the federal job's already getting done.

00:18:57.000 I'm happy to see that's happening in spades.

00:19:00.000 But now we need strong leaders at the states, and I was proud to get President Trump's and Elon's and others endorsements at the national level out of the gate.

00:19:08.000 What I want to do is show the rest of the country what's possible with a good state leader.

00:19:11.000 That's what we're in this for.

00:19:13.000 Let's dive into that.

00:19:14.000 Ohio is uniquely geographically positioned.

00:19:17.000 It's in the heartland.

00:19:18.000 Yep.

00:19:19.000 It has access to Lake Erie, the Appalachia, Appalachians, mountains.

00:19:23.000 Amazing oil and natural gas opportunities in certain pockets.

00:19:28.000 An industrious people.

00:19:29.000 An industrious people.

00:19:31.000 The hardest working people in the country, I believe, are Midwesterners.

00:19:35.000 I say that as a Chicagoan myself.

00:19:38.000 Talk about the assets that Ohio has.

00:19:40.000 Because far too often in our politics, we talk about the negatives.

00:19:46.000 Ohio has been deindustrialized, opioid addicted.

00:19:48.000 We know that.

00:19:49.000 But it has phenomenal upsides.

00:19:51.000 What are they?

00:19:51.000 Sure.

00:19:52.000 So Ohio actually led the way in the first industrial revolution.

00:19:55.000 And at the turn of the last century, Ohio was the wealthiest state in the union and was the third most populous state in the country because of those great natural resources and gifts.

00:20:06.000 Fertile farmland, great natural resources, including oil and natural gas and other minerals underneath our ground.

00:20:13.000 We've got 60% of North America's population, not just America's population, North America's population.

00:20:20.000 Within a single day's drive of where I'm sitting right now in Columbus, Ohio, those were the advantages we had back then.

00:20:27.000 Six of the top 15 wealthiest cities in the 1950s.

00:20:31.000 Now, that's not long ago.

00:20:32.000 I'm not even talking about the Industrial Revolution.

00:20:33.000 I'm talking about in the 1950s.

00:20:35.000 Six of the top 15 were right here in Ohio.

00:20:38.000 Toledo was the glass capital.

00:20:39.000 Akron was the rubber capital. 0.99

00:20:41.000 Youngstown and Cleveland were the steel capitals of the world.

00:20:44.000 Dayton was the computing power capital.

00:20:46.000 Cincinnati was the leader in consumer products.

00:20:49.000 Porkopolis, powering the food supply of the country, known around the world as the Queen City.

00:20:54.000 That was my hometown.

00:20:55.000 This was the place of the pioneers, the explorers.

00:20:58.000 Neil Armstrong and John Glenn gained the self-confidence here as kids to go to outer space.

00:21:02.000 The state of the Wright brothers. 0.94

00:21:04.000 So we were the state of excellence in America.

00:21:07.000 I think we can be again because we have all of those same advantages.

00:21:11.000 Same fertile farmland, same Erie Canal to New York City, Ohio River to the Mississippi, same location at the heart of the country.

00:21:20.000 It's also pretty representative of the rest of the country.

00:21:23.000 It's not a monolithic place.

00:21:24.000 You got from the inner cities to suburban communities to rural communities to the foothills of Appalachia.

00:21:30.000 You go within a 200-mile radius of where I'm sitting right now.

00:21:34.000 You travel that area, you've traveled the entire cross-section of the entire country.

00:21:38.000 So in some deep sense, it is a representation of America and who we are.

00:21:42.000 And what I think, Charlie, and here's where I'm going to lead us, and this is why I think I require in my calling to be the next governor, if Silicon Valley led the way in the American economy for the last 10 years...

00:21:54.000 I want to make sure it is actually the Ohio River Valley for the next 10 years.

00:21:58.000 And that's not hyperbole.

00:21:59.000 It's not going to be rubber production next time around, probably.

00:22:02.000 But it'll be the sectors of the future.

00:22:05.000 Semiconductor production, nuclear energy, biotech, Bitcoin, defense industrial base.

00:22:10.000 Using AI not to take jobs, but to make jobs, which is something I think we can do through workforce training and education.

00:22:16.000 So it's a modern-day Northwest ordinance.

00:22:18.000 That's the way I look at it.

00:22:20.000 And I'm glad to see people around the state.

00:22:22.000 I mean, people haven't heard of this in a governor's campaign.

00:22:24.000 I was honored, Charlie, to see.

00:22:26.000 I was shocked, actually.

00:22:27.000 We had thousands of people turning out in my statewide tour in a gubernatorial primary where the election's over a year and a half out.

00:22:35.000 There's an enthusiasm for bringing back not the Rust Belt, but what I'll call the Platinum Belt.

00:22:40.000 And I bear that responsibility, and I think we're going to get that job done.

00:22:44.000 I believe you're going to win.

00:22:45.000 We're behind you 100%.

00:22:46.000 Endorsement, the whole thing.

00:22:48.000 And I think if anyone dares run against you, it's political suicide.

00:22:51.000 Considering President Trump has endorsed you out of the gate.

00:22:55.000 So let's talk about how you get this done.

00:22:58.000 Ohio has turned significantly red, but as you mentioned, not as conservative in practice as it should be.

00:23:05.000 Why and how will you go about fixing it?

00:23:08.000 Look, I think there's been a traditional fear in Ohio that governing like a conservative state will somehow lose us elections.

00:23:14.000 You go back to 2000, very close state, swing state.

00:23:17.000 Ohio used to be a swing state in the presidential elections.

00:23:19.000 It's not quite right now.

00:23:21.000 So I think the fear amongst Republicans in Ohio is that governing like a conservative state might lose us those close elections.

00:23:27.000 I view it the other way around, Charlie.

00:23:29.000 That's not going to lose us elections.

00:23:30.000 It's going to win us elections because it'll lift up more people from poverty.

00:23:34.000 It'll put more money in people's pockets and revive that sense of civic pride in our young people.

00:23:39.000 And the fact that Ohio was a state that had some trouble along the way, and I don't want to go into the particular politics of blaming individuals, but let's think about boys competing in girls' sports.

00:23:48.000 Let's think about...

00:23:49.000 Preventing genital mutilation and chemical castration in kids.

00:23:52.000 The fact that some of the leadership of the state had trouble, conservative leadership of the state, might have had trouble with those issues, I think shows us playing a little bit behind the ball compared to states like Texas and Florida that are governed like conservative states.

00:24:05.000 But I'm not worried about the past.

00:24:06.000 I want to actually chase the future.

00:24:08.000 We're going to win elections decisively.

00:24:10.000 Think about opportunities in the next few years.

00:24:13.000 Not a lot of people are aware of this, but say Section 287G. What is that?

00:24:17.000 That allows local law enforcement to help ICE with mass deportations, with actually going after illegal immigration in our country.

00:24:25.000 President Trump is going to drive his agenda forward, but to really see it through, we're going to need strong governors who are aligned with that agenda to act accordingly.

00:24:35.000 And I think that, in our population, the way it is now, look at the margins President Trump's won by.

00:24:40.000 And actually, he's won this state by bigger margins than even people running down ballot of him.

00:24:45.000 I think that signals the mandate to say that people are behind the conservative pro-American agenda.

00:24:51.000 Now, my job as the governor of this state is to explain it to people.

00:24:55.000 Frankly, I think there's a lot of independents, libertarians, orphaned Reagan Democrats, other orphaned Democrats, politically homeless people here who may not have thought of themselves as that Republican coalition quite yet.

00:25:07.000 But if you explain it to them, if you actually show up, if you don't go through the traditional media filters, but just show up in person.

00:25:14.000 I mean, we're drawing thousands of people.

00:25:15.000 Great.

00:25:15.000 I'll use that to our advantage to go to all 88 counties and explain it without filters in between.

00:25:21.000 I want a big tent coalition where a lot of those former Democrats and current independents come along with us.

00:25:26.000 And if they don't want to call themselves Republicans right now, I'm fine with that.

00:25:29.000 But I want to create a governing coalition that doesn't compromise on those core principles.

00:25:34.000 That's actually going to make us even more successful in winning, I hope, in a landslide next year in the general.

00:25:40.000 And that's what I'm shooting for, is not just...

00:25:42.000 Running for the Republican primary, but to win a general election that brings the majority of the rest of this state along as well.

00:25:49.000 You mentioned this briefly.

00:25:50.000 We have two minutes remaining.

00:25:52.000 One of the great challenges for governors, and of course on the federal level, is going to how to incorporate artificial intelligence.

00:25:58.000 Ohio is a unique place because, as you say, it was the advent of the Industrial Revolution.

00:26:03.000 You could argue we are on the precipice of an artificial intelligence revolution.

00:26:07.000 Now, firstly, I think you guys are uniquely positioned because you have the natural resources, the land, and the geography to have data centers that would employ hundreds of thousands of people.

00:26:18.000 But that's only one part of it.

00:26:20.000 That is the backbone.

00:26:21.000 That's the infrastructure.

00:26:22.000 That is the meat and potatoes of AI, which is important.

00:26:24.000 And I think Ohio will flourish because of it.

00:26:27.000 But what about the application?

00:26:29.000 How could AI revitalize Hubbard, Ohio?

00:26:33.000 How could AI revitalize Mahonig County, the forgotten counties of Ohio?

00:26:38.000 I love it.

00:26:39.000 And you're all over this, Charlie.

00:26:40.000 So on the AI data center piece, you're right.

00:26:42.000 It's an opportunity.

00:26:42.000 One thing that we just have to do is bring down the permitting timeline for new power plants and new natural gas pipelines to make sure that we're not only ready, we're ready to be the leadership position of the country, and that's achievable.

00:26:53.000 But the other piece of this is, you really put your finger on this, is a lot of people have focused on training the AI algorithms.

00:26:59.000 Of course, we've put hundreds of billions, really trillions of dollars into that enterprise.

00:27:03.000 Beyond just training the AI, I think the underappreciated opportunity is training workers on how to use that AI. To apply it to their respective fields, to their hospitals, to nurses, to financial services, to construction design, to really every domain where we're increasing the productivity of the worker.

00:27:23.000 And that shifts the conversation and it shifts the focus from, is AI going to take jobs?

00:27:28.000 To just say, actually, AI is going to make jobs that didn't exist.

00:27:33.000 That's not going to happen automatically.

00:27:34.000 I think it's going to have leaders who have to shape that future.

00:27:37.000 If you're just a price taker on the future, you might have a result from AI in your economy that doesn't look good for American workers or manufacturers.

00:27:44.000 But if you have a leader who's focused on training and making sure we're empowering our workers to use that AI, this is going to be a boom for our workers.

00:27:51.000 It's going to increase wages.

00:27:53.000 And I think we need a leader who at least understands what that future looks like, and I hope shows the rest of the country, sets an Ohio standard of how we actually do this well.

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00:29:15.000 So Vivek, education space is one I know quite well.

00:29:18.000 I care deeply about it.

00:29:20.000 What does education excellence look like in Ohio, and what do you plan to do to make that a reality?

00:29:27.000 There's two prongs, Charlie.

00:29:28.000 The first one we talk about, and I think have executed well nationally on Ohio, I think I want to say execute on as well, is school choice.

00:29:35.000 Not just in name, but true universal school choice.

00:29:38.000 Not just private schools, not just charter schools, but also homeschooling as a viable option for any parent who demands it.

00:29:45.000 Give kudos where it's due.

00:29:46.000 Arizona, Iowa, certain other states have gone the full distance here.

00:29:50.000 I want to see Ohio go to that full length as well.

00:29:52.000 That being said, there's also a separate frontier here where I want Ohio to lead the way amongst all states and especially conservative states to set a standard.

00:30:02.000 We have to also make sure our public schools are equipped to compete with the best of the alternatives.

00:30:08.000 And we're going to start by doing something in this state that hasn't been done in any other 50 states.

00:30:12.000 There's smaller things.

00:30:13.000 We're going to put every police officer, at least one police officer, at least in every school.

00:30:17.000 A lot of other basic fixes on safety in other areas.

00:30:20.000 But the big one is implementing merit-based pay for every teacher, administrator, principal, superintendent.

00:30:29.000 Your pay will be tied to your performance.

00:30:33.000 And the fact that that's a foreign idea in our public schools Broken.

00:30:38.000 Our public schools really are.

00:30:40.000 We're not attracting the best people to go into education anymore.

00:30:43.000 They might go become a computer programmer in Silicon Valley or a banker on Wall Street.

00:30:47.000 Now that's what they may aspire to.

00:30:48.000 They should aspire to be educators, but we're not rewarding them.

00:30:51.000 Other countries like Finland or South Korea, when you set up the right incentives for educators, you have some of the best and brightest graduating from the nation's own high schools, going into education.

00:31:01.000 A lot of our young people would be passionate about being teachers, but for the fact, they're not going to be able to live the same American dream pursuing that path.

00:31:09.000 That's wrong.

00:31:10.000 And that means the best public school teachers will get paid more.

00:31:13.000 But it means a lot of the dead weight and a lot of the wasteful expenditures in those public schools need to be eliminated to make that possible.

00:31:20.000 So I'm not picking a fight with anybody, the teachers unions or anybody else, but I'm not going to back down from one if that's what's necessary to do what's right.

00:31:28.000 Some other basic fixes.

00:31:29.000 Get the cell phones out of the schools.

00:31:31.000 Get civic education back into the schools.

00:31:33.000 You and I talked about this a couple of years ago.

00:31:36.000 I'm going to make it reality in Ohio, where every high school senior who graduates from high school will be required to pass the same civics test that we require of every naturalized citizen in this country. 0.51

00:31:49.000 It's just common sense.

00:31:51.000 If someone's coming to this country from a foreign country, they better darn well know how many branches of government there are.

00:31:56.000 A little bit about the civics and history of the United States' foundation and our founding fathers and our constitution.

00:32:02.000 But so should our own high school students graduating from right here, where 80% of them or more do not today.

00:32:08.000 You know, a little bit of tough love.

00:32:09.000 Bring back physical education, including the presidential fitness test.

00:32:13.000 Remember that.

00:32:13.000 We're going to bring that back in our public schools as well, including the pull-ups.

00:32:17.000 And that doesn't mean everyone's going to pass, but it sets a standard.

00:32:20.000 Because as we know, and the Maha movement's been great in highlighting this, the best way to save on health costs in the long run is to have that healthier population in the first place.

00:32:30.000 So when you think about academic health, math, reading, writing, critical thinking, physical health, civic health.

00:32:37.000 Mental health, even financial literacy, incorporating that into K-12 education.

00:32:42.000 We're going to be the state that I believe leads the way.

00:32:46.000 Catching up on school choice, we're going to do that here.

00:32:48.000 But leading the way is, in addition, on setting a standard, expecting more of ourselves in our K-12 public education as well.

00:32:55.000 And I think that is how we're going to address this achievement crisis and make sure that China isn't laughing at us.

00:33:01.000 To the contrary, we're going to be the country that leads the way in the world.

00:33:04.000 When it comes to quality education starting at a young age.

00:33:07.000 I think Ohio has some of the greatest untapped potential in the country.

00:33:11.000 When you have a hard-working, industrious people, natural resources, and you're geographically centered, it can become a new American renaissance.

00:33:19.000 45 seconds.

00:33:20.000 Any closing thoughts here, Vivek?

00:33:22.000 How do people support you, help you?

00:33:23.000 What is the call to action?

00:33:25.000 Look, vivekforohio.com, I'll take every bit of support.

00:33:29.000 Even if it's $1, it doesn't matter.

00:33:31.000 It's a national movement that we want to build here of excellence, led by the states.

00:33:36.000 President Trump is doing his part.

00:33:37.000 He's reviving our conviction in America.

00:33:40.000 We need a leader here in Ohio, here in the heartland, here in the Midwest, who revives our conviction in our state and in our states.

00:33:47.000 I'm proud to have President Trump's endorsement, but to carry his agenda forward, we're going to need strong governors in the heart of the country to do it.

00:33:55.000 So if you're able to volunteer and come here, we would love that.

00:33:58.000 And if you're not, those who are able to support us at vivekforohio.com, we welcome it and we're going to set a new standard for the country.

00:34:05.000 It's good talking to you, man.

00:34:06.000 I just love this.

00:34:07.000 I love this new generation.

00:34:08.000 You got Byron Donalds in Florida, Vivek in Ohio.

00:34:11.000 We're going to have an incredible team of rock stars here.

00:34:14.000 Excited about it.

00:34:15.000 Vivek, thanks so much.

00:34:16.000 Thank you, man.

00:34:17.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:34:18.000 Email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:34:21.000 Thanks so much for listening and God bless.

The Charlie Kirk Show - February 27, 2025

Vivek's Vision for Ohio

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