The NXR Podcast - THE LIVESTREAM - How Politics REALLY Works w⧸Irving City Councilman Luis Canosa

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00:00:16.280 You and I both know that this ministry is willing to talk about things that most ministries

00:00:20.820 aren't.

00:00:21.860 We need this content for the glory of God to reach more people's ears.

00:00:30.520 Christian men are getting involved in politics more than ever before.

00:00:34.660 Whether it was reading Stephen Wolf's book or perhaps watching their own mayor approve of a pride parade that radicalized them,

00:00:41.820 these men are realizing that pursuit of political office is in fact a high calling.

00:00:47.480 The founding fathers of America spoke highly of political office,

00:00:51.480 considering it not merely a job or a hobby but a weighty responsibility.

00:00:56.540 James Madison in particular said that the first aim of every political body should be to find men with the, and I quote,

00:01:04.080 most wisdom to discern and the most virtue to pursue the common good of the society, close quote.

00:01:12.260 But actually doing politics is not easy.

00:01:15.140 If you've ever watched, for instance, House of Cards or All the President's Men,

00:01:19.940 then you actually have a pretty good idea of how cutthroat and ruthless politics can be.

00:01:25.100 And here joining us today is Louis Canosa, a city council member right here in Irving, Texas.

00:01:32.100 Since being elected a year ago, he has been fighting tooth and nail against dark money,

00:01:37.960 paid protesters, and even private investigators that all want to turn his hometown of Irving

00:01:44.300 into the next tax farm for gambling and sports resorts.

00:01:48.700 This episode is brought to you by our premier sponsors, Armored Republic and Reese Fund,

00:01:55.900 as well as our Patreon members and our faithful donors.

00:01:59.620 You can join our Patreon by going to patreon.com forward slash rightresponseministries,

00:02:06.840 or you can donate by going to rightresponseministries.com forward slash donate.

00:02:13.640 If you are considering running for office and what it takes to win a campaign and legislate

00:02:20.360 effectively, you should tune in now to hear firsthand how politics actually works.

00:02:35.180 We're so back. Here we are. This is Monday afternoon, 3 p.m. Central Time. I'm your host,

00:02:40.260 Pastor Joel Webbin. And we are joined today, of course, as always with Wesley Todd, but

00:02:45.380 Michael Belch is out of the studio. He's on a family vacation right now. And so we decided to

00:02:50.840 take this opportunity to bring in a local politician in Irving, Texas. He sits as one

00:02:57.860 of the city council members and his name is not Louis. It's actually Louise. So I mispronounced

00:03:03.420 that. I apologize for that. That is totally fine. Yeah. Thanks for coming. No, my pleasure. Thank

00:03:08.140 you for having me yeah so we've got to know him a little bit um you actually uh if i remember

00:03:13.640 correctly you were at our conference that we recently had yes a friend invited me and that

00:03:17.380 was a very interesting conference i really enjoyed yeah cool so that was the first time that i got to

00:03:21.540 meet you in person and hear a little bit about what you're doing uh in your hometown that's where

00:03:26.640 you were born and raised uh no actually that is irving's the city where i really found um christ

00:03:33.320 you would say six years ago

00:03:35.160 that's where my conversion really happened

00:03:37.520 but originally I actually grew up in Spain

00:03:39.340 I grew up overseas

00:03:40.320 my mother's American and my dad is Spanish

00:03:43.100 and you know I was born a US citizen

00:03:45.760 and eventually I moved permanently to Irving

00:03:48.120 so he has to go back

00:03:49.540 but he can go back last for his efforts

00:03:52.300 he can go back last

00:03:53.240 he does have to go back

00:03:55.980 it breaks my heart 0.94

00:03:56.940 but under Christian nationalism Luis will be sent back 1.00

00:04:00.200 no we're glad you're here

00:04:02.220 and it sounds like you're doing great work i'm gonna let uh wesley go ahead and outline a little

00:04:06.200 bit the purpose of this i'll say this uh 30 000 foot view um we've done a few episodes uh like

00:04:12.120 this and the purpose is because we don't want to just talk we actually want to uh to put action

00:04:17.320 to our words and uh what i'm realizing you know kind of a 30 000 foot view is uh that it's actually

00:04:24.940 in some ways it's um it's harder but in other ways uh making change political change is is

00:04:31.640 actually in some ways it's a little bit easier than i've probably previously thought um and what

00:04:36.840 i mean by that is uh that you know like to the victor go the the spoils well in the case of

00:04:42.380 politics it seems like so much of it is just those who show up yeah and so just uh but a lot of guys

00:04:47.500 don't know how to show up where to show up and what to do you know and a lot of it really is

00:04:52.700 uh straightforward and just being present again and again and showing up and so you're 26 years

00:04:58.180 old right i'm 25 at the moment 25 at the moment and and you're a city council member in a city

00:05:04.880 that's what about a quarter million people a little bit over that yes yeah so you can do it

00:05:10.280 right so we wanted to have luis on to talk about okay like if i want to run for office how how do

00:05:15.460 i do that so wes i'll hand it to you to yeah we've been doing a lot of political content recently and

00:05:20.320 there is a strategy for that so the midterms are coming up now it'll vary based on your state when

00:05:24.880 your primaries are and even some of these elections like Luis your election was in the

00:05:29.040 summer last year wasn't in November when we all voted for Donald Trump hopefully or maybe abstained

00:05:33.780 from our vote but we've been talking a lot about politics lately because now is the time if you're

00:05:37.680 going to run for a campaign and get elected in a year from now now is the time to start thinking

00:05:41.900 about it and there's always going to be times I think of in the third century for example when 0.92

00:05:46.040 Arianism the heresy that Christ was the first created being when that heresy was ravaging the

00:05:51.640 Roman Empire and the early embryonic stages of the Christian church. The need of that day then 0.97

00:05:57.220 was the theologians. It was the bishops that came together and hammered out the solution. They came

00:06:02.060 together and then it was, we talked about it last week, but it was a civil magistrate that kind of

00:06:06.400 put it into order. But the point is, in that time, it was theologians. I think of the time of the

00:06:10.420 American Revolution. But what we needed then wasn't actually theologians, although certainly

00:06:14.380 pastors are always in need, but we needed warriors. We needed men that could endure a valley

00:06:18.780 forge that would fight for just unending for American independence. So there's always going

00:06:23.880 to be different needs and our need right now, but we're not in the middle in many ways of a

00:06:28.160 theological dispute. You don't have the East and the West differing on the identity of God. We've

00:06:33.560 of course have our theological differences that we're always working on and developing.

00:06:37.620 But right now our problem is political. I have one graph just to show and this is a graph of

00:06:43.340 net immigration to Canada. So anyone listening, I'll go ahead and describe it. I got it from a

00:06:48.220 granddad farms here in the chat so he'll recognize this but i want you to look at this graph this is

00:06:53.080 net immigration to canada if you're listening that graph right around 2020 goes parabolic

00:07:00.800 from about 300 000 to close to 2.5 million millions of foreigners like a pepe coin chart

00:07:08.200 or something yeah pepe coin um my portfolio just parabolic just parabolic but this is terrible 0.76

00:07:15.540 this is the destruction of a former christian country and how did it happen did they land on

00:07:20.040 the beach and uh with machine guns no politics yep politicians let this happen this stuff matters

00:07:27.600 like people's lives people's livelihoods their home the the place they've lived for hundreds of

00:07:33.360 years those are being destroyed and right now the answer is political go back to the involved

00:07:39.280 it's good yeah go back to the chart real quick nathan um so for those who are just listening it

00:07:45.020 it, it starts with 1950 and you get all the way up to basically about 2021 or so 2020, 2021.

00:07:52.960 And it's just trading sideways. If this was a stock, um, you know, between anywhere from,

00:07:58.820 from my calculation, about a hundred thousand to 300,000 annually in terms of immigration to

00:08:04.940 Canada. So you're looking at, you know, uh, let's, let's call it 200,000 on average. It's

00:08:10.040 probably even a little bit less but 200 000 per year immigration to canada from 1950 all the way

00:08:16.800 to 2020 for 70 years so for 70 years 200 000 a year and then all of a sudden it spikes again

00:08:24.120 for those who are listening on apple or spotify you're just listening to the podcast it spikes in

00:08:28.980 2020 end of 2021 going all the way to 2025 where we sit today and it spikes all the way up to uh

00:08:37.840 about 2.5 million so you're talking over over 10x and to put it into perspective i think i could be

00:08:45.400 wrong but i think canada its total population is like 40 million it's pretty pretty small it's

00:08:50.820 about the size of california you know so you're not talking about so you're my point is you're

00:08:56.020 talking about 2 million 2.5 million is um is like over well that's net each year so in the couple

00:09:03.740 years that have transpired even since then you're talking 10 million or so right yeah exactly yeah

00:09:09.200 and it spikes up so like at first it's you know maybe it's like 500 000 and then it's you know

00:09:13.400 in 2020 and then it's a million in 2021 and then it's 1.5 2022 and then two and then 2.5 so if you

00:09:20.240 look at all that like and do it in like a five-year cluster this is very general you know

00:09:25.340 shooting from the hip math here but you're looking at like what west said probably like

00:09:28.820 eight to 10 million in a five-year moment in the previous 70 years averaging 200,000 would be what

00:09:36.120 that's 2 million times says 14 million so you're looking at like 14 million in seven uh 70 seven

00:09:42.280 zero years 14 million 52 to about 10 million in five years and in a a country that only has about

00:09:51.280 40 million to begin with so in the last five years they have they have imported um about what

00:09:58.240 five percent over five percent of the total not five to ten percent yeah ten percent toronto other

00:10:04.760 towns population just overrun like people have come in they've set up their temples be it living

00:10:10.540 enclaves because they all rent to one another oh i'm wrong sorry not five percent it would be closer

00:10:15.800 like 20 almost like a yeah like 20 of their population so that's i mean that's just that's

00:10:22.420 a country that's given up on life you know i mean that's like that's just the point is it was

00:10:26.940 political you could be nobody held the gun to anyone's head uh this wasn't even like theological

00:10:31.680 like all the catholic church was facilitating this was a political strategy to displace a

00:10:37.820 formerly christian its origins in european a christian european nation and destroy it and so 0.83

00:10:43.600 here and now in texas be it from the border be it from epic city where muslims want to set up their 0.85

00:10:48.480 own commune with calls to prayer and everything uh they're practically the battle is for this

00:10:53.800 moment political so i'm going to turn it over to louise like we said louise is 25 years old he was

00:10:58.620 24 when he ran his campaign at least for this first segment tell us about just from the beginning

00:11:05.300 part you file the paperwork to run your strategy so uh the demographics of irving you can tell us

00:11:10.780 more about that how do you approach running a race what are the factors to consider kind of how

00:11:15.440 will they look different depending where you are what seat you're running for all of that

00:11:19.180 well i would say that the first thing for anybody that wants to replicate something like that is

00:11:25.040 that you cannot start with the filing as i did on the last day of the deadline just right on the

00:11:31.400 one so right but there was a lot of um there were a lot of things that happened before that even

00:11:37.240 though i didn't have it planned uh for years i had been meeting people um and this is what i

00:11:43.600 would recommend for anybody that is fighting for something um make an effort to network and meet

00:11:48.720 people that will agree with you on those things that motivate you if it's the christian faith if

00:11:53.580 it's your identity if it's your traditions if it's a specific issue if it's abortion um just

00:11:58.860 just find people that will agree with that right so that whenever you have a project or somebody

00:12:03.920 has a project there's a network of people that are ready to fight for that and that's when a

00:12:08.740 catalyzer shows up like an open seat or some or or some sort of um situation where you can you can

00:12:15.040 act and then everybody's ready to be to be activated um and from there that's that's i would

00:12:23.000 say that in regards to my race it was a very um unorthodox thing that for a city council which

00:12:29.020 is usually an office where it's older people that run it's people that have been in all these

00:12:34.780 boards and positions that have all these qualifications because it's a very technocratic

00:12:39.720 position you manage uh water bills you manage code enforcement you manage the police the fire

00:12:44.580 budget so very often like a young guy will never win something like that it is not the candidate

00:12:53.100 it's it's not the profile of that you're looking for in a candidate it's very very odd um but the

00:12:58.160 way it happened in this case is that there was a massive amount of of first of all there was a lot

00:13:03.900 of discontent with the way the current city establishment is doing things and then there

00:13:08.840 were there was a massive number of young men that decided and young people that decided to to go back

00:13:15.560 for me you know i didn't knock 10 000 doors of my own i did i did plenty but there were a lot more

00:13:21.160 people that that decided to fight alongside me that had known me for many years and originally

00:13:28.160 I didn't really have financial backing it was it was with just that initial dedication all these

00:13:35.540 volunteers showing up that eventually donors saw that the yard signs were happening nobody thought

00:13:41.700 I could win at the beginning but as the yard signs were being put in people's yards as the support was

00:13:47.340 coming in as it looked like it was actually a viable candidacy then the support started coming

00:13:52.320 right um so i think that you know to a large extent and then in this cycle when we have

00:13:58.300 more recently when we have gone up against the las vegas sands corporation

00:14:02.560 um they're trying to put this casino in irving so there's been very hotly contested races

00:14:08.300 regarding that um those victories don't track um don't follow any mathematical logic there either

00:14:17.820 it wouldn't seem it wouldn't stand to reason we're going to win this you would never say that

00:14:22.380 but i think there is whenever we get involved in politics and this is something that i have

00:14:26.540 experienced very closely there is a spiritual component to it where if you really put your

00:14:31.900 whole soul and your whole life in it and and it is something that you believe in then you can put

00:14:38.340 you can punch so far above your weight in a way that defies the logic defies the math of how much

00:14:45.380 money you need how much of this you need because people just flock to that and eventually the funds

00:14:49.380 come um and just to like kind of like sum it all up i mean irving's the 90th biggest sex city in

00:14:55.520 america 12th biggest in texas uh you i take it you're not a millionaire so you're not a trust

00:15:01.140 fund baby correct to not be no no so you're not necessarily millionaire you're not self-funding

00:15:05.180 your campaign you filed the paperwork on the last day but you did this you showed up you made signs

00:15:10.640 you put them out and you networked and now you're city council member and i mean you know there's

00:15:15.020 bigger cities out there but you're in a very influential place and we'll get to that in the

00:15:18.140 second segment but the point is you were not like well i'm just super wealthy independently i've been

00:15:22.860 doing this for 10 years i showed up i also didn't have prior name recognition of the city you know

00:15:29.520 people in my community would know me uh but i had not had any sort of um your dad your dad didn't

00:15:36.880 own the city square or anything exactly and all these liabilities for example for a city council

00:15:43.200 race running as a young single guy is absolutely unheard of everybody is married everybody is 80

00:15:50.340 or something like that retired and i'm just this young unmarried guy showing up uh very very odd

00:15:57.380 on top of that, I would say that Irving has a very special situation demographically where it's

00:16:05.180 perhaps the most diverse city in all of Texas. And that means, well, right. But it's very

00:16:13.560 interesting that we're being able to win. We have been able to win so hard. And I think there's

00:16:20.640 something there where- Probably because of the strength of diversity, I would imagine.

00:16:24.700 Well, it's interesting because actually we are being able to form an incredible coalition with all these demographics that you would normally think we could never get together because we have totally different religions, identities, backgrounds.

00:16:41.360 You would imagine it's a total hellscape, but it's actually worked pretty nicely where we have appealed using, in my case as a Christian, the Christian faith is true.

00:16:54.700 is universal and that means that the values that under that that on that are foundational to

00:17:00.780 christianity are going to appeal to other people as well as long as they're not you know totally

00:17:06.380 in bed with the demons and the devil or anything like that right it's going to resonate with

00:17:10.620 everybody the demographics i looked it up it's like about 17 to 20 white about 20 asian i think

00:17:17.660 about 20 black and then 40 hispanic and then you have a little couple mixed in there's there's some

00:17:23.100 I'm not sure it's that much black.

00:17:25.800 There's a lot of South Asians, Indians specifically. 0.58

00:17:29.280 Oh, okay, so that Asian is not Chinese or Japanese.

00:17:32.040 Yes, and there's a very big Muslim population, too.

00:17:34.900 It's a different kind of Asian.

00:17:36.200 There's a huge Islamic center that's like 3,000 people daily gather for prayer.

00:17:40.700 So you are not in like Baptist land, Texas, 89% white.

00:17:45.700 You're showing up on Sunday morning at the SBC church shaking hands.

00:17:49.060 You've got to win in a pretty pluralistic format.

00:17:51.880 And to that extent, it shows that Christians and candidates that represent Christian values can still win in what will be the America of the future after demographic change.

00:18:05.840 There are ways to do that, and I would also like to get into a little bit more into that later on.

00:18:12.020 But essentially, you would never imagine that certain alliances would work out.

00:18:17.340 You know, a bunch of Protestants and Catholics and Muslims fighting against a multi-billion dollar corporation in their casino.

00:18:25.240 Who could have seen that one coming?

00:18:27.760 You would think everybody would be trying to kill each other or something like that.

00:18:31.980 But somehow that's not the case.

00:18:34.640 So I think there's a lot of very exciting things there. 0.99

00:18:38.880 Yeah, and Protestants, they can have a tendency towards going narrow. 0.97

00:18:41.900 So like they think of anything, be it politics, be it business, 0.95

00:18:45.020 that's a very narrow kind of almost like church endeavor well i want people that i'm very

00:18:48.380 completely aligned with but when it comes to like comp we call them common grace categories so like

00:18:53.400 a casino being plopped in my backyard gentlemen's clubs uh in your school for example like a school

00:18:59.620 or your public library materials that aren't appropriate for children those are not in the

00:19:04.620 institution of the church we're not talking about perverse books inside of church and ultimately to

00:19:08.940 win against them people have to realize you have to go abroad now that doesn't mean you you pander

00:19:14.320 That doesn't mean like, well, I'm a Muslim just like you and we want to work together.

00:19:18.180 But there are things categorically, they're just not in the realm of the church.

00:19:22.100 And in common grace, we can link arms against them.

00:19:24.700 Like if there's people that want to be done with abortion, they want to see it shut down,

00:19:28.440 they want to see it ended, you don't have to share their faith.

00:19:32.800 Now, absolutely, your foundation, like you said, it is going to be different.

00:19:35.880 But if you're going to win a race, if you're going to defeat a measure that's maybe a constitutional

00:19:39.840 amendment, you're naturally going to have to be broad and it can't be a purity spiral.

00:19:44.100 At the end of the day, it can't be all of these requirements.

00:19:46.920 We want people that are perfectly aligned on a mission.

00:19:49.120 If you'll show up at Chick-fil-A on Saturday morning and knock doors and vote for me, we'll have you.

00:19:54.460 That is so true.

00:19:55.700 And just a couple things to add to it because I don't think we have clarified that.

00:20:00.100 Municipal elections in Irving are off cycle, meaning they happen in May, so very few people vote.

00:20:04.560 You really need few votes to win, but it's very hard to get people out to vote.

00:20:10.320 And the other thing is that they're nonpartisan, so meaning there's not an R.

00:20:13.200 There's not a D next to the name. They usually have ideological lines where one candidate is the liberal, the other one is the conservative.

00:20:21.640 But in such a diverse city, we have actually found out that the identity of the people, their background, their religion matters more to them than partisan lines.

00:20:30.660 So you'll have entire groups that just flip across party lines and will back a conservative one race, a liberal, and another one based on the interests of that group and what is it that that community cares about morally and in terms of specific policy.

00:20:47.360 So it's not as you will have in a rural town where it's very neatly divided and set in stone where there's this many conservatives, this many liberals, and that's sort of the stage.

00:20:59.540 but there's a lot of more um interesting things that you can do in a city like irving yep bjj

00:21:05.540 wins again good brother that i met at the conference he said low turnout is a gift and

00:21:09.760 we've been emphasizing a lot that you need to know your local area to be equipped in politics so low

00:21:14.120 turnout like you said an off-cycle election that's a totally different paradigm than if you're running

00:21:18.060 in the midterm for example so you have to know if you're going to be involved in politics when do

00:21:22.120 people vote here it doesn't matter what they vote in kansas or where they vote in wisconsin when do

00:21:26.940 they vote here what's the turnout like and that typically can then give you a huge advantage like

00:21:31.580 you said like oh i have a huge leg up i don't have to do all of this different work i don't have to

00:21:35.900 uh because caucuses you'll typically do it through the republican party through the democrat party

00:21:40.340 i don't have to get approval the republican party of texas to run so all of those factors will

00:21:44.820 factor into what your what your race actually looks like all right let's go to our first

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00:24:20.480 All right, well, welcome back.

00:24:22.540 Luis, I want you to tell us a little bit more about campaign actually securing the victory.

00:24:25.940 I think you went into a runoff.

00:24:27.220 But the point in this certainly is not that every single person,

00:24:30.080 you know, all the hundreds of people watching, all of you need to run for office.

00:24:32.820 But the point is there's hundreds of people that supported you.

00:24:35.520 So you've got maybe one guy in your town.

00:24:36.900 He's running for office.

00:24:37.720 But everyone has a part to play as far as volunteering, support, donating, phone calls,

00:24:41.900 that if you're interested in the political

00:24:43.840 solutions that are necessary

00:24:45.620 I imagine if you live in a town in America

00:24:47.980 in the year of our Lord 2025 not everything

00:24:49.880 is perfect so if you want to see political

00:24:51.780 solutions to the political problems that you have

00:24:53.920 sure you may not necessarily run for office

00:24:55.980 but there are tons of good men out there

00:24:57.980 who need your support

00:24:59.640 and we're not talking about quitting your job full time to just

00:25:01.900 knock doors we are talking about maybe

00:25:03.700 one Saturday we're talking about $100 to

00:25:05.800 support the race there's a part to play for

00:25:07.740 everyone and to the degree

00:25:09.580 I mean there's millions of people who think like

00:25:11.820 us they're sick of pride month they're sick of just mass immigration they're sick of being

00:25:17.460 replaced they feel the same way but it's telling them okay and then there's people working on the

00:25:21.820 solutions like it's not just you feel this way and we just have to sit here i don't know just

00:25:26.180 like hope hope someone comes along and saves us like no we're actually going to play a part in

00:25:31.280 what that difference looks like so tell us about uh the campaign itself knocking doors bringing it

00:25:36.020 home and then actually being a city council member what that was kind of like so um i would say that

00:25:41.820 when it comes to people that want to do something there's something that anybody can do and i would

00:25:47.180 actually caution people against wanting to be the candidate and the face because it really is not

00:25:52.720 for everybody i do personally enjoy it i find it really fun very exciting uh but there's a lot of

00:25:58.160 people that would just totally freak out and crumble whenever they see a negative post on

00:26:02.540 social media they would just start crying so don't feel the need to to do that necessarily

00:26:07.160 and i would say um there's the i find whenever i call people to do a task that is vital for

00:26:15.460 example let's say we need to pick up push cards or flyers on friday before 5 p.m from the printer

00:26:21.320 so that we can knock on the on the weekend i need somebody that's gonna do it because after five the

00:26:26.360 printer is closed and then we miss the weekend and i am gonna call the guy that i know is the

00:26:32.680 most reliable not the smartest one not the one that i personally like the most i'm gonna call

00:26:37.880 the guy that is gonna make sure that that gets taken care of so just the ability of showing up

00:26:42.840 and doing the things that nobody else will do consistently eventually even if there's people

00:26:46.940 that do the job slightly better first of all you get more practice and eventually you become better

00:26:50.860 but also i'm not gonna call 10 people if i know that i can do one phone call take one minute and

00:26:57.120 get it get it resolved that's a masculine virtue to reliability men should be reliable i said i

00:27:02.980 would be there i got a flat tire i got this out of the other but i showed up because i gave my

00:27:06.600 word so all men should cultivate that and and and that's advice for anybody um and the other thing

00:27:13.080 is just putting your whole heart in it in my race the it was it was basic we didn't have money for

00:27:19.460 mailers. I didn't have any name recognition. The whole establishment was against me. Everybody

00:27:24.980 presumably was against me. But the best days of knocking, we really just won by knocking doors,

00:27:30.960 the best days of knocking were the days where it was raining hard, like thunderstorm kind of hard.

00:27:35.800 And those were the best days because everybody was home. Nobody knocks whenever it's raining so hard.

00:27:40.940 Why would you do that? But it was so powerful because then all these voters would see

00:27:46.660 a young guy at their door

00:27:48.380 handling them a totally wet flyer

00:27:51.440 was like, hey,

00:27:52.580 will you please support this candidate?

00:27:54.960 And that is really impactful.

00:27:56.560 That really touched people

00:27:57.740 and made the message,

00:27:59.880 those were the best days.

00:28:00.820 I mean, I saw the numbers in the software.

00:28:02.260 I was like, man, we're killing it today.

00:28:04.240 Between the four or five days

00:28:05.720 that we knocked under heavy rain,

00:28:07.140 that's what decided the election.

00:28:08.640 Wow.

00:28:09.200 If we hadn't done that,

00:28:10.100 we would have lost.

00:28:10.860 And that's that level of commitment

00:28:12.140 and zeal that makes the difference.

00:28:13.960 Do you really want it?

00:28:15.620 Okay.

00:28:15.800 Do you really want it so hard that you're going to knock or push people to knock under those circumstances?

00:28:21.520 I remember one of my volunteers calls me as he's driving to my place.

00:28:26.020 He's like, hey, Luis, but it's raining.

00:28:27.640 And I'm like, so what?

00:28:29.320 It's raining.

00:28:30.060 It's not like bombs are dropping on you.

00:28:32.100 It's water.

00:28:32.660 You drink it, right?

00:28:33.920 So we knocked, and it was a phenomenal day.

00:28:36.760 And from there on, we have always done that.

00:28:39.560 And I think that that also boosts morale.

00:28:43.060 You know, you feel ahead.

00:28:43.940 And it's very thrilling to know that you're that you're putting more than anybody else ever would.

00:28:49.640 And it's very meaningful to do that as well.

00:28:52.540 Yeah.

00:28:53.020 Even for even if just for the sake of it.

00:28:55.480 Yeah.

00:28:55.900 How long is the term for a city council?

00:28:58.420 So it's three years and it's been pretty funny because I show up, I get on board and I start, you know, learning how these things work, et cetera.

00:29:07.460 and just like a couple months in the las vegas sands corporation shows up uh you know and they're

00:29:14.200 one of the biggest casino resort companies on the planet and they're like hey we'd like to meet with

00:29:19.860 you and know what you think about our casino plans and then this whole thing starts where now it

00:29:25.320 becomes about this major fight because we have many many projects to make i would like to make

00:29:32.160 irving you know a wonderful city to raise a family it's pretty it's all right at this point

00:29:37.340 but could be enhanced for sure and then you bring in maybe the world's largest casino you're not

00:29:44.400 gonna be that's not gonna fly so it's a direct threat to everything that was you know that i

00:29:49.580 was working for and that was running for these people if these people are successful might as

00:29:54.920 well just pack it and leave right go back go back to spain as you said but um so then this this this

00:30:02.280 challenge shows up, they start meeting with us individually with the council members to

00:30:08.240 feel us out about our thoughts on this rezoning for a casino, which is illegal in Texas for now.

00:30:15.120 They're lobbying very hard at the state level, but they need both things, right? The state

00:30:18.800 legalizing it and then the best location deserving. So they would like that pre-zoned

00:30:22.960 to get to make sure that they are the ones that get the license for a casino issued.

00:30:28.000 I should note, too, with zoning, this is a huge thing if you're sick of apartment complexes going up in your city, in your town.

00:30:35.120 Those are typically rezoned.

00:30:36.760 So, like, there's a plot of land outside of us that's being rezoned from agriculture, where you can only put agriculture structures, cows, this or the other, being rezoned.

00:30:45.100 And there's different categories of residential, so be it or even commercial.

00:30:48.260 So for that to happen, for some farmer to then sell their farm and a big corporation buys it and they turn it into apartment complexes, it has to be rezoned.

00:30:55.560 So anyone who runs for and is on a city council is a vote on, depending how it works, depending on actually rezoning those to say, yes, you can bring in 800 people, plop them onto a half acre of land and skyscrapers that go up 25 stories.

00:31:08.920 That's just a crucial practical part of, hey, when did it happen that I got now surrounded by 3000 people?

00:31:14.180 I didn't vote for this.

00:31:15.440 Well, technically, your city council member is the one who agreed to it.

00:31:18.340 Then in this case, this giant casino wants to come in, and they need to take land, and that's obviously not zoned for a casino because it's not legal, and get it zoned properly.

00:31:27.380 So eventually, if it's theoretically legalized at the state level, they can come in and start building.

00:31:32.540 Right.

00:31:33.200 Which will change the fabric of the entire city. 0.93

00:31:37.100 Casinos draw all kinds of degeneracy and a particular clientele type of person.

00:31:43.900 Well, they're great for the people that run them, just not for the neighboring community.

00:31:47.000 yeah you make a lot of money with the casino yeah yeah but you know even it's funny you want to

00:31:53.020 start a casino business well no i'm just thinking just even the people who run them it's like to

00:31:56.760 say you know that it's great for them i'm thinking of a lot of native american indians yeah who don't 0.99

00:32:02.920 seem like they're doing so great they're rich right they're drugged out yeah they're alcoholics 0.83

00:32:08.340 yeah yeah they're doing terrible but anyways but this family is not uh native indian americans

00:32:16.780 it's a it's a different it's a different you know association right exactly um

00:32:22.560 so then obviously they are the the adelson family which is the family that owns

00:32:28.700 this casino corporation is very famous for is it in vegas um as they are based in vegas that's where

00:32:35.060 their headquarters are but they sold their properties in vegas for six billion dollars

00:32:39.400 just a couple years back and they only own properties in singapore and macau so now this

00:32:45.060 is where they would look uh to expand in the states texas irving specifically is probably

00:32:51.780 the best location on the planet between those major airports that combine is it because it's

00:32:57.220 it's right in between the airports dfw more air travel than anywhere else in the planet within

00:33:01.920 15 to 20 minutes so that's what it is so they're thinking they're not just thinking like okay the 0.80

00:33:06.680 you know the native people here in irving are uh just you know just itching for some slot machines

00:33:12.900 you know it's not so it's more so it's a destination yeah it's so they're saying where

00:33:18.840 where is a easy convenient spot where people can fly in for a weekend exactly right they so they

00:33:24.020 basically want to make your town uh a vegas the vegas of texas yes and so it'll destroy your town

00:33:31.620 but uh it'll also destroy our state but the gdp but the gdp that's your your income yeah no but

00:33:39.760 i mean it really will be terrible for texas as a whole and not just irving right i mean everybody

00:33:44.900 who lives in texas and cares about the state has a vested interest and making sure that this

00:33:50.180 doesn't happen now it's very funny because they they did all their studies apparently about how

00:33:55.480 great irving would be and they bought the land and they got all the rezoning behind you know

00:34:00.460 the case ready behind closed doors for years and then they bring in they they they feel us out

00:34:06.560 privately and then they bring it to council and well they just forgot to check if the people would

00:34:12.400 be in favor of it because it turns out that normally people might be fine with a some casino

00:34:18.580 in the middle of nowhere but they don't want it right in their backyard but specifically irving

00:34:23.380 citizens are adamantly opposed to casinos for example there's as i mentioned before there's a

00:34:29.260 very big muslim population and muslims are religiously against gambling you know catholics 0.99

00:34:36.440 for example are not necessarily against gambling we just happen to hate it because it's like bad 1.00

00:34:41.100 for for the city and bad for the social fabric um but with all those different groups there's

00:34:46.700 this wonderful coalition that has been able to surmount you know all of our differences to unite

00:34:52.640 in defense of what is the most human thing

00:34:57.040 and of the most godly mandate,

00:34:59.080 which is the mandate of passing the gift of life

00:35:01.180 to the next generation, right?

00:35:03.180 We all want to do that. 0.98

00:35:04.580 Even communities that are not Christian, 1.00

00:35:07.080 they still, the trait of non-Christian communities 0.98

00:35:10.840 in Irving is that they do have vitality.

00:35:13.220 They're not dying communities.

00:35:14.840 Even if they're Hindu, they're Muslim,

00:35:16.300 they're not having half a children per 10 women 0.97

00:35:19.600 or something like that.

00:35:20.460 they're actually you know they have they have energy they have a desire to live they have a

00:35:25.140 desire to pass everything to the they are to the next generation and las vegas sands shows up with

00:35:31.960 these casino plans that totally flies in the face of of that desire of that natural instinct that

00:35:36.600 all these communities have and that's where this um this coalition has been able to form um that

00:35:42.960 would sort of defy logic but when you see it in those terms that are very human terms it makes

00:35:48.200 perfect sense yeah so it sounds like you're telling me that um the diversity factor of irving

00:35:53.580 which may have some negative consequences in other arenas but as it pertains to this issue of the

00:36:00.240 casino it's it's it's kind of funny because what i'm picking up on you saying is that uh that that's

00:36:06.040 actually playing as a um an advantage a positive towards trying to keep the casino out because when

00:36:11.700 i think of you know people who don't have the vitality to live i think of white people um you 1.00

00:36:16.780 know like the apostle paul said all cretins are you know liars and lazy beasts and gluttons and 0.99

00:36:21.820 if i was to say you know and i do think that peoples can be categorized by certain strengths 0.99

00:36:25.400 and by certain weaknesses and so you know as a guy who's white himself i feel perfectly comfortable

00:36:29.780 saying uh if there's any particular sin that white people are guilty of it's uh being um

00:36:34.360 uh foolishly altruistic i think that's one uh incredibly gullible uh but that is partly because 0.94

00:36:43.760 of a universal suffrage and uh there's one particular half of white people that tend to 0.77

00:36:49.540 be very gullible uh and then and then the last one that i would add is you know all white people are 0.98

00:36:54.400 foolishly altruistic uh incredibly gullible and suicidal uh like like honestly i feel like in 0.97

00:37:02.140 some ways you could get away with you know if uh if it was a particular community that was 80 percent 0.96

00:37:08.120 white and tended to be an older population of a bunch of boomers who are planning to you know

00:37:14.440 give all their money to the Salvation Army instead of their offspring to begin with and they only

00:37:19.660 have you know one kid you know to start they might they might not put up as much of a fuss so it's

00:37:24.980 it's sad I'm saying this as an indictment I'm not celebrating it by any extent but sadly it does 1.00

00:37:32.200 actually make sense to me that that the muslims uh would actually put up more of a fight than 1.00

00:37:37.900 a nominally christian western european bunch yeah indeed that's that's what we're seeing now i will 0.54

00:37:46.160 say that this family and this corporation is very powerful and the just like whenever i originally

00:37:53.640 run everybody thought or a lot of people thought except for the younger crowd oh there's no way we

00:37:58.120 can win this is like might as well just not even put up a fight to begin with when the casino and

00:38:03.620 then we won when the casino showed up and when the blasphemy sands corporation showed up these

00:38:08.340 people invest millions in elections a city council race is usually 10 20 000 bucks in irving so if

00:38:14.060 these people come in strong it's it was like okay this is going to be game over before we even start 0.63

00:38:18.880 so a lot of even conservative um catholics people that you would imagine would would bravely stand

00:38:25.480 up for what they believe to be right even people that are ideologically opposed to the casino

00:38:29.680 decided okay we can't win um we should just roll over and let them win and this was a there was a

00:38:36.880 very big inertia uh towards that position that we had to work really hard to break in and eventually

00:38:43.100 i just sort of forced the battle upon ourselves um nobody was saying anything i spoke up against

00:38:50.540 the rezoning on february 27th and i was the only council member to dissent on the on the you know

00:38:56.980 on on moving forward with the plans on that day and right after that whole avalanche of

00:39:03.140 resident opposition um was unleashed and that led to incredible activism that we have you know that

00:39:10.880 wave of activism and energy from the community we have been able to serve that into uh two victories

00:39:16.680 since this last cycle and we we have the runoff is coming on saturday and it really looks like

00:39:23.860 we are going to win that one as well just to say too my parents about it's probably about five

00:39:28.680 miles from their home they're in pennsylvania uh there was a casino that was planned to go in

00:39:32.540 there and it actually went in like it's not a foregone conclusion that like oh casino nobody

00:39:36.520 wants that you wouldn't be able to put it anywhere i remember my parents even had a yard sign that

00:39:40.620 said casino like they didn't want it a bunch of people didn't want it but there weren't people

00:39:44.800 in the office that were willing to say no or were immune to being bribed or bought out or

00:39:48.760 whatever it is and they have a giant casino sitting there 10 minutes from their home like

00:39:54.640 these things like they actually do get approved and people standing in the gap is actually the

00:39:59.000 difference that kind of that it can happen so even that i think it was in february you said

00:40:03.560 i remember seeing it on social media it was like just a little bit of a byline wasn't it that like

00:40:07.840 oh we're proposing a rezoning there's a little note like oh this will include you know rezoning

00:40:12.840 for sports betting activities or whatever which you have to be like careful to watch for like this

00:40:18.160 is not just like everything looks good rubber stamp it like you can be in these positions and

00:40:22.620 being aware and being precise and then being brave when the time comes to stick out that's

00:40:27.640 what actually makes a difference if they were trying to pat to uh ram it through behind the

00:40:31.740 residence facts this totally transformational project in three weeks with no public input

00:40:36.760 just standing in the in the meetings they were like don't say las vegas sands just like don't

00:40:41.160 talk about who it is. I'm like, what? What are you

00:40:43.120 talking about? People should know. Why not?

00:40:46.640 I will

00:40:47.220 say that, obviously, it is true 1.00

00:40:49.120 that Muslims have put more of a fight than 0.62

00:40:50.980 maybe white liberals that won't have an 0.88

00:40:53.160 issue with it.

00:40:54.780 But it is just factually

00:40:56.720 true that the group that has resisted

00:40:59.040 this billionaire

00:41:00.360 takeover attempt the most has been

00:41:02.860 just Catholics, conservative Catholics. 0.97

00:41:05.240 Praise God.

00:41:07.160 So, one, I have a few

00:41:09.000 questions. One, it sounds like

00:41:11.040 all this you said uh kind of started unfolding it wasn't even on your radar when you're running

00:41:15.100 your race so you're running on different issues it's not like you're running on a single issue

00:41:18.960 of you know stop the casino from coming to irving so your race happened before all these things

00:41:23.740 unfolded sounds like it was a couple months after you had already been installed in office

00:41:27.780 um so one question is uh what what were the main things that you ran on and then second

00:41:34.260 um i'm also just curious as it pertains to the guys behind the casino um if i mean obviously

00:41:42.760 you you didn't know you were blindsided but but they knew what their plans were they knew like

00:41:47.500 we want to put in a casino and this is the location here's the town you know um so i'm

00:41:51.600 just wondering like with as much money as they have i mean surely like why why did they not uh

00:41:57.520 during you know during your candidacy during the race why did they not run their own candidates

00:42:03.060 and just fill all the seats for like why do they not just back guys you know i mean and make sure

00:42:08.500 that luis doesn't get elected because it sounds like you're the only guy that spoke up on city

00:42:14.340 council and tried to stop it so why like if they're already spending you know like like billions of

00:42:19.880 dollars like what like it sounds like all it would have taken is maybe 20 30 grand to run you know

00:42:26.560 candidate and have him beat you well i mean who would think that some random 24 year old is going

00:42:32.820 to be the one that speaks against um against the project like that's yeah it's also you you wouldn't

00:42:39.420 see some young kid running as such a threat right um but that's a good point so you're saying part

00:42:48.420 of it was the covertness of you you know your age like demographic and those kinds of things that

00:42:56.180 they just they didn't think that they were going to have a problem with city council i do represent

00:42:59.400 to a lot of people that are behind me, not just myself, a lot of young people, a lot of older

00:43:04.600 people too. But even when I ran, I think everybody underestimated the kind of commitment that I

00:43:13.080 would have and the determination to get across the finish line. But I would say that when it

00:43:19.540 comes to Las Vegas Sands, the plan was to lobby the elected officials privately, and normally

00:43:29.780 you would, they would present it in a sugar-coated way, and just their presence is very threatening

00:43:37.280 because, okay, these guys are totally going to replace me if I go against them, right? They're

00:43:41.220 going to crush me. Nobody would dare just stand up on their own against somebody like that. So

00:43:47.480 their plan was to meet individually with the council members they had prepared the zoning case

00:43:51.580 and then if they thought it would get through just bring the zoning through and get it approved and

00:43:58.100 after there's a revolution doesn't matter because it's passed it's entitlement once you give it you

00:44:02.140 cannot take it back right so um and then they would if if it wasn't going to pass uh then they

00:44:09.460 would just replace us and would get involved in the races so what i what i did and what i suggested

00:44:15.580 to a couple of my friends is,

00:44:17.360 well, I mean, obviously the playbook is very obvious.

00:44:19.440 It's very clear what they want to do.

00:44:21.460 These people have their end game

00:44:24.020 and we should make sure that they bring it to the public.

00:44:27.280 And then we discuss it openly

00:44:28.540 and see what the community wants.

00:44:29.960 Instead of them, you know,

00:44:31.280 feeling out that the council is not in favor

00:44:32.740 of replacing us covertly

00:44:34.120 and then passing it covertly once they get the votes. 0.98

00:44:37.040 So I played dumb and that was great. 0.93

00:44:39.660 And I think also some of my colleagues 0.97

00:44:41.660 in the council didn't, you know,

00:44:43.200 were like, oh, let's talk about it more.

00:44:45.160 and you know uh later on etc and then and then we we we were able to to um get them to bring it

00:44:54.540 public and then we had the votes to defeat it um right after the avalanche of public supports

00:45:01.180 swung a couple undecided council members because you spoke up publicly and then there was a citizen

00:45:05.660 uh hearing and just to even again connect this locally there's a guy in our church they're going

00:45:10.180 to put a gas station on a lot that's right across from his home so they moved in they bought a home

00:45:14.600 and it's like this is great there's it's empty we got a quiet street and then literally they came

00:45:19.400 in and someone bought the parcel and they wanted to put a gas station there which who would want

00:45:23.200 that something like 600 people showed up to speak against it was like 598 against one or two four

00:45:29.240 whatever it is and they actually defeated it so this is not just like if i mean it's like doomsday

00:45:33.620 like we got a casino literally in my backyard that's the only chance this would come up all

00:45:37.880 sorts of little things that could really affect your quality of life can't be impacted by things

00:45:43.020 like what you can tell us about right now, public support, showing up, speaking out, saying, we don't

00:45:48.800 want this anywhere near us. So here's another question. When it comes to, you know, who's the

00:45:53.660 guy, right? It takes, you know, it takes a whole team, but the guy who's going to be the face,

00:45:57.780 who's going to actually be the candidate. It sounds like in your case, and I'm curious if

00:46:01.540 this is kind of a universal principle across the board, or if it just in the providence of God

00:46:06.400 worked out well for you but in your case it seems like um it was very advantageous uh to be

00:46:14.060 unassuming to be kind of an unknown um you know like you're you know hiding your your power levels

00:46:21.240 you know like that that nobody you know they didn't see you as like much of a threat and so

00:46:26.200 i'm wondering is that is that just particular to your case or is that a kind of a general principle

00:46:32.520 that applies across the board like if for instance um with our church uh we've got guys who have run

00:46:40.120 for for office we have guys who hold office um and i've kind of been under the impression that

00:46:45.140 i'm probably not the guy right like i'm not unassuming uh you can find hours and hours and

00:46:50.200 hours of content and plenty yeah well i think i'm a great guy you know but uh but there's plenty of

00:46:56.000 people you know a few million that don't and uh and so and so my my point is that um it seems like

00:47:02.720 in some ways like like you you know you need different pieces of the puzzle you know um there

00:47:08.040 there are guys who are going to be just a voice but the voice guy you know who has a podcast you

00:47:14.140 know or or whatever whatever he does he may not always be the best guy to actually be the candidate

00:47:18.720 right what do you think i would say that it really depends on the situation on what the electorate

00:47:25.540 looks like and your cards you play your cards right because yes i was unassuming i was

00:47:30.360 underestimated but also that i didn't have the best resume for voters so as my resume becomes

00:47:36.060 better and better i will not be underestimated but it's also going to be easier to make the case

00:47:41.180 hey you should support me because this is what it is that i have done so far um so it really it

00:47:47.380 really depends it really depends it's a matter of playing that chess game and having the people

00:47:52.680 in your team that have the strategic thinking to understand what would be the best move yep so when

00:47:58.820 uh when there was a public hearing for support for the casino i'm sure lots of people were in

00:48:02.740 favor right i'm sure lots of people really wanted it huh so we have just organically there were like

00:48:08.760 10 hours of testimony almost all of them except for like two people were adamantly against the

00:48:14.640 casino um and the last vegas sands actually hired because it was such a pr disaster we did a town

00:48:21.400 hole and the guy from sands got booed for two hours straight it was really fun to watch if

00:48:27.820 you're in the anti-casino side maybe not so much for him but the they for a planning and zoning

00:48:36.620 um commission meeting they hired a bunch of paid protest protesters and that was really fun because

00:48:43.460 they came in it was really obvious they they would all give you the same scripted answers

00:48:48.980 and among the people that they hired there were a bunch of girls and it was really funny because

00:48:54.800 the girls by the end of the night as they heard the testimony of the moms talking about the

00:49:01.480 terrible things that casino brings for family and all these horror stories they were tearing up

00:49:06.320 they were tearing up and like clapping to the testimonies against the casino it's like wait a

00:49:11.060 second you're reading for the wrong team now you just flipped you're not supposed to do this are

00:49:14.820 you getting your paycheck um so yeah they hired a bunch of people they spent apparently like 10

00:49:19.960 000 bucks uh doing this stunt and then the media got the ndas because somebody flipped and something

00:49:26.820 like that um so it's just insane like you're trying to plop up a casino in someone's town

00:49:32.120 and you're paying people to pretend as if they want it right like this is not just like all

00:49:37.300 fairs love war like that's terrible because there was literally nobody that would show up

00:49:41.980 in support nobody wants us and like we will spend as much money as is reasonably possible

00:49:47.480 to get this in any way if there's a means to do so and that's what politics is they spent

00:49:52.060 174 000 uh dollars or 168 in this um last couple months trying to get their candidates of choice

00:50:02.080 across the finish line to to sway the council because then there's city council seats up for

00:50:05.460 votes so then you have all the public outcry but ultimately it depends on the votes it depends on

00:50:10.060 I think you said eight city council members.

00:50:11.600 I mean, not to take away from like going and speaking, most council members are not going to flip.

00:50:18.680 Right.

00:50:18.800 It was there were two that were a little bit on the fence.

00:50:22.800 We were lucky that they voted to delay, but they're still in favor of the casino.

00:50:26.280 It's just like too soon because the public is outraged.

00:50:30.320 Come back when everyone's forgot about it, basically.

00:50:32.880 Right.

00:50:33.120 Exactly.

00:50:33.700 Yep.

00:50:33.920 That would be or whenever, you know, Sands is able to buy.

00:50:37.080 Las Vegas Sands is able to buy up the elections and the council seats.

00:50:41.060 But they have failed.

00:50:42.140 They have failed.

00:50:43.560 Two out of three and then this runoff on Saturday.

00:50:46.300 I'm very optimistic about it.

00:50:47.820 So basically now you have a majority of city council that will never approve,

00:50:52.740 at least as long as they're in office, theoretically.

00:50:54.800 As long as we don't get replaced, yeah.

00:50:56.360 As long as you get replaced, they'll never put a casino in your town.

00:50:58.800 Yes.

00:50:59.260 I love it.

00:50:59.940 It can't happen without the city council's approval?

00:51:02.580 No.

00:51:02.920 They need to.

00:51:04.340 the state could try to preempt us but that would be very odd that would be very odd and we're

00:51:10.600 probably going to pass something to to preempt the state from preempting us essentially i just

00:51:16.420 like to say too like this is kind of like christian nationalism like what does it practically

00:51:19.540 look like well a lot of it's going to be small at the beginning right think about stephen wolf's

00:51:23.320 political project or different forms of it be it could be catholic integralism or just even

00:51:28.340 kind of plain broad christianity this is actually practically what it looks like so many people

00:51:33.120 think it's so scary well here's what it looks like uh making sure people can't come into your

00:51:37.220 town and turn it into a drug and trafficking route right like i don't know about you i'm a

00:51:42.820 supporter of that i think most christians all christians who care for the thriving the vitality

00:51:48.240 like you said earlier they should be in favor of these types of things this is practically what it

00:51:52.280 looks like on the ground a christian man takes office and uses his role in that office to protect

00:51:57.600 his town to promote the good to hopefully at some point you have the opportunity punish the evil

00:52:02.680 and maybe he'll kick out a pride parade or two. 0.98

00:52:05.000 That's what it looks like.

00:52:06.700 And I would say, too, that it's very interesting,

00:52:09.360 the power of belief.

00:52:11.020 Because the people that are on our side,

00:52:13.280 they really believe what they're fighting for.

00:52:15.900 But the people that they hire,

00:52:17.680 that Las Vegas Sands hires, are mercenaries.

00:52:20.400 So I was talking to them,

00:52:21.960 and I was just offering them,

00:52:23.820 hey, do you guys want a job or something?

00:52:25.420 I could give you a door-knocking job to work against Sands.

00:52:28.160 And some of them were really like,

00:52:29.440 oh, that's really rude or something.

00:52:30.940 But some of them took me up on it.

00:52:32.200 it's like oh great now these guys are gonna be knocking against the people that just hired them

00:52:36.300 um and so you really can't uh rely on people like that because they will just they will

00:52:42.640 betray you because they don't they don't agree with you they're just doing it for the money

00:52:46.600 right so um you know that's that's a funny story yeah yeah the edelson door knockers that's pretty

00:52:54.080 lit we got one more piece to the the story so we'll go to our last commercial break if you have

00:52:58.000 any questions uh specifically i mean we've got luis here we're live leave them in the chat and

00:53:02.620 then uh last more couple pieces and then we'll go ahead and wrap it up at kingsman caps we believe

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00:57:12.720 Welcome back. We've talked about it, I think, a number of times, but as far as character,

00:57:17.520 as far as your past, as far as your current actions, most certainly, obviously, for the

00:57:22.880 office of pastor, but also when it comes to politics, I think of Mark Robinson was an example

00:57:27.320 in north carolina he was running for governor and salacious comments from years ago came out and he

00:57:32.500 lost the race it was same thing with matt gates was nominated for attorney general and basically

00:57:37.620 an investigation into him proved he had character that was i mean we're not just talking like you

00:57:43.140 know moved in with his fiancee three weeks before the wedding but potentially slept with underage

00:57:47.300 girls so character matters and one of the ways practically this can manifest is this actually

00:57:52.320 happened to you louise is when you go to get into politics and you take office and especially when 0.97

00:57:56.800 you start doing something in politics.

00:57:58.280 So it's not just you keep the seat warm,

00:58:00.360 you rubber stamp everything that comes across your desk,

00:58:02.420 but you speak out and you say something,

00:58:04.600 people are going to dig into your past.

00:58:06.500 They're going to take a look.

00:58:07.800 They're going to treat it,

00:58:08.480 see if they can find anything that would incriminate

00:58:11.200 or disqualify, whatever it would be.

00:58:13.600 So Luis, tell us practically how that looked for you.

00:58:15.620 You took a stand.

00:58:16.420 You said, I don't want this in my town.

00:58:18.680 And that was it.

00:58:19.260 They left town, right?

00:58:20.680 Left town packing?

00:58:22.940 No, they have no,

00:58:23.980 they don't hold a grudge against me at all.

00:58:26.260 They're not looking for revenge, and they didn't just hire a private investigator to go after me, most likely.

00:58:32.680 So, yeah, there's this guy from Chicago, out of Chicago, that is a private investigator, apparently asking for my documents from the city of Irving and looking into a bunch of other things, too, I would imagine.

00:58:45.760 So, yeah, I mean, they're not going to find anything because I'm, like, the nicest person ever.

00:58:49.760 So what could they find?

00:58:52.280 But I would say that, yes, you want to be very careful with what you say.

00:58:55.320 i don't drink i don't smoke so there's there's nothing that i'm concerned about uh coming out

00:59:01.460 he said this thing that day i never used social media until i had to create a twitter account to

00:59:06.660 post my intervention on the february 27th right right originally spoke against but i was late for

00:59:12.000 that you know i was just i've been chronically reticent to being in the online sphere and doing

00:59:19.580 the silly posts about this is what our police department is doing you know right i don't want

00:59:24.040 to be like news that's not my function i don't want to do that yep um and just being careful with

00:59:31.480 you know i i frankly do have a very provocative sense of humor and that is something that

00:59:38.040 i'm especially in politics the way it works it can be spun out the wrong way so when you say

00:59:44.540 when you joke with uh which people you know you make fun of your friend or something like that

00:59:49.360 you call him ugly or something um they will take that they will take anything that they can get

00:59:54.460 and try to use it against you right um so in this case they're just trying to to dig for stuff uh

01:00:01.120 they will be grossly unsuccessful but i'm just a very lucky man and i've been very very careful

01:00:06.680 throughout my life but that's something definitely worth bearing in mind for anybody getting involved

01:00:10.980 that's a real calculus though if you're thinking of running for office hey maybe you don't have a

01:00:15.280 based X account. Think of all of those things as anything I say, it's very possible. It's going to

01:00:21.640 live on. And if I tried to go for public office, this could be used against me. Same thing for

01:00:26.160 past sins. I mean, David ultimately, not even a knock on him, but God says, look, you're past.

01:00:31.720 You're not going to be the guy to build the temple. And so it comes to practically getting

01:00:36.900 involved. Many men have to make the calculus. Is there things in my background that might actually

01:00:42.280 prevent me from doing so. Again, to go back to Mark Robinson, I mean, this is the guy who beat

01:00:46.680 out a bunch of other candidates for the Republican governor of North Carolina, men who presumably did

01:00:52.020 not have, you know, comments from 20 years ago on adult sites. And so he took that spot and he ran

01:00:57.460 for that office and then he lost it on them. And now North Carolina is stuck, not just for, you

01:01:02.320 know, six months or, oh, we got a bad couple of weeks ahead of us. They're stuck for years now

01:01:06.420 with a democrat governor and that was because somebody in his past was salacious and so whether

01:01:13.820 it's truly sin truly disqualifying both as sin but also for public office or whether it's even

01:01:19.220 like you said luis be it a sense of humor be it things you post online even there technically it's

01:01:23.920 a very valid calculus to say i'm not going to do this and i'm not going to do this not because i

01:01:28.280 don't believe in it not because i think it's wrong i'm not going to do this because i want to have an

01:01:32.260 impact later on down the road and this could jeopardize it and then other guys saying i just

01:01:36.760 i'm never going to run for public office and what i can do is i can be the heel on social media so

01:01:41.180 i'll say the things great guys can't i would also say women is a big one where every like you you'll

01:01:49.540 see trump any anybody that is doing anything um women will be weaponized against them or they

01:01:55.300 have been sleeping around or doing things like that so i would say and obviously i'm catholic

01:02:00.020 i believe in the teaching of the catholic church in that sense so if anybody accused me of anything

01:02:04.900 it would really fly it would not go well right it would just not people wouldn't buy it um so

01:02:12.060 so yeah and i would like to add that when it comes to irving i don't think las vegas sands

01:02:19.100 has tried to build casinos in many spots and they have been successful in many spots they've have

01:02:24.200 failed in many spots i think it's unlikely that they have ever seen a resistance that is so

01:02:29.400 organized and so competent as what they have encountered in earth because it is it is a city

01:02:35.380 that is filled up with people that absolutely hate this project and are willing to put down

01:02:42.100 their lives um completely to to make sure that they're not successful and that they don't destroy

01:02:47.920 the community with it yeah nope i love that all right any um any super chats or questions nathan

01:02:55.380 we've got a couple here let's see granddad farms uh he gave us five bucks thanks granddad farms we

01:03:00.740 appreciate your generosity he says thank you for your service louise uh oh and this is what the

01:03:06.480 five bucks goes toward he says your first class ticket will be paid for well you're still missing

01:03:11.660 a little bit more yeah i guess i'm staying for business class well no i was gonna say spirit

01:03:17.940 airlines yeah with spirit airlines five dollars that's that'll get you far you can finish your

01:03:23.960 term right so you're about a year in you got two more to go and then uh first class ticket all the

01:03:29.900 way back to spain uh bjj wins again he gave us 10 bucks we appreciate it he says luis i am local

01:03:37.300 so i guess he lives in irving and i would love to connect with you wes has my number true story

01:03:42.560 uh just go ahead and text me again because i got a bunch of texts during the conference so text me

01:03:46.700 again and i'll connect you too yeah bjj wins again he was uh one of the guys at the conference we're

01:03:51.640 uh glad to have them there okay let's see are there any other questions yeah so daniel dan

01:03:57.360 sax said wesley was at the hollywood casino in morgantown i am 10 minutes from there as well yes

01:04:01.840 that's exactly at about i think five years ago or so that was the hollywood casino that they

01:04:06.160 it's like a town of like a thousand people in rural pennsylvania and it came in and it came

01:04:12.040 in it's there to this day wow yep uh louise any i have a just one encouragement i think a lot of

01:04:17.900 men i have talked to so many about the last month month or two there are so many men getting involved

01:04:23.700 in politics like this is not just kind of been our little hobby horse and you know a couple guys are

01:04:28.240 following a lot of people are realizing that many of our crises they're downstream from political

01:04:33.740 action whether it be your taxes whether it be the materials in public school even if you don't send

01:04:38.340 your kids there you're still going to be surrounded by the products of those public schools so it's

01:04:43.220 your taxes. It's your schools. It's immigration. It's an apartment building, five of them going up

01:04:48.480 right behind your house. These are all downstream of magistrates and political office. I don't think

01:04:53.640 I've ever seen the scale of men saying, let me join a society, be at Old Glory Club. Let me run

01:04:59.680 for local office, even if it's just even a city council, state representative. I'm going to

01:05:04.480 volunteer my time to door knock. I'm going to form an affinity group. So many guys are getting

01:05:08.400 involved and i think like you keep this up like like year after year after year we're gonna have

01:05:13.580 some races we lose you could get inspired from this you go and run yeah no we're not we're gonna

01:05:18.000 we're gonna sweep the board practically speaking uh we're gonna lose uh but if you keep it up and

01:05:23.380 then come back the next year like that's name recognition you run and lose right you still

01:05:27.160 get name recognition if we keep this up for decades on end we will win like we're stronger

01:05:33.180 we're smarter we have god on our side like you said the power of belief you're not just fighting

01:05:38.060 for irving as an economic zone like yeah i found christ there yeah this is home it's home yeah i

01:05:44.420 would i would say it's not spain home right it's really good i enjoy it there's a reason why i'm

01:05:50.660 here right yeah i would say i think that sort of speak politics is the new tech and that's where

01:05:57.500 i would encourage a lot of young men to go to or young people that are that really want to give

01:06:03.660 the fight um it's also really fun if you have the temperament for it it's really really fun

01:06:11.060 it's super meaningful and in my race we were doing a party after every day of volunteering with

01:06:16.600 people that agree on on whatever it is that they agree on and you know there are christians

01:06:21.560 and it was it was it was blast it was a blast totally um and you know people knocking in pairs

01:06:28.980 that makes it very easy and then see the victories is very satisfying I sleep every night with an

01:06:36.360 incredibly calm conscience I'm needing less and less sleep as time goes on it's so good you know

01:06:44.260 because very often you see how the world is going downhill especially from a Christian perspective

01:06:49.880 how things are not looking good for the church worldwide presumably and there's this anxiety

01:06:56.940 that keeps building up

01:06:58.100 because you're like scrolling in Twitter

01:07:00.000 and maybe like ragging at people

01:07:01.680 or something like that.

01:07:03.100 But when you get involved

01:07:04.060 and you start doing things

01:07:05.300 in whichever capacity you can,

01:07:07.280 even if you're a small part

01:07:08.420 of something that is much bigger,

01:07:10.420 there's this piece that starts coming

01:07:12.520 and there's this,

01:07:13.820 the anxiety starts just,

01:07:15.740 it just goes to zero.

01:07:17.380 And then it becomes this

01:07:18.560 extremely engaging level of alertness

01:07:22.580 that just, you know,

01:07:24.040 it is very, very enjoyable.

01:07:26.280 yeah um very thrilling so i encourage everybody to experience it because if you like it you're

01:07:31.720 absolutely going to love it i know of almost no man works 50 hours a week has tons of enemies so

01:07:37.340 he's in the fight a little bit racist who's depressed i just i never met that guy you know

01:07:41.680 he's working hard he's actually doing something meaningful right he's not building widgets

01:07:45.920 he's doing something meaningful he loves his place loves his home like i've never met a man

01:07:50.700 that's just like and then i get home and i'm wracked with depression anxiety and there are

01:07:53.760 cases a charles spurgeon being an example but by and large if you're a man and you're like well i

01:07:57.920 work 25 hours a week and then i play video games and i'm kind of depressed and i'm kind of anxious

01:08:02.080 like yeah you need to go do something with your life now probably if that's you that's not running

01:08:06.260 for public office but supporting someone but finding yourself in the fight is the cure to so

01:08:11.380 many ills of our modern age of overthinking and anxiety mission what to do men need a mission

01:08:17.020 yeah it's not just entertainment or doing you know hobbies but men actually need a mission you know

01:08:22.820 like i mean you see like the memes online you know it's like i was you know born uh born too

01:08:27.600 late uh to to be a part of the crusades you know but born and born too early you know to uh to

01:08:33.840 colonize you know the martians on mars my favorite one is uh born too late to uh fight the indians

01:08:39.820 for my homeland born just in time to fight the indians for my homeland that's funny different

01:08:45.360 kind of indian yeah but yeah but like men men need a mission they need to and and that's the

01:08:50.920 thing is you don't have to larp you don't have to conjure it up or make something up you know

01:08:54.600 fabricate uh no there really is a mission um uh the church has been in decline for decades

01:09:01.020 uh now there are some signs of life that are very hopeful uh just in the past few years but

01:09:05.640 on the macro for decades the church has been in decline we have rampant feminism we have you know 0.64

01:09:11.400 rampant lgbt lmop mafia you know rampant abortion um all these things and uh and so like there really 0.59

01:09:19.800 is something to fight there really is something to give your life uh towards and and when you do 0.95

01:09:26.160 that it's like oh well you know it'll be hard it'll be this yeah it is hard but um but you find

01:09:32.520 purpose and you actually you'll you'll find yourself louise is right like you'll find yourself

01:09:37.120 being a lot happier and actually a lot more at peace um for me just personally in my own life

01:09:43.900 the more responsibility and weight that God kind of loads me down with both, you know,

01:09:50.500 whether it be in church life, pastorally, and then like with media and right response. And then,

01:09:55.920 and then of course with family. And every time the Lord gives us another kid, we're up to five

01:10:01.540 and we'll see, you know, see what, what God does. And if there's more, but it's like with each new

01:10:07.280 kid and you don't have time to like so much anxiety comes from the incessant um constant

01:10:14.040 navel gazing and introspection you know and and thinking about you know all these different things

01:10:19.620 like like men many men just they they have too much time on their hands right and and one of

01:10:26.280 the things that's helped to level me out um to where like i i go to bed and i'm not tossing and

01:10:32.580 turning and struggling with anxiety because, uh, you know, my, my head hits the pillow and I'm out

01:10:37.940 within seconds because I'm actually tired cause I worked, you know? And so, uh, one of the things

01:10:43.120 I think that, um, that men need and what are just like for an emotional psychological equilibrium

01:10:49.860 to just, to be healthy, um, is, is a mission and work and their, their days to be filled and, uh,

01:10:58.000 And, you know, family and church and their vocation comes first.

01:11:03.220 But then beyond that, there's a lot of other things that we can throw ourselves into.

01:11:08.040 And politics is one of them.

01:11:09.900 Yeah.

01:11:11.100 Thanks for coming on.

01:11:12.100 Any final thoughts?

01:11:13.060 How can we help out the Saturday, I think you said, is the last runoff race.

01:11:16.820 So this is if two candidates too close to call, they kind of go to one last showdown.

01:11:21.540 Right.

01:11:21.800 So nobody got 51% on the general election.

01:11:25.820 So there's the runoff.

01:11:26.540 i do feel very confident about it if somebody wants to help out sergio porus you can donate

01:11:32.440 online or just help uh sign up to volunteer for this saturday or you know wes has my number uh

01:11:39.100 maybe actually you don't maybe you just have my signal i just have your signal well probably one

01:11:43.580 of your like three phones who's the candidate uh sergio porus he's the one that is running against

01:11:47.920 the casino oh okay gotcha against the casino dark money yeah uh but it's looking it's looking very

01:11:53.820 good i do think that just as a word of encouragement it is as i said very engaging um i will say

01:11:59.840 though that it takes a lot of discipline to do to do what needs to be done because sometimes

01:12:04.440 you have a bunch of deadlines there are seven things that need to be done before certain times

01:12:08.980 certain days so that everything goes out the text messages and this and that everything happens

01:12:13.240 within a certain timeline um and maybe you just can't sleep that night or sleep very little or

01:12:19.840 you need to skip a meal and that sort of discipline that allows you to in the moment of combat because

01:12:25.260 it's like a war it's like battle um to make to to perform and to do what needs to be done under

01:12:33.140 those conditions you build that ahead of time so even if you don't find yourself in an immediate

01:12:37.920 battle you can still get ready for that way ahead of time um so that you will be able to deliver

01:12:43.800 when it makes when that resilience makes all the difference yeah i never knew someone who you know

01:12:50.100 they uh they always slept in they weren't disciplined with their diet you know and then

01:12:53.780 the kid came along and they just locked in or they got the new job or whatever it is your habits will

01:12:58.460 always precede what you eventually becomes if you want to be well i want to be successful in this

01:13:02.800 and i want to make this money okay all the habits that you imagine yourself having then they're not

01:13:07.080 going to magically appear you're going to want to start them now so be it speaking be it being

01:13:11.120 courageous you know like you said discipline working long hours like if you're if you're

01:13:16.280 worth less than a million dollars why are you not working on saturday like like legitimately if you

01:13:21.480 if you if you do not have the income that you need if you don't own a home saturday is a great day to

01:13:26.680 work six days shall you labor the seventh shall you rest but that type of mindset building in

01:13:31.840 that discipline before you get to the point where you work every day because you're a state senator

01:13:36.880 or you work every day because you have three businesses building that up prior to will set

01:13:42.160 you up for success amen all right well thanks for tuning in and thanks again luis for coming

01:13:46.820 on the show and we will see you guys on wednesday

The NXR Podcast - June 02, 2025

THE LIVESTREAM - How Politics REALLY Works w⧸Irving City Councilman Luis Canosa

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