The following is a presentation of FCB Faith. This is Keeping America First with Bishop John T. Coats and Reverend Jeff Jemison on FCB Faith. Welcome to this wonderful day and time in our great country, and today we are launching our new show, Keeping America First. And we have a very important guest on this premiere show, none other than Tom Eddie who happens to be the chairman of the Erie, PA County that's Eerie County, PA Republican Party. Welcome to our show, Tom, how are you today? I'm doing fine and I appreciate you having me here, I really do. These are exciting times post election. Tom, tell us a little bit about Erie, PA and the county chair the county party. There just what you do as chairman. Well, first of all, Erie has been for some reason this year designated as a bell Weather county. I think there were six that they picked out throughout the nation that said the direction that they go will determine the race, and obviously I think all six went towards Trump and the Republican Party. And the reason I think they call us a bell Weather is because we kind of in this very small northwest corner of the state, replicate everything you find within the entire state of Pennsylvania. And in the last ten major elections, that's national and statewide elections, Erie has always voted for the winner, and they came through last Tuesday. Trump won here by about two thousand votes, So we were very happy. I mean, in sixteen he won here and it was only sixteen hundred by twelve and twenty. But I think his message resignated this year, and I think unfortunately for the other side of the aisle, the economy and inflation did not help them. Those are things that people see on a daily basis, and they could see the impact it was having on their own finances and the family, and I think that's what turned the race in favor of Donald Trump. How about immigration. Do you think that that issue of immigration factored into this at all. I think immigration does factor into it in Erie County. We do have some immigration here with regard to illegal migrants, but not a whole lot. We seem to be a transient point. You know, they come through. My wife's met a couple of buses once in a while at Walmart, and they come through pick up stuff and then they're gone. There was a couple of years ago, right after Biden took office, they flew some midnight flights in here, and they were mostly young teenage girls, and unfortunately many of them were unfortunately pregnant at the time. And then when our congressmans began to look into it, they just disappeared. We don't know where they went, whatever happened to them. And then there was a college in the eastern part of our county, which is called Northeast. They had this Mercyhurst College, had an extension there on this beautiful campus, and they were planning on bringing in immigrant families into there. But then that was stopped very quickly by a gentleman out out of Pittsburgh that bought it and made it into a veteran's rehabilitation center. So the immigration issue that we have is nothing more than legal immigrants coming here. It's one way in which it seems like the city of Aria has been losing population for at least twenty years or more, and they're trying to regain that population by bringing an immigrant community into it. But you know, those are hardworking people that came here illegally, and nobody has a problem with that. I don't think I've ever talked to anybody has a problem with immigration. Their problem is with people jumping the line, you might say, and coming here and not going through the full process and the vetting process. I agree with you one hundred percent on that. No one has a problem with immigration, but it's the illegal immigration. I like what you said, jumping the line, and I've been in many ceremonies where folks have waited for years to get legal citizenship, and we celebrated, and I thought, you know, I think that's just tragic that other folks can just bypass that whole process. But that is an issue, and again, the economy was definitely an issue. Can you talk about some of the other successes of your election day for you specifically? Well, I think our big success is we had a great growd. We had three young people here that was working actually for the Trump campaign out of our office, and they ran an outstanding operation. You know. My recollection is that after the twenty twenty election, Trump realized that he had to look at what he did in twenty twenty other than you know, maybe the potential for fraudulent votes that was you know, that was over, in my opinion, so his his his team went back and looked at the campaign and realized they really didn't do much in a ground game, and so they put a lot of effort into the ground game, not only in Pennsylvania. I mean there was I think they had seventeen sites throughout the state and seventeen different counties in which they had people that were hired to work on a ground game. And they wouldn't work just in that one county, like the people that were here. They were working in Erie County, but they also worked in Warren County, which is east of US, and Mercer County and Crawford which is south, So there was four counties that they controlled. And every week I'd come here on a Tuesday night, they had twenty thirty people in here making phone calls. They were either in some cases writing postcards personal postcards to people, and then they would organize for the weekend to go out and knock on doors. So the ground game I felt really changed for the first time that since I've been here to being very extensive, and I think that often obviously helps. You know, the old adage is if I get ten friends to vote the way I want them to vote, you know, that's ten, not just one. And then I always tell the people, then get those ten to vote for ten people. And that's kind of what they were doing. It was almost like a pyramid effect. They'd get ten people, get those people to get ten people, and then they just kept growing throughout the course of the election. And they were doing this for probably about three months. Did you find a lot of outside support folks coming in from other parts of the country and other cities I had. I mean, I'd be sitting here and all of a sudden, somebody'd show up at my office and say, well, I'm from Buffalo, New York, and I says, good, I said, and then what can I do? They want to know what they could do. And so we had people from not only other states, but also other counties coming here. And I think it was because there was so much attention on Erie County in Pennsylvania as being this again Belwether County, and they felt that if Erik wins, will win, and so they were migrating here to help us, and they did, and we appreciate all that help. It really is important because Erie County registration wise has about close to ten thousand more registered Democrats than Republicans. But the funny part about that is two years ago it was twenty thousand different. So there was a huge shift in our county with regard to registrations, and I think that also played a big part. Well, that's that was really mentioned during the news that I kind of followed that that Republicans were doing a great job in terms of registering new voters all across Pennsylvania. So I think that without a doubt that made a difference. And I think that a lot of people overlook the ground game of the Republicans, and I think that actually led to a lot of surprises, especially with the lands the sweep of all of the swing states. Yeah, I do. I think you know, when they talk about the Democratic crownd game, I know here in Erie County, you know, the Democrats they seem to come up with a lot of money all the time, but everybody that goes out is paid. They get students and they pay students, and we just don't have those resources. So every one of our individuals that when I went up as a volunteer, and I always kind of say jokingly that you know, if somebody's going out because of what's in their heart, they'll work a little bit harder than if it's just something being paid to them. So I think our ground game, I don't know if it was equal to theirs in terms of numbers, but I think in terms of the excitement and the energy that our volunteers put into, it was above the Democratic Party. What advice would you give from this past election experience and cycle, what advice would you give to other party chairs or county chairs? Well, I think it's I really think the ground game is extremely important. You know, next elections in that like we have one starting in January, we start all over again, and the excitement probably among the populace won't be as much because Donald Trump's not there and it's not a presidential election, and a lot of people they don't look at local elections as being as important, but they're probably more important than the national elections because decisions made on a local level, whether it be the county council or whether it be school boards, those decisions usually impact the populace immediately. And so I think getting out and talking to people and getting other people to do the same is critical. Is just critical. You know, people unfortunately have a tendency to be have a habit of watching a certain television station and the news off of that station, and which means they may only get one side. And if you go out there and knock on a door and your polite and you're you know, treat them properly, I think people will listen and sometimes it'll make a difference. I think my wife I can give you an example. My wife was talking to this woman that lives up the road from us, and she said, up until election day she was not sure who she was going to vote for yet. And she had talked my wife several times and she said, you know, talking to you and you give me some things I didn't know about change my mind and I voted for Trump. So that personal connection I think is critical. Without a doubt, that really contributed to the success of this election. Well, is there anything that you'd like to tell our audience and before we close here and we thank you for being our first guest on Keeping America First. Well, I appreciate you asking me to come. And you know, the one thing I tell people is that don't consider your vote not that important. Every vote really really counts, and you know a lot of people will go into it, like for us in this next election, and I think we had in some of the precincts we had ninety percent turnout and I'm sure in the next election will probably be down under fifty. But again, people need to realize that all elections are important and they make a difference in the community depending on who gets elected. And if you want a certain your community to I guess maybe go in a certain direction, whether it be right or left. You got to get out there at the polls and make your voice heard and that's what's important. Thank you, Tom for all the work that you do. Tom Eddie, Chairman of the Erie County PA GOP. We thank you for being with us again. Tom, We're going to stay in touch with you. Okay, that's fine. I've enjoyed my conversations with you. And hey, it's a group effort. One county or anything like that. I mean, Trump one is a result of winning the entire country and that's what you've got to do. If you want to be successful, you've got to work together. So thank you very much for having me. And not to mention winning every demography. Yeah, it's an increase with every demography. Yeah, and that means that he's he has done one thing that has never been able to do be done before, and he's changed the face of the Republican Party. You know, I think he's a common sense guy. You know, he might be rich, but he's common sense and he thinks about the people and that's what's important. Absolutely again, thank you, Tom, and we're going to have you back sometime. Have a great day, okay, you have a good one too, and have a happy holidays. Same to you.
