Now. This is the FCB Podcast Network. This is Pillow Talk with Ali Michelle on the FCV podcast Network. Welcome back to another episode of pillow Talk with Ali Michelle. I am your host, Ali Michelle, and today I am thrilled to have Jay Edwards, candidate for Ohio State Treasurer, newly VP endorsed joining us now. Jay grew up in Nelsonville, played football at the Ohio University, built businesses, and has now been leading tax and education incentive initiatives. But before we dive into policy, I do want to break the ice. That's kind of what I do on my show before we get into the nitty gritty. So are you ready for this? The most hard question you ever be asked in your life. Absolutely, if you had to pick one guilty pleasure snack as the official snack of Ohio, what would you choose? And we would all secretly agree. Oh, that's a great question. So for me, and it's really hard to find. I show up to all these like little dinners all over the state and you know, I was just at the Fire Volunteer Firefighters the Planes Volunteer Fire Department to annual dinner. My favorite snack if I'm going to divulge is pea compi. Pea com pi, okay, And. It is so hard to find homemade pea com pie anymore. Most of its store bought. But if it was my if it's my biggest guilty pleasures, definitely peacm pie. My grandma makes really good peak com I love it. That's kind of what I throw in my coffee too, like a peacan flavor. Yes, okay, So we'll just get get right into it. So the I want to talk about those who don't really understand what the State Treasure does. Can you kind of break that down and maybe explain it in a way I could explain, like I have to understand it because when I see numbers, I see scribbles, I don't even so yeah, so I'll leave before too. Absolutely, No, it's a great question because most people don't know. The State Treasure's Office is an Ohio constitutional office, so it is required by the Ohio Constitution that we have a state treasure And what the State Treasure does is really handle the investments for the state of Ohio. So when we collect revenue from taxpayers, whether it's income taxes or sales taxes or whatever the case may be, a lot of times the legislature holds the first strings. They get to allocate those funds, but there's a period of time where that money sits in the state's coffers that it doesn't go out the door. So the State Treasure's role is to take that money, invest that money, make sure we get a return, and that money ends up being a bit more money that the state can spend on things like you know, the state really funds four main functions. Education, medication with the Medicaid program, transportation with the roads and highways and bridges, and we found the state state's prisons. Those are really the four main functions of state government. So when that money comes into the state's offers, it hits the State Treasure's office. The State treasure gets to invest those funds and comes up with some really cool programs that I'll dive into in a minute, but that's really the role of the State treasure There's one major role of the State Treasure's office, and it is you can't lose money for the state of Ohio. You've got to make sure you keep the money, you raise the money, and you make sure that that you're getting a return on the investments. That you choose to that you choose to invest in as the State treasure. Yeah, that's I mean, it's a lot to like to try to grab. But I hope that I feel like when I hear you talk, I get a better understanding of what it is that you do. And speaking of I heard you talk about a fascinating, like fascinating opportunities for the Treasure's office to help in economic and community development in Ohio. Can you talk more on that. Yes, So the State treasure on one of the programs it runs is called a link Deposit program. And what the link Deposit program is is we take that money, we take the money of tax payers. We place that money into a bank. A lot of banks all over the state fight to hold state taxpayer dollars because it's a safe investment for them. It allows them. The more money they have and deposits in their bank, it allows them to leverage more to lend more money. So we give that money to banks and in the link Deposit program, and from that we can get up. We can ask for a lesser return. We're still getting a return, it's not that we're getting it's a loss, but we ask for a lesser return as long as that lower interest rate is passed on to a consumer for things such as the agg Link program for agriculture. In the state, we have an economic development program for economic development opportunities. We also have a first time home buyers program that was started under Treasure Spread the current state treasure and that allows for first time home buyers to get a lower interest rate. We know that this this is a real problem across America. Across the Ohio the average first time home buyers thirty nine years old. How can we expect people that want to have a family and start to grow their family and get a good paying job and all those sorts of things. If the biggest investment ninety five percent of people ever make is in their home, they can't afford homes right now. So this is a great program. I would like to take these programs that already exist and are already on the books and really try to expand them and reach all across the state of Ohio, make making sure that money stays in Ohio. The other portion of this is we are blessed to have major banks headquartered right here in Ohio. We have Huntington Bank, we have Key Bank, we have the fifth Third Bank. So we're blessed to have major institutional banks that employ a lot of people, even the banks that are nationally known, you know, the JP Morgan Chases and Banks of America, Bank of America. These are big banks that employ a lot of people. You go into those banks, there's tellers, there's executive press, there's people that work in those banks that are branch presidents, branch workers that they employ a lot of people. However, when you give money to a bank that it has a national presence, which eighty to ninety percent of Ohio's tax payer money that goes into public deposits goes in those major banks, there's no guarantee that that money is staying in a lot. And so, you know, I'm not saying we completely get rid of them, especially the Ohio based banks. We're very fortunate for them. We don't want to harm them in any way, but I would like to see and one of the things that I'm trying to bring to the table is getting more of that investment, a higher percentage of the state tax payer money into our community banks and our credit union partners all over the state. If you go to a community bank, if that money goes to a community bank. Not only are you ensuring those investments stay in Ohio most of the time, they're staying in the air in the region or the county of that community bank. And so that is a great way of talking about the forgotten about areas of the state. Not to get not to make this political, but a lot of times those rural areas are very Republican areas. I'm not trying to do it because it's Republican versus Democrat, but these are the forgotten about areas of the state that could allow these small community banks to leverage more. You know, a million dollars in a small area like where I come from is equivalent to ten or one hundred million dollars in Columbus, Cleveland or Cincinnati. It goes a long way. It provides a lot of opportunity, a lot of economic development, and it's something that I really want to bring a new flavor and kind of mix things up in the Treasure's Office of getting more of this investment in the rural parts of the state and also in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati. I talked to big businesses, big business owners, people in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati that tell me they would rather deal with their local credit union, their local community bank because they can go in, they can shake the president's hand. It's more of a relationship type business as opposed to more of a corporate type environment. So again, we're not one to take all the business away from the big banks, especially Huntington and Key Bank and Fifth Third that are headquarter here in Ohio. But we want to see a transition over to more investment in our community partners and our credit unions all over the state. And what sort of impact would that have on community members and you know, like smaller. Yeah, we're hoping it has a massive impact, you know, if it can lend lend to one more investment or two more investments in southeast Ohio or northwest Ohio or any area in between those investments. I talked about the dollar percentage of what that means, but you know, I always say one hundred jobs in my area is equivalent to ten thousand jobs in Columbus if you can land one of those one hundred job employers for an investment. And they're trying to figure out their capital stack and they're trying to figure out how to work on that gap financing, and then all of a sudden you come in and say, say, instead of getting a seven percent interest rate, we're going to knock that down to a five percent or a four percent interest rate. Sometimes that's enough to make the numbers work, to make that investment work. Then lends to good, high paying jobs one hundred two hundred, good high paying jobs with health benefits with the retirement accounts, that allows for a week vacation for families, and it changes the course of the direction of local local areas by having those good paying jobs. Okay, that sounds pretty good to me, but we are going to jump to break in. I guess we'd take it now. So okay, welcome back from the break. I have Jay Edwards here, candidate for Ohio State Treasurer. Before we hit during break, we talked about the ESG, and I kind of want to, you know, give our listeners a little glimpse of what that means. Yeah, so it's gotten national attention amongst the state Treasurer's offices all over the state of this ESG, which stands for Equical Social Governance, And this was brought to us by you know, the folks at Black Rock and Vanguard and state street of trying to push it's It's yet again another example of you know, the World Health Organization and the World Economic Forum trying to push these beliefs on our people. And you know, I'm a big believer. I'm a young guy. I came up in the Trump world. I lived through COVID. You know, we see these outside forces, worldwide, forces that are trying to push their beliefs on us as people. You know, Ohio is a conservative state. Yes, it's a very diverse state. I'm not against I think it's one of the best things about Ohio is that it's a diverse state. But it's a conservative state. Trump's won by eight, eight and eleven. We've had governors, we've had all our state wide office holders, we have super majorities in the House and the Senate. It's a conservative state. And so when I hear about this ESG being pushed on, conservatives being pushed on natural gas companies in eastern Ohio they can't get alone because they released too much carbon in the atmosphere, or companies not being able to get a loan because their board makeup that you know, they don't adhere to LGBTQ ideology, or whatever the case may be. I don't think that matches up with the principles of the state of Ohio. And there's been eight states around the country that have banned this ESG from their Treasure's office from allowing their state investment to go into these programs. And the other thing is there is d banking taking place. The Trump organization got d banked, the NRA National rightfle Association, I'm a proud lifetime member, got d banked. Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk's organization got d banked because of their conservative beliefs. All three of them happen to be from Bank of America. Bank of America is one of the hardest pushers of ESG and pushing that upon the people they do business with. They will proudly do business with Planned Parenthood, they will probably do business with Black Lives Matter, They'll probably do business with all of these organizations, which is fine. I could care less, but why are you punishing conservative organizations? So it's an unfair balance. It kind of goes back to you again. During COVID, these ESG even applied to vaccines. We want to require vaccines, and we want to push vaccines and we're not going to allow anyone on your board or any of your employees to have a discussion and open dialogue at First Amendment. Right about vaccines, I'm all for vaccines for people that want to take them. I'm not for the government mandating vaccines. Yeah, it's a choice of medical it's a choice of medical freedom. So it gets back to really the future of the Republican Party. What do we want it to look like? Are we going to go back to being the country club, stuffy obsessed about corporate income tax Republican Party of John Kasik and Mitt Romney and John McCain. Are we going to continue down this America First Agenda? Which a big part of that for me is freedom. And it's not allowing outside organizations tell us how we're going to live our life. It's not about digital ideas. It's not about forcing vaccines and masks on us. It's not about telling us we have to believe certain ideology or you're not going to be able to get a loan for a house. It's about freedom and allowing people to be themselves. And so I don't mean to cut you off what you said. You said the ideology to get a house like that. I think that was one of the best things I think I've heard in a while, just because it's so true everywhere. It is, and we still allow, we still allow our state tax dollars to be invested in these banks that are pushing this stuff on us. So you know, from day one, I'm going to come into that office and I'm saying, no more ESG. We're not doing business. We're not allowing banks to hold our taxpayer dollars if they don't hold our principles. It's not fair to take money from conservatives but then allow our dollars and these companies to profit off of conservatives tax dollars that they are biased against. So it sounds like a crazy concept. Eight states have done it. And here's a little on fact I said earlier. The number one rule of the state trailers off you can't lose money. Texas was the most aggressive on getting rid of ESG. And since they've gotten rid of ESG, all the Wall Street folks, all the Vanguard and State Street and Black Rock, all they said was, well, you'll lose money, you won't get a good return on your investment. Guess what's happened in Texas. They've had a bigger return on their investments since they've gotten rid of their ESG stuff. So this can be done. Other states have done it. West Virginia did it. Other states have done it. I don't know why Ohio, being a conservative conservative as we are, haven't done this. And again, it's not about conservative democrat. It's about a fair level playing field for everybody. If you're going to allow freedom on the left, you've got to allow freedom on the right. Just so happens over the last decade we've seen this cutoff and bias and discrimination happening on one side and not the others. Amen. Amen, you mentioned JD. How'd that go? How did your endorsement go? Yeah? So I've been friends with JD for a while, and you know, from the time he ran for the US Senate here in Ohio, we kind of really gravitated towards each other. Of course, his story being from Appalaysia, I'm from Appalaysia, and you know it was something that you know, he didn't owe me anything. I think he chose me because he thinks I'm the best person for the job. And part of that is this conversation I'm having. I'm going out and talking to people like yourself and educating what the State Treasure's office does. Why I'm different, what I have to offer. I have a plan for this position. I'm not playing the game of musical chairs that all the other state wide office holders are doing. I want this role. I have a plan for this role. But it's also talking to people, well especially young people, about what the future of the Republican Party looks like. And that's where me and JD matchup one for one. We don't want to go back to the old school Republican Party. We want to stay the America first, really focused on blue collar, middle class people, focused on freedom for the American people on both sides, and really make sure we're moving forward. You know, we're now going to be living in the election cycles ahead in a post Trump era. Trump's not going to be on the ballot anymore. What does it look like? And you're going to see an internal struggle in the Republican Party. I won't name names, but you're going to be a struggle of national Republicans that are going to try to take us right back to the pre Trump era Republican style politics. JD wants to move us forward and really get into. I read a statistic the other day, forty six percent of people eighteen to twenty nine voted Republican for Trump in twenty twenty four. Amongst them, fifty six percent amongst white males in that age group voted Republican, the first ever of its kind that we're getting the young people to vote. And the reason, and then why is because we're talking about the cost of gas, the cost of groceries, wanting you to be able to afford a house, wanting you to have kids and be able to afford taking a week's vacation, and building up retirement accounts, and not focused on all this other nonsense that the left seems to be focused on, but really focusing on those kitchen table issues. Jd. Vance believes in that. He knows I've been a fighter on that for the last decade, and so it was an honor of a lifetime to receive his endorsement, the first endorsement he's made. Yeah, really excited for you. That excited. It's really exciting, and I'm excited to push for him in twenty twenty eight as well. Oh yeah, that's yeah. Speaking of you were talking about like the diversity of Ohio. So what do you think. Like urban Ohioans and the rural Ohioans share in common. When you look. And I kind of always had a connection with the legislative Black Caucus and Columbus that represented those urban areas. We would constantly talk and I was always pushing this and letting them know we aren't that much there. Yes, we disagree on things like guns and babies and those sorts of things. Take those issues off the plate. We have a lot in common. We're dealing with single family households. We're dealing with drug abuse. We're dealing with generational poverty, we're dealing with generational welfare. We're dealing with lack of access to healthcare. We're dealing with lack of access of transportation, We're dealing with you know, educational issues. We really have a lot of the same similar issues, and so there's no reason that we can't work together. And so you know, I'm looking forward to once I went in the primary of getting out there and talking to people in the urban areas. I'm not afraid to go to urban areas and talk because we want them to be able to afford to buy a house just as much as we want kids in rural appalation. This is about helping young people across the board. It's about helping families across the board and really sticking up for these generational issues that aren't too much different from the urban areas to the appellation areas. Yeah, you gave me goosies when you were my whole life side. I think it's really important because you're young, and I think it's really important for you know, my generation. You know, how old are you? Thirty six? It's not we're like we're like around the same age. So it's and then my kids are seeing what are seeing what I'm doing, and I think just getting fresh meat, fresh ideas, younger ideas in like, that's what I did when I tried to run for a city council, just bringing new ideas. But there's so many people stuck. So I think when you when you recognize the diverse and then from the urban to rule, I think, I think you're bringing great ideas. And I know this is a competitive race, am i am? I correct on that, Yeah, it's a competitive race. So so before we close out, what sets you apart from the others who are running. I think my age, my energy, and my future of what I see the Republican Party look like. It's not about the corporate You know, businesses are well represented. I'm not saying I'm anti business, but they're well represented. I want to focus on those blue collar generational issues that we face in Ohio and the urban rural areas. They're not that much different. The media tries to divide us constantly of what those issues are, gets us focused on nonsense all over the place. Instead, I really want to go in and have conversations and figure out ways that we can help people all over the state, young people and old, how we can help them start a business, how we can help them get a house, how we can help them get a job, and really try to break down the barriers and get out the nonsense that the media pushes on us to just divide us. Because I think if we got that out of the way, we would really look in the mirror and realize there's not that much difference all over the state on the issues that we're facing right now. Awesome, Well this is Jay Edwards. Everyone go out and get make sure you're registered to vote, and make sure you vote. Thank you very much for having me. I appreciate it. Yes, thank you, and with that we are ending the show. Thank you so much, Jay Edwards for taking the time and coming on to the show. Your presidence was truly amazing and you have the most fascinating ideas and I can't wait to see where your journey leads you. And with that, I will see you guys on the next one. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast if you are not already, Send it to your lovers, your haters, your friends, your brother's sisters, whoever it may be. And also don't forget to follow me on social media TikTok at Ali Underscore Michelle That's a l I I Underscore Michelle and Instagram Ali Michelle twelve. That is a l I Underscore Michelle twelve and Jay Edwards also has a campaign page on Facebook. Jay Edwards j A. Y E d W A r DS. Bye.
