Irving City Councilman Luis Canosa details his grassroots victory against Las Vegas Sands, which spent over $170,000 on paid protesters to push a rezoning plan that threatened the city's diverse fabric. By filing paperwork on the last day and mobilizing volunteers during rainstorms, Canosa exposed corporate lobbying attempts, turning community activism into two successful defeats for the casino. This local battle highlights how unassuming candidates can leverage off-cycle elections to combat dark money, proving that genuine conviction outlasts hired mercenaries in protecting towns from perceived evils like gambling and pride parades. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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Why We Need Your Review00:10:25
Leave us a five star review on your favorite podcast platform.
I get it.
It's annoying.
Everybody asks, but I'm going to tell you why.
When you give us a positive review, what that does is it triggers the algorithm so that our podcast shows up on more people's news feeds.
You and I both know that this ministry is willing to talk about things that most ministries aren't.
We need this content for the glory of God to reach more people's ears.
Christian men are getting involved in politics more than ever before.
Whether it was reading Stephen Wolfe's book or perhaps watching their own mayor approve of a pride parade that radicalized them, these men are realizing that pursuit of political office is, in fact, a high calling.
The founding fathers of America spoke highly of political office, considering it not merely a job or a hobby, but a weighty responsibility.
James Madison, in particular, said that the first aim of every political body should be to find men with the, and I quote, Most wisdom to discern and the most virtue to pursue the common good of the society.
But actually doing politics is not easy.
If you've ever watched, for instance, House of Cards or All the President's Men, then you actually have a pretty good idea of how cutthroat and ruthless politics can be.
And here joining us today is Louis Canossa, a city council member right here in Irving, Texas.
Since being elected a year ago, he has been fighting tooth and nail against dark money.
paid protesters and even private investigators that all want to turn his hometown of Irving into the next tax farm for gambling and sports resorts.
This episode is brought to you by our premier sponsors, Armored Republic and Reese Fund, as well as our Patreon members and our faithful donors.
You can join our Patreon by going to patreon.com forward slash right response ministries, or you can donate by going to right response ministries.
If you are considering running for office and what it takes to win a campaign and legislate effectively, you should tune in now to hear firsthand how politics actually works.
We're so back.
Here we are.
This is Monday afternoon, 3 p.m. Central Time.
I'm your host, Pastor Joel Webbin.
And we are joined today, of course, as always, with Wesley Todd.
But Michael Belch is out of the studio.
He's on family vacation right now.
And so we decided to take this opportunity to bring in a local politician in Irving, Texas.
He sits as one of the city council members.
And his name is not Lewis, it's actually Luis.
So I mispronounced that.
I apologize for that.
But it's totally fine.
Yeah, thanks for coming.
No, my pleasure.
Thank you for having me.
Yeah.
So, we've got to know him a little bit.
You actually, if I remember correctly, you were at our conference that we recently had.
Yes, a friend invited me, and that was a very interesting conference.
I really enjoyed it.
Yeah, cool.
So, that was the first time that I got to meet you in person and hear a little bit about what you're doing in your hometown.
That's where you were born and raised?
No, actually.
That is Irving's, the city where I really found Christ, you would say six years ago.
That's where my conversion really happened.
But originally, I actually grew up in Spain, I grew up overseas.
My mother's American and my dad is Spanish.
And, you know, I was born a U.S. citizen and eventually I moved permanently to Irving, Texas.
So he has to go back.
But he can go back last for his efforts.
He can go back last.
You guys don't want to keep it?
This is terrible.
He does have to go back.
It breaks my heart.
But under Christian nationalism, Luis will be sent back.
No, we're glad you're here.
And it sounds like you're doing great work.
I'm going to let Wesley go ahead and outline a little bit the purpose of this.
I'll say this 30,000 foot view.
We've done a few episodes.
Like this.
And the purpose is because we don't want to just talk.
We actually want to put action to our words.
And what I'm realizing, you know, kind of for a 30,000 foot view is that it's actually in some ways it's harder, but in other words, making change, political change, is actually in some ways it's a little bit easier than I've probably previously thought.
And what I mean by that is that, you know, like to the Victor go, the spoils.
Well, in the case of politics, it seems like so much of it is just those who show up.
Yeah.
And so just, but a lot of guys don't know how to show up, where to show up, and what to do, you know, and a lot of it really is straightforward and just being present again and again and showing up.
And so you're 26 years old, right?
I'm 25 at the moment.
25 at the moment.
And you're a city council member in a city that's, what, about a quarter million people?
A little bit over that, yes.
Yeah.
So you can do it.
Right.
So we wanted to have Luis on to talk about, okay, like if I want to run for office, how do I do that?
So, Wes, I'll hand it to you to outline.
Yeah.
We've been doing a lot of political content recently, and there is a strategy for that.
So the midterms are coming up.
Now, it'll vary based on your state when your primaries are, and even some of these elections, like Luis, your election was in the summer last year.
It wasn't in November when we all voted for Donald Trump, hopefully, or maybe abstained from our vote.
But we've been talking a lot about politics lately because now is the time, if you're going to run for a campaign and get elected in a year from now, now is the time to start thinking about it.
And there's always going to be times, I think of in the third century, for example, when Arianism, the heresy that Christ was the first created being, when that heresy was ravaging the Roman Empire and the The early embryonic stages of the Christian church.
The need of that day then was the theologians.
It was the bishops that came together and hammered out the solution.
They came together and then it was, we talked about it last week, but it's a civil magistrate that kind of put it into order.
But the point is, in that time it was theologians.
I think at the time of the American Revolution.
But what we needed then wasn't actually theologians, although certainly pastors are always in need, but we needed warriors.
We needed men that could endure Valley Forge, that would fight for it, which is unending for American independence.
So there's always going to be different needs.
And our need right now, We're not in the middle, in many ways, of a theological dispute.
You don't have the East and the West differing on the identity of God.
We, of course, have our theological differences that we're always working on and developing.
But right now, our problem is political.
I have one graph just to show, and this is a graph of net immigration to Canada.
So, anyone listening, I'll go ahead and describe it.
I got it from Granddad Farms here in the chat, so he'll recognize this.
But I want you to look at this graph.
This is net immigration to Canada.
If you're listening, that graph right around 2020 goes parabolic from about 300,000 to close to 2.5 million.
Millions of foreigners.
This is like a Pepe coin chart or something.
Yeah, Pepe coin, my portfolio.
Just parabolic.
Just parabolic.
But this is terrible.
This is the destruction of a former Christian country.
And how did it happen?
Did they land on the beach with machine guns?
No.
No.
Politics.
Yep.
Politicians let this happen.
This stuff matters.
Like people's lives, people's livelihoods, their home, the place they've lived for hundreds of years, those are being destroyed.
And right now, The answer is political.
Go back to the chart.
Go back to the chart real quick, Nathan.
So, for those who are just listening, it starts with 1950 and you get all the way up to basically about 2021 or so, 2020, 2021.
And it's just trading sideways if this was a stock, you know, between anywhere from my calculation about 100,000 to 300,000 annually in terms of immigration to Canada.
So, you're looking at, you know, Let's call it 200,000 on average.
It's probably even a little bit less, but 200,000 per year immigration to Canada from 1950 all the way to 2020 for 70 years.
So, for 70 years, 200,000 a year.
And then all of a sudden it spikes.
Again, for those who are listening on Apple or Spotify, you're just listening to the podcast, it spikes in 2020, end of 2020, going all the way to 2025, where we sit today.
And it spikes all the way up to about 2.5 million.
So, you're talking over a 10x.
And to put it into perspective, I think I could be wrong, but I think Canada, its total population is like 40 million.
It's pretty small, relatively.
It's about the size of California.
So, you're not talking about.
So, my point is, you're talking about 2 million, 2.5 million is like over.
Well, that's net each year.
So, in the couple of years that have transpired, even since then, you're talking 10 million or so coming in.
Right.
Yeah.
Each year.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And it spikes up.
So, at first, it's maybe it's like 500,000.
And then it's, you know, in 2020, and then it's a million in 2021, and then it's 1.5 in 2022, and then two, and then 2.5.
So, if you look at all that, like, and do it in like a five year cluster, this is very general, you know, shooting from the hip math here.
But you're looking at like what Wes said, probably like eight to 10 million in a five year moment, and the previous 70 years averaging 200,000 would be what that's 2 million times 14 million.
So, you're looking at like 14 million and seven, uh, 70 years, 14 million 52 to about 10 million.
In five years, and in a country that only has about 40 million to begin with, so in the last five years, they have imported um, about what five percent, over five percent of the total, not five to ten percent, yeah, ten percent, Toronto, other towns, population just overrun.
Like people have come in, they've set up their temples, be it living enclaves, because they all rent to one another.
Oh, I'm wrong, sorry, not five percent, it would be closer to like 20, almost like a quarter, yeah, like 20 percent.
Of their population.
So that's, I mean, that's just, that's a country that's given up on life.
You know, I mean, that's like, that's just as stupid.
Demographics Over Partisan Lines00:11:07
But the point is, it was political.
Nobody held the gun to anyone's head.
This wasn't even like theological, like all the Catholic Church was facilitating.
This was a political strategy to displace a formerly Christian, its origins in European, a Christian European nation and destroy it.
And so here and now in Texas, be it from the border, be it from Epic City, where Muslims want to set up their own commune with calls to prayer and everything, practically the battle is for this moment political.
So I'm going to turn it over to Luis.
Like we said, Luis is 25 years old.
He was 24 when he ran his campaign.
At least for this first segment, tell us about just.
From the beginning part, you file the paperwork to run your strategy.
So, the demographics of Irving, you can tell us more about that.
How do you approach running a race?
What are the factors to consider?
Kind of how will they look different depending where you are, what seat you're running for, all of that?
Well, I would say that the first thing for anybody that wants to replicate something like that is that you cannot start with the filing as I did on the last day of the deadline, just right on the end.
Still one, so.
Right, but there was a lot of.
There were a lot of things that happened before that.
Even though I didn't have it planned for years, I had been meeting people.
And this is what I would recommend for anybody that is fighting for something make an effort to network and meet people that will agree with you on those things that motivate you.
If it's the Christian faith, if it's your identity, if it's your traditions, if it's a specific issue, if it's abortion, just find people that will agree with that.
So that whenever you have a project or somebody has a project, there's a network of people that are ready to fight for that.
And that's when a catalyzer shows up, like an open seat or some sort of situation where you can act.
And then everybody's ready to be activated.
And from there, I would say that in regards to my race, it was a very unorthodox thing that for a city council, which is usually an office where it's older people that run, it's people that have been in all these boards and positions that have all these qualifications, because it's a very technocratic position.
Water bills, you manage code enforcement, you manage the police, the fire budget.
So, very often, it's like a young guy will never win something like that.
It is not the candidate, it's not the profile that you're looking for in a candidate.
It's very, very odd.
But the way it happened in this case is that there was a massive amount of, first of all, there was a lot of discontent with the way the current city establishment is doing things.
And then there was a massive number of young men that decided and young people that decided to.
To go back for me.
You know, I didn't knock 10,000 doors of my own.
I did plenty.
But there were a lot more people that decided to fight alongside me that had known me for many years.
And originally, I didn't really have financial backing.
It was with just that initial dedication, all these volunteers showing up, that eventually donors saw that the yard signs were happening.
Nobody thought I could win at the beginning.
But as the yard signs were being put in people's yards, as the support was coming in, As it looked like it was actually a viable candidacy, then the support started coming.
So I think that, to a large extent, and then in this cycle, when we have more recently gone up against the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, they're trying to put this casino in Irving.
So there's been very hotly contested races regarding that.
Those victories don't track, don't follow any mathematical logic there either.
It wouldn't stand to reason.
We're going to win this.
You would never say that.
But I think there is, whenever we get involved in politics, and this is something that I have experienced very closely, there is a spiritual component to it where if you really put your whole soul and your whole life in it, and it is something that you believe in, then you can punch so far above your weight in a way that defies the logic, defies the math of how much money you need, how much of this you need, because people just flock to that.
And eventually the funds come.
And just to kind of sum it all up.
I mean, Irving's the 90th biggest city in America, 12th biggest in Texas.
You, I take it, you're not a millionaire.
So you're not a trust fund baby, correct?
I have to not be, no.
No.
So you're not necessarily a millionaire.
You're not self funding your campaign.
You filed the paperwork on the last day, but you did this.
You showed up, you made signs, you put them out, and you networked.
And now you're a city council member.
And I mean, there's bigger cities out there, but you're in a very influential place.
We'll get to that in the second segment.
But the point is, you were not like, well, I'm just super wealthy independently.
I've been doing this for 10 years.
I also didn't have prior name recognition of the city.
People in my community would know me, but I had not had any sort of public face.
Your dad didn't own the city square or anything like that.
Exactly.
And all these liabilities, for example, for a city council race, running as a young, single guy is absolutely unheard of.
Everybody is married, everybody is 80 or something like that, retired, and I'm just this young, unmarried guy showing up.
Very, very odd.
On top of that, I would say that Irving has a very special situation demographically where it's perhaps the most diverse city in all of Texas.
And that means, well, right.
But it's very interesting that we're being able to win, right?
We have been able to win so hard.
And I think there's something there where.
Probably because of the strength of diversity, I would imagine.
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.
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 and is universal.
And that means that the values that are foundational to Christianity are going to appeal to other people as well.
As long as they're not totally in bed with the demons and the devil or anything like that, it's going to resonate with everybody.
The demographics, I looked it up, it's like about 17 to 20% white, about 20% Asian, I think about 20% black, and then 40% Hispanic.
And then you have a little couple mixed in there.
There's some, I'm not sure it's that much black.
There's a lot of South Asians, Indians specifically.
Oh, okay.
So that Asian is not Chinese or Japanese.
And there's a very big Muslim population too.
It's a different kind of Asian.
There's a huge Islamic center that's like 3,000 people daily gather for prayer.
So you are not in like Baptist land, Texas, 89% white.
You're showing up on Sunday morning at the SBC church shaking hands.
You've got to win in a pretty pluralistic format.
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, there are ways to do that.
And I would also like to get into a little bit more into that later on.
But essentially, you would never imagine that certain alliances would work out.
A bunch of Protestants and Catholics and Muslims fighting against a multi billion dollar corporation and their casino.
Who could have seen that one coming?
You would think everybody would be trying to kill each other or something like that.
But somehow that's not the case.
So I think there's a lot of very exciting things there.
Yeah.
And Protestants, they can have a tendency towards going narrow.
So they think of anything, be it politics or be it business, as a very narrow kind of almost like church endeavor.
Well, I want people that I'm very completely aligned with.
But when it comes to like comp, we call them common grace categories.
So, like a casino being plopped in my backyard, gentlemen's clubs, in your school, for example, like a school or your public library, materials that aren't appropriate for children, those are not in the institution of the church.
We're not talking about perverse books inside of church.
And ultimately, to win against them, people have to realize you have to go broad.
Now, that doesn't mean you pander.
That doesn't mean like, well, I'm a Muslim just like you and we want to work together.
But there are things categorically, they're just not in the realm of the church.
And in common grace, we can link arms against them.
Like if there's people that want to be done with abortion, they want to see it shut down, they want to see it ended, you don't have to share their faith.
Now, absolutely, your foundation, like you said, it is going to be different.
But if you're going to win a race, if you're going to defeat a measure that's maybe a constitutional amendment, you're naturally going to have to be broad and it can't be a purity spiral.
At the end of the day, it can't be all of these requirements.
We want people that are perfectly aligned on a mission.
If you'll show up at Chick fil A on Saturday morning and knock doors and vote for me, we'll have you.
That is so true.
And just a couple things to add to it, because I don't think we have clarified that municipal elections in Irving are off cycle, meaning they happen in May, so very few people vote.
You really need few votes to win, but it's very hard to get people out to vote.
And the other thing is that they're nonpartisan, so meaning there's not an R, 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.
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.
So you'll have entire groups that just flip across party lines and will back a conservative one raised, a liberal in 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.
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.
But there's a lot of more interesting things that you can do in a city like Irving.
Yep.
BJJ wins again.
Good brother that I met at the conference.
He said, low turnout is a gift.
And we've been emphasizing a lot that you need to know your local area to be equipped in politics.
So, low turnout, like you said, an off cycle election, that's a totally different paradigm than if you're running in the midterm, for example.
So, you have to know if you're going to be involved in politics, when do people vote here?
It doesn't matter what they vote in Kansas or where they vote in Wisconsin.
When do they vote here?
What's the turnout like?
And that typically can then give you a huge advantage.
Like you said, like, oh, I have a huge leg up.
Coffee That Supports God's Kingdom00:02:47
I don't have to do all of this different work.
I don't have to, because caucuses, you'll typically do it through the Republican Party, through the Democrat Party.
I don't have to get approval, the Republican Party of Texas, to run.
So all of those factors will factor into what your race actually looks like.
All right, let's go to our first commercial break, and then we'll be right back.
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Stop Funding Evil Causes00:14:27
Well, welcome back.
Luis, I want you to tell us a little bit more about the campaign actually securing the victory.
I think you went into a runoff.
But the point in this certainly is not that every single person, you know, all the hundreds of people watching, all of you need to run for office.
But the point is, there's hundreds of people that supported you.
So you've got maybe one guy in your town, he's running for office.
But everyone has a part to play as far as volunteering, support, donating, phone calls.
That if you're interested in the political solutions that are necessary, and I imagine if you live in a town in America in the year of our Lord, 2025, not everything is perfect.
So if you want to see political solutions to the political problems that you have, sure, you may not necessarily run for office.
But there are tons of good men out there who need.
Your support.
And we're not talking about quitting your job full time to just knock doors.
We are talking about maybe one Saturday.
We're talking about $100 to support the race.
There's a part to play for everyone.
And to the degree, I mean, there's millions of people who think like us.
They're sick of Pride Month.
They're sick of just mass immigration.
They're sick of being replaced.
They feel the same way.
But it's telling them, okay, and then there's people working on the solutions.
Like it's not just you feel this way and we just have to sit here.
I don't know, just like hope, hope someone comes along and saves us.
Like, no, we're actually going to play a part in.
What that difference looks like.
So, tell us about the campaign itself, knocking doors, bringing it home, and then actually being a city council member, what that was kind of like.
So, I would say that when it comes to people that want to do something, there's something that anybody can do.
And I would actually caution people against wanting to be the candidate and the face because it really is not for everybody.
I do personally enjoy it, I find it really fun, very exciting.
But there's a lot of people that would just totally freak out and crumble whenever they see a negative post on social media that would just start crying.
Don't feel the need to do that necessarily.
And I would say there's the.
I find whenever I call people to do a task that is vital, for example, let's say we need to pick up push cards or flyers on Friday before 5 p.m. from the printer so that we can knock on the weekend.
I need somebody that's going to do it because after five, the printer is closed and then we miss the weekend.
And I am going to call the guy that I know is the most reliable, not the smartest one, not the one that I personally like the most.
I'm going to call the guy that.
Is going to make sure that that gets taken care of.
So, just the ability of showing up and doing the things that nobody else will do consistently, eventually, even if there's people that do the job slightly better, first of all, you get more practice and eventually you become better.
But also, I'm not going to call 10 people if I know that I can do one phone call, take one minute and get it resolved.
That's a masculine virtue, too, reliability.
Men should be reliable.
I said I would be there.
I got a flat tire.
I got this out of the other, but I showed up because I gave my word.
So, all men should cultivate that.
And that's advice for anybody.
And the other thing is just putting your whole heart in it.
In my race, we didn't have money for mailers.
I didn't have any name recognition.
The whole establishment was against me.
Everybody presumably was against me.
But the best days of knocking, we really just won by knocking doors.
The best days of knocking were the days where it was raining hard, like thunderstorm kind of hard.
And those were the best days because everybody was home.
Nobody knocks whenever it's raining so hard.
Why would you do that?
But it was so powerful because then all these.
All these voters would see a young guy at their door being handling them a totally wet flyer.
It's like, hey, would you please support this candidate?
And that is really impactful.
That really touched people and made the message those were the best days.
I mean, I saw the numbers in the software.
I was like, man, we're killing it today.
Between the four or five days that we knocked under heavy rain, that's what decided the election.
Wow.
If we hadn't done that, we would have lost.
And that's that level of commitment and zeal that makes a difference.
Do you really want it?
Okay.
Do you really want it so hard that you're going to knock?
Or push people to knock under those circumstances.
I remember one of my volunteers calls me as he's driving to my place.
He's like, hey, Luis, but it's raining.
And I'm like, so what?
It's raining.
It's not like bombs are dropping on you.
Yeah, it's water.
You drink it, right?
So we knocked, and it was a phenomenal day.
And from there on, we have always done that.
And I think that that also boosts morale.
You know, you feel ahead.
It's very thrilling to know that you're putting more than anybody else ever would.
And it's very meaningful to do that as well.
Yeah.
Even if just for the sake of it.
Yeah.
How long is the term for a city council?
So it's three years.
And it's been pretty funny because I show up, I get onboarded, I start learning how these things work, et cetera.
And just like a couple months in, the Las Vegas Sands Corporation shows up.
They're one of the biggest casino resort companies in the planet.
And they're like, hey, we'd like to meet with you and know what you think about our casino plans.
And then this whole thing starts where now it becomes about this major fight because we have many, many projects to make.
I would like to make Irving, you know, a wonderful city to raise a family.
It's pretty, it's all right at this point, but it could be enhanced for sure.
And then you bring in maybe the world's largest casino, you're not going to be, that's not going to fly.
So it's a direct threat to everything that was, you know, that I was working for and that I was running for.
If these people are successful, might as well just pack it and leave, right?
Go back to Spain, as you said.
But so then this challenge shows up.
They start meeting with us individually with the council members to feel us out about our thoughts on this rezoning for a casino, which is illegal in Texas for now.
They're lobbying very hard at the state level, but they need both things, right?
The state legalizing it and then the best location deserving.
So they would like that pre zoned.
To make sure that they are the ones that get the license for a casino issued.
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.
Those are typically rezoned.
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.
And there's different categories of residential, so be it, or even commercial.
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.
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.
That's just a crucial practical part of.
Hey, when did it happen that I got now surrounded by 3,000 people?
I didn't vote for this.
Well, technically, your city council member is the one who agreed to it.
And 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.
So eventually, if it's theoretically legalized at the state level, they can come in and start building.
Right.
Which will change the fabric of the entire city.
Yeah.
Like casinos draw all kinds of degeneracy and.
A particular clientele, a type of person.
Those are great for the people that run them, just not for the neighboring community, right?
Yeah, you make a lot of money with the casino.
Yeah, yeah, but you know, even it's funny.
You want to start a casino business?
Well, no, I'm just thinking just even the people who run them.
It's like to say, you know, that it's great for them.
I'm thinking of a lot of Native American Indians who don't seem like they're doing so great.
They're rich, right?
They're drugged out.
Yeah, they're alcoholics.
Yeah, yeah, they're doing terrible.
But, anyways, but this family is not a Native.
Indian Americans.
It's a different association.
Right, exactly.
So then, obviously, they are the Adelson family, which is the family that owns this casino corporation, is very famous for.
Is it in Vegas?
They are based in Vegas.
That's where their headquarters are, but they sold their properties in Vegas for $6 billion just a couple of years back.
And they only own properties in Singapore and Macau.
So now, this is where they would look.
To expand in the states.
Texas, Irving specifically, is probably the best location on the planet between those major airports that combine.
Is it because it's right in between the airports, DFW, Dallas, and so on?
More air travel than anywhere else on the planet within 15 to 20 minutes.
So that's where the airport is.
So they're thinking, they're not just thinking like, okay, the native people here in Irving are just itching for some slot machines.
It's quite happening.
It's quite happening.
It's a clientele.
It's not.
So it's more, it's a destination.
Yeah.
So, they're saying, where is an easy, convenient spot where people can fly in for a weekend?
Exactly.
So, they basically want to make your town the Vegas of Texas.
Yes.
And so it'll destroy your town, but it'll also destroy our state.
But the GDP.
But the GDP.
But your income.
Yeah.
But I mean, it really will be terrible for Texas as a whole and not just Irving.
I mean, everybody who lives in Texas and cares about the state has a vested interest in making sure that this doesn't happen.
Now, it's very funny because they did all their studies apparently about how great Irving would be and they bought the land and they got all the rezoning behind, you know, the case ready behind closed doors for years.
And then they bring it, they feel us out privately and then they bring it to council.
And well, they just forgot to check if the people would be in favor of it because it turns out that normally people might be fine with a Song Casino in the middle of nowhere, but they don't want it right in their backyard.
But specifically, Irving citizens are.
Adamantly opposed to casinos.
For example, as I mentioned before, there's a very big Muslim population, and Muslims are religiously against gambling.
Catholics, for example, are not necessarily against gambling.
We just happen to hate it because it's bad for the city and bad for the social fabric.
But with all those different groups, there's this wonderful coalition that has been able to surmount all of our differences, to unite in defense of what is the most human thing and what the most Godly mandate, which is the mandate of passing the gift of life to the next generation, right?
We all want to do that.
Even communities that are not Christian, they still, the trait of non Christian communities in Irving is that they do have vitality.
They're not dying communities.
Even if they're Hindu, they're Muslim, they're not having half a child per 10 women or something like that.
They're actually, you know, they have energy, they have a desire to live, they have a desire to pass everything that they are to the next generation.
And Las Vegas Sand shows up with these casino plans, and that totally flies in the face of that desire, of that natural instinct that all these communities have.
And that's where this coalition has been able to form that would sort of defy logic.
But when you see it in those terms that are very human terms, it makes perfect sense.
Yeah.
So it sounds like you're telling me that the diversity factor of Irving, which may have some negative consequences in other arenas, but as it pertains to this issue of the casino, It's kind of funny because what I'm picking up on you saying is that that's actually playing as an advantage, a positive towards trying to keep the casino out.
Because when I think of people who don't have the vitality to live, I think of white people.
Like the Apostle Paul said, all Cretans are liars and lazy beasts and gluttons.
And if I was to say, and I do think that people can be categorized by certain strengths and by certain weaknesses.
And so, as a guy who's white himself, I feel perfectly comfortable saying if there's any particular sin that white people are guilty of, it's being.
Foolishly altruistic, I think that's one.
Incredibly gullible, but that is partly because of universal suffrage.
And there's one particular half of white people that tend to be very gullible.
And then the last one that I would add is all white people are foolishly altruistic, incredibly gullible, and suicidal.
Like, honestly, I feel like in some ways you could get away with if it was a particular community that was 80% white and Tended to be an older population of a bunch of boomers who are planning to, you know, give all their money to the Salvation Army instead of their offspring to begin with.
And they only have, you know, one kid, you know, to start.
They might not put up as much of a fuss.
So it's sad.
I'm saying this as an indictment, I'm not celebrating it by any extent.
But sadly, it does actually make sense to me that the Muslims would actually put up more of a fight than a nominally Christian Western European bunch.
Yeah, indeed.
That's what we're seeing.
Now, I will say that this family and this corporation is very powerful.
And just like whenever I originally run, everybody thought, or a lot of people thought, except for the younger crowd, oh, there's no way we can win.
This is like, might as well just not even put up a fight to begin with.
When the casino, and then we won, when the casino showed up and when the Las Vegas Sands Corporation showed up, these people invest millions in elections.
A city council race is usually $10,000, $20,000 in Irving.
So, if these people come in strong, it was like, okay, this is going to be game over before we even start.
So, a lot of even conservative Catholics, people that you would imagine would bravely stand up for what they believe to be right, even people that are ideologically opposed to the casino, decided, okay, we can't win.
We should just roll over and let them win.
And this was a very big inertia towards that position that we had to work really hard to break in.
And eventually, I just sort of forced the battle upon ourselves.
When Local Politics Go Wrong00:14:02
Nobody was saying anything.
I spoke up against the rezoning on February 27th.
And I was the only council member to dissent on moving forward with the plans on that day.
And right after that whole avalanche of resident opposition was unleashed, and that led to incredible activism that we have, you know, that wave of activism and energy from the community, we have been able to serve that into two victories in this last cycle.
And we have the runoff coming on Saturday, and it really looks like.
We are going to win that one as well.
Just to say, too, my parents, about five miles from their home, they're in Pennsylvania.
There was a casino that was planned to go in there and it actually went in.
Like, it's not a foregone conclusion that, like, oh, casino, nobody wants that.
You wouldn't be able to put it anywhere.
I remember my parents even had a yard sign that said casino.
Like, they didn't want it.
A bunch of people didn't want it.
But there weren't people in the office that were willing to say no or were immune to being bribed or bought out or whatever it is.
And now they have a giant casino sitting there 10 minutes from their home.
Like, these things, like, they actually do get approved and people standing in the gap is actually.
The difference that kind of that it can happen, so even that I think it was in February, you said I remember seeing it on social media.
It was like just a little bit of a byline, wasn't it?
That like, oh, we're proposing a rezoning.
There's a little note like, oh, this will include you know, rezoning for sports betting activities or whatever, which you have to be like careful to watch for.
Like, this is not just like everything looks good, rubber stamp it.
Like, you can be in these positions and being aware and being precise and then being brave when the time comes to stick out.
That's what actually makes a difference.
Yeah, they were trying to pat to uh ram it through behind the residence facts.
This totally transformational project in three weeks with no public input.
Just stand in the meetings, they were like, Don't say Las Vegas Saints, just like, don't talk about who it is.
I'm like, What?
What are you talking about?
People should know.
Why not?
So I will say that obviously it is true that Muslims have put more of a fight than maybe white liberals that won't have an issue with it.
But it is just factually true that the group that has resisted this billionaire takeover attempt the most has been just Catholics, conservative Catholics.
Yeah, praise God.
Um, so one, I have a few questions.
One, um, it sounds like all this you said, uh, kind of started unfolding, it wasn't even on your radar when you're running your race.
So, you're running on different issues, it's not like you were running on a single issue of, you know, stop the casino from coming to Irving.
So, your race happened before all these things unfolded.
Sounds like it was a couple months after you had already been installed in office.
Um, so one question is, uh, what were the main things that you ran on?
And then, second, um, I'm also just curious as it pertains to the guys behind the casino.
Um, if I mean, obviously, you didn't know you were blindsided, but but they knew what their plans were.
They knew that, like, we want to put in a casino and this is the location, here's the town, you know.
Um, so I'm just wondering, like, with as much money as they have, I mean, surely, like, why did they not, uh, during you know, during your candidacy during the race, why did they not run their own candidates and just fill all the seats for like, why did they not just back guys?
You know what I mean?
And make sure that Luis doesn't get elected.
Because it sounds like you're the only guy that spoke up on city council and tried to stop it.
So, why, like, if they're already spending, you know, like, like billions of dollars, like, what, like, it sounds like all it would have taken is maybe 20, 30 grand to run, you know, a candidate and have him beat you.
Well, I mean, who would think that some random 24 year old is going to be the one that speaks against the project?
Like, that's, yeah.
It's also, you wouldn't see some young kid running as such a threat.
Right.
Um, But that's a good point.
So you're saying part of it was the covertness of you, you know, your age, like demographic, and those kinds of things that they just didn't think that they were going to have a problem with city council.
I do represent a lot of people that are behind me, not just myself, a lot of young people, a lot of older people too.
But even when I ran, I think everybody underestimated the kind of commitment that I would have and the determination to get across the finish line.
But I would say that when it comes to Las Vegas Sands, the plan was to lobby the elected officials privately.
And normally they would present it in a sugar coated way, and just their presence is very threatening because, okay, these guys are totally going to replace me if I go against them, right?
They're going to crush me.
Nobody would dare just stand up on their own against somebody like that.
So their plan was to meet individually with the council members.
They had prepared the zoning case.
And then, if they thought it would get through, just bring the zoning through and get it approved.
And after those revolutions, it doesn't matter because it's passed.
It's entitlement.
Once you give it, you cannot take it back.
Right?
So, and then they would, if it wasn't going to pass, then they would just replace us and would get involved in the races.
So, what I did and what I suggested to a couple of my friends is well, I mean, obviously, the playbook is very clear what they want to do.
These people have their end game.
And we should make sure that they bring it to the public.
And then we discuss it openly and see what the community wants instead of them feeling out that the council is not in favor, replacing us covertly and then passing it covertly once they get the votes.
So I played dumb, and that was great.
And I think also some of my colleagues in the council didn't, were like, oh, let's talk about it more later on, et cetera.
And then we were able to get them to bring it public, and then we had the votes to defeat it.
Right after the avalanche of public supports swung a couple undecided council members.
Because you spoke up publicly, and then there was a citizen hearing.
And just to even again connect this locally, there's a guy in our church.
They were going to put a gas station on a lot that's right across from his home.
So they moved in, they bought a home.
It's like, this is great.
It's empty.
We got a quiet street.
And then literally they came in, and someone bought the parcel, and they wanted to put a gas station there, which who would want that?
Something like 600 people showed up to speak against it.
It was like 598 against, one or two for, whatever it is.
And they actually defeated it.
So, this is not just like if, I mean, it's like doomsday.
Like, we got a casino literally in my backyard.
That's the only chance this would come up.
All sorts of little things that could really affect your quality of life can be impacted by things like what you can tell us about right now public support, showing up, speaking out, saying, we don't want this anywhere near us.
So, here's another question.
When it comes to, you know, who's the guy, right?
It takes, you know, it takes a whole team, but the guy who's going to be the face, who's going to actually be the candidate.
It sounds like in your case, and I'm curious if this is, Kind of a universal principle across the board, or if it just in the providence of God worked out well for you.
But in your case, it seems like it was very advantageous to be unassuming, to be kind of an unknown, you know, like you're, you know, hiding your power levels, you know, like that nobody, you know, they didn't see you as like much of a threat.
And so I'm wondering, is that just particular to your case or is that a kind of a general principle that applies across the board?
Like if, for instance, with our church, We've got guys who have run for office.
We have guys who hold office.
And I've kind of been under the impression that I'm probably not the guy, right?
Like, I'm not unassuming.
You can find hours and hours and hours of talk.
Well, it makes you think that.
You're very common.
And plenty.
Yeah, well, I think I'm a great guy, you know, but there's plenty of people, you know, a few million that don't.
And so, my point is that it seems like in some ways, like, you know, you need different pieces of the puzzle, you know.
There are guys who are going to be just a voice, but the voice guy, You know, who has a podcast, you know, or whatever, whatever he does, he may not always be the best guy to actually be the candidate.
Right.
What do you think?
I would say that it really depends on the situation, on what the electorate looks like, and your cards.
You play your cards right.
Because, yes, I was unassuming, I was underestimated, but also that I didn't have the best resume for voters.
So, as my resume becomes better and better, I will not be underestimated, but it's also going to be easier to make the case hey, you should support me because this is what it is that I have done so far.
So it really depends.
It really depends.
It's a matter of playing that chess game and having the people in your team that have the strategic thinking to understand what would be the best move.
Yep.
So when there was a public hearing for support for the casino, I'm sure lots of people were in favor of it, right?
I'm sure lots of people really wanted it, huh?
So we have.
Just organically?
There were like 10 hours of testimony.
Almost all of them, except for like two people, were adamantly against the casino.
And the last week is Sans actually hired because it was such a PR disaster.
We did a town hall and the guy from Sans got booed for two hours straight.
It was really fun to watch if you're on the anti casino side.
Maybe not so much for him, but for a planning and zoning commission meeting, they hired a bunch of paid protesters.
And that was really fun because they came in, it was really obvious.
They would all give you the same scripted answers.
And among the people that they hired, there were a bunch of girls.
And it was really funny because the girls, by the end of the night, as they heard the testimony of the moms talking about the terrible things that casino brings for family and all these horror stories, they were tearing up.
They were tearing up and like clapping to the testimonies against the casino.
It's like, wait a second, you're reading for the wrong team now.
You just flipped.
You're not supposed to do this.
Are you getting your paycheck?
So, yeah, they hired a bunch of people.
They spent apparently like 10,000 bucks.
Doing this stunt, and then the media got the NDAs because somebody flipped and something like that.
Which is just insane.
Like, you're trying to plop up a casino in someone's town and you're paying people to pretend as if they want it.
Right.
Like, this is not just like, ah, all fair is love of war.
Like, that's terrible.
There was literally nobody that would show up in support.
Nobody wants us and, like, we will spend as much money as is reasonably possible to get this in any way if there's a means to do so.
That's what politics is.
They spent 174,000.
Or $168 in this last couple months, trying to get their candidates of choice across the finish line to sway the candidates.
Because then there's city council seats up for votes.
So then you had all the public outcry, but ultimately it depends on the votes.
It depends on, I think you said, eight city council members.
I mean, not to take away from like going and speaking, most council members are not going to flip.
Right.
It was, there were two that were a little bit on the fence.
We were lucky that they voted to delay, but they're still in favor of the casino.
It's just like too soon because the public is outraged.
Come back when everyone's forgot about it, basically.
Right, exactly.
Yep.
That would be, or whenever, you know, Sans is able to buy, Las Vegas Sans is able to buy.
Of the elections and the council seats.
But they have failed.
They have failed two out of three.
And then this runoff on Saturday, I'm very optimistic about it.
So basically, now you have a majority of city council that will never approve, at least as long as they're in office, theoretically.
As long as we don't get replaced, yeah?
As long as you don't get replaced, they'll never put a casino in your town.
Yes.
I love it.
It can't happen without the city council's approval?
No.
They need to.
The state could try to preempt us, but that would be very odd.
That would be very odd, and we're probably going to pass something to preempt the state from preempting us, essentially.
I just like to say, too, like this is kind of like Christian nationalism.
Like, what does it practically look like?
Well, a lot of it's going to be small at the beginning.
Right.
Think about Stephen Wolfe's political project or different forms of it, be it Catholic integralism or just even kind of plain, broad Christianity.
This is actually practically what it looks like.
So many people think it's so scary.
Well, here's what it looks like making sure people can't come into your town and turn it into a drug and trafficking route.
Right.
Like, I don't know about you.
I'm a supporter of that.
I think most Christians, all Christians who care for the thriving, the vitality, like you said earlier, they should be in favor of these types of things.
This is practically what it looks like on the ground.
A Christian man takes office and uses his role in that office to protect his town, to promote the good, to hopefully at some point you have the opportunity to punish the evil.
Maybe you'll kick out a pride parade or two.
That's what it looks like.
And I would say, too, that it's very interesting the power of belief, because the people that are on our side really believe what they're fighting for.
And but the people that they hire that Las Vegas Sands hires are mercenaries.
So I was talking to them and I was just offering them, Hey, do you guys want a job or something?
I could give you a door knocking job to work against Sands.
And some of them were really like, Oh, that's really rude or something.
But some of them took me up on it.
It's like, Oh, great.
Now these guys are going to be knocking against the people that just hired them.
And so you really can't rely on people like that because they will just they will betray you because they don't agree with you, they're just doing it for the money, right?
Um, you know, in that sense, that's a funny story, yeah.
Hiring Mercenaries for Good00:03:35
Yeah, the the eight or so door knockers that's pretty lit.
We got one more piece to the story, but so we'll go to our last commercial break.
If you have any questions, uh, specifically, I mean, we've got Louise here, we're live, leave them in the chat, and then a last more couple pieces, and then we'll go ahead and wrap it up.
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Signs of Hope in the Past00:15:32
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Welcome back.
We've talked about it, I think, a number of times, but as far as character, as far as your past, as far as your current actions, Most certainly, obviously, for the office of pastor.
But also, when it comes to politics, I think of Mark Robinson as an example in North Carolina.
He was running for governor, and salacious comments from years ago came out, and he lost the race.
It was the same thing with Matt Gaetz, who was nominated for attorney general, and basically, an investigation into him proved he had character that was I mean, we're not just talking like, you know, moved in with his fiance three weeks before the wedding, but potentially slept with underage girls.
So, character matters.
And one of the ways practically this can manifest is this actually happened to you, Luis.
Is when you go to get into politics and you take office, and especially when you start doing something in politics.
So, it's not just you keep the seat warm, you rubber stamp everything that comes across your desk, but you speak out and you say something, people are going to dig into your past.
They're going to take a look, they're going to treat it, see if they can find anything that would incriminate or disqualify, whatever it would be.
So, Luis, tell us practically how that looked for you.
You took a stand, you said, I don't want this in my town, and that was it.
They left town, right?
Left town packing?
No, they don't hold a grudge against me at all.
They're not looking for revenge.
And they didn't just hire a private investigator to go after me, most likely.
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.
So, yeah, I mean, they're not going to find anything because I'm like the nicest person ever.
So, why could they find?
But I would say that, yes, you want to be very careful with what you say.
I don't drink, I don't smoke.
So, there's nothing that I'm concerned about coming out.
He said this thing that day.
I never used social media until I had to create a Twitter account to post my intervention on February 27th, where I originally spoke against.
But I was late for that.
I was just being chronically reticent to being in the online sphere and doing these silly posts about this is what our police department is doing.
I don't want to be like news, that's not my function.
I don't want to do that.
And just being careful with, I frankly do have a very provocative sense of humor.
And that is something that, especially in politics, the way it works, it can be spun up the wrong way.
So, when you say, when you joke with which people, you know, you make fun of your friend or something like that, and you call him ugly or something, they will take that.
They will take anything that they can get and try to use it against you.
Right.
So, in this case, they're just trying to dig for stuff.
They will be grossly unsuccessful, but I'm just a very lucky man and I've been very, very careful throughout my life.
But that's something definitely worth considering.
Bearing in mind for anybody getting involved.
That's a real calculus, though.
If you're thinking of running for office, hey, maybe you don't have a base DEX account.
Like, think of all of those things as anything I say, it's very possible it's going to live on.
And if I tried to go for public office, this could be used against me.
Same thing for past sins.
I mean, David ultimately, not even a knock on him, but God says, look, you're past.
Like, you're just, you're not going to be the guy to build the temple.
And so it comes to practically getting involved.
Many men have to make the calculus.
Is there things in my background that might actually prevent me from doing so?
Again, to go back to Mark Robinson, I mean, this is the guy who beat out a bunch of other candidates for the Republican governor of North Carolina, men who presumably did not have comments from 20 years ago on adult sites.
And so he took that spot and he ran for that office and then he lost it on them.
And now North Carolina is stuck, not just for six months or, oh, we got a bad couple weeks ahead of us.
They're stuck for years now with a Democrat governor.
And that was because somebody in his past.
Was salacious.
And so, whether it's truly sin, truly disqualifying, both as sin, but also for public office, or whether it's even like you said, Luis, be it a sense of humor, be it things you post online, even there, technically, it's a very valid calculus to say, I'm not going to do this.
And I'm not going to do this, not because I 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 impact later on down the road, and this could jeopardize it.
And then other guys saying, I'm never going to run for public office.
And what I can do is I can be the heel on social media.
So I'll say the things great guys can't.
I would also say women.
Is a big one where every, like you'll see Trump, anybody that is doing anything, women will be weaponized against them where they have been sleeping around or doing things like that.
So, I would say, and obviously, I'm Catholic.
I believe in the teaching of the Catholic Church in that sense.
So, if anybody accused me of anything, it would really fly.
It would not go well, right?
It would just not.
People wouldn't buy it.
So, yeah.
And I would like to add that when it comes to Irving, I don't think Las Vegas Sands has tried to build casinos in many spots.
And they have been successful in many spots, they have failed in many spots.
I think it's unlikely that they have ever seen a resistance that is so organized and so competent as what they have encountered.
Because it is a city that is filled up with people that absolutely hate this project and are willing to put down their lives completely to make sure that they're not successful and that they don't destroy the community with it.
Yeah.
Yep.
I love that.
All right.
Any super chats or questions, Nathan?
We got a couple here.
Let's see.
Granddad Farms, he gave us five bucks.
Thanks, Granddad Farms.
We appreciate your generosity.
He says, Thank you for your service, Luis.
Oh, and this is what the five bucks goes toward.
He says, Your first class ticket will be paid for.
Well, you're still missing a little bit more.
Yeah, I guess I'm staying for now.
That's business class.
Well, no, I was going to say Spirit Airlines.
Yeah.
With Spirit Airlines, $5.
That would get you far.
Just sell them off?
You can finish your term, right?
So you're about a year in.
You got two more to go.
And then first class ticket all the way back to Spain.
BJJ wins again.
He gave us 10 bucks.
We appreciate it.
He says, Luis, I am local.
So I guess he lives in Irving.
I would love to connect with you.
Wes has my number.
True story.
Just go ahead and text me again because I got a bunch of texts during the conference.
So text me again and I'll connect you too.
Yeah, BJJ wins.
Again, he was one of the guys at the conference.
We're glad to have him there.
Okay, let's see.
Are there any other questions?
Yeah, so Daniel, Dan Sack said, Wesley was at the Hollywood Casino in Morgantown.
I am 10 minutes from there as well.
Yes, that's exactly it.
About, I think, five years ago or so, that was the Hollywood Casino that they, it's like a town of like a thousand people in rural Pennsylvania.
And it came in?
It came in and it's there to this day.
Wow.
Yep.
Luis, I have just one encouragement.
I think a lot of men, I have talked to so many, about the last month, month or two, there are so many men getting involved in politics.
Like this has not just kind of been our little hobby horse and, you know, a couple guys are following.
A lot of people are realizing that many of our crises, they're downstream from political action, whether it be your taxes, whether it be the materials and public school.
Even if you don't send your kids there, you're still going to be surrounded by.
The products of those public schools.
So, it's your taxes, it's your schools, it's immigration, it's, you know, an apartment building, five of them going up right behind your house.
These are all downstream of magistrates and political office.
And I don't think I've ever seen the scale of men saying, let me join a society, be an old glory club, let me run for local office, even if it's just even a city council, state representative.
I'm going to volunteer my time to door knock, I'm going to form an affinity group.
So many guys are getting involved.
And I think, like, you keep this up.
Like, year after year after year, we're going to have some races we lose.
You could get inspired from this.
You go and run.
Yeah, no, we're not.
We're going to sweep the board.
Practically speaking, we're going to lose.
But if you keep it up and then come back the next year, like that's name recognition.
You run and lose.
You still get name recognition.
If we keep this up for decades on end, we will win.
Like, we're stronger.
We're smarter.
We have God on our side.
Like you said, the power of belief.
You're not just fighting for Irving as an economic zone.
Like, you're just like, I found Christ there.
Yeah.
This is home.
It's home.
Yeah.
I would say, it's not Spain home, but it's home.
It's really good.
I enjoy it.
There's a reason why I'm here, right?
Yeah.
I would say, I think that, so to speak, politics is a new tech.
And that's where I would encourage a lot of young men to go to or young people that really want to give the fight.
It's also really fun.
If you have the temperament for it, it's really, really fun.
It's super meaningful.
And in my race, we were doing a party after every day of volunteering with people that agree on whatever it is that they agree on.
And there are Christians.
And it was a blast.
It was a blast, totally.
And, you know, people knocking in pairs, that makes it very easy.
And then seeing the victories is very satisfying.
I sleep every night with an incredibly calm conscience.
I'm needing less and less sleep as time goes on.
It's so good, you know, because very often you see how the world is going downhill, especially from a Christian perspective, how things are not looking good for the church worldwide, presumably.
And there's this anxiety that keeps building up.
Because you're like scrolling in Twitter and maybe like ragging at people or something like that.
But when you get involved and you start doing things in whichever capacity you can, even if you're a small part of something that is much bigger, there's this peace that starts coming.
And there's this, the anxiety starts, it just goes to zero.
And then it becomes this extremely engaging level of alertness that just, you know, it is very, very enjoyable.
Yeah.
Very thrilling.
So I encourage everybody to experience it because if you like it, you're absolutely going to love it.
I know of almost no man who works 50 hours a week, has tons of enemies, so he's in the fight, a little bit racist, who's depressed.
I just, I never met that guy, you know?
He's working hard.
He's actually doing something meaningful, right?
He's not building widgets, he's doing something meaningful.
He loves his place, loves his home.
Like, I've never met a man that's just like, and then I get home and I'm racked with depression, anxiety.
And there are cases, Charles Spurgeon being an example.
But by and large, if you're a man and you're like, well, I work 25 hours a week and then I play video games and I'm kind of depressed and I'm kind of anxious, like, yeah, you need to go do something with your life.
Now, probably if, That's you, that's not running for public office, but supporting someone.
But finding yourself in the fight is the cure to so many ills of our modern age of overthinking and anxiety.
Mission.
What to do?
Men need a mission.
Yeah.
It's not just entertainment or doing hobbies, but men actually need a mission.
You see the memes online.
It's like, I was born too late to be a part of the Crusades, and born too early to colonize the Martians on Mars.
My favorite one is born too late.
To fight the Indians for my homeland.
Born just in time to fight the Indians for my homeland.
That's funny.
Different kind of Indian.
But yeah, but like men need a mission.
They need to, and that's the thing you don't have to LARP, you don't have to conjure it up or make something up, you know, fabricate.
No, there really is a mission.
The church has been in decline for decades.
Now, there are some signs of life that are very hopeful just in the past few years.
But on the macro, for decades, the church has been in decline.
We have rampant.
Feminism, we have rampant LGBT, LMNOP, mafia, rampant abortion, all these things.
And so there really is something to fight.
There really is something to give your life towards.
And when you do that, it's like, oh, well, it'll be hard.
It'll be this.
Yeah, it is hard, but you find purpose and you actually, you'll find yourself.
Luis is right.
You'll find yourself being a lot happier and actually a lot more at peace.
For me, just personally in my own life, the more responsibility and weight that God kind of loads me down with, both, you know, whether it be in church life, pastorally, and then like with media and right response, and then, of course, with family.
And every time the Lord gives us another kid, we're up to five, and we'll see, you know, see what God does and if there's more.
But it's like with each new kid, you don't have time to, like, so much anxiety comes from the incessant.
Constant navel gazing and introspection, you know, and thinking about, you know, all these different things.
Like, men, many men just have too much time on their hands.
Right.
And one of the things that's helped to level me out to where, like, I go to bed and I'm not tossing and turning and struggling with anxiety because, you know, my head hits the pillow and I'm out within seconds because I'm actually tired because I worked, you know.
And so, one of the things I think that, That men need, and order just like for an emotional, psychological equilibrium to just be healthy is a mission and work and their days to be filled.
And, you know, family and church and their vocation comes first.
But then beyond that, there's a lot of other things that we can throw ourselves into, and politics is one of them.
Yeah.
Thanks for coming on.
Any final thoughts?
How can we help out the Saturday?
I think you said is the last runoff race.
So, this is if two candidates are too close to call.
They kind of go to one last showdown.
Right.
So nobody got 51% on the general election.
So there's a runoff.
I do feel very confident about it.
If somebody wants to help out, Sergio Porras, you can donate online or just help.
Sign up to volunteer for this Saturday.
You know, Wes has my number.
Maybe actually you don't.
Maybe you just have my signal.
I just have your signal.
Well, probably one of your like three phones.
Who's the candidate?
Sergio Porras.
He's the one that is running against the casino.
Oh, okay.
Gotcha.
Against the casino dark money.
Yeah.
But it's looking very good.
I do think that, just as a word of encouragement, it is, as I said, very engaging.
Building Habits Ahead of Time00:01:50
I will say, though, that it takes a lot of discipline to do what needs to be done because sometimes you have a bunch of deadlines.
There are seven things that need to be done before certain times, certain days, so that everything goes out the text messages and this and that.
Everything happens within a certain timeline.
And maybe you just can't sleep that night or sleep very little or you need to skip a meal.
And that sort of discipline that allows you to, in the moment of combat, Because it's like a war, it's like a battle.
To perform and to do what needs to be done under those conditions, you build that ahead of time.
So even if you don't find yourself in an immediate battle, you can still get ready for that way ahead of time so that you will be able to deliver when that resilience makes all the difference.
Yeah.
I never knew someone who, you know, they always slept in, they weren't disciplined with their diet, you know, and then the kid came along and they just locked in or they got the new job or whatever it is.
Your habits will always precede what you eventually become.
So, if you wanna be, well, I wanna be successful in this and I wanna make this money.
Okay, all the habits that you imagine yourself having then, they're not gonna magically appear.
You're gonna wanna start them now.
So, be it speaking, be it being courageous, you know, like you said, discipline, working long hours.
Like, if you're worth less than a million dollars, why are you not working on Saturday?
Like, legitimately, if you do not have the income that you need, if you don't own a home, Saturday's a great day to work.
Six days shall you labor.
The seventh shall you rest.
But that type of mindset, building in that discipline before you get to the point where you work every day because you're a state senator, or you work every day because you have three businesses, building that up prior to will set you up for success.