How's it going? What separates you?

Good.

Yeah, we started with nine.

So I mean, what separates me, uh, is, you know, I grew up here in Maine.

I was raised here.

My wife was raised here.

All three of our kids grew up here, went to the same high school I did.

What makes you think that running as a Republican, Ben, you could buck that trend a- and break out and maybe take this to, bring the state somewhat center right?

How would you overcome that?

that?We just did the debate recently that was driven by the Chamber of Commerce.

He's talking about the job forecast through 2029, the Mills Economic Forecast.

There's zero job growth forecasted through 2029, and you can't do that badly if you're trying to do that badly.

It's unbelievable that you can have no growth for the next three years.

So for me, it's a combination of lowering the cost of living and growing the economy at the same time because as you're trying to bring down costs for folks, that's for individuals.

If you can create a bigger gap between the amount of money they make and the amount of money they spend, well, that's all just going to support themselves and their families, so you have to do that.

So what's your stand on health insurance?

What ha- if success leaves clues, well, how could you implement what you know in business to politics, in government?

The, the thing that's helped make me most successful in business was, you know, taking the time to listen to everybody.

It, it, it takes a lot more time to do it that way.

But, uh, it's not about, you know, beating the other side.

For example, in a franchise organization, you have the franchisor on top.

You could tell all the franchisees what to do, but then the franchisees can create a franchise association.

They can all get together, they can push back at you, you can have lawsuits, it can go on for years and years and years.

How did you get all the way to the top?