Now there is, I guess, a chance there's a vote, so was it about a vote, or was it also about not knowing enough about the details of the deal itself?

Yeah.

Well, there is a, a little bit of that a- as well.

I do wanna say that our city manager, Mario Vasquez, put us in a situation where the Royals actually trusted the city again to be able to put up a package for us to vote on.

Um, but my, my main thing is the vote.

Um, but I do...

I've heard from a lot of constituents that are very excited about a potential location down there.

What's, what's going on here? What's the story?

When you think about Congressman Graves, and, uh, listen, you're right, he's obviously endorsed your opponent, what, [sighs] what do you make of his, his record in Congress?

I, I respect him, and I respect his 26 years of service, and, uh, he currently is the Chair of Transportation.

I, I respect him.

Uh, but I think what we've heard over and over again across, uh, the district is we want a congressman that's gonna continue to show up, um, understand the institutions, a- and fight for them.

Um, but this is not about him.

This race is about who should be the next congressman.

And when you file to run for office, right, and tell everyone you're running again, and then you pull out at the last minute and then immediately endorse someone, that's handpicking, and that's not, um, the values of our country.

As, as people head to the polls tomorrow, uh, what, what is the biggest difference, if there is any, policy-wise as you see it between yourself and, and Chris, and maybe something that people should be thinking about that maybe they're not when it comes to your candidacy in particular?

Nathan Willett, your response to Congressman Graves?

Well, first of all, I respect his 26 years of service to North Missouri Congress.

But he doesn't get to handpick the next person, and that's exactly what's going on here.

And this is a last-minute complaint trying to distract the voters.

I followed state and federal laws, period.

But going back to it, Congressman Graves filed to run for office, told everyone he was running for reelection, then pulled out at the last minute, and then endorsed my opponent before filing even closed.

And people across our 33 counties look at that and say, hey, that's D.C. trying to handpick the next congressman.

What exactly is going on with some of those groups in particular?

Would fighting for Missouri farmers include opposing Donald Trump's tariffs, which a lot of farmers say is the reason they're suffering right now?

I do support the president's agenda and I support him holding other countries accountable on this.

And the president is pushing to open up markets.

The way that he does things, it might not be typical, but it is important to continue to support farmers.

Well, as someone who doesn't farm myself, my family has farmed here for seven generations, It's important to know that I'm not going to know every single answer in this.

And I'm going to assemble a good quality team to to present different perspectives on the issues.

And that's what I've done.

But what would you do as a member of Congress to help farmers with fertilizer costs, given that it was a problem caused by the federal government, so it probably needs a federal solution?

But I always ask a question to people like, why would you become a police officer in Kansas City, Missouri if you could just go be one in like Lee's Summit? Does that make any sense? H- what, what are you finding with the new recruitment and the new officers that are coming in, why do they wanna serve in Kansas City, Missouri?

Yeah.

Well, first of all, anyone who serves their community, thank you for what you do, whether you're a sheriff or a police officer or any type of first responder.

The fact that you wanna go into that, um, you gotta know that your city hall and local government has your back.

But no, I think y- you have a unique experience in Kansas City.

Obviously, you know there's certain parts of our city that have very high crime areas, and there's people who feel called to do that, and they wanna put themselves in some of the most, uh, severe situations 'cause they have the, number one, the professional capacity, and number two, the heart, um, to try to do that.

And I do believe that we have some of the best, uh, people serving our community.

So one of the interesting questions that I would have for you or Chris when talking about this, if it's been conservative for a long time, what is it that you hear from the conservatives that they still want to see done that hasn't been done to this point on their behalf in this district?

What, what are you finding with the new recruitment and the new officers that are coming in, why do they wanna serve in Kansas City, Missouri?

Missouri?Yeah.

Well, first of all, anyone who serves our community, thank you for what you do, whether you're a sheriff or a police officer or any type of first responder.

The fact that you wanna go into that, um, you gotta know that your city hall and local government has your backs.

But no, I think you, you have a unique experience in Kansas City.

Obviously, you know there's certain parts of our city that have very high crime areas, and there's people who feel called to do that, and they wanna put themselves in some of the most, uh, severe situations 'cause they have the, number one, the professional capacity, and number two, the heart, um, to try to do that.

And I do believe that we have some of the best, uh, people serving our community.

It is a conservative district through and through, so one of the interesting questions that I would have for you or Chris when talking about this, if it's been conservative for a long time, what is it that you hear from the conservatives that they still want to see done that hasn't been done to this point on their behalf in this district?

All right, Nathan Willett, your response to that from Chris Stegall.

Yeah.

Well, first of all, he doesn't seem very comfortable or confident right now with how his campaign is going, 'cause he's losing.

He's trying to hide from the fact that he did not support President Trump in the 2024 election.

I was the only one who caucused in support of the president.

He did not want him to be the nominee, and that's why they're doing all these attack ads with out-of-state dark money.

The fact of the matter is, Pete, I voted against all three of Quinton Lucas' budgets at city council, all three of them, because it had m- funding for abortion, it had funding for reparations, things that we did not like to have happen.

You were kind of building your career." Why, why pivot at the point that you did?

What's your thoughts and ideas behind that?

Yeah, it should not be pushed on local communities.

Local communities should be able to decide if they want them themselves and rate payers.

Also, it extends beyond that.

Um, So I think people should be able to ask questions.

It should not just be a rubber stamp thing to do.

I will say this.

parts company in an industrial park in Clay County, chances are you might not get a tax abatement.

Of those things, what's been the toughest?

I think the toughest thing to do is getting certain people that you know could be on the same page, on the same page.

Uh, when I stepped up and ran for the city council, I ran after the defund the police era in Kansas City, and unfortunately, our Democrat mayor and other people thought it would be a good idea to reimagine public safety, reimagine that, but that meant taking dollars away from our police officers.

We went to, um, you know, 400 officers short in our city, and just...

There was just a decline.

People were leaving the department, so I stepped up to run, and I knew that there's a lot of people who actually want to fund the police, even moderates out there.

They don't like, you know, what was necessarily happening with the, the far left and that momentum that they were getting in controlling that party, and so I was the only Republican elected.

Mm.

It's time, time to bring back the bus fares"?

Yeah.

Well, I worked with, um, some of my colleagues and actually got a coalition to go against the mayor, and we put into the KCATA contract that we have to re-implement fare.

Now, charities or nonprofits can step up and cover fare for individuals, but they need to go and get, um, connected to resources.

It shouldn't just be a free-for-all.

And Pete, I wanna remind you, when they implemented free fare, they were using COVID dollars, so one-time dollars, and then we lost off, out on $10 million of revenue for our buses that we normally would collect.

And when you lose revenue, um, you have to then cut routes or, um, have to reduce services in other ways.

So where did it start in city council, and who ultimately got on board with it?