Steven Potter:
David Schroeder, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate. Thank you for joining us.

David Schroeder:
Thank you.

Steven Potter:
You're a former educator and a Republican. Why are you challenging fellow Republican, Ron Johnson, in the U.S. Senate primary race?

David Schroeder:
For the first six years of his tenure in the Senate, he's a deficit hawk. He's figuring out how to, you know, reduce the deficit, get rid of, you know, social programs, things like that until Trump gets elected, and all of a sudden he's passing a tax cut that adds $1.7 trillion to the deficit. And I'm thinking, well all that deficit talk was just smokescreen stuff and he benefited quite a bit from that tax cut, as did large manufacturers. Then COVID hits and he's passing out or promoting false and harmful information about the vaccines and about COVID. Then he volunteers to take to the vice president a fraudulent list of electors to overturn the election and in the process, by doing that, if he had succeeded he'd have nullified my vote. So I feel that he's not a qualified person to be running, he's violated his oath of office at least once.

Steven Potter:
All right. If elected, what would your legislative priorities be?

David Schroeder:
Campaign finance reform. I mean the Freedom To Vote Act and the John Lewis Act, you know, those are the three I would start on because I think if we're going to try to save this democracy those are the three priorities that need to be dealt with right off the bat. And I think they transcend party lines. Quite frankly

Steven Potter:
On the economy, inflation has reached a 40-year high, how should federal lawmakers address inflation?

David Schroeder:
I think that inflation is a worldwide problem. Now you've got oil companies that have made 300% profit this quarter from the last quarter, which is 35 billion dollars. These are multinational corporations that really can't be touched by an individual country or an individual. So there's got to be some way to deal with that but that's where your inflation is. I mean, you got all these people that are just gouging because they can, and it's got nothing to do with national issues. We're all getting hit.

Steven Potter:
Shifting now to gun violence. There have been a number of mass shootings and other gun deaths of uptick as well. President Joe Biden recently signed into law new gun control measures. How would you address gun violence as a U.S. senator?

David Schroeder:
If you can get money out of the campaign system, you can get a lot broader field of candidates because they don't need as much, you know, like some countries have what you would call federal funding for campaigns. That way you'd have a much broader perspective of people. And it wouldn't be beholden to these big money people like the NRA. And the second thing I would do is, I understand people like to collect things. I like to collect things. So people like to collect guns. Okay, you want to collect 14 AR-15s and hang 'them on your wall. Good. But if you want to start buying ammunition for that thing, there better be some qualifications on it. And I think that's where you restrict it. You charge a dollar for the bullet and tax it $99, and the same thing with high-capacity clips.

Steven Potter:
The Supreme Court has overruled Roe vs Wade. What should U.S. senators do on the matter of abortion?

David Schroeder:
The only thing they've stopped is legal abortions. There's still going to be abortions. And I remember what it was like before there was Roe vs Wade and it was not pleasant. So I don't want to go back to that. And what they've done is they've taken 50% of this country and turned them into second class citizens in one fell swoop. And who's next?

Steven Potter:
There have been claims of election fraud. How would you reassure Wisconsin voters to have confidence in the election system?

David Schroeder:
Well, I worked elections, so I defy anybody who thinks that there's election fraud going on at polls to go work them. You'll see all of the safeguards and things that are in place to stop anything like that from happening. Each one of these county clerks has a fantastic system of judging what's a valid vote, of what's a valid ballot, and what is not. I don't care how you think you can stuff a ballot box. It's impossible. Now there are ways to rig an election. In the state of Wisconsin, it's called gerrymandering. That's where you're getting, you know, election fraud. I mean, voters aren't causing that. And it's ridiculous if you think you can, you know, vote five times and change an election. It's just not worth it. Even if you could get away with it, which you can't, and the federal crime for that is years in prison for crying out loud. So why would anybody risk that?

Steven Potter:
Ron Johnson has won election twice. What do you think your chances are of making it to the general election in November?

David Schroeder:
That depends on the voters. I'm here to give them an opportunity. The whole reason for me running was to give them an opportunity to make their voice heard. Do you like the job he's doing? Do you like the fact that he represents maybe 5% of his constituents? I'll represent 95% of you.

Steven Potter:
How do you respond to those who may question your motivation for running as a Republican?

David Schroeder:
I'm a legitimate Republican. The people that are in Trump's Republican Party, that's not even a party anymore. It's a cult personality. Listen, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, James A. Garfield and Teddy Roosevelt could not, and Dwight Eisenhower could not get in the Republican party today. You know, Robert LaFollette, great Wisconsin senator, there's no way they would take him. Howard Baker, Everett Thurston, even Barry Goldwater could not get in the current Republican Party. They would throw them out. So it's time for Republicans to take their dang party back. Come on guys. Let's go.

Steven Potter:
David Schroeder, thank you again for joining us.

David Schroeder:
Oh, thank you.