Live from Virginia Monday morning on The John Fredericks Show – weekdays on WNTW AM 820/ FM 92.7 – Richmond, WJFN FM 100.5 – Central Virginia, WMPH AM 1010 / FM 100.1 / FM 96.9 (7-9 PM) Hampton Roads, WBRG AM 1050 / FM 105.1 – Lynchburg/Roanoke and Weekdays 6-10 am and 24/7 Stream –  host Fredericks welcomed House of Delegates Republican candidate Scott Taylor to the show.
During the program, Taylor discussed feedback he’d been receiving during his recent door knocking while on the campaign trail. He added that he was seeing a lot of people that were not for Trump in ’16 looking to vote for him in 2020 after witnessing the progress of the current administration and cognitive decline of Biden.
Fredericks: One of the delegates who was not here obviously Scott Taylor who is running for Congress. Scott great to have.
Taylor: John good morning. Glad you are down there representing Virginia kicking this thing off.
Fredericks: Yes. Thank you. I have to leave here today at seven thirty. We have a meeting. We are going to formally nominate the President today and then go from there. Scott, tell us about your campaign. I was here not 10 minutes and at least five people asked me, tell us what’s going on in the second district in Virginia. Apparently this is a hot item here.
Taylor: Yes. It’s definitely the number one race in the region. It’s the top ten race in the country. Things are going very well. I’m door knocking like crazy. I was out there yesterday in these targeted precincts. Swing precincts if you will. The feedback is fantastic. It’s going to be a close race. There is no question there. She has the advantage of incumbency now of course. But she has a very bad approval rating because she hasn’t been here in two years. She hasn’t done anything.
She hasn’t accomplished anything. And our records next to each other are demonstratively far and above hers. And people know that. They are spending plenty of Pelosi’s money to attack me and smash me and attacking me. But we expected that. But things are going well and we are going to take this district back in November.
Fredericks: Look, I’m excited for you. I really am. I’m always interested to know Scott Taylor when you are knocking on doors at swing voters and everybody has a knack for that now. You are not going to the hard Republicans that you know are going to vote for you. You are trying to get the people who have may or may not made their mind up that go one way or the other. When you are knocking on doors, are people home?
Taylor: More so than normal. Over the years I’ve knocked on probably 25 or 30,000 homes. Typically most people are not home when you are there. But I will tell you now there are a lot more people that are home. We just started doing this thing because obviously we are concerned about people worried about us because of COVID. It’s interesting that people are hungry for interaction. I knock on the door and I step back a few steps when they open the door. I have my mask with me just in case. A lot more than normal people are home and they do want to engage and they are very appreciative that I am out there.
Fredericks: When you are talking to people at their doors, what are they saying to you? What are their concerns? What’s the feedback been Scott Taylor?
Taylor: Most people I’ve talked to are very concerned about the direction of the country. They are concerned about these protests. The images they’ve seen out of Richmond. Images they saw at the oceanfront. The inconsistent governance of our governor and the folks in the legislature. For example, I was speaking to a woman sitting on a porch with a plastic rocking chair the other day. Her husband is a Veteran. He’s a Republican. She is not. She’s an Independent.
She didn’t like Trump before but she’s voting for him now because she can’t stomach Biden. And she just thinks that the left has gone out of control. Way to the left. She’s coming back home if you will. She’s going to be voting for the President. She’s voting for me. But her concerns with a special needs child and she’s concerned about schools. That kid falling behind. She’s concerned about the rioting if you will. The law and order if you will. And she’s with the President now.
Fredericks: Well, that’s great. And those stories I assume that isn’t just isolated, right? You are getting a lot of those?
Taylor: I am. A lot of people are very concerned about the Democratic Party and how far left they’ve gone. The reality is when you talk to people, yes they want justice. Yes, they want equality. But not at the expense of safety and security of their families. And that’s what they are seeing. Hearing about defunding the police. In our area down here we have a lot of people who are either in uniform or have been in uniform.
So there is a lot of respect for that down here. And they don’t like what they are seeing in some of these other cities and in Richmond. The capitol building in Richmond, our Commonwealth is boarded up right now. The American flag was ordered taken down the day before Independence Day because they said it would be a target for protesters. That is unacceptable. And in this area where I’m from, people know that folks throughout history have died holding that dam flag up. So it’s no acceptable to people around here.
Fredericks: You know what Scott? I can feel the momentum changing. I was saying this all last week. You look at the poll numbers are all going in Trump’s favor now. I believe the President is going to win. We had an internal poll the other day, one he’s tied in Minnesota.
I asked permission to talk about it. I was granted that. He’s tied in Minnesota. He’s within three in Pennsylvania. All of a sudden Scott Taylor in the last three weeks and then two weeks everything started moving in the president’s favor. What’s interesting is that Joe Biden had this convention where everybody was made to feel bad about themselves. Hate being American.
We have a horrible country and everybody is going to die. It was just horrible. The whole four days was just depressing. You had Michelle Obama lecturing us like a schoolmarm. Like I should be ashamed of voting for Trump. The whole thing was a disaster. He actually went down in the polls. Normally when you have a convention you get what they call a convention bounce.
Taylor: A convention bump.
Fredericks: He went backwards. Have you ever seen that?
Taylor: I mean he was using some of the same speeches he did when he was the VP Candidate. And it demonstratively looks a lot less there if you will. For sure. A lot less energy. Look, he can’t even string a couple of sentences. The bar was so low that he was reading off the teleprompter. Oh he did so great because he was able to read through sentences and get it done. But when he’s not there it’s disastrous.
This isn’t a political statement. It’s kind of sad. It looks like he’s losing cognitive ability. It’s not like if he becomes the President it will be any easier for him. And I think intuitively Americans are looking at that thinking, ah, I don’t think so. It’s clear he’s hiding out. It’s clear there’s diminished capability there. You are the leader of the free world. It’s not like its any less stressful. Just look at President Bush and Obama who became grey in the first year. But President Trump seems to thrive in that.
Fredericks: He certainly does. No question about it. We are with Scott Taylor. Scott is the Republican candidate for Congress in the second district. That’s the Virginia Beach and all the way to Williamsburg and the Eastern Shore. Scott Taylor represented the area from 2016-2018. Got defeated in the mid-terms by Elaine Luria who was running against again.
That race of course will be decided on November third. But we really feel good about your race Scott. Luria one of the weakest candidates out there. I know you are not going to get out-worked. I know you’ll be able to raise the money you need to be competitive. I think Trump is going to win the district by maybe four or five.
Taylor: He won the district last time by four. It’s interesting. Despite the Democrats’ narrative that oh, well there are fewer people supporting him now than they were before. That’s not really what I’m hearing. There are some folks here, and you know a couple of them that are bigger names and more known around here that tend to lean left and didn’t like the President in ’16. But they are with him now because they’ve seen the results. And what Biden is promising is just too far left. (Chuckles) You know?
Fredericks: Right.
Taylor: They are trying to sugar coat this super left agenda by putting him there and thinking that he’s a moderate. I also think that Kamala on the ticket along with his record, I think that’s going to hurt them with the younger African American voters because both of them locked up a lot of Black men. I don’t see how you get around it.
It’s not like people don’t know that. Either one they’re not going to vote for him and not come out. Or two, they are going to vote for the President. Either way, it’s bad for them. I think it was a bad choice. I don’t think they are going to do well with young African American men. I also believe that there are a lot of folks that weren’t with the President in 2016 that understand the agenda that Biden is pushing down the pipeline. And they are not for it. And now they are with the President. So I do think the President is going to win bigger than he did last time.
Listen to the full show here:
