Dr. Chris Jones on the Fight to Flip Arkansas’s Second Congressional District

Donald Trump and Maga Mike Johnson are getting a rude awakening in Arkansas. Never thought I'd say that, but in purported red states across the country, Donald Trump and Maga Mike are a tankin heading into the midterms zoom in over here on the latest data out of Arkansas where Donald Trump's net approval negative 13. Let me repeat that Donald Trump's overall approval in Arkansas is net negative 13. You want to zoom in on a congressional district heading into the midterms like Arkansas's second congressional district. You've got Dr. Chris Jones, the Democratic challenger, NASA scientist MIT PhD previously ran for governor against Sarah Huckabee Sanders, how much better would Dr. Jones have been than Sarah Huckabee Sanders? I think the voters are feeling as well. He's going up against Maga Republican extremist French Hill who's been reelected six times and has used his position, Arkansas's second, which is little rock in the surrounding areas to destroy the lives of people in Arkansas. Every step of the way he sided with Donald Trump's extremist policies, torturing the people of Arkansas's second congressional district. So you have Dr. Chris Jones leading by four points against Maga Republican Congress member French Hill, the Maga extremist. So how's Maga Mike Johnson handling the polling data in Arkansas, in Texas, in Iowa, in Nebraska, in Florida, in Alaska. You name it? Well, Maga Mike is saying don't buy the polls. I'm doing events that have the biggest crowd size ever. He says, I am drawing crowds. First, listen to what Maga Mike says here. Play this clip. Don't buy it. I'm telling you I'm on the ground in the swing districts. I am seeing huge energy and crowds. It feels like 2024 to me. Thank you so much for having us. Really, Maga Mike. This is Maga Mike speaking yesterday in Texas. And so of course, he's got to be in Texas because Maga Republicans are trailing there and the governor's race and in the Senate race as well. This is the massive crowds that Maga Mike is talking about. Play this clip. I'm happy I am to be back in Corpus Christi. Man, this is the most important election of our lifetime. No kidding. I know you hear that all the time, but it really, really matters right now for all the reasons you just heard. Well, what is Donald Trump saying about all of this? This is Trump's response to surging diesel record highs, surging gas, record highs, treasury yields, record highs, 30 year mortgage, record highs, health care ripped away from people, groceries, record highs, electricity prices, record highs, what about the maha agenda? It seems like every damn day, there's another recall with Donald Trump in R.F.K. Jr. catastrophic never ending wars in Iran and throughout the world caused by Donald Trump. He said he would resolve the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. Things are obviously escalating and Russia increases in strike. So Donald Trump tries to cover up the catastrophic war in Iran by doing unlawful diesel oil deals with Russia. The Donald Trump, the commander in chief, he's got a message for the people of Arkansas and the rest of the world. Bottom line, it's all going to work out. You know why? It always does. Trust the process. Trust me. Trust me. What a pathetic message from an absolute pathetic loser. Then throughout the day yesterday, Donald Trump was just posting videos of animals, mauling humans, including the latest incident where somebody went into the tiger area in Yorkshire and UK and got mauled by a tiger. And so Donald Trump was posting videos of people getting eaten to death and mauled to death by animals yesterday. That's what Donald Trump was doing on his way to Alaska. Let's zoom in on Arkansas's second congressional district where the democratic candidate right over here, Dr. Chris Jones is leading the MAGA Republican extremist candidate, Congress member, French Hill, just a reminder, Dr. Jones, NASA scientist, MIT, PhD in urban development and planning, masters in nuclear, non-proliferation, nuclear engineering. That was his specialty, a NASA scientist. So now let's bring in Dr. Chris Jones, who's running for that open, that seat in Arkansas's second congressional district. Good to see, you're running against MAGA Republican extremist over there, French Hill. The latest polling data has you up for in that congressional race and also amongst independents, you're about 35 there. People need to pay more attention to what's happened in Arkansas's second congressional district. You think this seat can be flipped. I don't want to give our audience hope in, but you're an incredible candidate. People remember your governor's race and I think how much better Arkansas would be right now if you were in that position, but it's great to have you running for this seat. So talk to us about it. Yeah, great to be here. I appreciate you taking time to shine a light on this race. Look, we've said from the beginning that this is the most competitive race in the congressional race in the South. And there are a number of reasons. Number one, because this French has been given six chances, French Hill. And in those six chances, 12 years, he's consistently shown that he actually is going to vote for the big banks and the powerful. Even something as small as bank fees. He's a banker and he voted to remove the $5 cap on bank and overdraft fees. So he clearly is not in the interest of the people. Not only that, but also his vote to continue the Iran War, his vote to continue tariffs. He's silent on the Epstein files. That's one dynamic. But the other dynamic is what you mentioned too. We've been on the ground since I ran for governor. I didn't stop engaging in community showing up across the district. And we've talked to folks when I launched the campaign, we did eight town halls. And since then, we've done probably another 30. I'm talking to people in Clinton, Arkansas, very rural, very Republican. And I'm meeting at the patent square apartments. They are struggling because they showed me that they have sewage coming out of the toilet and roaches coming out of the stove because no one cares. So I showed up and talked to them about that. The same situation happening in Little Rock is shorter gardens. So we're seeing some challenges that folks are facing combined with the price of gas and this war and they're ready for a new direction. I want to talk more about Arkansas's second congressional district, Little Rock in the surrounding areas and what you are seeing as you're traveling the district. But I want to remind people first of your life's work dedicated to public service. I want to talk about your background, go into Morehouse, then Masters degree over at MIT. We need experts right now. I know you're a humble guy, but let me do some boasting over here if I can for a moment. You know, a Masters degree in nuclear engineering from MIT, then a doctorate in urban development. And when we see the Trump regime and people like French Hill destroying our cities, when we see issues like Trump encouraging nuclear proliferation. I mean, your master's thesis was on nuclear non-proliferation, which we may need to know about that stuff. Your background as a scientist and expertise is important right now. So if you can talk a little bit about your background, what you did after getting the doctorate in your life of public service. You know, I appreciate just saying that. I did a number of things after I finished my PhD and in fact, my dissertation was on the Tennessee Valley Authority. So I understand large scale energy systems and how they can or cannot bring improvement to regions. But after I finished my PhD, I ran an organization called The Dudley Street neighborhood initiative in Boston, a community-based organization on the ground serving the community. It was housing development. So when French Hill has this 21st century housing bill that talks about community land trust, I ran one of the most prominent community land trusts in the country. So I fully understand what's needed and what's not. And then I went on in the private sector in addition to starting a couple of businesses, I worked for BCT partners. So understanding what it's like to work in the private sector at a growing business. And then finally, what I did in terms of my work was come back home. And I ran something called the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub. And this also gets at your point about what's needed now. At the innovation hub, we provided the tools, training, and skills for our Kansas to be leaders in the 21st century. I'm talking laser-cutting, laser-printing, 3D printing, you name it, we had it all, drones. We also did a skills-to-launch program where we taught roofing, welding, HVAC, and carpentry, the skills trade because that's important. So I've been focused on service and I'll tell you this real quick, my grandfather had a third-grade education and he drove a truck. And he always used to tell me, big man, get an education because when you get it in your head, no one can take it out. That's why I went on to get five degrees, two for more than three from MIT. But then he also said, once you get it, come back and serve someone else at home. So I've done that. And I've done it through my life, I've done it through my family, my life is a combat veteran. So I know it's like to be a military family serving the country. And that's what it's about. that's the rent I pay for living on this planet. - No, I heard a discussion recently with Admiral McCraven, one of the most decorated retired four star admirals, and he was asked the biggest threat facing the country right now. And he said, one of the biggest threats is from within, it's the attack on our education system. And he said, that's been under attack. This is a bipartisan issue that we need to rally around and we need to bolster our education system. And you see in states like Arkansas, how public education and the education system generally is under attack by MAGA extremists like French Hill. And I think a lot of what your candidacy is attracting is it was also the case in the governor's race though, you know, where people from all sides of the aisle who were saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, you're attacking our education, you're taking away our healthcare, you're covering up Epstein, like what do you even do in new people? So to talk to us about that. Yeah, I mean, look, these MAGA extremists are, again, French Hill is chief among them because he sits on the most, on the powerful financial service committee. They actually don't care about our Kansas. They don't care about regular people. So they'll vote to cut Medicaid, but they'll vote to defund rural hospitals. They'll vote to allow these tariffs to layer taxes on all of us. And every day our Kansas are saying, look, I get to the end of the month, the 20th and 23rd and 25th, and I have no money left. Meanwhile, French is saying, we don't need kids to get snap benefits so they can eat at night. You know, we don't need veterans to have the medical services they need. These things have come to a head now and our Kansas realized that we have tried French six times. You know, they're also realizing they tried Sarah one time and they're not excited or happy about it. But with French, they said, we give him six chances. And enough is enough because he consistently says, I'll vote for MAGA. This guy voted 97% of the time with the MAGA agenda. Our Kansas don't want that. - Now, you ran for governors race a few years back. And now, are you seeing things that surprise you that are different in this game? I mean, you know this district better than just about anybody. You know the state when you ran a statewide race. Are you seeing, I mean, we're seeing it in the numbers, obviously, with independence. But we're also seeing, you know, Trump people who are like, I'm no longer MAGA, I'm still America first. Oh, what this Trump regime is doing, what friendschills do, ain't America first. It may be other countries first or it ain't us first. And so are you seeing things like that across the Trump? - 100%. You know, those who have consistently said, we need better quality education. You know, we need to protect our homeland. We need our resources going here. They are not happy about, you know, fiscal conservatives on the Republican side are saying, look, there's nothing fiscally conservative about a $40 trillion debt. And French Hill voted to the tune of 14 of those $40 trillion. And they're realizing that all of this is only crushing their now and eliminating the possibility of a hopeful future for their children. And they are so desperate that they're like, I want change and I want it now. Your master's dissertation, if I understand the right, was on nuclear non-proliferation based on your degree. And this is an area that doesn't get nearly enough attention right now. But Donald Trump has been, and his regime have been making statements encouraging nuclear proliferation. They came out with statements that said, look, Russia and China are actively testing nuclear weapons right now to which they responded. What we're testing are the capabilities, but not actual nuclear weapons themselves that would be measured as like an earthquake. You would see it if they actually did these tests. But he said, we're going to do nuclear testing in the United States to which these other countries then said, well, I guess then we're going to do nuclear testing. And then Trump has been saying, well, look, Kim Jong-un, I'm afraid of because he has nuclear weapons. If Iran had nuclear weapons, I would have to do a deal with them. And then Iran's thinking, well, I guess we need nuclear. He's encouraging nuclear proliferation. And it doesn't get nearly enough. It's a big issue. Can you talk to that? - Look, it's massive. My entire dissertation, where I'm asked this was about, like you said, nuclear non-proliferation. So I understand not only the dangers, I actually map out every pathway possible from civilian nuclear power to nuclear weapons. And that's including large states and independent rogue actors. So I understand this stuff. And the nuclear non-proliferation treaty was a framework that allowed us to have civilian nuclear power but prevented nuclear weapon proliferation. And as an aside, I'll tell you, we need that kind of framework with AI. But back to nuclear. Look, what the president is doing is dangerous. It is creating enormous chaos. And it's absolutely not what we need. My master's thesis advisor where I did the nuclear non-proliferation work was Ernie Moniz. He's the one who wrote the JCPOA. And he was the one who set up that framework. So whether it's nuclear non-proliferation or nuclear proliferation that President Trump wants to do, or whether we're talking about the Iran War, these are situations that this chaos that we don't need, that French Hill has consistently supported and is causing harm to us right now and harm to our future. - Right, and people don't realize this with the JCPOA, it was also a framework for other countries. The framework was for North Korea also. And if you could rally all these countries and get Iran to not do weapons, gray nuclear weapons with all these inspections, that was going to be the message to North Korea. Then Trump said, I'm sending love letters to him. And so when Trump pulled out of the JCPOA, it encouraged proliferation in North Korea. And so it's why we need, to me, this is a not partisan issue, right? Like you talked about the JCPOA. Kushner and Whitcoff don't know anything about nuclear capabilities. And one of the things that even the Omani Foreign Minister who was mediating originally in February that could have avoided this catastrophic war is that our people didn't know about nuclear capacity and capabilities and down blending. Like, face like science. - Right, real science work that we need real experts. Now there are folks who know way more than this about this than I do, but I know a whole lot about it. And what I'll tell you what we're seeing is really the arsonists have set the house on fire and they're asking us to let them pour more gasoline on it. And then they're saying it, it's not their fault. But that's not the case. This situation is very, very critical. And it is extremely, I mean, to say it's unfortunate is understatement, but we've created a world of chaos that is going to be difficult to unravel. But if we don't start unraveling it immediately, we're going to be in even more trouble. - Talk to us about your AI framework because for Donald Trump he's saying that let the industry just handle it themselves. I trust them, they'll be great at it. We'd love to hear from you because this is an issue that I'm sure when you go around and you hold rallies and you hold events, people are terrified about this. And they're also terrified because they're not getting, all they're getting is poisonous information from the Trump regime as well. - Yeah, absolutely terrified about AI and what it could do to jobs. And what it could do to your future, what it can do to information. They're also terrified about data centers and what it can do to their utility bills, to the environment and so on and so forth. There's a lot of concern about what's going on. Now look, I certainly had the nuclear and amplification treaty that I focused on. We're in a world where AI, just like nuclear, doesn't care about national boundaries, it doesn't. And we're in a situation where this tool, this technology has fairly low risk of danger, but if the danger happened, the impact is enormous. That's why you need frameworks that say, multinational, let us come together and agree on the guard rails and rules that will be in place so that we don't enter a world where we have, we see nuclear proliferation, but also agree on the rules that should be in place so that we can advance the civilian and the positive aspects of it. So for me, it's the nuclear and amplification treaty. It's also the International Space Station, which was a collection, I'm a NASA scientist and it's a collection of countries that said what we can build together is greater than what any individual country can build. We need a similar thing when it comes to AI and I'll tell you this one other thing. Our founders were not perfect, but they were brilliant. And they came together and they created a structure that said, look, we want the private sector to be flourishing, we wanted to be dominant. I believe that capitalism should thrive. I wanna see millions of millionaires and I wanna see people have a ladder out of poverty. But what they also said was someone has to be the referee. Someone has to write the rules and enforce the rules. And we're in a world now where the private sector owns the politicians and so they get to write the rules, they get to play the game and they get to enforce the rules. And that is causing complete chaos and that's what we have to change. - You know, our founders also put in the constitution a take care clause, a covenant of good faith that the laws are faithfully executed once Congress passes along. So if Congress passes whatever you think about it, the Lindsey Graham Sanctions Act against Russia, It is a sanctions act against Russia and not an encouragement to remove the sanctions. Again, that's what the law says faithfully executed. And so much of what we've seen is someone like Trump and somebody like his MAGA Republican extremists and Congress people who have broken deals and breached agreements their whole life. They're doing it writ large right now. It seems and it's just bad faith all around all their their destroyers. And it's deeply devastating on this country. We have nearly seven million subscribers on this network. I want to give you just the final word to just address our subscribers here and where can people learn more about the campaign, learn more about you. This is a critical critical race. You know, I will say one of the points before I get to that really quickly is that look, our founders knew that we could have a mad king sitting on the proverbial throne. They knew that. And that's why they put Congress in place. And what they did not expect was to have a feckless Congress that's doing a rubber stamp for this chaos that the president is creating. And that's what we have now. So I am running against one of the most powerful bankers in Congress, French Hill. We are four points ahead in the polls. We are running this race. We are ready to win. And we're going to unseat him so we can bring some order out of this chaos. And folks can find me on social media at Jones for AR, Jones for AR or any social media platform. Check us out, follow, like, comment, and then definitely go to our website at chrisjonesforcongress.com. If you live in Arkansas, I need your vote. I need your vote on day one. If you don't live in Arkansas, I need your money and your prayers. Feel free to donate because that's what makes the difference. And if you want to volunteer, sign up the phone bank, sign up the doorknob. We can win this race. Dr. Chris Jones running for Arkansas's second congressional district against the Maga Republican extremist, French Hill. Great to see you, Dr. Jones. Good to see you, my friend Ticker. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's hit that 7 million subscriber mark. Before you go, our book WTF America is available for pre-order now. It's the story of how we got here and how we fight our way back. To pre-order, scan the QR code or click the link in the description. Let's do this.