The Exchanges

Q about like, I want you in the government too, and I want people like you in the government. And so is the government, uh, a place for high performing technologists to flourish? Is there something that needs to change there? I'm interested in digging into that, but why don't you kick it off with kind of like how you tell the story of how you got here to this moment?

A Yeah, I, I think, well, obviously, you know, from Northeast Wisconsin, Green Bay, and I kind of grew up always interested in the world outside of Wisconsin in the United States. When I went to college, I studied Arabic in the Middle East. I became fascinated by what was happening. I was an undergrad when we invaded Iraq. I was a senior in high school during nine 11. And the more I dug into that intellectually, the more I became convinced that I would regret it if I didn't step up and serve, um, Felt very strongly about service to country, but also on a practical level, really wanted to apply the language and regional and cultural skills I was learning in a non-academic context and felt like there was no greater challenge than joining the United States Marine Corps. So even though I didn't come from a military family, didn't know anything about the military, I just felt like this was the hardest crucible that I could throw myself into. I had a, just really an awesome experience, couple of great deployments, learned a ton. Was a counter television, human television officer. And kind of similarly, when, when I got out of the Marine Corps and, you know, I worked on a presidential campaign, I worked in the Senate as a Middle East guy, never thought about running myself. I'd moved back home to work for this energy and supply chain management company when some people reached out to me…

AI assessment note: “I kind of grew up always interested in the world outside of Wisconsin”

Q them the ideas, because I feel like the story that most people tell is, is, ah, this guy, you know, wants power or wants to, you know, he's on a war path. Everyone tells him no. And then he runs and gets elected or kind of sheer force of will. Um, but, but which direction does it go more commonly? Was your path uncommon or is it more the norm?

A Well, to be clear, I, I don't want to pretend like this was some pure aw shucks Mr. Smith goes to Washington thing, right? Like, clearly I was driven, ambitious, like, had kind of always had a drive my whole life, um, and wanted to, like, test myself, but honestly, it was not, like, I didn't think of, like, the political domain at that point in my life. I think more often than not, people are drawn to politics. It used to be the case that, like, you'd go to law school, You become a lawyer, you'd run for state or local office, and then that would be a natural kind of like farm team that would lead into Congress, and then you run for Senate, and then you try and be president one day. I actually think that's changing a little bit. Like one actually healthy thing I saw during my time in Congress is we started to get more young veterans, veterans of the kind of nine 11 wars running for office, which created a cool bipartisan group of legislators that were willing to work together on stuff. I think, you know, I think we're seeing voters like wanting to have more outsiders, whether it's, you know, business people, traditional or tech bros, like, you know, uh, that you guys talk to a lot. Um, I think people are just tired of business as usual.

AI assessment note: “I think more often than not, people are drawn to politics.”