It's my privilege that Dietta asked me if I would introduce Kendall Qualls, our guest tonight,
running for governor of the state of Minnesota. And Lord knows we need a new one.
Soon I've known Kendall and Sheila now for a few years. And Kendall and I have some regular
breakfasts with each other. We talk, we text. And here's what I want you to know, because most
of you have heard his story, especially if you're part of Word of Life. He's not new to you.
He's been here three or four times. You've heard his coming out of a broken home, which
he was raised in poverty, but I think he would say it was only poverty of finances. It certainly
wasn't poverty of the work ethic and the qualities and the characteristics his parents built into
him. The man has proven through a career in the military, through a career in business,
through his starting a Minnesota nonprofit to rebuild families, particularly in the black
community, which has been decimated by policies that came out of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Kendall has had tremendous success in all of his endeavors, but the thing that I respect most
is not just the success. It is the Christian character and his dependence upon Christ that
has been so consistent in getting that done. And I believe he would bring that to the office
of Governor of the State of Minnesota. So let's hear from him, your gubernatorial candidate
for tonight, Mr. Kendall-Quals.
Boy, Dale, I love you guys. You and Sue, you guys are wonderful. For those of you
that know me, I usually have a partner with me. My wife, Sheila, she comes with me
everywhere I go. But we're tag teaming tonight. She's up near Duluth. She's at
a convention speaking on my behalf to delegates there. So we're tag teaming. Normally, we're
together. We're like, you know, if you remember the movie Smoky and Abandoned, okay? I look
like Burke Reynolds because I'm only missing the mustache. That's why you can't tell.
And that's Sally Fields up near Duluth. So we're near together. I got the trans
am in the parking lot, and we're just hitting the state all around. Guys, I tell you, I am...
I want to tell you this story. I saw this podcaster in a social media platform. He talked
about the worst place to live in the United States is Minnesota. He had the old Minnesota
flag on it. And, you know, I got upset. Yeah, we're going to do some difficult
times. I'm going to do a social post tomorrow on this. Yeah, we're going to do some
difficult times, but we're wounded, but we're not out. We're not out. And
I got friends that live all over the country, and they say, Kendall, what are you
still doing in Minnesota? And I tell them, because God sends his warriors where
the battles are. Okay? And so that's the fight. I wanted to share that with you
just to let you know my spirit, my heart. Every thing I'm going to say to you is
going to be coming straight from the heart. I have no script. I have nothing.
Okay? But where's Nate? Nate, God bless you. Hey, look, we need to have... I'm a
big proponent of having veterans who serve. They love the country. They
serve the country. They put their lives on the line, right? And there's
something about serving, especially in uniform, and you can't explain it to
people that hasn't. Especially if you've been overseas, you work with people from
all different socioeconomic backgrounds, different ethnic groups, and you all
focusing on one objective. We need to get back to that as a nation. The
Democrats have split us up so bad that we need to get back together as
Americans again, and we're definitely so here in Minnesota. So I'm going to do
three things today. I'm going to share a little bit about my background, just a
quick reminder. Then second, I'm going to talk about how we plan on winning and
why, and then this vision for Minnesota. I'm going to move this out of the way
because I'm going to be going back and forth like crazy. The vision for
Minnesota, the future. What we plan on doing when we win, okay? Because here's
the... here's a scenario. So Dale mentioned, come from the impoverished
background. I live with part of my mom in the inner city of Oklahoma, inner city
of New York City. And then later with my dad in rural Oklahoma. I'm comfortable in
both places in the city as well as Oklahoma. And I had a corporate career.
I worked full-time, paid my way through college, went on active duty, as I
mentioned. Got my first job with Johnson & Johnson & Sales. My first job
was in Dallas, Texas. I wasn't a Christian at the time. And again, I
share this with you because I want you to... here's a scenario. When I got that
first job in Dallas, Texas, Sheila was at home in Oklahoma finishing up her
master's degree. It was... typically we get together on the weekends in Dallas
and meet up until she finishes school. But that time was an ice storm. And one
of her friends, her family friends, invited me to church. I said, your
friend Debbie Thomas just invited me to church. She goes, whatever you do,
don't join. I said, don't worry, I'm not. I believed in God, but I
wasn't looking for God. I wasn't looking for a church. I went anyway because it
was the family friend. It was going to be a one and done thing. But I tell you,
I'm glad I went. It changed my life. Tony Evans was the pastor. I never
heard the Bible taught that way. Not preached, taught. It changed my
life. A year later, I got baptized in that church. And to this very day, I
have the baptism certificate in my file with all of our family birth
certificates. It was that meaningful for me. So over my corporate
career, we've been very fortunate. Max Locato was one of our pastors. In
San Antonio, then this guy named Joel Stoll in Chicago. When we lived in
Chicago, he used to be president of Moody Bible College. We have some
great discipleship along the way. And look, at the end of the day, what
we believe in is truth. And my identity and what we've learned
over there, and Tony Evans would teach this all the time. Look, you
don't identify yourself as a white Christian, black Christian, or
Hispanic Christian. You don't put your identity first before the Son of God.
You know, you're a Christian first and everything else is secondary and
tertiary. So my identity is not my skin color. My identity is first as a
follower of Jesus Christ. Okay. I'm a husband and my father. I'm an
American. And, you know, black and Republican, all that is all down
the list. All of those things come first. Okay. We, what the
culture has done, what our, what our secular culture has done is make
people identify as different sections and parts that we never used to
have in this country. There's no precedence for it whatsoever. And
we want to get that back. So that's, I share this with you so you
guys understand my personal motivation. And at the end of the
day also, as Christians, God expects his people to stand up
against evil. He doesn't expect us to be passive. So I tell
people, look, I'm one of the, think about one of the 12 tribes
when they go into the Promised Land, he's in God's sense, his 12
spies into the Promised Land. I'm like Josh when Caleb, let's go
trust in what God is telling us to do. Notice the 10 that said
no, it's too scary. They're big giants and no, no, no, that
caused the whole Israelites to wander in the desert for 40 years.
We don't know their names. But we know the names of the
men who are courageous, who are believed, who went into the
problem. Josh won Caleb. So that's who we, that's who I'm, I'm
the who I am, who I represent. And what I understand more than
anything else is courage is contagious. And that's what we
need to have. We've been so passive in our state. And as
in our party, that the Democrats have won circles
around us, our schools no longer even represent the
schools we grew up with. They're not teaching anything.
Right? Our kids are 10 year lows in academic performance. They
don't know anything, but their personal pronouns. And I tell
people, look, my personal pronoun is fixed bayonets. And my
my wife says, those are, she's an English major. Those are
not pronouns. I said, well, they identify as pronouns.
So, um, so let me, let me just share. So again, that's,
that's why that's my motivation. Let's, so let's
talk about running. What I'm running for is to save
Minnesota. I'm not running against any of my
competitors. I'm not even running, I'm running to save
the state of Minnesota. Okay, this is, this is at this
juncture. And now we hear it all the time. This is the
most important blah, blah, blah, blah. This is it. Well,
you know, you guys have people, you know, family and
friends that have left the state. We know businesses
that have left the state. If we don't win at this
time, all of those people that have been waiting are
going to leave to have leave and that family leave
back is one of the reasons why it's as well. That is the
worst law that's been passed ever. And they're proud
of it because it's going to run businesses out of the
state. It's the last drop. They can't, it is the
most unsustainable law that we have on the books. So
they're going to leave if we don't win this
thing. And so here's the issue. Not just the
governor's race. We can't change anything if we
don't have the Senate and the House. So look, again,
why I'm sharing this is because God expects his
big, bold visions, not little vision. He is not a
God of small things, big things. And when I say
big things, it's doable. These are doable big
things, but you've got to have a vision for it.
Look, with the Democrats controlling everything in
the state, they control the media, they outspend
as five to one, they control a higher education, K
through 12, but they only have a one-seat advantage
in the Senate. And we're tied in the House. Okay, we
have four Democrats in Washington, D.C. that
represent us in Congress and four Republicans. We
are a centric, centrist, pragmatic state. We're
not Uber Left or Uber Right. And all this is
what I'm, my vision of this, of getting our
first trifecta, since 1969, is to recalibrate that
needle from crazy back to normal. Okay, put it
right in the middle where, you know what, nothing
looking to try to turn Minnesota into Texas.
Now, it's character is centrist state. And what
they've done is just told that, in fact, they're
leaving either, and reason why I believe that we
can accomplish this is because they're leaving
some of the moderate Democrats behind. I call
them the Bill Clinton Democrats, not the
Hillary Clinton Democrats. And the reason I say
that is because they contact me when they hear
me on a podcast. And I say, look, we're going to
get Minneapolis back. Minneapolis used to be the
safest, cleanest city with the best quality of
life of any city in the nation, according to
Forrest Magazine in October 2009. These are not
my comments. These are Forrest Magazine 2009.
That's been its character since ever we all
known it. The only thing that's changed
since that time is the leadership. This is
why leadership matters. We're going to get it
back. Well, it's like, Kendall, you're not running
for mayor. How are you going to get Minneapolis
back? Because it's the governor's job to make
sure the safety of its citizens and the
protection of their property, regardless of where
they live. Walls can be doing this right now,
and he should have been doing it eight years
ago. And how is it going to do that?
What does it look like? Well, I can tell
you this. Good men and women in law
enforcement are not going to put their
lives on the line for the City Council
of Minneapolis or St. Paul. Half of them
are already out of the closet. Socialist
somewhere in Marxist and the City
Councils are both of them. You vote
socialist 90% of the time anyway.
They're not going to put their lives on
the line for a defund the police
city council, but they'll do it at the
state level. We'll hire hundreds of
law enforcement officers, not highway
patrol, hundreds of law enforcement
officers, and we'll deploy them in the
Twin Cities, whether the City Council
wants them there or not. Because it's
the governor's job to ensure the
safety of its citizens, regardless of
where they live. We're going to get
the city back, and it'll take me two
years at most. It'll be sooner, but
I want to overpromise and over
perform. We'll get it sooner. You
know why? Because the citizens want
it. You never hear, again, these
are Bill Clinton Democrats. They
contact me and say, please, we need you
to get elected, because that's
exactly right. Our car has been broken
into twice. Our windows have been
knocked out in our cars, and you
know what they get for it? Their
car insurance has gone up because
the cars have been stolen and they've
been damaged. Guess what insurance
company is going to do? Why? Only
because the leadership has changed.
Not because they're in a more violent
city. It didn't used to be that
way. Not only their insurance has gone
up, the real estate taxes are
going up. So the vision for this, for
me, I want to win not just a governor
seat, I want to win one seat in the
senate, one seat in the house, so we
can make the changes in regulations
and taxes and all of the things that
we need, because my friends, without
winning both chambers, okay, the senate
in the house, we won't be, I won't
be able to do anything. Who wants to
be a captain of a sinking ship? I
said, you know these other
candidates, I'm the only one
speaking like this. Look, some of
these guys just want a job
promotion, I am looking to save the
state. You can't do everything in an
executive order. We have to win and
cast a vision. So let's
cast that vision, okay? We win, we win
the senate, we win the house. Now, what
does it look like? What do we do?
First of all, yes, we're going to
eliminate all the taxes on social
security. Yes, we're going to roll back
taxes, and I have it on my website,
exactly what the personal tax is going
to be, as well as the business
taxes. Significant reductions in
both, okay? But the vision part of
this is also real estate taxes have
gone up. You know the real estate
taxes across the state on average
is 8.1 percent. That's
unsustainable. No one gets...
If you're on social security,
no one gets an increase of 8.1
percent. You might get two or
three percent. Well, the
expenses of living in this state
because of what the Democrats
have set up, the infrastructure
and everything else is exceeding
the growth rate of household
income. How do I know that?
Because the state chamber of
commerce, the Minnesota chamber of
commerce, they ranked the
household income for all 50 states
and we're at number 46 in household
income. We only beat four other
states. In the last 10 years,
this is under the Democrats'
rule. This is not just Tim
Walls, and it's not like Amy
Klobuchar is going to come in and
just make a real... These are all
of her policies. This is the
Democrat platform policies.
Only thing that she's going to
come in is that she's going to be a
familiar face, a familiar...
Better-looking face than
Tim Walls. Same program,
everything else. Same program,
but a different face. And I'm
going to explain why we have the
best opportunity to beat her
because in just a bit. So I also
want to share all the... Yes,
we're going to do the basics. And
obviously, yes, the fraud thing
kills me. This is the easiest
thing to... Look, many of you...
Raise your hand if you own a
business. If you own a business,
we do quarterly reports. You do
your finances every quarter.
You know where the money's
going. You know where the
expense is going. You know if
you got a profit or a loss.
And you know if there's a
leaky bucket. This
embezzlement happens all the
time in a private sector, but
not for 10 years. It may
happen one quarter or two, but
by the second quarter, we know
there's money missing and that
we tracked down that person.
That person is tried for
embezzlement. Obviously, they're
fired, they're arrested, and
that's taken care of.
The issue of this thing has
been going on for 10 years is
nothing but this lousy
leadership, unaccountability. No
one person has been fired for
this, not one. And you know
this business... It's been a
whisper campaign in state
government for a long time.
Our Republican Party knew
about it. No one's raising
the alarm because they don't
want to offend. We're
passive, we're Minnesota nice.
Well, you know those times
are over. Those times are
over. This is not a
surprise to people, and we've
just happened to have a fraud
committee in an election year.
What a coincidence. Hey, look,
I'm just coming out saying it
out loud. It's too
convenient because this has
been going on for a long time
and a lot of people knew about
it. So yes, we're going to do
fraud. But getting rid of fraud
and making you have a
transparent business, that's
not a vision. That stuff
should never happen in the
first place. That's poor
leadership. So what does
that vision look like? So yes,
when I talk about lowering
taxes on all of these
different things, and I'll
answer questions at the end.
But here's some things I
want to share with you
based on my business
background, travel to
country. Over the course
of my career, I hired
895 people. I promoted
78 of them. We have to fire
a few, but over them, I'm
talking about over the
course of my career. Here's
what I can tell you. I got
a chance to launch new
businesses, get involved
in starting turnaround
businesses and as a head
of marketing and sales,
commercial businesses, usually
like what they call, they
don't call it an
entrepreneur. And when
you're doing it in big,
big companies, it's called
entrepreneur. Do the
entrepreneurial stuff
internally, help fix this
out and fix these businesses.
It was fun. I enjoyed it.
I did a startup. I did some
very starters from nothing
to the beginning of things,
all in the healthcare
industry, and up until
six years ago. So why did
I get involved? I got
involved because this
woman called Ilhan Omar.
She inspired me to get
involved in politics. I
couldn't take it. I
called, I contacted the
state party. I said, look
guys, use me. This
woman's dangerous. She's a
federal elected official.
She shouldn't be saying
things like this. I'll
speak in Minneapolis. I'll
speak all over the state.
And so they had me meet
with someone and meet
with someone I met
eventually with people
that said, well, look,
would you consider
running in a third
district? I said, sure,
I run against Ilhan Omar.
And he goes, no, no, no.
She's not in a third
district. You don't
live in her district.
You live in a third
district. We lost
the third district
after 50 years to Dean
Phillips. I said, well,
can I run against
Dean Phillips and Ilhan
Omar? Because I'm
from the Army. We take
ground. We don't see
ground. And to go, no, no,
no, you can only get
someone who gets one.
I don't know why that's
a rule. I mean, look,
if both districts want me,
let's run against both.
Save money. Anyway,
I didn't win. When I
ran, I didn't win.
I lost to Dean Phillips.
It wasn't because
they loved him. They ran
on. He ran on
an anti-Trump wave.
They barely knew his name.
But but here's
what I can tell you.
They came back to me
and said, Kendall,
you did great. I said,
what are you talking
about? I lost.
I hate losing.
He goes, no, no, no,
you don't understand.
You were a first-time
candidate, really no
name recognition.
You were a down-ballot
candidate for Congress.
But you got 5% more votes
than President Trump.
You got 4% more votes
than Jason Lewis,
the senatorial candidate.
I raised $2 million.
I needed about three and a
half. Since that time,
there's been two other
no other candidate
has performed at that
level or raised half
the money I raised.
And I share this with you
why this makes it makes.
If we get 5% to 7%
votes in the metro,
like I did in the third
district, right?
We just bring our normal,
our normal Republican numbers.
If I can get 5% bump,
5% to 7% bump
in the third district,
the fifth district
versus Minneapolis,
the fourth district,
which is St. Paul in East,
around the metro,
if I perform like I did
six years ago,
we're going to win that night.
We're going to win the night.
We have a predicate.
We have a profile
for what winning looks like.
And if I can basically,
we don't need to win the metro
or the luth or Rochester.
We need to get 5% to 7%
more votes in those areas
than we're getting today.
My friends, this is why I'm in it.
This is why I'm in this thing.
I'm in it with this.
So here's the things
that I truly believe in.
I'm a capitalist at heart
because you know what?
It's capitalism of gotten people
out of poverty around the world,
billions of people around the world.
Love capitalism.
But we do a lousy job of selling it.
But it's the government's job
is not to create jobs.
That's your job.
Be an innovator.
Be creator.
Take risk.
Have dreams.
We create the environment
for businesses.
We create the environment
for investment
to for job growth.
But there's some things that
government can do,
like number one,
open up the iron range.
The federal government,
just work with the federal
government to ensure
that we do proper releasing.
But you know what?
It's taking 20 years
to get to permitting right now
because of the state.
There's no country in the world
that can do mining
and making sure we do it
in a clean way
to protect the boundary waters.
No other country can do that
better than the United States.
When people think
we can't do one or the other yet,
you know what?
This is a new world.
Technology's improved.
Everything's improved.
So we can do mining
and that'll create
double the number of jobs
in that area
for a whole new generation
of Minnesotans
that are not even involved
in that industry.
We mine less than 10%
of the minerals in that area
and we import the rest
from China
and the Congo of Africa.
Slave labor.
Child slave labor.
No more.
This is a whole agenda
about Trump's
repopulating our country
with manufacturing jobs
and good paying jobs
like those in the mines.
So one of the things
that I did
when I traveled the country
I noticed in Colorado,
Colorado had a school
of mining and engineering.
I'm going like,
we don't have one.
Okay?
South Dakota has one.
We don't have one.
We don't have a school
of mining and engineering
for the next generation
of Minnesotans
and we're going to put
it in the foothills
of the Iron Range
right in Duluth,
the UMD.
And so that's one.
And then the second one
I want to do,
again, what government can do
is lift the moratorium
on nuclear power.
Okay?
Right now,
we're not going to get there
with wind and solar.
Okay?
That is,
that is,
that is fannish.
That's worse than Disney.
Okay?
And not only that,
it is,
it's counterintuitive.
It costs more
that green
to make those things
than it does
the energy it produces,
especially the,
especially the windmills.
So we're going to lift
the moratorium
on nuclear power
and I want to,
I'm going to petition
the White House
to get a
next generation
nuclear power plant
built here in Minnesota.
Okay?
These are smaller footprints,
safer,
and they produce
twice as much power
as the older generation
nuclear power plants.
It takes eight years
to build those.
That's a lot of construction jobs.
Eight years to build it,
but it's a,
it's one of these
75 year to 100 year
visionary plants
to have the most cheapest
form of energy
in the world
and the safest form.
You know,
there's one thing
that France does well.
No, there's one thing.
They've been doing
nuclear energy
for decades.
70 to 5,
the 80% of that country's power
is generated by nuclear power.
And they've been doing,
they're the one country
in Western Europe
that's not dependent
on Russian natural gas
and oil.
The one country.
Now that's the,
that's the one thing
they do right.
It made me whine,
but then,
but that's it.
But so in the last thing
I'm going to share.
So those two are
big visionary things, right?
School of Mining,
open up the mines
and the nuclear power.
What we can do
in a short order is this.
Look, because of
Democrats policies
and what they've done
over the years
in California, Michigan,
Illinois, New Jersey,
New York,
people were fleeing
those states
and going down
to Texas,
Tennessee and Florida.
No one's going,
no one's going
to Illinois,
Michigan and California.
They're all going
to Tennessee,
Texas and Florida.
Well, here's what I can tell you.
The last place you want
to be in the summer months
is Tennessee, Texas and Florida.
Okay, I've been there
after three months
of 100 degree weather.
That's why I want to
have a huge ad campaign
to make Minnesota
the America's
family destination
vacation spot
for America.
We have the infrastructure
in Greater Minnesota,
all the resorts,
all the fun things
that we have,
our lakes,
our outdoors,
is just incredible.
And by that time
we'll get Minneapolis fixed
to enjoy Minneapolis.
But it is really,
it's really the Greater Minnesota
will benefit
from all the things
that we have up here.
We're going to have up here
because there's got a lot
of people living
in those states
that never used to live there.
And I'm going to tell you
that those summers
get pretty hot.
But up here
is absolutely beautiful.
It is nothing
like having a bonfire
in the summer months,
not by the lake
with your family.
And we're going to
advertise that
and we're going to get
the bounty
of what that looks like
and people are going to see
a very different Minnesota.
In fact, they're going to say,
oh my gosh,
this is not what I anticipated.
This is different.
You know why?
Because I don't know about you.
I'm tired of Ron DeSantis
having all the fun.
Are we going to bring
some liberty,
justice and economic freedom
up here as well?
Now friends,
I'm going to end with this.
It's time to get our swagger back.
I am so tired of playing defense.
You know,
it's time to go on the offense
for a change, right?
And to take that,
we seed ground,
we've been seeding
too much ground.
I'm telling you,
right now, from a football analogy,
there's nothing left back here.
We're all...
Our heels are on the end zone.
We have no...
If we seed this ground,
we're gone.
So I tell people this.
I'm ready to go on the offense.
I've traveled the state.
There's a town up north
called Halleck.
I don't know if you ever know.
It's like 15 miles south
of the Canadian border.
Every summer,
they shut down their downtown.
They got a small downtown.
It's a beautiful place.
And they have a ribfest.
And I was shocked.
I said, a ribfest, really.
And the ribs are pretty good.
They're...
I'm surprised they're good.
I would think maybe a walleye fest.
You're this far north,
you need a...
Maybe a moose fest.
But a ribfest, really?
I said,
you know what we're going to do
when we win?
I'm going to challenge Governor Abbott
and Texas
and they challenge them
in a statewide ribfest.
And we're going to win
and we're going to get our swagger back.
Now, not only are we going to turn Minnesota around,
we're going to have a new agenda.
But we're going to attack on everything.
You know what?
And I'm going to tell Ron to stand.
Just watch out.
I'm going to get your numbers and check.
That's right.
And for everyone that retires down to your state,
I want two of their grandkids.
So guys, guys, I'm telling you,
we can do this,
but we have to be together as a...
Okay, a house divided can't stand.
We need an outsider
that can do these things,
have a vision for this.
We can't do it with a political insider.
So I'm counting on you.
I'm asking for your support.
Let's do this together.
And let's save this state together.
God bless you.
Thank you.