In Texas’s 6th Congressional district, in the Dallas Fort Worth area, 23 candidates are currently running in a special congressional election. One of these candidates is Michael Wood, a former Marine and business owner who has drawn national attention for his criticism of former President Trump. He sat down with The Texas Horn’s Content Editor, Jackson Paul, for an interview.
Editor’s note: The interview took place on 3/23/21, and the following has been edited for length and clarity.
Jackson: Tell me a bit about yourself. What made you want to run for office?
Michael: Well, I was born and raised in Midland, Texas, and went to college. Immediately after college, I joined the Marine Corps and served for four years in the infantry. I did two deployments to Afghanistan and got two purple hearts, at which point, I left active duty and came back to Texas with my family. I’m married, and I have four daughters. I own a small business. In terms of why I got into the race, I am really concerned about the state and the direction of the Republican party. I figured [I would run here since] this was the first election since January 20th.
Jackson: Do you mind elaborating on that a little bit? Why do you think the Republican Party is dangerous? And what do you hope to do about it?
Michael: I think that the Republican party has become too much of a cult of personality around Donald Trump. I think that we’ve gone from being a party of ideas, you know, to a party of purity. And especially, ever since the election, we’ve gotten way too comfortable with this political vibe. That was most evident on January 6th, during the insurrection. If we don’t move away, past the sort of Trumpy parts of American political culture, then we’re going to be a minority party. We’re not just going to be a minority party across the country, there’s a real chance of us becoming a minority party right here in Texas. Barry Goldwater’s Arizona voted for the Democratic president, and now they have two Democratic senators. With Gingrich’s Georgia, same thing: voted Democrat president to Democratic Senators. There’s absolutely no way that we can move the ball forward unless we find a way to move past Donald Trump, and the elements brought into the Republican mainstream.
Jackson: How do you see Republicans moving past this? What do you think they as a party and that you more specifically as a politician need to do to push in that direction?
Michael: The first thing we need to do is speak honestly and plainly to the American people. Also, remember that they’re adults, they can handle the truth. That is not what the President of the United States, the commander-in-chief of the most powerful military in the history of the world, has done ever since he lost the election: leaning on local elections officials in Georgia and tweeting this lie that there was actual fraud on the scale needed to overturn the election. I think the first step is to speak honestly instead of trying to do what too many Republican politicians in this country are doing. They’re just trying to have it both ways on election fraud and be wishy washy, but there’s nothing that we can do as conservatives unless we recognize that and move past it. I think it’s also important to note that Republicans believe in this aura of invincibility and winning that’s built up around Donald Trump. Over the past few years, he has been a cancer, in a lot of ways, on our party. You know, four years ago, we had a Republican House, we had a Republican senate and a Republican in the White House, but all of that is gone, right? It’s not just Democrats who have got them, they’ve gone to a Democratic Party that has grown increasingly radicalized, and Bernie-ized, the past four years. So I think that if you make it clear to Republicans that you’re conservative, and then you make the practical argument about how we keep losing like this, and talk about other formulas of victory, we can start moving past this.
Jackson: Yeah, that makes sense. Then what do you think 2024 is going to look like? Who do you think will help people move past Trump, and who do you think would be a good nominee for them? And who do you think might risk taking us back to our current infatuation with Trump?
Michael: Well, 2024 is a long ways off. And I think that if you asked anybody who was going to be the nominee in 2016 just after Mitt Romney lost, I don’t think anybody would have picked Trump. Same in 2004, when John Kerry lost. So, I’m not really sure which figures we might be able to get behind. I will say that Ron DeSantis has actually been a pretty good governor of Florida. I think that he needs to watch out how much he embraces Trumpism. I used to be a very big fan of former ambassador Nikki Haley. But unfortunately, I think that she wants to have it both ways on election fraud, both criticizing Trump for what happened on January 6th, and then somehow saying he doesn’t bear any responsibility. We’re not quite sure what she’s saying. To be honest, I don’t think that there are a whole lot of leaders in the Republican Party right now who I would feel excited about. I think that Senator Ben Sasse has been very honorable, and very good. I think that there are a number of the Republicans in the House who voted, [for impeachment] who have shown what we always say we want from our politicians. I am almost convinced that there would have been a near unanimous vote for impeachment had there been a secret ballot.
Jackson: Thank you. So I’m kind of shifting gears a little bit and talking more about policy and what you hope to accomplish. So obviously, you’ve had a lot of experience in the military and small business, both those are places where results are important. And there’s a lot of criticism of Congress for having neither results nor accountability. So, what do you think? Do you believe that motivated legislators can still get things done in an increasingly dysfunctional Washington and what’s your plan for making real conservative policy changes in an administration that is not exactly a fan of that?
Michael: Yeah, absolutely. One of the most frustrating things about this moment in American history is just how little power Congress has, and a lot of ways Congress continues to reduce their power. You know, I do think that Congress should be the most important branch of the federal government. And instead of being at the center of our American system, we’re somewhat irrelevant. A big part of why I want to go to Congress is to try to change that. I think the Congress writes bills along the lines of “the secretary of ABC shall do…”, which is sort of dodging their legislative responsibility. I think that even a freshman can make it big, especially because I think that there’s so little being done right now. To answer your question more specifically, I think that I can work with members, such as congressman Gallagher from Wisconsin and others who have really sort of focused on how we can make Congress better, with a lot of things that we can do to sort of take our way from party leadership backward. I think a lot of both can be so that we have a number of substantive and thoughtful debates throughout the year. You know, I think that we are in a minority position, unfortunately, in the Congress right now. But nonetheless, there are ways that the minority conservative push back into this Democratic agenda. One of those frustrating things, these past few weeks, has been this $2 trillion COVID relief bill. And in a lot of ways, it was a boondoggle: only about a third, if you’re being generous of that, went to COVID, and the rest is a waste of money with payments that go out until 2028, blue city and blue state bailouts, which, it turns out, they didn’t need. There’s absolutely no reason why that should be happening. Even if they were going through with the majority, the reason why that should have been supported by 75% of Americans, the Republican Party led by the Republican leadership in Congress, who we’re talking about Mr. Potato Head, literally reading Cat in the Hat in the well of the United States House of Representatives, rather than educating the American people about this and putting political pressure on the Democratic Party, to bring this bill down. I think that there is a hunger — and I’ve gotten this from talking to voters over these past two weeks — for somebody who’s going to not make everything into a clown show like has happened over the past five years, and has done absolutely nothing about what we wanted.
Jackson: Thank you. So if there’s one issue that’s most important to you, or one thing you hope to accomplish in Congress, what would that thing be?
Michael: Well, let me just say that I’m pro life. Abortion is an issue that’s unlike all the others. It’s about, you know, saving babies. I will say this, though, to give you maybe a better answer. I think that we’ve got to fix the immigration in this country; a wound that has hurt our political culture going on 30 years now. I think there’s a way to fix this to make the border secure on the immigration system, so that the American people actually have faith in the government secrets. There’s a way to do this. Much like spending, I think that if we can get the border under control, sort of solve this immigration system in a way that 70% to 80% of the Americans understand and start to move past that to other debates, such as entitlement spending and national security, which have been a festering wound in our body politic for too long. I think if we solve that, we can move on to other things and maybe even to a certain extent, lower the temperature on some of our other politics.
Jackson: Thank you, I appreciate your answers. Thank you for your time. Is there anything else you wanted to tell our readers?
Michael: I’ll take every opportunity I can get to talk to the young. If you’re a conservative in the People’s Republic of Travis County, I understand that you’re a minority, all right. In every minority, there is a temptation to sort of lash out or become comical or do everything you can to “own the libs”. That’s just part of growing up as a politically conscious young person. I would very much encourage young conservatives to do more than just “own the libs” and see this time in your life as an opportunity. Read as much as you can and don’t just try to get wound up. Actually, take this opportunity on a university campus to try to persuade. Good luck.
Jackson: Make sure to check out Michael Wood’s website here: https://michaelwoodforcongress.com/.
