Checking in with U.S. Senate Candidate Connor Burbridge

Connor Burbridge discusses his campaign for U.S. Senate against incumbent Jack Reed, focusing on issues, grassroots strategy, and vision for Rhode Island's future**

This episode dives into Connor Burbridge’s grassroots campaign, emphasizing bold ideas to challenge the status quo and invigorate Rhode Island politics. If you're interested in innovative policies, campaign strategies, and how a small state can punch above its weight, this is a must-listen.

Key Topics:

• The current state of Burbridge’s campaign, including poll numbers, fundraising, and ground game strategies
• The importance of debates and candidate transparency, and Burbridge’s efforts to challenge Reed for an open discussion
• Policy contrasts: healthcare, elder care, energy crisis, public education, and economic development
• Critique of Reed’s fundraising reliance on corporate and defense sector money vs. Burbridge's grassroots approach
• The future of Rhode Island’s defense sector: defense contracts, offshore wind, and transitioning to green manufacturing
• The shift in public sentiment toward government and private sector, and how to rebuild trust through effective public investment
• The importance of early groundwork and relationship-building with industry while in opposition

Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction to Connor Burbridge’s campaign against Jack Reed

00:25 - Campaign momentum and voter support in Rhode Island

00:51 - Fundraising challenges and grassroots strategy

01:36 - Ground game significance and voter engagement

03:07 - Reactions from Reed’s campaign and debate attempts

04:20 - Why debate transparency matters for voters

05:01 - Polling insights: internal vs. validated polls

06:37 - Campaign growth and policy focus areas

07:32 - Key policies: elder care, energy affordability, and education

09:00 - The role of big money vs. grassroots in campaigns

10:12 - Voter responses to national issues like energy nationalization

11:14 - The public’s desire for ambitious, big-picture proposals

12:20 - Shift in public trust from private to public sectors

13:00 - Challenges of government efficiency and rebuilding trust

14:07 - The importance of vision in rebuilding government capacity

16:00 - What the primary shape of the Democratic Party looks like

16:48 - Defense sector economic impact and future growth opportunities

20:09 - Transitioning from defense dependence to green energy and offshore wind

21:26 - The influence of political change on policy priorities

22:11 - Building relationships with industry during opposition

23:15 - Supporting grassroots candidates and re-engaging voters

Transcript

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Bill Bartholomew 0:00

Welcome back into Bartholomew Town. It's Bill Bartholomew, Connor Burbridge. Welcome back to the show. You're running in a primary race against the one and only Jack Reed. We talked about this in depth earlier this year, and anybody who's interested should just search Connor's name. Um, wherever you're listening right now, you'll find the episode that really explores uh kind of why you did this and and the the origins. But how's it going out there?

SPEAKER_00 0:24

It's going great, Bill. Again, thanks for having me back on. I'm really excited to be here to share with your list listeners what we've been doing over the last you know year or so. And I mean, we've been building momentum, you know, day after day, month after month. Uh our the last poll in June had us about 25%. And we, you know, that's with very little resources, just really through, you know, the values of our campaign are grit, courage, and moral clarity. And that's what we keep going. And, you know, people resonate. And I think it's just the the Rhode Island electorate, you know, Rhode Island Democratic voters want the policies that we're putting forward. They want someone that's going to aggressively take on the Trump administration. They want someone that calls out the bullshit that's going on with billionaires and big corporations and how we have to change our tax code so we can effectively attack uh tax them. They want Medicare for all and a quality healthcare system. And, you know, this is the ideas that we're putting forward and people resonate. And day after day, it's just more and more people are getting on board with our campaign and becoming one of our supporters. And so, yeah, it's incredible to see.

Bill Bartholomew 1:35

What kind of dollars have you been able to raise and what kind of you know network of volunteers and so forth, the machine have you been able to put out there in terms of uh, you know, you're primary somebody who's got um, you know, obviously just incumbent, long-term incumbent status, name recognition, and a machine behind them. So are you able to do anything that can compete in that realm?

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Yeah, so I I think we've been able to build out a pretty impressive ground game for the level of resources that we have. You know, I think for for a lot of people, you know, they'll know that fundraising has been, you know, one of the weaknesses of our campaign. But in some ways it's also been a strength because we're not taking any money from APAC, we're not taking any money from big corporate packs, you know, like Amazon.com, Blue Origin, you know, Raytheon. This these are my opponent, Jack Reed,'s biggest funders. And so so in some ways it's been a strength because people also really resonate and respect those principles. And then on top of that, we've been able to build a really impressive ground game. So we're running concurrent canvases across the whole state, you know, in multiple towns over the weekends. You know, we've been able to hit the majority of towns across Rhode Island to knock on doors, you know, leave flyers for people and get to talk to people one-on-one about the issues that matter.

Bill Bartholomew 2:54

I think that's really it's really interesting right now in general. Uh I mean, the there's an example in real time, David Morales, representative Morales primary mayor smiley. And look, there's a huge financial uh gap there, no question. But the ground game itself, you can't use look, financial elements of a campaign and uh definitely can lend insight into viability. Sure, I'm not gonna dismiss it, but ground game in and of itself can also uh sort of, I don't want to say offset that, but can exist in a way that elevates the campaign into at least um, you know, where it deserves and ought to be at minimum noted. So ground game alone, you have crossed that threshold for as from my up from an observational standpoint. So are you getting any kind of you know reaction from the Reed campaign that you're out there? Are they are you have you challenged them to any debates? Are they doing anything to sort of push against what you're doing right now?

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Yeah, so I I think we'll put this out there once again. We want to have uh, you know, an open debate with Senator Reed, even a policy forum, like just so that we can present to the voters one-on-one so they can make an informed choice in September. And we've asked him multiple times. We've sent emails, you know, we've had people go in our stead and try and host. And, you know, it's we're just getting crickets time and time again. So I ask, you know, the listeners here today that if you really want to hear the difference between my vision for the Democratic Party and for politics and Senator Reid's and the way we both plan and have presented to take on this administration, right? This horrible administration, then please, you know, give him a call, send him an email. If you have a contact on his team, reach out to him because, you know, he's just dodging us time and time again. And it's right, it's not like polling, we're polling pretty effectively enough that, you know, we're gonna have a pretty significant challenge, that he's gonna have a pretty significant challenge come September. And so just uh the yeah, this um we're not sure the radio silence, you know, we're waiting on an answer and we're ready to go.

Bill Bartholomew 5:00

What are the what are the pollings that you're what are the polls that you're referencing there? Are they internals?

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Yeah, that uh no, well, we did one internal that had us at about 25%, but no, these are these are validated UNH University of New Hampshire polls.

Bill Bartholomew 5:13

Sure. Okay, yeah, and the UNH poll that you've where did you poll at in that one? You were ranging somewhere in like the the twenty fifteen to twenty-three percent um to read sixty-three, sixty-five. So you've got you've got some level of, like I said, you've definitely got some level of introduction into the field. And that's important. Again, I uh there's a there's a distinction to be made between candidates who are, you know, just sort of um getting in the mix to kind of do their thing. You know, they got a grudge. There's one guy I think that's running in a governor's race, it's just I don't, you know, running on a grudge or something like that. And that's different from bringing actual issues and contrast on on a on a on a line-by-line basis with a level of support and a level of reaction. You've generated that online. So that that to me is just something I'm saying this to the audience, not to you. I'm saying this to the audience out there. When you're evaluating uh these types of challengers, I think it's important to not just you know say it's a it's a write-off, Reed's gonna win, doesn't matter what anybody does. Because at minimum, from an idea standpoint, you're introducing ideas into the conversation that are absolutely worth discussing. So um, not that your candidacy needs qualification, but I just feel like we're at that moment now where people are getting bombarded by people, uh bombarded by candidates left, right, and center. And there are some people who have been at this for a while. You've been at this for a while in this campaign cycle. Have you seen momentum grow as this this cycle has gone on?

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Yeah. So so at least, you know, from my understanding, you know, in April, I believe you and the UNH poll had us at 15%. By June, we were at 25%. You know, we're waiting for their July, early August poll that we expect to come out, you know, sometime in the next few weeks. And so we'll see what kind of growth we've had there. But, you know, we like I said, in that same time, right, we've had the warmer months, we have plenty of nice weather to knock on doors, to be out in the community at community events, you know, talking to people, engaging with people. And yeah, Bill, I also just want to add to your point of that like, you know, this campaign, right, as as as much as this is an uphill battle, like we are fighting like to win. And we have policies that will be ready on day one, right? That are novel and unique policies. And that's kind of part of our working class agenda. You know, a few of those are uh universal elder care, right? Because Medicare doesn't cover things like assisted living, at-home care by a family member. You know, in a few years, by 2030, 25% of our state will be over 65. And so like elder care is a huge issue that we need to tackle. And this current system is very inadequate and it's failing a lot of families, quite frankly. You know, we don't hear any of these policies from Senator Reed to address our energy crisis, right? Energy bills are through the roof. People are struggling with bills and daily costs, right? So we're proposing helping states and communities buy back their utilities from the greedy companies that own them through public utilities, right? And then uh, you know, a last one is we're proposing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution for equal education for all, right? Like I think at at my fiance is a public school teacher. I think anyone that, you know, sees the current state of public schools knows that teachers are really struggling and a lot of school districts are really struggling. Cherhoe had a had a budget, um, it's not just Providence, Pawtucket, like Cherhoe had some budget struggles. And so, right, by passing this amendment to the U.S. Constitution uh and putting it forward at least, our party is taking a clear stand that every student in this country deserves a high quality education. And I think that's something that Americans across the board can get behind, especially and certainly people in Rhode Island, the good people of Rhode Island, can get behind those kinds of ideas. And I think, you know, Rhode Islanders want our leaders to represent these kind of bold, ambitious ideas at the federal level. We have a huge opportunity with this state, right? We're a small state. It's it's you know really easy to campaign here and go to every single town. And so, yeah, Jack Reed has more money than God and for in his campaign coffers. And what does he do with it, right? Like there's a difference between grassroots democracy and lazy democracy. And lazy democracy is when you all you do is run digital ads and TV commercials. And, you know, certainly that helps a little with a little bit of information, but right, but with that amount of money that he has, right, he can run one of the biggest ground operation that Rhode Island has ever seen. Bring voters back into the electorate, engage them right where they are at their home about the key issues that matter. And he doesn't. And so, you know, I think that's the type of leadership that our state wants to see is leaders who are gonna say, hey, I'm gonna fight as hard as I can to bring every single voter, right, whether they're red or blue or independent, back into the democratic process and engage with them where they're at. And I mean, yeah, so like that he takes all that corporate money, but where does it go to? TV commercials, digital ads? I don't know.

Bill Bartholomew 10:11

I'm curious what people are saying to you right now, with Rhode Island facing, I mean, the among, if not the highest rates in the country right now when it comes to energy. And look, the governor, Governor McKee just declared a state of emergency that releases funds from the um you know, the gas cap and tax initiative. People are gonna get about 60 bucks total off their electric bill this winter to compensate for the the increase, right? What do people say when you talk about nationalizing the electric grid? How do people react to that type of idea?

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Yeah, I think uh I that idea, I mean, I think in general, you know, people really resonate with just just ambitious proposals, right? I think people aren't stupid, they understand the depth of the problems that we're facing as an economy, you know, in the economy and as a state in healthcare. And I think those kind of meek proposals, right, that we see time and time again from the Democratic Party, people are just so tired of it. Like they're, you know, they say these are stale proposals. And so, like, you know, they might not agree with every proposal I put out, but I think they appreciate the effort to be able to dream big and you know, fight hard. And that's the energy that my campaign brings. And people, you know, whether they agree with me on everything or not, they respect that type of energy and those types of principles. And so, and I think in general, right, people, you know, this kind of ethos of the last 40 years that the private market does everything perfectly, government is useless, you know, the the the worst words you ever hear is I'm the government, I'm here to help, blah, blah, blah. I think people, you know, no longer have that faith in the private market. And they're like, you know what? Maybe public investment is a good thing. Maybe the pub public, you know, the government can help deliver quality health care, can help deliver affordable bills, can help deliver good housing. You know, and I think people are willing to take that chance and and be open to those ideas because things have just gotten so bad for regular working Rhode Islanders across the board. Yeah.

Bill Bartholomew 12:19

Yeah, I I bingo. Yeah, I think that there's an opportunity right now. Forget about the national political trends, forget about Michigan, forget about New York, New York State, the uh the whole the DSA movement, all of that. That that is uh in and of itself one conversation. I think there's a conversation right now exactly like you just said, you just outlined something extremely interesting, which is that the pattern of moving away from government, faith in government, is now starting to apply more and more to the private sector. And what that requires, you would think, it would be a response that the government in some way says, hey, come back to us. The problem is here in Rhode Island, you know, I use this example when it comes to like the grid. It's like, oh, good, um, let's nationalize the utilities. If I went around and said, hey, everybody, throw a couple of bucks into this bucket, we're gonna all throw down on some wind turbines, put them out in the ocean, and then everyone, that'll power your house. That would be a completely different mindset than the existing infrastructure. I think you'd have a lot more buy-in. So nationalizing the grid, okay, that's an interesting idea, except for then when you look at the Washington Bridge, you go, hmm, do I want the Peter Alvidi of electricity to be running the electricity on behalf of the government versus private sector, which has a different type of accountability? So no matter what, where people go right now, it feels like the natural return back to government, it's not as simple as it may seem, even though I think you perfectly outlined the shift of people having faith in the private sector. So, how do you bring people back into government in a way that they feel not only is this benefiting, you know, it's is a natural return from private sector management, but is also a better solution and one that they can believe in when they look around and they see a Washington Bridge, for example.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

Yeah. So I and I I think that's an interesting point because, you know, I think people who share my type of politics, right, in this big embrace of public power, you know, government helping deliver for working people, they all those a lot of those people also believe that the government should work more efficiently and, you know, should deliver better services for people, just customer service 101. And and it's not doing that effectively. And there's, you know, a lot of leaders across our country who have Ds next to their name and R's next to their name who are responsible for those, you know, types of uh for that for that type of delivery and for that loss of faith. And I think, you know, it's a tough conversation because the the state capacity, the ability of our government to do these types of projects, especially after this administration, the Trump administration, is going to be so broken. And I think that's why it's so important right now, as opposed to what we've had for the last 30 years from Jack Reed, right? We need leaders who have vision, who have ambition, and who are ready on day one with a new agenda. Because, right, because we we don't have time to spend eight years trying to rebuild our federal government. Like we need to go and we need to have ambitious proposals to rebuild. And I think uh I just think, you know, outlining that we're gonna do this better, that we're gonna do this efficiently, and ultimately, right? And this is part of what this primary is about is what does the Democratic Party stand for, right? Alvidi, I don't, he was probably a Democrat. He was certainly appointed by a Democratic governor, right? And so uh, but but you know, you ask people on the street, what does the Democratic Party stand for? You'll get a thousand different answers. Part of what I think is on the ballot on September 9th in this primary, right, for U.S. Senate is uh, do you want a Democratic Party that fights for the working class, or do you want a Democratic Party that continues business as usual? And so, you know, I every day, you know, I want to fight for the working class, I fight for the common good. That's what I do at my nine to five job, you know, that's what I do outside of my free time. Uh Jack Reed, he he believes what he believes, you know, and I certainly don't think he's putting forward these kinds of ambitious proposals. And so that's what's on the ballot in September, and I ask everyone to consider that when they go to the polls.

Bill Bartholomew 18:50

Let me ask you this. Last year, Jack Reed brought in, and again, I understand the context here on defense, and there's a broader discussion that you can hear uh Connor's position on in the previous podcast we did um pretty well detailed, but this is from an economic development question or standpoint. Last year, $15.3 billion um brought in on the Virginia class submarines and the c in the Columbia class submarines, $190 million to uh the Naval War College in Newport for the uh Naval Undersea Warfare Center, also $20 million for um uh you know a a Rhode Island University competition on basic military research, uh money towards electromagnetic sensor facilities, $244 million for workforce training, $32 million for the National Guard, uh $7.6 billion in annual economic impact, et cetera, et cetera. So there's whether or not you agree with the tenants behind those numbers, they do exist. They fuel Rhode Island's economy. It's one of the t it's one of the pillars of Rhode Island's economy right now, defense sector. Jack Reed goes away. I'm not saying those dollars all go away. A lot of them do, though. Um, how do you make up for the the the lost in the impact economically if you replaced Reed and you were opposed philosophically to continuing the relationships in the defense sector?

SPEAKER_00 20:13

Yeah, so I think the, you know, I mainly want to talk about the defense sector. Uh I think there's the appropriations part of that, which we can kind of put on hold. But in terms of the defense sector, right, weapons manufacturers has grown to about 11%, 10% of Rhode Island's GDP. That is a huge percentage. A lot of these contracts of which you just talked about, those are 10 plus-year contracts that are already secured. They're already signed into law, right? And so we're not talking about doing anything with those. So electric boat and a lot of these industries, they are quite secure. I think I have a question of how much of our children's future we want to have tied to endless conflict abroad. I think that's a question Rhode Islanders should ask ourselves. But I think there's also, right? So those are 10, 15-year contracts. Jack Reed hopefully will not be running for re if he wins the primary. You know, what is he gonna run at 82 to be a 90-year-old senator? Like uh or late 80s, like that. So, so, you know, these he's gonna pass, and you know, these relationships, uh torch needs to be passed at some point. While these we have 10 to 15 years, right, with these contracts secured, I also think it's time to look at new sectors, right? Offshore wind. So GE Verenova, which is one of the biggest energy companies in the world, an offshoot of General Electric, right? Their offshore wind subsidiary is based in southern France. Why why is that not based in Quonset Point, Rhode Island? Why what would our economy look like if we grow offshore wind and green manufacturing to 10% of GDP, right? How much will our state be thriving now? So, you know, my proposal is like those relationships are built, those contracts are there in defense, whatever, we're not going to touch them. But now we need new relationships, new ideas, and new vision to build uh, you know, strengthen the economy of Rhode Island, to bring in new industry. Wind's very competitive, right? Like New Bedford wants wind, you know, Connecticut, um, the port of New York City, they all want part of this wind development, right? They see it on the future, right? We need a senator, uh, and we have you know the gift of being a small state, but we have a senator who can really go to bat for us to bring that investment here to Rhode Island. And right now, wind is less than 1% of GDP, right? They can brag about those investments all they want, but right, let's see, let's see the plan to grow offshore wind and green manufacturing to 10% of GDP. And that's the kind of ideas and energy and the relationships that I will build in the U.S. Senate for our state.

Bill Bartholomew 22:49

Yeah. I think if you can flesh that out into uh something that incorporates the reality of the Trump administration and just the reality of the total deal literally being paid off a billion dollars to stop working on offshore wind in this country, if you can parlay that out into a longer-term vision, I think that a lot of Rhode Islanders would hear that and go, well, yeah, we want that shift. We understand defense manufacturing and the reality is the world that we live in, et cetera, et cetera. Even, you know, if you're at all a realist, you would have to accept that. But you would also want the notion of why can't green tech, why can't ocean tech, um, blue tech renewables, et cetera, why can't that exceed the defense sector? That's not an unreasonable ass. So I think that that's a that's um, you know, what those numbers look like. Like I said, you'd have to it's all imaginary until Donald Trump's out of there. I mean, offshore wind in the Trump administration is uh it's tough, man, right? But we will see, but we'll see at the same time leadership uh and and a a change in temperament of uh what the Senate and and House brings if the majority flips, that could also change what the priorities are, where the where the administration back Trump administration backs off. So it's not uh it's not an insane idea, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

Yeah, and I just just to add that to that too. Yeah, I know like with a lot of these proposals, right, people will be like, oh, but the Trump administration, but the the Republican, you know, trifecta currently, I mean, one, it's set right this midterms, it's set to break pretty hard. Uh, but I, you know, I think in some ways, right, like, you know, we have you have to be like if you're working with a big, you know, multinational company like General Electric Veranova, right? Like, you need to build those relationships now. Like, you don't just show up when the Democrats are back in power and be like, all right, guys, like come to Rhode Island, right? You have built, you worked out a plan with them. You built what incentives do they want? What incentives would be effective? What kind of infrastructure do they want? Do they need workforce housing? Do they want workforce training, right? Like those programs, you know, you could work with state government to build while the Trump administration is still in power. And just to lay that foundation and groundwork for when we are back in power on day one. Look at all these investments that are happening. Look, the Democratic Party cares about manufacturing, good manufacturing, jobs for across this country, not just war manufacturing, right? Clean, green manufacturing across this country and in Rhode Island. And we we we worked in opposition to build these relationships, and now we're ready to deliver the policy on day one. And I mean, that's what a good leader does, that's what a good plan looks like. And so, yes, we're in opposition now. I mean, that's the time where we lay the plans, we build the relationships so we are ready to go and hit the ground running.

Bill Bartholomew 25:35

Connor Burbridge running for United States Senate primary Jack Reed and the Democrat primary. Early voting starts pretty soon. And um, I'm I'm not sure exactly what day we're gonna release this, so I don't want to say exactly when, but uh you be pay attention and you'll be able to vote pretty easily here. Um yeah, man, keep it up. I think I think there's a real value to what you're doing, uh and and there's ample detractors to anybody out there who gets into a political race. And uh I say it's great leadership just for other people out there that that that are honestly either not ready to step up for for legitimate reasons um or are not willing to step up. So from that standpoint, thanks for stepping up, man.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

Yeah, of course. Yeah, Bill, thank you. Thank you to all the listeners, thank you to the supporters across our state who might be listening. You know, I'm doing this because of you all, you know, because the energy that you bring every day. So thank you all so much uh for your support across Rhode Island. It means a lot.