Reagan Faulkner
What's up, guys, and welcome back to the Reagan Faulkner Show. Today, I'm so excited to have Mr. Matt Mercer join us. Matt is the Director of Communications for the North Carolina Republican Party and has spent much of his career in the field of strategic communications and media relations, as well as serving as the Editor-in-Chief for the North State Journal.

Thank you so much for being with us today, Matt.

Matt Mercer
Glad to be here, thank you.

Reagan Faulkner
Yeah, do you want to start by just telling us a little bit about yourself, your career, and for people that don't know, what strategic communications and media relations really encompasses and means?

Matt Mercer
Yeah, so lifelong North Carolinian. I grew up in Rockingham County. I went to UNC Charlotte, which is where I got involved with college Republicans and started working on campaigns over 15 years ago at this point.

And so I've worked on several campaigns from City Council down there up to Congressional and Senate races. And I have been kind of all over the place. I've done campaigns.

I've worked for a PR agency. I did media for four years. What I always like to tell people is I got really frustrated with the media here and thought I could do it better because they all sucked.

And so I did that for four years and joined the party in 2024, which is where I am now.

Reagan Faulkner
Awesome. Well, really with what you've experienced in media and what you've done and being in a really interesting segment of the media being political, how have you seen communication and media relations change or shift as Gen Z and Gen Alpha have really started coming into the political picture?

Matt Mercer
Yeah, I think for me it's been interesting because for so many years it was the writing, the visual in that sense. And video really came on the scene later on. And now actually NCGAP, we're talking about starting a TikTok account.

And so it just kind of shows where are people getting their information and where are we trying to meet people when our goal as a party is to elect Republicans? How do we reach the people that we need? And I think what President Trump's campaign showed in 2024 was you have to meet them on podcasts.

You have to meet them where they're actually listening to you. You can write articles all day, but nobody's going to read that. And so I think really what you're seeing now is the shift is only continuing.

And so we're really trying to meet people because I think we have a great story to tell with the Republican Party here in North Carolina, and we want to continue to do that.

Reagan Faulkner
Do you think that's a positive or a negative shift? Do you think people are better off reading these articles and actually learning about what's going on and understanding the specifics? Or do you think it's better for them to be able to consume this short form content and get fast bursts of information and entertainment, make the party more relatable?

Matt Mercer
Yeah, I think it cuts both ways. So I'll do the classic hedge and say maybe a little bit of both. I think when you're talking about really diving into something and understanding it, sure, doing it that way works, but also there are people who are auditory learners and they're only going to really take in that information if they're hearing it.

And so we've really democratized, I think, what people are consuming, who they're consuming it from, and building that relationship because people don't trust mainstream media. I haven't trusted them for a long time either. And so I think what you're seeing is democratization in that sense works, but meeting people where they are, whether it's good or bad, it's incumbent upon us to be able to do that.

Reagan Faulkner
Absolutely. So when we're looking at content, we're looking at the NCGOP, maybe getting that TikTok account and getting more, I guess, digital, you could say. How do you think formatting, accessibility, consistency of that digital media play into the goals and kind of mission of the NCGOP in registering voters, recruiting volunteers, and getting out that vote?

Matt Mercer
Yeah, I think it's essential to be able to do that because campaigns run on the blood, sweat, and tears of the volunteers and the people who are putting in the work, making phone calls, going door to door, going to meetings, talking to their neighbors, talking to people on college campuses, being able to reach them. And so I think when you're looking at what we're trying to do, it's trying to continue that coalition that was so successful in 2024 and being able to have that technology and have people who understand it come into the party and say, you know, you are welcome. Like, we want your help to be able to do that because it's a skill set.

You know, I'm probably a generation beyond where it's really became popular. Like, I'm having to learn it too, which has been pretty interesting. And so I think it's just very valuable for someone to understand that and to be open-minded about it and welcome that perspective in.

Reagan Faulkner
Absolutely. Do you think that we're seeing anything on social media that's, I guess, splitting the Republican Party? Like, do you think...

One thing I've noticed personally, I guess, to kind of explain what I'm trying to ask is there are so many opportunities for different points of view and expressions and opinions on social media that I've seen, at least in my generation, almost a split where you have multiple different factions of the Republican Party and everybody's looking for something different or everybody's advocating for something different. Have you seen that?

Do you think it's a positive? Because like you said, it's democratizing it and it's making everybody's individual opinions very open for candidates to understand and analyze. Or do you think it's negative and is less unifying for the party?

Matt Mercer
So I think there's a classic quote from Winston Churchill that explains it very well. It says, democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others. And so there's never really a perfect way of doing it.

And so I think what you're really seeing play out online right now is people who are doing things because it makes them money. And I think people have to be discerning and really understanding the true intent of what someone's goal is. Are they actually trying to entertain, inform you, and build an audience?

Or are they saying things that they may not truly believe because they see a financial windfall that comes from it? And so I really think it's dependent upon being able to figure that out for themselves. And I think we certainly see that playing out right now.

I don't think the Republican Party or this conservative movement is splendored nearly the way that it's been portrayed.

Reagan Faulkner
I think that's a really good point. I think a lot of people kind of on the outside, like I can use my parents or family members as an example, might not be as understanding of the financial incentive or the financial opportunities that there are with social media. So it's hard for the everyday American to be scrolling and looking at that content and be able to decipher like, yes, this person is obviously pushing out clickbait or pushing out something just to get monetized or financial incentive versus somebody else that's like, this is factual.

This is something somebody put their blood, sweat, and tears into. This is like the actual opinions of the majority of the base. I think it's going to be hard for Americans to discern between the two.

Matt Mercer
Yeah, I think it is. And I think you've seen sort of a movement to bring back maybe some of those gatekeepers, but that also comes with its own risk too. And so I think we just have to continue letting this play out.

But as far as our job here at the NCGOP, we're trying to bring as many people as we can, because I think electing Republicans is better than electing Democrats. And if you get mad and stay at home, you're electing a Democrat. And so we're trying to get people to understand these are the true stakes, every election that comes up.

Reagan Faulkner
Absolutely. And it's not just, you know, a fad or something like that. Like I heard it really interesting put at our New Hanover County town hall yesterday.

Like you have to not get kind of discouraged or pay attention to the flavor of the day. You need to keep the real goals and the real stakes in mind as we're going through and going towards midterms, just making sure that we're staying focused instead of being distracted by whatever that trend is or whatever that flavor of the day or whatever that headline is.

Matt Mercer
And I think there's such a move now to really kind of discount all the things that have been done just since President Trump took office in 2025. I think there's been so many wins that people have forgotten about them, but there are things that are going to continue forward into years and decades to come.

Reagan Faulkner
Absolutely. What are some of those wins, in your opinion, when you talk about them? I know a lot of people are just seeing that flavor of the day or that clickbait headline, and it's hard to get all those wins out.

What would be kind of your top ones that you would want to highlight?

Matt Mercer
Yeah, I think certainly what you've seen with the border and how he has completely shut down the border, we've removed more people from our country over the last year and a half than we did in a lot of years before. And that's even met with all of the opposition that's come from it. I think when you're talking about the federal government being at its smallest workforce since 1966, that is huge.

That's something that I know the small government conservatives have talked about for years, and yet they're complaining about President Trump when he's delivered that. I think when you're talking about a win on women's sports and these cultural issues that I think fired so many people up when Joe Biden was president, we've won on all decisively on all of those issues. I think when you're talking about, look at UNC-Chapel Hill.

You had the frat bros who rescued the flag, and they got a prom speaking spotlight. That provided so much courage for other people to do the right thing, and so that's just off the top of my head, and that's not even discounting the pocketbook issues that I think people see too, which I know we're having a little bit of an issue right now, but that's resolving itself too. And so I think there's so much you can take and be happy about and say, I like this, keep this going versus getting mad and just throwing in the towel if there's one thing that doesn't go the exact way that you want it to.

Reagan Faulkner
Absolutely. I think instant gratification in just our generation and in our culture at this point has been like, I wanted Trump to solve everything in the first 100 days, and that's impossible. I mean, where our country was when he took office on January 20th, 2025, it was in such disarray.

It's going to take the entire four years to fix it. It's not going to be 100, 200, 300 days like instant fix. It's going to take all those days.

I think another point for me that's really important that he's done is lowest murder rate since 1900 is absolutely insane to me, but just so amazing that hard-on-crime policies are working, that we're encouraging people to follow the law, that we're punishing people who aren't following the law, and that we're back to having a country of law and order.

Matt Mercer
Absolutely. And I think what you've seen in Washington, D.C., is it's the safest it's been in decades. And I think you can contrast that with just here in North Carolina, with what's happening in the city of Charlotte.

And I'm going to pick on Charlotte a little bit, even though I did go there, but one of the most horrific murders I think anyone has ever seen was Arena Zarutska. And it just shows these soft-on-crime policies, they don't work, and they put dangerous people back on the street. And I think that contrast could not be clearer.

And that's what people need to keep in mind when they're going to vote.

Reagan Faulkner
Absolutely. Even in Wilmington, Easter Sunday night, we had a horrific stabbing. And that was somebody, just like Irena Zarutska, was somebody that had been released by Roy Cooper on the truck program.

He had, I believe, 60 prior convictions. Should not have been out. He was released early and we saw him kill a 21-year-old Marine from California.

It's just devastating when we have these soft-on-crime policies.

Matt Mercer
And that's terrible. And that shows there are real-world consequences. It's not just talking about something and maybe you see it in another state.

When it happens in your own city, in your own state, I think you feel it at a so much more of a deeper level.

Reagan Faulkner
Absolutely. Well, going back, we were talking about, you mentioned how there are, you know, people's pocketbooks are feeling the benefits of Trump's policies. But right now people are kind of a little upset about it, given what's going on in Iran and all of that.

Many Republicans, especially Gen Z, Gen Alpha, my generation, my generation Gen Z, not Gen Alpha, are just content over that Iran conflict. What are your thoughts about it in general and kind of Trump's handling of it?

Matt Mercer
Yeah, I think there are so many things that people maybe don't appreciate about the situation in Iran. You have a regime that violently overthrew the government in 1979. You had Americans who were killed during that.

You've had Americans who have been killed for 47 years on and off by this regime. You had this regime funding terror around the world, whether it's Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen. And you have all of these networks that Iran did.

And what you've been able to see over the last 40 days is their navy has been crushed. Their military is almost non-existent aside from the IRGC. I think what you're seeing now is they're going to feel the pain of this.

And then they have a regime now that can't threaten their neighbors the way that they did before. You have all of the Gulf state allies, the people who share some of the same religion as what the Iranians do, say, no, these people are crazy. Like, thank you for coming in and helping us.

And so what you really can do is put this regime down, potentially see regime change, hopefully, or regime that cooperates. And then we can be done in the Middle East. You can say, OK, we can finally do what it is we say that we need to do, confronting the challenge of China and confronting the true threats in the 21st century and be done with the Middle East for a while, which I think is the general feeling everyone has.

I was in college when the Iraq war was going on. And I think really what you saw was the veterans who were coming back and they were enrolling and having the chance to talk to them. They were like, we just wanted to finish the job.

I think when you leave things half done, it just creates more problems later. And so what I really don't want to see is leaving the job half done. We're going to do it.

Yes, we're dealing with pain. By the way, gas is still cheaper than it was at the height of Joe Biden's presidency.

Reagan Faulkner
I'm glad you touched on that. Thank you.

Matt Mercer
So I think people see that and no one's happy about that. But there's also national security. I think it's true when you're talking about Joe Biden let in tens of millions of people from every country around the world.

Over the four years he was president, we still don't know who those people are. We don't know if they're here to cause a threat at some point. And so we really still have that threat that is coming at us.

And a lot of that came from the Middle East and came from this regime in Iran, which thankfully is close to the dustbin of history.

Reagan Faulkner
Why do you think Trump picked going into Iran when he did? I know a lot of people have gone back and forth about it shouldn't have been done at all. It shouldn't have been done during a midterm year.

We thought it would be shorter, which I think he's done a pretty good job of destroying their entire military and like under what was it 40 days or something. I mean, I think that's great. But why do you think he picked to go in when he did?

Or do you have an opinion on that?

Matt Mercer
I mean, I wish I had the information that he had at the time. I think we all do. But I think when you see the time he chose to do it and the response from Iran, what did they do?

They lashed out at all their neighbors with missiles. They have ballistic missiles that reach over 4,000 miles. They could hit most of the cities in Europe, your major cities.

You saw they launched missiles at holy sites in Israel that thankfully were intercepted. And so based on the information that the president has, I'm going to trust his judgment the same way I've trusted his judgment over his two terms in office.

Reagan Faulkner
Absolutely, absolutely. I think it's really important that we kind of, one of the big talking points I've heard is, oh, Iran's been two weeks away from a nuclear missile for 30 years. I'm like, maybe, maybe not.

We don't know what the president knows, but he was elected for a reason. And I'm going to really trust that he had all the right information. I don't think Trump went to bed on February 28th and was like, you know what I think I want to do tonight?

I think I want to blow up Iran. I don't think he was doing that. I think he had enough information that the Americans will never, ever, ever know, but that it was a good decision.

I think we should trust him on that.

Matt Mercer
I think you're absolutely right about that.

Reagan Faulkner
What does winning look like to you over there? I know people are kind of going back and forth on what they think winning looks like, or saying that Trump's kind of changed what winning looks like. Personally, I still think winning looks like regime change, a better regime that better respects America, respects the border countries, respects Israel, and just being done in the Middle East, like you were saying.

But what do you think winning looks like?

Matt Mercer
I think winning looks like a lot of what we've already done, which is crushing their Navy, crushing their Air Force, being able to keep them from threatening their neighbors. And if they decide to cooperate economically now, I think that is a benefit and a bonus. And I think if they continue to not do that, they will see the consequences of that, and they're going to feel it very quickly.

And so a regime there that cannot threaten their neighbors, that isn't trying to bring about apocalypse in the end of the world, which is what Khamenei has wanted for 40 years before he finally met his demise, which I don't think anyone was sad about that. But really being able to remove a threat of terror around the world and all the networks that now they've abandoned, and they're just going to scream until the end. But I think those regimes are coming to an end.

Reagan Faulkner
Now, you touched on China briefly. What do you think some of those threats are? We get out of the Middle East, we're able to focus on the threats of the 21st century that you're talking about, the threats posed from China.

I've been doing a lot of research into China and kind of our historical relationship with them. What do you think that'll look like? What do you think some of those threats are?

Matt Mercer
I think with China, you're talking about a regime that wants to dominate the world. And I think they have been trying to do that for a very long time. And I'll know that people have really woke up to that fact.

I think when you're talking about this regime, they're trying to take territory from their neighbors. They still want Taiwan. I think they're trying to buy the loyalty around the world.

The Belt and Road Initiative was able to do that. Now, you have a lot of these countries now saying like, this is terrible. We should have never done this.

And so what they truly want is to be the world hegemon. And they want to take the United States place. I think the United States should lead the world.

I think we have that ability. We are the greatest country that there's ever been. I want to keep that going.

I think when you boil it down to is like, make America great again. It's bringing about that. It's having the United States respected around the world with their best economy, the best people, the best military, all of that.

And that's what China wants. And so as we compete with China, we have to understand that's what they want too. And they are not afraid to do it using their military, using their economy, using their money to try and buy the loyalty of other countries.

But what are they really getting in return? And why should we be second place to anyone? So I think when you're talking about confronting China in that aspect, it's all of the things they're doing, not caring about what the rest of the world thinks because they want to dominate.

And so we have to confront that and be the true hegemon.

Reagan Faulkner
Absolutely. I mean, even they had $225 billion pledged to Iran as part of the Belt and Road Initiative. They were buying 90% of their exported oil.

Just they don't even care who they're funding or what they're doing. They're just going to throw money at these terrorist countries, these terrorist regimes, other countries that they've thrown money at that obviously are good players in a global society that are selfish or like Iran, they're just radical religious people. Like, I think it's just really important to curtail their ability to fund these countries that are, for lack of better words, bipolar.

Matt Mercer
Yeah. And I think when you're talking about what President Trump's at this turn, you can see the common thread at every single point. I think when you're talking about the terrorists that he's leveling on China, not only the goods there, but when they try to route those goods through other countries, being able to stop that, and putting, making the rest of the world dependent on cheap Chinese crap, for lack of a better term.

I think when you're talking about Venezuela, they were buying oil at a discount from them. That's gone. They were buying oil at a discount from Iran.

That's gone. And earlier this week, there was a, and I bet no one heard about this. We signed a mutual defense pact with Indonesia, which is another Asian ally that we're going to have.

And we have these mutual defense agreements now all over Asia because they don't like China either. And they're afraid of what China wants to do to control them. And so being able to really spend more time and attention focused on that is the true threat of the next decade plus.

Reagan Faulkner
Now, you touched a little bit on MAGA and Make America Great Again and how we can do that domestically and abroad by combating kind of foreign enemies like China. Now, what do you think the MAGA movement is going to look like in the future? A lot of people are saying that it's over, that it's shifted to like this America First movement.

Do you think MAGA is sustainable in a post-Trump Republican Party? And what's that going to look like?

Matt Mercer
Yeah, I just looked at how much the movement has already changed the Republican Party. I grew up, and don't hold it against me for lack of a better term, I grew up with the classic country club Republican leadership that was the pro-business, low spending, austerity, kind of the Paul Ryan school of things, where what did it end up doing in our country? It hollowed out everything.

It hollowed out manufacturing. It hollowed out families, which is why you saw fentanyl as such a problem for so many years. That's over too.

That's another win with President Trump. And so really the movement has already fundamentally changed the Republican Party to where it's about the boots and not the suits. It's about people who get their hands dirty for a living.

It's about really understanding what families are looking for. It's about embracing industrial policy, which is something really that I have taken an interest in and kind of rethinking, because we need that manufacturing base. We need to be an economy that makes things.

I go back to what happened during COVID when we were so dependent on so many things from China that we didn't know we needed until we did.

Reagan Faulkner
I think you kind of just touched on this, just a little bit more narrow. What's your personal vision for MAGA? What do you think it really means for the majority of the conservative base at this specific point in time and going into 2026 and looking ahead at 2028?

I guess what should the primary priorities or goals be of the MAGA movement at this point in time and in the future?

Matt Mercer
That's a really good question. I think for me, it's understanding that most people who live in our country are not as political as I think everyone you see online are doing this. And they just want to be able to provide for their families.

They want to raise their kids in the neighborhood where they live. They want to have their kids have more opportunities than they did. I think that's sort of the classic, what is the family there for?

It's to provide and it's God's design to be there. And so we have to truly understand what it is they're looking for and how our free markets benefit them more than socialism. How do we bring congregations together and churches and let religious freedom thrive?

How do we have a secure foreign policy to establish the greatest military in the world and hope we never have to use it? I think it's through conservatism and Republican values. And I think as long as we focus in on those things and stay in touch with what the, I guess the non-political or the people who just want to get by and live their life, being able to provide that American dream for them and never lose sight of that.

Reagan Faulkner
Absolutely. I think that's a really good answer. I heard you say the socialism word.

Do you think socialism is a threat in our country right now?

Matt Mercer
It's one of the biggest threats in our country. I think when you're talking about just on tax day, you had Zoran Mondani in New York City release a video outside of a penthouse owned by Ken Griffin and say, here's where this guy lives. He's a billionaire and it's just creating and fomenting that distrust and distaste and really pitting people against one another, which is what socialism does.

Talking about taking property and we're only going to tax these people. Well, we run them all out, then it would drop down to the next level. I think that this threat of socialism and government is still the essential threat that we face as a country because no matter how many times it fails, you're always going to have people who say, we can do it this time and we have to crush it and defeat it.

Reagan Faulkner
It's really interesting. I know in Wilmington, there's a big socialist movement. We have a chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and UNCW just got a chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America.

It's just interesting to really see how it's playing into obviously our campus and the ideologies that are on our campus from conservative to apolitical to all the way socialist and also with our local candidates and people that are trying to either play with the Democratic Socialists because they think that they're young people or a voting bloc there or appease them because they're the ones that are going to the protests and they're the ones that are kind of being the local activists.

It's really interesting to watch that play out.

Matt Mercer
Yeah, and I'm old enough to remember the Democratic Socialists of America. That was maybe one of the forerunner groups to them and they tell you things that they sound good if you're looking at it at a true surface level and they're telling you that your problems are all the fault of these people and that's what they're trying to do. They're trying to divide people in that sense.

It's the same as critical race theory, critical theory. You go all the way down the line of this thinking and what it does, it just pits people against one another. It doesn't unite and bring people together.

I think what the MAGA movement is about is putting our country first. I think you're talking about conservatism. It's about providing, making family the centerpiece of life and you don't do that by dividing people.

We want to bring people together. All they're trying to do is have their people win and these people lose. I want everyone to win.

Reagan Faulkner
Absolutely. So when we're talking about kind of them coming onto college campuses and you're old enough to remember kind of when it happened the first time. For me, I didn't think this was new because I know that we kind of had an issue with socialists and conservatives during the Reagan era where we were trying to finish off the USSR. President Reagan was trying to really promote capitalism here. But now I feel like it's kind of making a new run and kind of a run in the digital age. Here at the GOP, how has the youth changed y'all's campaign and communication tactics either to combat that or just in general? Because we're seeing that the youth is kind of uncertain about where it wants to go.

You've got some people that are socialists, some people that are conservative, some people that are in between or apolitical altogether.

Matt Mercer
Yeah, I think that we have always been trying to talk to college Republicans and going onto campuses to them. But it's Charlie Kirk and Turning Point. And I think they showed a better way for so many people.

And being able to continue that legacy is going to be paramount because those are voices that we, again, we seek out and want. Tell us what you think because we're the older people. We have kind of been there, done that in a different generation.

But you've got new problems too. Some are the same and some are going to be different. And so being able to give voice to that and say that you're valued and being able to show you how this is a better ideology than following the socialism road to hell.

I think that's going to be something that we continue to do that we're going to continue to improve on. But if there's things you see and want us to do, don't be afraid to let us know. Please tell us.

Reagan Faulkner
Do you think that there's going to be a fundamental shift in the party or in the way that the party communicates with the base as we see more and more Gen Z and Gen Alpha kind of get activated and mobilized and politically involved in Turning Point or college Republicans or just in the party in general?

Matt Mercer
Yeah, I think the shifts and it's great to tie that together with consuming media, with how what is reaching people now, being able to meet them where they are and being able to say, OK, maybe this writing in the Wall Street Journal and going and doing an interview on Meet the Press on Sunday that might have worked 30 years ago. It's not what works now. I don't know who's watching those shows on Sundays anymore.

Like I'm I'm in church and then trying to chase my daughter around the rest of the day.

Reagan Faulkner
I've never even heard of Meet the Press, so I'm not watching it.

Matt Mercer
So and that's a great point. And so we want to find ways that educate people and inform them about about our party and being able to do that. I think it's always going to be the challenge that we're facing because we have to.

We have to do it and we have to confront the Democratic Socialists and show that they have bad ideas that are going to lead you down a bad road. This is a better way.

Reagan Faulkner
As we talk about better ways, challenges and the Democratic Socialists, what are your opinions on midterms and kind of what do you think are the essentials for Republicans to ensure that not only we win here in North Carolina, which is crucial, but that we win at a federal level across the country as well?

Matt Mercer
Yeah, I think when you're talking about what the environment looks like in nationally and in North Carolina, you've seen Democrats are motivated because they hate President Trump more than they love America. And so they're willing to burn everything down in that in that fact. And so what we have to do is get people who are either happy with how things are going and say, well, I voted in 2024.

Like, I'm good. We're, you know, what's a midterm? People who say, well, you haven't done this, this, this or this.

And so I'm not going to vote. Those people are the ones who could cost us a lot in the midterms and being able to show the stakes of that and to get out the vote. Luckily, we took the lead in January of being the largest party in North Carolina.

Like that is a huge accomplishment for Republicans. We have done so much good in this state with our state leaders that, you know, we don't want to lose that either. And so truly understanding those stakes and we're going to only continue that messaging more and more as it gets closer, because I think those opinions really start to get locked in over the summer.

We have a lot of work to do to show people that this is still the better way.

Reagan Faulkner
Absolutely. And I think kind of when we're talking about those people, they're like, well, Trump hasn't done this, so I'm just not going to vote or I'm going to vote Democrat. It's like if you voted for that, if you like seriously and legitimately voted for that, it's something you want to see.

The only logical thing is to vote Republican in the midterms, because if we don't get conservatives in our U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Reps, he's going to be impeached. It's going to be four years of impeachment after impeachment after impeachment. Nothing's going to get done.

And whatever those specific things are that those people voted for that haven't come to fruition yet, they legitimately never will. If we don't get Republicans elected, they're never going to see it.

Matt Mercer
Yeah. And if you elect Democrats and they take over in Congress, all the things that you say that you want, they're definitely not going to happen now. And so I think it's incumbent upon us to continue to tell that message.

But also, we've tried this before. Democrats had a united government. And what did they do?

They raised taxes. They talked about green energy. They made people use pronouns everywhere they went.

You had this transgender movement that I think is really dangerous. And you had all these other things that they were going to try and push through. Luckily, we won the House in 2022.

But they had this unified government not long ago. And it was not pretty. Prices, inflation, all of these things that hurt people, that hurt families, that hurt kids just starting out trying to buy a home, they're definitely not going to happen if you elect Democrats.

Reagan Faulkner
Absolutely. Now, this is a personal question that I'm really interested in. I feel like there are different strategies between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party in terms of trying to get out the vote.

Trump was really cool in 2024. We saw him going on Joe Rogan and going on Theo Vaughn and serving French fries and driving the garbage truck. And it made him very relatable.

On the Democratic side, we saw this move to make Kamala Harris cool. And I think it was Cardi B that she had performing at one of her rallies and stuff. To me, it was really weird.

And honestly, it was really trashy trying to make her cool. And I know Roy Cooper was somewhere in Wilmington yesterday meeting with a bunch of UNCW students. And the president of our student body was actually holding a sign that said RoyCooper.com.

And I kind of see something similar with Roy Cooper where they want to make him like the hip, cool guy that's hanging out with college students and stuff. And it's really off-putting to me. I think it's super weird.

But personally, in your opinion and strategic analysis of media and communications, do you believe that the Democrats are doing anything better or like fundamentally different than the Republicans?

Matt Mercer
I think what you're seeing is they're still doubling down on this strategy where they're trying to buy the coolness for people. I think that's what you really saw with Kamala Harris. And she had a good run for a couple of weeks, like maybe call it a month where it was like the new cool thing.

And she's, you know, was completely divorced from everything that she was doing for four years under Joe Biden. It was like there was a real cognitive dissonance there for people to understand. But what made President Trump real was that it was authentic.

Like at his heart, he's still kind of that guy from New York City. Like it's just very rough and tumble to an extent. And so I think the authenticity, being able to play into it and be yourself.

And that's kind of the advice that when candidates come, like let people know if you're, you know, a nerd, if you're a sports fan, if you like enjoy these things, because I think it gives a better picture of why you believe what you believe and who you're going. And that matters about who you're going to vote for, because there's so much information that comes out, you know, everyone watching this is going to get sick of the TV ads that are going to be on it. Hear about hundreds of millions of dollars spent and all these things when they're going to get more about, you know, watching a different video or watching something short form or something that they see about that this candidate did.

That was that was cool. And so being able to be authentic about who you are, why you're running, why you believe what you believe and what you're going to do is going to be the deciding factor for a lot of people. And so I think we have to continue embracing that the way President Trump did in 2024.

Reagan Faulkner
Absolutely. Absolutely. North Carolina is deeply, deeply purple.

Wow. North Carolina is deeply purple. How do you think this will affect candidates campaigns?

And what does midterm success look like with our really unique and specific demographics here?

Matt Mercer
Yeah, I think success for us is continuing to build on the turnout machine that Republicans have, where we turned out more Republicans than Democrats, where we win the unaffiliated voters. We won early voting for the first time ever in 2024. And so being able to build on that and have those people come and vote where we can win the seat in the first district with Lori Buckout, where we send Michael Whatley to the U.S. Senate, where we get these strong majorities, if not super majorities, back in the General Assembly to make Josh Stein just a figurehead. I think what we want to do is win these races. And I'm not going to leave this one out beating Anita Earls for the state Supreme Court race She was endorsed by Eric Holder today, Barack Obama's wingman as Attorney General, and she's proud of that. And so these are the true stakes of what's happening, and we're going to communicate that and prosecute that case every day till the midterm.

Reagan Faulkner
Absolutely. Now, touched on Cooper a couple of times, touched on Whatley. Obviously, we have a super intense senatorial race coming up.

How do you view candidate Whatley's race and how does the NCGOP and other conservative PACs, how are they prepared to A, defeat Roy Cooper, and B, kind of partner political action committee, NCGOP, local grassroots all come together to really like carry Whatley over the finish line, make sure that he does defeat Roy Cooper? Because, I mean, it's going to be two good candidates. I mean, I don't like Roy Cooper.

I don't think he's a good candidate, but I think that for the Democrats, he's a very strongly supportive candidate.

Matt Mercer
Yeah, I mean, you're talking about a guy in Roy Cooper who has been an elective offense, not just since you were born, since I was born 40 years ago. You're talking about Roy Cooper, someone who has been on the wrong side of every major issue in this state, but because he talks with an accent, people think he's a moderate and that's really all it is. And so we have to be able to tell that to people effectively.

And I think what Mr. Whatley has done, he's someone that I truly respect, he's going to work hard at it. He's going to go everywhere and prosecute that case because what we have to have is people to understand there is a choice. You can choose Roy Cooper, siding with Chuck Schumer, with AOC, with Gavin Newsom, or you can choose Michael Whatley, support President Trump, support J.D. Vance, support Republicans and Republican values. And that is the fundamental thing that we have to get to for people to understand. And I think if we do that, I think Michael Whatley wins.

Reagan Faulkner
Absolutely. I heard it really interesting. Someone was speaking at the New Haven County GOP, like really honing in on what Roy Cooper did during COVID.

I think it's going to be important. I was a high school student during COVID and I have nothing but, you know, nothing good to say about Roy Cooper at all. He ruined my high school experience.

He literally led to my family moving out of Raleigh to an entirely different location in North Carolina. Like because of him, my entire life changed. My entire high school experience wasn't normal.

So I think like really honing in on that for parents and for this group of Americans that were in high school in North Carolina when he was governor and reminding them of that. Like this is the guy that took all your freedoms. This is the guy that ruined your high school experience.

This is the guy that made it impossible for you to actually learn for two years. Like, do you really want to put that, reward it and give it a higher elected position? Because I know I don't.

Matt Mercer
And I think for me, so I was at North State Journal during this time. And I had to cover all of these briefings every single day with Roy Cooper. And what Roy Cooper did was he didn't like being challenged on any of this.

And so after a couple of these briefings, he went to a system where they could pick and choose the reporters they called on. We were left out for 13 months at North State Journal. We were not able to publicly ask a single question.

You can send an email. Who knows if anybody's going to read it or not. I actually did the research on this.

They picked a Democratic fundraising vendor for the program that they used for people to dial in for these briefings every single day. And I actually wrote about this last month about who the real Roy Cooper is. He's someone who's a power hungry tyrant who took freedoms away, who made it harder for North Carolina families, who made it harder for students, who made it harder for business owners.

That's still ongoing litigation, by the way, the bar owners who have sued him for killing their businesses.

Reagan Faulkner
As it should be, though.

Matt Mercer
So you have a lot of record to pick through. And I think if there's one thing that's frustrating is when you're attacking Roy Cooper or trying to point out something for his record, there's so much there that people don't necessarily see that because they'll say, well, what about this? And what about this?

I was like, yes, but I'm trying to talk about this. And there's so much there with Roy Cooper that it's almost too much volume for something to really get through. And so I would tell people, please understand Roy Cooper is not who you think he is.

Reagan Faulkner
Absolutely. Now, this is predicted to be the most expensive race in North Carolina state history for two candidates running. How do you think this is going to impact future races?

Do you think we're going to continue to see races get more and more competitive and more and more expensive like this one? Or do you think this is kind of an outlier and anomaly?

Matt Mercer
I think the North Carolina is traditionally if you go back to the Helms Hunt race in 1984, you should Google that one. It's pretty cool. North Carolina is always expensive because our state's always close.

And so Roy Cooper brings sort of the Democratic national money to the race where Republicans have built a good machine turnout and being able to elect Republicans, which we've done since 2014, sending Republicans time and again to the U.S. Senate. So it's going to be tough and it could be the most expensive ever until the next one.

Reagan Faulkner
OK, good answer. I know you're passionate about small businesses, economic growth. Do you believe there are growth opportunities in the political industry for businesses?

And what businesses or opportunities do you believe are on the horizon for growth and that young Americans can kind of help lead this industry?

Matt Mercer
That's a really good question. I think for me, it's understanding that nothing stays static where the political industry has changed so much. And that's since I've seen it.

I've been around where you have the rise of what, I guess, influencers. That is something that didn't exist 10 years ago. That is a completely new industry that's come in.

And I think you have the opportunities that come with that. People understand it and pick it up right away. And I think that's only going to accelerate as more tools like AI comes in and dominates the landscape.

You know, does it continue on that trajectory or is there going to be an effort to kind of beat it back a little bit? And so being able to see those trends that are coming and starting something new and not being afraid to fail. I think that's the number one thing that I appreciate about small businesses is sometimes they do fail and you learn a lot from failure more than if you win.

And so being able to see people try that and not being afraid of putting yourself out there. I think that's the biggest thing.

Reagan Faulkner
Do you think AI has a place in politics? Do you think we're going to see it kind of doing any type of critical analyses of data or kind of, I don't want to say likability, but like rating talking points and rating information, something that strategists and campaign leaders and candidates themselves can use for strategy?

Matt Mercer
Yeah, I think you have to understand what it is and use it for that purpose. Like it can't do everything for you. It's a tool.

And so being able to use a tool in the right way gets you a lot further than if you're trying to have it do everything. I remember the story in the Wall Street Journal I saw a couple months ago about they tried to let AI run a vending machine and ended up like running, going completely out of business. So you can't like, you can't let it be your brain.

And so I think you still have to do the research. You have to be able to think about things and understand things and understanding that I think will be the biggest key with AI over the next couple of years.

Reagan Faulkner
Absolutely. I love the vending machine story. I think I saw a YouTube video or something about it and it was so interesting how it like, it did really well at first and then if I remember the story correct, it like started to do private ventures and it wanted to sell other stuff and they told it it couldn't and then it like got depressed or something.

It was like, it was crazy if we're thinking of the same one and they just had to shut it off because it just went wild. And it's like, as interesting as AI is, I love how you touched on the fact that it's a tool. It can't, you obviously can't replace your campaign manager with AI and say, okay, run all these stats and do all these things because there's an emotional component to campaigns that AI isn't capable of.

And hopefully AI never will be capable of that emotional component.

Matt Mercer
I've seen Terminator. It doesn't end well.

Reagan Faulkner
No, it doesn't. Well, one last question. What is one final piece of advice that you would want to give to listeners or young conservatives that want to be leaders in this conservative movement?

Matt Mercer
Yeah, I think for me, it's take the opportunities when they come to you. Get involved on a campaign because you learn so much working on a campaign, putting in the hours in that grind and not being afraid to ask the questions of people above you. I try to do as much of this as I can because I'm not going to be here forever.

Like, I'm not going to be able to do this. There's got to be good people that come behind me with newer ideas who can do a better job than me. That's ultimately what I want to see.

Like, put me out of business where I need to do something else because I'll know the movement has succeeded if that happens.

Reagan Faulkner
Well, thank you so much for coming on today. I really appreciate it. This is a great talk.