BUCK: We are joined now by Republican Alabama Senate candidate Katie Britt. If elected, she’d be the youngest Republican woman ever in the U.S. Senate. Age 40, she’d also be the first woman ever elected to the Senate from Alabama, the only current Republican woman in the Senate — if she wins — with school-age children. Katie, thanks for calling in. Great to have you on.

BRITT: Hey, I really appreciate it. Glad to be here.

BUCK: So, you’re saying that 2022 could shape up to be the Year of the Parent, as you are doing very well in your race in Alabama for the Senate? What do you mean by Year of the Parent? Break it down for us.

BRITT: Yeah, absolutely. So when you look across the nation, we have parents getting off the sidelines. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about a school board election or all the way to the United States Senate, because we see the country that our children are growing up in and we know the country that we grew up in. And honestly, while it’s not too far apart, it right now seems worlds and worlds away. And we believe if our generation i\of parents don’t step up and fight for our children, then we don’t know what’s going to be left for our kids to fight for. And we are seeing this on every single front. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about the border. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about crime within our communities. If you’re talking about education, we see the real effects on the day-to-day lives of our children and parents are saying enough is enough.

CLAY: Katie, I think you’re hitting the nail on the head here because you have kids around the same age that I’ve got — ninth grade, sixth grade, second grade. I believe you have seventh and eighth grade. That’s what I have seen since last year, Katie, with the parents at school boards. And I was one of them. And the energy that is out there, is moms in particular, but also dads are still super fired up over the covid regulations, over the masking of the kids over there, requirements in some places to get the covid shot. How much are you seeing that in Alabama and how much do you think it’s translating all over the nation as we get ready two weeks from today for what we believe is going to be a Red Wave election?

BRITT: Absolutely. It is going to be a Red Wave election and it is because of what you just said. I mean, during the pandemic, we saw Democrats advocate to keep our children locked out of the classroom. We, as parents, knew what that was doing to our kids, not only the educational loss that they would have. And we’ve seen that. Right? You look at the NAEP scores across the nation and everyone is digging into those as we speak. And, on average, we are down five points in reading and we’re down eight points in math.

ICYMI: parents are fighting back.

Join us at https://t.co/KrBqTISfMt to preserve faith, family, freedom, and the American Dream for our children and our children’s children. #alsen pic.twitter.com/YFEo1p5pgY

— Katie Britt for AL (@KatieBrittforAL) October 19, 2022

I mean, this is the lowest and the greatest drop that we have seen since the NAEP scores came about in the early nineties. And parents know that matters because if you look at even like a third grader, if a third grader is not reading on grade level by third grade, their chance of graduating high school goes down four times. And then if they’re not graduating from high school, their chance of being arrested in their lifetime goes up five times. And so we know when we are looking for to create pathways to success, when we are looking, we know education is the pathway out of poverty, that these children who are locked out of the classroom, we’ve done a great disservice and we’re going to see the effects of it for years and years to come.

But in addition to obviously the educational component, obviously the mental health component, keeping these kids locked away. You mentioned the masking. It’s absolutely ridiculous. You know, we had toddlers that the CDC and others wanted to be masked. I mean, these were people who were looking to learn to speak or watching people’s mouths, you know, that they need in that environment, they need to be able to see people and communicate. And we saw all of that put to the back side for some type of liberal ideology, guys. And it’s just it’s absolutely disgusting to watch it continue to pile on. And as parents, we’ve had to go, you know, I have said I am a mama on a mission and making sure that my children have opportunity, that other people’s children are having opportunity is of paramount importance.

And then in addition to all of these things, the one thing that we saw during covid that we’re glad we got a window into was when our children were actually being taught. And we realized instead of creating a foundation of fundamentals of math and reading and history, we had people that were working to indoctrinate our children that the government thought they knew what was best and working to induct our children with with woke ideology. And, you know, we have to make sure that our children are taught to love this nation, to stand for the flag and not be part of a liberal agenda and be pulled right and left, you know, all the way down, all the way down the road.

BUCK: Katie Britt is with us now. She’s running for Senate in Alabama. Katie, did you see the Joe Biden response to the transgender TikTok activist? We were speaking about kids and parents and parents rights. Joe Biden, the president, United States supposed to be a moderate, straight-talking guy with some old-school values, even if he’s a big government advocate or whatever. You know, however, they sold him a uniter, all this stuff, you know, straight talking Joe. He says, you know, it’s immoral and there should be no legal grounds either to prevent gender transition surgery for minors, for children. What was your reaction?

BRITT: To continue to watch Joe Biden, he has been a complete and total disaster. He has lost his way and this example is chief among them. If you look at this nation, we know that parents know best. We know that children, as they grow and as they learn, you know, we create barriers to make sure that we help them make responsible decisions. I mean, that’s why when you look, we don’t allow children to drive until they’re 16. You know, we don’t allow them to vote until they’re 18. We don’t allow them to drink a beer until they’re 21. And in many states, they can’t even rent a car until they’re 25.

We know that parents know best. These conversations and decisions need to be pushed into the home and not into the classroom. And the government absolutely has no space at all to mutilate children at 12, 14 years old in a way that they can never, ever turn back. It’s disgusting. And we have to make sure that we protect children versus do what Joe Biden is doing and thinking that, you know, we create open season for these decisions that honestly can never, ever be turned back.

CLAY: Katie, we’re not an identity politics show. We want to welcome everybody. With that in mind, you’re 40 years old and about to become a United States senator. You’re a woman. You’re a mom. That’s a different perspective than exists very frequently in our political realm. But also, you’re representative, I think, of a vanguard of a lot of women and diverse voices who are running for the Republican Party in this midterm election. Why do you think so many people of so many diverse backgrounds are suddenly recognizing that they agree with Republican policies and arguments? Why is this the broadest coalition that the Republicans have ever brought to bear in terms of candidates ever? Why do you think that’s happening?

BRITT: I think because people realize we are the party of parents. You know, we are the party of hard-working Americans. We look at our values, this party values faith, family, freedom and opportunity. And for the very first time ever, we are seeing that we may leave our children with less freedom and less opportunity than we have. And make no mistake, when the government takes one of your freedoms, they’re never giving it back. And so standing up and saying, enough is enough.

You know, we look at the real life effects of this. So, Joe Biden pretends that our economy is strong and inflation is not real. Let me tell you, it is real. Parents across this nation are having to step up and say, “Okay, hold on. How are we going to make ends meet?” I mean, in total, we are spending or having to spend about $8,000 more a year under Joe Biden’s presidency than we were before. The average family cannot make ends meet. And you’re having to then teach your children and tell them, “Hey, we can no longer do this. We’ve got to do this. Wait a second about this?” And we haven’t even hit the heating, what’s coming down this winter?

You know, we look at the border and the effects of letting people flow over the border with no repercussions. Not sealing and securing our border is not only making our communities less safe, but it’s making our schools less safe. When we looked at our state, so about 90% of our high schools now have Narcan on on campus because the amount of fentanyl that is coming over is tremendous. We’ve had to use that Narcan about 15 times already this school year. So when people say, “Oh, don’t worry about that, it’s the border.” Under Joe Biden’s presidency, every single state has become a border state. And we’re seeing that.

And we are we’re saying we’ve got to put Americans first. We’ve got to make sure that we’re creating policies that allows them to be safe in their communities and allows them to thrive. And and we look at things like energy independence and it doesn’t make sense. What Joe Biden is doing seems to be he is more concerned with appeasing the far left and making them feel better than actually making Americans be better. And we know not only to drive down costs in this country, we’ve got to be energy independent, but energy dominant, but also for national security purposes. I mean, what we’re allowing to happen and the way that Joe Biden is handling this is a complete disaster. And we know ultimately it puts our children at home. We believe in this nation. We want to save this nation for the next generation. And so people are realizing that people are stepping up. And I think that this diverse coalition that you are seeing is only going to continue to grow.

CLAY: Katie, your husband, is a former Alabama Crimson Tide star. He played football for the New England Patriots as well. We have Tommy Tuberville a lot on the show. I also had Buck go down and watch the Ole Miss Alabama game. He was also at the Texas-Alabama game down in Austin. This is kind of a big deal for your family to be able to get an Alabama Crimson Tide person in there to balance out Tommy Tuberville’s Auburn War Eagles bonafides.

BRITT: Oh, I love it, Clay. So, you you will enjoy that’s the very first week that I got in the race. I had somebody walk up to me and say, “Hey, I am so glad we are finally going to have both political parties represented in the United States Senate.” And I said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I said, Coach Tuberville is a solid conservative.” And I start going through, “I think he has done some really great things already,” and start kind of laying into those.

And they said, “Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I didn’t mean that. And, you know, we’ll have an Auburn football coach and we’ll have the wife of an Alabama Crimson Tide star.” And he said, “All things are right with the world.” So, you know, we obviously take our football, particularly SEC football very seriously in Alabama. And I thought that was probably a really good window into how a lot of people think.

CLAY: Perfect. Katie, congrats in advance and we’ll look forward to talking to you down the line when you’re representing Alabama in the Senate.

BRITT: Guys, I thank you and I appreciate the opportunity.