Steve Cortes, founder and president of the League of American Workers (LAW), joined the Grand Canyon Times Podcast to discuss the results of a new poll of Arizona voters.
Among other findings, the poll results show:
- Former President Donald Trump ( R) leads President Biden (D) by four points among Arizona voters in the 2024 race for the White House
- 72% of Arizona voters think the federal government is weak at securing the U.S. borders
- 56% of Arizona voters think President Joe Biden’s border policies are to blame for crimes like an illegal alien’s February 22 murder of University of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley
Cortes is a political advisor and commentator. He previously traded global currencies and interest rates for 25 years for large international hedge funds. He has been an on-air broadcaster for CNBC, Fox News, and CNN. He founded LAW in 2022 to conduct research and develops proposals on public policies impacting American workers and the economy.
Full, unedited transcript of this episode:
Leyla Gulen [00:00:02] Welcome to the Grand Canyon Times podcast. I'm your host, Leyla Gulen, and in this episode, we want to welcome back our guest, Steve Cortez. Steve is the founder and president of the American League of Workers. He is also a former senior advisor to President Donald Trump's 2016 and 2020 campaigns, and recent poll showing that his former boss leads in battleground states like Arizona. As Americans are growing more frustrated over the economy, border insecurity and a whole lot more. Steve, welcome back.
Steve Cortes [00:00:34] Leila. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.
Leyla Gulen [00:00:37] All right. So let's start with this. Arizona has 11 electoral votes up for grabs now. President Biden narrowly secured his victory there in 2020. But Trump easily won that primary last month in March. So how different do you see things playing out in 2024 with Arizona as a perceived battleground state?
Steve Cortes [00:00:56] Well, listen, I think Arizona will in all likelihood, I'm willing to make this projection. I think it will probably decide the presidency. Whoever wins Arizona, in all likelihood is going to win the Electoral College vote. That's just how important it is, how tight the races have been there. Of course, Donald Trump triumph there in the general election by a narrow margin in 2016, lost by a very narrow margin in 2020. And right now is leading. I wouldn't call it narrow, at least in your in our poll he's up by 4%. Now nobody should be complacent. Who's trying to work for Trump's election by 4% lead. But it's at least outside of the margin of error and is consistent, by the way, with what we're seeing in most of the battleground states right now. Again, I don't want anybody to get complacent who is trying to work on his behalf, but he does have consistent leads across the battleground states. And, you know, regarding Arizona specifically, I think there are two things going on there that argue in President Trump's favor and I think explain why he is leading, albeit in star tight race, but why he's leaning right now. The first is inflation, which is a problem nationwide, but it's more acute. It's more intense in Arizona, particularly as it relates to housing. An average house in the Phenix metro area, for example, just crossed $600,000 for the first time. That's an average home. Most folks in the Phenix area do not have an income that can afford a $600,000 home, so inflation is the first factor, and they're both eyes. The second is immigration. Immigration is a problem again, nationwide. We know that unfortunately, all of America is suffering the consequences, the dire consequences of Biden's open border. But Arizona, of course, is literally at the front lines of that crisis, of that created crisis from Joe Biden and so on. Both of these issues, immigration and inflation. I think Biden's in trouble nationwide, but he's particularly vulnerable in a state like Arizona. And our polling shows why in in tremendous detail. And so I think you're going to see both candidates, Biden and Trump spend a lot of time, a lot of resources in the state of Arizona. I'm sure they could do all I can from my perch and through my organization to persuade people that the America First vision is what we need for the state of Arizona and for the country.
Leyla Gulen [00:03:01] Yeah. And I want to extrapolate that 4% in just a moment. But we also saw Biden campaigning there where he launched Latinos Con Biden, Harris, which is Spanish for Latinos with Biden, Harris. But we've already seen polls showing that Hispanic voters support Trump over Biden, 46 to 40%, respectively. So why do you think Hispanics are unhappy with Biden?
Steve Cortes [00:03:23] Yeah, this is an issue, Leila, that is very near and dear to me. It's something that I was part of my portfolio, essentially during the 2020 campaign, was directing Hispanic outreach for Donald Trump. We did extremely well, by the way, in that regard. We did well in 2016, did quite a bit better in 2020, and I'm hoping to continue that trend in 2024. In 2020, according to the Pew Validated Voter survey, which I really think is the best way to capture because exit polling is not that accurate. So but that Pew survey, I think, does a very good job. We got 38% nationally of the Hispanic vote. That was a significant improvement over 2016. And we are in the 20s. And I think we're going to get into the 40s, if not majority this time around. And certainly the polling, as you indicated, is showing us that. And I think it's a consequence really. There's two aspects to this. One is that the Democrat Party of the 2020s has become so radicalized that Hispanics who were traditionally Democrat voters, had been made effectively political orphans by this new, very radical and in some cases even Marxist Democratic Party. This is not the Democratic Party of your parents and Grandparents Day, where they represented traditionally minded working class constituencies. If you're a person of faith, if you're a person who believes there are two sexes, if you're a person who believes in the sovereignty of the United States, that we have a right to maintain, a border, you're no longer welcome in the Democratic Party. So I think that's part of it is that the Democratic Party has effectively left, a giant swath, a majority of Latinos. But then the second aspect is the more positive side of it, which is that Latinos are really rallying to the America First vision, and particularly when it comes to the economy. Small business, for example, thrived under President Trump. Small businesses. Is suffering very greatly right now. Small business has a tougher time grappling with inflation than do large firms have economies of scale, and they can handle inflation in ways that small firms cannot. I'll just give you one quick example. Generally, the producers of resources take oil, for example, are giant corporations and multinationals. The consumers of resources for the most part are small business. So Hispanic, an Arizona entrepreneur who owns a landscaping company, has just expanded to, say, ten new trucks out there on the roads. Making those increased fuel costs are an incredible burden upon an entrepreneur like that. Hispanics. The reason I bring this up, particular Hispanics, is that statistically, Hispanics are by far the most entrepreneurial demographic in America, and I'm very proud of that. We Hispanics love to start businesses, but the small business environment under Biden has been incredibly onerous. It's been dire, quite frankly, the opposite under President Trump. So I also think a lot of Hispanics are rallying to that economic vision of Trump and Border Patrol. One interesting thing, and I'm going to be going out there shortly to film some documentaries on the border in Arizona. When you start talking to folks who live on the border, who are overwhelmingly Hispanic citizens of the United States, they are stronger on border issues than any other Americans because they live at their front door with the consequences. They also, by the way, comprise the majority of Customs and Border Patrol. That's the most Hispanic agency of the entire U.S. federal government. When you go to the border areas, everyone knows someone has a relative or a friend or a neighbor who literally works for Customs and Border Protection. And this is an agency of battle embrace of Hispanics generally and brave black Latina women, they know all too well the the consequences of a lawless border is created by Joe Biden. So I really think Hispanics nationwide are going to be the story of the transformational story of this election, but particularly so in Arizona.
Leyla Gulen [00:06:51] But it sounds like the left is always trying to change the narrative of the border insecurity issue, because this is not a Hispanic issue when we're talking about the border, because we're seeing nationals from all over the globe pouring in. So these are not just people who are coming in who are native to Mexico or South America. They're coming from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Middle East, I mean, you name it, they're coming in from absolutely everywhere.
Steve Cortes [00:07:23] This is such an important point that I'm glad you brought it up. And the Chinese nationals, for example, are crossing literally by the thousands. And this isn't conspiracy theory. Isn't Steve Cortez making it up? You can look at the actual data because of what Biden is doing, the bull rush at the border. While it is lawless, we actually have reasonable tracking numbers of who is crossing. So they're being, you know, effectively checked in, but then just allowed to cross illegally into the United States unvetted and uninvited. But we do at least know basically where they're from. And I say basically because of course we don't really know what the other day, but we have an idea where they're from, and they tell us and we know based on their foreign language that they don't speak English. So anyway, thousands upon thousands of Chinese nationals are crossing the southern border. Now, anybody who realizes, just how antagonistic the communist the Chinese Communist Party is and the Beijing regime is to the United States, has to be worried about the long term consequences of this, because given the CCP stance toward the United States and given the ill intent that the Chinese government clearly has against the American people, it's almost impossible to think that they are not sending agents into the United States or they're not sending intelligence agents, potentially very dangerous people, potentially terrorism only. It's not just potentially regarding terrorists. We know for a fact, again, regarding Arizona and I've written articles about this. We know for a fact that an Islamist terrorist, one of the most wanted man in Africa from Senegal, in West Africa, a place that is a hotbed of Islamist terror. He crossed into the United States at the Louisville, Arizona border crossing. Not only was he allowed to enter the United States, he was given a free ride. Well, free to him and not free to the American taxpayers. A free ride on the American taxpayers to New York City. Now, thankfully, Ice was later alerted to his presence in the United States, this incredibly dangerous international terrorist. He was arrested in New York City before he could do something terrible to the United States. But who knows what he was planning in New York City. And he was allowed again, wanted known international Islamist terrorists allowed to saunter into the U.S. at Louisville, Arizona. So I worry not just about the known consequences of this border disaster, but what are the unknown future consequences. And I think the tragic reality is there's sure to be very unpleasant in the future.
Leyla Gulen [00:09:42] Yeah, it's really scary to think what could happen. We've changed the way we live our lives because of September 11th, and with the Department of Homeland Security now we have a different way that we travel in and out of the country, throughout the country because of what had happened. But now, if you're letting people in over the border and they. Are going to be embedded within us, within our society. God only knows what could potentially happen if these people are not arrested and sent back to where they came from. But going back to that narrative and this cry of racism, do you think that people are buying that, or do you think that the general American voter understands that this is not a racist message of, we need to close our borders, we need to have better border security?
Steve Cortes [00:10:35] The American people are not buying that, thankfully, and nor should they. Of course, protecting the United States does not mean protecting white Americans. It means protecting all Americans. And the metaphor that I use is that, look, we don't lock our doors to our home at night because we hate those on the outside. It's because we love those on the inside, and we want to protect them. So we don't hate Latin Americans. We don't hate anybody outside the United States. But we are going to prioritize our own family, our American citizens, and we are going to lock our door to protect America, because we know that there are dangerous people outside that door of every color and every nationality. And we also know that we have a right to determine how many immigrants come to the United States and what kind of filters we use for legal immigration to the United States. There's nothing racist about that. There's nothing xenophobic about it. It's not just my view. That's the view of the voters in these battleground states, including Arizona. So this poll that we just conducted in this was 600 likely voters in the state of Arizona. Those sampling was evenly split between Trump 2020 voters and Biden 2020 Bowers so we got a very representative sample of the state, which, of course, was decided by only 10,000 votes in 2020. And of these voters, we asked their approval or disapproval of the federal government's handling of the border management job performance. 72% disapprove. So a massive super majority in an America that's as polarized as we are now, you rarely get those kinds of numbers. And by the way, among Hispanics in Arizona, the number was almost identical. Only 36% of Hispanics in Arizona approve of the federal government's management of the border. So you have super majorities of Americans overall of Arizonans, overall, super majorities of Hispanics who clearly don't believe the border and border enforcement is anything racist, is anything xenophobic. In fact, as I said, quite the opposite when it comes to issues of law and order of anything. For the most part we poll on issues of street safety, support for police, those kinds of things. Hispanics actually pull a little tougher on law, issues of law enforcement than do other Americans. So we should totally push back and resist that ridiculous media narrative that there's something racist about protecting America's borders.
Leyla Gulen [00:12:46] Yeah, I really I marvel at what I call the bubble dwellers who bow at the altar of Joe Biden and his policies that we should just live and let live along the Texas, Arizona, California borders, Florida border, frankly, with Haitian immigrants coming in and so forth, until they land in places like Martha's Vineyard, right? Until they land in places like Manhattan. But it doesn't seem that it changes those people's perceptions and how they vote. Right? Why is that.
Steve Cortes [00:13:21] Lila? Listen, there's a certain percentage of folks out there who are just on persuadable, right? They have bought into a globalist worldview where they truly believe that their that country borders are short of inconveniences more than any but then anything else. And so there's a certain percentage of minds that simply aren't going to be changed. And we just have to to recognize that. However, a super majority of Americans again, do believe in borders, do believe in nations and believe and certainly in street safety. And to your point to this is is key. The problem is most acute, of course, in places like Arizona and Texas, but it's become a nationwide problem. And a I'll give you a terrible, tragic example of that. In addition to the Lincoln Riley tragedy, of course, at the University of Georgia, Georgia's not a border state very far from the southern border, but we.
Leyla Gulen [00:14:06] Are all border states now, right?
Steve Cortes [00:14:07] No. Exactly. So the horrific murder of Lincoln Riley, I think, woke a lot of folks up. That was a 100% preventable crime if we cared to enforce our borders. Her killer, would not have been Jose Antonio Obama would not have been in the United States, not just because he crossed illegally. That's bad enough that he was allowed and in fact invited to cross illegally, but then arrested twice in the United States, reached in New York City, for endangering a child and then arrested in Athens, Georgia, where he killed Lincoln. Riley arrested their fourth shop. Despite those two additional arrests, two additional crimes after crossing the border illegally, he was never deported. Now, both New York, City and Athens. Unfortunately, that's a very liberal town college town in a red state of Georgia, or mostly red state. Those two places claim to be so-called sanctuary cities. They don't cooperate with federal law enforcement. So instead of being turned over to Ice for deportation. He remained in the United States, where he then viciously murdered Lincoln Riley in the middle of broad daylight on a seemingly safe campus of the University of Georgia. But that's not the only example. We have another horrible, similar example in the state of Michigan. You can't get much further from the southern border than the state of Michigan. Ruby Garcia was murdered, viciously murdered by a man who was deported under President Trump, properly removed from the United States because he didn't belong here and he committed crimes in addition to crossing the border. Deported under President Trump, reentered across Biden's open border and just killed Ruby Garcia in Michigan. You know, the unfortunate thing is I could go on and on with examples of serious violent crimes that were totally preventable if we cared to enforce our border. And look, it's going to be the onus, though, is on the American people. Have we had enough? Are we ready in battleground Arizona? Are we ready to stand up and say, stop, we're not going to put up with this. We want to return to Trump's border security, and the polling indicates we're headed that way. But I encourage everyone out there who cares about this issue as much as I do. Don't take your foot off the gas. We we need to continue to press all the way through November. It's going to be a tough fight. Undoubtedly. It's going to be a close race. I think we're going to prevail, but take nothing for granted, particularly if we want to prevent these kinds of tragedies from continuing to happen in America.
Leyla Gulen [00:16:18] Yeah. When is enough? And, Steve, I want to ask you this. People are saying that by leaving the borders so historically porous, the left is essentially importing votes. A lot of laws in a lot of states that would have to change in order for that to be true. But do you think that these are building blocks to eventually allow undocumented people to cast ballots.
Steve Cortes [00:16:41] Oh, absolutely.
Leyla Gulen [00:16:41] Some of our most critical elections. Yeah.
Steve Cortes [00:16:44] I think absolutely. What. But and by the way, for that matter, right now we already know. Okay. And again, this isn't conspiracy theory. Anyone can look this up. In Arizona, for example, illegal migrants are already allowed to vote in local and state elections, not federal elections. But the point is, it's incredibly difficult then to discern. Okay, is this a legal voter for only the state ballot, but not for the federal ballot? I don't think any reasonable person believes that there's not going to be a blurring of those lines already. But to your point, it can get massively worse. And really, here's how they don't even really have to change the state laws. That absolutely could happen. But Joe Biden, if he were to win reelection, I believe, will grant amnesty. And that's a very real danger, that there will be amnesty for millions and millions of illegal migrants in the United States. And once they're granted amnesty, they will actually be legal voters. So you don't even need to change state laws at that point. And at that, point to I really believe and this is why every election, every politician, every operative tries to say, most important, never. I think it's actually true this time, because if Biden does what I just described, if he does mass amnesty for these illegals that he invited into the United States, they will be so appreciative to him that at least in the near term, they are sure to be, I believe, Democrat biased voters. And I'm not sure we can ever country backwards electorally, I really don't. So I mean, I truly think that this is an election to save the country because if we were to lose this election, I think the consequences aren't just for the next four years. They could be for the next 40 years.
Leyla Gulen [00:18:16] Now, when you talk about amnesty, mass amnesty, is this something that he could hold the trigger on before November, or is this something that would take a long time, at least in the next four years, should he get reelected?
Steve Cortes [00:18:30] Yeah. Great question. We the the the honest answer is we don't really know. Now he's talking about doing taking some action in this regard re November. And for example there's a lot right now we don't know officially yet. But there's a lot of reporting out of the traditional sort of legacy media platforms who are pretty wired in with the white House and where they normally sort of purposely leak information out that he's going to at least, for example, say everyone's protected from deportation. So no matter what, no matter how illegal you are or how many illegal acts you've committed since you've been here, there will be no deportations. And apparently that is in the offing with the Biden White House. But to your question of how much can he do unilaterally? The president does have enormous power when it comes to the border. So by statute, I mean, he's really almost a king when it comes to the ball. For example, the president can unilaterally fully close the U.S. border. A lot of folks don't realize this. I mean, that is on the books. Now, granted, Donald Trump, yeah, was constantly met, with courts trying to interfere with his border powers. But the reality is, if you actually read the border statutes, you know, again, the president has almost king like power regarding the border. So I have no doubt that Biden would know, number one, of course, the margin in the you know, right now, the Democrats hold the Senate, I think they'll probably lose it. But right now they hold the Senate, the GOP, the Republican margin of the House is absolutely razor thin right now and getting thinner by the day as Republicans leave office. So it's not at all inconceivable that they could have both houses of Congress, or at least flip the House to Democratic control. If Biden were to win the presidency, he may well have a. Very friendly Capitol Hill to to institute the kind of mass amnesty I'm talking about and not have to do it like not have to do it in a more sort of controversial way, but do it in a more sort of regular, orderly way. So I think I hope Americans just are aware and I listen, I'm not trying to scare people. I'm not trying to fear minder, but I want to also make sure that there's an alertness and an urgency out there, that this is absolutely at stake, that your country's at stake. The border has already been vaporized for four years. Another four years will bring even more, will. And when in fact, an even more accelerated level of danger to the United States, to your economic well-being, to street safety, to national security regarding terror, the Chinese Communist Party, all the rest. But in addition to that immediate danger, potentially four more years of Biden. Again, think of that long term danger of what can happen if amnesty is granted mass amnesty to these tens of millions who have been invited to coming to the United States and granting them citizenship, granting them the right to vote. So not only are they going to be competing against you in the labor market illegally depressing your wages, but in addition, given the full right to vote, treated just as same as legal immigrants into this country. And by the way, no one should be more offended than the legal immigrants, people like my father who did it the right way. Becoming illegal citizens United States is not easy. It can take years. It can be incredibly expensive. Yeah, it's a very arduous process. I think it should be, by the way. But it's an arduous process, not easy. And to the millions and millions of people who did it the right way, patriotic, naturalized, illegal American citizens, what an affront to them. This idea that now you just walk across the border at a time of your own choosing, and Biden is going to not just welcome you in, but eventually make you a citizen in the United States. That is madness. It's unjust, it's unsafe. And but here's the good news that's all the bad news. The good news is we can stop it. We can stop it. Yeah. We have.
Leyla Gulen [00:21:53] Yeah. This is a critical race. Yeah, yeah. This election is so incredibly critical. And you speak to a lot of people that can relate. As my father, he'd be turning in his grave right now if he saw what was happening, because he went about it the right way. He became an American citizen. And yeah, it was an arduous problem. So for this to become some free for all and you bring up something else talking about the Senate and the House of Representatives. So I don't want to go too far astray from your Paul is specific to Arizona. So I think that would be a conversation for another time, because now we're looking at another potential breakdown with the speaker of the House. It just seems like there's a lot of divided Republicans within the House, which you create cracks and people will take advantage of that. So I, I would love for us to have a conversation about that in the future, but let's just talk about the economy here for a moment. Now, you recently wrote that article for American greatness.com, where you outlined a poll by your organization which canvass the Arizona voters, and it shows that Trump leads by 4% on the economy. So what we were discussing at the beginning of this podcast is to extrapolate that number a little bit. So is that a good margin, and how would you go about increasing the spread in favor of Donald Trump.
Steve Cortes [00:23:12] You know listen. So we got some fascinating and I think very optimistic information when it comes to the economy and the election. Not optimistic about the economy. The opposite, but in terms of the election and the potential to change this bad economic trajectory for working class folks, working class Americans are really suffering right now. And I think, yeah, you won't see that reflected in corporate media, you know, for two, two reasons. One is a lot of folks in corporate media simply don't care about it. But I think, number two, a lot of them don't know. I mean, they truly don't because they live in bubbles of relative prosperity, because the high end is doing very well in the United States right now. And the polling reflects that, people with a lot of credentials, with advanced degrees, with high incomes are doing very well in Joe Biden's economy. But middle and lower income folks are absolutely struggling and struggling to just afford the necessities of life. Forget about the luxuries, struggling simply to pay for reasonable housing, for food and energy. And we saw that reflected in our poll of Arizona, for example. Leila, we asked Arizonans, are you were you better off during Trump or during Biden? Trump has an 18% surplus now. That's massive. In a razor close state like Arizona, where Trump overall leads by only 4%. On this critical question of your prosperity, are you better off 53 to 35 in favor of President Trump? And when we look sort of into the details of that, as I mentioned, it gets even more pronounced Trump's lead when we look at working class constituencies. So, for example, among white working class men, are you better off under Trump or Biden, 66 to 26, in favor of Trump? A 40% differential among white working class men in Arizona in favor of President Trump. Among Hispanics, who are overwhelmingly not all blue collar, of course, but are an overwhelmingly blue collar constituency nationwide and in. Arizona among Hispanics, up 8% on this question of were you better off? And I found this most fascinating all of all. Among women. And Joe Biden does lead in Arizona right now in our poll. Among women very narrowly he women. He takes the women's vote in Arizona. But he does lead. But on the question of the economy, Trump leads by eight. Among women just like Hispanics. That's very revealing. And I think the main reason for that is that women we know statistically women are primarily the the accountants. They are the CFOs of the household. They are the ones who do most of the shopping and pay most of the bills. So they are more aware in many cases than men about how much they're spending and about how expensive life has become to maintain a household in Arizona and anywhere in the United States. So I think fascinating and an opening and what we're certainly trying to do, those of us who are advocating for the America First agenda, when I encourage anybody working on behalf of President Trump to do, is to continue to focus on these bread and butter issues. And I'll give you a stat that I think is it's a nice round number. So it's easy for folks to remember. According to Biden's own U.S. Department of Agriculture, there's a for food stamps. There's a plan known as the Thrifty Plan. And that's where the USDA comes up with the cost of groceries for a family that's trying to be frugal, not spending extravagantly on food. But the thrifty plan for a month of groceries when Biden took office, according to his Department of Agriculture, that costs $675 a month for a family of four, it's now $975 a month, so it has gone up $300 a month per family per month. And again, that's for the thrifty plan. That's for being frugal in terms of purchasing groceries. That's over a 40% increase in just the price of food that is crushing to working class families. If you're a blue collar family with a couple of hungry kids at home, life has really gotten tough for you right now. And look, there's solutions, though I don't want to just curse the darkness. There are solutions around the corner, and one of them, I believe, is electing President Trump.
Leyla Gulen [00:27:00] Yeah, yeah. And let's also not forget the gas prices that will fluctuate 20 $0.30 and then come back down a little bit, then go back up again. And it's like every time you drive past a gas station, you just you get the sick feeling in the pit of your stomach because you see the numbers going up again. Yeah. When does this stop? So Phenix is experienced a 36th consecutive month of inflation above the standard 2% target. So when Biden whispers into the microphone and he says his right nomics is working, what do you say? In response, Steve.
Steve Cortes [00:27:36] Wright say, well, first of all, the person they're putting right regular Americans no better. And and you mentioned gasoline inflation. Let me put a statistics on that. So when Joe Biden took office, a barrel of crude oil was $46. It is $83 today. So it has almost doubled and has been consistently in the 70s and 80s. Unfortunately, he once he took office, he declared war on American energy, number one. Number two, he engaged in just absolutely exorbitant borrowing and spending, which forced all kinds of global capital into commodities. Why? Because it's a protection against inflation. So global investors quite smartly said in an inflationary era you want to old things like crude oil, like food stock grains, those sorts of things. So that's one aspect of Biden nomics absolutely failing. The second aspect I mentioned earlier the soaring cost of housing all over the country, but particularly in places like Arizona, according to Goldman Sachs, the premier Wall Street investment bank, not a Republican bank by any stretch, by the way. But according to Goldman Sachs, they have an index of housing affordability. So look at home prices and mortgage rates combined and then comes up with an index of housing affordability. Housing affordability has never been worse in the United States than it is right now. I mean, that is the reality between, the prices, the sticker price of homes appreciating significantly under Joe Biden, which is great if you already own your home, by the way, and this is part of what I'm talking about, the already successful, let's say you own your home. You either paid down a mortgage or you bought it in cash. Biden has actually been reasonably good for you economically, but that's a very small slice of America.
Leyla Gulen [00:29:12] Those unless you want to sell it. Well, unless you want to sell like this, who's going to buy it?
Steve Cortes [00:29:17] But for the buyers, for the aspirational buyer, for the young person, for the family that's having more children, life is a misery right now and housing is totally unaffordable. Again, not my opinion. That's according to Goldman Sachs index, which goes back decades, and it has never been less affordable right now. By the way, we pulled on that and we got an unbelievable answer. Again, in this polarized environment, it's hard to get answers on sort of controversial questions that are north of, say, 60%, because almost every topic in America these days breaks down 47, 47 and they were fighting over that middle 5% or so on most issues. But we asked Arizonans about housing affordability. 88% said quality affordable housing is out of reach. 80% of Arizonans said quality affordable housing is out of reach. That is a stunning number because for polling purposes, 88% might as well be 100. So it's basically unanimous. Unless you are already very successful, you are not buying the home you want. You're not renting the apartment you want in Arizona right now. That's the reality. That's the on the ground kitchen table tangible consequence of Biden nomics, by the way. Speaking of Biden as one interesting point, I actually posted this on my social media, if any folks are curious to look at the details, but there was actually a graph put out by Axios, which is a very left leaning platform. But I was glad and impressed that they put this out. The times Biden himself mentions the term Biden nomics because they were trying to embrace that term and actually pretended at least to be proud of it. And they use it a lot a few months back. And obviously they must be doing polling like I'm doing, and they must be finding out what we're finding out, which is that the dollar does not resonate. The opposite is true because they they literally put a chart up of the mentions of Biden nomics by Biden. And it is is falling off a cliff to the point where he almost never mentions the president.
Leyla Gulen [00:31:07] Really?
Steve Cortes [00:31:08] Yeah. So but you can be sure that I'm going to continue with it in our side. Better continue with it, because Biden Nomics to most Americans, Biden nomics means anxiety. It really does. Yeah. I mean, obviously we laugh.
Leyla Gulen [00:31:19] About it short of term.
Steve Cortes [00:31:20] Yes. I mean, if you couldn't laugh, you'd cry, right? Of course. So most Americans, of course, this isn't funny right there. There's real anxiety out there. There's anxiety, I mean, and it's palpable and it's real. And people know that they can't afford their lives and they have financed too many of their regular purchases. Again, not luxuries, the staples of life. They have financed them through credit card debt, which is absolutely ballooning in an era of rising interest rates. That's an incredibly dangerous scenario. Way too many Americans are in that financial corner right now, and they feel the stress and the anxiety of it. But again, I don't want to just curse of darkness. You know, we have solutions, right? We know the root out, of this quagmire. And it involves this November not just involves it being at the center of it is this November election. And I'm confident that Americans, particularly working class Americans, are going to make the right choices in all over the country and especially in battleground Arizona.
Leyla Gulen [00:32:17] Yeah, and speaking of credit card debt and interest rates, and everybody's just waiting and praying for the fed to lower interest rates. But it seems that because of everything else that's off in the distance, that's not going to happen for a really long time. So no one should be placing their bets on interest rates coming down in their monthly bills lowering. They're only going to go up higher. And the more they accrue debt it's only going to go up higher. We have I'm glad you touched on housing affordability. And it's true. While you may own your home, where you pay down your mortgage and your value has gone up, that's great. But you don't have any buyers because no one can afford the current mortgage rates to purchase a home. They don't have the money to purchase a home. We haven't yet touched on health care, crime and abortion rights. And just real quick, do you have any points that you want to make on any of those other voting issues.
Steve Cortes [00:33:12] Regarding health care? And this is interesting because when we talk inflation, a lot of us just naturally tend to talk about the prices of goods, because that's just comes first to our minds, particularly gas and groceries, right. Regarding inflation. But the stickiest kind of inflation is actually services inflation, because you mentioned how gasoline prices can be volatile. And there's certainly way higher under Biden. But they do move up and down with a lot of volatility services. Okay. And we're services based economy primarily not a commodity based economy services. When those prices go up for services, whether it's your accountant, a lawyer, the person who knows your lawn, those prices almost never go back down. Okay? From haircuts to health care services, inflation has been way more pronounced. And that is so much stickier because again, if you look historically, services prices almost never recede. Once they have advanced and services inflation is now climbing much faster than goods based, commodity based, inflation is. So I think it's important to mention that on the issue of crime, look, this is becoming this is a nationwide issue. There is a lawlessness across the land now that is crass and it's alarming. And what I would point to, it's symbolic, but I think it's very important what just happened in New York City, an NYPD cop, young officer with a family, was killed in cold blood in New York. President Trump just went to his funeral the very same day that the three living Democrat presidents, Biden and Clinton. Obama went to a glitzy fundraiser where tickets cost as much as $500,000 per plate at Radio City Music Hall. Same city, same day. President Trump at a slain cop's funeral. The other three presidents, including Biden at Radio City Music Hall with Stephen Colbert and Lizzo, and a. Lots of celebrities, I think, very revealing about priorities regarding crime in the United States. And the last thing you asked is about abortion. I think that the corporate media right now wants to push a narrative that this must become sort of a political weight around the neck of Republicans after the overturning of Roe v Wade. We'll see where President Trump comes down on this. My take on it, though, is and I'm extremely pro-life, my take on this is that this is a states issue. That's what we have been arguing for decades. Those of us in the pro-life movement in the United States, we got that goal after years of political activism, of prayer. We got the goal of Roe v Wade, which is always terrible law being overturned, this issue being returned to the states. States like Tennessee and Texas have already reached incredibly pro-life conclusions, where abortion is essentially outlawed, either totally or mostly in those states like New York and California and Illinois. Nothing has changed. Because that's the political will of federalism in those states. My view at least, and I hope President Trump adopts this position, is that we always wanted this to be a federalist issue where it belongs in the States as close to the people as possible to determine pro-life protections. And that's where it should stay. But we'll see. You know, where that ends up. I will tell you this. We didn't pull this in Arizona, but we did just pull this in Michigan and asked, is the Democrat Party to extreme on abortion? 46% of people. And this is one of these issues that was almost exactly split. It was 46, 46% of people in Michigan said that they are too extreme. So there is certainly a large constituency, maybe not quite majority, but large position. Who says, hey, the Democrats are very extreme on this issue as well. So it's not as if that issue is without any political risk for the Democrats. If I'm trying to be objective about this. I think there's political risk, probably for both sides. But my view as a pro-life conservative is that this issue always belonged with the states. We return it to the states, and that's where it will Sophocles. It belongs. And that, hey, we are already saving lives in these states, and we're only doing that because of what President Trump did in his first term.
Leyla Gulen [00:37:00] Yeah. Well, thank you for addressing all those things. And you say that you didn't necessarily poll Arizona, but the polls that you did take in Arizona, do you think that this is reflected in the other 49 states, some of the results that you found?
Steve Cortes [00:37:13] Yes, I absolutely do, because when you look at so we have now polled all of the battleground states, and as a matter of fact, now we're coming back around because we did them sort of in a, you know, we're doing them in a rotation from the West to the east. So we've now gone back to the west to Arizona, and we'll go back through the battleground states again. So we've pulled all of them once now Arizona twice. And we also pulled them as a group in in their entirety once together. And we're seeing incredibly consistent numbers. And that's a good thing. Number one, I can tell you you're doing your polling. Well, if we were getting wildly different numbers, we'd be suspicious of our methodology. So that's one thing. But more importantly for the American people, it's been consistent on which issues matter to them against it. It's the two eyes. It's inflation and immigration. We're continuing to see, you know, moderate not runaway leads, but modest, confident leads for President Trump in this polling tied in states like Michigan and Wisconsin, leading in states like North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona. And I do think it reflects they'll be on the battleground states. I mean, look, because I'm a political operative, I'm going to focus most on what matters most, which are the battleground states. I mean, we know New York has decided. We know Tennessee has decided each respective way, blue and red as we know, it's not a national election, it's electoral college election. So it will be decided by these battleground states. But I really believe and I'm not just saying this because this is an Arizona podcast that we're on. I really believe Arizona is is the battleground. Whoever wins Arizona, in my mind, is going to win this election because I'm getting more confident that Trump's going to win Georgia, North Carolina again, taking nothing for granted. Continue to work really hard in those states. But I think in the case of Georgia, the ridiculous Fani Willis indictment, I think has completely backfired and actually become a positive for Trump. I also believe the Lake and Riley murder, that horrific tragedy happening right there at the University of Georgia that has really, shaken, understandably shaken a lot of Georgia folks, even people who might not have been all that positive towards Trump but realize we need border security. So I think we are solidifying a lead there as well as in North Carolina. If I'm being perfectly just objective and honest about the race, I think both Michigan and and Wisconsin are possible right now. Or effectively, tide can go either way. But if Trump secures Arizona, then he elected. If you look at the math of the Electoral college, if he gets North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona, in all likelihood he wins. Because even if he loses Wisconsin and Michigan, he can then still win by getting. And this is getting very detailed. But with some of those states that split their vote, if he wins the congressional district in Maine, the congressional district in Nebraska, he wins in in a very narrow fashion. So I continue to be able to believe that this is a totally winnable race, that President Trump is in the better position right now. Take nothing for granted, no complacency, but he's in a better position right now to win a narrow electoral victory. And Arizona, to me again, is going to be the epicenter. Deciding who's the president next year?
Leyla Gulen [00:40:03] Yeah, absolutely. And speaking of Georgia, of course, the case with Fani Willis didn't do her any favors with everything that's transpired since then. But I swear, Steve, I wish you could see my notes right now, because the very next thing that I wanted to address with you is something that you already brought up, and that was that of the fallen New York City police officer, Jonathan Diller. So his wake was attended by former President Trump. And just 40 minutes away, like you said, star studded event at Radio City Music Hall with the three Democratic presidents that are still on this planet Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and of course, Joe Biden, the president criticizing the fundraiser, saying that he has to rely, that Biden has to rely on billionaires and liberal Hollywood to prop up his campaign while working Americans have galvanized in support of a Trump victory. So we realize that President Biden has a bit more money in his coffers, but he's going to need every cent. It sounds like with everything that we've talked about over the last 40 minutes to try to convince voters. But do you think are you pretty confident that's not going to be enough?
Steve Cortes [00:41:12] I mean, listen, there is no doubt that Biden will have more resources in the end and financial resources than President Trump. We're going to have a lot more, I think, when it comes to on the ground grassroots resources. But when it comes to financial resources from the oligarchs of American society, sure, he's got them. I mean, big pharma, big tech, most of the Wall Street moguls, they are uniformly behind Joe Biden. Why? Because he's good for that, because his globalist policies serve them well, for example. I mean, just get really specific here. An open border is a benefit for those oligarchs and for those corporate moguls. Why? Because they want cheap labor. They want a continuous flow of cheap labor into the United States, because lower pay for workers means fatter corporate profit margins for massive multinationals. So he has been good for those folks, and they live lives that are basically insulated from the dire consequences of illegal migration, for example, into the United States. So they're thoroughly behind him. But having said that, I have no doubt that this election is not going to be decided. The presidential election, particularly, is not going to be decided by who has the larger campaign war chest. And the reason I say that is both of these guys, we're just I think that I'm trying to take my Trump hat off for a moment for the parties and try to be objective about it. These are the two most known quantities in American politics in American life, for that matter. Right? I mean, Joe Biden has been in Washington, DC for over 15 years. He was elected to the Senate in 1972. He's run for president now three times in three different decades. Donald Trump, of course, was the president of the United States is the most recognized man, not just in America, but probably in the world. So given that there is a limit to what money can do, in other words, they are such known quantities, it's going to be far more about turnout and about who can be persuaded. And you don't need money to do that, particularly on Donald Trump's side when he is such an earned media machine. So am I concerned that Donald Trump will be outspent? Sure. I think it's a small concern, but will it be decisive? No, I don't think I'll be decisive. And thankfully, because this is America. While some of those moguls who were at that soiree in New York City, while they have enormous pocketbooks, those folks have one vote each, just like a working class person does in Arizona. So if you're working class single mom in Gilbert, Arizona, you have the exact same vote as a mogul who was at that party with the three Democrat presidents while Trump was at the officers funeral in New York City. You have the same vote. You have the same agency in the United States. And I'm confident, that those folks, those patriots in Arizona, are going to make the right choice and going to make the decisive choice when it comes to the November election.
Leyla Gulen [00:43:50] Did what is next for you, Steve? What is next for you and for the American League of Workers?
Steve Cortes [00:43:55] Yeah, so thank you. We're going to continue to work really hard on behalf of American workers. Of course, being an election year, we're extremely election focused. And we just we want to educate people about all of these issues, make sure that people are armed with information because we know corporate media won't do it. They won't be honest brokers and storytellers, instead, most of the legacy media is just a propaganda machine for the left. So we're going to function on the other side of that as a counter. I'll give you one more quick poll example, the Lake and Riley strategy, tragedy in Arizona. Only 22% of Arizona voters told us that they know a great deal about the murder of Lake and Riley. Among undecided voters, only 9% said they know a great deal. 42% said they know nothing at all. Undecided voters in Arizona, 42% know nothing at all about Lincoln Riley. So our job as an organization, my job individually, is to make sure people are informed about the consequences of Biden's open border, are informed about what happened to Lincoln, Riley and others in this country and what can continue to happen. So we're going to continue to do our advocacy work, encourage folks out there to go to and work. Workers.com am workers.com is our website to see more about what we're up to. Please follow me on social media on Twitter x I am at Cortez Steve Cortez with an S Steve and we're going to stay really active and working our tails off because Leila, we've got a country to save and and time is of the essence.
Leyla Gulen [00:45:19] Indeed it is. Indeed it is. It sounds like that 42% needs to start listening to the Grand Canyon Times podcast. Steve Cortez, it is always such a pleasure to have you on this program. Thank you for all of your exhaustive and tireless work. Really. It's been so fascinating chatting with you today and always, and we look forward to bringing you back on. Thank you again for joining us.
Steve Cortes [00:45:40] Thank you. Well.
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