474: Is Larry Sharpe New York State's Last Hope? (with Larry Sharpe)

Brian Nichols  
Passing on winning arguments. We're teaching the basic fundamentals of sales and marketing and how we can use them to win in the world of politics, teaching you how to meet people where they're at on the issues they care about. Welcome to The Brian Nichols Show. Well, happy Tuesday there, folks, Brian, here on The Brian Nichols Show. Doing is on of course, another fun filled episode. I am as always your humble host. And today, we have a returning guest and one guest I'm super stoked to have back in the show because, folks, you got to the Ron Paul waving arms. It's happening. Larry sharp is running for Governor of New York. Once again, Larry sharp. Welcome back to The Brian Nichols Show.

Larry Sharpe  
Absolutely. 100%. I'm glad to be back, brother. Thanks for having me on.

Brian Nichols  
Absolutely. Larry. Well, I'm super excited to have you back on especially because now we get to talk about what's been happening behind the scenes. You've been getting the the workings moving forward to get your gubernatorial run back up and going in New York state you were last ran 2018 crithmum. Wrong. And yes, and now you're running again. 2022. And Larry, you already started pulling it 6%. That's unheard of. For libertarians, let's start off. You've already amassed a great name recognition across New York State, mainly not because of your run back in 2018. But also because you stuck around, you've kept that infrastructure going. But let's talk about that. 6% of really good looking. So

Larry Sharpe  
that's proud of it.

Brian Nichols  
That definitely helped a little bit. So let's talk about those 6% of voters, though, in New York who are saying you know what? This Larry sharp guy? I'm on board with that?

Larry Sharpe  
Yeah, look, the reality is, there's so many things that go in with this. The first reason the first thing is if you've noticed that I don't run all the time, right? I run just when I've only run once before was governor in 2018. And I didn't run after that, what did I do, I spent most of my time crossing the state and supporting local candidates right? In our movement, we often have this kind of battle between should be run top at a ticket or bottom, the ticket is local, more important is national, more important. And my idea has always been the same. And that is I'm on both top of the ticket has the best opportunity for press bottom, the best victory. If we run topra ticket hard and get that press and then have the top of the ticket support the bottom of ticket, then they can win. That's what I did in 2019. After I got ballot access for the Libertarian Party in 2018. I crossed the state against one of the candidates. And we had 107 victories. There were 107 victories libertarians in New York State in 2019 elected officials. And then in 2020, New York State said, Oh, that whole ballot access thing that we said, Yeah, epic prank, bro. Just kidding. That's not how it works. Nope. And through a budget item, they removed our ballot access. So we lost everything. All those who went away, we were no longer a party. So now I'm sitting and going, I do this all over again. So I do but that's okay. Because as you said, I've been crossing the state every single year. Every year, I go to every single county of 62 counties in New York, I've covered every one of them for the past five years. And I do events and I meet people and I stay active. And I talk and I still support libertarians all over the place. You see me I go to I go to different events, I go to different, you know, county and state affiliates, and I raise money for them. And I support candidates. When I'm running. It's about me when I'm not running. It's about who's running right whoever's running is, is who it's about. So now all of a sudden, I said back in 2018, that if we do the top and bottom of ticket we can have results. I showed that. After that I've been saying look, we can create coalition's against the establishment, what most people are against is the establishment. Some are against specifically Republicans, Democrats, but most are against the system of establishment. And so they think whoever's in charge is the bad guy. So let's go for the other one of the two. But when I'm actually able to let people know, wait a minute, they don't know. There's a party. That actually is anti establishment too. And then people want to get on board. So I've already been able in this next one that I'm doing now in 2022. I've already been able to take the advantage of the county affiliates that I built over the past five years when I first ran into an 18 out of 62 counties we only had about 15 affiliates, county affiliates now we have over 30 So now I have those people who now can go get me signatures can go get out there and do the sine waves do the things they're now here we have that that infrastructure built. I also made the raise six figures I raised a half million dollars last time. I'll raise more than that this time. So I have the cash available do that vulnerability in the past I'll use that team also. But more importantly, I've made coalition's there are two groups in New York state who are anti establishment who want to allow third parties to do better. One of them is the full word party, which was started by Andrew Yang famously and they've openly supported me they have endorsed me they're ready to rock and roll I'm giving to their I'm grabbing their people and that's an endorsement that my seem crazy some libertarians, right oh my god forward. That's the these guys are left leaning they like UBI and stuff. Yes, they also would like to exist in a world with two parties. And they know that people like me are the way they can make that happen, right? Unite New York trying to get them on board also right there also same thing they don't want the old school problems Democrats, they want the same thing. So we have to create something. So what I created was the bro program or the program Yes, I'm using the word bro br O, B stands for better ballot access easier access to the ballot, R stands for ranked choice voting, allowing people to have a first and second choice voting for the person they want. And having a safety net vote which what people actually want that you don't care about ranking. What they care about is guy or gal, I want safety net to stop the other yes ends the wasted vote piece. And last is open primaries and open primary is critical for areas that are heavily heavily gerrymandered, which is almost every state but all over New York state. So you need to be able to vote in the primary that matters to your local area. So that's all three groups are on board with that. And there are other things that we're working on. But that's how I'm moving forward. And you might say like, why are they on board all of a sudden, because when they removed ballot access from Libertarian Party, they actually made the idea of getting on the ballot so difficult. Almost no one can do it. Literally, you have to be able to get 45,000 valid signatures across New York state in five weeks. And that means in reality, probably happy about 70,000 to make sure you have enough to get past the buffer probably in that area, give or take. So what does that mean? That means I have to average 2000 signatures per day. Who can do that? Right? That's gonna cost me six figures, right to do that. And I have to have an infrastructure across the state, because it isn't just one area and get across the state, right? You've got to make sure you hit all the congressional districts that they say, right, so you gotta have across the state, what person can just do that what person has quit their job for a year, as I've done, gather a bunch of people has been which I've done and raise six figures which I've done. Who can do that, right? Of course, only few people can actually do that they're making it in New York state, to where if you're not elite, or establishment, you can't even run, I'm the last hope for third parties in New York State, which is why I'm doing what I'm doing. So as another way of thinking about it. When I ran in 2018, I was the only person running knocking the government check. When I run this time, I'll be the only person running that can a government check. What does that mean? They're all establishment people already in government jobs. already getting government checks already, the governor is gonna run into congressmen is gonna run against me. That's who's running. So I'm running into congressmen and against the current governor. And that's how the establishment wants it to be. So that's why I'm doing what I'm doing. It does matter. If I do this, I will prove that we can create coalition's with people who agree on the same outcomes, and we can have conversations on how to move forward. And that if we run toplet ticket Well, next year when loser draw, we're gonna have a whole libertarians in New York State.

Brian Nichols  
And what you mentioned there, and I think we see this recurring theme is the establishment versus the the anti establishment the the I mean, I'm looking at the Star Wars figurines you have in the backside, that the Empire versus the rebels, right? And

Larry Sharpe  
you say yes, Horto, a dark side and the light side? That's right have now in coalition, I am without question a Gray Jedi of the highest order.

Brian Nichols  
You're our quiet dungeon. But you said that your New York State's last hope for third parties. I would take it a step further, Larry, I mean, you're kind of New York State's last hope because I look at New York State. Now I know you're very firm on people sticking around and fighting for their areas. And I completely concur by look at the northeast has been very rough. And I got out of Pennsylvania after I'd gotten out of New York. And now I'm settled up in New Castle, Indiana. And I gotta tell you, I'm loving it, because it's nice being around people who share like minded values and principles. But I think to what your mission is, and this is where, you know, I think you're finding the success is that it is necessary in the environment that is New York State, you have to build coalitions with people who maybe aren't your traditional target market, not for the sake of you're trying to sell them on liberty, but rather in this case, as you said, direct outcomes in this role. I mean, it comes down to whether or not you have a third party voice in New York state politics, or you just sit and watch as the main two parties, the Democrats Republicans will dictate from on high in Albany, what is and is not going to be happening. And then you know, actually

Larry Sharpe  
worse here. We have only one party. Yeah, it's very true. Actually worse here, right. In New York City. Yes, but all the cities right. People always say New York City. No, no, it's also Rochester buffalo. They all vote blue. Right. That's the issue to remember here. Right now in New York State. It's about two or maybe even three to one Democrat to Republican in New York State in New York City. It's six to one. So the Democrats win everything. The next Governor of New York will either be our current governor Democrat or me. That's it. There has no chance of victory whatsoever is zero chance that he caps at about 30 35%. That's all and he's likable, Larry, if they hate your governor to vote for him, No, they won't. No, they won't. And the polling shows it. The polling in New York State, and not just the polling that that I've looked at, but pulling from Zogby polling from every place writes is the same thing. Most New Yorkers still, even with all the pain, still approve of my governor's a of her activity, they still approve of it. Why? Because the opposite in their head is Republican. And one thing they hate more than having a good state is Republicans. That's it. And how do I know that? Because we're literally exporting Republicans out of our state. They're leaving in droves. Remember, Florida used to be a swing state in our memory. It was a swing state. Yep. Those days are gone. It's a red state. Now. Why? Because Floridians all of a sudden became red. No, because California and you know, export to all the Republicans in Florida. So now they're all red. That's without question. True. I wish it wasn't true. I wish we had a more purple state when we can talk back and forth and, and have something we don't have that New York State is a blue state deep blue state. So it's even worse than what you said. It's one party rule.

Brian Nichols  
So what's the hope? Help me out here your last year the last hope, Larry. Right. It sounds morbid, right. And frankly, you're you're reaffirming Larry why I wanted to get out of the Northeast. And it's sad because New York is home to me. And that's where my family lives. That's where I grew up. That's home sweet home, the North Country, you know, you don't get much better than the St. Lawrence River seaway Valley area. And I I get sad every time I go home, because it's not the same place I grew up. It's it's not. Not only is the North Country, not the same North Country, because you can feel the despair just as you go anywhere. But you can just feel that in the state in general, there's not that vibrance, there's not that liveliness, there's no hope. And I guess I have to ask you, where is the hope? How can we get that hope back?

Larry Sharpe  
Yes, there's a couple things you mentioned, which I love. New York State for those of you watching or listening who may not know is an absolutely beautiful, amazing state. It is the true example of diversity whether you want the biggest city in the nation, beautiful mountains, falls, rivers, lakes, if you want the opera or if you want hiking, if you want skiing, or you have baseball, football, hockey and basketball, whatever is your thing. It is here in this state, from beaches to mountaintops, wherever you can imagine. You want to go boating, you want to go fishing? Yes, it is here in this state. The problem isn't the state. The problem is the government. The government is so oppressive. It literally breaks up families. My mom died in South Carolina my step pop died in South Carolina because it couldn't afford to live here. You Brian said you've already left because you left your family and friends here. i Yes. all correct. So what's the hope? The hope is in getting people in New York State to realize their answers. The problem is whether or not no party has actual answers. What they have is rhetoric. And in New York State, it's even worse New York State the Republicans have no part no plan. It's just Democrats are bad. They're basically control the opposition. That's all they have. You couldn't find a policy on. Look, if you care, go to any Republican New York State candidate, representative, you cannot find policy. It does not exist at all. We're gonna get America back or whatever. They're saying they're doing that dumb stuff. Now no answers. And the Democrats are will just throw more money at it, because that always works. So the Democrats, the party have bad ideas, the Republican Party have no ideas. So of course, people either leave because there's nothing works for them. Or they go with the only party that has ideas as bad as they are because you feel like you're in trouble. The hope is actually showing them some answers. And here's a an answer I have. I want us in New York State to create a separate fund called the NIST, NY SST, the New York State social trust, that trust will be created and run not by the government, but by a private company. The same they do it in Norway, the same they do it in Singapore is a separate company that is not part of government. If it's part of the government, the government just take that money and put it away. So you can't have it run by the government. It isn't my separate company with a specific state charter to pay for specific things based upon a charter that has been paid for things. I think I want them to pay for his education. Why? Because education in New York State is a right. You think well whether they made it right so now it's perfect. No, it means we have spent some money on it. New York State drops about $28,000 per kid every year and we rank anywhere from two 25 to 37 when it comes to education in the States, any anywhere in that area bottom half. So making it a right didn't make it magically good. It just made it That's expensive. So now we spend the most in the entire country, and we have horrible results. So they're going to pay for they're going to pay directly from Albany as our Constitution mandates, we must, by constitution, pay for grades one through 12. That's a rule in New York State we must abide by or change the constitution. So we'll pay for it directly from Albany through this fund, this fund will be will be funded by permanent capital or private capital, why it's gonna be a fund that pays dividends without debt. This is a whole new way of doing things, but no debt, but pays dividends. Well, in today's world of zero interest rates, paying dividends on money you put in is great, it's great place to safely Park capital. Plus in New York state, if it is considered being paid for paying state issues. There's no capital gains tax on it, you don't tax it, so that it's a safe place to park your money for permanent capital. You might go, Larry, you're getting permanent capital to pay for social stuff. Yes. voluntarily, without taxing them. Yes, absolutely. I'm creating a fund that will pay Democrats want big business to pay. Republicans don't my taxes, I've given you both done deal. Life is good. Now when we pay for a taste directly, once that happens, and we pay X dollars, I'm talking about $18,000 per kid to every district on their own, no back and forth, no grant writing, all of those extra administrators go away, we don't need them anymore. And the local district will begin to fire them as they see fit, which is good, keep the good Ministers get rid of ones they're useless, they begin to go away. So I'm creating now offs and a surplus at the local area. Plus, if the money files a child, well, that all of a sudden, I'm allowing for school choice overnight without saying school choice because the money files again, not just that $4,000 credit if you went to private school, or homeschool, I'm now encouraging private school now and encouraging people to to homeschool if they want to let your kid do what we want. We learned during our COVID lockdowns that we don't know how to do that, that when bad things happen, our schools collapse. So instead, we'll support that. But the most important piece of all of this is that once that happens, what's the need for school tax? There is none. School tax goes away. When school tax goes away, the average New Yorker their property taxes go down about 50% Give or take, depending on where you are. Your your property tax was 30%. Guess what happens? The rents stabilize, the youth can stay here instead of having to walk away, you can move out of their parents home. That'd be nice, wouldn't it? Not just that retirees can stay here and they can spend their pensions in New York State versus spending their pensions in Florida and Texas and Arizona with us. But now we're paying for the pensions and Arizona and Florida get the cash. If you're going to have a pension, spend it here in New York State put it back into this economy. You do that and things will begin to change. That's what I'm talking about. That's how we can make things work that makes people happier, better education, better cash. Democrats are happy Republicans are happy. And I will tell you, no one else is talking about this. But me. I'll go one step further. I want people to retire in New York. People not retiring in New York is crushing us. I want them to, and I want families together. And nursing homes are crushing us because mostly Medicare, Medicaid using Medicare pays for this. And that means the counties pay for it. So here's a better answer. How about if you're 65 years or older, and you've owned a home in New York State for at least 15 years, whether it currently or not doesn't matter. Your private tax goes down 5% per year to 85, then it's zero. Now wait a minute, Larry, what if I'm older, I don't want to own a home. Great. Stay home with your with your son, your daughter, your niece, your nephew, whomever. And they get half of that they lose two and a half percent every year for 20 years. So that probably has cut gets cut in half again. What am I doing? I'm encouraging families to stay together, which is what I would like I wish my mom didn't move away. I wish she could live with us. I wish we could have done that. And I want more families who want that to be able to say together, happier New Yorkers means New Yorkers who don't leave. Now you might say, Larry, how are we going to make up for that money? We've already done the numbers on this. If we have this and more people stay home with their families, less of them go into nursing homes, which the county and the state pays for. So we save money on nursing homes. And you know how many y'all deal with nursing home during COVID? That was not a nice thing. I would have rather have people stay home. More people stay home, we save money. There's no loss of money. Families are happier. everybody's happier when people stay in New York and pensions gets spent in New York State and I want pensions being spent in New York state.

Brian Nichols  
Well, Larry, I have to ask that the sad question. Now at what point does it get to a a statement where it's like, okay, you know what I look around, and it's time to escape when when would that time before you?

Larry Sharpe  
Yeah, it's a good question. I guess it really depends on how well I do. Right? The reality of it is, can I win this thing? Of course I can. As you said, I'm already polling at 6%. So I'm doing well. The issue is Democrats are not going to vote for Republicans. So I have to get Democratic voters to come to me and Republican voters come to me. And so far in the polling, it shows when you add me, I pull from both sides. So the data is there. We know about 25% of my voters are registered Democrats. So I do pull from the left also, which I've been saying it forever. Now, I proved it with data. I told the talk, then I walk the walk, right. So I set it and now data is there you can look at it yourself. You can read recent most most recent Zogby poll shows it, about 20 25% of the people who vote for me, are registered Democrats. So as they begin to move towards me any more of them, because if Kathy Hoko, our governor makes some big mistake, whatever that mistake is, I'm hoping she'll do it. Maybe that mistake might be debating me, that will be the end of her arm. If she does that, that'd be nice. But whatever happens if she does that, those people are angry, they're not going to vote for the Republican. They vote for me. And if that happens, I'll get those votes. 35%. In my State wins, we are not a majority state, we are a plurality state. So if I have more than the rest, right, and the cap, the Republican cap is 35%. He's gonna get more than that. So if I can get 35%, she'll get less he'll get less I went, That's my road to victory. But let's say the sad part is I'm kind of hoping for her to make a mistake. She doesn't make a mistake. She doesn't think perfectly. I hope, I hope she does not. But if she does, I can still beat the Republican. Right. So I can come in second, you might say, Well, I wonder Does that make two reasons why number one, New York state rules show say that the Board of Elections is run by the top two parties, as decided by the gubernatorial race. So the party the state will then be run officially, by Democrats, libertarians. Now to be forward, there is not enough of us to run this government. So that's not even possible to happen, right? We we can't win the board of elections, not enough of us. Right. And the Republicans would never accept that. They'll just rewrite the rules overnight, which is fine. I'm okay with that. They will rewrite the rules, but then rewriting the rules, they'll have to include us, which means the state will officially be a three party or multi party state. Overnight that will happen. Not just that, that'll be news. Oh, my God, everyone will make the pumpkin laws to Larry's job, what's what, I'll be everywhere. And if I'm everywhere, it gets what happens. People have to listen to me. This what I just told you my idea. They have to hear it. I have tons of ideas in 2018 that were still on the on website. I haven't taken those ideas off. My Larry shop.com website has policy from four years ago, when I was on Joe Rogan. He ended up at that show. Joe Rogan said to me, he says, Larry, he's great policies would you get them from? I said, Well, me and a team put together because you want to lock those policies down. I said, why? He said, People take them. I said, Take him did I don't have to run, take the policies, fix my state, I go back to work, I don't need to be doing this. Right. Let's, let's do that. So what happened after I lost, nobody's getting my policies, this still there, all of them are still there. And they're all still valid, because the States hasn't fixed anything. So they're still valid. So if I come in second, they have to listen to me. And somebody will take those policies, and the yoke will begin to change. If I come in second, everyone hears that. I come in first, the whole the whole country changes overnight, literally, because everybody who was kind of libertarian will go holy crap, the Germans can win. I've always been libertarian. Ryan helped me have you home? Let me come on your show. I've always been libertarian, everyone's the old school libertarian, all of a sudden, they're gonna come out of the woodwork, which is fine. But if I come even at a close third, that still gives me enough of an umph for people to go, Larry, how'd you come so close? You're the spoiler. And if I'm the spoiler, raising a million dollars of being a spoiler, again, people have to listen to me. And change will happen. I think it's so important. Because if you look at what's happening, and I know you do, we're in a bad spot. This country is on its way to a very unhappy place. As we stop talking to each other. We we politicize everything, we politicize, we politicize Will Smith, slap, we politicized COVID, we politicized everything. We shouldn't be putting a sizing health. That's a bad idea, right. But we did everything we put plus size everything to the point where there's two separate countries within one country that never ends. Well. The only way we fix that is a third party that can talk to both sides. I've said I can do it. I've shown I can do it. We are the answer. Wait a minute, Larry, you said you're going to save the world. Now. I don't believe that. But can I be one of the guys who sets it up to be saved? Yes. I can be one of those guys who sets it up to be saved. Yes. And that's I'm trying to do.

Brian Nichols  
There you go, folks. Well, if you're looking for New York State's last hope we'll make sure you go ahead and give this episode of share because other folks are probably looking for their last hope as well and their New York state they have some hope here in Larry sharp so Larry, obviously call to action. We want folks to go ahead and find you support you and now you can go to Larry sharp.com forward slash donate they want to give some dollars to you help your campaign there. They can go ahead and do that. But how about social media? We're gonna go ahead and find you there.

Larry Sharpe  
And they can also go to volunteer I could use some volunteers helped me get some petitions and get me some signatures. So you might go, Larry, I don't live in New York State, no worries, you can still help. You can still come. You cannot witness the signature. However, you can absolutely hand out stuff. Do old signs, drive people around. Give me a day. Give me a half a day. Give me a couple hours you come on in, I'll take you for whatever I get 2000 views per day starting April 19. So if you can come on in, I'd love to have you on of course, check me out on all the interweb stuff things that Instagrams and Twitter's and all of them. Just do Larry sharp and remember when you Larry sharp is sharp with an E, and he has four electable

Brian Nichols  
fair it is That's right. And, folks, if you miss all that, don't worry, we're gonna make it easy for you. I'll include all those links in the show notes along with Larry's bio and also you can find the entire transcript of today's episode. How about that? So with that being said, Folks, thank you for joining us another fun filled episode and thank you to the One Only Larry sharp are joining us. With that being said it's Brian Nichols. Donnie, if you're on The Brian Nichols Show. We'll see you tomorrow for listening to The Brian Nichols Show. Find more episodes at the Brian Nichols show.com

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