U.S. Congressional District 19 covers a portion of the Texas panhandle from north of Lubbock down to Abilene. For ten years, the district has been represented by Congressman Jodey Arrington.
Arrington is not running for reelection and there are seven other candidates hoping to earn the spot to represent the Republican party in the November general election.
KTTZ in Lubbock and KACU in Abilene have partnered to provide in-depth interviews with the candidates. KACU attempted to reach out to candidate Ryan Zink, but did not get a reply before deadline.
Abilene’s Matt Smith is a small-business owner. He is also a pastor and a rancher.
You can find interviews with other District 19 Republican candidates here.
Early voting runs Feb. 17-27 and Election Day is March 3.
The following transcript has been edited for clarity:
George Levesque: Matt Smith, one of several Republicans running for that District 19 congressional seat. In fact, you might say that it's just a whole lot of people right now running for that District 19 seat. And we want to thank Matt Smith for joining us here at the West Texas Dispatch. Thanks for coming on in today.
Matt Smith: Yeah, my pleasure. Thank you all for having me.
George Levesque: First question I have is, what is it like out there on the campaign trail in such a short time trying to get your message across?
Matt Smith: You know, it's amazing. It feels like another startup business. I've started several businesses, sold businesses, and whenever you start up, you have more things to do than you have time to do them. So you have to just dive right in and get to it and realize that there's more for tomorrow. And ultimately, you still have to be a husband, a dad and and you still need to have that day of rest like scripture talks about. So you can't go, go, go all the time and burn yourself completely out.
GL: So you are hitting the trail, but at the same time, you're making time for family. And by the way, I saw one of your posters out yesterday and it was your entire family out there. You've got several kids.
MS: I do, yeah. Married 22 years, five kids, and going through adoption process for a sixth. And it's amazing to be on this journey of fatherhood and loving people, even if they weren't biologically the people that came into our life.
GL: Well, let's talk about some issues that are before District 19, and, in fact, before America. And I think you can't help but having the first conversation be about immigration and the crackdown that's going on right now with ICE. And I guess the first question is what do you think, because you're out there talking to people in Lubbock and Abilene and all the counties around, what do you think the take is? What do people perceive about the ICE crackdowns as far as West Texas goes?
MS: You know, listen, there's a lot more attention to it right now because of the social media and that part. But we've had these laws in place for years, and they're simply being enforced now. Sometimes it's – there's a lot more awareness. And so the people at the grocery stores and here and there, there's some talk about people feeling like they're being targeted. But the areas that people are – that the cities, the sheriff's departments, etc – are working with ICE agents, those criminals, the fentanyl traffickers and the bad actors that we, none of us, want here, they're getting released straight to the ICE agent. Where the local authority is not working with them, it's making it a lot more dangerous for ICE. So those areas is where you're getting a lot of the headlines from. You know, this Minnesota and that part, but Taylor County, Lubbock County, a lot of the areas around, they work with ICE, and so we don't have those same problems that the other places are having.
GL: Let’s talk a little bit about those other places, though. You talk about Minneapolis, and there's been two U.S. citizens that were killed in altercations that happened there. There's also, I think, a general feeling of, ‘Why do all these people have masks on?’ When you see those things do you think there ought to be some changes made to what ICE is doing out there?
MS: You know, I think that we have to make sure that all of the agents, regardless of which agency they're for, need to be trained exceptionally well, and we need to work together. I don't want to see anyone that is, you know, targeted, or anyone that is killed because they're trying to do something peacefully. Now, I think, as we'll see, a lot of the information will continue to come out. So I can't armchair quarterback in an exact decision that happened and, you know, in the moment, how someone responds to a dangerous situation, I don't know. If I'm there, I would hope that the law was doing everything it could to protect me, regardless of which side I'm on.
GL: Let's talk about the economy, the U.S. economy, West Texas economy. Where do you see it going, and what specifically is on your mind, if you were to be a congressman, about taking it forward?
MS: You know, Abilene right now, we're booming. This AI stuff, it has boosted our economy so much, from home construction to restaurants and all of the areas here are growing significantly. Tech area is growing. Look at how great Tech did with the sports nd in some of that part. So we have our area, District 19, is growing significantly, and I see that it's going to continue to happen. Especially as we look at the data center alley that I'm hearing is coming to our market. So we have the data centers already popping up, and it's getting ready to continue to grow, and that'll be a big part of the continued growth. Now we look at what we're doing here at ACU with the molten reactors and the such, I believe that that's going to be the lifeblood of the data centers. Being able to have so much power produced in an extremely clean way, it's the only way we're going to be able to keep up in the AI race, is having extremely efficient power that is not susceptible to ill intent from others.
GL: We had Sid Miller, Texas agricultural commissioner here, I guess, about two weeks ago, and he was talking about the need for regulation as far as these AI data centers go. Obviously, that's typically a congressional power regulation, a state obviously probably not going to be doing that from the Ag Commissioner spot. Do you favor some more regulation? Or is it a bit of the wild west out there when it comes to data centers popping up.
MS: We definitely have to have regulation. We don't want AI taking over everything. At the same time, we also have to look at the internet race. When we see what happened in Europe, well, America won. And so we saw the fruits of the internet and everything in our favor. And we are now in the AI race, so we can't let one of these other countries win. We have to press full throttle on this, but making sure that from a federal level, there is regulation so that we don't have rogue, bad actors coming in and destroying what we're building.
GL: So regulation, but nothing that would slow down the progress of AI that's going on in America, at least right now.
MS: Yes.
GL: Talk about Democrats. I hear there are some Democrats in the House of Representatives in Washington, DC. In fact, it may be a very even split like it is right now. Would you work with Democrats across the aisle to get things accomplished?
MS: I think partisan politics is a huge part of the problem, when we have the extremes on each side. Jesus is the perfect example of loving your neighbor. And he would go and sit down with the people that weren't welcome from the traditional groups. So he would hang out with the prostitutes, the sinners, the tax collectors. He would go to them and love them. And I think that, as he would do that, we can't look at one side or the other, because we are all people who have fallen short of the glory of God. And whenever we fall short, regardless of which side, there is going to be things that get in the way of justice. And so we need to do all that we can to help them see him and see the Kingdom. And then I believe, once we come into alignment with the Kingdom of Heaven, we're going to work together a whole lot more and see getting things done that are righteous and passing just laws.
GL: When you are out there right now and you're going from town to town, you're talking to West Texans, I imagine you're doing a lot of that. What is your general thought? What are you hearing from people? What is the big thing on their mind when you talk to them?
MS: You know, a lot of people are having a hard time with the inflation over the past four years, where it's just things got so out of control. Now that inflation is coming down, we still have credit card debt, we have issues that – trying to play catch up. And we need to continue to work on this, opening up places for our producers to go with the products. And we also have to be aware that not everyone is the person that is doing exceptionally well right now. There's a lot of people that are still struggling, but sure, we're going in the right direction.
GL: Matt Smith, thank you for joining us here on the West Texas Dispatch.
MS: Yeah, thank you, man. It's great to be here. And you know, I'm excited to serve District 19. This is, you know, home. I was born and raised in the area, and intend to continue to be here. We love Texas. Family goes back to the Battle of San Jacinto. And it's… West Texas is home.
GL: Matt Smith is running for Congress District 19. Of course, the March primary is coming up. March 3. Be sure to vote.
MS: Yeah and the neat thing about it too, is we've served people across West Texas District 19 through Fat Matt Roofing. We've been on roofs in nearly every county in this district, 33 of them. And so whenever we get out and we go, love our neighbor, it's something that we've already been doing.
GL: Thank you, Matt.
MS: Yep. Thank you.