(PHOTOS BY RICH HARDING, STAFF)
By: Daniel Cooley
There was a general theme held by the four Republican candidates who spoke at the Veterans Memorial Building in Montpelier on Sunday.
All the candidates talked about Almighty God, love of the country and Ohio and the need to get rid of corrupt politicians.
Even the pastor, Ric Beals, who gave the opening prayer, got a few licks in.
“This is the land of the free and in God we trust, and we need to thank our veterans, because we wouldn’t have the freedom we have today, without them,” Beals said.
“We need to take back our country. We are living under a government who is trying to take over and labels us as radical conservatives.”
Beals also said that being a Christian means you’re weak, but that is not true. For one thing, he said, we can pray for this country.’
The first speaker of the afternoon meeting, which took place from 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m., was Republican Mark Pukita, who is running for a Senate seat.
“We live in the greatest country, the greatest state in the nation and have the greatest party (Republican) and all three of them have been taken over by corrupt politicians,” Pukita said.
“I decided to run for Senate because Rob Portman was doing a poor job..and then he dropped out. But I am definitely for term limits.”
Pukita told the audience that because he made himself something and treated employees well, that it wasn’t anything he did, he just had white privilege. Pukita also gave his thoughts on the last election.
“As a business person, you’re looking for continuous improvement,” Pukita said “When has anyone in politics done this? Trump was the first to do this. He lost in a fraudulent election and the people involved in that need to go to jail.”
“I am different from the others who are running because I will be the only one talking about four things,” Pukita said.
“(Those four are) that the Ohio Republican Party is corrupt, Governor Mike DeWine needs to be investigated, Rob Portman is a turncoat and that I’m not getting vaccinated. They will have to come in and pull my guns away from me, before they stab me with a vaccine.”
Neil Patel is also running for Senate on the Republican side.
Patel stated that he was once a Democrat who is pro life and pro gun and he was kicked out of the party, telling him he was not a Democrat.
“My daughter is a holistic doctor and she said that the vaccine does not work, so I am not vaccinated and I helped get rid of the mask mandate in Paulding County,” Patel said.
“Faith, service and freedom and my slogans,” Patel continued. “We should take care of others and should not give money to foreign governments when our veterans are starving. I’m from India and like there, I see that (the radical Muslim groups) are slowly, but surely, taking over this country.”
Jeremiah Workman, who is running for lieutenant governor, then spoke. He said he went into the Marine Corps and fought in Fallujah and that made him a fighter. He spoke about rooting out the corruption in the government.
“God has touched me and my duty is for Ohio,” Workman said. “(Joe Blystone and I) want to fight for you, for the 12 million in Ohio. We have industrial sized brooms and we’re going to clean (the corruption) out.”
Just before Blystone came on stage, Sadie Griffin sang “God bless America.” The majority of the nearly 300 in attendance stood up, sang and cheered.
Blystone, who definitely doesn’t dress like a politician, wore a cowboy hat, blue jeans and a flannel shirt. His big white beard doesn’t fit in, either.
“I’m not a politician, but I’m going to give you the truth, whether you like it, or not,” Blystone said. “I grew us a country boy from a Baptist family and I’m a Christian.
Blystone discussed a little of his background, how he owned a farm, a packing plant and then a butcher shop, that started with two employees and then went to 70 workers.
“You have to go out and work for it, the opportunity is here,” Blystone said. “Generational welfare needs to stop. You have to go work to make a living.”
“If you don’t want to, maybe we can send you to New York or Illinois, where they have a habit of doing (the welfare).” Blystone talked about being a Christian.
“I was told that you can’t talk about God and politics, but we need more God and more people falling on their knees,” Blystone said, “But, I’m going in there to bring the power back to the people that’s been stolen from them.
Blystone talked about the need for getting back to the basics in high schools. “We need to get back to teaching the three r’s, reading, writing and ‘rithmetic,” Blystone said.
“I know a gentleman who makes things, including some things that are on the space station. He told me that if he could hire people, he could grow his business tenfold.”
“But he’s talked to kids he wants to hire, but they don’t know how to do simple math, like adding, subtraction and division.”
Also, in dealing with the young, Blystone wants to get rid of abortion. He said there are a lot of parents waiting to adopt and that we need to spend money in order to get kids forever homes.
Once in office, Blystone has some other ideas.
“We’re going to expose all the corruption,” Blystone said. “I love this country and we need to turn things around. Being able to put together a staff would not be easy, but you have to know how to put people together to get the job done.”
With the background Blystone has in hiring people, he hopes that, if he gets in, he can put together the right staff. The big step is the Republican Primary on May 3.
Daniel may be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com
