Billy Cunningham, the Great America, of course announced it made a few days back to Evanor Mike.
Dwine, let's picked the new lieutenant governor. And when we spoke with the governor, he kind.
Of indicated he was thinking outside the box a little bit. But Jim Trussel is a name well known in the Buckeye State. She spent many years as a football coach at Youngstown State, had some moderate success in Ohio State, won the national title, and thereafter he went back to Youngstown State and served as president there for about ten years.
And now he's the new lieutenant governor in Ohio. And first of all, Lieutenant Governor, Jim Trussell, can you tell the American people how the process began that Mike DeWine asked you to serve as the lieutenant governor kind of walked us through what happened to be goes this pick is somewhat out of the box.
Well, absolutely, But first I would be remissed if I didn't say, it's an honor to be on with the great American and on this Abraham Lincoln time, you know, one of the greatest Americans as well. But I have to tell you I know part of your viewing listening audience is up near where my dad grew up, and today would be his one hundredth birthday. And I always thought my dad was a great American. He grew up
in Aida, Ohio and went to Ohio State. Paul Brown recruited him there, and then, like all those great Americans, decided to enlist in the war efforts and went over and served so that we can have a dis free country we live in. So it's an honor to be with the great American on this great American Day. And the process that occurred started February first, actually maybe the day before that. The governor said he was going to be in my neighborhood. I had just gotten done with
two days of Baldwin Wallace University board meetings. He said he was going to be in the neighborhood and could he stop by, And of course, the governor says, he's going to stop by, absolutely, and he was going to be with Fran and I think they're going to a basketball game with grandkids or something. And so he stopped by and he sat down and kind of looked me in the eye, and I could tell this wasn't a social call, and he said, I've really been given this
a lot of thought. I've been thinking about what we need and what I need and so forth. And he said, you know what, I'd like you to consider the lieutenant governor position. And then we talked for ninety minutes or so, and I had a chance to visit with my wife, who Ellen said, you know, it sounds like God's got more work for you to do, and you love trying to help people, and you're a workaholic. Why don't you go do it?
So here we are, Jim Trust before that conversation, did you have any idea, any hope, any inkling you were to get into politics, not just politics, but you're going to be the lieutenant governor state of Ohio.
Was that even on the horizon before that meeting?
No? No, you know, I've always felt like I've been in public service because I've been trying to serve students, serve university, serve communities, and so you know, at every turn I try to find ways where I can add value and serve. You know, never was it the idea that I thought I would serve in government. But you know, what do they say if you think you have plans God's up there laughing, you know, And I think that was the case.
As far as I asked Mike DeWine this question, and other politico as I talked to Alex Streutzafiel, who, as you know, is the chair the Republican Party, does Lieutenant Governor Trussel have any desire to run for governor next year?
You know, you'd be surprised that this is the first time someone asked me this. No, I'm just kidding. This the probably the hundredth time. And you know what's funny. What's funny is when I got my first real job of my life. I had been a paper boy and i'd you know, cut grass and all that. But my first real job was as a graduate assistant teacher and coach at the University of Akron and I had to
meet the athletic director to get the final approval. And I walked in and he told me not to sit down, and he said, I only have one piece of advice. If you want to reach your potential, if you want to have success here and in life, keep your mind and your rear end in the same place. And he didn't say rear end, by the way, And then he told me to leave, and as I walked out, I said, for the rest of my life, I'm going to do all I can do to keep my mind in my
rear end in the same place. So the answer is my mind in my rear end, just like they were at Youngstown State when I was coaching there, I wasn't dreaming about going to Ohio State. When I was at Ohio State coaching there, I wasn't dreaming about being a president someday. And I certainly haven't been dreaming about being a lieutenant governor or a governor. But I can promise you this, I'll keep my mind in my rear end, in the place that I am, and that hopefully I
can add value. And just like all the other chapters of my life, when I turned to the next chapter, a lot of times it's the unknown.
So you're not foreclosing the possibility of you putting together an exploratory committee in the next few months and running for governor. I hear the answer is you don't know. But you're not saying no. You're not saying yes. You're saying you don't know. You know what I'm saying. You're not saying yes. You're not saying no, you're saying I don't know. So by saying you don't know, it's not a no or a yes. So is the answer yes or no? Or is it I don't know?
Well, I'll tell you the answers. I don't even know what an exploratory committee is. You mean we're going to go sail somewhere and find an island? I mean, yes, I don't know what an exploratory committee is. But you know, it's funny. I remember when I got to Youngstown State as the coach and they said, you know, I had been at Ohio State as an assistant, and they said, is your goal to get to a house state as the head coach someday? I said, I don't know, but
I'll tell you this. If I'm not very good at Youngstown State, that's not I'm not gonna have to worry about that anyway. So I'm going to try to get as good as I can at what I'm doing, and I don't know what the future holds.
Well, what do you How would you respond to some in the state of Ohio. There's about twelve million of us here that would say, what does Jim Trussell know about politics? What does Jim Trussell know about lieutenant governor? What does Jim Trussell know about public policy? What does he know about the budget? What does he know about the marijuana reform laws? What does he know about sales
tax or the equalization formula of public education? So how do you respond to those who say Jim Trussell doesn't know anything about what he's doing.
How would you respond to that?
Well, I would start with the first one you had, You said, what do you know about politics? I guess I don't look at this as politics. I look at this as serving and trying to keep in mind the needs of every Ohioan, of every conversation. And then you rattled off a bunch of the things, and it's been fun. I was just sitting in on an ed board meeting, which I learned as editorial board, you know, I hadn't done those, And I listened to the governor talk about
the school funding. I listened to him talk about the marijuana situation and the tax for the potential help for stadium in the state, and on and on and on and so I'm not an expert really on anything. I never was. I'm a good listener, I'm a good learner. I've had the ability to connect people together and try to work hard together. I think the expertise that the governor hopes I can bring is the expertise and education
and workforce as it pertains to the outcomes. To me, the number one outcome this state needs is we better increase our workforce to meet the opportunities that are great leaders on both sides of the Isle and Jobs Ohio and everyone else have brought to us in the form of whether it's Intel or Andreil or keeping Sherlin Williams in Cleveland. Though the things going on in Cincinnati and
the Dayton Coalition, we've been brought some unbelievable opportunities. My hope is that I can contribute toward us making sure we can execute on those and that begins with education and building a workforce. And that's where I'm fairly certain he's going to ask me to spend a lot of time. I've already spent a lot of time with JP, Mascife
and Jobs Ohio. Over the years. We've got our region up in Youngstown that I worked with, the LAKEA River Region, I've worked with the team Neil, I've worked with the Central office there I've tried to talk about how do we integrate all the way down into the early years of making young people aware of the advanced manufacturing that's happening, the AI, all the different things, because we've got an
amazing opportunity. We have an amazing opportunity in Ohio. We've got Ohio River, We've got Lake Erie, we've got natural gas, We've got all these new companies who are in a location that is within five hundred miles of I don't know how many million people. Now. My biggest thrill as a coach who's going and trying to win the Big ten or the national championship, my biggest thrill now is to see if we can go and create that workforce that will allow us to be winners in these opportunities.
Well, since you're now the Lieutenant governor, there's a bill coming through the General Assembly that would fundamentally change the marijuana money distribution from the townships and the cities all into the state fund. There are many township officials I know quite unhappy with that. I expressed this to Governor Mike Dwain. A lot of city leaders are unhappy. There was a law passed by the voters, and now the legislature wants to change it. They want increase by fifty
to one percent the tax on marijuana. The bill took three hundred and twenty five million dollars out of the pockets of drug dealers and put it in the sales column of the state of Ohio. And now many in the industry are saying, the State of Ohio is going to kill the golden goose by increasing the price in marijuana is so much that individuals that use marijuana. Of course I'm not one of them. I assume you're not one of them. They're going to go back to the
dark market. There's going to be more people, more money, a hand of drug dealers. And so do you have an established position yet on the marijuana reform bill coming through the legislature?
You know, I don't. In fact, the first time I heard in in depth conversation about it was earlier today. One of the things that I've grown to learn here in the first few days of being in this opportunity is I got a lot of reading to do. I've got a lot of learning to do.
Learning and yep, oh, I've.
Got to listen. I've got to learn and I've got to make sure that I understand. And then people love anecdotes and they love data. I just want to make sure that the data is verifiable, that the anecdotes are that makes sense, They're not just you know, one offs. And but uh, it seemed to me listening to the editorial board questions to the governor, uh, that there'll be some good conversation about this.
Have are you a registered Republican for the last decade or so?
Have you been a registered Republican.
As far as I know? Yeah? Uh?
And did you vote for Mike the Wine each time?
I believe so? Yeah, I mean each time for governor that I voted for more than one time. You have a number of great American I'm one hundred years old. I vote. I might have voted for Mike Dwaine seventeen times for all I know.
Yeah, I think he's one in seventeen. All right, we got to run.
But Jim Tressel, new Lieutenant Governor of high let's get the lines of communication open. I love the idea you say, essentially, you got two ears and you got one mouth, and so you have a learning curve. But you're bright and you're gonna you're gonna learn and you're gonna get on. But thanks for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. Lieutenant Governor Jim Trestle of Ohio State and Young Sound State. Let's do it again in the next few months.
Yes, sir, you're a great American.
And God bless Abraham Lincoln and God bless Jim Trestle. Jim, thank you very much. All righty, goodbye, Let's continue with more the line becomes available five one, three, seven, four, nine, seven thousand. Bill Cunningham Live with you every day. You're home of the Reds. News Radio seven hundred WLW