Rachel Wallace, Democrat candidate for Congress 9th district

So Rachel Wallace is running against Dan Meuser. Uh, she's originally from Pottsville. She's lived out of town for, uh, well, I guess her... most of her adult life. Uh, worked in the Obama State Department. Uh, worked for a couple Democrat senators. She was on the Joe Biden presidential campaign in 2020. She worked in the Biden White House in various positions from 2021 to 2023. She was a consultant after that to a number of, uh, left-wing activist groups, and now she's running, uh, for Congress for, uh, the seat that includes Schuylkill County and Pottsville, and she is with us right now. Uh, Rachel Wallace, welcome to The Bob Codaro Show.

Bob, I am so glad to be calling in. I'm a big fan of local radio. Um, I drive all over our district, and I don't listen to Spotify, I listen to local radio. And, uh, I have to tell you, my dad is a good Republican man. He loves conservative radio. I grew up listening to Rush Limbaugh with Dad, so I'm very pleased to be here.

And what happened to you? [laughs]

I appreciate you having me on.

And what happened to you? [laughs]

[laughs]

Oh, my gosh. This is-

Well, I, I gotta tell you, Dad's, Dad's a Republican, but my mom's dad, uh, was a Democrat, and he was the president of his local gun club, the president of his local union. That's the Democratic Party that, that I wanna be part of.

All right. We'll, uh, we'll talk a little bit about that. How should I address you? Ms. Wallace and, and Rachel okay?

Oh, gosh. No, no. Rachel, please.

All right.

If I can call you Bob, you gotta call me Rachel.

Of course you can call me Bob. All right, uh, Rachel Wallace, t- talk to us a little bit... Uh, we, we know a little bit about your background. You're running for Congress against, uh, Dan Meuser. There's a lot of hot button issues that, uh, the Democrat Party has gone completely insane on, and I, I sorta wanna get your take as... and find out where you are with a number of these. First of all, uh, w- and, and not in any particular order, but the open border that the Biden administration, your administration, uh-

Right

... created, uh, during the course of the Biden years. And it, it, I mean, it brought increased fentanyl deaths, uh, increased crime, increased cost in healthcare, food, housing, everyday necessities. Uh, and the Democrat Party is basically saying, "Yeah, we're open border, and we don't want anybody deported." Where do you stand on this?

Yeah. Well, I think the Biden administration made a huge mistake on this issue. Um, and I, I, I think I have a lot of common ground with your listeners here. We need secure borders. It's very important. Uh, we need to know who's coming into our country. People who wanna be citizens of our country, they need to do it the right way. Um, and we need to make sure that we've got funding to stop fentanyl from coming into our communities, and that people who are here illegally and commit crimes, they need to serve their time and then be deported. And I think this is an issue where there's a lot of common ground in the country, and we need Congress to actually start fixing our broken immigration system instead of just whining about it. 'Cause people, we wanna see change here. I think we all