Hello, I'm Zeke and welcome to The Zekely Podcast. Let's talk Pennsylvania. My guest today won his special election for the Pennsylvania State Senate last year in Lancaster County, flipping a seat that had been held by a Republican for over 130 years. And this year he is running for reelection to help pave the way for flipping the state Senate blue for the first time in 31 years. Thank you so much for being here, Senator James Andrew Malone.

I’m Zeke, a doctor, a Pennsylvanian and unapologetic supporter of Democratic values. You might have seen me on social media working my ass off for Democrats and meeting some pretty amazing people along the way - like President Barack Obama and Governor Josh Shapiro.

For years, I’ve knocked thousands of doors all over Pennsylvania and poured my heart and soul into supporting candidates and causes that make a difference—from local school board races to national elections. The personal is political, and I take every election in Pennsylvania personally.

Where the mainstream media has failed you, I will give you truth and independence. You’ll hear from Democratic leaders, candidates, and change-makers who are working to improve the health of the Commonwealth, and it won’t be boring as hell.

No matter where you are, I’ll meet you with hope and a plan to make your community better one day at a time. Welcome to the Zekely Podcast. Let’s talk Pennsylvania.

Thank you for having me, Zeke.

Oh my gosh, you last time we saw each other, I didn't have a beard and you weren't a state senator yet. And now look at us. We're just living our best lives. Congratulations, man. We're going to talk all about what you've been doing in the state Senate in Harrisburg. And I have to say, you you're my first repeat guest on The Zekely Podcast. So I'm super happy you're here. Thank you so much for making time for me. We're going to play some games and have some fun. Are you ready?

There you go.

Okay.

Sounds like a plan.

All right, well, I had to bring this game back just for you. OK, and it is freaking the sheets. OK, so for those who don't know, James Malone is a super user when it comes to Excel. And what I learned, what you probably already knew, was that there is an Excel World Championships every year. And I have some trivia for you to see if you're still up to date on your Excel World Championships. OK, I you've been really busy, but I hope you've made some time.

boy. ⁓

to watch your Excel spreadsheet

championships. James, I know you love it.

Well let's see, I haven't seen it for a while, so we'll see what it is.

Okay,

That I have no idea.

It happened at the HyperX Arena in Las Vegas. You could have gone to Las Vegas, James, and competed on a world stage. There you go. All right.

Well, there you go. I didn't have an

opportunity to get out to Las Vegas before all this stuff went on,

Well, next time, next time. All right, here's the next

one. True or false? Excel World Championships has its own theme song.

That's true.

It is true. And it is aptly called the Excel World Championship song. A section of the Excel Anthems lyrics say, who's going in the spreadsheet bin and who's getting stuck in the function sand? Those are part of the lyrics. All right, so you got that.

Here's another one. The total winnings for the championships was how much? You know, have a guess?

No idea.

$60,000 and first place could win $5,000. Yeah.

I got you,

so you can get a license to ⁓ Microsoft Premium.

There. Yeah, you use that to get the subscription. That's awesome. The grand finale, the case drew inspiration from what? You have any idea?

I don't know.

Japanese origami competitors had to fold paper in a spreadsheet using Excel coding

really could do that. You could actually fold paper in Excel. This is just blowing my mind, James.

Thanks.

just really quick, it would be VB functions or macros. And then you would have to access the page ⁓ view and then you'd have to sit there and code each of those folds. So that would be cool to see. I'll have to look at that.

huh.

I have no idea what you just said, but for any doubters, for any doubters who didn't think that James Malone was an Excel super user, there's some proof there, okay? All right, here's the last question. Irishman Dermud Early, I'm sure I'm butchering his first name, came in first

Bark!

What is his nickname?

James, his nickname is the LeBron James of Excel spreadsheets.

that's a mess. That's hilarious though.

Yeah, that's actually his nickname.

So you use something to look forward to. Maybe in the future, you will be at the World Championships of Excel.

Absolutely.

I highly doubt it, but it's kind of cool.

Well, thanks for playing Freak in the Sheets with me yet again.

Sure, absolutely.

James, tell me your best and worst experiences so far as a state senator.

through judiciary and through the Senate floor and over to the House.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

call the breaks, call the authorities, everything else. And then the adults fell back on, ⁓ well, it's not in the mandatory reporting on child on child predation, which turned out that was true.

Mm-hmm.

And so then I was able to talk with them and we were able to integrate the two together and move it forward. hopefully we'll be able to get that through the

Mm-hmm.

Congratulations. I mean, that's a

lot of work to get a bill moving through a chamber.

a lot of talking with different

So I'm hoping that this becomes an inspiration for us to do things quickly or quicker. But we'll see how it goes.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

that sounds great. Okay, what's the worst experience you've had so far as a state senator?

So

the worst experience actually was Saturday. So I'd been out to the PA Farm Show, a bunch of different legislative meetings and stuff, had the opportunity to speak with some FFA, Future Farmers of

my district. And they specifically asked, hey, can you be out here Saturday?

and see our awards and stuff. And so I'm like, absolutely, I'll get out there. So I started out, we had a bit of a snow and I ended up sliding on the road and clipping my vehicle on a speed post. Now I'm perfectly fine. There was nobody else in the car. I was a little sore ⁓ like for Sunday, right? But I'm good, right? And the car's being dealt with and all that jazz.

Uh-huh.

Missed it, missed it. I also ended up missing the 100th anniversary of Rotary Club.

And you missed it. You missed it. You disappointed those kids, James.

it's the way it goes.

I mean, look,

at least there hasn't been any hazing, you know, or bad food stories or nothing like that.

Yeah, no, no, I, you know, I'll

be absolutely honest. Across the entire floor, I haven't had any of that kind of, you know, ⁓ it has been interesting to hear some people like on new shows and stuff compared to, you know, in the lunchroom kind of thing. But that's really not different than a lot of other people.

Good. Good.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

you everyday life, you just walking down the street. So

it's been good.

Well, we got to get you

re-elected, James, so you can make up for all your tardiness at the Rotary Club. We need to get you back in the good graces of the Rotary Club.

Yeah, I'm working on it. I'm working on it.

James, have you done any skiing this winter?

I have not.

Not yet. So, I mean,

I heard a story, I heard a rumor that you once ate it pretty badly and crashed into a van during a previous...

I did, this

is true.

I

probably closer to 12, because this is what led me to just doing cross country period. But I was just,

You

learning. I had some great

incredible skiers. They

huh.

some stuff that was just amazing. Downhill slopes that are like,

we had to drop off and then pray that we caught the floor, that kind of thing. And so I'm like, I gotta learn this. I gotta learn this.

It was like my second or third time out and I'm getting better at all this and stuff. So I'm out on my own, know, that kind of

And I'm like, I need to slow down. But I'm nervous enough that I can't remember how

actually slow down. And so I started speeding up. I ended up careening

Yeah.

out of the slope across a road into a parking lot and

⁓ my god.

got smashed into a van. Thankfully, huge van, know, stopped me perfectly. Didn't break anything. I didn't break anything. Had a little bit of a bloody nose. That was it.

Uh-huh. my god.

that was that was my literal I am never downhill skiing again.

Yeah, that

sounds terrible. I only went skiing once in my life. Once right before I got married. I think it was between college and medical school and it was in West Virginia. And ⁓ I just like, yeah, you know what? I'll just go skiing. What's the big deal? It was a bunch of my friends and I caught my ski got caught underneath me I'm sure I should have like torn my ACL, but I didn't.

Thank you.

I think I stretched it right to the edge of what it should have snapped, but my knee blew up.

yeah, I mean, I didn't break it because I walked away, but my gosh,

I probably should have taken, I should have taken lessons probably first. I think I couldn't even pizza. I couldn't even pizza. No.

⁓ so.

run. I see little lessons, right? I

had had these like, here's the like I done like the little bunny slopes and all this that kind of thing. But you know, it could have been worse there. There was, you know, it was out in Red Lion Lodge. There was a lot of different directions I could have gone. So I was very lucky that, you know, I and it was all good. Now I did continue to cross country ski.

Yeah, yeah that sounds safer.

You you you

got two hard pulls, you know where you're going, and you relatively can stay flat most of the time.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think that's going to be more

my speed in the future. I don't think I'm to be doing any downhill skiing anytime soon.

James, what has it been

being the minority party in the state Senate?

That's been very interesting. It is obviously for people who've been in the minority party for a long time, it seems much more frustrating ⁓ than it does for me, right? Because I'm

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

So I don't have that visceral history,

you know, and like, you know, we had the budget come out, it was 133 days late. That is a very long time compared to the majority of how late things are.

Mm-hmm.

but they're still consistently late.

Yeah.

So we went past the deadline, past June 31st, another 133 days later, and then we ended up with a very good, very balanced, you know, not everything in the world that we would have wanted, but it still was functional.

Mm-hmm.

And it could have been done, you know, June 26, June 27,

You're right.

but because we didn't have leadership that was willing to take the good without regard for the perfect and was willing to try to help move the entire state forward rather than just burn it all down.

Right.

We couldn't make progress. So that was really

Hmm.

we've had 30 years where we haven't had, you know, a control, you know, the ability to run stuff. And we've seen our session days or days out doing actual legislation going down and down and down. We've seen,

you know, the the attack on public schools going up and up and up. And with no valid comparative that any of the other programs are better.

the private schools have no published how they're doing, how their kids are doing. There's no actual comparison, right? So, you the argument of course is, well, if the public school is only getting 60%, you should rip money out of the public school, pay this profiteering group the funds.

And ⁓ well, by the way, we have no way of validating that they're actually going to educate your kids. And in the ones that we do have test scores for, like cyber charter, and that their scores are abysmally lower than the public schools. But people who are saying, ⁓ you ought to let them do whatever, aren't bringing that up. They're just making a very slanted presentation.

Right.

And then of course,

I mean, you bring up a lot of really important points. mean, one, know, Democrats haven't been in control of the state Senate over 30

and over that period of time, they've been eroding confidence in public schools

Well, it's time to flip the state senate. It's time to do it. It's time to get democratic control because then you can work in lockstep with the state house and pass some great legislation for the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Hey, let's do it.

Hey, thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Zekely Podcast. And if you're enjoying yourself, please take a moment to rate my Podcast. Five stars would be great and leave a comment as well. And if you're watching this on YouTube, please hit follow. OK, back to the show.

All right, let's bring a game back, okay? We also played this on your last episode. It's called Bunch of Maloney. So let's see if you can separate fact from fiction, all right? So if something's not true, just say that's a bunch of Maloney, all right? So here's the first one. Mail in ballots are not safe anymore.

So, worthwhile. Sounds good.

Okay

Okay.

Others say.

That is the line.

Maloney.

Bunch of Maloney, come on.

Maloney. I'll get it.

Bunch of Maloney, that's right. ⁓ It's okay.

It's all right. Mail-in ballots are still extremely safe. And obviously, if you have a drop box where you live, you should use a drop box if you can. All right,

Right, in

our district, ⁓ in our district, in our county, we do not have drop boxes. You have to take it to the

Right, right, right.

authority. You have to take it to their office

Yeah.

or mail it

If you're going to use a mail-in ballot, and I strongly encourage you to do it,

as soon as you get it, fill it out and put it in the

Right, 100%. And you can go to pa.gov today or The Zekely podcast.com. I have a tab and you can register for a mail-in ballot now for the primary election on May 19th and also the general election on November 3rd.

All right, here's a couple

There we go.

The Democratic Party and Republican Party are both sides of the same coin.

You're a shark.

That is not true. That is not true. It is a bunch of Maloney. It is a bunch of Maloney.

Is it a bunch of Maloney? I got it. You got to say it. You got to say it. There you go.

Yes, it is. It's a statement I see flying around social media and even sometimes in person, people get so disaffected that they honestly think that if they vote, it doesn't matter who they vote for, nothing's going to change. yes.

Sure, sure.

It absolutely matters, most especially

from the ground all the way up. Do you absolutely endorse and believe in freedom, freedom of thought, freedom of speech? Do you believe in the Constitution? Do you believe in the ownership of history, good and

Mm-hmm.

And on the other side, do you believe that patriotism should be complete blinders and everything has always been perfect or do you believe that humans are dynamic and that we should own all of the issues, good and bad, and try and move forward to a better position?

I'm also very careful when I say the Democratic Party versus the Republican Party, because obviously a registered Republican, you can vote wherever you want, just like an independent can or a registered Democrat, but when it comes to the party platforms, they are not the same. And that's the important distinction. Here's the last one. Is this a bunch of Maloney? Every election is the most important election.

Right, sure.

Right. Absolutely. ⁓

Right. No, not at all.

That is absolutely true. Every election is the most important.

There you go.

Right, you got that one perfectly. Well, thanks for playing. That's a bunch of Maloney.

James, you recently got married to Beverly in June of last year.

I did, yes, Beverly

and I got married June 19th. Yeah. Thank you very much. Yes, yeah, so I grew up out there and Beverly had never been out there. So we went out, know, flew into Billings, Montana. I drove the vehicle and so she could like see and then anytime she saw something like really big, we kind of pulled over, but I...

That's cool. Well, first of all, congratulations, Mazel Tov. You tied the knot in Wyoming where you grew up, right?

Mm-hmm.

drove her all the way along the northern border of Yellowstone and then down the western border, stayed the night out in Jackson, and then drove up and stopped at a bunch of different spots all the way up through the Grand Teton ⁓ Forest.

Okay.

and then up into Yellowstone National

And I'll tell you, I'm always amazed at how just almost like serendipity just kind of walks right next to Beverly.

we got to Old Faithful. it's scheduled for like 45 minutes, know, they're pretty sure it'll go off and what have you. So it's like, well, let's take a walk around, right? So we walk back up into some of the glacier spires and start chatting with a forest ranger. And they're

Mm-hmm.

beehive, geyser,

is going to go off in like three

So the thing about Beehive is it's a bigger display. It's really awesome, but it only goes off every like one to five days.

⁓

it's very hard to calculate like when's it going to kick until you get like within 10 or 15 minutes and you start seeing like,

prepping up to kick, right?

gonna go. Yeah, yeah.

And so here we are. It's like, okay, she gets to see one of the really true beauties of the area

right there. And then we walked down and she gets to see Old Faithful, you know, so it was really, really wild. yeah. ⁓

That's awesome. I've never heard of... I never heard of the Beehive

Geyser.

Yeah, yeah, it's really pretty. mean, I'm sure nowadays you could look it up on YouTube and see it.

Hmm.

Yeah, I mean, I

saw Old Faithful a long time ago, but I never heard of it. Maybe because it wasn't the right time, nobody talked about it. But that's awesome that you and Beverly got to see that.

Sure, sure.

together. That's great. That's great. Mazel Tov and

I bet she's so proud of you, seeing you get sworn in as a state senator and just all the things you've accomplished. ⁓

Yeah, she held the US Constitution for me while I swore in on it.

that's great. Well, I hope she gets to hold it again for you later this year. That's great.

It was awesome.

Yeah, certainly upset.

Well, James, I know you were the primary caregiver for your mother who lives in a residential facility and she

a degree. Yeah.

She has advanced Alzheimer's. Yeah,

Are

you worried the Medicare and Medicaid cuts in the big bullshit bill are going to affect your mom?

Actually, I am I have

I have been working to pull together a lot of different people to write

federal representatives to encourage them because overall,

all of the changes that will go in

very bad. Currently, it's a net loss for reimbursements for the care. And one of the big problems with that is

Yeah.

it affects the entire facility, it affects

But to have the current leadership

be so extremely antagonistic against science and against medicine and against, you know, just the ability to really care and the willingness to care for

our elders and our children

is devastating. And

Yeah.

little bit sad when somebody in that camp is faced with a family member who is devastated by cancer or who is caught up in this cycle because then they become an ally.

in this cause

it hurts a bit because you're glad to have the help, right? Cause you need to move the ball forward and that's one less obstacle in the way, but you're so sad that it took themselves or a direct family member

Yeah.

suffering for them to understand what we were talking about, right? ⁓

Yeah, yeah. mean,

the personal is political, right? And it shouldn't have to happen to you. Yeah, it shouldn't have to happen to you if took care. Yeah.

Absolutely. I mean, but that's kind of my point is I guess

I was lucky enough to grow and to be taught the empathy to understand that, you know, this person's walk

Mm-hmm.

is my walk, even if we're from different worlds, different backgrounds, you know, different experiences.

Yeah.

Yeah, mean, empathy. I've said this a million times. Empathy is the Democratic Party superpower. It is putting ourselves in someone else's shoes, and hopefully it shouldn't have to happen to you to care. But yeah, this big bullshit bill is going to rip health care away from millions of Pennsylvanians. And you shouldn't have to worry that your mother is not going to get good care in a facility.

Well, see this,

That shouldn't be the case, right?

Mm-hmm.

We should all be working together to move everyone forward.

Yeah, it's frustrating because I know that Democrats in Harrisburg are trying to do what they can to protect a lot of the parts of the Affordable Care Act because in DC, the Republicans are basically trying to dismantle it. And in the state house, there were bills that were passed to ensure that children won't get kicked off of their parents'

But it died in the state Senate and they're trying, so they're trying to do things to protect Pennsylvanians so that they won't erode their healthcare more. The only way to push those through is to put you in control, to get Democrats control of the state Senate and get it to the governor's desk. So I'm really sorry that that kind of stress hangs over you with your mother, but I'm glad that you're

Right.

know, the good fight.

yeah,

James, I've been told you're doing a lot of work with Russell C. Redding, who is the Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture. So what are you two up to? What are you doing? What are you conniving?

I have been with him a lot, but it's

I like that. It's not so much conniving. So Secretary Redding, Governor Shapiro, all of them have been consistently working to listen to the agricultural industry. And it's a huge industry in

Hmm.

Yeah.

Lancaster District County in my

They're, you know, using manure digesters, which are ways of them to get, basically, they take a whole bunch of cow manure, turkey manure, whatever, and they

Process it down and these things have gotten more and more advanced to the point that Like nowadays you can not really even smell them like you be on the farm No, I'm not kidding. They're they Because of the way the digester is set up and the way that they're set they're all in there and they're pulling everything apart and they actually are be able to pull this apart and like end up with

Really? You don't even smell the manure?

That's crazy.

decent bedding for better bedding for the animals, better ⁓ fertilizer for their crops. They're coming up with better ways to actually inject the fertilizer into the soil so that it goes where it's needed rather than getting a rain and wash down the stream and

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's great. mean, I have to say growing up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I wish that my neighbors had the manure digester because I would wake up in the morning and I would step outside to walk down my driveway. Oh, it was terrible. There was a pig farm across the street, probably at least a half mile away, and they would collect all the manure in a giant pit.

So yeah, I I grew up out in Wyoming, man. It's like, ⁓ you know, I...

Sure.

If the wind was blowing just right, James,

the process has just gotten better.

I would get punched in the face just stepping outside to walk with pig shit. It was terrible. Well, I really hope that my neighbors have taken advantage of that because it's disgusting.

So I'll tell

And honestly, if somebody's still just digging a pit and dumping, it's like suggest to them, hey,

there's some innovation grants, you should reach out.

Yeah.

my God.

and

see if you can get that updated or upgraded.

Yeah, please, because that smell is

deeply embedded in my neurons. I never want to have to smell that stuff ever again.

halfway through the episode and you're still here. I hope you're enjoying yourself Please take a moment to rate my podcast five stars would be great Leave a comment as well. And if you're watching this on YouTube, please hit follow. Okay back to the show

James, Governor Josh Shapiro recently rescinded the no hunting on Sunday's law, which was in place for 152 years.

So

must have been

great. I mean, now you don't have any restrictions on Sundays for that segment of

we've had 200 years one way, give us three to five years this other way. Let's see how it is. And now with this legislation, we don't even have to go through and change anything, right? The commission now has the ability that

Exactly, exactly.

Mm-hmm, right.

If they look at this and it goes through five years and they're like, ⁓ this isn't really like giving us what we were expecting. They can rearrange it. You know, they can change it.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Hmm.

And we have gotten a lot of feedback from, you know, grandfathers and fathers who are like, hey, you know, my son, grandson is like,

Mm-hmm.

massively into lacrosse, massively into football. My daughter is heavily into basketball and now we can get out on Sunday. We can go do those, that kind of thing.

Mm-hmm.

⁓ yeah, that's nice.

whatever. ⁓

Well, even if you're not doing the classical

hunting anymore, I did see you do the glow trap shooting on Instagram. You are you're pretty darn good. I saw you shooting those clay disks. You're you're pretty darn good, James.

I did, I did. I'm actually pretty proud about that. I hadn't picked up a-

Well,

yeah, I think that so I only got seven out of 25, but I got seven out of 25 in both rounds. So I'm consistent. ⁓ But I will say I hadn't picked up a shotgun since I was 19.

Okay.

huh. ⁓

huh.

it was fun. It was great. And, you know,

Yeah, it looked like it was fun.

I'm gonna have to check that out sometime if we get out to Lancaster do some glow trap shooting. And you know, maybe we can have a little competition. I just have to get eight to beat you. So I feel like I can get eight. I can get eight to beat you, James, no problem.

Yeah,

That's true. That's true. Absolutely.

James, tell me about the orange hats. You've always got an orange hat.

⁓ sure.

So I'm wearing, you know, I'm wearing a bright orange shirt,

You got your orange shirt on.

I got a ⁓ the Pennsylvania game commission, right? So I'm minority chair. So I stopped in and I got one. Now, this one is really bright orange, specifically because I went to a

There it is.

huh. Yep.

Mm-hmm.

a podcast

with them and was talking with them. And I had my other one on and they said that some of my staff had mentioned that it was getting a little dingy. And so they gave me two more. Now I will say the shirt is purchased from Beverly. It was a gift from my wife.

Hahaha

Okay, of course.

I've always liked orange. so it's like the also, you know, I used to call it, don't shoot me orange because it's hunter orange, you know, that kind of thing. ⁓ but I also laughed about that because deer don't have guns. So it's like, you know, don't know what,

⁓ yeah, yeah, there you go.

Hahaha

you know, I've always said that this way someone can see you from a ways off, you know, and

yeah, yeah.

It's also it is disarming for folks

like I said, I'm 6'3 barefoot. I look about 6'5 with my boots on. Right. And, you know, I'm rather large. Right. So

sometimes I'll wear an all gray or all black ⁓ outfit and you get a very different if you're walking up to a stranger.

and you're just in a very dark outfit versus having a bright smile and a bright orange hat, right? So yeah, it's a little disarming and it ⁓ allows a chance to chat with people ahead of time, you know?

Yeah.

Yeah, it is.

Yeah,

I have to say not everyone can pull off orange, James, but you pull it off very well. You really do. Now here's a follow up question. If there was a fruit basket inside your office when you first walk into, you know, in Harrisburg, what kind of fruit is sitting inside that fruit bowl for your guests?

I appreciate it. I appreciate it.

it would definitely, so this is another, it would definitely be citrus oriented. ⁓ Clementines, I'm all the way across. would be, you know, clementines, orange. they've got a new one that's like an orange and a grapefruit mixed together. I don't remember the name, but no, it would be full on.

huh, yeah yeah.

James,

who could have guessed? Who could have guessed that you could have had oranges in a bowl in your office? I don't know. Lucky guess. Lucky guess.

You

Absolutely.

I saw on your social media that you joined your colleagues on January 6th to honor the officer who passed away following the attack on the Capitol and those who were injured. Were there any of your Republican colleagues present during this ceremony?

Yeah, and those who were injured, absolutely.

I'll be honest, I wasn't paying attention to who was standing there. you know, I will note

the specifics for it is the remembrance of those people who stood in during a terrible attack on our country and on our democracy. And, ⁓ you know, it is literally about remembering them and remembering their

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

service to their duty and to their country.

Yeah, there's just, well, there's just so much rhetoric that comes out of DC and that honestly also spills over at the state level as well. And there are a number of, you know, Republican state reps and state senators who do not believe that what happened on January 6th was a violent insurrection and that those officers were not victims. So I was just

Well, you know, it's

it is a hard

to discuss belief versus fact, right? You can believe one plus one equals three.

It does not change the

and so that I think that's like one of the most fundamental

Yeah.

variances,

right? there are sometimes you hear a lot of times where people will say, you need to hear both sides of an argument. There are some things where there are not two sides. There are the facts

and opinions regarding those facts. And then there is just baloney that should really not be up, right?

Don't create misinformation in our world that harms our society, right?

Mm-hmm. Right.

Yeah, well, I'm just I'm just happy that you live in reality and that you understand the facts and that you showed up to honor the passing of that officer and the ones that were harmed on January 6th. And hopefully it never, ever happens again.

Absolutely.

James, I cannot believe that this didn't come up the last time you were on my show, but you are the first Latino state senator in Pennsylvania history.

I mean, what an accomplishment! What an accomplishment! mean, especially in these times.

That is true.

I don't mean to be flippant, right. And I don't mean to be negative at all. But I had absolutely nothing to do with how and who I was born to.

And all I do is is just embrace and live the best I

Mm-hmm.

My great grandparents on my mother's side were born in Spain and in Mexico.

My grandparents on my mother's side were born in Medina County, Hondo, Texas, around that

Mm-hmm.

they came up into Wyoming, like I'm a first generation Wyomingite, right?

Mm-hmm.

So yeah, it's fabulous.

I mean, look, I'm a big proponent

that representation matters. and people who are looking to you, you know, people in your community, children all across the Commonwealth are going to know that if they're Latino, they can grow up and become a state senator in

Sure, absolutely, absolutely.

can't believe it's taken this long for Pennsylvania to elect its first Latino state senator, but I'm really happy that it finally happened. And the fact that it happened in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, of all places, is a true testament to how far Pennsylvania has come and Lancaster County has come. So an amazing achievement and I'm really happy for you.

Hahaha

Well, it's a very,

We all have different cultures. We all found something that our family loved about, you know, Lancaster. And we came in here and we're all trying to make it the most productive, the most beautiful place that we can. And I think that's worth working together for.

Yeah,

you're doing great.

Well, James, I didn't realize that the Pennsylvania Auctioneer Competition Championship occurs at the PA Farm Show every year. And yeah, I didn't know that.

I did not either. I met up with them

just after their calling competition. And so it was very interesting.

⁓ yeah, it's very interesting. They're judged

on presentation, their voice, their salesmanship. Well, we're going to have an auction on The Zekely Podcast. Okay. And I'm going to be the, I'm going to be the auctioneer. All right. So you can only bid once. So bid carefully. Okay. The first thing you're going to be bidding on is minimum wage in Pennsylvania. Okay. So currently.

okay.

Okay.

Now,

typically in an auction, you get a view of all of the items before you start a bid on any of them.

Yeah.

Well, the okay, well,

this is going to be a blind auction. Okay, so the the ⁓ the first item with only two items that I could come up with. So the first item is a minimum wage in Pennsylvania. It is a measly seven twenty five an hour. Even Ohio, our neighbor, has a ten dollar an hour minimum wage. OK, so this is my best attempt at being an auctioneer. You can only bid once. OK, and there's some other people that are going to be bidding as well. You ready?

hahahaha ⁓

Sure, absolutely.

Sure, sure, sure.

We're going start

⁓

up Ismael Smith-Wadell. We have $11. How about, come again, $13. Here we go, Senator James Malone, $13 an hour for Pennsylvania.

That's where I would be, 13.

Of course, that doesn't solve all the other problems that are inherent in the system that need to be addressed and corrected. But it's a good start to at least pull that one out.

It's a good start.

So, and that's a variance.

Right. Well, also, it also, yeah, I

mean, it also, if the ground floor is 725 an hour, then anything above that makes it seem like they're throwing you a bone, right? And then you can't live off of 725 an hour, right? So, so it, yeah. Right. You can't. And,

Well, and I mean, that's the whole point is just actually trying to provide that living wage for

a single individual.

And look, other states have figured it out. You give tax incentives and tax breaks to the businesses and you do it in a graded fashion. So it's not going to jump up right away. The businesses can acclimate to it.

Sure, sure,

But the thing is that people deserve to make a thriving wage in Pennsylvania. And so I'm glad that you would vote to increase that. But it's only going to increase if we flip the state Senate because it's already been passed in the state house by the Democrats and that's died in the state Senate because Republicans are controlled. But I'm glad that you'll be on the right side of that.

It's true.

All right, we got one more thing up for auction. Okay, one more. And it is months, months that women should get paid maternity leave in Pennsylvania. Okay, so.

Alright.

Other countries have figured out that women deserve to get paid time off, right? In Europe, sometimes they get nine months off paid maternity leave because women deserve to recover from pregnancy. And in Pennsylvania, it is not uniform. A lot of women have to save up all of their vacation time. And if they're lucky, their businesses might give them, right, they might be able to have enough time to take a month to six weeks off.

ETO's and all that jazz.

So you're going to bid on how many months should women in the Commonwealth, the people who are bringing new life, the future leaders of the Commonwealth, time off to care for their children for getting back to work. You ready? Let's start off with one month. Over here we have Rep Bradford is going to go for one month. Can I get two? months, two months, one month, two months. Rep Monroe, we have two months. Can I get three months? Three months, three months, over here. Over here, Rep McClinton.

We have three months. Can I get four months? Four months, it was three months. Over here, Senator Vincent Hughes, cool with four months. Let's go crazy. We're going to do six months. was four months. Here we go. Senator James Malone sold for six months across the Commonwealth to give women six months paid time off.

Yeah, I would do this.

And I think honestly,

it should be an option, right? Now I know you'd have a lot of folks that'd be talking about like, well, there's a peer pressure, there's a work pressure, all that. But it's one of those things, you're setting your initial interaction with your child. You're also getting your health back up. Because it is a massive trauma.

It is.

for

their bodies, even on the best possible pregnancy, everything gone right.

Mm-hmm. Yeah,

And I know that there would still be some people that they feel great and they feel like their bonds work in and they...

Mm-hmm.

Maybe they want to like telework or something like that. Other people would be like, no, I really need to focus on this. And other people would be like, dude, this is just not my gig. I got the baby out. I'm going back to

Yeah, they should have the option.

Mm-hmm.

but we should, we should have the availability for them to have that.

The option, 100%.

I appreciate that, James. Now, the important question after you is, how was I as an auctioneer? Was that exactly how they sounded at the farm show?

I will say some of the younger guys absolutely would blow both of us out of the water. Easy enough. But I think it was a good run. A good attempt. Absolutely.

Yeah.

Thank you. ⁓ I'll stick to

my day job. I'll stick to my day

Wow, you're still listening. Thank you so much. I want to make sure as many people in Pennsylvania as possible get to experience The Zekely Podcast. So to help spread the word, please take a moment to rate my podcast. Five stars would be great. Leave a comment as well. And if you're watching this on YouTube, please hit follow. Enjoy the rest of the show.

James, you marched on a picket line recently with Starbucks workers in Lancaster who are fighting to protect their ability to unionize. And you may be the first senator in your district to ever do such an act. So why is it important to you to protect unions?

I did.

every single benefit that we have in our modern working society, whether it's child labor laws, the 40-hour work week, Saturday and Sunday off for the majority of folks, just keep going on and on and on,

is because of

labor fighting to gain those rights.

that is extremely important to me that we support labor. We support the right to unionize

and and that we support that right to a collective bargain. Right.

for that purpose, yeah, was out with the Starbucks workers. I was out with the behavioral health workers. I actually took the time to reach out to

other individuals, other senators and be like, hey, this is happening in your district. Do you want to come out with me? Let's go together. You know, here's the details, that kind of thing.

Mm-hmm.

I haven't had a republic senator join me. I'll keep working on it, right? ⁓

Yeah, it's not

I think everybody has a sliver of compassion. You just have to figure out where it's aimed. And so that's my goal is to try and get that empathy.

Mm.

I mean, James, if you can't bring someone together

over coffee, I mean, how are you going to get it? How are you going to it? I know. I'm telling you. I mean, I don't like coffee, but I know it's the most consumed, consumed hot beverage in the world. And if you can't get a Republican to come out and help some, some workers trying to give out coffee, I think it's going to be a hard mission. But I am very grateful that you are sticking up for unions in Pennsylvania, going to the picket lines because

So.

Yeah.

they need to see their representative standing up for them. And that must have been very powerful power for them to see that.

Yeah, and I think we all

James, I don't know what your energy bills have been like, but mine have really spiked the last two months. And I know that you spoke at the PA Public Utilities Commission hearing recently and asked them not to increase their rates. ⁓ So I'm really appreciative that you're doing what you can.

I asked the PUC

not to let PPNL increase their rate again. Let's be clear, they raised them in June and we asked them not to raise them again.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

they're not doing anything illegal. Let's be clear about that.

Mm-hmm.

The law is specifically bent

to allow private utilities

to jack up

with

an almost non-existent

for the sake of their shareholders, the actual payers and the actual users be

Right.

you know, as legislators,

obviously, we need to fix that guffaw. And, you know, and we don't need to spend, you know, decades arguing about why they did it, we just need to acknowledge it doesn't work. It's a bad precedent. And we need to fix the law.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I said PPL because that's the company that I spoke up about, but

Mm-hmm.

private utilities for water, private utilities for sewer, private utilities for electricity all across the

Yeah.

There are a lot, I will not say all because I don't want to point at anything in like a great brush, right? But there are a lot of these private utilities.

Yeah.

that are following the letter of the law to allow them to profiteer off of the backs of their

Yeah,

It's greed.

It's just greed. And, you know, okay, maybe this form of greed is not illegal. But I'm sure that in Harrisburg, if we had more Democrats in control, then you could pass some legislation to prevent that greed from getting out of hand. And another big reason why we have to let the state Senate. Yeah.

Sure, absolutely.

It certainly helps though. mean, that

is a goal and a hope, right?

Yeah.

Well, James, usually the last two questions of the show are normally what gives you hope and what are your plans for the next few years? But you've already answered that question. You've already answered those. So so we live in unprecedented times, and I wanted to give you the floor. Give me a monologue with some with some hope how you could inspire my listeners, my my viewers to get out and vote.

hahahaha

this May 19th and this November 3rd in Pennsylvania. I give you the floor, Senator James Malone.

Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere in this country. And I think that that is a truth

that we need to take into our hearts and understand fully.

Mm-hmm.

when we're dealing with

every issue that's happening, whether it's feeding a kid here in New Holland

or figuring out how to get a bridge fixed in Canoei or figuring out how to manage and set up a fully funded school system in Philadelphia or in

Mannheim Township or in Pittsburgh or in Jonestown. we're all here. We're all together. Some may not like that, but it's a fact, right? And we all need to figure out how to move

our areas, our neighbors, ourselves, our states forward into a more positive direction.

and get out and vote and get out and vote for Senator James Andrew Malone. I am so grateful you came on again. And for those who are listening, watching and you'd understand something last year when you were elected in the special election, you won that seat by a little over 450 votes, 450 votes.

Get out and vote. Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Yeah, I think

the

I want the trifecta so fucking badly. I want it so badly. I want to have a democratic governor. I want to have a democratic majority in the state house. I want a democratic Senate. And we are going to push so much good legislation through and make the Commonwealth better, but it only works if you vote. And James Malone in SD 36 is the pathway to the majority. So please, if you live in SD 36, James, what's your website again?

friendsofjamesmalone.org. ⁓

go there, sign up to Doorknock, send postcards, make a small donation, follow James Malone on all of his social media. You're crushing it right now on social media. I love what you're doing. Whoever's running your social media accounts, give them a raise,

Appreciate it. Appreciate it.

I can't vote for you. I wish I could, but God, I cannot wait to see you win again. James, thank you so much for coming on and ⁓ let's keep fighting the good fight. Absolutely. Get out the vote, Pennsylvania. Every election is the most important election.

Understood.

Thank you for having me. Absolutely.

Well, thank you so much for joining me here on The Zekely Podcast. Stay hopeful and get involved and until next time, let's keep building a stronger Pennsylvania together.