Interview with Jaqueline Timmer

Welcome back at everybody. This is uh, I'm jumping in for Brian here. Let you know that Jacqueline Timor has joined us. That's kind of why we were a little discombopulated there. But Jacqueline and hopefully I'm not saying it right, Jacqueline. Yeah, do you go by Jackie or Jacqueline, Jacqueline or jack But Jackie's my grandmother, lover, but don't go by Jackie. Okay, perfect? All right? Well I met you and I was telling Brian this and Woody that I went to the Freedom Cock has had a rally, Yeah, and Matt Gates was there, and it's so cool in Lynchburg, the people that just in the last year we've seen DeSantis, I've seen Governor Yunkin, I've seen Matt Gates now. And so they were in there and Bob good it was a campaign kind of a rally for him and it was in Forest And then I was introduced to you and that you were one of the ones getting ready to run for Lynchburg City Council. And I was like, man, she looks she looks better than crazy. Right, you're not crazy, but you've got to be crazy. What in the world yeah, what would make Well, let's first off, what's your background, where'd you come from? And now you're going to know that I'm crazy because someone who's experienced what I've experienced in politics would definitely not run for office. Okay. So, so I was raised in the political I'm a second generation, which which is scary for a lot of people. But father, mother, father, So my father was a state rep. He was a state AG. He had a number of opportunities that he actually ran down to run for state AG, including a national appointment and a back to congressional run. But as AG, he had a number of very high profile cases, some very significant murder cases that were very high profile. And in the context of some of the different investigations that he had, I'm an only child, I became a target. So I experienced some very creditable threats from organized gangs that I will not mention. I don't want to give them any bright ideas that they miss their target. But Kansas Burum Investigation got involved. The federal year of investigation had removed us from our home in that time period, and that was related to a different threat. So there are a number of things that took place where I've had helicopters fly around our house looking second story windows, been followed by unmarked media vehicles. At the time, I had a death threat covered in fecing. I can go on. So my political experience was unsavory at best. And with that I actually became a bit of a hippie. I was kind of went through an anarchist phase. So I did. Yeah, I had dreadlocks, the whole bit. So wow, Yeah, rock climber and uh oh yeah, I loved it, loved it. Is a great season of life. There's a part of me that would just really rather be surfing. So where did where? Where did you call? Where did you call? Home? Lin? So I grew up Midwest, Midwest, moved to Virginia middle of my junior year of high school, and this is the move was due to politics, Yes it was, yeah, And so moved out here in nine, graduated from New Covenant, went to Liberty and and then I said peace out, went to California for a bit. Griff, I think that just won the state. Let's just calm down. The weird sound I made, by the way, was our call. I don't know if you all want to if they're looking for one my daughter goes to Timberlake. So okay, it's not really rival, but it is in volleyball a big deal. Volleyball is a big deal at New Covenant. Yeah, volleyball players scare me. I was a basketball player, okay, but yeah, volleyball players. I get a bit intimidated. What's good New Covenant? And then onto Liberty? Yepod and what what was your major at Liberty? So I did an interdisciplinary studies degree and I combine government and philosophy, so it was Western legal traditions and then essentially philosophical history. So did Liberty get you out of your hippie stage or you were out of it before attending Liberty? No? I actually plunged into a full force mid Liberty. Oh wow, yeah, okay, I would say that doctor for Dawn, who is a fabulous professor. I took government for twenty one with her and some of the seeds planted from that class or really what pulled me out later on? And I say that with all love and affection to my hippie friends, but it brought me back to I feel like it gave me the tools I needed to navigate a lot of a lot of pain and a lot of disenchantment with her, with her government institutions. It's very cool. Well, you know, and hopefully I'm quoting this right, but Churchill said, if you're not liberal at twenty one, you don't have a heart. There's so much truth in that, because forty you don't have a brain. It's a lot of experiences, that's what you go through. A lot of liberalism is compassion without an understanding of jurisdiction. Yeah, and so we have to understand who's responsibility it is to do what and why those responsibilities are delineated in there. But it's it's compassion without an understanding of jurisdiction. So what where did you go to after you ail? You to jump into the to the full force hippie movement, and then how did you climb your way back to hear what I'd like? This is really what was just fascinating. So I moved out to northern California and that for me was kind of my my walk about with the Lord, if you will, where I was just like God, you know, I need to understand who you are and who I am in relationship with you, apart from having a mission and apart from you know that martyrdom complex, so to speak. And so I just went on a journey with the Lord and ended up getting into business, was working in marketing. Wound up in San Diego after my husband and I got married. My my husband and I met here. I'm so blessed. When I came back for a visit, we reconnected dated a week and a half. I was headed back to California. A week later. He was headed out to California too, So he pursued me, and I'm so grateful. He's the best. So now I think when I saw you, was he carrying the baby. He's carrying the baby like you were taking all the hands and he was following behind. That was freaking yeah. And he just bored appiation. He's he's a he's a man's man, and he's a great dad. But he just boarded aviation with the Army National Guard and he's commissioned as an officer. So he's going to oversee a platoon of black Hawk pilots. Wow, awesome, that is great. Well, thank him for his service too. Talking getting back to a little bit to your faith. What's interesting about it is you almost, at least my journey, you almost lose yourself and you think you have so many grand ideas of what you want to do with your life, right, and it takes over and you're nowhere close to where you thought you wanted to be. And Christ takes you in a way and it's I don't know, it's neat sometimes to see. When you come out on the other end, you're like, I would have never written that, but this has written so much better. Yeah, I mean, is that has that kind of been your journey a little bit? Oh? Man? Absolutely? I you know, He makes all things new, and He is the god of exceeding abundantly. Yea. And so you know, the period of my life that I would have, you know, even two three years ago, have a hard time talking about and feeling extreme pain about. Are the things that I'm most grateful for now. I'm like, wow, the inheritance that I have received from so many experiences at a very young age. Honestly, I'm very grateful for the hardships in life, but how He redeems all things and makes it new. And I'm really grateful that I'm not where I, you know, projected that I would be at this stage in life. Absolutely. I was reading an article in the paper that just came out, very good article and talking about your aspirations towards city council and it mentioned in there, I guess your full time job. And if I'm saying this the wrong way, but it's election integrity, that's right. So that's cool. I'll retain a little bit. So what does that mean? I mean, we have a we have our own thoughts all that, that's what we do every week. But what is that? Well, first, it's really interested in that. You know, great, if you just want to disrupt a party, say that you work in election integrity, So that's that's our kind of party. You would be right up there with it. Yeah. But so so that work. It's kind of funny. I as I mentioned earlier, I went full on into business and I did a lot of marketing and especially fitness marketing, you know, worked with various forms of fitness instruction and then the marketing side of that. And uh, early twenty twenty, I got a phone call. Well, okay, I'm trying to figure out how condensed I want to make this story and all the different parts of it are popping up, so well, well i'll leave that part out. Okay, So got I ended up getting a phone call unexpectedly that asked me to come and take on a political project. Said no at least twice, maybe three times, and then finally caved after talking with my husband and some different people said yes. So my husband was gone with the military. I went up to Michigan and I was a part of a team that was looking into the covenatorial overreach in light of the COVID lockdowns. And I mean, your listening audience is very aware of a number of the issues that arose with COVID and how emergency police powers were used unjustly and I'm well, yeah, absolutely wrongly, but also they were used to oppress political opposition. And then we started to see that trend when it came to the election process, where certain people had access to voter information other people did not. There was a targeted element of how COVID mandates were being applied in order to favor particular political candidates. And so as we were looking into all of this, and we were partnered with a group that was bringing some litigation around some of these issues. And this is pre November, mind you, we became aware of the Zuckerberg funds and we were one of the first groups to draw attention to the Mark Zuckerberg funds and how that was being applied in the election process. Through the Center for Tech and Civic Life, we took that investigation further and we've backed it up twenty years and we've tracked hundreds of nonprofits, including fictitious business names and DBAs essentially that allow these groups to be very fluid and how they pop up and how they disappear, impacting the election process. And something that's really important to note when it comes to nonprofits is they're not subject to Foyer requests, which is the Freedom of Information Act, and so government officials are. And that's part of why government officials are the ones that are overseeing core government functions. But what we're seeing now is that actually public private partnerships are forming in contractual agreements where the local municipalities become beholden to the nonprofit through that public private partnership in a manner that's contrary to state law. But there's no ability to look in on what's actually happening because if those things are being conducted through the nonprofit, it's very difficult to move through that barrier. It's possible, but it's extremely challenging. Well, my fear is we talk about this, but the election integrity and the things that we saw in certain locations, you know, four years ago, what has anything been done to keep those same things from happening again? Or are we going to have the exact same duplication of what went on in twenty twenty. I'd say not effectively, And I'm sad to say that. You know, most people can agree that we want accountable, transparent, inclusive elections. That is what USA AID puts forward when we have when we involve ourselves in international elections, most people can agree on that. I think that election should be really the unifying issue of our time to it a lot. We can't trust that, right, can't trust anything beyond it exactly exactly the things that I've seen done, and there have been some positive things, I don't think they address the underlying issue of transparency because if we again, if we have partisan groups that are running core government functions without the ability to see how that is taking place, and it is admittedly in manners that are contrary to the state election law, that's a huge problem. The laws that have been a past passed do not effectively do that we have model legislation. We've actually partnered with a former advisor to the Al Gore campaign who's come forward and we agree on election integrity and we're working in a number of states to see that through. Now obviously we're past session now and there are different projects we're involved in, but we've partnered really heavily on that. Yeah, so let me ask this. Does that mean there's people on the other side that see the same thing, that it all has to be transparent or what I see is what I call the other side of the other side from me. Well, I'm running as a Republican, So you know, is there any I'm sorry, is there any way to get to election integrity by partisans with I think? So? Okay, Now, I will say there is a far extreme left that is not your grandparents Democrat party, and you all are very aware of it. Oh absolutely, and there is another agenda there. But as far as you know, like RFK and and some of these different people are you know what I'm trying to see right now. But but there are a number of people that were formerly considered hard left that are classic liberals, and classic liberals still believe in the Constitution. So there's a lot of ground to work with them. Yes. Well, so with that background, what what got you back in Lynchburg to live here and then decide, you know what, I'm going to throw my hat in the ring? What what what transpired there? Right? So we moved back largely to be close to family and to start a family. I loved living in downtown San Diego. I'm not gonna lie it was It was great, but it is not the best place to raise child. So there there are some great things there that I would have loved to be able to expose my children too, but it just wasn't feasible for a number of reasons, and it wasn't wise for a number of reasons. So it was really good to be back near free babysitting and have the support system and it's a beautiful place to be. So it's great to be back in Lynchburg among some really good old friends that both my husband and I had here. As far as city council, that was not planned or projected in any way. It was actually my first meeting, my first meeting back with the Republican Party after giving birth to our son, and someone came up to me and said, are you ready to run for office yet, And I kind of looked at him, It's like, no, No, I was not thinking about that. And then it kept coming up, and it came up a number of times with various people, and I'm very honored that they think of me, and I'm very honored by their support in that. And we went to prayer and started meeting with community leaders and realized that a lot of what Lynchbird needs right now is bipartisan coalitions. And that's a lot of what I've done at the national level with some pretty controversial issues. And so you can you can meet with people where you disagree on nine out of ten things, yes, and you find that one thing and then that's where you move the needles. And that can be done without compromising your values. And right now Lynchburg is following the national trends of being very divided, and honestly, we need to cancel cancel culture. The Republican Party is the party of the Constitution. We're the ones that believe in free speech, We're the ones that believe in the Bill of Rights, and so you know, we need to recognize the opposition and who they are and the real issues around what is being brought forward. But we also need to be the ones who are opening the door to conversation in order to move forward where there's the opportunity to take ground. Yeah, you know, Linsburg's really gotten a black eye probably in the last year in that or two years in that whole scenario of Yeah, you mentioned national politics. Well, Brian and I talk about this all the time. It's like we agree with a guy up to a point, and then for some reason, if he strays off the path of what everybody else agrees, the first thing they yewe is Rhino right, like you liked him just three months ago. And because there was a difference of opinion, we all aren't going to think the same way. We all don't believe in the exact same thing or how to get it done, but there is a cordial way of doing it. Yeah, and sometimes you build trust when you when you argue with each other, you don't listen to each other anymore. So it'd be nice to have a little bit of a change like that, I think. I mean, Ben Carson was the first Republican that I saw kind of come to the to the spotlight and say, look, we can't We're never going to get to where we want to be if we constantly tear down every Republican that doesn't agree with us one hundred percent of the time. And he said, if we don't have enough people in the same room talking the same conversations, we're just going to keep losing. And he's so right about it, but yeah, we still do it. Yeah, And I hope we can get to a place and that includes in Lynchburg politics. Yeah, I hope we can get to the place where, like Trent and I just we'll talk about and I get and I can't what's the congressman that got out? Else did recently by the Republican Party, the one from New York Santos Right, Yes, you know, I could name thirty people that are worse than him. They're not getting kicked out, and it's like we eat our Ownnes's like stop at some point in time. I don't know. But I also at the same time, that is also why I like the Republican Party is we don't allow bad things to just keep festering. Check on who are your political inspirations? Oh man, Oh that's a great question. That's why you bring it here occasionally. This is gonna sound kind of corny, but I'd have to see my dad, and I want to go back to something you were saying really quick, and I promise I'll answer your question. I think it was George Donald and may be wrong, but he said, if you're agreeing one hundred percent of the time, one of you is lying exactly. It's just it doesn't work that way exactly. So. And the other thing with that is my husband and I when we were dating, we actually bonded over conflict resolution. We fought all the time when we were dating. We never fight now, but we came to a place of trust with each other. We came to a place of trust with each other where it was like, oh, you're somebody that I can work through problems with, and because of that, we're able to just enjoy life a lot more because there is that trust like you were mentioning, where if you have a disagreement and you're able to work through it, that there's typically more trust on the other side. But as far as political aspirations or people that inspire me, I would really say my dad, you know, my parents put it all on the line. Had a really prominent investigation that was a lawful investiga to protect children. Multiple judges found probable cause that crimes have been committed by partisan judges, and the case became highly politicized in a way that was harmful. Whoops, knocking over things here, harmful to the kids and put them at great risk. And there were some issues that rose out of that, but also highly targeted my my family and my dad carried that with a level of dignity and integrity that has marked my life. And two great words, dignity and integrity. You start with that. You got a lot to be down. Yeah, that's pretty pretty awesome. That's great, And I'm weary of all other politicians, or weary and weary I should say, but but I value people of conviction and I value people that stick to their guns. So very good. Yeah, just prepare, Like, how prepared are you for the city council role? It's I mean, it's brown was on town Castle. You have aspirations in your head of what this thing is, and I know you have people around you that tell you, and it's just it's one of those things where I'm interested in people that are getting into it because I had my vision of what I thought it was going to be, and it was nothing, nothing like anybody had told me. And so I'm just curious. The one thing that I found to be the hardest was budget. Right, is that so much of it as budget? Yeah? Is that something you have really sat down and said, all right, this is the type of person that I want to be on council in a budget process. Yeah. No, that's a great question. So a lot of that for me, and this is going to sound ideological, but I'll root it practically. A lot of that for me goes back to jurisdiction, what is government's role, what is not government's role? And why? There are a lot of great ideas and there are a lot of needs bingo, and there's this delicate line that you have to walk of. Okay, what's government's role in this? But also how do I acknowledge and address the need that's real within the community. And so with that, you know, I'm building out and I'd like to release some position papers later on in more depth, and I'll probably do that after the primary timeframe. I don't have a primary race, but it's after the primary timeframe that really go into Okay, how do we actually equip and empower the private sector to address some of these things, and how do we reduce government regulation in very particular areas. So, you know, there's the budget aspect, there's also the code aspect, and some of the codes that we have in Lynchburg when it comes to business regulation and building expansion restrictive old well just yeah, And so with that, how do we position policies that actually facilitate life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the private sector. You know you're asking me specifically about budgets. I understand that that is the role of city council. I was not a finance major. I was a government philosophy major. But I do understand the application of where those things need to go. And I understand you can't just throw money at a problem to make it go away, and also that you need to make sure that the money gets to the place that the problem is actually occurring. Like in schools, the money should be in the classroom. You need to remove a lot of ear marks. Yeah, I would say you're probably ahead of the game. I mean, just for the conversations that we just had, yah, I mean, I was not prepared for a lot of what you just said. I had my own vision of what I thought that process looked like, well was I wrong? Yeah? And you go in you want to make change and you want to make a difference, and there are a lot of hurdles to overcome to do both of those things, and then there are people criticizing from both sides while you're trying to do it. And it's not a glamorous job. It's really not. You know, it's nice to have someone in position that have the foundations of what you discussed and the care to make things better. When you have that, it's a great, greature. And not to hold you any longer. But there's a question we always ask of our guests, and this is a surprise one to throw out that we always like to throw out of people. But before you ask it, you can't say. I'm not trying to put dampers on it. But you've used your father, so you can't get to use them twice. Yeah, you had if you had one person in your life in history, if you had a person that you could spend a day with in history, who would that be and where would you go for one day? So that would probably be Daniel from the Bible. You know, my my husband brought this to my attention recently and the Daniel and the lions Den story. The reason that the other wise men or sad traps tried to trap Daniel was because he carried a spirit of excellence. Yeah, and I think that's such a powerful thing and it's something that we often neglect. So I would love to spend the day with Daniel. And I would like to I'm a climber. I'd like to go to Everest or k T or something like that. I would rather not. Thank you, Thank you so much for taking the time. Good luck to you, and we appreciate you taking taking time with us, and thank you for your time on town council. I appreciate, appreciate It is Jacklin Timishew will be running for city council in Lynchburg. That segment was brought to you by State Farm. When you want reliable insurance, you should look at your local State Farm agent. That agent is David Hallmaker. He has been a longtime supporter of Life, Liberty, Happiness and my agent home auto and even life insurance. He can take care of your needs. Nobody likes having to pay for something you may never use, but when you do need it, you want to make sure you have somebody who can deliver. That is David Homemaker and State Farm. 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