Summary

In this episode of the Zekely Podcast, host Zeke interviews Mayor James Malone, who is running as the Democratic candidate for the Open State Senate seat in SD36, Pennsylvania. They discuss Malone's journey into politics, personal challenges he has faced, his political values, and his stance on key issues such as reproductive health care. Malone shares his goals for the State Senate, the importance of community engagement, and his commitment to inclusivity in leadership. The conversation highlights the significance of the upcoming election and encourages listeners to get involved.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the Podcast and Guest

01:59 The Green Dragon Trivia

04:52 Running for State Senate

05:55 Business Application Management

07:12 Freak in the Sheets

10:21 The Beard

13:21 You're Not Malone

14:56 Mayoral Experience

17:31 Lancaster County Trivia

20:39 Political Affiliation and Values

21:58 Stance on Reproductive Health Care

24:15 Reproductive Healthcare Trivia

27:46 Accomplishments as a State Senator

29:54 Bunch of Maloney

31:16 Help With Campaign

33:47 What Gives You Hope?

34:43 Plans for the Future

https://www.friendsofjamesmalone.org/

Full Video Episode Available On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheZekelyPodcast

Short Clips Can Be Found On TikTok: @drzeketayler/@thezekelypodcast and Instagram: @thezekelypodcast

Hello I'm Zeke and welcome to the Zekely Podcast. Let's talk Pennsylvania. My guest today is currently serving as the Mayor of East Petersburg, Pennsylvania, which is in Lancaster County. But he's recently thrown his hat into the ring to run as the Democratic candidate for the pivotal Open State Senate seat in SD36. Thank you so much for being here, Mayor James 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.

Hey, thanks for having me.

Have you ever been on a podcast before? No? Well, this is my first time having someone who's running for state Senate on a podcast. So thank you so much for being here. You know, I grew up in Schoeneck Pennsylvania, which is about 30 minutes from from where you live. Have you ever driven through there?

There you go.

I don't think so. I know I've gone through Quarryville and a lot of the South, but no.

I won't be offended. I

won't be offended if you've never driven through it. It's a very small town, but I drive through it a lot of times because my mom lives in Lititz And the elementary school that I used to go to got turned into apartments. which is pretty crazy.

okay.

But you know what hasn't shut down yet? The Green Dragon.

That is true and that's still a good place.

The Green Dragon.

I know. So, you know, I used to go to the Green Dragon market as a kid. But I thought we'd have a little bit of fun as an intro to do a Green Dragon Farmers Market trivia. All right. Are OK with that? All right. So.

All right, sure

The first business that was located at the property before being purchased by John Shrek in the late 1920s was A, and this is multiple choice, okay? Was it a pizza shop, an auto repair shop, a bank, a bike shop, or a clock repair shop?

Probably a clock repair shop.

It was an auto repair shop. Yeah, that's okay. You know, and there were a couple owners. This wasn't the owner who turned it into the Green Dragon Market, but this is one of the owners there. But before becoming the Green Dragon Market in 1932, the new owner turned the building into a what? A speakeasy, a tattoo parlor, a news station, a fire station, or a produce store.

well.

okay.

A produce store?

A speakeasy. Yeah, was evidently a very popular place during Prohibition and it was raided a couple times by Prohibition agents and then the owner at the time, he was sentenced to 60 days in prison. wild guy that Shrek. I know, crazy right? Alright, a couple more trivia questions. A simulated what was staged on the property in 1951?

Really? Not about that.

Sure.

Wow, a rebel rouser even

a car accident, a presidential debate, a bombing attack, a stampede, or a rodeo.

simulated, it's got to be a bombing attack.

simulated?

You're right, it was a bombing attack. It was a simulated Cold War exercise. I guess there were civil air patrol planes and they dropped containers of flour into various parking. It was a very big parking lot and there were doctors and nurses and they tended to wounded volunteers. thousands of spectators looked on what has happened. So yeah, was a simulated bombing there.

Right, sure.

The seven foot tall, 15 foot long fire breathing dragon that overlooks Route 272 and welcomes everyone to the market was originally built for what in 1961? A playground, a circus, a car sales lot, a parade float, or a Renaissance Fair.

I would say Renaissance Fair.

It was a parade float. It was mounted three years later. Yeah. I have one more, one more question. According to the Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society, the

Off you go.

what were turned off due to a zoning violation? A wagging tail, the fire breathing element, a megaphone roar or flapping wings or flashing red eyes?

Probably the fire breathing element.

Flashing red eyes. they were yeah, they were I guess a zoning violation so that the eyes are still there But the lights are turned off So there you go. Now we played green dragon trivia. Thanks for playing. That's a roll back towards memory That that's a roll down memory lane for me. Seriously that that was my childhood there

Really?

Well, there you go.

you

That's awesome.

So now that we've warmed up with some trivia, let's talk about your journey into politics. Okay, so Running for state Senate. That's a big step. So what inspired you to take that leap?

Yeah.

Honestly, with the the spot opening up and with a lot of the changes that are occurring at the federal level, I felt that we needed to be able to have more discussion at the state level to make sure that we're as self-sufficient as possible and to make sure that we're really putting our priorities into educating and

and managing our children's welfare and making sure that we can grow from there. And so that is the primary reason that I stepped in.

Yeah, now that things are kind of being pressed down onto the state levels, you're totally right. We need strong state representatives to push back and protect all of its citizens. And also the last time that someone ran for the seat, it was uncontested, right? The Republican who ran didn't even have a challenger. So this is great that you're stepping into this race.

All right, so you've got over 20 years of experience in business application management, I believe, correct? Which I admit is not in my wheelhouse at all. So can you break down what you've done in that space? Anything outside of medicine, I'm just totally confused.

Yes, yeah, application development.

I

got to. So it runs a gambit. for a lot of the work I do would fit into business logic or business application development. That can cover everything from a company needing a report to better see how they're managing their spending to a company has just bought

another group and they need to meld all the data together to, hey, we need a full audit of our system and we need to know what the securities are and who's got in and out. So it's literally a whole bunch of different things all under that guise.

I don't know, I always live for it. I love it. I love getting in and finding out what people know, what they think they know, what they want to do and then helping them to get from where they are to where they want to be,

That's great.

Mm-hmm.

Got

Good.

specialized in

Office 365 integration, correct?

I did that for a while.

Because I know that

Excel is part of Microsoft 365. So I think that's a perfect segue into our next game. Which I call freak in the sheets. Do you get it? Do get it? it? You get it? Okay. I kind of went down a rabbit hole creating this game because I don't know if you know this, but there is a world championship for Microsoft Excel. Did you know this?

Yes, it's one application, yeah.

Okay, I get it.

I do know that. And those people that can actually format formulas like that, that's wild. More power to them.

It's...

Yeah, it is wild,

wild. I mean, I was watching some YouTube videos. I mean, it's like ESPN. They have people who have their commentators and they are sitting there talking while they're doing the Excel spreadsheets and just the witty banter back and forth. you can cut the tension with a knife. It's just amazing. I was like, that was blown away. It's crazy. So I want to have a little quiz about

All right, here we go.

16.

Which of the following is

typically a category in the competition? Data visualization, financial modeling, macros and VBA programming, or spreadsheet speed typing.

spreadsheet speed typing.

That is correct. You are James, a freak in the sheets. It's amazing. Two out of two so far. Which social media platform helped bring renewed attention to the Excel World Championship with viral clips of competitors solving complex problems in real time? Was it YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, or Reddit?

Hahaha!

YouTube.

TikTok. Yeah, TikTok. Yeah, I guess it blew up the championship, which is crazy. In 2022, Andrew Nye won the Financial Modeling World Cup, which included Excel-based challenges. What country did he represent? The United States, Australia, United Kingdom, or Canada?

It's a okay.

Well that is wild.

have no idea, Canada? Australia, okay.

Australia Australia.

What was the last one?

The Cell Games.

I don't know but I hope it's that one.

It's not,

it's Excel eSports.

Excel eSports,

Yeah,

there you go. Well, thank you for playing Freak in the Sheets. Look, the fact that you got a couple of those right is great because I wouldn't have known any of them. So that's awesome.

Hahaha

have to ask, is the beard for good luck while you're running for office? Because it's a badass beard.

So I used to be a very adamant, clean shaven, like everything done. But I actually had a bacterial infection that was a whole ordeal. It got into my heart, my brain, everything. Ended up a month in the hospital. It was about six months to get like back up and running and everything. And in that time I was on blood thinners. And so it was like, don't.

Yeah.

my gosh. you had to end up.

huh.

touch a razor or anything else. And after I came out of all that, I was just like, yeah, I'm good. You know, I'll just keep it. I do get in about every six months and get like professional trim. But the rest of the time I, you know, manage it myself and go from there.

Yeah! Wow!

What a story. So you had endocarditis.

yeah, there's a whole bunch of words in, in, cause, some of the bacteria, was got off of my, heart and got into my brain. So I ended up with infection in my brain and the stroke and yeah, the doctors were all amazing. and thank goodness I had really great insurance and all that. Cause, I came out at, a half a million just on the, cardio professional.

Yeah. my god.

Was it like, was it?

God, was it Lancaster General as though we were? my gosh, because I'm a...

So yeah, yes, Lancaster General Hospital, yeah. Definitely

if you're going to be in the area and you're going to have like a major issue, we've got good doctors for you,

Mm-hmm.

Absolutely, that's incredible. I mean,

I work in a cardiothoracic ICU, so I see endocarditis all the time. And I have to say, it's a terrible affliction. And so I'm so happy that you pulled through. I had no idea that that was gonna take that kind of a turn, but it makes sense. You do have to be on blood thinners for a long time. And I'm so happy you made a full recovery.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it really, really did came out. actually it also had I'm a lot mellower than I was before. People say I'm still the same. I'm just not as hyper as I used to be. So. Sometimes, you know, you know, it used to be well, especially in Pennsylvania, everybody tends to be a lot quieter, even if they're

huh.

Does your family appreciate that?

You

Mm-hmm.

like passionate about something. And I always had that struggle because I tend to be very loud. And so that was always a struggle was like, I'm not angry. I'm just very passionate, you know, about something, you know, and that was always a back and forth discussion. So it's it's easier now because it's like the waves are still there. They just don't peak as high as they used to.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Gotcha.

I love you have that passion to run for this race. What an incredible story. What an incredible story. Thank you for sharing that.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, let's shift gears for a moment and we'll play another game. It's called You're Not Malone. It's a game where we're going to talk about

absolutely.

Thank

various actors or actresses or singers. Okay, I'm going to describe who they are and you're going to try and tell me their name because obviously you know all the Malones in the world, right? That's something you're interested in. You all come from the same lineage, I'm sure. All right, so name the American actress who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Written on the Wind in 1965.

Sure.

I'm going to assume Malone but I have no idea.

It

is a Malone, Dorothy Malone. Okay, I think you're gonna get some of these. Okay. All right, here's another one. American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer who blends genres like hip-hop, R &B, trap, and country.

Okay.

Post Malone or something?

Post,

you got it, Post Malone, very good. Are you related at all? Do you know it?

I have

to put a shout out to

stepdaughter because we're talking about that just a while ago. So there you go.

huh.

That's awesome. Yeah. Post Malone.

All right. Another one. American former professional basketball player in the NBA who played for the Utah Jazz and two time NBA most valuable player. Carl Malone. Carl Malone. Close. And last one. American professional ice hockey player for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Not a hockey. Yeah. I don't know. It's Ryan Malone. So there you go.

What was this, Milan?

Harlem Alone, alright.

I have no idea.

Well, James,

all right.

you are not Malone in the universe. There are lots of Malones. All right. That was fun.

Hahaha

But let's get back to your political journey a little bit. Okay. So before running for a state Senate, you served and are serving as mayor. What made you want to take on that role in your borough?

honestly, there was a need for someone to run and I have always tried to, you know, serve my communities however I can. it was something that was instilled in me, very young. My maternal Grandmother used to always take me to, political events and, she was probably like one of maybe two dozen Democrats in the area, but she always also, was very.

active in trying to get things done and to move things forward. So wherever I moved,

I would get involved, what's the political scene, who needs help, how can they get help, that kind of stuff. So it was just something that was brought up that they needed somebody and I looked through the duties and decided I could fill in. So definitely did, definitely did.

That's great.

Mm-hmm.

Well, you had good role models. That's very important.

And then being a mayor gives you firsthand experience with a lot of local government and community needs. So how do you think that experience will shape your work in the state Senate?

It's true.

So I think one of the things that it highlighted a lot is that there are a lot of people working to get supportive legislature that ends up stuck in committees out in our state. And so one of the things that it's really driven me to do is to see what we can do to get things out of committees.

and actually on the floor for votes. Because like it or hate it, up or down vote, know where you actually stand, you know? And there is a, there's a sad normality to people being willing to say that they will support something or not support something because they're not forced to put their actual

Yeah.

you know, vote on the line. And it is sad that that's been normalized. And hopefully we can bring a little more integrity back and not just be what you say, but actually what you do. And that I think will also open us up to having more honest discussions about how we use money and how we allocate our resources.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Right, are you right?

We have to show up. We need our legislators to show up for Pennsylvanians. Yeah.

I think that's more important.

Yeah, absolutely.

All right. Let's do a little trivia about Lancaster County. Okay. I think you're going to do pretty well with this. So the Sturgis what House in Lititiz opened in 1861, the oldest what Bakery in the United States.

The Sturgis What House. What do they bake?

Surge it.

There's this. Bread?

No?

Pretzels. The Sturges Pretzel House. It's the oldest pretzel bakery in the United States. I love going to, yeah, my mom lives in Lititz It's such a quaint town. It's really, really nice.

Is it really? That's why.

I like going

out there for the kids were always really big fans of the Wilbur Chocolate Factory when it used to be when it used to be across the street next to the the rail station. They had that whole display. Now they moved it to the other side of the street near the. Tomato pie cafe just around from there.

yeah, yep, the Wilbur

Right.

Right.

You're right.

And

they still have the little, here's how we make it. They're still doing a little confectionary. It's not as big as the other display, but they still do that.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yep, every

time I go to Lidt's I stop by and get some Wilbur Buds Yep. The Lititiz Hershey Kisses as I like to call them.

There you go.

Hahaha!

Which theater in downtown Lancaster City is the oldest theater in the United States that has been in continuous? Yep, the Fulton Opera House. You got that quickly, that's good. Lancaster is the birthplace of what type of pie?

Fulton, right? Yeah, yeah.

Lancaster is the birthplace of...

cherry or apple? Whoopie pies. that's interesting because out in Pittsburgh and what have you, have, what are they calling? Goobers or gobbers or something? They're the same thing. know, sugar, Crisco and two kind of mashed cookies around them.

Whoopie pies. Yeah, whoopie pies. Who doesn't love a good whoopie pie?

I don't know. Do the same thing?

Yeah, yeah. It looks like someone was rushing

to make a cookie or like a gigantic Oreo and that's just, and it just that's what it looks like. But they're delicious. I mean, you know, if you're in Lancaster, you're definitely seen a couple of those in your lifetime.

Hahaha!

yeah, my kids love them.

All right, here's the last one. What flower is on the traditional coat of arms of the House of Lancaster? The red rose. Very good. From the, from the War of the Roses. That's where the tradition comes from. Yeah.

The red rose.

Yes, Shakespeare, War of the Roses,

which was actually a his rendition of the family feud between House Lancaster and House York, which is one of the things that I absolutely fell in love with when I moved into this area and I'm driving up to York and I see the white rose and then I come across the river to Lancaster and the red roses and I'm like, it is so awesome. And

huh.

I think maybe one out of every 50 people that I've talked to in the area, both York and Lancaster, have any idea that they have that awesome history and like they're literally carrying on the Shakespearean tradition, right, in their home

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

that's great. Now you did a great job on that trivia.

Well, politics is a lot about values and priorities and clearly you had an upbringing that told you, you know, these priorities are important. So your family had Democrats in them and you are a Democrat today. So why do you still choose to represent the Democratic Party?

Well, I think for me the base of the Democratic

as always Iterated a desire to improve and to grow and When I say always I'm talking about my lifetime, right? 50 years, you know people like to go back to you know Well, the party was really like whatever in Abraham Lincoln talking about in my lifetime

Sure, yeah.

you know, how things were, what are

Right.

going on now? So within my lifetime, we've seen a lot of transition, but we've consistently seen a call to try and do better, to do better in our own lives, to do better with our families, to do better with our communities, and to do better with our strangers, our neighbors, all the way across the board.

Right.

And that is really the call that's kept me with the Democratic Party all the way up to the current age.

I agree with you. think the Democrats align with your values much more. I can see that.

Well, speaking of values, let's talk about a key issue that's affecting so many Pennsylvanians, and that's reproductive health care, protecting reproductive health care. So where do you stand on the issues like abortion rights, contraception access, and in vitro fertilization?

Okay.

Sure. So personally on abortion, I think that ought to be a discussion between a woman and her physician.

And I don't believe that we as government outside of making sure that things are clean and healthy should be sticking our hands into a woman's reproductive rights or their health or any of that. You know, we ought to make sure that the tools are there for them to use as they feel they need them. So that's my position.

And as far as contraception goes, I believe that we need to have full education, obviously age appropriate, but we've got decades of research to show what is age appropriate and how to speak to folks.

percent.

I grew up out on a farm, I've seen chickens from, know, mating from before. Probably most people were running around playing with baseballs, but you don't get a lot of that in the cities. So maybe they need more of a formal education. But I honestly believe that that is something that we need to continue to try to...

overcome all of the prudish hangups that have led us to being

oppressive, not just repressed, but oppressive upon others and upon our society.

Mm-hmm, yeah, yeah.

So.

Yeah, I mean, a lot of these things

have been under attack by Republican politicians, not just at the federal level, but, you know, in Pennsylvania, Republicans tried to advance a ballot measure that would have changed the Constitution in Pennsylvania to make abortion illegal, essentially. So, you know, thank goodness for the one seat Democratic majority that we hopefully will have when Dan Goughnour our wins his statehouse race on March 25th, along with you.

Yeah, yeah.

But we definitely need more state senators like yourself who will advance that belief that it is up to the person choosing their own health benefits.

Well, let's play some reproductive health care trivia, shall we? You're going to get these. Okay, true or false? Okay. Many women in America are having abortions in the third trimester of pregnancy, including month or later. True or false?

all right, let's give it a try.

else.

That is correct. False. Most abortions occur in the first trimester and less than 1 % occur after 21 weeks or later. And it's usually due to fetal abnormalities or when the life of the mother is in danger. And there is no such thing as a late term abortion. That is a made up term. It is illegal in every state in the country to kill a baby after it's born. That is not a thing that's not happening. So you're off to a good start.

You know, yeah.

Okay, true or false? The most common type of abortion is performed using medication.

common type

That's true.

That is true. That is correct. Approximately 56 % of abortions in America occur with medications, Mifopristone or Mesoprostol. But those medications are at risk of being banned. Republican politicians in Congress want to ban those medications. most people think of an abortion classically as a surgical procedure, but there are a lot of people who use medical ways to do that.

Right.

Overall, there has been an increase or decrease in abortion since the 1970s when Roe v. Wade was decided.

There's been a decrease over

That is correct. Yeah, that is correct. This is due to multiple factors and increases of contraception like IUDs, birth control pills, and overall the unintended number of pregnancies have decreased over time. So that is correct. You're doing a great job. The overturning of Roe v. Wade, the Dobbs decision, has led to an increase or a decrease in abortion rates in America.

The overturning.

the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

I don't actually know the answer to this.

Okay.

Okay.

Got you.

If a federal abortion ban went into effect for either surgical or medical state laws, would it still be protected at the state level?

so. This is one of those where actually I think it would be similar to what we're dealing with right now in the United States of America with regard to marijuana. Marijuana is federally banned. It's not allowed. Yet we have many states that have made it legal and legalized that basically saying, you know, put the proof on it right now if the if the

Right.

Right.

federal wanted to, could establish the military, come in and clean house in a very negative, destructive way. But as individual states, we're able to say, look, we know that this is not appropriate, so we're not going to do it. So I mean, there is that gamble.

Right.

Right.

Mm-hmm. Right. I guess, right. So there are safeguards at the state level. Right, exactly.

Just like in California when marijuana was legalized, the FBI would go in and raid them all the time and shut down the shops. And so, you know, it certainly seems like a Trump administration would have no problem weaponizing the Justice Department to go into states and police abortion.

Well, looking ahead, what are some of your major goals you hope to accomplish when you are elected to the state Senate?

So when I'm elected, number one, I really want to try to help work on education funding for public schools and also work on how we're managing our academics for students.

And another thing that I really like to focus on working on is a better tax model. We're typically

lessening or minimizing taxes on corporations. And we're not really getting a good return for that. And in addition to that, we're consistently making people more and more dependent on property taxes, which just creates a loser situation based on where you happen to live and

what your house happens to be assessed at. And then what we end up doing is we end up leaving a lot of our communities, the children in the communities high and dry. And that's not appropriate for anyone. It's just not helpful. So I'd really like to work on seeing a better model.

So that's a big deal.

I mean, I,

yeah, no, I love how you pair the two together, public education and taxes, because honestly, up until a couple of years ago, I didn't realize how intertwined they were, that the less you fund public education, the higher your property taxes get. And, know, Pennsylvania has decreased its public school funding over the last 30 years, except recently, because there was a large injection.

into public school funding because it was a constitutional crisis in Pennsylvania. Actually, a Supreme Court ruled that Pennsylvania was not funding public schools enough. So when people look around and they're frustrated that A, their public schools might be crumbling and their property taxes are rising, there's a reason for that. And it starts in Harrisburg. And I just think that's great that you understand the interplay...

Right.

Right.

I hope you get to work on all of those things.

And

Absolutely.

yeah.

Well, let's

Alright.

Okay.

That is not true.

So it is a...

it's baloney.

It's a bunch of of Maloney. There you go. bunch of Maloney. All right, good. Here's a second statement. The COVID vaccine doesn't work.

Bunch of Maloney.

That is a bunch of Malone.

Bunch of Maloney, there we go. January 6th was a peaceful protest at the Capitol.

That is a bunch of Maloney. Don't taser someone during a peaceful process. Don't break a window. Anyway, we'll go on.

Bunch of Maloney.

100%.

Yes. Gun reform laws don't decrease gun violence.

That is a bunch of baloney. Bunch of maloney.

Bunch of Maloney.

You got it. Bunch of Maloney. And the last one, banning books is a good way to protect children in schools.

That is a bunch of Maloney

There you go. I mean, you're good at this. And I have to say, these are pretty, you got them very easily, but there are unfortunately some people serving in our legislature that don't think that these are a bunch of Maloney. So I'm very happy that you pass with flying colors. That's great. Well, thank you for playing a bunch of Maloney with me.

got you.

Sure sure.

We're almost done. We have a couple more questions. For those who are listening and support your vision and want to see you get elected, what can they do to help your campaign?

Sure.

So we always ask time talent and treasure, right? So if you have time Join our phone banks reach out and talk to other people your talents if you're Like this you able to do a podcast if you're able to talk to people if you're able to write up Something to promote getting us in there and getting people aware

And then, you know, we could always use a little bit of treasure. So if you got $36 for the 36 seat, you know, throw it on to us. We've got ActBlue and or we can take a check by mail. of James Malone. Friends of James Malone dot org is the website. And

What's the word?

friends of

jamesmalone.org, that's the website? Okay, I'll be sure to post that as people can find it. That's great.

Yeah. Yeah.

So yeah, mean, the biggest thing is that we need people to be aware. I've ran into a lot of people that thought there would be a primary to this. And it's like, no, this is a special election. So March 25th is the date. We need you to be in there. If you're doing a mail-in ballot, you have to.

No, yeah.

go in and register to get your mail in ballot. But the way it works is the state gets the request, they acknowledge it, they turn it over to the county, and the county acknowledges it, and then they mail you your ballot.

So if you're in absentee technically you have until the 18th to request, but it's gotta go through that process and mailed back to you. You've got to fill it all out completely and correctly and then mail it back in and it has to get back to them by March 25th. So the sooner the better for those and...

I'm picking that up.

The sooner the better.

voter registration,

the deadline is March 10th. So, you know, there's a lot of those things that we just really need to get that information out to people. And I could definitely use help knocking doors, making phone calls. And, you know, that's the best way.

Mm-hmm, correct.

Well,

I hope to get the word out for you on my podcast and I will keep promoting a race all the way up to election day. You're welcome.

Well, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Well, I know politics can be exhausting, but it's also about hope. So I want to know James, what gives you hope?

What gives me hope?

gives you hope.

I think in the end, I don't think there's many true nihilists out there as we want to believe. And I think that has a potential for growth.

And all always in that. and we know people can learn even if they don't want to. Right. You know, you spend enough time talking to somebody and they may still, you know, be rattled or uptight about all those other people. You're OK. You know, and if you can get them to be OK with you, then maybe you can be OK with you and a friend.

And eventually they'll just be okay with everybody in the neighborhood, you know. So that's what gives me hope is people can grow and people can change.

I appreciate your optimism, I really do.

And my last question for you is, what plans do you have to get yourself through these next few years? Aside from running for the seat and being the mayor right now, what plans do you have?

So I'm planning on getting married in June 19th. I'm taking my fiance out to Wyoming and we're gonna get married in Cody City Park. So that's kind of cool. And I'm gonna show her like all the little haunts that I ran around when I was a kid, you know.

my gosh, congratulations.

Mazel Tov, Mazel Tov.

Is there something about

that park that you're going to that has some special meaning?

Yeah, so when I was a kid, I used to watch my brothers in that park while my mother, worked in a local restaurant in that area. And so she would work in that restaurant and I would play with my brothers and keep

that city park.

and so, that park

always has a lot of,

fun memories for me because it was literally just me and them, right.

Mm-hmm, yeah.

so that, that's where that really comes from.

So, yeah.

Great. I'm so happy

for you. I'm so very happy for you and congratulations on your upcoming marriage.

Absolutely. Thank you.

James Malone, thank you so much for coming on. I am super excited for this race. I really want you to be Pennsylvania's next state senator of SD36. Again, the election is March 25th. Please make sure you can register to vote by March 10th if not already.

Again get your mail-in ballot request by March 18th, and if you can please volunteer for James Malone's campaign I'll post the website below and if you don't live in SD 36 Maybe you know someone who lives in SD 36 make sure they know about it and let's just get the word out. Let's rally around James Malone Absolutely

Appreciate it. Appreciate it.

Well, thank you 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