Summary:

In this episode of The Zekely Podcast, host Zeke interviews Jeremy Benscoter, a candidate running for a State House seat in Pennsylvania. They discuss Jeremy's motivations for running, his views on local issues, and his proposals for improving the community. Key topics include raising the minimum wage, supporting family welfare, advocating for reproductive rights, and addressing infrastructure and utility costs.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Jeremy Benscoter

02:13 Breaking Bad

03:21 Cook

08:18 Democrat

10:08 Struggles

12:23 Spouse

13:56 Proposal

18:17 Computer Science

21:07 Shire

22:19 Country Roads

25:24 Bills

27:46 Vaccines

29:14 Flock

32:18 Servers

35:11 Reform

36:49 Roblox

39:41 Health

43:00 Hope

44:45 Future

46:43 Wrap Up

Jeremy Benscoter: https://www.jeremybenscoter.com/

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

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

www.thezekelypodcast.com

Hello, I'm Zeke, and welcome to the Zeke Lee Podcast. Let's talk, Pennsylvania. The guest I have today is a lifelong resident of Hunlock Creek, and over the years he's watched a lot change in his region of Pennsylvania, from people struggling to pay their skyrocketing utility bills to putting food on the table. So instead of complaining on the sidelines, he's decided to lean into the work, a run to flip a state house seat blue in his district this November 3rd. Thank you so much for being here, Jeremy Benscotter.

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. I'm very excited.

Absolutely. Is lightning gonna strike all over the Commonwealth this November third? Because, you know, Brandon Dukes just flipped a historically red seat for the state house, and I really want you to do it in your district as well.

I mean, I'm really hopeful for that. I don't know if you know this about my district, but I'm the first Democrat to run in twelve years, so it's been kind of a void here. it actually

Yeah.

n there hasn't been a Democrat who has held the seat in I think fifty fifty some years. Democrat hasn't held the seat. So, you know, I'm I'm really hoping to flip the seat. I think that would be pretty monumental. you know, I'm working working hard, but it is a it is an uphill battle, I won't deny that.

It is, but we need to expand our State House majority and get the trifecta, Jeremy. So, you know, you're a piece of that. Okay. I'm so grateful you're running. We're gonna play some games, have some fun, learn all about you. Are ready?

Yeah, sure. Absolutely.

Well, I know that we share a similar favorite TV show, Breaking Bad, correct?

Okay,

awesome. Yeah, that's my favorite show for sure.

It's to it's top tier. Top tier. I mean, just the attention to detail was phenomenal. Slow burn, but never

Mm-hmm. Yep.

disappointed. Do you have a favorite episode? Spoiler alert. Spoiler alert for anyone. Do you have a favor a favorite one?

Spoiler alerts.

the episode after Hank figures it out. So I was saying it's be I think it's the beginning of season five because like that was such

Yeah. Okay.

and like that's that's what's so good about the show is like Hank figuring out who is Heisenberg while sitting on the toilet is just like it sounds

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

ridiculous, but it's like

Top tier. He's been doing all this work and then he just finds out while it's it's so good.

It was so good. So

good. I think I think my favorite episode was the heist, the train heist when they were stealing that the liquid, you know, for to siphon up to cook

That's a good one. That's that's good.

met to cook meth. That was to that was amazing. It's by the seat of my pants the entire time. yeah. I know.

Yeah, that's that th that that episode is just so brutal too. It's it's such a it's such a roller coaster.

I know. I couldn't handle it. Ugh, I was having angina

Yeah.

the entire time.

Yeah.

Well,

we're

gonna play a game called Let Him Cook. All right. So I'm gonna

Okay.

give you some in I'm gonna give you some ingredients, okay?

Okay.

And you're gonna tell me what kind of bill you're going to cook in Pennsylvania when you become a state rep. Okay. So

Okay. Okay.

here are the three components: children, parents, and work.

I think there's a problem we have in our local communities where there's not enough daycares and there's not enough

That's right.

and there's not enough funding for schools. So one thing that I actually just made a video about is I want to start building and getting grant money for like community centers. And one of the things I specifically mentioned were like

community run daycares where like parents could get low cost daycare. Cause I think, you know, there are so many families that, you know, one parent will literally quit their job because it's cheaper for them

Yeah.

to do that than to send their children to daycare. So I would absolutely build a bill, would love to see a bill about stuff like that, like just getting, you know, affordable daycare for families.

100%. There are nurses that I work with that were full-time had to drop down to part-time because they couldn't afford daycare for their kids. It's

Mm-hmm.

unacceptable in the Commonwealth. I'm glad you cooked that up. Here's another one. Love, gay, and marriage. What would you cook with that?

I I think what we see is a lot of people's rights are getting stripped away

w what I would love to see is just more protections in place for the LGBTQ community because, you know,

what I think is important is that, you know.

People feel safe. Like everybody should be able to feel safe. So, you know, I would love to see, you know, more protections in place for the LGBTQ community.

Got absolutely. And your state rep, who is currently serving right now, the Republican, voted no to make same sex marriage a legal right in the state of Pennsylvania. So I

Mm-hmm.

I would hope that you would vote, along with all the other Democrats who have voted for an equality act multiple times to codify

Yep.

that into state law.

Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. Mm-hmm.

newborn postpartum and job. What would you cook? What kind of bill?

So when it comes to that, I you know, I have I've had the luxury of, you know, when my son was born, I have a really flexible job. They give me tons of time off and that was great. And my wife luckily was working at a place that gave her an entire year off. And

my gosh.

yeah, it was amazing. And that's something that I think like,

you know, when I when I think about how beneficial that was, not only to like each other, but I like my son is so smart and we're convinced it's because we're able to spend so much time with him.

and teach him and do all of those things. So I would love to see things in place that would you know guarantee a certain amount of postpartum time home, you know, for for for both the husband and the wife, the fa the mother and the father, because

I think that we get lost in in the fact that like, you know, we have to we have to work. And yes, we have to work. But

I think when we when we push so hard to have people be at their jobs so quickly after something like this, we're forgetting that our children, like especially newborns, really need their parents in their lives.

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I'm lucky. I live in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The commissioners passed a law so that people who work for the county will have three months, three months off postpartum. The the both the father and mother, right? And we need to have that across the Commonwealth. So I'm glad you will cook that up. All right, here's the last one. Purple sticky punch, wacky tobacky, or most commonly weed. What what would you cook up with that? What'd you cook up?

So I actually are

fixing the schools. So I actually want to try to get that money put into like a non-discretionary fund. So it can't be just like ripped apart and basically to to where, you know, two percent of all the funds end up in, you know, fifty different buckets. We wanna we wanna make sure that the funds are used for something meaningful and we actually feel that impact.

Absolutely. I mean, it's ridiculous that Pennsylvanians are driving across the bridge, you know, to go to New Jersey to buy marijuana. again, like you said, Colorado, but it's not going to get legalized until we get the trifecta, right? The state house, democratically controlled, has legal you know, they passed it, but it dies in the state senate. So I'm glad that you would be on board in cooking up all those bills. And I just can't wait to see you cook, man, when you get elected to the state house. You just have to come up with a a name. You know, we have Heisenberg.

in the Breaking Bad, so you have you know, you have to think about it, what your name is gonna be in the State House.

Okay, we gotta come up with yeah, gotta

come up with a name for that.

Jeremy, why are you a Democrat? And why do you choose to represent the Democratic Party?

I personally align, I think, with the Democratic Party a l in a lot of ways, but I'm not I I wouldn't call myself like a a a blue b blooded Democrat. Like I have a lot of I'm more independent, but I lean blue. And you know, what I wanna see is I wanna see more

action actually taken in Harrisburg, even, you know, Democrats or Republicans, because I think there's a lot of

partisan politics and career politicians that don't really want to get things done for people. They want to just stay elected. And so, you know, you know, on paper I'm a Democrat and, you know, in reality I'm a Democrat. But I I I really line down the middle of the road because I think that's the best way to get stuff done. You know, we have to work a little bit

to across the aisle to get things actually done. Cause it like to your point, like needing that trifecta and stuff, you know, that's that's all great that we can get that and do that. But it's also, you know, when you think about it, it's kind of a shame that we need that, you know? It we should be able to work across the aisles, but it just it's become so divisive.

I agree with you. I mean, look, the the Democratic Party platform has everything that you want in it. I know you've I know you've read it, you know, ninety-one pages online. It has all the ideals. We're the Big Ten Party, we want to like all the things we talked about, legalize marijuana, maternity leave, you know, raise a minimum wage. But, you know, unfortunately the Republican Party is like being in a dysfunctional relationship. You know, I mean, yeah, you would like to be able to come to the table and work with people, but Republican politicians have been you know shown that they don't want government to work, not just at the federal level, but unfortunately at the state level. So

I'm glad that we share those ideals. And I agree with you. I would I long for a day that we have a healthy, healthy two-party system. But until that day comes, we have to choose a side in this binary system we live in. And I'm glad that we share those ideals, and you'll take those to Harrisburg when you get elected.

Jeremy, you came from a family that struggled to put food on the table and had little in the way of disposable income. For families in a similar situation today, what would you tell them you would do as their state rep to help?

starting off, I think we really need to raise the minimum wage. I mean, it's it's been stagnant for twenty some years more. It's it's it's

Yeah, more.

been it's been stagnant for a very long time. I know I know the minimum

Yeah.

wage when I was, you know I don't think it's changed since when I started working. I'm thirty seven and you know, it's it's

Yeah.

been very, very close to the same for a long time. And so that would be one of the first things that I would do.

And then some of the other things I would say is, you know, I'm I'm already kind of working to fight like utility companies raising rates because, you know, when we have things like healthcare and utilities and groceries, like all of the like necessities you need to live and they just keep going up. I mean, healthcare right now, you know, I get my healthcare through penny. my job pays for it, but I get my healthcare through penny. But if my job wasn't paying for it, for me, my wife and my son is eighteen hundred dollars a month. Like that is

Crazy.

insane.

Like I can't imagine a family paying that out of pocket. Like and and the thing that's crazy about that is if you weren't getting reimbursed for that, you'd never you wouldn't sign up for that. Nobody's gonna be paying eighteen hundred dollars a month for insurance, you know?

No.

I'm I'm already working to fight to to to lower utilities and well at least to prevent them from going up. And I will continue to do that in Harrisburg and I have a couple of ideas for you know getting grocery costs down and at least preventing

I don't know if you've heard of like surveillance pricing or whatever, where a a company will use your shopping habits. Like the fact that that

I have, I have, yes. Yeah.

isn't banned in the state of Pennsylvania yet is crazy. Like we that should not be allowed. Just full on

You

you just shouldn't be able to do that.

I

I completely agree with you. And actually n state Senator Nick Miller, he wrote a bill that is stuck in committee because again, he's in the minority in the state senate. So, you know, we need to get you elected and get the trifecta so that we can implement all these things. I'm glad that you're putting kitchen table issues at the forefront of your mind because nobody should have to suffer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to have a roof over your head, health care, and food on the table.

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.

Jeremy, we seem to have similar stories in regard to our spouses. You met your wife in high school and you've been together for twenty years. I'm coming up on twenty years in twenty twenty seven. So I have to know what's your secret?

I think the the biggest secret to a healthy relationship is listening to what the other person is saying and actually and actually acting upon that. Because I'm not gonna pretend like we've had a perfect relationship our whole time. We've obviously had issues and stuff, but the way we've always resolved those issues is by talking to each other and listening to what each other says and

Actually acting upon that.

but I I really think like I know it sounds cliche, but communication is key. Like you just have to talk

No.

to your partner and listen to them.

Not cliche at all. Communication is everything. Communication and compromise, right? And also it doesn't hurt, I'm sure, that you like your wife. You know, I I I like I like my wife. You know, I think she's great. She's my she's my best friend. so

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep, me too.

yeah, I I completely understand the longevity of your marriage, and it's cool that we both met our wives in high school. You know, actually, it's a long, it's a much longer story, but she dumped me for a much more attractive man. And then, you know, a couple of years a couple of years later, she recycled me in college. I like to say she came crawling.

But you know, that that's that's my that's my side of the story, okay? But either way,

Yeah.

we did we did meet in high school, we did.

Well, we're gonna play a game called proposal. Okay. I want you to propose in the following scenarios, okay, what you would do.

Reproductive rights in Pennsylvania.

the only people that should be making a decision about like care in general, but including abortions, is the the the woman and her doctor. Like as are the only two people. I I don't think legislatively we should be making decisions because we don't know all of the

possibilities that are. And even if they do know all the possibilities, you can't legislate for all of the possibilities. And we're seeing that, you know, with with the the repeal of Roe v. Wade, like we're seeing like the ramifications of that. Like women are dying that if you

Yes.

know that hadn't happened, you know, they

Mm-hmm.

wouldn't have died. And so I think that

a lot of politicians like to operate in very black and white wa way, like, we can either not have it or we can have it. And I think no, I think we can find

the the right answer and but I do think that like people should be able to have abortions because at the end of the day people will die if they can't.

No, they should have safe access to abortion. A hundred percent. Safe

Absolutely. Yes.

access is the key because you hit it right on the nose. An article just came out recently that the number of women dying from ectopic pregnancies in states that have banned abortion have skyrocketed since the the toppling of Roe v. Wade. It's just terrible. As a doctor, as a human being, it's extremely stressful to me. And I'm grateful to know that unlike the current Republican state reps serving in your district.

You will not vote against reproductive rights in Pennsylvania. So I'm grateful for that. All right, I have a couple more for you. child literacy in Pennsylvania. What do you propose?

my wife's a teacher, and that's something that she has experienced directly, not even children. Like she's she's taught college students that don't know how to read. And I think there's a failing there where

it's it's not that those students shouldn't be getting to college, but we should be asking how did they get all the way to college and not be able to read. So what we need to do is we need to put, you know.

checks and balances in place to make sure that,

the education that students are getting, and that's f no matter where it is, whether it's a public school, private school, charter school, cyber charter school, whatever, they all have to be held to the same standards. And we have to make sure that the students that get out of those schools, you know, that they that they know how to read. I mean, that's a very that's a very basic thing, you know. So so, you

It's very basic, yeah.

So I would love to see legislation in place that would basically hold all schools to the same standards, but also have checks in place to make sure that those standards are being met. You know what I mean?

Yeah, I mean I look I agree with you. I I think we're on the same page that we need to invest and spend money on child literacy programs for children in Pennsylvania. But for some reason the current Republican state rep serving your district voted against that. I guess that your current rep doesn't care people can read in your district or across the Commonwealth. So I'm glad that we're on the same page. I like your proposal. All right, here's the last one. Getting justice for child abuse victims as an adult in Pennsylvania. What do you propose?

like there should not be a statute of limitations on that because like the the the point is is that if you're a child, you know, and you're abused, who knows at what point in your life you're going to feel the power to actually go and

Talk to someone about that. You know what I mean? So there should not be a statute of limitations on something like that because the fact is it happened. And when it happens when you're young, you know, when you're really young, you might not even know that it was a problem, you know, and you might not realize that until you're older. And then once you realize that, you have to come to terms with that. You have to figure out if you like when you're gonna have the the the the strength to to talk about it, because it is extremely difficult to talk about, you know what I mean?

So yeah, I just don't think there should be a a statute of limitations on that at all, to be quite frank.

I I appreciate your proposal, but unfortunately the current Republican state rep serving in your district voted against that. Okay. We have someone sitting in office who doesn't believe that adults deserve justice from being abused as a child and allowing these people to just roam free, right? And not be accountable for what they did to people. So I love it. I love all your proposals. And again, more reason to pay attention to Jeremy Ben Scotter and get him to Harrisburg this November third.

Jeremy, you have a

computer science degree from Bloomsburg University. How will your degree help you as a legislator in Harrisburg?

So honestly, I think that there's not enough people in politics in general that understand technology. And right now, I mean, obviously data centers are a very big issue in the area. And

Yeah.

you know,

I I work with data centers like in my job, like I use data centers, but that doesn't mean that I'm a hundred percent behind them. And there's a complete difference between what's going on now with the construction of data centers, like the hyperscale ones, and what was traditionally built. Like

A regular enterprise data center has served many purposes and it serves to benefit small businesses especially. Because, like, for example, I work for a small business. We're able to operate the way we can because of enterprise data centers, like regular enterprise data centers. what we're seeing being built into our area are hyperscale AI data centers,

And so we're not gonna see the the benefits that we see from regular enterprise data centers from these data centers. And AI right now is not really a sure bet. So

If we build all these hyperscale AI data centers and it collapses, the hardware that's in it can't even run like a regular website. So they can't even convert them to be enterprise data centers easily. I mean, they could technically buy the hardware and do it, but the hardware that's going in them right now, like couldn't even run a website. So you know

I didn't know that. Jeremy, I I had no idea any of this information. And honestly, it's even more it's even more terrifying to know that what they're building is for one singular use. And and if and when some people predict it will fail to have any use further than what it's being built for, that it's it's garbage. I mean, we're gonna have like these were these huge facilities just rotting and rusting and the the towns that they were built in are not gonna be supported anymore.

I'm assuming that you are supportive of Governor Josh Shapiro's executive order to kind of rein in the building of these data centers in Pennsylvania.

Yeah, yeah, I am. And I and I also like I've I've been going to so many township meetings and just trying to help townships understand what they can do and just give them information kind of like I did there, like explaining what why there's so much risk to this and why like a a moratorium, for example, would be great too. You know, if we could put a put a moratorium in place, like

Yeah. Yeah.

that would be great. Like I know I think Senator Katie Moose has one, which of course is probably not gonna get passed, but I

Why, why,

why, Jeremy, why is it not gonna get passed?

Because we don't have the trifect.

There you go. There you go. And look, I I think you've just really showcased why your knowledge base, your degree is gonna help you be a state rep. You gave the most thorough you know explanation as to what they're doing, why it's bad, and what we can do to fix it. And that that's that's a milieu of why we need you in Harrisburg this November third. So thank you very much for explaining.

Jeremy, you've spent your entire life in Hunlock Creek,

and after looking into it, I feel like it's the Shire for you. Okay, like you like you never left the Shire. Okay. I actually looked up on the internet. It the description of Hunlock Creek is features thick forests, rolling hills along Shikshini Mountain, scattered farms and the local Hunlock Creek tributary. I mean, it sounds, God, just lovely.

It i I mean it is. It's why it's why I'm still there. we actually like my wife and I bought a house in Hunlock Creek and it was actually her grandparents'

Mm-hmm.

house. So it's like her family property. And you know we're very lucky to have been able to do that. you know, because it because it was family, like, you know, they gave us a a a much better deal on it or whatever. But we have

Mm-hmm.

we have a pretty large plot of land and yeah, it's it's exactly as you described. We have like forest, we have a big yard, we have

a mountain behind us and yeah, so like it's it's really become home. And I know some people like could just uproot and sell and leave and like, you know, that's just something that, you know, it it's just become so much a part of my my wife and mine's life that there's just not a chance that I think we'll be leaving anytime soon.

No,

well, we're gonna play a game called Country Roads, okay?

Okay.

in inspiration of your cute little town. I have some questions for you, it's kind of trivia. According to the National Transportation Research Organization, using Pendot.

Which county in Pennsylvania had the highest percentage of poor roads? Let's take a stab at it.

That's that's a great question.

Mm.

I you I'm just gonna go I'm just gonna go with Luzerne County 'cause that's where I live and the roads here are there's some real problems.

It's a they're pretty bad.

So Greene County, Greene County,

Okay.

which is the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania, fifty percent of their roads are the poorest, according to that.

That is crazy.

It's terrible, right? It's just terrible. here's another here's a follow-up question. In Greene County, Pennsylvania, which political party controls both the state house and the state senate?

I'm gonna I'm gonna guess it's Republican. Yeah.

It is. It is

Well I th I know the Nano Coke bridge needs to be done and I know that that's probably not happening soon. I'm gonna guess

Two billion.

$10.3 billion. Just in. Yeah. Yeah. $10.3

I should've went with my first guess. My first guess was ten and I was like, that's too high.

billion. Okay, here's the last one. If Penn Dot was fully funded, what would be the approximate potential PA economic activity over the next 10 years just from fixing our infrastructure alone? How much revenue do you think that we would generate in the Commonwealth? Take it Sabbath.

Three and half billion.

$200 billion, Jeremy. $200 billion. It's essentially

boy, I was way off. I was way off.

for every dollar you spend on infrastructure, you double it. You double that amount of money, okay, to fully fund it.

Yeah. Okay. Okay.

And the reason why we have not fully funded Pendot is because of Republican politicians in Harrisburg. Okay? If you have potholes on the highways, if you see this endless construction going on, it's because we just don't have the money to fit. No, we do have the money. We have the money to fix it.

It's just we're not appropriating it appropriately. Okay. Which

Mm-hmm.

is why we need you to get elected and to turn these fifty percent statistics into much, much lower and actually

Yeah.

generate more revenue for the Commonwealth. People are gonna wanna drive through a lot more often and stop by and have some fun. No, right? So no more potholes. Jeremy, you're gonna help us out, right?

Yeah.

So so real quick, I have a a little story. So my wife studied in Finland and one of her friends came to visit here and they could not believe how bad our roads were. They were like they they're like, This feels they were like 'cause compared to what they were in Finland, they were just like, these are like she she's like, I can't believe this is America in Pennsylvania. I was like,

Yeah.

you know, Pennsylvania's roads are pretty bad.

which is which is terrible. I don't wanna be known for that, man. You know,

Yeah, yeah.

let's just fully let's just fully fund Pendot, which we can afford, fix the roads and generate some revenue for Pennsylvania.

Mm-hmm.

Jeremy, your electric bill in January of this year was $1,100, which is fucking insane. Okay. What would you do in Harrisburg to address utility costs in Pennsylvania?

you shouldn't have to decide between whether you want to be warm or whether you want to save money. so what I think we need to start doing is like I I I really think we need to start taking a look at the PUC and see why they keep increasing the like just allowing these rate increases. Like they don't

Yeah.

It's it's like a game. You know, like we see it every time. It's like, they ask for eight percent and then they know they're not gonna get that, and then the PUC gives them four or whatever. And so I think we need to start, I think we need to get the PUC to actually start looking at utility companies' bottom lines and see, you know, like UGI literally in in their in every single one of their like financial releases talks about how

They're looking to increase value for shareholders. They when they're talking to like their investors and things, they're never talking about doing things for the customers. It's always about increasing investor value. And they brag about how like for 140 of the 142 years or whatever they've been in operation, they've you know, given a dividend to their investors. And like that is great. I'm very happy for their investors and stuff. But

When we're starting to get to the point where people can't keep their houses warm, I I think it's time that we start looking at that and, you know, get hold the PUC accountable to actually defending people because that's really what they're supposed to be doing.

Yeah. And you'll have the power to do that in Harrisburg. You know, it's all about accountability and oversight. Accountability and oversight. And Republican politicians have shown time and time again they're about deregulation. They're about saying it's not it's not our problem. You know, if if if the PUC wants to make billions of dollars every quarter and let people freeze to death or, you know, have heat stroke, that's on them. You know, that's not our problem. It is our problem. It is our problem. As a doctor

I firmly believe that you you deserve to be comfortable in your house because otherwise you're gonna wind up at the hospital system. And that's that's not the purpose. Okay, that's not the purpose of the healthcare system is to take care of disasters. It's about preventative care. And having good climate control in your house, that's preventative care. So I'm glad that you would work on that as a state rep in Harris.

Jeremy, the current Republican state rep serving in your district voted no.

To authorize licensed pharmacists in Pennsylvania to deliver vaccines approved by the State Health Department. And in Pennsylvania, we are seeing a resurgence of the measles. How do you feel about that?

Vaccines actually help people and like science shows that. So we need to actually start taking that seriously and not allow like the government to, you know, block things like that or prevent people from getting access to vaccines. Like that's not okay.

No, I agree with you. I mean, look, public health is a team sport. And I I actually as a doctor don't have a problem with politicians putting up guardrails for public health, right? I mean, like I don't think people should be drinking raw milk. Okay. Unlike RFK Jr., I know that drinking raw milk can give you really, really bad diseases and you could

Mm-hmm.

die. And I don't want that. I don't want the government to say not our problem. Okay.

Yep. Yep.

On the other side of things, I don't want people to die from preventable illnesses, which we have seen over and over again.

Across not just the Commonwealth, not just the nation around the world, that vaccines are safe and effective and save millions of lives every day. So I'm glad that you would not, unlike the current Republican state rep, vote against that. I want to know that when you are in office, you trust the science, because the science is the truth. So I'm glad that you would allow vaccines to be distributed across the Commonwealth and protect your children, my children,

and children that aren't even born yet.

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.

Jeremy, as a state rep, what will you do in Harrisburg to address flock cameras across the commonwealth?

So Flock, I actually have a a bit of knowledge about. I do not like them at all. I think that the the the fact that there are people like and politicians like for it is like really bugs me because we're heading towards a mass surveillance with that. Like regardless like sure, there are plenty of people who are like, like I even met with Salem Township police and talked to them about it. And the way they're using it, totally fine. They're they're using it very minimally and they're using it for very specific use cases.

That's great. But the fact is,

other people can see that. Like full stop. Like e they were showing me like a a Salem Township could ask to see to be connected to a flock camera system in Texas, for example. And all that has to happen there is they just the the the p the precinct that they're asking just has to say, yeah, sure, you have access. And then you just have access to it. And if you search for a license plate,

That's crazy.

it'll pull it up from all of the places you have access to. And so, you know.

It's crazy. And and now and not only that, it's controlled

That's crazy.

by a private corporation that you know has no oversight.

Mm-hmm.

We have they basically say the data gets deleted in 30 days. But in the tech industry, there are a lot of ways to say that and technically be doing that, but also still be aggregating data. So I I'm not I'm not for flock cameras. I'm not for mass surveillance. I'm definitely not for it in terms of big government or for private companies, because the fact is

If a police precinct can ask for access in Dallas, Texas and get it instantly, like what does that

Yeah.

mean about like the government? Does the c can the government just ask for access to this and just have all of the cameras across the country? Like and that's and whether or not that's happening,

Yeah, it's crazy.

I don't want to risk that. So I well I have actually said specifically that I want to ban them. And I not specifically flock cameras, because you can't ban flock, but like cameras like it, like any mass surveillance,

Yeah.

cloud connected, easily,

Mm-hmm.

you know.

shareable camera systems, I I don't think we should do that at all.

That's great. I would like Big Brother to stay as a TV show and not become like the

Yeah, for sure.

law of the land or in the Commonwealth. I mean, got stalk just stalking comes to mind like instantly. Obviously, you know, the people in the government have used flock cameras to track women across state lines trying to get reproductive health care. and just, you know, I don't I don't want people being stalked. You know, not all not all people who work in the law are doing it for the right reasons. And I just think it's a very bad precedent to have. And I'm glad that you would not

vote to to have flock cameras in the Commonwealth. And I think that the majority of Democrats are on the same side as you. I don't think that most Democrats want to have these flock cameras and and I I hope you all

work together and pass some legislation as soon as as soon as you get there.

Jeremy, you have multiple servers in your basement that replace cloud-based services like Google Photos, Calendars, Contacts. I think that's wildly awesome. I mean, I love I love the independence. I mean, I probably spend hundreds of dollars a year just to store my photos and back up my emails, and you you're just off the grid.

Yeah. And it's because it's because of kind of what I just talked about with like flock cameras. Like, you know, when you upload your photos to Google Photos, like Google is absolutely scraping those photos. They're looking for who they're using facial recognition to find who you're with, who who who you know. They're looking at l literally looking at what you have on your counter. Do you have a Coke can? Like all of that stuff is absolutely being aggregated. And I really

Yeah.

value my privacy and I think that

as citizens, we deserve more privacy. So, you know, I have those servers in my basement so that way I can guarantee that no one's looking. I mean, I can't guarantee someone could technically hack my servers, but that's probably not happening.

Yeah. Right.

but like I I can I can be sure that Google is not scraping all of my photos to build profiles on me to sell

Yeah.

me stuff or whatever. And so as a legislator, like I want to bring that to Harrisburg because I want to put protections in place. Like if if you sign up for Amazon, for example, and you're buying stuff on Amazon.

Then it's kind of implied that, yeah, as you buy things, Amazon might advertise to you things that you've purchased. I don't think it's fair that just because you hang out with someone else who likes a certain item that suddenly you start to advertise that item. Like that is not okay. And so I want to put protections in place that basically bar things like that from happening, give you like citizens more say in the data that's collected and just outright, you know, ask for that data to be deleted and make sure companies actually delete it.

I think it's great. I love it. You know, I l I think it's it's great that those experiences that you have on a personal level, you can bring that to Harrisburg and mass produce it. but I am still intrigued. Okay. I kinda like I kinda like the independence that you have. do you ever like do you ever do like consulting where you help people set up that kind of system in their basement?

Not necessarily this type of system because I won't lie, it is complex. Like there's a lot of moving parts, a lot of

Yeah, it sounds like it.

different things. but I do I do help friends with a myriad of like different tech things. Like I just actually my friend owns a small business and they needed security cameras installed. And so

Uh-huh.

one thing that I did is I made sure that the security cameras they got are not cloud connected because there's no reason for

Okay.

that to be the case.

So I help them get

huh.

cameras, but they're local. It runs on a a piece of hardware in their office and you know, it never has to leave their office. There's nobody able to like scan it or scrape it or anything like that. and so yeah, I kind of carry that sort of privacy mindset in in all of the things that I do. But yeah.

I love it. You're a good ty you're a good guy to know, Jeremy. And we're gonna connect one of these days. Okay, I I'm

Yeah.

intrigued by the independence. I wanna have some something like that in my basement. I love it.

Yeah,

I I can absolutely help you do that.

Jeremy, the current Republican state rep serving in your district voted no to prohibit the use of machine gun conversion devices, ghost guns in Pennsylvania, and no to expand background checks when trying to purchase a firearm. How do you feel about that?

So, you know, full disclosure, like I am a gun owner. Like I own a I own a handgun, I own a shotgun, and I own an AR-15. But and and I'm not, I'm not for like, you know, taking away people's guns because I a lot of people ask me, like, are just gonna come in and strip away people's guns? But the one thing that is is interesting that I found when I bought the AR-15, it was very easy for me to do that. And that was for someone who at the

Yeah. Yeah.

time had only ever owned a handgun and a shotgun. And so, you know, I think we need to get, you know,

protections in place to to to basically make sure that people that are buying the guns are responsible with them first. Like because I think it's kind of crazy. Like you can drive a car, right? You can't drive a car without a license, but you can buy a gun without proving that you know how to handle a gun, especially one that's capable of such damage.

I really think

Yeah.

like when it comes to stuff like that, we can really find a middle ground where like people can still own guns, people can still have them and use them, but we're doing it safely.

I agree. Like you said, it's insane that it takes more work to get a driver's license and to have a car than it does to purchase an AR-15 in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It's it's just that's insane. Okay. Especially since the most common cause of death for children in this country is gun violence. Okay. So it should it should be a no-brainer. Okay. A no-brainer. The science is there. We have the data. We just need people like you to get elected to pass these laws across the Commonwealth and protect lives.

Jeremy, you want to work on legislation that will require stricter protections in online gaming, such as separating adult players from children players in online games like Roblox. I think that's a great idea because I have to be honest, I've never understood Roblox at all when my kids played it. But I I my wife and I were always very concerned about who he my kids were interfacing with. So how would you implement this legislation?

So what we need to do is like to give you a little background on Roblox, like Roblox has a child predator problem. Like that to just throw it out there. It has a child predator problem. There are adults on there that

My God.

pretend they're children and they may like on Roblox, you can make games and you can do all these different things. It's very flexible and it's honestly a pretty cool idea. But the fact is there are adults on there that pretend to be children. And that has led to situations where there was a there was an individual who was actually posing as a child.

sort of like to catch a predator, and they would sort of fish adults that were trying to, you know, be perverted and would report them. And Roblox banned them from the from the system because they were like, it's like vigilanteism. It's like, okay, but Roblox isn't doing their own job. You know, if if this person can figure

Yeah.

this out, Roblox should be able to figure this out. So in Harrisburg, what I what I would to be cut and dry about it is I would make

These companies responsible for these incidents. Like they have to, if you're going to provide a system where adults and children can technically play together, you are responsible for separating them. How you do that is up to you. Like I'm not going to tell them how they do it because every, you know, piece of technology, every game is going to be different. So I'm not going

Right.

to say how they have to do it, but I'm going to make them responsible for it to basically segregate adult players from children players because there's no reason for that.

crossing to happen. Like there just should not be young children, like really young children playing with adults full stop

I I hope that the penalty is gonna be they're gonna pay a shit ton of money if the if the company is found liable for allowing that kind of stuff to happen, and that there's gonna be, you know, jail penalties as well. Not just for the person trying to violate the children, but also the the people in the organization that allowed this to happen. Because until these people are held accountable, they're sitting in towers, way far above any responsibility for what they're doing. So we need financial responsibility and also,

criminal responsibility as well because I just I I the fact that I didn't know that. I didn't know that they banned that person who was trying to catch these predators within Roblox. It just goes to show that they don't care. They just wanna make their money. They want to have the clickbait and they don't care if people are hurt in the process. But I'm glad that there's someone like you out there. We need to get you to Harrisburg, Jeremy, get these laws passed 'cause I God, I don't want to

I'm trying.

let my kid I don't let my kid play Roblox until you're there, man. I r I really don't.

Jeremy, the current

Republican state rep serving in your district voted no to prohibit health insurance companies from denying coverage for Pennsylvanians with pre-existing health conditions. Why the hell would you vote no for?

I I can't even wrap my head around it. It it frustrates me so much because you shouldn't be able to deny deny claims for that because

like my sister, all right, she passed away from cancer a couple of years ago, okay? And

I'm sorry.

She

had yeah, it it was terrible. The cancer sucks. but she she had she got diagnosed with stage three metastatic breast cancer. And you know, she ended up getting fired from her job.

yeah, I know it's crazy. She ended getting fired from her job, but she was able to get healthcare because I believe at the time pre existing c conditions couldn't be

Like you couldn't deny claims for pre-existing conditions.

Okay.

So she was able to get her own health care. But if she

Mm-hmm.

hadn't been able to do that, her medical bills each month, like she was she would show me her medical bills. They were for her treatment, it was like sixty, sixty to sixty-five thousand dollars a month for her treatment because she had really aggressive

Mm. Yeah.

cancer. And,

if she hadn't been able to get that insurance, right?

her family would be destitute now and and and and it didn't even work. Like that's the worst part about it is like they could have spent millions of dollars on treatment for my

Right.

sister. And at the end of it they would have just had tons and tons of debt. And they still and that's not to say they still have debt from that. It's just not millions

Right.

of dollars, but they still have thousands of dollars of debt from co-pays and coinsurance and all of the things that they didn't cover for whatever reason. And it's

Yeah.

it it really frustrates me because it seems like it's siding with the insurance company and like they're they're

It is, it is.

making money hand over fist and we're all paying

Yeah.

the price for it. And I don't have a problem with companies making money. It's just, you know, sometimes maybe they don't need to make all the money.

I agree with you. I th the totally siding with the insurance companies, it's just disgusting. first of all, your sister, may her memory be a blessing. and and I'm glad that you were on the side of human beings. You know, the the fact that Republican politicians at the federal level want to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, which one of the most amazing parts of that was that insurance companies could no longer do that. They could no longer throw people off of their insurance plans for a pre existing condition and people died.

all the time all over the country for that people would ration their medications, they couldn't get their children health care when they had diseases. It's just unfathomable that in the wealthiest nation in the world, we can't help people during the most difficult times in life. And I just find it disturbing that the current Republican state rep voted against that, supporting federal Republican politicians, because if, God forbid, the ACA ever goes away, then the states

Would be responsible for protecting its people, right? And so that's why we need those bills to get passed in Pennsylvania, seeing the landscape in this country, because they got rid of Roe v. Wade. And Democrats in Pennsylvania are the only reason why we have safe access to abortion care. And if they get rid of the ACA, once again it will be the state's responsibility to protect its constituents. So I I I'm

very happy you're on the right side of this issue.

Jeremy, what gives you hope?

firstly, I mean, it sounds cliche, but my family really gives me hope. But what does give me hope is that we're starting to see I f I have this feeling, like I don't know, I'm seeing more candidates that are for people and they're not career politicians and you know

They want to actually enact real change. And I know that it's a huge undertaking to do that. I mean, we have to get a lot of people in a lot of places to actually start to see real change happen. But I've met a lot of people since I started doing this. And some of the people that I've met have just been really inspiring because like they they you can tell when you meet them, they're different. They want to help people and they don't

Some of them I feel like don't even want to be running for politics. They just are sick of it and they want to

Yeah.

help people. And that to me is like what gives me hope right now. because it is like it is a very it's a very rough time right now for everybody, you know. It's it is it is hard, but I think we're starting to see Yeah. Yeah.

It is. It is. Who who could have seen this coming, Jeremy? Who who could have possibly seen this coming, right? I mean, look,

nobody likes nobody likes and I told you so. I get it, okay? But

Yep. Yeah.

there there were people out there. There were people sounding the alarm bells. people like you, I'm sure as well, within the Democratic Party who were trying to warn everyone what could happen if Republicans gained control in Congress, if Donald Trump won again. But now we're here. And so I'm glad that you have hope seeing people get off the sidelines. You're running for office.

And no one's coming to save us. Okay. There's nobody, there's no plan except what we plan to do. And I'm glad

Mm-hmm.

that you're making plans to try and make your part of Pennsylvania better and your vote will affect me where I live. So I you give me a lot of hope, Jeremy. You really do.

Jeremy, my last question for you is what are your plans to get you through these next few years in America?

you know, I I think I mentioned, you know, I have a two year old son, you know, my wife is a teacher. I still work full time, I'm doing the politics thing.

whatever happens with this election, right? I think going forward.

whether I run again, whether I don't, whatever happens, I think I'm still going to try to educate people and continue to be like I don't want to say a public figure, but I guess kind of that's what I've become a little bit like a public figure to kind of help myself, you know, deal with everything that's happening, but also give people information on what they can do to you know, improve their lives and to improve the lives around them because there's a

lot of big stuff out there that is going on, you know, politically in in the nation and all

Yeah.

of those things can be very scary and very sad. But the one thing that I found is, you know, when you surround yourself with like good people and like you spend time with them and you treat each other like family and it's not just, I don't know, a transactional friendship or whatever.

Mm-hmm.

it really helps you get through things. And so, you know, I guess what I'm trying to say is that like surround pe s surround you yourself with people you love.

And you know,

Yeah.

try to try to help everyone. Yeah.

I agree. Yeah. Lean into the work. And and I I appreciate the fact that, you know, if if I I obviously hope that you win, but if you don't win this November third, that you're gonna still be involved and be engaged. Because I really can't stand when people run for office and then they disappear because that's self-serving. Then you weren't

Yep. Yep.

doing it for the right reasons. Okay. being engaged in democracy is not just a one-time event. It is a daily event, it is a monthly annual. In Pennsylvania, we have two elections every year. Okay. It's not just

The midterms and the general election. Okay, we have engagement every single day in this Commonwealth, and I'm glad that you're gonna lean into the work and

keep moving the Commonwealth forward.

Well, Jeremy Ben Scotter, Democrat running for state house in Pennsylvania this November third. Look, anything can happen. Okay. We have seen Democrats flip seats across the Commonwealth and across the nation, which were historically very deep red seats. Okay. And we need to show support for Democrats all over the state, up and down the ballot. Okay, because every election is the most important election, and Jeremy's race is no exception. So, Jeremy, what is your website?

My website is jb4pa.com.

And is that the number four or spelled out? The number four.

yeah, it's the number four. It's the number four. Yeah.

All right. Well, if you live in Black Creek Township, Butler Township, or Coneyham borough, get off your ass, go to Jeremy's website, sign up to Door Knock, send some postcards, make a small donation, whatever you can. But we can do this, Pennsylvania. We have to expand our statehouse majority. The margins are slim, but this is our time. If you're angry, if you're stressed out and upset, it's okay.

There's a lot of crazy stuff going on in this nation, but we can all do something every day to help Jeremy and other Democrats around the Commonwealth. And Jeremy, you're an amazing person. I'm really grateful

Thank you.

that you're doing this. And I I can't vote for you, unfortunately, but I'm gonna be rooting for you from the sidelines and hope I can contact you November third and congratulate.

I hope so too. I'm really I'm really looking forward to the election. I think it's gonna be a really exciting time.

Absolutely. Keep grinding it out, man.

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