Managing an unruly world far and near: Q&A with Republican congressional candidate Todd Kent – Waco Tribune-Herald

Todd Kent, 59, of Bryan, brings a deep insight into the transition of the Republican Party from the influence of Ronald Reagan to one fiercely loyal to President Trump. Son of Texas A&M tennis coach and former Brazos County Republican Party chairman David Kent, he has also distinguished himself in higher education. In 2006, he and his family moved to Qatar to support the new Texas A&M campus in the region. There he served as assistant dean for academic affairs and a member of the political science faculty for nine years. More recently he served as top administrator at the University of Utahs Asia campus in Korea. He also has extensive experience as a political consultant. Given Kents recent years in international hot spots, the Trib editorial board spent time focusing on foreign policy. Our broader conversation revealed a pleasant Republican congressional candidate insightful about challenges facing our nation, less so in offering solutions. We did like his immigration assessment from a recent forum in College Station: We need to reform our legal immigration system. The No. 1 criteria ought to be that somebody coming in wants to be an American. Assimilation should be the No. 1 criteria.

QWhy is Todd Kent running for Congress?

AThe big reason Im running is I care about the future were going to leave for our children and grandchildren. I think weve made a lot of progress in the last few years on certain issues, but theres a lot of work to be done. Im a Republican and in 2018 we lost 41 seats [in Congress]. I want to be part of reclaiming the House and helping the Republicans. We need to broaden our base. We need to attract new people. If you look at congressional generic ballot surveys, the only demographic where Republicans beat Democrats is 65-plus. The second reason is we have some big issues, big challenges coming up in the future the national debt, health care, Social Security. We have an aging population. I want to be about helping to solve those problems.

QDonald Trump has been a transformative figure not only for the Republican Party but for the nation. How has he made the Republican Party better if indeed he has?

AThe support youre seeing for Donald Trump right now is tied to the fact that he says and does some things that Republicans have wanted for a long time. He stood up to China for one. Weve talked about it for a long time: We need to stand up to China. And he actually has done that. I think hes taken a slightly different approach to North Korea. The pendulum swings back and forth on North Korea and usually presidents give in, but hes been tougher. I think hes approached the courts in a way that most Republicans like. That is, to appoint conservative judges, meaning they like the Constitution as written. Probably his greatest legacy will be the courts.

QYouve mentioned a couple of things on the diplomatic front. Explain the logic of pulling out of an international pact that everyone, right and left, agrees froze Irans nuclear program at a time when we already had our hands full with North Korea. Now we face two countries pursuing nuclear ambitions. I mean, by the Trump administrations very own acknowledgement, Irans nuclear ambitions had been detained or shelved under the 2015 pact.

APresident Trump said yesterday or the day before that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.

QSo why tear up the pact? The 2015 pact that Iran was abiding by?

AI think the president believed that, one, it was a bad deal for us and that Iran was continuing to wreak havoc across the world. I think they believe that they continue their efforts in the nuclear realm.

QBut according to the Trump administration, they were not.

AWell, I dont know how to answer that, but I think if you listen to what the president says, he says that, as he encouraged other countries to pull out also, this was a bad deal for the U.S. It hamstrung us. I dont believe that the president believes that Iran would not seek a nuclear weapon. I lived in Korea for four years. Theres similarities and differences between Kim Jong-un and the leaders of Iran, but then again, what they say and what they do are two different things.

QWell, our allies disagree [about Iran over the now broken 2015 nuclear freeze pact], the ones we negotiated with. Now the United States is being touted as breaking its word on an international agreement that we signed.

AWell, I think Trump would say that this was largely just an executive order agreement, that the terms came through Obama. The Senate didnt approve of that. We had a Republican Senate at the time. I think Trump felt like this was his opportunity to right a wrong. I dont have a problem with it. Having lived in the Middle East, I watched the relationships between countries in the Middle East. Since 1979 the Iranians have been at some type of conflict with the United States and a lot of the world. I dont think they can be trusted. I think we need to be in a situation where, like Reagan said, We can trust but verify, and we havent had that opportunity.

QYou spent part of your tenure at a Texas A&M campus in Qatar. Have you gained any insights about the Middle East that would help those of us bewildered by all that is going on, including the struggle between Shia and Sunni sects?

AThats a very good question. I lived there nine years. I interacted with Qataris on the highest level and we had students from all over. They have very long memories. They dont forget anything. Thats why conflicts have been going on for 1,500 or more years. Very tribal. In fact, when I was there and talking to some of the State Department officials, they said, You know, the Qataris want to have local elections but they dont know how to have them where they wont just vote for their tribe. I said, Well, were good at gerrymandering in the U.S. We could work that out for you!

QAnd were getting more tribal [in the United States] all the time.

ASo you see this sense of history there. Some of the [boundary] lines drawn by the British, we see that in Syria and Iraq they dont meet the cultural history, so theres problems. I think with Sunnis and Shias Ill tell you, I worked for George W. Bush, but that was a mistake we made. [This is a reference to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.] We went in there. We got rid of [Sunni strongman] Saddam Hussein. I dont think anybody realized that 60% of the people [in Iraq] were Shia, so immediately the country leaned towards Iran and were still paying the price for that. I think we as Americans would do better if we understood that this region is not a monolith like other countries. I mean, its very different. Most countries you go into, theres so many tribes, theres an extensive history. Even Iraq, youve got the Sunni, the Shia and the Kurdish people and they all have different ways of looking at things.

QHave we effectively screwed the Kurds again?

AI hope not. Theyve been a very good partner for us and theyve been loyal to us. I hope that the end gain will be no. I think to go to the Kurdish area right now in Iraq, theres good things happening. Theres economic development and that kind of stuff. But its always tricky there because its contingent on other factors, so I worry about them. I worry about Turkey messing with the Kurds not only in their own country but spilling over into [Kurdish areas in] Iraq.

QShould Turkey be in NATO anymore?

ANATO, this mutual defense pact that NATO talks about that will come to the rescue of everything, it seems to me theres some possible contradictions with Turkey in the mix. They have different goals. Weve seen that in Iraq. Weve seen that in Syria. Probably things wouldve been different in Iraq if Turkey wouldve let us use their bases, but they didnt. My wife works with Syrian refugees in Lebanon and a lot of them fled because Turkey and the proxies from those countries made it very difficult for them to live there.

QYou also spent time in South Korea. I believe on the phone you mentioned to me that you were just 30 miles from the North Korean border.

You mentioned that people are pretty unworried in that area about the North. Give me insights as to why they seem confident things will work out.

AI think its because in their history its always been that way. Thats what the students would tell me. Even the adults would say, Its always been this way. It ebbs and flows so we dont see anything different. As a leader of a university over there, what I would do is watch the U.S. army base. If they went on alert, then we would get nervous. But even though the rhetoric was loud, you didnt see a real change. You know whats interesting, its the same thing in the Middle East.

QYouve also taught political science. You mentioned a problem that Republicans dont seem to be growing beyond older, white people. Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen last year rather infamously noted that President Trump was losing Republican support in the Texas suburbs because of his impulsive ways and things he says at rallies and in tweets. Given there is this fidelity to the president in party ranks, what is the Republican Party to do? Thats not a long-term prescription for [a viable political party].

ANo, its not, especially losing females. I think sometimes the presidents strong rhetoric turns off female voters. But I think its even bigger than that. I think were the party of individual liberty, limited government, growth, business. I think that we have got to do a better job of expanding those ideas into the next generation.

QNo one questions that, but Republicans are so busy playing to their [far-right] base that they cant appeal to the suburbs. I mean, what issues do Republicans need to take a second look at?

AIn College Station, I talk to students all the time and I ask them what are the big issues? They say, Debt. I say, The national debt? And they say, Well, student debt. But I think in a lot of ways students care about the same things that we do I mean, older people. I think in this state demographics are showing more and more Hispanic voters. Youve seen the valley and then you have the suburbs and the rural areas and then cities. Theres three distinct voting blocs now in the Statehouse. I want to be part of the effort to reach out and do a better job, that we replace these 65-plus voters with some younger people.

QLet me put it this way. I grew up in the Republican Party. I was in the Republican Party longer than anybody in this room and I dont recognize this party anymore. What issues does the Republican Party need to take a look at? I ask because I know your father was a well-known Republican Party chairman.

AThe problem with Central Texas is we tend to be a little bit in a bubble. Were a fairly homogeneous population. Everything is fine here. Everybody is a Republican. Thats kind of the idea, especially Brazos County. Lets take Hispanic voters. They tend to be hard-working, pro-family. I would say a majority are pro-life. A lot of them are Catholic and tend to be pro-life. Well, these are typical Republican issues. We just havent done a good job of going and meeting them where theyre at. And I think one reason is we talk about border security and sometimes they see that as an affront to them.

QWell, look at President Trumps remark about a [Hispanic] federal judge he labeled as Mexican and thus unable to judge Trump fairly on an issue of importance to Trump.

AWe have to look at our language. We have to look at our efforts. And you know, weve been talking about this in the Republican Party for years, but the problem with politics is you tend to go from cycle to cycle. By the time we finish this cycle, well start another one. Whos going to do the outreach effort? You know what I mean? But I think, as a Republican in this country today, we have to get better or were going to lose out.

QDo you equate getting better with changing?

AThe Republican Party, in my lifetime, we used to be all Democrats. And now weve been Republicans for the last, what, 30 years. The issues were fiscal conservatism and conservative social issues. Pro-life, pro-family type issues, and that was important. And I think what youre seeing is some splintering.

QLike a trillion-dollar deficit?

ATrillion-dollar deficit? Yeah, where theres equal blame to go around .

QBut the Republican Party is supposed to be better about fiscal issues. Republicans ran the White House, House of Representatives, Senate, and the primary accomplishment during that two-year period was the 2017 Tax Cut & Jobs Act. It cut the revenue growth we anticipated and we increased spending. Make sense of this.

AIf you look at the 2018 budget, we took in $3.5 trillion. We ought to be able to run a country on $3.5 trillion dollars. Thats my opinion. We spent $4.1 trillion. Now, part of that is just wasteful spending. But a big component is in health care. Medicare and Medicaid together are about 28 percent. These increases are built in, meaning they are entitlements. If youre over 65, youre eligible for Medicare. And so more 65-year-olds, more money is going to go out. The problem is, we havent said, OK, these are entitlements, but we need to get our administrative costs under wraps. You talk to health-care experts, they say at least 50% of our administrative costs are excess. Theres too much money going out. The New York Times reported the average angioplasty in the United States is $32,000. Across the world its $6,400. Were not able to keep our costs under control. Defense budget is 50 percent of our discretionary spending. Now, I support the defense, but theres wasteful money. We need to have a handle on it. We lose $100 billion, dont know where it went! As a government, we really need to get our hands around these things. We have to make some hard decisions. Weve made promises to people and we have to figure out how to honor that, yet make things work. And I think in this last Congress, nothing got done. There may have been an impeachment, but hardly any policy work is getting done. Nobody wants to talk about these things. Theres not a Democrat or a Republican who wants to talk about reducing entitlements.

Interview conducted by Trib editor Steve Boggs and opinion editor Bill Whitaker. It has been condensed for space and edited for clarity.

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Managing an unruly world far and near: Q&A with Republican congressional candidate Todd Kent - Waco Tribune-Herald