Ryan Tyson on Florida's Red Wave
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Welcome to Broken Potholes. I am Chuck Warren. Today we are missing Sam Stone, who is with Family Back East, but we are lucky to have a friend of the show, Ryan Tyson, president of Tyson Group, which specializes in polling a marketing research firm. They have worked in 48 states. They are headquartered in Florida, and Ryan has twice been mentioned as the top 100 most influential people in Florida politics. Ryan, welcome to the show.

Thanks, Chuck. Glad to be with y'all. So, Ryan, why don't we first start. Tell folks how you got involved in the polling business. How did you decide to go and do this and become the numbers guy in Florida?

Well, to be honest with you, I stumbled into it when I started working at a trade association building a political department for a 501c6 here in Tallahassee. We would hire pollsters, and what I ended up finding would happen as I did this is that I didn't like how they designed questionnaires, or I didn't necessarily like how data was presented, and I ended up eventually finding that I was doing most of the work myself.

So it was at that point that I realized I probably should figure out how to go ahead and start my own business. So originally I partnered with some veterans in the polling industry, Billy and Barry Zeplowitz from Telepinion Research, and worked under them for several years and then sort of absorbed most of those clients into the Tyson Group a few years back. So that's basically the long and short of it. I mean, we consider ourselves disruptors in the industry in the sense that

We didn't grow up into this industry like most holsters typically do. So we specialize in a lot shorter instruments. We like to keep conversations very brief. We try to take

We see the value of Internet research. We see the value of live phone research still, that sort of thing. So we're an all-of-the-above firm. We are right of center, but we predominantly work for corporate clients around the U.S. So we're also very well-versed in how Democrat politics talk and doing research at Democrat spheres as well. What do people not understand about polling? I mean, because of the two presidential elections and national polls have been off,

enough that it has caused a raised eyebrow for most people when they see results. What is something people don't understand about it? I think it starts with this, in my opinion. One is there's two purposes for a survey when a survey launches. It's either being paid for or it's being done for PR purposes. Right. It's pretty much the only reasons why. And I have always said, don't trust the survey you didn't pay for. Right.

And there's a reason for that. I mean, a good solid round of data is not cheap. It's expensive. It's expensive to do the analysis. And on that note, I would say it's, number one, making sure that you trust the source, paying for it yourself. But the next piece of it I would say is I feel like the analysis side is where a lot is necessary.

is left to be desired with a lot of the public polling that's out there. Very poor weights, very poor, they're waiting very poor interviews up, which is not wise. You shouldn't do that. It's, that's the reason why. I mean, we've got, the polling industry has been weaponized for purposes of PR and Twitter and for the, and for cable news and whatnot. And it's damaged the industry greatly. That's why we try to, we try not to get into that, that space.

I think the people who know our work and are familiar with our work know that we get it right.

And it's not cheap, but we do get it right. And I think that the difference is that you've got this subculture of firms and university-based and backed organizations that are out there. I don't know why they're doing data other than for PR purposes, but it's just very poor quality. And I think the analysis on it is just terrible. Well, I mean, it is great PR, right? I mean, we could put any poll out on Twitter right now, and it has anything that, say –

The press likes, that's going to get picked up. If it has anything against a candidate they don't like, it's going to get picked up. And so it is probably the easiest way to get press, what do you say, or attention than almost anything out there right now. I wholeheartedly agree. Wholeheartedly agree, which is why, you know, I understand they do it. It's just that, you know, you take, for example, you know, in my home state of Florida, you know, we don't do a survey. We do 60 surveys.

So over the course of a cycle, when we look at a data point, and I think this kind of goes into a third point I'd like to make about polling, when we come up with a data point from any given survey,

we're comparing it to not only a vast amount of research that goes back in time, but also comparing that to actual precinct level results in the state. See, I feel like what a lot of, I can't speak for other pollsters, but I know that we spend a lot of time, at least here in Florida, because our data from the state is so good, we spend most of the first quarter following an election year determining at the precinct level who

who drove what result and how, and stacking that up against our survey research. And now we're back to the thoughtful analysis. And for example, I'll give you an example here in this state. Consistently we know that about 11% of Democrat voters, by and large, actually are conservative and they vote for Republicans. And constantly you see all of these public surveys come through where that number of Democrats is down to the low single digits. You know they're not getting a good sample.

Furthermore, with whites, for example, when you see a survey coming out just about anywhere other than a big blue state and the share of a white vote is within the low 50s, I mean, that's just – you've got to do better than that. There's no way that Republicans win in states that we do with that few – with that little of the white vote. So when you see data like that, you have to scratch your head. Either A, you're on to something that's cataclysmic that's coming, or B –

you're not getting your sample right. So I just feel like you have to wrestle with those things. And in my shop, when a piece of data comes out of the field, we put it on a bunch of screens and we wrestle with it. And that's where the thoughtful analysis comes in, in my opinion. Well, exactly. We're with Ryan Tyson, the president of the Tyson Group. Ryan's firm, the Tyson Group, has done work for Senator Marco Rubio, Rick Scott, Governor DeSantis, and former President Donald Trump this past cycle. As you were polling this past cycle in Florida,

You were out there a lot. We pulled in a lot of states. Yeah. We pulled in a lot of states. But let's focus on Florida for a minute because that seems... Sure. And here's the thing I want to explain about Florida, why it's really interesting, especially people in Arizona. So when...

President Trump lost here in Arizona this past cycle. You know, I'm on various community groups, Facebook groups, you know, Republican groups here in Arizona. And it was like, I'm moving to Florida. I'm moving to Florida. And I literally know a dozen people who have left Arizona who are Republican to go to Florida because they view it as

Utopia, right? And you and I have worked on this for a while, and I have had these conversations. Some have become heated. You don't understand Florida. The makeup's really not significantly different than what you have here. They're just doing things differently. What do the national polls this past cycle... They're wrong a lot. What are they doing to be wrong? Is it because they're not doing the 60 surveys over the year? So it's just sort of this...

A crappy survey? What is it? What are they doing? It's volume of data, number one. So I don't like it when people try to stack up or reporters try to stack up if they get one of my surveys. I tell reporters this. In Florida, I don't do as much data in all these other states as I do here.

But when I do a survey and it gets stacked up with a public survey, I say that's not really fair. Because that pollster at most may have been in the field two or three times in the state over the course of the last cycle. And this would be my 40th or 50th run for whatever reason I'm in the field for. So it's that amount of – I can build a trend line is what I'm trying to get at.

Right. And I build critical trend lines. I build trend lines of all the critical demographics that make winners in the state. And that's essentially what we're able to do. And when I see a data point that's floating around out there, I don't look at the top line as much as I look at the sample makeup and then how the key internals are moving. And then once I do that, I can learn a lot about how the sample was drawn and where it may have been off. And by the way,

A simple random sample can get messed up. I mean, there's human flaws that can occur in caller execution and things of that nature. But I feel like we've managed to reduce that margin for error in our analysis by having those very solid and lengthy trends. So that's how I would answer that. It's a volume of data. But I'm also going to say this, too. It's going back and looking at it.

If we got it right or not, you know, what were we right or what were we off on? So, for example, in Florida, and I'd say this to the good people of Arizona, we saw at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement in the summer of 2020, we started to see the fissure with Hispanics in Florida and Democrats. We saw it immediately.

And we started to trend it and we started to localize it and we saw it emanating out of Miami-Dade County. And Chuck, you know this because I told you many times about this and we would check up with each other that Miami-Dade was going to shock the world, did I not? Yes, you did. You were spot on.

And they did. And it's just as simple as the Democrats didn't see it. And I don't understand how they didn't see it. But I saw it. And another colleague of mine down here in Florida that is a mentor of mine saw it as well. And we just – it just is what it is. I can't speak to how other pollsters collect data, but I will tell you we try to keep it simple stupid. And I think there's too much –

They just get way too academic, in my opinion, on some of these exercises, and it costs them. And their instruments, Chuck, their instruments are way too long. Nobody sits on the phone that long. No, no. And I think part of it, too, is being open-minded. Sam Stone, who's not with us here today, he has an interesting theory that the most—

Close-minded people or the people who are most likely to live in a bubble are liberals because everything you see in the media is liberal. So they have just felt like this is the world. So therefore, they lack a certain open-mindedness, a creativeness, which you have, which is why you picked up Miami-Dade's going to shock the world and hence make Donald Trump have a nice victory.

And so what do you see the demographics of the type of people moving into Florida since it now is the red state utopia apparently in the nation? What are you seeing moving into Florida?

Okay, so let's start with this first. The first thing is that the data in terms of who actually is moving into the state, there really is no rock-solid database that you can go access somewhere that doesn't have some sort of flaw in it that's going to limit your ability to see a really clear picture. So let's be clear about that. Now, we could take change of address directories and do analysis of that, but there's going to be flaws in that as well. Okay.

But to that end, we'll take the one piece of data, which is the new registrants, that I feel is probably the most indicative of what the question, to answer the question that you're asking. So new registrants in Florida are up over 50% from the same period of time in the last midterm. Okay? Okay. That's a big number. All right? Number two, independent turnout, I'm sorry, independent new registrants is up about 51%.

Okay. Democrat registration is up about 40 percent from the same period of time in the last midterm. Okay. Republican up 72 percent. Yeah, that's incredible. It's incredible. And I would tell you—go ahead. We've got about 30 seconds here, then I want to pick this up on the next break. Yeah, yeah. So let's pick that up here in the next break, and we will also want to discuss a little bit more about—

What makes a good Republican candidate in Florida? This is Chuck Warren with Broken Potholes. And today, the president of the Tyson Group, Ryan Tyson. We'll be back right after this break.

The 2020 election is over. Now it's time for you to get ready to run for 2022. First step, getting your .vote campaign web address with your first and last name. Say your name is Janet Jones. A web address like www.janetjones.vote is the perfect way to get voters to remember your name

all the while reminding them to vote. Visit GoDaddy today to kick off your 2022 campaign right. Welcome back. This is Chuck Warren with Broken Potholes. Today, our guest, Ryan Tyson, the president of the Tyson Group, also twice president.

mentioned as the most influential, top 100 influential people in Florida politics. Today, we're talking about Florida, why it is sort of the Xanadu for Republicans now. Ryan knows well as anybody that this is hard work and that that Xanadu could disappear with a snap of the finger. And we'll talk about that a little bit as well. But we were talking about

The demographic makeup moving into Florida, and Democrats have had a 40% registration gain. Republicans have had a 72% or 76%. What was it, Ryan? It was 72%. It's 72% growth compared to the same point in the last midterm. So it is becoming there, you know, the capitals.

The cattle wagons are moving to Florida to agree for Republicans because they feel this is this utopia that all is well in Florida. Continue to talk to us a little bit about that. Then I want to talk about what people don't understand that really is there's a snap of the finger that could all flip. It's not this 10 point advantage people like to think.

Yeah, I agree. I agree. So I guess the first thing I'll just add is when we look at the demographics that are new registrants in the state of Florida right now, they're not terribly off in terms of rates. I mean, we went through party, which is clearly off benefiting the Republicans for the most part.

But when you take it into consideration as a whole, because remember, when you're dealing with the state of Florida, similar to Arizona, you've got a big population dying every year as well. So you have to take all of that into an analysis. And that's where you see that it's an advantage that's very clear to the Republicans, but they're going to have to turn them out. And furthermore, they still relatively will be close election if the Democrats get their ground game going back again. But the one piece I would like to point out there right now is that it's the Hispanic segment of the electorate

that the Democrats have been losing their grip on in each election cycle dating back to 2012 here in Florida. Rick Scott did a much better job in 14 with Hispanics in Florida than he did compared to 10. Move yourself into 2016. Donald Trump didn't do worse than Mitt Romney. He did slightly better, believe it or not. When you looked at 16 and 18, DeSantis overperformed Rick

Rick Scott's numbers from 14. And then as you moved into 2020, Donald Trump got 48% of the Hispanic vote. That's unheard of. He had the highest share of the Hispanic vote of any Republican in the history of the state.

So I think you're seeing, and I think the NRSA released some polling data today to that effect on the nationwide scale, and I would confirm everything that their pollster is saying in his analysis, at least on the ground here in Florida. That's fantastic. Explain a little bit how, you know, you and I have worked out there. You're out there all the time. Explain to folks that while Florida has had some wonderful electoral success, I

held the governor's office forever, legislature forever. It's really not this crimson red state, as people like to think. No. There's actually, it's...

And again, this is based on conversations with people like here in Arizona. I've known a dozen people who have moved out there and just feel like this is just wonderful. I always mention they never mention moving to Utah, but that's for another conversation another day. Explain to people, this really is an election from being considered a purple state again.

Right. It is. It really is. So if you look at the last couple of elections, elections in this state, those were very hard, hard fought and well-earned victories for the Republicans. I mean, we played chess, um,

with our opponents in the sense that we knew where they likely would end up in their turnout apparatus. And then we built turnout models and turnout operations that would help us get just enough. I think that was very evident in 2018. And in 2020, we hit every single one of our numbers

And then they didn't get as high as they needed to. And that's the, that's the reason. I mean, well, and bluntly too, I mean, the two in Florida in 2020, Miami Dade County is the reason that quarter million votes swing in the other direction is the reason why the state had a 300,000 vote margin for the president. But yes, you're a hundred percent right. These are hard fought wins. And if the Republican turnout operation was to just slack off a little bit, uh, and the Democrats were able to actually surge back, uh,

I think it would absolutely have a chance of swinging in the other direction. I mean, we need to all remember the Democrat infrastructure was essentially scared of person-to-person contact in 2020. I'm not trying to be offensive to anybody in your audience. Chuck and I, we're both in the field business, and we understand that. We understood that because we could see it on the ground. So I would say that the lack of their field presence in 2020

contributed to the margin that they had here. And if they get that going again and they get their turnout machine revved up like they did in 12 in this state, yes, Chuck is 100% correct. We could be blue again. And never forget, we are only 32,000 votes away from it being Governor Gillum. That's right. Who was running Florida. That's right. During the pandemic.

That's exactly right. What are the top three, four issues on the mind of Florida voters? Let's take COVID out of the equation. Well, COVID is out of the equation now in Florida voters' minds. And I will tell you, in other states that I've been surveying in as well, it's done perfectly.

The vaccine is available to people who want it. People have moved back into quality of life. That is the same here. It's the same everywhere. It happened like a light switch, Chuck, as we were tracking around different states that we were working in. March was one thing. Beginning of April was another. And I went into the field the first of May and it had completely changed. Just quality of life is how it explains again. People are starting to focus back on general economic recovery, schools,

environment, just where we were, in my opinion, back in the spring of 2020 before everything went to hell. So that being said, what are the top three or four issues that are on Floridians' minds? What concerns them? What are issues that Republicans should be very

concerned about that could hurt them electorally? Well, I will say this. I may have a lot of people in my industry who disagree with the comment that I'm about to make, but I really believe this is less and less about issues in this tribal atmosphere that we live in, and it's more and more about hatred for the other side.

I wish it wasn't that way, Chuck. But if we're fooling ourselves, if we think that somebody is getting all fired up about policy X or Y, everything's been nationalized. And whatever issue of the day you want to tag it to, one side's going to love it because it's their side, and the other side's going to hate it because it's the other side.

And I could flower it up for you if you wanted me to, but I think if we're being blunt with your listeners, we remain in a hyper-political environment. It's unfortunate for all of us as Americans to be there now. But I think down ballot races, Chuck, I do think unless you're state-led and you're

And your local races, absolutely there are issues people care about. They care about on the local level the normal things we care about. They want your trash picked up. You want your streets saved, your roads picked. And I think that does matter. But when we're talking the U.S. Senate and North, it's in my opinion that this is tribal and you've got to turn out your base. And sadly, I don't see that changing.

In the short-term future. I mean, I'm not sure it goes back. I don't know how it goes back at this stage, and I don't like that. It's horrible. I mean, you would think with COVID came, you know, you're too young. But when 9-11 came...

You know, George Bush was 90 percent approval. We are all in this together. You know, I don't think if we are attacked now, I don't think even being patriotic, 40 percent of the country say, well, no, it's your fault. I mean, I really I really sort of feel that's where we're at now. And it's baffling to me how how we got there. And I don't know.

how it comes back unless some remarkable leader who can bridge sides. But the problem is you can't bridge sides because you have to get through your primaries. So it's a real tough sell. And we're going to take a break here. We're with Ryan Tyson, president of the Tyson Group. Look him up. He's a fantastic pollster. And we're talking Florida, all things politics today. This is Broken Potholes. This is Chuck Warren. We'll be right back.

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This is Chuck Warren with Broken Potholes. You can find us at brokenpotholes.vote. Today we're with Ryan Tyson, president of the Tyson Group. He's worked for such luminaries as Governor DeSantis, President Trump, former President Trump, Senator Rubio and Senator Scott and a host of other elected officials. They have polled in 48 states. He is a person that actually cares about numbers. He does polling and not press releases.

So, Ryan, welcome back here. Let's ask this question. What is if you were to build the perfect Republican candidate that just keeps Florida red? What is that candidate?

It's got to be a candidate that puts donkey skulls on the wall. I'm sorry. Going back to what we just talked about in the previous segment, in the tribal partisan atmosphere that we're in, you've got to find somebody who's beating the other side. And I will tell you, in a state like ours, I'm not sure at this granular level and a lot of the other states that I've looked at,

there are a lot of voters in this state, I would say it's at least 55% or greater, it's not greater, that are dramatically impressed with the governor of Florida because he took a stand and said some of this just doesn't make sense. These regulations aren't logical. You're letting people go back to work. We

We are letting schools open again. We want people to come here. And he was ridiculed and made fun of, and he was ultimately proven correct. So there's a lot of voters in this state that feel the state is headed in the right direction. They're very optimistic about its future, and they're very grateful that their governor didn't shut this place down longer than they was originally asked for in 30 days. So that's what I would answer your question with. You've got to find the guy that can go donkey hunting.

That's exactly what I think they've got. Does the business community appreciate that as well about Governor DeSantis? Oh, they do. They do. They absolutely do. Absolutely do. And I think when you see his monthly fundraising reports, you can see evidence of that. The man is a machine at this point. I think he raised something like $14, $15 million today.

in like the month of March or April, I believe it was. I can't remember which month that was. Who knows what he did in the month of May? But yes, he's got great support from the business community in this state. In fact, when you saw in Florida the other day when Val Demings, the congresswoman Val Demings, she was an impeachment manager against Donald Trump. She's a congresswoman from Orlando. When she made the decision publicly to run against Marco Rubio as opposed to Governor DeSantis, I think she was acknowledging it.

the mountain that it's going to be to beat a candidate that's got great name ID, the state's headed in the right direction, and is sitting on a war chest. That's fantastic. We're with Ryan Tyson, president of the Tyson Group out of Tallahassee, Florida. Ryan, let me ask you this. What have you learned about people the last four or five years as a pollster? What has surprised you?

Yeah, I've learned that the idea of the voter that lies to the pollster, there's a profile of that voter. And I'm going to tell you what the profile of that voter is. They're more likely than not white, and they're more likely than not over the age of 45 white.

and they're going to lie to you. That's the profile of voter that I've discovered will lie to you. It's the white voter I feel that I've seen that, that is more likely than not to not want to tell you who they're voting for on the phone. And there's a social pressure. There's a social pressuring that, that, that the reason that that is. And I know it's also that way with a, to a lesser degree with certain Hispanics in,

in this state, especially ones that consider themselves right of center. We actually interviewed a Hispanic voter in 2018 here in Florida. For your listeners who may not know, the Democrat candidate was African American. His name was Andrew Gillum. And we actually focused groups and talked to a Hispanic voter who told us that she actually told pollsters that she was going to vote for Andrew Gillum because, quote, this is from her, not me, Chuck, I didn't want them to think I was a racist, end quote.

Yeah.

That's where the thoughtful analysis comes in. It's part of the business. You do have people who lie to you, and that's why you have to go and look at past behavior and make a really educated interpretation of what you feel is really happening inside these numbers. We're with Ryan Tyson, President of Tyson Group. In our last minute here, Ryan, I'm going to ask you the most important question we ask all our guests. Ryan has three wonderfully adventurous, curious, rambunctious boys. Wow.

They are what you think little boys should be like, wrestling in the driveway, mud all over, sticks are a prominent part of their lives. What have you learned being a father? What's the one thing that you've really learned as a father? You have no control.

It's that you have no control. You have to do your best to equip your kids before we have no control. It's just, it's just a rodeo. It's just a rodeo buddy, isn't it? That's all you can do. You hope for the best every morning and the house doesn't burn down. You're set to go. That's it. And then you just have to say, geez, I hope I've done my best. Well,

Well, Ryan, thanks for being on our show today. It was very informative and we appreciate your time. We know you're busy and we hope you have a great week. Give my best to your lovely bride. And this is Broken Potholes. And thank you, Ryan Tyson. Thanks, buddy. Bye-bye.

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Welcome to Broken Potholes. I am your host, Chuck Warren. Sam Stone is out with family today. We have now a good friend, a good man, Ryan Smith. He's the Director of Communications and Government Relations for Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport. For those of you who don't know, that's actually in Mesa. It's a growing airport, Phoenix metro area. Arizona needs this airport to grow. And Ryan, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me today. I really appreciate it. So tell us what people don't know about Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport.

Well, Phoenix Basic Gateway Airport is what would be considered a reliever airport in the Phoenix market. Allegiant, we do have five airlines now servicing the airport, serve over 50 destinations with nonstop service. Close to 2 million passengers travel through the airport right before the pandemic in 2019. And we've already seen that traffic level basically return to pre-pandemic levels. Allegiant is our

primary dominant carrier. They fly to a little over 45 destinations. They target the leisure market, and we've seen that as the first segment that's kind of come back. Business travel is still way down, but people are making up for lost time, making up for lost travel, and they're getting out there. They feel comfortable. They've been vaccinated, so they're out there flying. What do you envision the Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport to look like 10, 20 years from now?

As the population continues to grow in the Phoenix market, you'll see that demand continue to grow for availability and air travel. Allegiant, again, is a great option. Avail Airlines, the new upstart airline,

Between Avelo and Breeze Airways, Breeze doesn't currently serve Gateway, but you've seen two new airlines, very well-capitalized airlines, start up just in the last month. And they see that after years and years of contraction, people are willing to go and they like that low-cost carrier model.

The airline miles aren't taking on as much importance as they used to. And so you'll see more options given to consumers and customers. And Gateway is a perfect place for that.

for that option. We're low cost, we're convenient. You can get from the curb to the airplane in just a few steps, low TFA wait times. And so that is what we like to talk. We like to say we're just plain easy. You can get to anywhere you need if we're super cheap and really convenient and affordable.

What's the number one destination out of Phoenix Mesa Gateway? Ironically, it's Provo, Utah. I believe it. And they just opened... Provo, Utah, they just opened non-stops to... Well, they're actually looking at now going into, I believe...

Phoenix International, whatever we call that airport, and St. Petersburg, Florida. Yeah. So Provo continues to expand. Again, growing population. People want that convenience, and Provo Airport's a perfect example of that. They're undergoing a $40 million terminal construction. I don't even want to say renovation because they basically operate out of a tent right now. But out of Gateway, we have...

10 to 14 flights, depending on the month, 10 to 14 flights a week to Provo. It's our number one destination. And you'll see markets like that. You'll see an Allegiant and a Velo and a Breeze Airways go into those smaller markets, the secondary airports within the market. And, again, anytime consumers have that choice and have that option, you

You know, that's a great thing for travelers. Do you view, like, an airline like Southwest or Delta ever flying out of the Mesa Gateway Airport? One of the things that we're working on is finding, again, as the population grows and as professionals shift more to the suburbs...

One of the things that we were really focused on is getting that daily business flight to a hub. So, you know, a United flight to Denver, you know, something like that. And I believe that that'll happen. The way the industry works right now, Southwest and American, they both maintain hubs at Sky Harbor. They're very successful in that. Sky Harbor does about 45 million passengers a year, give or take. And

And a little over half of those, what we say is never breathe Arizona air. They never actually leave the airport. So Sky Harbor functions very well. But again, as the population continues to grow, you've got state land that just sold thousands of acres of state land. They're going to put 20,000 homes within five miles of Gateway Airport. So at some point in the future, you know,

Gateway will be that viable second option for airlines. And whether that's Southwest or whether that's United, you know, that's still to be seen. But one of the things that we always say is this.

If you like that convenience, you got to use it. So show the airlines that you want to fly out of there and they'll see the trend. Exactly. So how did you get into this crazy business? This is not what you were raised to do. You're an ASU grad, an ASU football fan who never misses a home game. How did you get into this?

I haven't missed an ASU home football game since I was 11. That's a lot of tears over the years because you're not a young man anymore.

It is. It's tough. It's a tough one. But just like I say every September, this is our year. Will you be using the airline to fly up to Provo to watch the Mighty Sun Devils play the BYU Cougars this fall in September? I will. I booked my $45 round-trip ticket to Provo, fly in there on Saturday, and hopefully I'll fly home a happy man. That's perfect. So anyway, how did you get involved in this business in our limited time here? How did you get into it?

So real quick, I started, got a political science degree, ran a mortgage company. My dad was mayor of Mesa. He was running for mayor at that time back in 2008, and I figured, hey, that's

hey the housing market's so hot i'm going to take a little sabbatical and go go help run a campaign and uh you know we all know what happened in 2007 2008 march crashed and i really enjoyed i got the political bug so i started working on politics and running campaigns and and doing political fair stuff and uh at that time uh in it a little over six years ago um gateway airport was looking to uh for help specifically to get an air traffic control tower

There was this little crazy federal rule that prevented airports like Gateway from spending their own money on air traffic control towers. We have a 50-year-old tower that

It's too short, too small. And, uh, and yet we weren't even allowed to exactly. So we were, we weren't allowed to spend our own money and we thought that that was a problem. So, uh, so I, I took the job and, uh, we are currently under construction on a $30 million tower that's twice as big and has, uh,

has a cab that's twice as big as the current one. So when all the airline congestion starts at the Mesa Gateway Airport, we say, blame Ryan Smith. Blame Ryan Smith. So next year, we'll have a brand-new tower, and we will not have those congestion issues at all with the airspace. Gateway is one of the—

We've got a very interesting fleet mix. It's a hidden gem. We've got three 10,000-foot runways, which was a gift from the U.S. military. It was a gift and a curse because we have to maintain those runways and we have to maintain the airport. But we have a very unique fleet mix. We have flight schools. We have military. We have a lot of corporate traffic.

We have maintenance, repair, and overhaul facilities for Cessna and Embraer. So we have a lot of corporate traffic come in, and then obviously we have five airlines that operate out of there. So having a new air traffic control tower will be a huge boon for the airspace. It'll allow more traffic to come in and out of the Phoenix area, both the Sky Harbor and Gateway, and

And so it was a long overdue project, and we're really excited about it. As we close up here, what is something that has surprised you being in this industry? What is something you've learned that you didn't know about people or just the airline industry? What has been surprising to you?

You know, it's really interesting how a little rule and a little quirky thing can completely change the trajectory of an airport. Something like a federal rule limiting what an airport can spend their own money on or what a million dollars will do in state and local matches. When we get a million-dollar grant from ADOT and when we put our own money in,

That turns into a $10 million to $14 million project, which creates jobs. It creates economic opportunity. And when we talk about federal money, we're not talking about pork barrel spending stuff. We're talking about our own tax money coming back to Arizona and getting our taxes back, getting our fuel taxes back. And so using that leverage and looking at opportunities to leverage federal dollars

has been really surprising. There's a lot of really good opportunities that sometimes gets lost in the conversation. You know, it's easy to label some of that pork barrel, but really what it is a lot of times is when there are good projects

you know, it's our tax dollars, and we deserve to have that money back. Yeah, we do. Well, Ryan, thanks for coming in, and we hope you'll visit us again. This was really interesting. I don't think a lot of people know about this, what's going on out there, and it sounds like I need to buy some land and develop some hotels around the airport. It's what I've learned from this today. That's my takeaway. So anything else people should know about what's going on out there?

Now, if you're looking to fly and if you're looking for a convenient experience, gatewayairport.com, that'll have all of our destinations on there. There's a lot going on. You mentioned the construction. You know, there's tons and tons of stuff going on in the East Valley, and we're really excited for what the future has to offer. And, folks, he's right. This is an easy airport to navigate, especially outdoors.

It's great rates. It's timely. And if you have older parents, it's just easier than doing something like Sky Harbor. It's an easier airport to navigate. So take a visit out there. Ryan, thanks for joining us here on Broken Potholes. Thank you, guys. Have a great one. Thank you. You too. Well, Jamie?

What did we learn today here? Anything new you think? A quick reminder that the federal government has weird rules that screw up all sorts of things. So bureaucracy is always a pain in the tail. Absolutely. Not really a lesson, but a good reminder. Exactly. Exactly. Well, this is Broken Potholes. We appreciate you coming and visiting us this week. Sam Stone will be back with us next week.

And on behalf of Jamie, who's in studio today taking pictures, and everyone else, we hope you have a fantastic Memorial weekend with family and friends. God bless. This is Broken Potholes. I see a red door and I want it no colors anymore I want them to turn in there to turn my darkness gold

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