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Hi friends, Gene Valentino and welcome back to another episode of Gene Valentino’s Grassroots TruthCast. We get them on from all walks of life. I
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was at a very interesting think tank conference in Colorado Springs
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about a month ago, and I have had a friend I’ve bumped into there from
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several conferences. His name is Jeff Kenia-Polish. He’s going to talk
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not only about what he’s doing in campaign fundraising for candidates all over the nation—he’s raised over a hundred
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million for these candidates, concerns, interests, initiatives—and he’s going to talk about that and the direct mail
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initiative. He’s also going to talk about why… oh, there he is! Hey Jeff! He’s also going to talk about
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why Poland is so smart, as Polish is his heritage. What’s Poland doing
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right in protecting its borders in the European community? Hi Jeff, how are you doing?
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Great to be with you this morning, Gene.
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Looking forward to a great conversation.
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Well, we’re going to have that conversation right after this.
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Hi friends, welcome back. I’m with Jeff Kenia. He’s the founder of an interesting company called
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JMK Victory, and it’s a fundraising entity that’s been involved with fundraising for several political action
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committees and groups and politicians running for office—sort of the energy behind the energy of a candidate.
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Welcome aboard, Jeff.
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Thank you for having me, Gene. Looking forward to our conversation today.
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So, it starts, I’m guessing, sometime after 9/11. You’re coming out of college.
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You’re seeing a concern in the world with foreign interest groups hostile
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to America’s character quality that you and I were raised by. And we see
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America threatened. We see so many interests in this nation being compromised by foreign adversaries who
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are basically trying to do what China would wish for a long time ago, and that’s to take us down from within.
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Describe JMK Victory, and then let’s pivot to not only what you’re doing for other candidates, but what you’re doing for the nation.
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Sure. So, JMK Victory is primarily a direct mail fundraising operation. So, those good old-fashioned snail mail
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letters you get in your mailbox asking you to give generously to Republican campaigns or America First
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Political Action Committees, Christian charities, on down the line—anything kind of patriotic, pro-America. Love your background, by the way, Gene,
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got the flag, got the eagle. Love it.
And yeah, you hit the nail on the head, you know. In the wake of
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9/11, that awakened something, I think, inside of all of us. And for me, that was pivoting away from what I
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thought was going to be a career in computer science toward a career in political science, and that led me into the conservative movement and working
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for all sorts of pro-constitutional conservative organizations, many of which
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were either members of or supporters of. And I’ve been blessed to partner with some great campaigns
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through the years. Obviously, we’ve met and chatted about my good friend and client Mark Lamb running out in Arizona’s Fifth District. And as
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we’re recording, a handful of days away from the big election day,
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polls are tightening, and the cash race is all important, because no money, no mission. And I’m
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blessed to come alongside these organizations and campaigns to give them the fuel they need to get their message out to voters.
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And what are you seeing as the major issue for conservative Republican candidates, which I presume are your primary
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clientele? What are you seeing as the major concern for them and what it’s going to take for them to win?
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Sure. I mean, as far as the kind of top issues… you know, as you know, I don’t like giving props to
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Democrats in general, but that James Carville “It’s the economy, stupid” line is ever-present, and affordability
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and the price at the pump—those are definitely those kitchen table issues that
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we need to do a better job messaging. Like, while prices are higher than we’d like, you know, look four years ago, where were the prices then? They were much higher
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under the incompetent presidency of Biden. And you know, then on down, I mean, election integrity
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and voter fraud continue to be a top issue and a top frustration for our side. Immigration has always been
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a top issue, although I think the public consensus is that Trump fixed it, even
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though there’s been issues with sanctuary cities and things like that. And I think,
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moving into this election, all those issues are on the ballot. While the president has barnstormed the country to rally the base and get the
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base turned out, the fact of the matter is President Trump’s not on the ballot. And that’s really of concern to get
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that turnout really ramped up for the midterms, which are traditionally far lower turnout.
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You know, I asked your client, Mark Lamb, running for Congress in Arizona—he ran for US Senate
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originally against Kari Lake. I should, as he would correct me and say, she ran against him,
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but nonetheless, Mark has a formidable race. He looks very good
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right now in Arizona, and I predict a victory for Sheriff Lamb. And I think he will be doing
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very well as a US congressman. My only regret is I wish I was in there working with him. But the fact of
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the matter is this is the comeback kid, but he’s an example of so many that are needed to fill these
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Republican vacancies on these House seats in particular.
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What’s your take about the complexion of Congress in general, and then we’ll drill down to some specific campaigns?
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Sure. I mean, I don’t envy Speaker Johnson’s job over these last couple of years. I mean, having the
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narrowest majority since World War II, it’s definitely like herding cats—or I’d say
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herding lions when it comes to the Republican side. And you’ve got a slew of retirements
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or folks like in Mark’s case in Arizona, where Andy Biggs is running for governor. Same thing in your home state there of Florida,
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with Byron Donalds running for governor there. So vacating those seats… and thankfully, I think in both cases, you’ve got a strong Republican candidate
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to defend it. But there are several others, I think, where we’re seeing there’s some opportunities on our side to maybe make up some ground.
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So, you know, when we were talking about 9/11 and the rise of kind of this Muslim socialist
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wing, the Michigan Senate race in particular with El-Sayed
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is neck-and-neck with Mike Rogers, a former FBI agent and American patriot there. And when you look at midterms,
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obviously, we all are students of history: the party out of power or the party in power generally loses seats. So in this case, with
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Trump and Republicans in control, the historical precedent would be that we would lose some ground. But I think
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you’re seeing in some of these cases, whether it’s Maine with Susan Collins, who’s been a survivor, and
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Michigan, where we’ve got some opportunities to go on offense, too.
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You’ve dealt with scrappy new guys coming to town that want to get into office. You’ve dealt with some incumbents. You’ve dealt with
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recognized not-for-profit entities locally and nationwide. Where is the momentum in terms of recapturing what
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I would consider conservatism and that culture that existed during the Reagan administration? And the biggest
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difference… we talk about how Trump and Reagan are so much alike and they’re both heroes unto themselves, but there’s
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a significant difference in the American culture between the Reagan era and now. What say you about that?
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Yeah, I mean, the culture battle is one that we’re seeing now play out on social media, and I know obviously we’re recording a podcast
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that’s going to be out on YouTube and Rumble and things like that. But I would say the legacy of
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Charlie Kirk and his organization, Turning Point, have really kind of invigorated young, under-25
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men to start going back to church, to get engaged on the social issues, especially
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the pro-life issue. And that’s where we’re seeing… this seems to be a very pro-life
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generation coming up to kind of counter the toxic culture that we’re seeing,
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especially on the left these days, where you’ve got a radical trans agenda. And I mean, we could go a million different
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ways off of that where they’re just depraved.
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Well, I’m glad you brought up 25 years of age because that’s
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the Gen Z crowd, 25 and younger. The concern is they’re either stepping
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back into a cultured way of life with and through church activity or community interests,
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or they stay ignorant, they stay angry, they stay depressed and hostile, they become violent, they resist
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anything that makes sense only because it’s Republican.
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They think this word “socialism”… they’ve never had a history class or a civics class or a political science class to
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talk about socialism, communism, Stalinism, and the rest of the “isms”
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that never succeeded elsewhere in any other governance in the world. Yet for some reason, it’s being
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jammed down our throats, and they think it’s the best thing since sliced bread.
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The same 25 and younger—what am I missing that they’re not listening to?
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I mean, I think you hit the nail on the head. The educational system—and that’s where the left has dominated for the last half century—
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is focusing on gender studies and African basket weaving and name your
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ridiculous content instead of the core reading, writing, arithmetic, and American history.
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And you see that. Last night I was watching Laura Ingraham, and she was playing a clip from
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your Senate candidate down there in Florida, the Democrat, when asked about Cuba and communism, and her answer was like, “I’ve never been to Cuba. I don’t know
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much about communism.” And I’m like, that is a United States Senate candidate, not some man-on-the-street interview that’s ignorant—that’s someone who’s actually seeking higher office.
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And I think, silver lining there, I think she has no shot of winning, but that’s just a microcosm of what you just said
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of this kind of ignorance of… reminds me of Kamala, when asked if she had been down to
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the border, and she very awkwardly said, “I haven’t been to Europe either.” And I’m like, what are we talking about?
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And that’s where I think folks like you and others that are communicating out on social media platforms to
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get some of those Gen Z eyeballs to actually hear some truth and get some history lessons there of
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being doomed to repeat it if you don’t know your history. And I think we’re seeing that play out in isolated spots now.
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No small coincidence, the same gender, the same
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era of the age group, I should say, is the same group that wasn’t trained very well post-COVID in the
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school systems, and many of them couldn’t tell you anything in our American history
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from history classes because there was none—there was no teaching. And many of them stayed
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ignorant on the very fundamentals of American history.
Folks, we’re talking with Jeff Kenia, owner and
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founder of JMK Victory. He’s proud of his fundraising efforts—raised over a hundred million dollars! Wow, a hundred
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million dollars throughout the United States for political candidates and causes. Is that correct?
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Yes. No, I’ve been blessed to partner with some great organizations and political campaigns through the years.
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So happy to do my part on the direct mail side of things.
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And where what’s your focus, Jeff? Political candidates, causes?
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We have a pretty diverse mix, although obviously we’re in the heat of
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a midterm election year. So in election years, we definitely build up on the campaign side.
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So everything on the mail side—everything that we’ve kind of deployed is out there, and we’re just kind of watching the returns
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come in. And that’s one of the bright spots here: is seeing the donors really
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ramp up and get engaged now in these final days of the campaign. And you’re seeing that play out, whether it’s obviously
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the top Senate races, but down to House races and state level as well—
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people are tuned in and finally seeing what the difference is, and I think looking at the future of the country. And all politics is
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local, so it’s always that sense of “hate Congress, but love your congressman.” But I think now people are
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starting to wise up that it is a binary choice of good versus evil of what the
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left is about, and whether it’s the trans cult and that sick
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social agenda, or socialism when it comes to our free market capitalism and what the Democrat socialists
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especially are trying to push completely rewrites our history.
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Well, you bring up an excellent point. I came out of an era where the American Legion
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funded an event nationwide through the states of the nation: a Boys State
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and a Girls State event. It was usually held on a big campus somewhere. I was chosen from my school to attend it.
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It’s where an individual really fine-tunes his craft or his skills in going into politics and understands
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the benefit of a two-party system, which you just mentioned. And this two-party system, I don’t think our founding
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fathers intended it to be used as a safety valve in
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today’s election, but it wasn’t intended to be used for us to say “vote
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Republican no matter how good or bad the candidate is.” We don’t want that guy over there who’s socialist-communist and
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is working from within to tear down the very fabric of America’s constitutional republic—to me, is not
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what the two-party system of our founding fathers intended. So, for example—and I just say for example—you’re a
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Democrat and I’m a Republican, and we have similar points of view, we have different points of view, and I’m
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bringing legislation forward that I would like the House of Representatives to pass before the Senate, and
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we agree. We happen to agree on 85% of it. We fine-tune it a bit to make each
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other happy. And we now have bipartisan legislation coming forward subject to
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the approval of the governor at the state level or the president at the federal level. To me, that is the spirit of a
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two-party system that was intended to have differences, but to work together.
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Today, the two-party system becomes military camps of insurrection
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that are trained to be funded by not-for-profit entities, NGOs,
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to push a radical cause so severe that the conversation has more to do with the
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assassination of the opponent, not the finding of common ground to
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get something through. In fact, in today’s election, how few Democrats are talking about the issues? If I want to
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hear about some issues, I’m usually listening to Michele Tafoya up in Minnesota.
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Yeah, that’s another race that is again a bright spot where Minnesota hasn’t voted for a Republican for
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president back to Nixon, and Michele Tafoya is running neck-and-neck there. So very good… and we have a
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governor’s race in California which really stands out: former DHS secretary running as a Democrat against Steve
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Hilton… Becerra, I think… Xavier Becerra running against Steve Hilton. The only constructive comment he had to make was this morning on Fox News
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telling everybody that Fox News ought to take Steve Hilton back as a commentator.
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He has no place in politics when the polls show a tightening of the
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spread between the two of them. It’s literally almost as close as the Texas race. But my concern is
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the two-party system cannot leave us, because there’s no alternative that we
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can find any better. There’s six, seven, eight parties in a race—you get lost in the crowd, and you may end up with a candidate who never received a majority vote from anybody.
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In this case, I’m concerned about the NGOs
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who are funded by the likes of a George Soros on the Democrat side, and money’s being used to fund all of their
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methodology and marketing as compared with folks like you receiving money from patriots that are
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looking to simply bring the issues of the candidate forward.
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How does… you representing your client, do you feel the difference between what they’re doing and what you’re doing?
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Oh, absolutely. I mean, what the left has done—and you saw that play out when they installed Kamala Harris as
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their nominee last presidential cycle—they’re the Democrats, but they’re the furthest thing from a democracy
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approach where they… RFK was running as a Democrat in that presidential
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field, and today he’s serving in the Trump administration. Where you see, I think, for what I do and connecting kind of conservative grassroots donors—
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those, you know, the widower in Pennsylvania or the rancher in Texas giving $25 or $35 month after month to a
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campaign or a cause they care about—versus the George and Alex Soroses or the Reid Hoffmans or
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name your Hollywood or Silicon Valley liberal. I mean, Mark Zuckerberg dumped over $400
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million into the 2020 election to rig it against the president. And I think you’re starting
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to see that where… and one of the issues, I think, especially on the low-dollar, just kind of in the weeds of
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processing—but we’re talking about tens of millions of dollars—is ActBlue and the fraud and allegations right
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now, but seemingly very serious allegations of foreign money being funneled through that platform because they knowingly
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relaxed their security protocols on checking where these transactions were coming from. But
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that’s been the lifeblood of the left. And now we’re seeing where the Democrat committees
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are either bankrupt in the DNC case and having to mortgage their headquarters, or just all
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the energy right now—and this is because of the Soroses of the world—are being pumped into the Democratic Socialists of America, the DSA, that has basically
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hijacked and taken over the modern-day Democrat Party. And that’s the scarier thing of it: is a binary
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choice of you’ve got maybe a milquetoast moderate Republican that, depending… I’m very much
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a Reagan Republican of the, you know, the most electable conservative is how we need to play to win.
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But where you’re seeing… and I’ll go back to Michigan, El-Sayed, like when he was on Fox News recently with Bret
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Baier, and Bret was trying to read him a letter about the Muslim Brotherhood, El-Sayed was doing
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everything he could to prevent Bret Baier from talking about that, and he was very slick and a very good
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communicator. So that’s a danger there in that: will he be able to con his way into the US
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Senate because he doesn’t want to answer about his core beliefs? He just wants to shout platitudes about… well, he’ll swear
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to protect the Constitution, when really he’s a Muslim Brotherhood-aligned Democrat.
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And I think you just touched on it. I think that’s the key: these Democrats are hiding a true intention,
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a true agenda, just to get through an election.
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When I listen to a Republican talk, I hear sincerity, openness, depth of thought in terms of platform and issues.
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I don’t hear that. I hear a lot of hyperbolic conversation and a chop-down of the
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opponent, as I mentioned earlier with Xavier Becerra going after Steve Hilton. I still don’t know what the guy stands
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for. Of course, who are his alternatives? Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris or Eric Swalwell?
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Well, they’re all in trouble in one way, shape, or form. I mean, who wants them? And by the way, when you
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went back to that comment earlier about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., isn’t it amazing that Democrats like him…
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where was the primary, right?
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The Democrats blew past a primary process, which is
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imbued in our constitutional republic as a process to seeking the highest office of the land. It bypassed… a
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backroom deal was done to bring their candidate forward. No wonder people were leaving the Democrat Party.
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Right. I don’t understand.
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And now when we’re going after their wrongdoing, we’re somehow retaliating and seeking a vindictive response. I
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don’t care what it is. If it’s a break in the law, let’s nail them. And I think that’s underway. At the top of
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the list making the news as we speak is the AOC issue… up in… where are
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we? Michigan? Yeah, no, Minneapolis, Minnesota. I’m getting my states mixed up here. Ilhan… Ilhan Omar and the rest of them. Yeah,
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excuse me, whatever her real name…
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I meant to say AOC, New York. AOC, New York. Ilhan Omar or whatever her name is in Michigan.
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Yeah, the Squad. I mean, you’ve got Jasmine Crockett and Cori Bush that lost their
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primaries. But AOC is a presumptive Democrat contender for probably the
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White House, I would think, at least in her own mind, if not for Senate there in New York. And when you were talking about Hilton and
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Becerra, or however you say his name in California, I’m reminded of… yeah, I’m originally from New York,
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and seeing those races where you had someone like Lee Zeldin back in 2022—and I’ve been blessed to know Lee
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and work on all his campaigns through the years—and he ran as good a race as ever, and still got more
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votes than any Republican back to Nelson Rockefeller. But the changing rules of ballot harvesting and now
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early voting… and that’s where I think, trying to read between the lines of some of these polls and turnout and
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all these kind of latest ballot drops of the early voting and mail-in voting, has made that side of the political consulting industry
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especially tough. So it’s more the enthusiasm, I think. And I always like to go back to, again, using a
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Democrat campaign comparison, but 2008, Obama versus Hillary: the power of the grassroots versus the establishment mega
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donor class. So you had Hillary, who was running on her husband’s record and had all the mega
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Democrat major donors who owed everything they had to Bill Clinton maxing out to her campaign. But then you
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had this Democrat—originally a state senator turned US senator with a funny name—but
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energized their base to a degree where they were raising tens of millions of dollars from folks
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giving under $5. So donate $2 and get a chance to win, at the time, lunch with Senator Obama. And you
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saw that groundswell of grassroots momentum kind of swing behind Barack Obama, where he took out the
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presumptive Democrat queen-in-making there.
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And likewise, I think you saw in 2016 the grassroots Trump just spoke their language of “Make America Great Again,” hearkening back to the old Reagan
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“shining city upon a hill.” And that’s where the grassroots gets energized and behind a candidate.
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That’s where even the money advantage that some of these leftists have because of Soros… I think
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that grassroots momentum can overcome some of that money gap.
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Yeah. And I submit it did in the last election for Trump 47. You saw polls
