Ep. 209 - Kyle Sweetser: Semi-Sweet Home Alabama

0:01 Stories from Real Life is a production of Media Well Done, LLC. Today on Stories from Real Life with Melvin E. Edwards. When Kyle Sweetser first appeared on Stories from Real Life, he was navigating a dramatic political transition. Since then, he traveled throughout Alabama meeting voters from everybody while running for the United States Senate. In this candid return appearance, Kyle discusses the realities of campaigning in Alabama, the difference between hearing about racial issues and listening to people who have lived them, and the personal growth that comes from stepping outside political comfort zones.

0:42 He also reflects on mistakes, surprises, and the lessons he believes every American could learn from genuine human connection. This is Stories from Real Life, and today's story is Kyle Sweetser's Semi-Sweet Home, Alabama. You are listening to Stories from Real Life, a podcast by engaging storytellers for engaged story listeners. Here's your host, author and journalist Melvin E. Edwards. Hello again, and welcome to another episode of Stories from Real Life.

1:25 I'm your host, Melvin E. Edwards. Thank you for joining us for the podcast where real stories are so much more interesting than fiction. Today's guest is Kyle Sweetser, and he just spent the last year traveling Alabama as a candidate for the United States Senate. Along the way, he's spoken with business owners, factory workers, teachers, veterans, and church leaders. Today isn't just a conversation about politics. It's a conversation about what happens when people truly listen. Kyle Sweitzer, welcome back to Stories from Real Life. Hey, Melvin. It's great to be here again. I really appreciate it. I'm looking forward to the conversation. But before we start about learning about the lessons that you learned on the campaign trail, I have a different angle I want to start with.

2:09 What do you hope the people you met along the way would say they learned from you? Well, you know, there's a lot of folks that haven't been represented in our political process. I would say, you know, with the Democratic Party specifically, the Democratic Party hasn't really had a statewide voice. And part of that is for a reason. So Showing that people that work with their hands can actually hold their own and talk about the issues and the stuff that, to be completely honest, that both parties have forgotten about. All right. So since your last appearance here, you spent months on the campaign trail.

2:49 What has surprised you the most about Alabama voters? Well, I would say that there's a lot of folks that just aren't engaged. So you have your typical primary voter base, and the primary voter base is concerned about special interest issues specifically. And Because of that, you just don't see the regular working Alabamian represented at all really in our political system here. So what's the biggest misconception national media might have about Alabama and the residents of Alabama? that were all a bunch of dumb, bigoted rednecks.

3:31 You know, we get that a lot. And it's sad to see. There was a deal. I can't remember the specific. I think it was a congresswoman years ago, a tanker deal that Boeing and And I believe she said something along the lines that, you know, we're too stupid to build those tankers. And the people here are just very smart. They're very hardworking. They can get things done on a budget. They can get things done with pretty much nothing because they're used to it. So I'd really like to see folks give the people of Alabama a real chance.

4:11 Okay. So did campaigning change any of your own political beliefs? Well, you know, looking at some of these issues, I would say one of the things that I was staunchly against prior to running would be raising the minimum wage. And now through the process of running and talking I believe now that there might be a bit of an argument here in the state of Alabama for folks to be making more than $7 an hour. Okay. So what conversations stayed with you longer than long after the events were over?

4:57 One in particular, one of the things I really drove to start was immigration here in Alabama because immigration It's so important and the issue is ultra-politicized in a way in which the truth and reality aren't represented. You look at the state of Alabama and we have an older population that's supported by a much smaller population. So we need folks here that are working hard. And because I spoke out against the direction of the MAGA Republican Party on immigration, I had someone ask me in a Facebook comment underneath an event that I was going to that posted up in Blount County.

5:39 And they asked if they could come and I said, sure. When they showed up, they listened. It was a Hispanic woman in her family. And she asked, hey, can I come and speak? Can I step up and speak? So they let her speak. And it was just amazing hearing from her, someone to have that courage. She said she was in the U.S. for 25 years, worked hard, and finally became a U.S. citizen. And she just went on about the impacts to her family and her community on this rhetoric and really what the beginning of this Trump administration was doing, which was harming innocent folks that...

6:19 You know, they just seem to not care that they were hurting hardworking folks here, hardworking folks in our community. So hearing her talk about that, she came to tears when she was speaking. It was just huge for me to hear that, to see that courage. to see someone come up like that and put themselves out there and say, hey, basically she was never involved in politics and we helped get her involved in politics in her community. So seeing that is a really big moment for me. Can you share a couple of the details as to what she shared? Yeah, so she was saying that there were folks in the community that were detained and they weren't doing anything wrong.

7:05 They were working hard and they were being put in these detention facilities where they had 30 people to a room, men and women with no privacy and a toilet. So were there any, obviously that moment challenged you, but were there any other moments when voters challenged you in ways you didn't expect? Well, I didn't expect to see such a heavy focus on social issues, specifically asking over and over again about trans women in sports, biological men in sports. In my activism prior to this, I called out Tommy Tuberville quite a bit for talking about biological men in women's sports.

7:51 And so I assumed it was just Republicans that were pushing the issue. But what I found is that there are solid left-left folks. And some of them, I don't even think, affiliate with the Democratic Party. And those folks were really showing up to these events and driving those issues, keeping those issues in the forefront of our political conversation here in Alabama. And in seeing that and seeing how that damages our ability to be able to bridge the gap and bring people together was disturbing to say the least, though. You know, one of the things that I really learned is there's no matter the backlash, you have to be able to say no.

8:34 You have to be able to say, you know, well, this isn't going to align with the people of Alabama. You have to be able to speak your mind on an issue no matter what the backlash is. Otherwise, we end up with this situation here that we're in in the state of Alabama, one party state where we don't really have accountability. All right. So the next couple of questions I want to ask about the black residents of Alabama that you've met. So you obviously spent a lot of time meeting black voters across Alabama. What were you hearing from them that wasn't reaching across mainstream political discussions? Well, clean water issues are huge. I mean, absolutely huge.

9:17 And to see the parties themselves not elevate this issue, I found that when you talk about clean water, and you think about how maybe this issue in that minority community is directly affected, but it actually eventually affects everyone. You know, that was a big thing, clean water. And I'm speaking out... If you talk about folks that are sort of outside of the political clubs. So once you get in the political clubs, the conversation changes or, you know, the county parties when they have get-togethers with solid Democrats and you hear a whole lot about education.

10:01 So with that, you know, there's this this problem that I've encountered where you have clashing ideas. On one hand, you have folks that, let's say they're a forklift driver or let's say they work in construction. They're not concerned about education. They just want to be able to provide for their families. So there's a pretty big disconnect, I would say, between the between the primary Democratic folks highly involved in at least the process and the actual people. And that's why you see, if you look at data, you see such a decline in folks folks coming out and voting.

10:47 It's because our political dialogue here in the state of Alabama got away from the folks that work. And that goes across all races, all religions. So it would be good to see the Democratic Party get to a point where we can elevate Those issues, those economic issues, the economic disparity, instead of focusing in on special interest issues, which people are tired of. People are tired outside of the very politically involved. People are tired about talking about gun control constantly.

11:27 They're tired of talking about social issues constantly. They want the government to work for them, not take from them. So do you think you could have been better suited for the general election based on what you just said? Absolutely. So it's just a matter of getting through the primary, getting through those groups, those special interest groups. And looking at it, you pretty much have to get your own voter base if you want to change things. So you already have these folks that have been conditioned to be hyperfixated on a couple of these issues, specifically social issues on the Democratic side.

12:10 So you really need to work to bring in your own voter base and to get those folks that are worried about the economy, to get those folks that are worried about uplifting their minority communities and actually having a real change to get them to come out and vote in the primary. So you have this primary base, which is a brand. Right. So if you run outside of that brand, you have to have your own brand. You have to have your own folks that are motivated enough to vote in the primary that are concerned about these issues. All right. Have you had any conversations during the course of the past year or so that will influence your approach to leadership and public service going forward?

12:56 Yeah, what I spoke on just now, I was told by a guy named Joe Reed. He's the top Democrat in the state, pretty much controls the Democratic Party to a degree and is, in a way, a competitor to Doug Jones. But Joe Reed told me something that I didn't understand what he meant at first. I first met with him a day before I announced that I was running in primary back in 2025 in April. and he told me that you can't out-trump Trump. And I did not know what he meant by that. So I had a follow-up conversation about a week or two with him and he said it again and he went into detail and he said, look, you know, you can't, and that's what I was talking about, the brand.

13:42 that brand will never vote for a moderate. You know, you might be able to get some folks to cross over. So you need to talk about the issues affect everybody, which is what, you know, we've been doing. But to say you can't out Trump Trump, you can't get the folks that voted for Republicans because of MTG, Tucker Carlson, and whatnot. And that kind of goes to another conversation where I spoke with a hotel worker and he was introduced I was checking into a hotel up in Huntsville. So I was running for U.S. Senate. And I said, you know, I'm running as a Democrat. And he said, well, I can't stand Trump.

14:23 I voted for Trump. You know, he's launching all these wars. He's doing the opposite of those. of what I wanted, but I also can't vote for a Democrat because of the focus on social issues and whatnot. Well, seemed like a reasonable conversation, but as I got to the end of the conversation, he said, I needed to platform chemtrails. I needed to platform getting rid of all vaccines. And so back to the conversation I had with Joe Reed, you can't out-trump Trump. And I do think there's this, there's quite an effort in the Democratic Party to try to capture that particular type of voter, that particular type of political, you know, those folks that are fixated on those political issues.

15:07 And there's an intersect between that on the far They're also far right on social issues, tend to be, but also ultra isolationist, you know, ultra protectionist, and also, you know, really ultra anti-Semitic. They don't think Israel So there's been this effort, I would say, by the Democratic Party to say, well, hey, you know, those people are agitated with Trump. Let's try to grab those people. And it's just not going to work. You still have that particular... a particular group of folks come out when Kamala Harris comes to the state of Alabama on her book tour, and they still go out and protest her position on Palestine.

15:50 They don't protest Republicans. They only protest her. So it's not going to work. So what I learned is that in ways, I think there's this huge disconnect between the Democratic establishment and actual people. They may have some data, they may have some polling, but they don't have any on-the-ground experience. And there's a limited amount of folks that actually have hands-on experience dealing with people. In my background specifically, I'm a business owner, but I'm a hands-on business owner. I'm somebody that does all the work. You know, I go out and I work with my hands. I go in people's houses. I do the work. I sell the job. I complete the job. I do customer service.

16:31 And so taking that approach to politics and having conversation led me to realize most of the folks that are really close, that are thumbs on the scales, I guess you could say, they have zero experience in Well, it's maybe a little bit of a tough question here. It's public record that you voted for Donald Trump and you used to be a Republican. Did you have any problem developing or did that undermine your credibility at all running as a Democrat in primary? Well, I think it goes back to what I spoke about. Whenever I spoke out, I said, I don't think biological men should compete in women's sports.

17:16 I used Charles Barkley as an example because previous to me making in that statement, he came out on the news and said something similar. And he's a guy that isn't independent. He's in the state of Alabama and a lot of folks look towards him, look to him for the things that he says. So I'll say I had a guy that he ran about two months straight of negative ads against me in which he said, I voted for Trump three times. He said, I was... against women's rights and some other things, which they were a stretch of the truth, a three-time thing. I voted for Trump in 2016 twice, once in the primary, once in the general election, and then in 2020.

18:00 When I did my Democratic National Convention speech, when I was talking to the the DNC and the guy that was helping me put together the speech to make sure everything was right. I actually made that decision to say that I voted for Trump three times in that speech. And the reason why I did it is because I wanted people to say, Wait a second. That doesn't make any sense in 2024 prior to the election. And to think, wow, we have primers. So to ask that question. So I did it in that way. So he kind of took that and some other folks in the state took that as well and used against me. He did in the ad, the visual ad, he put something out and it showed a post where I said it.

18:43 So it was meant to to kind of bend the truth. Like it's something that he found, even though it was something that I put out there intentionally. And then after that, there was a voice message that said that I went out that I voted for Trump three times and there was no... So there were people that I thought that I voted for Trump in 2024 on election day, which is very far from the truth. So other than it being the truth being manipulated in a way against me, I'm proud that I was able to break out of tribalism. I'm proud that I'm able to speak in a way to Democrats and say, hey, look, I was on that side.

19:26 I see so many issues now with that side and how the Republican Party really is no longer the Republican Party. But most of the folks in our country and really in the state, I think... I think they align more with the Democratic Party and values now than they do the MAGA Republican Party. So I just feel like even though it was used against me, it's so important. It's an important part of my past in my experience to try to help move the Democratic Party in a direction where the Democratic Party can get a little bit of something here in the state on the statewide level instead of nothing.

20:06 Do you think there would have been a different response if there had been more time between your party switching and you running as a Democrat? And to ask the question more specifically, did people see you more like a new convert or did they see or rather than seeing you as someone who had actually made a long term change? So I guess there's two things here. I don't think it would have made a difference at all. It would have been used against me. The guy that ran the negative ad against me, he actually ran a negative ad against the guy in the runoff that he lost to saying the guy was a former Republican like 15 years ago. That was his attack.

20:47 So I got to see that right afterwards. So no, it would have been used against me. I will say there's Democratic gatekeeper folks sent me some messages after the fact, which very unprofessional, you know, that basically said, I need to climb the ladder. You know, I need to go through the system pretty much, you know, people want to have their thumbs on you. And to me, that corrupts you. And so, the advantage I think that I had running straight into the Senate is I didn't have that baggage. And I think once you get that baggage, then it's over with in the general election anyways. Were there any moments when you realized you had been listening to people to respond rather than listening to understand?

21:34 I'm trying to think of a specific issue. I would say definitely back to the beginning when I spoke about minimum wage originally, I had a different position on that. And my position is that the government shouldn't come in and rig everything But as I got to thinking about it and really looking at our state and looking at the state of our state and how we're last place, especially when it comes to economic equality and just the ability to make enough money to live. That took me a minute to get to, but I'm here now.

22:14 Okay. So what have you learned about trust between communities that often see politics very differently than you may have seen it before? Well looking at the national numbers and unfortunately with Alabama we don't have a whole lot of data and I would like put this in data. But you look at the distrust of the Democratic Party. There's so many folks that vote Democrat that don't trust the Democratic Party. I think trust is a major issue in politics in general. And that's one of the reasons why we can't reach a point here in a state like Alabama where the Democratic Party can win. Because as I spoke about, you talk to some of these Rural communities specifically do not trust the folks on the Democratic side in general because they are concerned about their own individual liberties in their house.

23:07 They're concerned about their ability to protect themselves. And over the years, you know, you do have some politicians that get in there and they vote straight party line. And that really, really, you know, sticks with people. So I'm curious about something here. Were you invited to speak in any black churches? Yes. What was that experience like? I'd say speech. I was introduced. I wasn't, you know, introduced. I was introduced. So I had a couple. So what was that experience like for you? It was great. It was really awesome. Learning that a huge chunk of the Democratic primary base here, minority in the state of Alabama, is highly religious.

23:51 That was new to me. Folks are just as religious as the folks on the right. So seeing that, that was kind of an eye-opener for me to see how much religion was still on the minds of many Democratic primary voters. Do you think you'd go back to a black church just for a Sunday service? Absolutely. Yeah, it was a really cool experience. I really enjoyed the music. The atmosphere was super uplifting. So it was... fantastic experience and you always leave feeling happy and lifted.

24:34 What about how long, how much longer the services last in typical white churches? I didn't see too much. You didn't notice that? Well, you certainly wouldn't have gone to the church I grew up in. I'm going to give you this real quick. When I was a kid, My parents went to different churches because they couldn't agree on which denomination they wanted to be. My dad's church was very low key and conservative and they never went more than an hour. My mom's church would go until people got too tired to listen. And so his church would be over by noon and her church would be over like two o'clock or three o'clock or depending on what Sunday it was.

25:17 So I started going when I was a kid when I got to choose. So I went to church with my dad because I knew they were going to be done by noon. Because you can imagine being there sitting there from 11 o'clock until 2 or 3 was pretty challenging for an 8, 9, 10-year-old. Yeah. All right. So let's talk about Alabama's future. What gives you hope about the future of Alabama? Well, we do have, really, you look at Huntsville and how much money is coming into Huntsville. It's amazing to see. Huntsville has a huge amount of growth going on right now. And you look at Mobile, where I live, and we now have the deepest saltwater port in the entire Gulf of Mexico, which is great.

26:02 Now we need folks to commit to infrastructure to build that into the state. So looking at Mobile, looking at Huntsville and what Huntsville is doing and what Mobile is doing, it's very, very, very uplifting to see folks coming down here because of what we've got going on with Portmobile and to see folks going into Huntsville and just how. Futuristic, I think Huntsville is becoming. I can't wait to see what it looks like in two or three years. I hope Mobile down here can really gain some momentum. We've got to get folks in there, though, that are committed to building things and getting things done instead of focusing on reactionary cheap shot politics to shut down any kind of construction or any kind of economic progress, which tends to happen here.

26:54 So if you could sit down with every voter and have one honest conversation, what topic would you want to focus on? I would want to focus on talking about these tax issues that we have. So if you look at and how it should be, both parties should be dealing with us. If you look at tariffs, it's turned into a tax on the consumer. You look at the state of Alabama, I think we've had, we have regressive sales taxes at one point. It's changed a little bit. The Tax Foundation, they had it ranked as like 49th or 50th for sales tax.

27:35 And so I would want to talk to folks and say, hey, we need to look at ways in which we can get away in some of these regressive taxes like tariffs, like sales tax. So you have more money in your pocket and you also look across and you see positions here in our state, like the director of the ABC board, which controls alcohol, they get $240,000 a year and they're appointed by the governor. So really, I would want to talk about how we can make our government here more efficient by maybe getting rid of some stuff that's keeping businesses out and also costing us money at the same time.

28:17 So then we can Put more money in folks' pockets by not having to charge people the sales tax that we're charging right now. We've had a grocery tax. I think we're one of maybe eight states that still has that grocery tax and that's a tax on the war. Okay. So looking back at the campaign, which obviously didn't turn out the way you'd hoped, what personal lessons will stay with you for the rest of your life? There's a lot there. There's a lot to unpack. I'll try to think of just one or two. We're so much similar than what the political system and the media makes it out to be. This atmosphere is created and it doesn't represent people, this atmosphere of division of not being able to get anything done.

29:06 Disturbing, but we have so much common ground. So trying to find ways to break through that is important to me. Alabama is a very big state. Going across the state, I didn't realize there was a six-hour drive in Alabama going from where I live in West West Mobile to Muscle Shoals or North Muscle Shoals in about six hours for me. so you know there and back that's like a Disney World trip for me if I'm driving out of Disney it's about the same a little longer but yeah that I think you know that the biggest takeaway is that we're all so alike and unfortunately special interest issues that are driven into our our political system to our political dialogue or what is dividing us so it would be nice if we could freeze the current the current conversations and just move on to helping people or trying to find ways to make people's lives better instead of creating this endless friction.

30:10 Okay. So as we start to wind down, I've got a lightning round of questions for you. A few short questions and then you can just give me short answers or if you want to expand on them, you're free to do so. All right. First question, the most memorable campaign stop. That would be that Blount County campaign stop that I spoke about where, you know, that Hispanic woman who wasn't a documented immigrant for 25 years spoke. Okay. What's the toughest question you were asked? I think over and over again, I would say the issues about Biological men and women's sports, trans women and men's sports.

30:53 That one was a hard one for me to talk about, but I ultimately decided that I had to and I had to make a position there. Even though I knew tall Talking to a group that's their number one concern or their single issue voter on that. And that is how some folks are. It's a single issue voter for them or single issue for them. I knew the answer that they wanted. I knew the answer that would not cause friction. But to me, it was doing the right thing and telling the truth was just important. Okay. So who's the most important or the most inspiring person you met in the past year?

31:36 I'm not going to pin that down to a single person. I've met tons of people and I don't want to leave anybody out or let anybody down. Okay. Fair enough. So one Alabama town everyone should visit. I'm going to say Mobile because I live in Mobile. Mobile is like its own country, but Huntsville right now is great. It's really great to see the amount of growth there and the direction that they're moving. Okay. So what's one lesson every politician needs to learn? Learn how to say no. Learn how to, and I mean, learn how to make those or make those statements that need to be said. Don't follow 100 per lockstep with, well, in the state of Alabama, for instance, a platform that can't win a general election.

32:24 Go ahead and decide early. Make your positions known and put them out there. And don't hesitate to do it, even if you know that it's going to bring you a bit of backlash. Okay, final question today. What's one thing Americans misunderstand about one another? Well, I would say that we're all the same. I mean, we all bleed. We all have to get up and go to work, or most of us. And I think economically, looking at how things have been shaken out, we need to start to get back to the issues, the kitchen table issues, the issues that affect everyone.

33:06 Okay. So my guest today has been Kyle Sweitzer, who is a former recent candidate for United States Senate from the state of Alabama. Kyle, thanks for being here today. I really appreciate you coming back. Thanks, Melvin. Really appreciate you. Thank you. So if there's one thing I've learned from more than 200 episodes of Stories from Real Life, it's that understanding rarely begins with agreement. It begins with curiosity. And I appreciate the curiosity and humility that Kyle showed during the campaign. And again, Kyle, I thank you for coming back and being willing to talk about what you learned and the things that you may still need to learn. Because we all have something we need to learn. And I appreciate the lessons that you've shared with us today.

33:47 That's it for this week's episode of Stories from Real Life. Until next time, don't forget to shine your light wherever you go. That was Stories from Real Life. Join us again next week for another great storytelling journey. See you next time.

34:29 Stories from Real Life is a production of Media Well Done, LLC.