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Podcast Host
A total loser because he was one of the Republican Party's most outspoken critics of Donald Trump. But Jeff Duncan has built his reputation by standing up for what's right. And when Trump tried to overturn Georgia's 2020 election, Duncan refused to cave to pressure. Now he's on the ballot in Georgia for governor as a Democrat. We're diving in today in this episode of Truth in the Devil's Cut with Jeff Duncan. All right, welcome to the podcast this morning.
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Jeff Duncan
Jeff, Glad to be here. Thanks for the opportunity.
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Podcast Host
I wanted to start out, and this is something I didn't know about you prior to today was that you are quite the collegiate athlete and professional athlete and I think we have a couple of things in common. I was never a professional athlete, but I did play soccer in College in Division 1 and I'm also an aviation enthusiast and you are as well. So I wanted to start out there. Can you tell us a little bit about what it's like to play in the minor leagues and in the College World Series?
- [02:11]
Jeff Duncan
Yeah, it was interesting. So growing up I lived in seven states every two years. My family had to move because of my dad's job and sports was kind of my go to. If I was really good at sports, I'd find a bunch of friends when I'd moved to a new town. So I was a high school quarterback and a baseball player and my senior in high school I found myself our family moved to Georgia and I showed up one night on a field and threw a no hitter with 17 strikeouts and Georgia Tech was there to watch Some other kid play. So they offered me a scholarship and so that I got to play in the College World Series in 1994 with teammates like Jason Veratech and Brad Rigby and Nomar Garcia Para. And then my junior year, I got drafted by the Marlins and spent six seasons playing in the minor leagues. And it was. It was great. It was. My wife and I kind of got married as soon as I got drafted, and off we went. It was a blast. It was a great first job out of college, but certainly was a little rough on the paycheck every few weeks, but it was certainly worth it.
- [03:05]
Podcast Host
And you went from sports right into politics? Pretty much.
- [03:10]
Jeff Duncan
No, there was a big gap about 20 years where I went into business. My wife and I started our first marketing company. Our first business was a marketing business out of our home. And then we quickly grew that into a bigger operation, eventually sold that, and then just kind of continue to move on in the business world. And politics came in late 2012 is when it came in to fruition for us. I just was one of those folks that decided to stop complaining and start getting involved. And so I ran for a state house seat here in the northern suburbs of Georgia of Atlanta.
- [03:43]
Podcast Host
I'm often asked this, and I'm interested in your take, those of us that played sports at a fairly high level. I didn't play quite as high a level as you did, but we're drawn a little bit to politics, I think, and maybe it's the competition. I mean, what are your thoughts there?
- [04:01]
Jeff Duncan
Yeah, no, there's a lot of parallels. And I often say this. A political campaign is a lot like a professional baseball season. Right? I mean, it takes a lot of tenacity and grit. You got to pick yourself up after a rough outing or a rough speech or a low fundraising event or whatever that is. You got to be your own cheerleader a lot of days that shows up. And you've also got to be willing to be coached and hone your skills. And so, yeah, there's a lot of parallels to politics and sports, for sure, but there's some takeaways. I mean, everyone kind of learns their personality and learns their kind of skill set through life events. And for me, professional baseball really helped carve some of those in. I mean, living on the road, making peanuts, trying to figure out how to get your family off the ground, trying to compete. I mean, literally sitting on the mound, throwing a pitch, it's like, if I don't strike this guy out, I'm probably gonna get released, and my mortgage is Due in five days. I mean, those thoughts kind of work through your mind when you're playing a professional sport.
- [05:02]
Podcast Host
So you got into politics. You were a Republican, you served as a state representative in the Georgia House of Representatives, and then you served as Lieutenant governor of Georg and elected to that position as a Republican. But you have been very outspoken against our current president, Donald Trump, and you were one of the few Republicans to really speak out against his election lies in 2020. What do you think gave you the courage to do that? When I feel like so many other Republicans just didn't, they either stayed silent or they got on the bandwagon of these lies. What gave you the courage to be like, hey, this isn't right?
- [05:52]
Jeff Duncan
Yeah, I think you have to go years back to when I first got elected. I was not a hyper partisan when I got elected, I lived in a 9010 Republican district. When I got elected as a state rep, so there wasn't even a Democratic primary. When I got sworn in, I realized this partisan food fight was inefficient and ineffective. And so immediately I started working across party lines, working on health care bills and education bills and organized crime with Democrats for sure. So I saw the value of that as it went along. And then as lieutenant governor, same thing. I mean, it was like, Democrats have great ideas too, and if we just engage in a better process than just being hyper partisan. So I started souring on the whole Trump mantra anyways. I mean, it just seemed, it seemed fruitless, screaming at people. And so when the 2020 election and you could see kind of the tea leaves, you could read the tea leaves coming. They were sowing doubt in the election process. And so within hours of the election, when I started hearing him talk about it being rigged and whatnot, I made the phone calls to the election officials, I made the phone calls to the Secretary of State's office and continued asking questions. There was no fraud. And so my thought was, I'm going to stand up as quickly and as strongly as I can to stop this rumor so that it doesn't become a runaway freight train. And unfortunately it did. Donald Trump was willing to lie, cheat and steal along with his MAGA followers. And so for me, it was a bright line that I was not going across. I didn't care what party was next to my name. It just was a bold faced lie that the election was rigged.
- [07:22]
Podcast Host
But you were so integral being Lieutenant governor, being in that position in Georgia, in the place where like was the hotbed of one of the major, you know, lies that were coming out. And I think back to President Trump and his phone call to the Secretary of State of Georgia. And to me, that was so shocking. But there you were in a position to, to call it out, you know, and I just think that's so. I just thank you for that because so many didn't.
- [07:55]
Jeff Duncan
Yeah, I, I appreciate that. I, I think a majority of folks listening here today would have done the same exact thing too. So it's not like, I mean, I just did my job if, if that's what I was elected to do, to do my job. I think it's interesting to understand and this really hasn't played out very well. And unfortunately, we're not going to see the granular level that Donald Trump was willing to go to to try to overturn this election because it seems like these pardons have come out and all the disruptions in the court cases. But I mean, he was making individual calls to state senators. He was trying to put pressure on me and the speaker of the House and others to try to just create doubt, like go, you know, hold a special session just to, for no reason. To not to analyze facts, but to just create doubts. I mean, that was the granular level that him and his kind of cohorts of disciples were trying to go through. These Rudy Giuliani's, the Sidney Powells, the Lin woods, these were individuals that were willing to do and say anything. And, you know, looking back now, I just think about if, you know, I would have just hiccuped for one second and held one 5 minute press conference that said, you know what, let's just pump the brakes on this election for a second. Maybe there is some areas of doubt. Right. Just to cover myself politically. If I would have done that, that would have been maybe the straw that kind of broke towards overturning the election. I'm glad that I had enough friends and family to support me in my efforts to just do the right thing.
- [09:17]
Podcast Host
What impresses me so much about you in particular is you have actually switched parties. You've gone from being a Republican to a Democrat. I think that's a big step that you don't see a lot doing. Can you talk about that a little bit?
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Jeff Duncan
Yeah. Our family motto, Brooke and I are raising three boys, two in college and one in high school. And our family motto is doing the right thing will never be the wrong thing. And becoming a Democrat at this point in time is absolutely the right thing to do. I didn't run again for reelection as a Republican lieutenant governor in 2022. Because I was embarrassed. I was disgusted at the approach that Republicans as a whole, we're going towards. And I just simply want to show up to work every day and solve problems. And I could not do that as a Republican anymore. There's too many asterisk marks next to this phrase of loving your neighbor. If you're a Republican, you can't love your neighbor if they don't look like you, act like you love like you, talk like you, vote like you. And so it just became an ineffective place for me to hang my hat. And so I spoke at the DNC in support of Kamala Harris. I went on the campaign trail for eight weeks to campaign in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, to do everything I could do because I saw this freight train coming called Donald Trump again. And so many millions of Americans are realizing that they gave him a second chance, but now they're realizing it was the worst thing that we could have done as a country. Even farmers in South Georgia that are, you know, sitting there, they voted for Donald Trump thinking that he was going to have their best interest at heart. Now they're going to maybe lose their family farms because of commodity prices based on tariffs. Rural health care systems are evaporating overnight. The black community is being faced with an affordability crisis like never before, along with every other community that gave Donald Trump a chance to win this last election. And so my reason for becoming a Democrat is I have a better toolkit to solve people's problems. And that's why I'm running for governor in Georgia is, you know, it's been almost 30 years since a Democrat has won the governor's race in Georgia. And it's because we just haven't got enough votes. To win a governor's race in Georgia, you have to win the base, plus independents. And now we have this growing batch of disgusted Republicans that can show up and support us. And there should be no better time for Democrats to grow this party, not just for this election cycle, but for an extended period of time around the country, because Donald Trump is making it easier for us to prove that we have the best pathway forward for the country. We're the most rational minded individuals to get to the root of the problem.
- [11:46]
Podcast Host
Since you've been in the Democratic Party, what has surprised you the most about the party itself? I mean, I've never considered myself somebody who grew up within any party at all. When I was in the military, I was an independent. But since I've gotten into political life, shall we say, I've always been a Democrat. And I'm very proud of that. But, you know, I'm not opposed to criticizing the party or anything like that. And I want to know, you know, what are your thoughts on the party? What could it do better?
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Jeff Duncan
Well, I'll start with the thing that I guess this hasn't surprised me, but it's encouraged me, is how bad Democrats want to win, how much they know they need to win. Right. That's the best way to push back on Donald Trump is to start winning these races, like this Georgia governor's race, and send a message to the rest of the country. I also think that Democrats are really encouraged at this message, that I've got this simplified message. I believe for too many election cycles, Democrats have been kind of distracted with a lot of the fringe issues to run their campaigns on. I'm staying focused on three things and three things only. The affordability crisis, the health care crisis, and the Donald Trump crisis. Every room I walk into, I talk about those three things. And for me, and the polling supports this, I bet 70% of Georgians, that's what they're worried about. Even Republicans are worried about the affordability crisis, the health care crisis and the Donald Trump crisis. And so let's go focus on that as Democrats and let's go win this election and let's go soften the majorities in the state House and the state Senate, other statewide offices, help Jon Ossoff win. If we stay disciplined and focused, we will win this race.
- [13:38]
Podcast Host
Is there a path? I mean, if you're a moderate Republican, do you feel like the party on the Republican side is just too far gone? I haven't seen a whole lot of moderate Republicans rise and get through primaries at all in recent years. I know a couple years ago we were, a lot of us were sort of hoping that would happen, but I haven't seen it. I'm wondering what you think there.
- [14:00]
Jeff Duncan
Yeah, those, those folks are disenfranchised. Those moderate Republicans that are sitting over there that are just rational minded individuals that are willing to work across the aisle to solve big problems, not willing to throw out their personal relationships with friends just because they disagree with them politically. I mean, they're not willing to take the MAGA bait. I guess they realize that that party is cooked for the foreseeable future. Donald Trump has absolutely broken the Republican Party in a way that is, I mean, we could fill in the blanks. It's just so inhumane, whether it's immigration and what they're doing with the ICE raids, with the tariffs that have no explanation to it, Weaponizing the Department of justice, lying about the economy, demonizing people of poverty. You name it, he's done it. And that party's cooked for the foreseeable future. And that is the incredible opportunity I think Democrats have right now. Open up the tent doors, invite as many folks in and not just win this election, but win many more going forward.
- [15:04]
Podcast Host
Your former fellow Republicans, specifically those in office who, you know, they've got to know this stuff is crazy. I mean, I look at the. And I'm running for U.S. senate here in Kentucky. There are three Republican opponents running in the primary. They're all running to try to get as close to Mar A Lago as humanly possible. But they, I have got to think these are somewhat smart guys. They gotta know these tariffs are stupid and crush our bourbon industry and crush our farmers and make it harder for people when they go out at the grocery line. I feel like they gotta know this stuff. They gotta know that this bill that they just passed really guts healthcare in a state that expanded Medicaid. I'm just wondering what you think. I mean, do you think these guys know this stuff?
- [16:07]
Jeff Duncan
Yeah, absolutely. I think they know it. But I think this is playing out like a cult. I mean, as I mentioned in my DNC speech, I mean, the Republican Party has turned into a cult following Donald Trump. And look, you went through some of them tariffs don't make any sense. The ICE rates, I mean, just look at Georgia here, the Hyundai plant that was in Georgia or that is in Georgia. They spent five plus billion dollars worth of money building that plant. The South Koreans, and we had an ICE raid that Donald Trump kind of spooled up with Kristi Noem and others. For What? There was 350 workers down there that were basically clerical errors. They were high technically trained individuals that were trying to train American workforces. It was a ridiculous event. Those things are hard to explain. And yes, they do know it, but they're caught in the cold because once you jump out, you get ostracized. I mean, look, I have lost more friends on my Rolodex. My kids get made fun of at school. My wife has to come off social media because of all the things that are said about our family. We've received death threats. I mean, I've lost business partners and deals and whatever else. I mean, this is real. But for me, if we don't start to make these sacrifices, then we're just gonna continue down this path of destruction and we're gonna continue down this path of ridiculousness. It's time to fix the problem. And we know what we need to do. I think most Americans, including Republicans, know what we need to do. And that's just elect honest, trustworthy, fact centered decision makers in state races and federal races and local races. That's what we need to do. That's the fix to the problem that we've got.
- [17:42]
Podcast Host
Yeah. And for those listening, I mean, what Jeff's talking about, what you're talking about here, Jeff, is it's so hard because there are, you're putting your family out there, you're putting yourself out there in this political climate and it's just really hard. There's a lot of things that are said about you and it takes tremendous courage to step up and do what you're doing right now. I hope everybody supports you because I've just been so impressed with your campaign and your courage. You have come out and said, hey, I may have been wrong on a couple of some issues in the past and issues that you've taken stances on before. And can you talk about one of those and how you evolved in your thinking?
- [18:41]
Jeff Duncan
Yeah, I'll talk about two that are important. And this is a really important conversation for me to have with Democrats in every room I walk into one, it's me to be able to share my honest feelings about a couple of issues, but also to put on display that there's other folks out there that can move their feet on these issues too. One is guns. And as a young legislator that was representing a 9010 district, I was wrong to think the NRA had anybody's best interest at heart, because they don't. I look through the lens of a father of three kids, three boys, and I see these horrific, you know, shooting, mass shootings play out on tv. I see the data that comes in post tragedy that they could have been stopped. They should have been stopped. So I stand with the 90% of Americans that think universal background checks and red flag laws and gun safety laws make all the sense in the world. And I will do all I can do to make sure that those are laws that are passed as the governor of Georgia. And the second issue is abortion. We passed the heartbeat bill here, which was passed before Roe v. Wade was overturned. And as the lieutenant governor, I was the president of the Senate. And I was wrong to think that roomful of legislators knew better than millions of women. Because when I took the time to understand the, the very complicated medical scenarios that were being discussed between women and their doctors, personal situations, very heartfelt, difficult decisions being made between women and their families and their doctors. I realized that there was no law that was ever going to figure out how to make those decisions for that woman. And so I believe that women deserve the right to choose. And I've been very upfront with this in every conversation I have as governor. I'll do two things on day one, I'll sign an executive order that clarifies doctors can practice medicine on pregnant women without the fear of prosecution. And two, I'll introduce legislation through my floor leaders that will repeal the six week ban and get us back to Roe v. Wade. And I think it's important to understand, and Kamala Harris actually helped me understand this on the campaign trail is it's not irregardless of my personal opinions. Your personal opinions. Anybody else listening? None of us wake up with the inherent right to force our personal opinions on other individuals. And that's certainly the case with abortion.
- [20:53]
Podcast Host
Yeah. I've always felt like, and I grew up Catholic and I'm a Christian, faith is really important to me. And I felt like how I feel about personally feel about that issue shouldn't be legislated on others. People have different religions and different beliefs. And I've always felt like this is a very personal issue, that government should not be telling people what to do, that there needs to be reasonable, common sense laws around it. And I feel like right now, at least on the Republican side, from what I've seen is it's just this massive wave to extremism where you have women who are having to bleed out in parking lots in order to get care because everybody is so scared of breaking the law right now. And that is just, I mean, I just never thought I would see it in this country.
- [22:00]
Jeff Duncan
Yeah, it's certainly an issue that and I don't think when I watch the look at the polling on this too, Republicans don't want to re litigate this conversation in Georgia because I don't think, in fact, I know the numbers aren't with them. And so by bringing this back up and being able to let the millions of people's personal opinions kind of dominate the next vote in the state legislature, I think will be important.
- [22:25]
Podcast Host
Yeah. It's also a health care issue and I know that health care has sort of been one of the centerpieces of your campaign. You talked about the three different ones and it's very similar to when I talk here in Kentucky. But I want to ask you about health care and as a defining issue for Georgia right now with everything going on, can you talk about that.
- [22:43]
Jeff Duncan
Yeah, I mean, like I said earlier, affordability, healthcare, Donald Trump and health care is a crisis for everybody. Whether you just are getting your annual premiums for next year and seeing the astronomical amount of money that's, you know, crushing families like our family, you're losing the ACA subsidies because of just complete disregard for people's tough situations or you're being removed from the Medicaid rolls, you name it. Healthcare is a crisis. And it's interesting, you know, Republicans healthcare policy is centered around this notion that if, well, if we just don't make, if somebody doesn't have health insurance, they won't get sick or have to go to the doctor. That's not the way it works. Right. Republicans are forcing folks to sit there, Republicans and Democrats to sit there and say, all right, what do I do? I've got some sort of chronic or acute condition that obviously is warranting me going to the hospital. Do I stay home and deal with it on my own, which obviously isn't going to work, or do I go to the hospital and bankrupt myself because I don't have health insurance? I mean, that's the point that we're pushing people towards with Republican led health care policies. And so in Georgia, one of the things we've got to do is we're one of the non expansion states. I've tried to nibble around it every which way possible without trying to expand Medicaid because it's expensive and inefficient, but there's no other choice. We, we have to expand Medicaid in Georgia. We can't allow hundreds of thousands of people to be uninsured. We can certainly be effective and efficient in making sure folks, if they're able bodied, that they're trying to find work and do things of that nature. But when somebody's caught in a very vicious cycle of poverty and just simply needs a helping hand to be able to get medical coverage, we need to be there to help them.
- [24:22]
Podcast Host
Well, running for governor is no small thing. Running for U.S. senate is no small thing. What do you do? One of the things I do just to kind of take a step back for fun I guess, is what I'm doing right now, which is talking to people who are interesting and talking about things that I think are important. But what do you do to kind of just, hey, check out, get away. What are your hobbies right now?
- [24:48]
Jeff Duncan
Yeah, my hobbies are my kids. You know, we, I'm a homebody by nature. I love being at home. For 20 years my hobby was coaching Obviously, former professional baseball player, but I was a offensive coordinator for years for my kids football teams. I was coached all their baseball team, so that was it. Now they're kind of up and out and past dad's coaching skills. But, yeah, I'm just a homebody by nature. And look, this has been a tough struggle for our family, but it's also brought us closer together. You know, we got into politics together. My kids were knocking on doors with me. My wife's always been a rock to my side, and we've had to really kind of gel through the last five years being attacked by a sitting president, being, you know, ostracized by millions of people around the country that, you know, acted like they were your friends. But we're doing this for the right reasons, and I feel like we're encouraged. I feel like we're making progress every day, and this is certainly, you know, work that that's worthy to be done.
- [25:44]
Podcast Host
Well, you really are, and it's just an honor for me to talk with you. And I hear you. When it comes to family, it's the family that really knows who you are. They know you're doing these things for the right reasons. And it's just wonderful to talk with you. This is a show that we talk sometimes when we have a lot more time, which we don't. Today we talk about bourbon and whiskey. It's called truth in the Barrel. Right. And I wanted to ask you, is there a favorite bourbon or a favorite whiskey that you have? Or maybe you don't partake in that?
- [26:19]
Jeff Duncan
Well, bourbon and whiskey gave up on me a long time ago. And spending six years in the minor leagues, I learned to drink light beer, and I still like it. Actually, I've upgraded. I like to drink a nice, crisp ipa.
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Podcast Host
Okay, very good. Very good. Is there a certain kind that you like the best?
- [26:37]
Jeff Duncan
Well, if you're from the Atlanta area, like we are, Sweetwater 420 is kind of the go to IPA, but it's neat to kind of go to other cities and other states and ask them, ask the waitress or waiter, what's the most popular local ipa, and you get to taste something new every time.
- [26:55]
Podcast Host
Awesome. I remember just, I think during COVID I took a course. Of course, it was after my campaign. I was doing one of those great courses that you can do online, and I took it all around beer and how beer is made and everything. It was great. I mean, I encourage everybody to do that. It's just a lot of fun to kind of get away and think about different things so well. It's awesome to have you on the show. I appreciate all that you do. And running for governor, everybody needs to go check out your website. Where can they find you?
- [27:29]
Jeff Duncan
Duncanforgeorgia.com and we're certainly excited about all the momentum that we've got, not just here in Georgia, but around the country. I mean, we've received over 5,000 small dollar donations that have come in from around the country. Just folks saying, hey, we want you to win because you prove this theory that we can change the way we play politics.
- [27:50]
Podcast Host
Yeah, we definitely need more candidates like you and everybody should go support you in your run. So I appreciate your time. This has been a great discussion.
- [27:59]
Jeff Duncan
Thank you. And good luck in your race too.
- [28:01]
Podcast Host
All right, thanks, Jeff. Dude, this new bacon, egg and chicken.
- [28:09]
Jeff Duncan
Biscuit from AM PM Total winner, winner, chicken breakfast. Chicken breakfast? Come on. I think you mean chicken dinner, bro.
- [28:16]
Podcast Host
Nah, brother. Crispy bacon, fluffy eggs, juicy chicken and a buttery biscuit. That's the perfect breakfast.
- [28:22]
Jeff Duncan
All right, let me try it. Okay. Yeah, totally. Winner, winner, chicken breakfast. I'm gonna have to keep this right here. Make sure every breakfast is a winner with the delicious new bacon, egg and chicken biscuit from AM PM AM P. M. Too much good stuff.
- [28:38]
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